And, new hair! Bam! Adrian did a fantastic job! My hair has been long since the day I met my now husband (because I knew I was going to marry him and that I wanted long hair for my wedding), so a cut has been pretty overdue. I was a little nervous, but we decided to go for it and chop it. You can't see it in this picture but it is a little shorter in the back and angles down in the front. I love it--- a lot!
I would have had more pictures up this morning but our night last night was terrible. First, we decided to test Bella's sedative for the flight on Tuesday. The vet gave her "ace" and we gave her half of a pill (5mg) and within 5 minutes she couldn't stand or walk and looked so scared. The emergency vet by us assured me that this was a normal reaction and the correct dosage. I didn't like her side effects one single bit though. She was confused and scared and at times had difficulty breathing. And it came on SO fast, which was scary. For now we are planning on NOT giving her anything and if once on board she is whining and upset we can try and give her maybe 1/4 of a pill. We will see though, because it was a scary night.
Shortly after that we were home sitting on the couch, husband was e-mailing and I was reading and watching Bella when the shadow of a man came far to close to our windows. I said "what is that guy doing?" and my husband looked up and said "maybe walking his dog?" because there is a small patch of grass right outside our windows. Next, he came directly up against our windows and walked along all three of them, crouched down and peered in.......not TWELVE INCHES from my husband's face. Of course, we freaked out, he pounded the window, jumped up and ran out onto the porch and yelled at him. We called the police just in case this guy was really up to no good and spent the rest of the evening nervous. Husband had his gun locked and loaded and I slept with a long knife by my bed (seriously, what would I even do with that?!?) I guess it just made me feel better.
This morning Bella is back to her almost-normal self and now I am frantically trying to catch up with the +5 hours of work I missed out on yesterday. SO much to get ready before we take off for home! This week on the blog-- posts will be normal for the most part. Wednesday we will have part 2 in the Get Fit Summer Series, and Friday will be Friday's Letters as usual. Other than that I have a lot of food reviews I have to catch up with and will probably be posting mostly those throughout the weekend, perhaps even several posts on one day so I can finally be caught up! I hope everyone had a relatively quiet evening compared to ours!
Over & Out,
A
p.s. have you ever given your pet a sedative? or acepromazine specifically?
did your pet have side effects? has anyone tried benadryl for travel?
Y'all I did it. I chopped my hair off, and it is pretty dark again too. I am in love with it. I can't remember the last time I had a shorter hairstyle that didn't include platinum blonde bleach, faux-hawks and shaved areas (yeah, I used to be one of those "scene" kids back in the day). Anyways, I cannot wait to show it to you but today is so full- we have church, the market, taping my little fitness video, the husband is practicing his soccer skills for a league he joined here in the city and I have to get my lovely friend kate's save-the-dates addressed and out the door. Lots to accomplish in very little hours. I can't wait to show you my hair tomorrow and talk to you about what's going down on my blog this week while I am away in Michigan! (No guest posters this time around....) While I am trying to gain some semblance of organization in my life today I am leaving you with Jenna. I had no idea what the term "ex-pat" meant until I started reading her blog. Her adventures in South Africa are funny, inspiring and sometimes downright crazy! ...girl after my own heart! Oh yes, and it doesn't hurt that she and her honey are just cute as pie together. Enjoy this Sunday friends, and remember this is the day that the Lord has made!
Over & Out,
A
Hello, Adventures of Newlyweds readers! I'm so glad that Ashley is allowing me to take over her lovely blog today. My name is Jenna and I blog over at A Home Away From Home about my life as an American ex-pat living in South Africa. South Africa started out as a semester study abroad experience for me, but after I met and fell in love with a local I just sort of never left and still find myself here four years later! Amazing what life can throw your way, don't you think? So far it's been nothing short of one crazy adventure with plenty of unexpected twists and turns along the way. As might be expected, most of my posts are about our adventures in and around Johannesburg, but you'll also find some recipe, fitness, and travel posts thrown in every once in awhile. I hope you'll stop by and say hello :)
If you'd like to know more about me and my life as an ex-pat, here are a few of my favorite posts:
Dear Bella, I know I already used a picture of you yesterday but I just can't help it you are so cute. And you have started limping again and I have been really worried about your knee because Lord knows we cannot afford to have that surgery done on you again! Hoping we get good news from the vet today! Dear Husband, After seeing a living social deal for flight lessons you practiced "flying" last night on a computer flying program. It was pretty adorable seeing how serious you were taking it! Dear Blog Friends, The first five people to send me an e-mail with the subject "I want five" can grab one of my medium ads for the month of May at a $5 discount. Mark, set....go! Dear Michigan, T-minus 5 days until we land on your soil and only 7 days until we meet our newest nephew! Dear 50 Shades of Grey, I have heard a lot of good things about you but I have also heard you are kind of raunchy and like mind porn for women so I am not sure if I can read you.... Dear Sugar Free Diet, I caved and drank some coke this week. What can I say, it always calms my stomach when it is upset. Dear Husband, Thank you for working as hard as you do, and making sure we are always on track financially. I am glad you stay on top of things so I can blog and play with Bella and cook tasty dinners!
Over & Out,
A
Now grab the button, add it to your post and link your letters!
"mom, don't take my picture when my hair isn't brushed!"
Lately, things have been a little crazy on my side of the computer screen. A year and 8 months ago when I got married my life drastically changed. I went from living in a city where I could pick up the phone and call a friend for a cup of coffee, where I got invited to those awful purse/jewelry/[insertproduct] parties, where I knew almost every street and back alley and never needed a GPS. The week after I married I sat down with my brand new husband and went over finances (something that would be a weekly thing for us from then on) and sorted through the mess. We had taken several liberties with our wedding and spent some here, and some there and were in a big fat crap pile of debt. We quickly figured out that we could not survive on my husband's income alone at the job he was at. And so we started talking options, and this crazy idea of travel therapy came up. Moving every three months? Seeing the country? Not having our very own things? Being away from our families? Well, that was ridiculous and crazy....and wonderful, and perfect. We figured we could visit home often, get a never-ending vacation and start out our marriage on a crazy journey. At the time it all seemed very exciting and romantic, and for the most part it has been. But there was this part I didn't expect-- the part where I found myself in a new city every 13 weeks not knowing a single soul. The husband would dutifully go off to work every day, sometimes upwards of 10 hours and I was left all alone. At first it was fun, I was a married lady, all grown up running my own home (er, apartment) and making meals in my very own kitchen every night. I was independent! I was free! I was.... so lonely.
We started out traveling in Lansing, Michigan and it was still close enough to home that we drove quite often to spend weekends and visit. Next we moved Howe, Indiana. Howe was a tiny city full of amish people and it was the dead of winter and at this place I got really depressed. I was so alone-- literally we lived a mile from a "main road" (which was a dirt road if that tells you anything). Here is where my lupus symptoms began, though I didn't know that was what it was at the time. The lupus left me exhausted and unable to keep the cottage in tip-top shape which made my husband unhappy which made me even more depressed. I got little Bella Louise while we were here and she kept me company and was my little snuggly shadow. She still is--no matter where I go if I look down, there is Bella.
It continued this way in Colorado and South Carolina, and finally we moved to LA and I made a few friends and went out a few times. I still was pretty lonely through the days and have never felt at home in any of these places we have lived in.
Now, we find ourselves in San Jose and I can't even compare it to a place we have been before. I have friends, and I am busy. Me. BUSY! I don't even have time to watch Dr. Phil these days. It helped that I had an old friend from Atlanta living here, and we have gotten to hang out with her and her fiance and, well, besides the fact we just love them, it is so nice to just have people to call up and do things with. There have been some sweet as pie bloggers in the bay area who have reached out to me and, in fact, I am going to be a make-up model for one of them today. I am sure she will be another new friend. And miss Michaela will be home soon for the summer from college and I will have yet another friend. You know what that means? That means someone to call up to have a cup of coffee, perhaps I will get invited to one of those awful jewelry parties and I might just leave my GPS at home today.
Things are good, I feel so blessed. I am more than excited about the things happening on this blog-- nutrition and fitness are a passion of mine and I don't know why I was so scared and why it took so long for me to make it a part of this space. I am working on my photography skills and am shooting my first event in a few weeks. We found a great church and don't feel like we have to spend weeks searching for somewhere to go. And the best part is being able to share it all here, and talk it out, and say out loud how thankful I am. How my life has sort of been this ebb where things were taken away and now this flow of blessings. All of it is a testament to a faithful God, and how He lined this up and how we are meant to be here, living in this city, in this month, of this year, right this very moment.
It's amazing if you think about it. And its not by accident.
Today I am happy to be hosting a lovely giveaway from The Charming for a custom blog design! That's right, CUSTOM blog design, up for grabs! (I have been all about giveaways on this blog lately haven't I? It is crazy up in here!) Amy is lady of many talents and today she has generously offered to remake one of your blogs over! Check out some of her work below!
The custom design includes all of the following:
- Header
- Navigation bar
- Social media icons & subscription links
- Side bar information (about me, introduction, etc)
- Button design
- Center alignment
- "Grab my button" section
- Remove blogger header
- Picture editing
- Blinkies
- Signatures
- Anything else under the sun your little heart desires! - Installation
***
Sounds pretty good right? To enter all you have to do is follow the instructions below!
Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor. (I love Hunger Games, I can't help it!)
*note, this giveaway will run through Sunday night and the winner will be announced via this post
as well as my facebook page on Monday! You can tweet about the giveaway to earn entries every day!
Today is the first in a series of weekly fitness/nutrition and healthy posts! I want to open this post introducing what this series means and what I hope for it. I get lots of e-mails asking me what my exercise routine is, and what works for me. I thought it would be really fun to share one workout move every week with you guys and hear back what works for you and what doesn't. I do not claim to have an ideal body, and I am currently spending this summer getting to my ideal/toned body. I am hoping we can do this together and see results together! Every once in a while you will see notes from the doctor in blue italics. These are little tips from my husband, a DPT (doctor of physical therapy) reminding us to keep our posture correct, or things we can do to prevent injuries. Thanks husband for keeping us safe while we get our swoll on. Now, let's witness the fitness and get started!
Let's begin with the first workout move of the week to tighten the core while simultaneously strengthening the shoulders! (Every week I will start with a workout and then move onto nutrition).
STAIRSTEP PLANKS!
From starting position, lowering both arms and then returning to the original upright position counts as 1.
Add three sets of 10 to your regular routine to see amazing core results in as little as 2 weeks!
ADJUSTMENTS
***
You can take the adjust down or adjust up to advanced depending on where you are at in your level of fitness. I have found regular planks to change my stomach area. More than that? It makes running so much easier (or any cardio for that matter) when you stabilize your core! That means longer workouts, easier runs and more calories burned! Again, do three sets of ten (for the advanced move that means ten on each side, no slacking!)
Notes from the doctor: If you are going to do the advanced version of this move be sure to choose a weight that isn't too heavy. You shouldn't have to struggle to rotate and press the weight into a fly.
You don't want to damage your rotator cuff and end up not being able to work out at all! -J. Slater, DPT
NUTRITION 101
Every week we will be talking about one aspect of nutrition. I am starting out with a pretty heavy post about enriched wheat/flour/sugar vs. whole wheat and natural. Most weeks will not be this in depth and "preachy" but I feel like this is one real reason a lot of us carry on that extra weight around our midsections when we could so easily swap and drop the pounds faster and do our bodies some good in the meantime!
Swap for WHOLE WHEAT!
I know in food magazines and on health shows were hear all about whole wheat and whole grains versus white flour and white pasta. Have you ever really researched the reasons behind this though? I mean, really dug deep to find out what exactly refined white flour is and how it is made? Last summer I took the time to do some research and what I found out really disturbed me, and because of it I choose whole wheat flour, breads, rices and pastas at all cost. I want to share some of that information with you because if you want to take control of your health you have to know the facts. Commercial wheat producers start with wheat seed soaked in pesticides. The pesticide is an anti-fungi spray and as the wheat begins to grow it is sprayed with a hormone called cycocel to encourage growth. You can try and google that word but you won't find much information on it-- its used on almost all wheat that heads to enriched flour producing mills, however. At some point, the wheat harvest is brought in and the grain (or berries) is stored in a barrel coated with anti-bug pesticides. If any bugs are found, farmers will fumigate the warehouse. From this grain, commercial refined white flour (and pastas) are manufactured. Doesn't sound pretty so far does it? Keep going. It is important to know that a kernel of wheat is formed of three layers: the bran, the germ and the endosperm. The bran is the outside layer and contains most of the fiber. We know that fiber is important for digestion but it also fills our stomachs up preventing over-eating. The germ contains the most nutrients and healthy fats. The endosperm is the middle layer which contains all the starches. You get the most benefit when the kernel is eaten as a whole, where all the nutrients are ingested and do their job. However, in mass producing flour mills, being efficient and producing the most flour is the most important thing. That means that instead of hand grinding and maintaining ALL of the nutrients, high-speed, high-temperature steel rollers are employed. The rollers remove the bran and germ leaving only the starchy endosperm. The result is that an overwhelming majority of the good stuff is gone, and what HAS been left has most likely been destroyed or damaged by the intense heat of the steel rollers. Unfortunately, it doesn't end there.
The now nutrition-less powder gets a nice bath in chlorine gas. The chlorine oxide serves as a whitening agent. See, back in the day, flour was allowed to age over time improving the gluten (thus improving baking quality) but now days, manufacturers want to push product out faster to increase profits. This chemical bath mimics the aging process with a disturbing lack of concern at the amount of chemicals added to stuff we ingest.
According to Jim Bair, Vice President of the North American Millers Association:
“Today, the US milling industry produces about 140 million pounds of flour each day, so there is no way to store the flour to allow it to age naturally. Plus, there is a shelf life issue.”
So, Jim... basically you don't have time to do it right because you want to make your money? Nice... It should be noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies chlorine gas as a flour-bleaching, aging and oxidizing agent that is a powerful irritant, dangerous to inhale, and even lethal. So: so far you know that the wheat is sprayed with chemicals, stripped of nutrients and then doused in a highly lethal chemical bath. Even worse (yes, it is still not over yet), the chlorine gas converts an additive called xanthine into a toxic substance called alloxan. The alloxan is an unintended by-product of the chlorine gas. What is alloxan? It is a toxin that destroys pancreatic islet cells, resulting in diabetes. IN FACT, alloxin is specifically used in research labs to induce diabetes in rats and mice for research purposes. After all of this, some synthetic (that means, more non-natural, manufactured junk) vitamins and minerals are mixed into the flour and it is now called "enriched". These synthetic vitamins are made from petroleum, elemental ores, bacteria, fungi, and ferrous iron, which is created from sulfate refined out of high sulfur crude oil.Next time you are buying bread flip the back over and look at the first ingredient, if it says ENRICHED you can bet that the bread has been through the process I just mentioned. It sort of makes your stomach turn, doesn't it? The video below is one of the ONLY videos I could find touring a flour mill. The bleaching process is never mentioned in this video, however the narrator says at one point "the flour will now go to another room and later it gets enriched with vitamins!" How lovely to leave out the part that most people just don't take the time to research and figure out.
Now that you know how enriched white flour is made, you will understand a little better why choosing whole wheat is not even in the same boat as far as health benefits go. The enriched flour is used to make everything from pasta, bagels, wraps, cereals to cookies, breads and sweets.
And finally, A GIVEAWAY!
Working out can be hard work and sometimes all it takes is something as simple as cute workout gear to get you motivated and that is exactly what this week's giveaway is all about! An essential part of working out is using weights to get toned and strong. Many girls think lifting weight will make their arms bigger or make them bulky but that is not the case (we will talk more about this another week). Fashletics celebrates getting strong and loving to lift with their fantastic line! They have graciously offered to give one winner a Fashletics tank in tahiti blue (what I am wearing below), watermelon or black!
Saturday the husband and I drove into San Francisco to tour Alcatraz. We hadn't done it the last time we visited because of all the rain and although its a bit of a touristy thing to do, after reading the history behind the prison, we just had to go see it for ourselves. Alcatraz has sort of an eerie feeling, once you are out on the island you can't help but start imagining yourself as a prisoner. The men had to live day in and day out in tiny cells and while they worked they could gaze at the city, watch the boats and at night, if the wind was just right hear laughter and voices drifting through the air. It must have been torture to be so isolated. I know the men in this prison were criminals, but the cells were so tiny, there was barely room to move and stories of the warden and officers through the years weren't pretty. Even though it was almost 80 on the bay, the island was around 63 degrees and after walking for four hours my hands were so cold they went numb, and then painfully numb until I seriously thought something was wrong with me and I was dying. The island is also a bird sanctuary and apparently April is mating season so several spots were closed off where birds were nesting. My advice? If you plan a trip, bring a warm coat and where jeans even in the summer and don't go in April. There was so much bird poop in some spots it was off putting. Here are some pictures before, during and after our little island tour! Enjoy! And p.s. did you enter the Kiki La'Rue $50 shop credit giveaway from yesterday?! You have two more days to do so!
shower?
sail boat racing under the Golden Gate Bridge
pulling up to the island
the indian graffiti comes from when an Indian group occupied the island..
this shot is through an old pane of glass in a building
officers hall- it used to have a bowling alley in the bottom!
babies! the geese hissed at me when I tried to get closer, so I settled for this shot...
beautiful
creepy, right?
old church
the main prison
shower room
walking through the main prison, audio tour
exercise area
playing around with editing..
tough enough to be a prisoner??? nah.
can you imagine looking through those bars at the sun everyday?
library
This man was a GAURD here over 50 years ago. He started in 1948 when he was
only 21 years old. He was there signing books and I got a picture with him!
nerd bombers.
...and then my husband got pooped on, in a pretty major way. Let's just say half of his face was all white.
There would have been pictures but it was a pretty tragic three minutes, and we had to find napkins asap.
Here is a picture of the aftermath however....
After walking the island for hours and getting chilled to the bone it was nice to pull back into San Fran where it was still pretty toasty warm outside. We were craving some great seafood and after walking up and down the wharf we spotted a cute little place called Pompei's Grotto. We decided to try the bruschetta with dungeness crab to start with and oh my word was it a good choice! The tomatoes were fresh and crisp and so full of flavor and the crab was the perfect combo. Our only gripe was there was just a little too much olive oil in it and it dripped when we bit into it. Not a huge deal though, we would order it again. The husband ordered Alfredo with bay shrimp which was great. The Alfredo sauce was a little on the buttery side but after all the walking we had done, he welcomed the extra calories. I opted for Francesco's Misto with a cream sauce instead of the tomato basil. The misto had clams, mussels, jumbo shrimp, calamari and squid in every single bite. So worth the $19.95 price for the amount of seafood in the dish alone! The cream sauce was light and rich and I devoured it, every single bite (which is saying something because my portion could have fed two , easily). We also tried a few drinks, the husband tried a local beer (Anchor Steam bottled in SF and really loved it!) It was a little loud outside, being right in the touristy area so if you want to eat undisturbed I would sit inside! Overall we gave Pompei's Grotto an 8/10 and would definitely recommend it!
bruschetta with dungeness crab
alfredo pasta with bay shrimp
francesco's misto with cream sauce
Over & Out,
A
p.s. I still have 4 small ads and 6 medium spots open!
