Our Denver Getaway!

We had a fun little vacay this week to Denver, Colorado! It was a spontaneous trip based on a super cheap flight! We all 3 went and had a fun time checking out the sights. It was not Bradley's first flight, but he was too small to remember the previous ones. I'm sure he'll remember this one! He was a big boy and sat in his own seat.

We got into Denver Tuesday afternoon and picked up our rental car. Our hotel was amazing--close to the airport, easy access, huge beds, and a to-die-for breakfast that included cereal, muffins, donuts, bagels, waffles, biscuits/gravy, eggs, bacon, french toast, coffee and juice! WOW.

We ate at a local restaurant for dinner, then Wednesday we went on some excursions. We wanted to go to the US Mint but there were no open reservations. Instead we toured the Hammond candy factory and got some free candy samples. I picked up several sweet souvenirs for family as well!

 After that we headed into Boulder, CO and went thru the Celestial Seasonings tea shop. We wanted to tour the factory but no children under 5 were allowed so we just browsed the shop and sampled several teas.

That afternoon we made it to the infamous Casa Bonita for a very entertaining lunch! The food was average but the ambience was so worth. Brad had a blast and we spent over an hour just checking things out and playing games.

 

After that the boys were tuckered out so we rested the remainder of the day.

 

On Thursday we spent the afternoon driving west of Denver to check out the little towns and see the mountains. We stopped at several lookout points and got some great views!

 

 

Our last day was Friday and we ate lunch at a little diner then hung out at the airport after dropping off our rental car. Our flight home was delayed an hour so we got home around 8pm. As soon as we got home Nick headed out to Guthrie to pick up a '57 Chevy--but I will save that for another post!

Product Review--Scrub Top!

For those who are nurses, we know it is important to have durable yet comfortable scrubs! They can really take a beating and they need to be able to hold up to a lot of washes and wear. I recently reviewed a nurse scrub top for Uniformed Scrubs and was very impressed with their quality! The top was soft and very comfortable to wear for a long shift at work. After a couple of washings it still has a vibrant color and nice shape to it. No ironing needed! My medium seemed a bit large and I could have fit into a small so keep that in mind with your sizing. I loved the 3 pockets on the front to put all of my gadgets in.

If you are looking for a durable yet stylish new pair of medical scrubs then you need to check out Uniformed Scrubs on their Facebook, blog, Twitter, or Pinterest!

BONUS------------>You can use coupon code "trueblue" before July 31, 2013 for 15% off of your purchase!!

Helpful Natural Remedies

Life has run off with me and it has been 2 weeks since my last post! It is already April 20 and I have only posted one time this month.

If you recall from early December of last year I wrote this blog about my solution to dandruff...well recently it seems to have come back partly (not near as bad as it was) and the Tea Tree Oil was not helping quite like it did before. Plus I ran out, so I was open to different remedies to try.

I have done a lot of reading on natural scalp and hair treatments since I have dandruff and am trying to grow my hair out. Apple cider vinegar (referred to ACV from here on) is one that kept popping up as very beneficial to both your hair and scalp. It naturally cleanses the build up on your hair and works to condition and soften your hair. The acidity helps neutralize the ph of your scalp and helps unclog pores that can prevent natural oils from moisturizing your skin thus causing flaking.

I tried a little experiment and here is what I did: I poured pure ACV on my scalp (enough to wet it but not dripping) and massaged it in--especially my problem areas. Then I let it sit for 15-20 minutes and shampooed/conditioned in the shower like normal. I did this every other day and after about 5 times I have noticed a significant improvement in not only my scalp, but also my hair! My scalp has much less flaking and no itching. My hair is soft and very shiny. Sure, I smell like a pickle right after I wash my hair but after it dries there is no trace of vinegar smell. It was harder to pour the ACV directly out of the bottle so I got a little squirt bottle to help control the flow better.

ACV is definitely cheaper than Tea Tree Oil so I would recommend those who are not having success with other remedies should try this!

If you read my last blog post you remember that I started cleaning my face with oil. Yes I am still doing it and I like it! I haven't noticed much improvement per say in my tone or discolorations, but I love that I do not need moisturizer any more. I love that it does not burn if it gets in my eye or when I am taking off eye makeup. I can also say that any blemishes I do get are quickly gone in a day or two instead of hanging around for over a week.

 

In short, I am sold on the oil-cleansing method. If for nothing else but for the cost! It is just pennies to make a small amount that lasts forever. It takes very little oil to get the job done and it has to be better for your skin if it's chemical-free and all natural pure ingredients! I do think for my next batch I am going to get some jojoba oil to throw in there for more blemish fighting properties.

On a different note, Nick and I met some friends for dinner by the lake and here is a pic of us at sunset :)

Experimentation = Oil Cleansing!

What am I cleaning you ask? My face! With oil? Yes! Before you call me crazy, feel free to read this very informative article that sums it up perfectly. My skin is kind of weird and I have battled with it for years. I'm not going to be dramatic and say I "struggle" with acne because I don't. I do however have annoying blemishes, dry spots, and a very oily T-zone that an almost-30-year-old should not have.

For a long time I used astringent to clean my face at night but was still getting occasional break outs and dry/oily skin. Nick got me a different kind of face cleaner for Christmas and it seemed to help a bit but still had the same old problems. It just ran out yesterday so I decided to take the plunge and try out the oil cleansing method!

I started out simple with a mixture of 2/3 castor oil and 1/3 EVOO. I also added a few drops of Tea Tree oil (Nick calls it my marinade). It took just a pinch to cover my face and I rubbed it around for about a minute, then gently cleaned it off with a hot wet washcloth. These pictures are after the cleaning (and will be my "before" pics if it turns out well):

 

It doesn't look too bad in the pics, but I do have some discolorations, small blemishes, blackheads, and old scarring (pay no attention to the red spot under my left eye--it is dilated capillaries that I've had for many years). I have read several accounts of people who have used this method and it has reversed much of the old scarring and marks on their face.

I usually have super dry skin after a shower, but this time I did not. I didn't use any lotion or spot treatment before bed. In the morning my face did not seem oily at all, and I did not notice any new bumps. In fact it almost seemed more clear than the day before! I also noticed during my day at work that my face did not get oily in the afternoon like it normally would. Yay!

I am going to do this each night as my face cleansing method for at least one month. I will take pics again after one month and tell you about pros/cons at the end.

PS My son got a spot in our local primary school! We officially enrolled him and got the afternoon class that we wanted. Now we are all set and will meet his teacher in August.

Easter Fun

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday! We had a great time with food, family, and friends.

Here were my holiday nails :) Eggshell and baby chick

Last Wednesday I took Brad to an egg hunt at a local museum. He had a fun time and got some treats!

I have been on call this whole holiday weekend but thankfully only had to go in for a couple hours this afternoon! The big dinner was my mom's house at 4pm so were all able to attend and enjoy ourselves. In attendance were us 3, my inlaws, SIL, niece Zoe, my brother Shane and his 3 kids, my stepdad's friend Charles, and his two boys. There was tons of food and we had perfect weather to go with it!

The older kids hid the eggs outside, then the 4 younger ones had a blast finding them all! Each kid got 21 eggs. They were mostly filled with candy but a few had money in them!

Brad was a very good boy who ate all of his dinner, plus cake/cupcakes/fruit salad. He had a great time playing with the other kids and running around in the yard all afternoon.

Tomorrow is the first of April and a fourth of the year is already behind us! We decided to drop the price on our house as of tomorrow so hopefully that will stir up some action. I had thought that it was the halfway point in it being for sale, but it has actually only been 2 months. We probably will not drop the price again because we want to at least break even and not owe at closing (if we ever get an offer, that is).

We also find out tomorrow if Brad got into our local Primary school so be sure to check back soon!

Spring is Here

The days are warmer, the sunset is later, and the trees are blooming! Don't get me wrong--I love winter and love the snow--we just never get a true "winter" here so I try to look forward to the changing seasons.

Last week I planted a bunch of grass seed and caught up on some yardwork. Brad helped me plant several bulbs of garlic, as well as some basil and cilantro seedlings in a greenhouse. Nick informed me yesterday that some squirrels had dug up the garlic so hopefully they will recover! Any rain we get is few and far between so I have to be diligent to water water water.

We haven't showed our house since our return from Seattle and it is hard not to get disheartened. I keep telling myself that it will pick up when the weather is nicer, when people get their taxes filed, when school is out.....it is out of my hands so it does no good to worry! Next month is our halfway point in the listing so we will drop the price to see if that helps.

As far as Plan B, we find out on April 1 if Bradley got into the local primary school.

Easter is just around the corner, and I did some festive designs on my nails to celebrate....

My mom is cooking a big Easter dinner with an egg hunt so I'm sure all of the little ones will have a blast! As Brad gets older it is so fun to watch him grow each holiday and see him enjoy it more and more!

This week was Spring break (for most) and the way I celebrated was by working extra! How fun. Hopefully the reward will be noticeable on my next payday :)

We are all looking forward to our Denver trip in May. I have been looking up fun family things to do and have found several that look neat. Ideas so far are the US Mint, a gold mine tour, and dinner at Casa Bonita. I'm sure we will also drive into the mountains, and I would love to go thru the historical Victorian towns that are around.

I seem to have been in a creative rut for awhile--yes I crocheted a ton of headwarmers/hats during the winter, but I have not scrapbooked for close to a year! I think I am overwhelmed by it because I have so much stuff that when I get it all out, I can't put it away till I am done. I have *briefly* considered getting out of my typical scrapbooking and starting to preserve our family photos in some other less hands-on way. I don't think I will revert to that until absolutely necessary, maybe when a second little one comes along....

Right now I am psyching myself up to go get a ton of photos developed and just knock it out. With Brad's fourth birthday on the horizon as well as him starting school--I will only get further behind! This has always been a fun hobby for me and I don't want it to become a burden by getting behind. We always find time for the things that are important to us!

Precious Moments

 Yes, we are home from Seattle. But first--I want to share some adorable pictures of my little boy and his cousin! He stayed with his grandparents while we were in Washington, and my MIL took them both to get portraits made. They turned out wonderful, and these are a few of my favorites....

 

So precious! His cousin Zoe is 5 months older than he is, and they will both be starting Pre-K this fall. They just love playing together.

Our trip to Seattle went good. We had a good time but not enough to do all of the things we wanted to. Our layover was in Denver and it almost got canceled due to a heavy snow storm. Hundreds of other flights to/from there were canceled throughout the day. Thankfully ours was late enough in the day that the storm had passed and they were able to clear the airport. Our flight landed in Seattle just after midnight, so we were VERY tired by the time we got to our hotel.

We got up early to catch breakfast, then packed up and headed north to Vancouver, BC! This was our 3rd time into Canada, but our first time actually driving there. We got thru the border with no trouble (although we still get nervous every time like we are doing something wrong) and had lunch in the city.

We somehow ended up in a huge Asian district and by the time we ate lunch we were pooped and wanted to head back to the hotel. It was a 2 hour drive each way so that took most of the day! For dinner we headed to our local fave--Red Mill burgers and each got a bleu cheese bacon burger. So yummy!

 

The next morning we grabbed breakfast in the lobby, then headed 2 hours south to see our family! Nick's aunt and uncle leave in a precious little town nestled in the pine trees and mountains. The views are amazing and they have a river right behind their house. They treated us to lunch and several cups of coffee! We stayed for most of the day then headed home.

 

 

 We had a gift card to a theater that we really needed to use (because that particular theater is not in Oklahoma but there were several around Seattle) so on our way home we stopped at a theater and arrived just 5 minutes after the movie we wanted see had started--Oz the Great and Powerful! We hoofed it up 4 sets of escalators to get to the 4th floor and got to see it in 3D. It was very good!

Unfortunately we stayed up way too late that night. We stopped somewhere and grabbed dinner and didn't get to bed until around 1am, then had to get up at 4am to catch our early flight. We were running a bit late to the airport and had to literally jog to our gate! They were halfway done boarding our plane when we got there. Our layover was very short and we had to quickly get to our next gate for the last flight. We landed safely and took a nice nap when we got home!

That evening we drove out to the inlaws' house to pick up Brad. My mom and stepdad met us down there, and we all had dinner together.

Now it's back to real life and work tomorrow!

Lots of Plans!

 Yay for my 400th blog! Thank you for reading.

Our return to Seattle is finally here! We leave tomorrow evening and are excited to get out of town for a few days. I went in to work early today and got off early so that we could all drive Brad down to his grandparents' for the weekend. He will have a blast playing with his cousin and getting spoiled. We will pick him up Tuesday evening after we get in.

This will be our first flight with Frontier Airlines. Hopefully it goes well because we have another trip with them booked for May! I found a great deal online that I could NOT pass up for a trip to Denver. For that trip we are taking our little one because the flights were so cheap! It is only a 1 1/2 hr flight with no layovers so I'm sure he will do fine. This will be Brad's first flight since we took him to Chicago when he was 1. I found a lovely hotel with free breakfast and internet, as well as an indoor heated pool and hot tub :)

We have had a few more showings on the house but still no offers yet. Our realtor said it should pick up after spring break. We are still not too worried about it--if it is meant to sell then we will get an offer!

We are still working on Plan B if we don't sell the house this summer. Earlier this week we went to the elementary school down the street to enroll Brad for preschool. We found out the "old" elementary school is now grades 3-5, and the BRAND new school right behind it is the Primary school for grades PreK-2. It is only two years old! That is the one that he would go to. There are 80 spots for PreK so they do a drawing for who gets a spot. We will find out April 1 if he is in.

In other news...I got all of my paperwork (and money) sent off for my application to be an RN in New York a couple of weeks ago. They said it could take up to 8 weeks for everything to go thru. I was a little worried because I had to trust 3 different places to fill out the appropriate forms and mail them all to the correct place in NY, and hope that everything came together under my file.

Long story short, I had some free time at work the other day so I decided to look online to see if I was listed as a licensed nurse in NY....and I was!!!!!! It said I became licensed as of March 4. I am super excited! I actually just got my official license and registration in the mail today. I don't have to renew it until Feb. 2016.

For our trip, our plans are pretty relaxed. We won't have any time to explore tomorrow--we land very late and I'm sure we will be exhausted. We are going to eat dinner in Denver at our layover, then just go to bed when we get to our hotel. Sunday we are planning on driving into Vancouver, Canada to check out the scenery! This will be our 3rd trip into Canada, but our first time driving there.

After that we will probably go into downtown Seattle back to Pike's Market for some snacks and souvenirs. We loved the market last time and wished we had more time there. On Monday we are driving south to see our family for a few hours, then after that we are heading west to the coastal town of Grayland to see a beautiful beach that we found last time. We leave very bright and early Tuesday morning and will be home Tuesday afternoon.

I know we will fall in love with Washington again because it is such a beautiful state. If only they were cheaper and had old Victorian houses! Next blog will have pics, so check back next week!