Summer - Sports - Hot Bodies

It's that time of year again! Summer is here! Bikini's are coming out, seems everyone is trying to look their best, feel their best, and get in shape to live a healthier lifestyle! I want a HOT body!

I am super excited to share some very exciting news that Shaklee has to offer!

Join with $70 Product Order and Get a FREE Sports Nutrition Pack!

Free Sports Nutrition Pack

For a limited time, everyone you sponsor with a $70 product order or any GOLD Pak, will receive this great combination of products, with a retail value of $75, FREE*:
• One pack of Shaklee Energy Chews
• One 30 oz. canister of Shaklee Physique^® (Natural Banana flavor)
• One 19 oz. canister of Shaklee Performance^® (Natural Orange flavor)
• One Shaklee Sports Nutrition™ brochure.*

Do you need energy before you work out? NO PROBLEM!

Do you need something to re-hydrate you after you work out? NO PROBLEM!

Do you want to build lean strong muscles? NO PROBLEM!

Shaklee has you covered! Check it out HERE!!

I know I have told you about Shaklee's Awesome Vitalizer Packs! These vitamins are awesome and I can personally say that since starting to take the Vitalizer I have felt so much better and have so much more energy!

Just take a couple of minutes to check it out! Better Health is something so many of us are striving to achieve and maintain.

** With this Special Deal - if you purchase $70 worth of product with a Shaklee membership, you will get FREE Sports Nutrition Pack ($75 value) AND you will get a Lawson's Healthy Living Special! **

Sick Time? No Such Thing

I always joke there is a difference in a mom cold and a dad cold. And all you moms out there I am sure can guess the difference. When we get sick there really is not down time. Well this time I have no choice.

The last week and a half I have been pretty sick. But I kept chugging on. As I look back I actually have been having symptoms for about a month or two but because they weren't anything major I thought I was just tired or in a slump so I kept chugging on.

I do have asthma so I was thinking I was just having problems with my asthma and I had maybe some allergies and cold stuff going on but I figured the cough would go away. I was really tired and wanted to be a lazy bum more than normal but I just thought I was tired. After much encouraging from my husband and my sister I ended up going to urgent care.

Yep - that's me getting a breathing treatment at the Dr. She said I sounded junky and she wouldn't let me leave before I had a breathing treatment. (go figure right? I didn't think I sounded bad at all)

OK there is the pile of my junk and my gown - BECAUSE they made me get a chest xray - seriously? I couldn't believe it.  The Dr. told me that she didn't see any pneumonia (thank goodness) and said it must be my asthma really acting up but ordered me to stay home from work the next day so I can get some rest.

Later that night I received a call from the Urgent Care to call them back. I though holy cow seriously. I looked over at my husband and so oh great I bet I have pneumonia, I don't have time for this. (he had been so sweet all night and even had dinner made when I got home from the Dr. !!)

I called urgent care back and they proceeded to inform me that they had someone look at the xray and they had found a nodule in my lung - WTC (that's the clean version - What The Crap! lol) She proceeded to tell me that didn't mean I had lung cancer but probably was Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) - uh remember my post about my husband collapsing his lung 2 years ago? Well yes they think it was Valley Fever. She proceeded to inform me I needed to come get the xrays first thing in the morning and get into my PCP so they can order a CT Scan (so much for the rest she had ordered me to get just hours before).

I went down to Urgent Care first thing to get the xrays ( I looked at it - there is a 1 cm nodule in my left lung - the report told me that I am not good at reading xrays lol) and then came home because my PCP couldn't get me in the same day. I was so upset -seriously people I have a nodule in my lung!!!! They only aren't as urgent about it because it isn't their lung!

But these two sweet babies kept me company ALL day while I sat on the couch with my feather pillow, computer, and my marathon of Twilight Movies!

Everyone needs the essentials when you are sick. Large Sonic Cherry Coke (an absolute MUST!), tissues, you nebulizer and medicines, laptop and of course your wallet so you can online shop!

I filled my day with Edward, Bella, and Jacob! And lots of sleep of course!

For now we keep waiting. I finally got into my PCP, had blood work, and now await my CT scan some time this upcoming week. Although I don't want Valley Fever the alternative with having a nodule in your lung isn't good. Keeping my fingers crossed, putting my trust in the Lord, and knowing he has a plan for me. (I'm pretty sure it is Valley Fever, I have so many of the symptoms.)

I will keep living my life, trying to rest and get some energy back and loving my family! I will update my blog as soon as I know what in the world all this craziness is!

Energy Saving Tips Post 2

This week was super nice! For the most part we were in the 70's during the day so the house stayed comfortable and it was nice and cool at night! My favorite!  Today it started getting warmer and by Friday it is going to be 94! Yikes! April 1st it's gonna be 90? I love hot weather but come on April 1st?

Well here are some more tips we do to try to save energy, resources, and money!

I have talked about doing laundry before, but I wanted to show that for most loads I will use the express wash with cold/cold. If it isn't something that needs a super heavy duty cleaning this cycle gets the job done, we are using cold water (gas bill is lower) and less energy is used because it is a shorter cycle.

Kind of a weird picture but I wanted to show that when we need extra sun light I turn the blinds open. I love lots of light in the house but others in my house not necessarily. But if you open too many blinds then the heat from the outside heats the house up. So normally I will only open the window for the room I am in. It's plenty of light to read, do chores, etc.

Weird picture? Well this is my shower and if you look close enough you can see the reflection of my window in the mirror. Now, I only open the blinds enough to let light in and I make sure they are tilted in a way that the passers by don't get a free peep show! This time of year it is getting lighter and lighter earlier in the morning and I don't need LOTS of light to shower myself (I am pretty sure after 33 years I know where everything is at I need to wash lol).

Well I have unruly hair so to get it sleek and shiny I do need to blow dry it or I walk around with terrible bed head (and not that hot sexy kind the Victoria Secret models can pull off). So when I am blow drying my hair I also keep my lights turned off in the bathroom. I have 6 light bulbs and they put off a lot of heat (makes me need more AC) they use energy, and honestly I can brush and dry my hair without all the extra light. Now putting my make up on is a little different but this normally doesn't take long and I have already kept the lights off for probably 20-30 minutes between the shower and blow drying. For the record I try to not blow dry every morning - cuts down on energy, help save my hair, and helps on time.

More to come! We are working on going as green as possible in our house!!

Energy Savings in Arizona! Seems like an Oxymoron!

Well as many of you may know I do live in Arizona! Yesterday was my birthday and it was the first day of 2011 that we hit 90 degrees! Wowzers!

My family loves the winter time out here and so does my bank account! We don't use our heating system very often in the winter because we like our house cold - I mean COLD! We love to sleep in the cold and if we are chilly we will put blankets on us around the house. We do draw the line at about 60-62 degrees and if it is that cold I will kick the heat on to 65 and then it gets turned off. We had a very odd frigid snap back in February and we had the heat on for several days straight but other than that we save LOTS of energy in the winter.

We have lived in AZ for almost 4 years and this past summer was our worst in regards to energy and our utilities! My July electric bill hit $394.00!! Yes that is correct! I decided we needed to do something drastic! I love my washer and dryer and I have all sorts of settings to choose from. But none that says let's save lots of money!

So I bought a clothes drying rack.

These racks are not expensive and the one I have here I paid about $10.00 last summer and I will be picking up a second rack very soon! I actually am using the rack today since we are back in the upper 80's and a nice breeze. These clothes will dry very quickly!  I personally would love to have a clothes line but I have the strictest HOA in the world and I just don't want to deal with it.  The racks have wheels so I can roll it in and out of the house very easily. The first month I used the rack our electric bill dropped $80.00 and we were having the same type of temperatures. I will hang up almost everything except underwear and socks and sometimes a few other items. The towels I will often throw in for a few minute fluff on no heat. My husband's work uniforms also need to be dried. I will put over any underwear and socks and then run another load. I will not start the dryers until I have run at least 2 loads through the washer so I can accumulate enough "dryer" items to run the dryer. I love it because I am saving MONEY but I am also saving energy which is good for the world we live in!

To also save on money we have a programmable thermostat.

During the day we won't let it get above 77 because by the time we get home it takes forever for the house to cool down. As you can see it is currently 70 in our house and it is almost noon. This is from the overnight hours. I will be very honest - we like a COLD house and because the thermostat is upstairs it can be tough to get the temperature to be 70 at night like we like to sleep. A MAJOR part of our electric bill comes from our AC unit. We are trying to get better acclimated but since my husband works outside all day long every day we refuse to be miserable in the house so we have to find other ways to cut down on energy to drop our bill.

We do have a programmable dishwasher as well. From the research I have done using the dishwasher uses less water and sanitizes the dishes as well. Depending on the type of load and how dirty the dishes are etc. will depend on the time of wash I will run. Normally though it is a normal wash with no special heated dry or hot wash etc. If someone is sick in the house I will kick in the hot wash to make sure the water is super hot to kill the germs (may not be true but makes me feel better). Other than that I see no reason in using more hot water.

As you can see in the picture above this isn't quiet a full load. The kids are normally responsible for the dishes and in teaching them responsibilities I also am teaching them to load it correctly so we can make the best of the space we have so we don't have to run as many loads. The dishwasher must be full before we will run a load. This cuts down on water and energy.

I have always said the suns direct rays are so HOT out here in AZ.  For instance it can be 100 degrees at night with the sun down but it is comfortable enough to sit outside on the porch. However, if the sun is out you feel like you are baking in the sun. One area in our house that I notice a lot of heat is the loft upstairs.

For this very large window we have installed thick blinds and then this curtain will close all the way and it is a dark brown curtain and it is very thick. When we put this up it reduced the heat in the loft a lot and this is also where our thermostat is so that helps not having the unit run all the time because this area of the house stays so warm.

These are just a few things we do to help save on energy costs and also in our efforts to start going "green" to help save the resources we have on our planet. Not too mention it helps save some of the green stuff in my bank account! I hope to be sharing more on the ways we work to save money, energy, and our efforts to be going green and natural!