Sunday, September 30, 2012

Naptime Struggles


Source: someecards.com via Deia on Pinterest

This is the current story of my life. I don't know who my 2.5 year old thinks he is not wanting to take naps and instead postponing the start of his 2-hr nap from 2:00pm - 4:00pm. I don't know what this kid thinks he's missing but he refuses to close his eyes and fall into his daily 2-hr slumber.

He'd rather sing, jump on his bed and play with his cars. I need a toddler tantrilizer only for nap time.

The only time he goes to sleep at 2pm is if I have worn him out by being at the park (in hot and humid weather) for at least an hour. But then, I'M worn out!
I gotta find a way to win because right now I am losing.

I know I'm not by myself here......right? Right?!? Oh, okay.



Friday, September 21, 2012

Friday Favorites: Aloe Vera Water



This cost me $1.08 at Kroger.

I found this water in the Asian food section of Kroger. I am kind of addicted to this water. It is sooooooo good! For those that have a sweet tooth, I'd say this is a nice and semi-healthy alternative for that fix.
I was never big on sweets until I had my second son and now my sweet tooth is ridiculous. I've entered my self into 'sweet tooth rehab.'

Ingredients:
Aloe Vera Gel Powder, Aloe Vera Crush, *Corn Syrup, Honey, Citric Acid, Calcium Lactate, Vitamin C, Water

*Since this picture, I've bought several more bottles and they brand changed. I don't remember seeing Corn Syrup on the list of ingredients of the brand in the picture but its on my current bottles. It could've been there but I can't be sure. Some online ingredients replaced the corn syrup ingredient with organic cane sugar.

Buy a bottle and tell me what you think!

I'm linking up with Julie at The Naptime Review.

The Naptime Review

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tasty Tuesday: Food Truck Park

 
A few weekends ago, my hubby and I tried out some food at the food truck park in Fort Worth. I've realized that my dream job would be to be a food critic buuuuutttttt, that time has passed so instead I will just really enjoy food.


I've never been to a food truck park but I was pretty disappointed with how expensive the food was relative to the portion sizes. For example, we got tacos and flautas. They were the same size but the flautas (with steak) cost $3.25 each and the chicken tacos cost $5.25 each. I was completely confused about that but I got over my confusion as soon as I took a bite. The food was delicious. My husband and I both went back for more flautas!


We arrived at the food park in the late afternoon/early evening timeframe so I think we missed a couple of trucks that we had really wanted to try. We'll just have to go back when there are more trucks. There was a sausage truck, taco truck, grilled cheese truck, pizza truck and wine and beer truck.

We got a grilled cheese sandwich with mozzarella cheese and spinach for our boys to eat but they had too much fun making friends with strangers to eat. It was $3.00-$4.00 so I'm not sure how likely it is that we'll get another one. We'll spend that money on the dessert truck! Yum!

He was doing an 'I can't be still' food dance.

My little vegetarian didn't even take ONE bite of the sandwich.

The blurriness can be attributed to my second glass of wine, I think.

Be prepared to spend some money for small portions at your local food truck park.
*Word to the wise: 'Don't go on a completely empty stomach.'
Our food truck park experience turned us into fans and regular patrons. For some reason, I am slightly addicted to food trucks and there are tons all over DFW so eventually I'll have enough of my share of food truck food.

Have you ever been to a Food Truck park? What did you think about your experience?

Monday, September 17, 2012

Natural Solutions for Medicine (for Toddlers and Adults)

My current immune building solutions:
I add 1/2 a packet into my each boy's cup of gatorade every day.

Colloidal Silver-1 tbsp added to our oatmeal at the first onset of cold symptoms.
I bought this at Vitamin Shoppe for $30+. I went here to find out more about it before I decided to purchase it. Either its been a big help or we've been lucky enough with the additional vitamin C.
Go to your local farmers market or Vitamin Shoppe and see what is recommended for immune building health. And don't forget to share the info. when you do!

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I've never been the kind to research alternative solutions but becoming a stay at home mom has given me time to research a variety of concerns regarding my toddlers' health and development. Recently, I was provided a family chiropractor name in my area. My youngest has had far too many ear infections within the past year. Typically there is a suggested amount (by most pediatricians) and once that amount is reached or surpassed, ear tube surgery is highly recommended. This also means that he had been on and off anitbiotics, like amoxycillin, for the past year. I am not a big anitibiotic(s) fan.

The chiropractor and ENT doctor (Ear Nose Throat) gave me the same [flat ear canal] "shpeel" but the chiropractor gave an explanation of why and how to remedy it without surgery having similar successful cases. The ENT only gave ear tube surgery as a successful solution.

The chiropractor explained that there are several joints under his ears that are pulled tightly for whatever reason (possibly because of the twists and turns of birth), causing the ear canal to be flat. Most kids that have repeated ear infections have flat ear canals, along with always having fluid in their ear(s) sitting there waiting to get infected at the first sign of a cold.
No fun.

She then used a light and non-invasive instrument to loosen the joints under his ears. This has had to be done every other day so we spent a lot of time going to the chiropractor for this 5 min treatment last week. The earlier (age-wise) that this is done, the faster the joints will be corrected back into the correct alignment for proper fluid drainage in his ears.

She also recommended visiting her for any future ear infections, instead of going to the pediatrician and getting the subscribed antibiotics.

So far, her track record is that no child has ever needed ear tube surgery once she has worked on the joints under their ears.

If you have a similar problem, check out your local family chiropractor and find out some alternative solutions that satisfy any of your health concerns.


Friday, September 7, 2012

Finding My Dream Career Is My New Project


After "liberating" myself from my my former place of short-lived employment, I've been pondering on what my destined career path is. I believe we all have something that we are meant to do. It could be engineering, modeling, accounting or acting. I'm determined to figure this out.

Source: 1oet.com via Deia on Pinterest

So to figure out what my new [career] path, I've narrowed down a few of my interests. There's no point in really saying what those are yet because like in this post, I don't need to change my mind in print again, haha. Lesson learned.
Hey, everything is a learning experience right?



Anyway, with the few interests that I have, I need to figure out a way to get my foot in the door. I will probably start out with asking questions to people I personally know in related fields but I know that may not yield the amount of information I want.
{insert toddler whine} <----too bad that doesn't work for me like it works for toddlers
 
Another idea I had is to do some volunteer work (at a non-profit). As much as I like getting paid, I'm realizing to follow (or at least figure out) my dream career, I may have to start off not making much when I don't have a degree in that field.
I'm still not sure about the forecasting of that plan either! Its very frustrating to not be able to see how your plan is well actually a PLAN. With PLANS, you actually have some kind of foresight.
 
Do you have any suggestions???

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We all have a hobby or two that we love and could do full-time if we got paid for it, right? So I say we all can spend more time, volunteer time, to those hobbies and after a few years, who knows what those things can turn into one day. (This is encouragement to you and myself.)

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Pie Five - Viva la Pizza Revolution!

We luckily stumbled upon this awesome eatery! It is sooooooo good! At first, my husband mentioned that he thought I would like it. A couple weekends ago when we were in Dallas, which really is every bit of 45-50 minutes away from Fort Worth, we made our way over to Pie Five for lunch and I fell in love.

It's the Chipotle for pizzas. They have specialty-themed pizzas but you can add however many toppings to the 'theme' you choose or replace toppings or both. Or....you can just make your own pizza from scratch.
Either way, your 9" pizza will only cost you  $6.50.



I love the BBQ Pulled Pork pizza with the classic pan crust. My hubs gets thin crust. Neither crust is greasy either. I plan to eventually try all of the specialty pizzas that have meat.

The BBQ Pulled Pork uses barbecue sauce as its base. So alfredo sauce is used on the Chicken Carbonara and Spinach Artichoke pizzas, just so you get the idea of how they marry flavors.

BBQ Pulled Pork

As a DFW transplant, I am happy to see new food places that are affordable, tasty and family-friendly. Hopefully you'll be seeing a Pie Five in your area soon!

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Go here to check out the Pie Five menu.

SPECIALTY PIZZA PIES
Pie Five High Five---five different meats (pepperoni, italian sausage, ham, beef and bacon) with marinara sauce
Buffalo Chicken---with ranch dressing and banana peppers
Chicken Carbonara---chicken, bacon and mushrooms
Five Star---pepperoni, pork sausage, beef, black & green olives and red & green peppers with marinara sauce
Spinach Artichoke---fresh spinach, marinated artichokes, roma tomatoes with alfredo sauce
Athenian---chicken, kalamata olives, banana peppers, red onions, feta and basil with garlic sauce and sun-dried tomato puree
BBQ Pulled Pork---slow roasted & shredded pork, roasted peppers & onions, dill pickles with barbecue sauce
Chipotle Chicken---chicken, red onions, and red & green onions with smoky chipotle ranch dressing
Margherita---roma tomatoes and fresh basil with garlic cream sauce
Pie Ferno---pepperoni, banana peppers and jalapeno peppers with spicy marinara sauce
Tree Hugger---red & green peppers, red onions, mushrooms, black & green olives and banana peppers with marinara sauce.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Would You Ever Get Plastic Surgery?


Would you ever get plastic surgery done?

Obviously some of us may have friends who have thought about this or gotten some sort of surgery done. Maybe you've even thought about doing it yourself. I know its crossed my mind several times.

Right now, I can't say that I would necessarily get anything done because I am just not a fan of that sort of pain. Just from watching women undergo and recover from different cosmetic surgeries on t.v., that pain seems worse than the pain from childbirth. Now that I think about it, the pain from cosmetic surgery is probably worse because its not a natural process for your body to go through.

But....the pain, well the excruciating pain probably only lasts the first day of recovery. So....maybe it is a doable thing. I'll tell you what, nursing babies can sure make you consider some things.
----> 'You' being 'me.' {wink}

Well, let me hush and go get to lifting some weights.





I wonder how much more time it will take for my to look like @Mankofit (from Instagram). I don't even have Instagram, but I follow the awesome, Hey Fran Hey {Health Genius} and she retweeted a picture of her and was instantly inspired by her physical shape. I'd probably be more inspired if she got into that kind of shape AFTER having kids.