An update

I've been quite the terrible blogger lately....I guess I go through phases of keeping up on it and then totally slacking off. Here's a little update as to what we've been up to...let's see....

*We refinanced our house a couple weeks ago and it has really helped us give out of a financial rut. We were able to go from 5.875% to 5.125% and rolled both credit cards, both school loans, and both mortgages into one. We will be paying about $250 more a month on mortgage, but will be saving about $800 a month because we won't have to pay the other stuff. What a relief! Our financial advisor is a gem...so if anyone needs one, let me know! They live in Texas, but they travel up to Washington usually every month and work out of an office up here as well.

*Along with the refinance we've also implemented a new budget plan that includes having 2 checking accounts. One will be for paying stuff that has to happen every month...the other is for discretionary things. We've broken them up into subaccounts as well. We have failed at budgets in the past, but we are excited that this may actually work....and are looking forward to getting on track.

*Because of the refinance and our new budgeting we were able to trade in The Beast. The Beast was our breaking-down Lincoln Navigator. It was running really rough and we really didn't want to put a bunch of money into hoping it would get fixed...and then it not be worth peanuts anyway. We (mostly Heath) did a lot of research on new vehicles and mainly Suburus. We narrowed it down to the Forester and had a few places to check out. One day while we were in Tacoma (last week) we decided to go check one out. Well, we ended up liking the car salesman, loved the car, they took the Beast off our hands and then it just worked out with a lease plan for our budget. They gave us $2000 for the Beast, but we weren't expecting anything over $3000. I was thankful that I didn't have to try to run around and get it fixed and that they took it as is....broken windshield included. It saved us a lot of time, money and stress getting rid of it. It was a great rig, but it was time to part our ways! We love our new car! I've never had a new car before and its really nice. It won SUV of the year, is super safe, gets pretty good gas mileage and is a partial zero emission vehicle. If anyone needs a Suburu....we recommend our guy!

*I've been working at a lot of de-cluttering around the house. I plan to tackle every inch of the house to simplify, organize and get rid of un-needed stuff. I read a fabulous book that really inspired me to get rid of a lot of stuff that isn't even being used or displayed. Its a way to change up the energy in our house as well. Its kind of exciting! I'm also helping dad out by doing some at his house as well. Hmmm.....maybe this is something to integrate into a career for me. Book recommended is: "Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui".

*Both Heath and I started going to the Natropath (me in November, Heath in December). I started going after thinking about it for years because of some crazy female stuff that happened in November. Our Natropath is a friend of mine (Andy Iverson) that I've known for years and known his family (his sister Sarah is my really good friend and Justin's girlfriend). Turns out that I was anemic (not a big surprise), had low thyroid, low cholesterol, wasn't eating enough protein, was too alkaline (which your body needs to be acidic in order to digest and assimilate nutrients properly) and have a stress dominant metabolism. So, we changed some things in my diet...by making sure I have protein at EVERY meal, cut out caffeine, cut out dairy (he suspected that I was also having a dairy allergy), and cut way back on sugars and flour. At first I thought it was really going to suck to have to quit drinking coffee, but now that I've done it I realize how my body totally couldn't handle it. I'm doing SO much better off caffeine....its amazing! I will still have an occasional decaf soy mocha, but now I don't get the crazy side effects that I did with caffeinated. Instead of my morning cup of joe, I now drink green tea and I'm cool with that. Its sometimes difficult to get protein all the time, but I think I feel better with it as well (I still don't eat red meat though even though he recommended venison, elk...but I just can't stomach it). Dairy is tough because I love yogurt, ice cream and cheese. Every once in awhile I will still have a little, but the majority of the time I'm sticking with the plan. I'm also taking Kelp for my thyroid, Liver capsules for my anemia, Vit D for lack of sun, and a digestive enzyme with hydrochloric acid for the alkalinity. I feel tons better since I've started!

Heath has been dealing with allergies since he moved up here. Sometimes it can get pretty bad for him and he is quite miserable. In the past he has tried all sorts of "rememdies" with no real help....allergy shots, nasal sprays, albuterol for asthma, antibiotics and other allergy medications. Since going to Andy he is getting to root of his allergies and really taking care of them instead of trying to put a band-aid on them. He did an allergy test that is very thorough and turns out he is allergic to: dairy (no surprise there), whey, eggs, garlic, asparagus, pineapple, and molds (and in turn has to stay away from yeast which means no baked goods, beer, etc). We are really hopeful that he can finally get some relief! He also has an anabolic metabolism...which means that his body tends to build up easily. Because of this he is focusing on less protein (more of the amount I'm supposed to eat), lots of leafy greens and vegetables, whole grains, no fruit (except apples), no dairy, low sugar, etc. Its been fairly easy for him to adopt this because we ate pretty well to begin with....just some fine tuning. Its been nice because for the most part we are to eat about the same so we will just make a huge salad with all sorts of vegetables that we will eat on for a couple days. Its great because I'm not the only one making the salad too!

We will also both be starting a 14 day cleanse/detox next Monday!

We are very pleased with our experience with the Natropath and highly recommend him...and most insurances cover most of the expenses. For more information you can go to his website: http://www.triliumhealth.com/

*As most know, Heath and I have been going to counseling for about 7 months now. It was something that we had wanted to do for several years but again just talked about it and put it off. It has been the best thing we've ever done! We have both made some great changes which has in turn improved our relationship. Along with our couple's meetings, Heath is going to a men's group once a week (which he loves) and we both have individual sessions as well. I absolutely love to go to my sessions and it has been very therapeutic. We both have realized how unhealthy our relationship was and are hopeful about the new direction it has taken. We've learned so much about ourselves and about how relationships work and will continue to do so. Since going it has also spurred me into a great spiritual journey and I'm quite excited about all the things I'm learning. Heath has also gotten into it as well. We are so happy with our counselors and would highly recommend them to anyone! We really think everyone would benefit from counseling.

*Our cat Lily was recently diagnosed with chronic renal (kidney) problems. She started losing weight gradually (which she could stand to do) but it started bothering me, especially when others noticed it. Other than the weight loss she still acted the same. However, it just didn't sit right with me so I finally took her in and ran some bloodwork. Unfortunately, my ideas about what was going on were right. We hooked her up on fluids and flushed her thoroughly for about 24 hours and then rechecked her kidney values. They had gone down! So, with a diet change, fluid therapy and kidney support supplements, I'm hopeful that she will be fine. She is still her spunky little self and chases ZZ around all the time.

*Grayson: Well, he has started in with the terrible twos. He is very independent and wants to do everything himself and doesn't want to do what mom wants him to. I still don't have real temper tantrums to deal with....but he will put up a bit of a fight if he doesn't get what he wants. Despite this, I still think his "bad" times are better than that of some toddler's "good" times....and I have to remind myself of that often. He is such a happy guy and really loves to ham it up. He says please and thankyou most of the time and is just a sweet little boy. He is really into animals right now and still into trains, cars, tractors, etc. He also loves to watch movies...which we have to be mindful about because he would watch them all day long if he could. He is pretty good eater and has recently decided that he loves salad. Yay!! His vocabulary increases daily and he is pretty good about putting sentences together. He says some really funny stuff too. For instance he just said "I go to moon someday". I said "I'm sure you will!"

*I'm still involved with Arbonne, but because of other life priorities it got put on the back burner for awhile. Thats what is cool about it...I can do it at my own pace and it will always be there for me. We just had a new line come out that I'm really excited about and can't wait to try!

*I'm looking into different areas of the healing field and mind-body wellness right now and have been looking into classes and training to take. I'm still researching this area, so I'm not quite sure what it will be...but I really feel like I want to incorporate this into my life and help others.

Well, that turned into quite the novel...I guess thats what happens when you don't blog for a long time! It kind of turned into a list of recommendations too! I only do that because when I find something that I love...I want to share it with the world!

Taking advantage of some sunny days we had in January (which were far to come by).

Lovin' his shades

Grayson and I went and visited with my friend, Lindsey from college and her son who is Grayson's age. I lost touch with her for about 9 or 10 years...but thanks to Facebook we've reconnected. See...Facebook is good for something! :)