Raven’s Writing Desk

I was tagged a while ago by D.L White (Luna) to fill in this List: I am a bit late getting this done, but here is goes.  I’ll try not be be boring. 
A. Attached or Single? Attached for nine years to my best friend (who I sometimes refer to as the Griffin from “Alice in Wonderland” in keeping with my web sites theme) and partner.  We share our lives with each other, a 2 year old boy and 3 chihuahuas. 
B. Best Friend? Friends are a blessing! 
C. Cake or Pie?  Apple Pie!
D. Day of choice? Any day I get to spend with by son.
E. Essential item? Air conditioning!  I would agree with Luna 100%.  The summer would be unbearable without one. 
F. Favorite color? Blue.
G. Gummy Bears or Worms? Gummy bears! I love to bite their heads off. Yum!
H. Hometown? Tucson, Arizona. 
I. Favorite indulgence? Drinking fancy espresso drinks(latte, capachino, etc.) and taking naps.  I couldn’t survive without naps. 
J. January or July? July, because my husband is off from work and its summer break!
K. Kids? One, 2 year old boy. 
L. Life isn’t complete without? Family, God, friends, and love.
M. Marriage Date? February 6th.
N. Number of brothers and sisters? None.  I was adopted, and I know of one biological brother who I have never met.
O. Oranges or Apples? Apples.  I agree with Luna, my favorite is the “apple pie” caramel apples from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
P. Phobias?  I don’t like hights, bugs, swimming in the ocean or any lake, and people throwing up.  I don’t think they are phobias, but they might be.
Q. Quotes? None comes to mind. 
R. Reasons to smile? My son doing something funny.  My husband doing something sweet.  Reading a really good book or seeing a really good movie or listening to my favorite song. 
S. Season of choice? Fall!  I love the leaves changing colors, and the holidays.
T. Tag 5 people. Not going to happen.  I don’t have that many friends.  Sad but true.  My work schedule keeps me pretty isolated.
U. Unknown fact about me? I have never baked a pie. 
V. Vegetable? Green Beans please.
W. Worst Habit? Apologizing for everything even if it isn’t my fault.
X. X-ray or ultrasound? I don’t understand this question.  Would I like to have one?  Or which one do I like better?  I have had both.  The Ultrasound was much more fun. 
Y. Your favorite food? Rice pudding.      
Z. Zodiac sign? I don’t blieve in these birth signs.  Mine is supposed to be Ares, but I am nothing like my supposed sign.

I know it has been several months since I updated this part of my blog.  I had a hard time getting back into the healthy eating and taking vitamins after having the stomach flu back in April.  I slowly have begun to take my vitamins and I got my blood tested.  Everything turned out good and I am not anemic. 

Now, in July, I started drinking this health drink…its amazing and tastes wonderful.  It is called “Longevity Green Drink” personally formulated by Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D.  Yes, I am drinking a drink formulated by a guy named Dharma….no relation to LOST’s Dharma…or so I think.  ????  It is a green powder that you mix into juice.  I use orange juice and an electric mixer.  You can basically mix it into any kind of juice.   

Dr. Dharma.com Longevity Green Drink

I wasn’t feeling very good and had not been taking my vitamins like I should be.  I was feeling run down and unenergetic when I started the drink.  At first I couldn’t look at it when I was drinking it, because it is green, but I got used to it. The taste is really appealing; in fact I look forward to drinking it every morning.  I have been feeling much better and I have a lot more energy.  I have also been sleeping a lot better.  I don’t know if this has anything to do with it. 

Not everyone can eat the right foods and get the right types of vegetables and nutrients for an optimal diet.  So that is why drinking the green powder drink important.  It gives you back what you lack in your diet.

The next subject in regards to my health is that I began sleeping on a natural latex pillow standard size.  Since I am allergic to memory foam(gives me horrible nose bleeds due to the off gasses of the foam), I was pretty limited to what kind of pillow I could sleep on.  The natural cotton pillows are nice, but break down pretty fast in about a year.  I love down pillows, except that they also break down after a while and you end up scrunching your pillow up for better neck support, and therefore do not sleep as well.  I need a lot of neck support.  This new pillow, not only is hypoallergenic because it is made out of laytex foam, but it is the most comfortable pillow I have never slept on.  The best way I can describe it is to say it is like sleeping on the softest down and gell at the same time.  Surprisingly, this pillow I purchased at Wal-mart for only $25.00, which is a really great price for a natural laytex pillow, which can run on average $100.00.   I want to get a couple for guest pillows for our guest room.  I have been sleeping so much better and I haven’t had one day of neck trouble since switching over to this pillow. 

Not that I have a lot of time for going to a movie, but if I did, I would love to see “Dark Knight” and “Hell Boy II.”  I can count on my hand the number of times I have been to the movie theater since my son was born.  I don’t really miss going to the theater that much however.  I never liked the crowds, noise and uncomfortable seats.  I do love movie pop-corn.  And there is nothing like seeing an action film on the big screen, with the great sound system booming away.

I remember I was 14 when the first Batman movie came out.  I stood outside for 4 hours with my parents in the hot weather in a line that rapped around the entire building.  I had never seen a line for a movie that long before.  It was kind of like standing in line to ride Space Mountain at Disneyland, which was the only comparison my 14 year old mind could make.  My parents didn’t like the film, but I loved it, in my 9th grade wisdom.  I like how the movie was dark, how the hero was dark and mysterious and I had never seen anything like that before.  I like the mythos of Batman.  I made a little shrine in my room to Batman for the next three years.  The movie was great fun.  When I look back on it now I can see flaws in the movie, things I hated (like Price music), things I liked, and style of Tim Burton etched in my mind forever.  It was most importantly the first time I had ever seen a comic book brought to life on the big screen. 

After seeing ”Batman Begins”, I have a totally different view of things.  I like how they re-imagined the story in every way.  It brings a wonderful feel of realism to the story that the first Batman films were lacking.  It was like watching an independent film, but also a blockbuster at the same time.  I have just as much hope for ”Dark Knight”, if not more, and I am looking forward to seeing this flim if the opportunity presents itself.     

By popular demand, I am writing my Italian Cream Soda Recipe down to share with you all.  It is a lot of fun to make.  If you have kids you can get them involved with the process and you know they won’t be drinking a bunch of chemicals and artificial ingredients this way.  

Fill your glass 1/2 way with ice cubes.  Too much ice will make it too watery, so be careful.

2 table spoons of Torani Syrup in any flavor. Torani Syrup Flavors  My favorite flavors are Vanilla, Irish Cream, Carmel and Rasberry. You can also mix flavors by adding 1 table spoon of one flavor and 1 table spoon of another. For example: you can make a Vanilla/Carmel Cream Soda.

1 cup Club Soda.  Pour club soda over Syrup until 1.5 inches from top of glass. 

2 table spoons of half and half creamer. Pour creamer in last.

Stir with spoon and taste.  If it isn’t sweet enough for you add more syrup 1 table spoon at a time.  I don’t like mine too sweet, so I only put in 2 table spoons, but it is all about taste. Kids like to make their own soda because they can measure out the ingredients, play with the ice, stir it all up at then end, so it is fun for them, and the best part is they get to drink their creation afterwards.

My posts have been fairly serious lately, so I had to break the streak with some pure pop culture, which I so enjoy.  I follow a few movie stars, musicians and artists like Milla and Sting, and enjoy reading about their lives and work.   It is strangely compelling.  I found some really nice pictures of Milla at Cannes this year.  I also found a really cute picture of Ever.  Isn’t she the most adorable little baby? 

Below:  What a beautiful color for her dress.  It really makes her eyes just look magic.

 Close up shot. 

 I just love the braids in her hair, they really bring out the romantic style of her dress. Again a fantastic color.  Her make up is simple and elegant.

I have decided to change some things in my life regarding my use of plastic.  I don’t want to use plastic around food or store food in plastic anymore if not for the fact that toxins “could” be leaking into our food from these plastics, I think the over consumerism, and waste of all the plastic containers for food is abhorrent. I am 34 and I am just now getting the message.  I have a lot to make up for,  besides being a good steward of what we have been given. We should take care of this place, because it is our home right now. How wasteful our society is, just because they can be. I decided it was important enough to take action for my family. It is my responsibility to protect them from harm and insure their safetly.

1. I will NOT use plastic bags from now on. Not only are plastic bags wasteful, but they are terrible for the environment.  To combat this problem, I have a nice collection of canvas and cloth bags to take with me to any store.  China has banned them in most areas because of all the problems they are having with their environment.  The plastic bags are becoming a type of polution.  Here is an example:  This picture is from Maui with plastic bags stuck in a line of trees.

I think America could take a lesson from other countries in this issue.  Europe charges for each plastic bag, which is a nice way to deter people from using them. Also, I get $0.5 for each cloth bag I use at my grocery store. It is a nice incentive for me. Maybe they should start a tax for plastic bags, and use the money collected to help clean up the plastic bag problem in our country and also deter people from using plastic bags.  If you woud like to also begin to limit your use of plastic bags, please check out this site about reusable bags:  http://www.reusablebags.com/ 

 2.  I will ONLY store my food in glass jars. Yes, I took all my old Tupperware and put them in a large bag for storage in my garage until all these types of plastic can be recyclable, especially #5, but also #3, #4, #6 and #7. I already recycle #1 and #2 types of plastic, like milk jugs, and water bottles.  Plastic items are marked with a “recycling identification code.”  If you ever wondered what the numbers stood for here is a list: 1—polyethyelene terephthalate (PETE)
2—high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
3—vinyl, polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
4—low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
5—polypropylene (PP)
6—polystyrene (PS)
7—other (includes polycarbonate, acrylic, polylactic acid, fiberglass)

The least harmful plastic for food storage are 1, 2, 4 and 5. Avoid numbers 3, 6 and 7.  These should never be used for food storage because some of them could have BPA leaching plastics in them.  The next thing I did was go to my Bashas store and Walmart and found some really nice Ball Canning Jars and Glass containers like the ones you see blow.

The price couldn’t have been less expensive then if I had bought them online in bulk. I got a case of 1/2 gallon size jars for all my drinks like milk, orange juice and they are great for brewing my favorite beverage, iced tea. I got a case of 6 oz. ball jars for “left over food”. They work great and you can safely warm up your food in them in the microwave without worry. You can just put them in your dish washer with the lids to wash. I can tote them to work in a bag and everything takes up much less room.  My fridge looks pristine. Why didn’t I do this sooner? It is so much nicer and I didn’t ever realize it would be. I thought it would be expensive and would be a hard thing to change over to, but it was inexpensive and easy. The only thing you have to remember is to put labels on the jars so you know what is in them, otherwise you are doing smell and taste tests to figure out what is in each jar.  I just use sticky notes for labes.  It is surprisingly easy.

 3. I will make an effort to buy my food in glass containers and re-use them or recycle them. I already buy my peanut butter in glass jars, as well as pickles. In recent shopping I found canned peaches in jars, and apple sauce. Why buy it in plastic when it comes in jars and is just as expensive? Buying butter in sticks wrapped in paper rather then plastic tubs is a good idea as well.

4. I will work on purchasing some stainless steel water jugs, mugs and glass cansisters to use instead of plastic containers.  Glass canisters can be used to store some of my dry goods, like flour, sugar, rice and coffee. Right now those items are in plastic Tupperware containers. I also want to get a large stainless steel water dispenser to put all my drinking water in or one of these glass jars like the one at this store: Homecanning.com . They are hard to find and a little pricey, but I hope to find one soon. In the weeks to come I am sure I will find more ways to enhance this project. 

This is a new way of life that I feel good about, it is something easy I can do for the health of my family and the environment.

In general, most people don’t stop to think about shopping bags or plastic bags and how much they affect our lives and society.  You can’t go anywhere or shop anyplace that doesn’t have plastic bags.  Everything you buy gets put in a plastic bag.  Then the question is what do you do with the bag when you get home?  Throw it away?  Keep it?  Recycle it?  It is an issue for everyone.  Recently I was coming home in the car and decided to count how many plastic bags I saw in the bushes on the side of the road for 1 mile.  I figured I might see 10 or something, but when the number counter was above 50 I began to really be shocked.  How could there be that many plastic bags on the side of the road near where I live.  This is a much bigger problem then I had even imagined.     I have recently made the commitment to not use/obtain or accumulate plastic bags, so it has been an interesting learning experience for me and every day adds another layer to the story. 

It was about 4 years ago I bought my first canvas grocery bag at Wild Oats for about $7.  I thought that was very expensive for a bag, but there were not many places where you could purchase a canvas shopping bag for groceries.  I used them sometimes when I remembered to take them with me to the store.  I still accumulated a lot of plastic grocery bags which would fill the entire cabinet under my sink.  It was like it was drowning in plastic bags.  I never could use enough of them to combat the ever growing problem under my sink.  About 2 years ago I found out there was a place at Wal-Mart where I could recycle my plastic bags.  I started unloading my stash of bags.  I didn’t want to look like some crazy person hauling huge piles of plastic bags to the store, so I would take one pile at time to the recycle bin at Wall Mart.  Eventually the area under my sink began to clear and I had room for other things I needed to store under there.  I still felt like if I used my 3 canvas bags more often I wouldn’t have so many plastic bags to recycle all the time.  About a year ago I found grocery bags you could buy made of cloth and shaped like a paper grocery bag at our natural food grocery store Ike’s and they only cost $0.99.  I was ecstatic.  I bought 5 or 6 cloth bags.  I would take them with me most times when I went grocery shopping, but sometimes I would still forget.  I began to bring them to my Bashas grocery store and discovered that have plastic bag recycle bins and also sell $0.99 cloth grocery bags.  The cashiers seem nice about it and supportive of using the cloth bags, which I was happy to see.   You can put so much more into them and they don’t break or tear.  The plastic bag problem under my sink was starting to diminish.  So now that I have decided to use my bags wherever I am shopping.  I just take them with me in the car.  

• This weekend I took my bags with me to Linen N Things, but the reception was not very good.  I put my cloth bags on the counter in front of the towels I was purchasing, and said, “I brought my own bags.”  The cashier proceeded to put my towels in a huge plastic bag.  I was dumbfounded.  I said, “NO!   I do NOT want to use a plastic bag.  I brought my own cloth bags to use.”  She just stood there looking dumb.  ”I guess I’ll do it myself” I said.  She said, “Oh” and then watched me take everything out of the plastic bag and put everything into the cloth bags.  In the mean time there was this huge line forming behind me.  I was not going to let these customers push me into using a plastic bag, just because the cashier wouldn’t touch my cloth bags or help me.  It wouldn’t have taken the girl any more time to put my things in the cloth bags to start with, but because she refused to help me, it took twice as long.   The other customers grumbled and stared and you would have thought I was the strangest person they had ever met for using cloth bags.  I was sad to see their reaction.  Apparently the cashier was a little slow…when I said, “I brought my own bags.” I would think that would be instruction enough, but I guess I should have said “I brought my own bags; please put my purchases in these bags instead of your plastic ones. It’s a save-the-environment thing.” 

• Next I went to Old Navy, again bringing my own bag.  When I was ready to check out, I told the cashier I had brought my own bag and she said, “Cool, more people are doing that now.” She happily put my things in the cloth bag and I checked out.  It was a nice experience. 

We’ll see what happens next.  If you would like to see the kind of shopping bags out there:  Check out this web site:  www.reusablebags.com/

Earthday will be here soon.  I hope that everyone will take a look at this video from the news on the Today Show:  The Today Show News Report “Trouble in the Ocean”  It talks about the dangers in our oceans already, how it is becoming a wasteland for plastic. 

The amount of energy that goes into creating, producing and delivering the billions of bottles of water so many people use is astonishing.  Twenty years ago bottled water was not really popular, except in fancy resteraunts I think, but now they are everwhere.  The empty bottles make up for most of the plastic garbage in the ocean, making beaches harmful and unpleasant for recreation, and wreaking havoc for our sea creatures and food sources. 

Even in the sea, if and when it breaks down to small plastic bits, that plastic will drift, suffocate the fish, choke the birds, and in some places be denser than sand itself. Plastic is REPLACING SAND! 

I questions if the plastic sand will eventually it will become dust in the air.  Our bodies are made to filter out dust, but what about plastic dust?  I am not so sure and one day soon we will be at that point. 

Plastic water bottles shouldn’t be popular anymore. We should rid ourselves of the selfish luxury.  It is really just an unnessary waste.  We CAN live without plastic water bottles.  What in the world did we all do 20 years ago?  I think we drank water from our taps and used reusable bottles.  Be responsible about the plastic you purchase. All of the plastic ever produced since its discovery in the 1930’s is still here on earth. 

I am sorry that I had never realized this probelm before now.  I am going to do my best to get rid of the plastics I use.  There will be no more plastic bottles in my house.  We are switchg to stainless steel reusable bottles like these: 
Kleankanteen.com
SIGG bottles

Other places I will reduce my plastic use is in my kitchen, because that is the most dangerous place.  We are surrounded by plastic things constantly, so it is quiet a challenge, but there are some great ideas out there for alternatives to plastic.  I am not going to just be lazy and irresponsible about this anymore.

Other Web Sites that might be helpful: 

Alternatives to plastic use

Synthetic Sea

I have almost completed two months of trying to improve my health, so I think I need to post an update.  You can read my previous ”Health Kick” posts to see where it all began.  

Things seem to be going well.  I am still sleeping better with my pillows and foam pads, so that is a success. 

I had a bout of pink eye, which was really annoying and I had to take really harsh eye drops for a week.  It is all cleared up now. 

For about two weeks this month I didn’t take my vitamins every day because we had company over or were traveling, so that just messed up my routine.  However, once things went back to normal I started taking my vitamins again.  I did notice a difference in my energy level going down when I didn’t take my vitamins.  This week my vitamin regime has been:  2 Collagen Pills twice a day between meals and 2 500 mg Vitamin C.  1 multi vitamin, 2 Vitamin D, 1 B12 complex and 2 acidophilus.  When I take my fish oil pill once a day it really helps my digestion, but I do not always remember to take it, so I want to improve this.  I think I will start taking 2 a day with meals.  I am starting this today. 

I haven’t been watching what I eat and probably eating too much Kozyshack pudding and bread, so I have gained 6 lbs this month.  I am a little bummed about this, but I have started watching what I eat again, so I hope to drop this weight.  So the current plan is to loose the 6lbs I gained and add fish oil twice ever day.  My skin is still feeling really good with the Collagen and when I remember to take my vitamins, my energy is up. 

Oh, here is something interesting too:  At work they gave us some RED lights for night time shift work that are supposed to help with the sleep patterns and how much light your skin absorbs.  I used them some this last week when I worked nights.  This weekend when I was switching my sleep pattern back to day shift, I slept much more then usual and I slept better.  I have no idea if this was due to the use of the red lights, but it could be.  

We have adopted a little Chihuahua/Yorky mix.  She is adorable and makes a good addition to my Chihuahua brood.  She is about 7 years old.  I have discovered that she has the sweetest personality.  She absolutely loves to get her belly rubbed, and just sit next to you anytime she can.  She has a little beard and bushy eyebrows too, so we sometimes call her the “bearded lady.”  My other two Chihuahuas seem to really like her, especially Ebony.  Rascal just follows him around everywhere and tries to sit next to him.  Sometimes they even lie next to each other and snuggle.  I keep telling Ebony he has a girlfriend.  Ivory is more independent, so Ebony never snuggles with her because she won’t let him.   Rascal loves to lie at the foot of my bed, on our bench and sleep.  We took her to our vet to get checked out and her teeth were really bad.  She ended up having to have 16 teeth pulled, but she recovered just fine, however we have to feed her canned food.  Now, if we could only get her to stop going potty on our carpet when she feels like it.  She is potty trained, and goes outside with the other dogs, but if we are not home to let her out when she wants to go out, she will just potty on our carpet.  Anyway, we just love her and were very glad to add her to our Chihuahua brood.  

This is Rascal sleeping at the end of the bed on our bench. 

Check out those bushy eyebrows.  I don’t think she is fond of getting her picture taken.

Here is a picture of Ebony, who Rascal just adores. 

Here is a picture of Ivory when she was a wee puppy.