A Day in May!

I know I've said it time and again that I will start posting regularly.  I am going to now say that I will post when I post :).  Hopefully regularly.  I guess what would help would be to acknowledge that I have meaningful subjects to write about.  With that in mind, I had an aha! moment.  I accepted the responsibility and filled in for a coworker who was unable to host an event at work.  My company hosts a business class a few times a year and I was able to attend/help host the event.  Listening to the content it got me thinking...

Many companies like to say that they have a "company culture".  I believe they are speaking the truth when they state that they have a company culture.  But, do they really understand what kind of culture they are encouraging and promoting?  I think that some may actually practice what they preach, but others may not practice anything and actually promote the opposite what they preach.

I am going to start reading more about company culture.  I found a really interesting article: 7 Ways You Can Impact Company Culture and they recommended a book called Valve Employee Handbook. I'm going implementing #2 and #3 and see if that ellicits some change.  I know that I have become a bit less tolerant of some.  I am curious to see if I change my behaviors, will it in turn help change theirs.  #5 & #6 will be difficult.  #5 because many of the upper management team are the root of the problem which leads to #6 because the upper management team at my company are related (e.g. mother, sisters, and daughters).  I will be patient which is #7.  Change doesn't happen overnight.

What are some of the ways you are going to try to implement to help positively impact your company culture?

Back on Track

Today I had to work even though it was President's Day.  It's funny how I went from one career where I had a bunch of holidays off to a place where I get a hand full of days off.  I'm not complaining, I'm really happy where I am now.  It's just funny...

The nice thing about working today is that my day went by so fast.  I had planned on getting up early and working out.  That didn't happen.  So I worked out after I got home.  I did Jillian Michaels' Body Revolution Workout 3.  That was difficult.  I haven't worked out in awhile.

I think I'll also jot down what I ate today:

Breakfast:

Golden Gate Smoothie courtesy of Tyler

Lunch:

Trader Joe's Pepperoni pizza
2 Light String Cheese
1 Peach Chobani Yogurt

Snack:

Ballast Point Dorado

Dinner:

Soup: White Bean and Kale Soup

I like to add:

This is really yummy!

Essential Oils

For my birthday my friend bought me an introductory 3 pack of essential oils: Lemon, Lavender, and Peppermint.  I also have another friend who invited me to learn more about essential oils at the end of January.

I've played around with my Lemon Aura Cacia oil that I picked up at Sprouts a couple of years ago.  I've really only used it for a DIY Dishwasher Detergent Tab recipe I found on Pinterest.

I guess Essential Oils are getting a stronger presence with the help of MLM companies like doTerra and Young Living.  The party I went to had doTerra oils.  It was fun to smell everything and learn about the health benefits they can provide.  I am not advising that these will cure any of your ailments, I'm just writing about the outcome that they provided me.

I walked out with an order for: Deep Blue, On Guard+ Softgels, Whisper, Grapefruit, and Correct-X.


Deep Blue is like a Bengay rub in an oil.  It smells about the same, too.  It reminded me of staying at my Grandma's house and the stuff she would put on her aches and pains.  I did get some relief from a strained muscle using this oil.

On Guard+ Softgels are supposed to help support your immune system.  Sheryl has had great success using the oil version of this product.  However, this did not work for me.  I took it to ward off the cold that my husband had, but I ended up still catching it.  I will be returning this product.

Whisper is an oil blend that is supposed to help with libido.  I'm lacking greatly in this area so I was excited to try this one out.  Well, on Valentine's Day I decided to try it out.  When my husband got home he too one whiff of me and had a look of repulsion and disgust on his face.  I had to sit downwind from him while we had lunch.  That response isn't going to help with my lack of libido, so that's going back, too.

Grapefruit is the oil I knew I was going to order before going to the party.  I love the way this oil smells and it was always out at Sprouts.  I've used this to help freshen up my carpet and as a yoga mat cleaner.  I really like citrus scents.

Correct-X is an ointment similar to Neosporin.  I was pleasantly surprise with this one.  I've had an area on my shoulder that hasn't healed very well. I had a sebaceous gland removed and the stitches were not dissolving as planned.  I put this on and within 2 days my wound was much better.

3 of the 5 items that I ordered were a hit.  

I have also played around with the Peppermint, Lemon and Lavender vials I got for my birthday.  The Peppermint helped open up my sinuses, especially when that cold hit.  The Lemon has been great in my laundry.  Lots of my towels smell moldy, but after adding about 10 drops to my laundry the towels smell great!  The Lavender isn't a favorite of my hubby, so I use this sparingly.  I have a bad cut on my foot and I applied this to the wound and it has helped heal this up.  

Have you tried essential oils out?  If so what type do you use and swear by?

Post Valentine's Day Breakfast

Hmmm...I thought I'd do a better job documenting 2015, but January just flew by!  Here's a quick recap of January: I turned 41, did a great job working out with my Jillian Michaels videos, got my haircut and colored.  Then February hit.  I got sick this first week of February and my working out went to sh*t.  It's also been hot, windy and dry.  That hasn't helped my allergies either.

Now that we're in week 2 of February I'm going to work on posting a bit more.  This weekend was Valentine's Day.  We opted to cook dinner at home and that turned out wonderful!  Costco had King Crab legs and we got a little under 3lbs.  For dinner we had: King Crab legs, clam chowder, salad, sourdough bread, and mashed potatoes.  It was a bit much and we had lots of leftovers.  Especially the crab.

I decided to make Eggs Benedict with the crab and found some great recipes.  This link will take you to an easy Hollandaise Sauce Recipe and this link will show you how to Poach the Eggs.  The second link also has a Hollandaise Sauce Recipe, but it had a few more ingredients that I didn't have.  Here is the finished result:

His:

Hers:

2014 Recap:

January:  I turned 40!
My hubby took my to the Bacara Resort for the weekend, but we were both sick with either a bad cold or a mild flu.  We were running a low fever the whole time we were there.  It was a great way to relax and rest.  The Bacara is a dog friendly hotel.  We realized that after we got there and would have loved to have had Maggie and Vinnie with us.

It was pretty empty and quiet, just how we like it!  The wave picture below was a really neat site.  As the wave came in it would hit this building and roll back.  When it was pulled back out it collided with a wave coming in.

February-April:  
Pretty uneventful.

May:  Hubs turned 35!
We had a pretty exciting May.  T turned 35 and we started to demo our kitchen.  Here's the backstory on our house.  In 2009 we bought a short sale that need a LOT of work.  We've done things here and there, but this was the year that we took on a big project.

We started in May and finished in October, but there a few fixes that need to be made.  I'll embellish later on.

Here are some pictures that show the process:

This is a picture we took when we came to the open house:

I threw this one in because it makes me giggle.  He thinks he's a cat.

Demo done and prep for tile and cabinet installation.

99% complete.  Backsplash still needs to be installed.  The kitchen is a mess right now so I'll do another post that shows the backsplash and the little issue we encountered.

July:

Celebrated our 6th Anniversary in Laguna Beach.  We found a hotel where we could bring the dogs.  It was a 2 star type hotel, but the view was great.  The toilet acted up towards the end of our stay and there was no water pressure in the shower.  We also found some random person sleeping on the lounges outside.  The great thing about this place was the view, we had easy access to the beach and Maggie and Vinnie got to come with us.  

August:

My Mom and Aunt visited.  This was my Aunt's first visit to our house and we discovered a fun app called Face Juggler.

September:

We went to Hawaii on a family trip.  

October:

We visited T's dad in Iowa.  We had an active visit that started with a round of golf and on our last evening we spent a few hours at the ER.  His Uncle fell out of the ATV and hit his head on a metal gate.  He's fine, just had a mild concussion.  Note:  That's why you are not supposed to stand up in the back of an ATV.

November: Thanksgiving 2014

We spend Thanksgiving with my side of the family and decided to bring the fur babies with us this year.  We took a road trip up the coast and it was beautiful.  We spent the night in Carmel, which is a very dog friendly town.  We stayed at Happy Landing Inn.  This was a really cute B&B, you can check it out by clicking the link.  For dinner we ate at Manduka.  The food was amazing.  I'm not good about bringing my phone with me so I don't have any shots of what we ate, but you can follow the link to view their menu.  The chef is a dog lover, too!  The next morning we took Maggie and Vinnie to the BEST BEACH EVER!  They have a dog beach that allows you to have them off leash.  It's wide and open.  They had the best time and we had the best time watching them!

Shots from drive:

The Dog Beach:  This link will take you to the Yelp page with the address and reviews.  

December: Christmas 2014

My MIL is great and always includes my Mom in the festivities.  We spend this holiday with T's side. This year it was really windy when we woke up, but beautiful!  Christmas was warm, I think we were in the 70's.  A week later we had a major cool down.  It rained and snowed the last week of the year! 

Here's a cool time lapse video of the last sunset of 2014, enjoy!

Well, that's what we were up to in 2014!  What was your most memorable event in 2014?