Natural Remedies?

I'm going on day two of a terrible sore throat. Being a huge fan of natural remedies myself, I've been sipping loads of hot chamomile tea with lemon as well as doing a salt gargle, but to no avail. So any other suggestions to fight this nasty discomfort would be dearly appreciated. Thanks, xo.

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Just Say No

To getting sick, that is! Keep your immune system strong this cold and flu season with these 9 immunity boosting foods!

It seems like everyone at work has been sick these last few weeks and I have managed to somehow dodge the bullet. Maybe the fact that many of these items are regulars on our menu has helped to pack that extra anti-cold and flu punch! Hmm, this also sounds like a good excuse for my husband to get more beef...

image/Prevention

I Got the Bug

Sorry for my lack-o-blogging this week, but I've been sick. I had been able to fight off the bug my hubs had all last week, and just when I thought I was free and clear, it got me.

Not to worry though, my mom made me homemade chicken noodle soup and I napped on the couch in my comfies all afternoon yesterday. While not totally recovered, I'm beginning to feel better today. Hoping to kick this thing soon!

Happy Wednesday!

PS~ What are your favorite remedies when you're feeling under the weather?

Can I Go Back to Bed?

Forgive my lack of a real post today, but my body still seems to be fighting this flu and I'm completely exhausted! All I want to do right now is crawl back in bed and sleep for another eight hours. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more energy...

Let the Holidays Begin!

Hello Lovelies! I hope your holiday weekend was absolutely wonderful! For the most part ours was too, with the minor exception of me getting sick! That's right, it finally happened.

Because my head is still quite groggy, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Just in the nick of time on Wednesday evening, our new tv showed up and my hubby could not have been more pleased!



Our Thanksgiving began with the Run to Feed the Hungry! It was fantastic! I successfully ran the 6.2 miles and Chris and my Mom ran the 5k! Although I must give my Mom a ton of credit because she said she wasn't feeling well, but we found out Friday she has Swine Flu! I can't believe she ran, cooked Thanksgiving dinner AND got up at 2:30 Friday morning to shop!


After a lovely meal with my parents and dessert with Chris' whole family, it was off to bed to wake up extra early!



As I said, my Mom was feeling really bad by Friday so we only made it until 6, when I took her home. But I was wide awake so I went home, made a pot of coffee and started decorating for Christmas! Chris and I even got our tree, but by Friday evening I started getting a cough...

By Saturday morning I felt awful! Unfortunately, it lasted the entire weekend. Thankfully we were able to get our Christmas stuff up on Friday and as always, my husband tended to my every need. He is the best husband and caretaker ever, despite my tendencey to be very whiny when I'm sick!






So today I am still sick, but I no longer have a fever and my cough and body ache are pretty much gone. I hope I can kick it today! And I am really hoping Chris can somehow resist getting sick too!

Have a very merry Monday!

Studying and Staying Healthy

I am very excited to share that I'm just about finished studying for the ACSM personal training exam! After falling a little behind schedule, I decided studying must be a priority, so I've been catching up hard core on the weekends. Originally I said I wanted to take the test next week, but now it's going to be right after we get back from Indiana. And thankfully, I am feeling so prepared!

And on that note, our trip to Indiana is a mere two weeks away! Well, actually a little less than that!

It is for this reason I have been avoiding getting sick at all cost! As is typical for this time of year, there is a nasty bug going around. One of my co-workers went home sick yesterday and I busted out my box of Emergen-C for everyone to take! Right now, I'm pretty much obsessed with vitamin C, exercise, sleep and hand sanitizer:) Hey, a girl's got to keep her immune system up!

And on a sad note for fellow foodies, it was anounced in the New York Times yesterday that Gourmet magazine is folding. I for one, am very sad to see such an incredible and well known food magazine go. After all, it has been one of my favorite "splurge" magazines!


Farewell, Gourmet!

"The stuff dreams are made of"

Football season is officially in full swing and you know what that means...it's almost Fall! The weather is even cooperating and staying nice and crisp:) All I wanted to do yesterday was ignore the laundry and enjoy a relaxing Sunday afternoon while Chris and Brad enjoyed football...ALL DAY:) I did get my wish, however, it came with a price. I was sick all night last night and it spilled over to this morning, forcing me to call in sick to work, which I don't like doing:(

Abby, showing her love for the Raiders:)



When I woke up, Chris was getting ready to leave for work and he told me it had rained last night!! I just had to get a glimpse of the wet ground so I took Abby outside and couldn't believe it when I needed a sweatshirt!. Oh Fall, you are almost here! Just one week from tomorrow! I was almost tempted to start my annual tradition early and make Chris a pumpkin pie today, but I decided to hold of until Fall is officially here.

When I was finally able to get up without feeling nauseous, I decided to go to the gym. It seems everyone else has the same idea at 9:30 in the morning! Of course it was mostly swarming with young moms! (Not gonna lie, I was a little envious:) I remembered how much I love working out at that time of day!!

Then I made my way to Whole Foods, which was basically deserted compared to a Saturday afternoon! As I usually do while I grocery shop, I treated myself to a latte. It tasted especially good and strong today! When the guy handed it to me he said, "This is the stuff dreams are made of!". It seems this crisp, Autumnesque weather has everyone in a good mood today!

And I'd just like to say that Jonagold apples are back! Can't wait to bite into one with some fresh almond butter later today!

And finally, I just pulled my Walnut Blueberry Banana Bread out of the oven, which smells amazing! The combination of that and my L'Occitane Crème Caramel Candle is enough to make me swoon!


Unfortunately, my tummy is feeling woosy again, so I think I'll rest a bit and hopefully get some studying in before Mom and I go to a knitting class this evening!

Walnut Blueberry Banana Bread ~
1 ripe banana, mashed
3/4 c. ground flax seed
2 egg whites
1/3 c. agave
1 c. nonfat buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. spelt flour
1 tsp orange rind, grated
1 c. blueberries
1/2 c chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine banana, flax seed, egg whites, agave and buttermilk. In a separate bowl, mix baking soda, salt, flours and orange rind.
3. Combine dry ingredients into banana mixture. Gently fold in blueberries and walnuts.
4. Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes.

Happy Monday!

Flashbacks

My day has been spent at home today. I woke up with a terrible stomach ache and major nausea:( Not fun, but this afternoon I started feeling better and decided to do some laundry, clean up, prep dinner, you know, be domestic:). Like always, I put some music on and got to it. My choice for today was Justin McRoberts. I love his music! Anyway, while singing along to "Alone Together", I was completely taken back to my Senior year of high school, sitting in Chris' blue Thunderbird and listening to this song. There is no doubt, I was falling hard for him. A huge smile swept across my face today as I remembered falling in love with such a wonderful man:)

Is there really a better feeling than falling in love? For Chris and me, it happened fast. I love remembering the beginning of our relationship. I love remembering that the reasons I fell in love with him haven't changed today, they have only increased as I learn more and more about him. and his awesome heart for the Lord, me, children, life, family, etc.

I love you Babe! Thank you for making the past 5 1/2 years so incredible!

Allow Me to Catch You Up...

My current mood: refreshed, content and happy.

This is good considering my recent moods have been: grumpy, tired and sick!

I have missed blogging, but have just had no time:(

A quick recap of our last three weeks:

* We went to Santa Cruz and the Sharks game with Chris' Dad. So much fun!
*Chris got sick
*Chris got me sick on a week I couldn't take off work because my boss was out and we were really busy:(
*I was still sick on Valentine's Day and the entire weekend that we spent at a cabin in Tahoe with Chris' Dad, step mom and brothers:(
*We bought an awesome new couch and decided it would our Valentine's gift to each other!
*We are currently crammed in a tiny living space with too much furniture since we haven't posted the old couch on Craig's list yet.
*I feel fabulous since I finally got my hair done last week.
*In the last two weeks my brother turned 4, my sister, Audrey turned 3 and my sister, Ava turned 2!!
*I finally spent time with my sweet friend, Parris and saw the movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic", which was fantastic and I highly recommend it to anyone who LOVED the book like I did!
*We watched "Changeling" last night. Also very good but slightly disturbing.
*In addition to all this, we have been really busy dealing with house stuff:) I will wait to disclose anything until something is for sure!

This weekend we have had some much needed catch up time to relax. Yesterday marked 8 months since our wedding! I had already planned on making a yummy dinner, which ended up being a perfect opportunity to celebrate! I really can't believe it has already been a better part of a year! The time has flown by and has been absolutely wonderful! Here are some pics of our tasty diner:)

It sucks to be a Sickie!

So this afternoon I have finally come out of my sick coma, to find my house in utter disarray! Let me explain my dilemma. I have been sick since Monday. I hate being sick. You know the kind of sick where you feel like if you get out of bed, you might fall over from being so dizzy and never get back up? Yeah, I was that kind of sick. Yuck!!

I am very lucky to have a husband who is so gracious and nurturing and completely takes care of my every need while I am in this condition. The only thing is, he is not exactly blessed with a former girl scout's keen sense of leaving the kitchen, living room, den, etc. exactly the way he found it! It really doesn't bother me that much since I am clean-freak enough for the both of us. However, this morning I was finally able to get out of bed feeling decent and I walked into the kitchen to find dishes in the sink, a used pan on the stove, garbage overflowing, etc. Haha! Trust me, I don't mind cleaning up when Chris was so amazing to me while I was sick, I just find it very comical that all of the time I spend organizing and cleaning can be destroyed in matter of days! I pray we have lots of girls:)

On to other things. This past week was so jam packed with so much activity, I felt as if I hadn't blogged in 2 weeks, when in fact, it has only been a week! You all know Halloween was last Friday~Happy late Halloween by the way! I hope you all had a fabulous and eventful day/evening! We certainly did. We spent Thursday night doing the typical festivities: carving pumpkins and making caramel apples! It was a great, relaxing night, but the real fun started Friday.

My dad (step dad for all who aren't familiar with my family dynamics) turned 65 on Sunday! He kept saying he didn't want anything and didn't want to celebrate. Well, little did he know, we already had something planned! His daughter and granddaughter, who live in Oklahoma, flew in on Friday to spend the weekend with us! He was definitely surprised! We spent Halloween at my parent's having chili and cornbread...Yum! His party was on Sunday, but Chris and I spent most of the weekend there. It was so fun to be with my family and to top it off, it rained almost the entire weekend! Talk about a perfect Fall treat! The only bummer is my dad had a terrible cold on his birthday:( You can tell in this picture. Sad!
So,we have a new president. I think I will leave it to Chris to blog about this topic. He is far better at discussing these things and I don't know that I have the emotional energy to write about that right now. Though I will say, while Obama was not my choice for president, I will respect him and hope that he ends up doing some good for our country. We all know it needs some help!

Lastly, I am so very happy that it is November. First of all, I can officially start listening to Christmas music without being a total weirdo and secondly, our new Whole Foods opened this morning!! You don't understand, I am so ecstatic to finally have one five minutes from my house! Actually, there is one more reason I am glad it's November. We are leaving for a four day trip to Chicago next Thursday to visit my family! I can't wait to meet my new sister, Madeline!!

Lots to look forward to! Stay warm and check out Diana Krall's Christmas CD! I am also totally hooked on Hot Apple Cider Tea by Republic of Tea!!

Lots of love,
Kate