Product Review: Shaklee

Erin over at Healthy Branscoms was generous enough to send me a sample of Shaklee concentrate to try out. An itty bitty sample made two 16-oz bottles of organic cleaner, one for windows and one all-purpose cleaner. I've had this sample for a couple of weeks, and I finally got two spray bottles to make this cleaner.

I've read nothing but good things about Shaklee, but I'm a serious skeptic, so I was really excited to see the results when I used the all-purpose cleaner today. Natalie had a serious nose-bleed during the night, and being the procrastinator that I am, I still have not put a waterproof mattress pad/protector over her mattress, so there was a disgusting stain on her brand-spankin' new mattress. Yuck! Then...a light bulb went off! I scurried to the kitchen to grab my Shaklee all-purpose cleaner. Two little sprays and some blotting, and this is what Natalie's mattress looked like

What's that? You don't see a stain? No signs of a bloody nose anywhere? Let's look a little closer:

I didn't take a "before" shot, but, believe me, there was a stain. Thanks to my new Shaklee all-purpose cleaner, no one ever has to know. I've already warned the hubs that we will be budgeting for Shaklee in the near future.

Gulf Shores Vacation

We recently went to Gulf Shores for a short vacation. By "we" I mean Nathan, Natalie, and myself, as well as my parents, my sister, and my in-laws. All in one condo. Am I crazy? Yes. Could it have been much worse? Absolutely. We all got along surprisingly well, especially considering we had to spend much of our time inside the condo, thanks to Tropical Storm Lee (that jerk).
We left home Wednesday evening. Nathan and I had an hour drive to my parents' house, where we all met. Even though we both took off work early, we still were late. It didn't help that my car wouldn't start when we were ready to leave. We drove to Tunica, MS, Wednesday evening and crashed immediately. FYI, it's kinda scary driving through Memphis at night. If you don't have to do it, don't.
We arrived to Gulf Shores on a Thursday, and the weather was amazing the whole way, until we got to southern Mississippi. The clouds hovered, but didn't start raining on us right away. My sister and I went to the store get buy the perishables that we didn't take with us in the cooler, and we cooked chicken fettucine alfredo for dinner that night. Friday morning I got up early and worked out. For some reason I am better about working out when I'm on vacation than I am at home. I wanted to shower before I went to the beach to meet Natalie and her grandparents, because after the 8 hour drive on Thursday and an hour of gym time, I sure didn't want my picture taken. I quickly showered and gathered up my beach goodies. I was about 10 steps away from the sand when a downpour came without warning. Everyone scooped up their things, tried to rinse off their feet, and ran to shelter.


I wish I could say we were wet from swimming.





I wish this picture did the waves justice. There were times when they had to be almost 10ft high. Friday night, the chairs were removed from the beach and the water level was past where the chairs were.



The rain never did chill out that day, so we all showered and went to the always-amazing Tanger Outlet Mall. Nathan got some more school clothes, I got some great deals at the Tommy store (thanks, MIL!!), and Natalie....well, she shouldn't have to wear the same thing twice for awhile! There are perks to being an only grandchild on both sides. Ha! Friday night we dined at Wentzell's Oyster House. Boy, oh boy, was it good! And so much fun! There were hilarious phrases printed on brightly-colored paper and stapled all.over.the.walls. Most of us went to bed early that night, after getting our bellies full!

Saturday we went to the beach a couple of times, but never got to stay more than 10 minutes. We were in and out between the rain showers. Natalie got her sandcastle, which was our goal for the entire trip. Nathan, the ILs, and I went shopping again, because there wasn't much else to do. My car got wonky again on Saturday, and we had trouble getting it to start. My family went to church, and when we got out, we had to call the ILs to jump us in the rain so we could go eat at Jake's. After dinner, we just chilled again, and watched the waves cover most of the beach.

Sunday morning, Nathan, my dad, and my FIL went to Wal-Mart to get a new battery for my car while we girls all went to the beach. It was the prettiest it had been since we got there, and we had to be out of our condo by 10:00. WTH!?! Oh well, we knew we had a long drive home, so we needed to get on the road. It rained on us pretty much the whole way, and by the time we got to Mobile, AL, and crossed the Mobile Bay, this big guy tried to get close to us:



Retracting back into the clouds as we're driving away. Darn me for not having my camera in reach at all times!

This bridge seems so much longer when there's a tornado on the water. Yep, it actually touched down and created a HUGE water spout! I'm so thankful we all made it through safely! We made it to my parents' house around 9:00pm, so Nathan and I decided we'd just stay the night. An extra day in Gulf Shores would've been nice had the weather cooperated, but it felt so good to be home!

Natalie with her only true Aunt

My monkey didn't want a picture with me.

Natalie with her Mimi, my mom



We Remember 9/11/2001