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

Snippets

* We got Natalie's classroom schedule for the new school year. She's at the age now that her daycare class has a curriculum during the school year. I would love to trade places with her!

• 6:30-8:20 Arrive, potty, and free play
• 8:30-8:45 Calendar and story time
• 8:45-9:00 Breakfast and potty
• 9:00-9:30 Daily lesson (every Friday is a Bible lesson)
• 9:30-11:00 Free play
• 10:45-11:00 Potty and clean up for lunch
• 11:00-11:15 Story time
• 11:15-11:30 Lunch
• 11:30-2:30 Nap
• 2:30-3:00 Potty and snack
• 3:00-3:30 Afternoon lesson
• 3:30-6:00 Free play and go home

So, how about you? Would you like to trade places with my two year old?

* My office is an inner office on the ground floor of the building. I don't get great reception on my radio, or so I thought. Apparently my radio wasn't working due to user error. I got it working yesterday and found the most unusual radio station, and it's one of the few that comes in clearly. This station has dubbed itself the "official listen-at-work station", and these are some of the songs I heard before noon:

• "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"- Cyndi Lauper
• some boy-band song that I couldn't place...Backstreet Boys, maybe?
• "I Saw the Sign"- Ace of Base
• "Get Down Tonight"- KC & the Sunshine Band
• "I Can Only Imagine"- Mercy Me
• "Marry Me" - Train
• "Firework"- Katy Perry
• "1999"- Prince
• Add in there some Lady GaGa, Rhianna, Britney Spears, and LeAnn Rimes

I really thought radio stations were pretty straightforward- country, classic rock, rock & roll, hip hop, talk radio, etc. Evidently I was wrong!

* Friday we will be going to look for an apartment to live in while Nathan's in PA school. I'm so nervous about the extra expenses, but it's a cute little town pretty close to a couple of amazing cities. Having two homes will be odd. I'll feel like a celeb, having our "weekday home" and our "weekend home"! Ha!

* I know it's still August, but I'm SO ready to decorate for fall. Last week we had some nice days with highs in the low 80s and lows in the high 50s. Today we were back to the mid-upper 90s, but I may still pull out the fall goodies this weekend :) I love love love fall, but hate that it leads into winter. Brrr! I'm especially ready for fall TV!

* I'm so over hearing about Kim Kardashian's wedding. She's my least favorite of the Kardashian sisters. I love Khloe and sometimes Kourtney.

* I just saw an infomercial for SnapOnFeathers for hair. "A $60 value for only $10!" YES!! I think I shall order mine now. Ha!! What will people come up with next?

We spent the weekend in Springfield at my cousin's wedding. I left work early Friday so we could make it to Springfield before 10pm (it's about a 4.5 hour drive), since I still had to get a gift (talk about waiting till the last minute!), get my oil changed, and pack my suitcase. Natalie and I left town around 3:00. Guess what time we got to Springfield? 10 o'clock. My parents, Natalie, and I stayed at the same hotel as two of my aunts, who informed us that evening that our hotel was going to shut down the pool on Saturday. What?! Close a hotel pool on a weekend? Who made that decision?! Obviously we didn't want to be at a hotel that had no pool, so we cancelled our Saturday reservation and found a different, but comparable, hotel just a few miles away.

The wedding was at 1:30 Saturday afternoon. We made it there at 1:35. Apparently this weekend was all about running late! We had every intention of getting there early, but didn't realize the church was 20 minutes away; and it didn't help that our Garmin had us going in the opposite direction. At 1:30 my aunt, the mother of the groom, called to find out where we were. They held up the wedding for us. Whoops! It was a little embarrassing walking into the church when everyone was expecting to see the wedding party walking up the aisle. The priest, who has known my family forever and ever amen, said he was not starting that wedding until we were there. So sweet, right? The groom had no idea, and the sweet bride was cool with whatever.



The reception was at The Fox and Hound Bar & Grill where the couple met.







Who wouldn't want a pool table at their wedding reception?



A pool table and big screen tv's? What a lucky fella to have such a cool wifey!



Since we were all together, we reinacted a photo from 22-ish years ago.



Annnd the original :) Cute, right?

It was so great to see my dad's family. Since my grandparents have been gone, we don't get together like we used to.

Happy Monday!!









Happy Friday!

I work with the elderly population, and sometimes we hear some funny stuff.

Geriatric Quote of the Day:

"My eyes burn like a cat's butt!"

source

Happy Friday!!!

I'm heading to Springfield tonight for my cousin's wedding tomorrow. Hopefully Sunday or Monday I will have some great pictures to share.  Have a great weekend!

Family Weekend

We had a really great weekend with my mom's family. Saturday we went to my aunt and uncle's house out in the middle of nowhere. It's so beautiful and relaxing, and Natalie had a great time swimming, swinging, jumping on the trampoline, riding the Ranger, and seeing the cows and horse. She's already ready to go back!

It was seriously about 65 degrees in the house, so when I took the camera outside for pictures, my lens fogged up. Foggy lens = crappy pictures :(

We spent Saturday night with my parents and took some pictures after church on Sunday.



My dad requested a picture of Natalie on his deer target. "This deer is her childhood." Oh, Daddy-O!

*Nathan wasn't present for pictures, as he was lying on the couch, sick.
Hope you had a great weekend!