THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING

New Blog!

Posted by admin on September 7th, 2009 filed in Uncategorized

As most of you who visit this blog know, I haven’t posted here in quite some time. I have been busy busy busy and now I am ready to launch my new blog! It is at www.lifestylebycarolmarie.com/blog. I will be closing this blog down soon and I’d love to see you over there!

3 Comments »

Book ‘Em Danno!

Posted by admin on April 4th, 2009 filed in Favorite Things, My Crazy Life

Wow! I can’t believe I haven’t posted in almost two months! I had such and amazing time at WPPI. I have taken a month off to do some soul searching. I am going to be changing my photography business and probably going a whole new direction. So stay tuned for some big changes and a new direction. I am excited!

I should be in bed, but I just had to post about my day. It was way crazy! After having my sister in law come over to look over the house for her wedding reception I felt totally overwhelmed. We have so much work to do on the house to get it ready and how in the world are we going to fit 200 people in here? Then I had some friends of the girls come over for a play date/watching them while their mom had to go out of town. The girls had dance this afternoon so I drove them all over to the not so great part of Vista for their classes. We ran some errands during Catlin’s Jazz class, then we had 45 minutes to kill before Bridget started her Jazz and Ballet classes. Since it was harder to go on errands with four girls instead of just two I thought we’d hang out in the car and wait. All was going well until after sitting there for about five minutes I noticed a van pulling up right next to our car with a cop car behind them. No biggie, I thought they probably just pulled in here for a traffic violation. Then another cop car pulled up directly behind us. We were boxed in. The sheriffs got out and promptly opened the doors to the van, asked the people to step out and handcuffed them. Then they took them back to their cars, took everything out of their pockets and put them in the back of their cars. I was desperately trying to sink down in my seat and telling the girls to be quiet. Talk about awkward! I felt totally in the wrong place at the wrong time, felt totally in the way, and trapped. No way to get out unless I called attention to myself which I definitely didn’t want to do. I just felt lucky there wasn’t a gun battle or more crazy arrest. They found pot on the guy, needles in the car, and heroine. Apparently these guys were heroine users and probably dealers as they also found about $700 in cash in the car. The sheriff who kept walking back and forth between my car the the van finally noticed we were there and he was totally nice. He asked if we needed to pull out and said he could move his car. I said no we were waiting for a dance class anyway. Then he said Hi to the kids and I asked him how he knew to follow the van and arrest them. He said they had been watching the lady for a while. It seemed like it was some sort of sixth sense they get after doing this for a while. Is that right James? The man was on parole with a felony charge and the woman had drug charges previously. Nice. Apparently they were staying at a run down hotel about a half block away from our dance studio. Even nicer. Then he showed us the heroine. I never would have guessed. It was just a little bit of black stuff on a cotton pad in a prescription bottle. Now I can say that I’ve seen heroine. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. After he saw the kids, the Sheriff told them this was a good lesson of what happens when you use drugs. I don’t think there is much danger of them wanting to ever use heroine, but now that they have had this experience close up and were a little freaked out about it, I am sure it will never happen. It was like watching one of those cop shows right up close from your car window. Crazy. After the sheriff talked to us for a bit I thanked him for helping to keep us safe. I hope I didn’t embarrass him. He just said “Well, we try.” We were glad they were there to catch the “bad guys” it was just a little freaky to see these people right up close and feel like we were sitting right in the middle of it. After about ten minutes five other cop cars pulled into the parking lot in all directions. We ended up going into the dance studio and waited in there until the cop car behind us left. Then as we came back out they had the police dog in the van sniffing for any more drugs. That was cool, but we didn’t watch for long. We didn’t want to be any more in the way than we had already been. I took the girls home and got them some pizza and the dad came for the friends. Then I had to go back to the dance studio to pick Bridget up at 7:15. On my way home I saw another cop car pulled over arresting someone. The light was yellow right in front of this scene so I slowed down and stopped. Apparently the car behind me thought I was going to go through the yellow/red light and was distracted by the cops because she hit me! That’s right rear ended right in front of the cop! To make matters worse after the light turned green I put on my blinkers to pull over and thought she would too. NO!! She whizzed right past me. That’s right! Hit and run. Right in front of a cop. Crazy. Of course the cops didn’t see, they were too busy arresting someone. I pulled back onto the street. caught up to the car and wrote down all the info. Took some pictures with my iPhone and got her licence plate. It was two teenage girls. When I got home it didn’t look like I had any damage to my car, but it was dark. I guess I will be able to take a better look in the morning. I still have the girls info, but am not sure if I should report her? What would you do? Should I only report it if there is damage or should I report it any way because it was a hit and run? Wow! What a day. Now I think I need to end it before anything else crazy happens!!

BTW here is a video that just about sums up my day…

8 Comments »

WPPI Las Vegas Baby!

Posted by admin on February 6th, 2009 filed in Photography

I am so excited I am going to WPPI in Las Vegas next week! No Las Vegas isn’t my favorite place, but I am excited for the conference. I scored a place in a two day intensive class from February 12-13 with one of the top ten wedding photographer’s in the world. You can see his work here He is awesome and I am so excited to learn from him. I am still not sure if I am going to offer my services as a wedding photographer. I don’t know if I want to deal with all the drama, but at least I will know what i am doing if/when I decide I want to do it:) I am also taking a class from Jose Villa. Another great photographer whose work you can see here Add to that an awesome trade show, three more days of fabulous classes, and some really fun parties. I am so excited! Thanks so much to my mom who is going to come and watch the girls for me while I am gone. I couldn’t do it without you mom! YTB:) In anticipation I updated my own website with my most current work. You can see it here. I am still finalizing my plans and need to think about packing soon. I am excited to learn, network with other photographers, and bring home some amazing images. Viva Las Vegas!!

3 Comments »

Health Train Derailed!!

Posted by admin on February 6th, 2009 filed in Uncategorized

Okay, maybe not derailed, but maybe just pulled up to a station and not running for a while. Don’t worry, I am not giving up, I just have so much on my plate right now, I don’t have the time or energy to focus on this. Yes, it takes focus for me, and time, and energy. All of which are in short supply right now. Also, I find that I am avoiding posting because I don’t want to talk about my success or better yet lack of with this. So no more Health Train posts for a while. Whew! Those of you who were bored stiff with this can breath a sign of relief. I will start fresh with this when I get back from my conference. More about that in the next post:)

Comment now »

Health Train Week #4

Posted by admin on January 29th, 2009 filed in Health Train

AKA toxic dump! So I ended my purge on Thursday. Well, I have to admit I did cheat once when Joe was in town and had In N Out fries-okay that was a BIG cheat, but they are vegetables right?? Also how often to you see your brother who lives way too far away? I could tell a difference in how I felt for the rest of the day that day. Just more sluggish and a little gross. Then Thursday we decided to paint the girl’s rooms because now I have tweens and the fairy rooms are giving way to surf rooms. We powered it out and painted both rooms in one day. Then on Friday we did a date night to Disneyland with two other couples. (so fun to be the kids again:) and I had to grab something quick in between dance classes and picking up the babysitter and meeting Gene to drive up so I went for Costco pizza. Whew! Not only did I feel pretty gross and toxic from all of that, but I gained three pounds right back literally overnight. I am walking proof of what toxins can do to your body! Yikes! I am not gong to cleanse again so soon, but am trying to eat a better diet this week and add a lot of cleansing veggies. We are doing major reorganizing/decorating/cleaning projects around the house which has turned the garage into a storage unit. Maybe when we get that cleared out I can finally start using the elliptical! For now it’s trying to get the last three pounds back off AGAIN!!

2 Comments »

Health Train Week #3 Jus’ Hanging out here on the old prairie!

Posted by admin on January 18th, 2009 filed in Health Train

Or maybe I should think of a more exotic location for my plateau to be in. Yes, I totally plateaued this week and felt like I was stuck, not going anywhere, weight not moving. I lost a total of 1 1/2 pounds and 1/2 inch-I guess not too bad, but I was expecting more considering I am doing extreme dietary things with my cleanse program. I have come to the grim conclusion that not much may make a difference except starvation and exercise. I still am ashamed to admit I have not started any regular exercise program although I did walk on the beach twice last week. We set up our elliptical this weekend so I am going to see if I can figure it out and start with it tomorrow morning. I do have sort of an excuse between my regular schedule and trying to clean out the black hole (aka my garage) but I know I need to just make the time to do it. I have been known to wander into the garage for a quick clean up and be swallowed and not able to find my way out for hours. Goals for this week drink more water (yes still!) and exercise 30 mins a day. If you don’t hear from me next week, send a rescue party into the black hole please!!

Comment now »

I am so Dis or gan ized!!!

Posted by admin on January 13th, 2009 filed in My Crazy Life

I don’t know what my problem is, but I seem to be so scattered and disorganized lately. This is coming from a woman who lived and died by her Franklin planner. I still use one, but feel like I have somehow lost my super organizing skill somewhere. I feel like I’ve lost my brain! So I decided just like in that 70’s or 80’s show The Million Dollar Man that “We have the technology, we can rebuild it!” Okay, I know I have probably lost the younger generations here, but bear with me. I borrowed an idea from a friend of mine and decided I needed to build my “brain” in this notebook.

I have everything gathered together in here. My yearly calendar, daily schedule, goals, sections for my businesses, home school, finances, meal plans, house projects, etc. I had these things before, but they were all scattered in different places. I am almost done building it and will have to let you know if it can lift cars or run faster than a train. Wow! Maybe if it can run it will help me lose weight!

4 Comments »

Health Train Week 2

Posted by admin on January 10th, 2009 filed in Health Train

Yea! This week I lost 4 1/2 pounds and 3 inches! I am SO excited! I have to totally thank the Standard Process purging diet for this one as I am ashamed to say I really haven’t done anything else (unless you count walking around Disneyland all day yesterday exercise;) You can read about that here Standard Process Yeah, I used to feel like that lady in the picture. Well, okay, I still fall asleep at my computer every once in a while, but my goal is to get in bed before 12 or 1 at night. I can honestly say I haven’t been hungry at all which is a good thing. I am still struggling to drink my 8 glasses of water a day and I’m going to try to do better with that next week. This week I did add skin brushing to help purge the toxins. I do a dry brush right before I get in the shower in the morning and I love it. You can read about that here. Skin Brushing We just got the new eliptical and need to set it up and then I can start my exercise program. We have to clean out a space in the garage first so keep me in your thoughts as I go into the black hole. Hopefully having this at home will help resolve all my exercise issues. Goals for next week-Drink more water, start exercising at least 30 minutes a day!

5 Comments »

Health Train Week One

Posted by admin on January 3rd, 2009 filed in Health Train

Okay, I know I have been only the health train officially two days so I don’t have much to report, but I thought I’d lay out what my plan is. I started a three week detoxification/body purification from Standard Process that Gene uses in his office. I like it because it uses top quality organic cold processed products. It is basically a raw food cleanse where you can eat a variety of vegetables and fruits (as much as you like) supplemented by shakes that give you all your protein and “offers a balance of essential macro-and micro nutrients from plant sources in a highly bio available form.” Whatever that means. I think it means there is a lot of good stuff in them;) Anyway I started it on the 1st and when I weighed myself this morning I had already lost 2 pounds!! Yea!!! Okay, I have done this cleanse before and know that this is really typical for the first few days and then it evens out so I am not totally convinced that those two pounds are really truly gone yet, but they will be. One of the reasons I started with a cleanse is because it is really typical for people to keep weight on and/or not be able to lose weight because they have toxins in their body. The body does not let go of weight well when there are toxins present for self preservation reasons. I figured I needed to start with getting all the toxins out and my body ready and happy to lose weight. Another thing that I have for my goal this week is to drink and drink and drink water! I know I’m supposed to have 8 glasses a day, but I am so bad at actually doing it. I think I walk around in a constant state of dehydration. I especially need to drink water while I am detoxing because elimination is one way the toxins will actually leave my system after they are released. I only drank 3 glasses today so by next Friday my goal is to have the habit of drinking 8 a day. Hopefully I won’t feel like I am drowning! Okay that is it for this week, join me next Friday for another update on the health train!

6 Comments »

Betty Has to Go

Posted by admin on January 1st, 2009 filed in My Crazy Life

So I went to a girls only Christmas party with my friends that has been a tradition for the past few years or so. Kathy made delicious gourmet spa food from her Cal-a-Vie cookbook that had the added bonus of being low fat. (Cal-a-Vie is actually a very exclusive spa where she works as a fitness instructor) We exchanged gifts and then went for our annual photo op on the couch. As you can see from the picture the couch is a bit small so we all had to squeeze and sit in strange unflattering positions.

I got the luck of pulling the end position and had to sit with the end of my bum sticking up. I asked Kathy if the camera was going to cut it off or show my bum and said I really didn’t want it showing. She laughed and said “Oh yeah, Betty, we wouldn’t want to show Betty.” Then everyone else laughed and Paula and Joann said “Oh yeah you have to name it.” and “Yeah, give it a name.” I am good at laughing at myself and knowing I have gained a few extra pounds, I said “Yeah, I guess it is so big now I have to give it a name.” Well everyone just laughed. Hey! Aren’t true friends supposed to tell you you’re skinny even when you aren’t? Then one of the other girls said “Well, Kathy your butt looks good.” Everyone quickly agreed and told Kathy she looked skinny, good in her jeans, etc. One even said her husband had noticed how good Kathy’s butt looked. Then she said her husband had even noticed how good Joann’s hair looked. At this point Betty and I were not amused. Everyone else looked good and cute and skinny, but my bum is so big I have to give it a name. Well, I am sure it was all subconscious stuff and not meant to be mean on the part of the girls, at least I’m hoping so (don’t worry, they are all proud of the fact that they never read my blog so they won’t be reading this) but I have decided that Betty has to go. I weighed myself yesterday and my goal is to lose 20 pounds. If anyone wants to jump on the Health Train with me let me know. I am going to start on January 1st (I know very original, but hey, if everyone else is doing it why not me?:) I will be posting every Friday on my progress and hopefully that will keep me on track and not cheating. I just quit the gym because I couldn’t justify paying $70 a month when I was hardly using it so I am going to have to be creative when it comes to ways to exercise. For me that will be key because part of why I have gained weight is that my metabolism has been wacky and my adrenal glands have been zapped. So I will post about what I have done during the week to lose weight (exercise, nutrition, etc) how much weight I have lost, and how many inches I have lost because I am hoping that I will lose fat, but gain muscle. If you want to ride along on the Health Train with me you can post your stats in the comment section. If not, just tolerate the Health Train posts and hopefully I will throw something else in here every once in a while:)

10 Comments »

Potty Break With a Four Year Old

Posted by admin on December 31st, 2008 filed in Kids

For those of you who live with four year olds this probably won’t be funny at all, but for me, since my kids are ten and eight, it was hilarious. So sorry if this hits too close to home for some of you, but believe me, you will look back some day and think things like this are funny. We had a friend who got baptized last Saturday. Between the baptism and the confirmation the little two year old of the family decided she had to go to the bathroom. Since the mom and dad were obviously busy and she knows me somewhat I told her I’d take her. As I am quietly trying to take her out of the room, she loudly says she wants her little friend to come. Okay, now I am taking two two year olds to the bathroom. Then as we are leaving the room she turns back to everyone and loudly announces “We are going to the bathroom” because I am sure they were all wondering and of coarse it’s all about us. As we got into the bathroom I kept trying to talk in a whisper and tell them to whisper too because the very echoey bathroom is attached to the baptismal font which is attached to the room where everyone is sitting and waiting. But since two year olds only have one volume (loud) and I had two two year olds I was outnumbered in the quietness effort and I am sure everyone in the attached room heard every word of our little adventure. As we walked into the bathroom I tried to get them to go into the first stall. “NO!” was the loud response, “The big one!” Okay, I thought, all my researched facts about the first stall being the cleanest in the bathroom (because apparently less people choose it) would fall on deaf ears because the “big one” was the party stall. We all could fit into it together. Yea! So we all went into the big one. Well, the person who was there before had forgotten to flush. “EWWW Flush” Okay, flush done. Why don’t you pull up your skirt and I’ll lift you up on the toilet, I offered. “NO-I HAVE to take my dress all the way off” No amount of my explaining how the whole dress didn’t have to come off and that you could actually just lift up your skirt would deter her. Okay, dress off, now can I lift you on? “NO-the toilet is still making NOISE” It’s true, the toilet had just been flushed and even though the water was still there was still noise coming from it and it wasn’t completely silent yet. No amount explanations that the water wouldn’t move again or that the noise was coming from the tank would make her even consider that the seat was remotely safe to sit on yet so we waited until the toilet was completely silent. Finally it was lift up time, or so I thought. “NO- one of those” she said as she pointed to the toilet seat cover. Okay, I couldn’t argue with cleanliness so I got a paper toilet seat cover and started to tear the middle seat part apart so I could put it on and have the hole in the middle open. “NO- don’t TEAR it” Okay, every experiment I had unwittingly tried where it wasn’t torn turned out to be a disastrous mess, but I knew my opinion had no influence at all by this point so I wasn’t going to even offer it. I put it on the toilet seat and was now allowed to lift up and on. Job done, and now round two all over again with the friend who wanted everything the same. Of coarse we had to flush the toilet and start all over again waiting for it to be completely silent. Apparently sharing toilet water was a no go in the two year old world and I should have been completely ashamed for remotely thinking it let alone suggesting it. After the friend was done hands had to be washed at least ten times each because the soap in the party stall was not the clear type, but the fun bubbly type. When the bubble game was over I talked them both into coming quietly back with me into the room where everyone was waiting by telling them to be my quiet little kitties. I discovered the folly of that when the meowing sounded like wounded dinosaurs. I finally convinced them to meow quietly and we walked back into the room amidst strange looks by all who sat there. I’m sure they were all just jealous they had not been invited to the party:)

3 Comments »

Disneyland With the Lesues

Posted by admin on December 30th, 2008 filed in family

We met the Lesues at Disneyland and had a lot of fun. If there is anyone else as Disney crazy as we are it is the rest of my brothers and sisters:) Maybe it comes from being raised in Anaheim, something in the water that made us Disney nuts. Anytime any of my siblings comes to town it is a lot of fun to go to Disneyland with them. We found the Dream Team and got our last Dream Fastpasses since the Year of a Million Dreams promotion will be discontinued in January. We were a little sad at the end of an era, but know we still will have fun at Disneyland without the Dream Team. It wasn’t very crowded at first, but got crazy later so we were glad to have them.