Confessions of a Tree Hugger

If you've talked to me in the last week you've probably heard me obsessing over me and Zac's latest obsession. It all began when we signed up for a free trial on netflix. One of the first movies we watched online was a documentary called "Food Inc." Maybe you've heard of it? It was Zac's idea and I'm SO glad he found it, we both learned so much about where our food comes from.

I highly recommend this documentary to everyone! Although we didn't agree with everything the guy said and all of the information presented, it was still extremely informational and eye opening.

A few days later we watched another documentary about obesity and that was the one that pushed us over the edge. Here are the main things we learned from the movies that are influencing the major shift in our eating habits.

1. Pretty much all processed food contains some form of corn (high fructose corn syrup, corn starch) and/or Soy Bean Oil that help preserve the food. Check your labels and read the ingredients. In most of the packaged foods we have those items are within the first few ingredients. I know that corn is a veggie, but it is an extremely starchy veggie and it is no secret that starches fatten you up. Most farmers these days feed their animals corn to fatten them up faster. I'm still going to eat my starchy corn on the cob and mashed potatoes, but I don't want corn in everything I eat. Soy Bean oil is full of too much fat so that just adds calories to whatever it's in.

2. There are too many uneccesary preservatives in food that aren't good for us. All the produce is sprayed with all sorts of junk to make it ripen or not ripen or have color or what not.

3. Most of the food industry is governed by a few major companies. They control how food is grown and how animals are cared for, and because they want to make a maximum profit, the quality is going down. Buying from local farmers helps keep quality up.


There is a lot more, but those are the main things. This week we've been on a "no processed food diet." We aren't super strict, but we are trying hard. The main changes that we'll be making in the Daniels home are:

1. The ingredients label of every item that goes into our grocery cart will be carefully examined. We are trying to only buy items where we recognize every ingredient and where the first ingredients aren't oil or sugar. This definitely limits us! We were eating some serious crap!

2. I'm going to start shopping at our local farmer's market for all our fresh produce. When we have a little more room in a couple years we will grow our own garden and try to buy our meat from local farmers. This helps the local economy and lessons the control of the big businesses AND means healthier and fresher fruits and veggies for us. :) It's a little tougher on the wallet, but I think a heart attack would set us back quite a bit more!

3. So far this post has been the shared opinion of both Zac and I, but I'm not sure he would agree with me on this next one. I am done with fast food. It is just nauseating to me now that I know what all that stuff is made of, or at least realize that I don't know what it's made of. I want my children to out live me so I need to start by setting the example and taking care of my body. Fast food is a fast road to obesity and I'm not going to take my family there!

Am I crazy and obsessed or what!?!?!? I know, moderation in all things. but if I'm going to be obsessed about something at least it's not drugs and alcohol right?

Feel free to share your opinions, I'm NOT an expert on anything that I've written. I do have 2 grandmas in their 80's that are both still thriving, doing their own yardwork living healthily without medication and I think that a HUGE part of that is that they eat SO healthy and stay active. What better motivation is there than that?

I'd love any tips and pointers and recipes from any of you that know or have opinions on this stuff!

We LOVE having Zac home!

Zac finished the semester on Wednesday (4.0 again, he is like a machine!) and the celebration began!

We headed to Disneyland Thursday and had a blast. Our new favorite ride is the Toy Story ride. I'll let the pictures do the talking, it was a little chilly so the lines weren't bad, we LOVED it!

Instead of going home we headed up to see my mom for the weekend. Disneyland is the perfect halfway point pit stop!

It was a fabulous trip and she helped me put together a fantastic bulletin board for our primary. We were spending a lot of time working on that so we decided we needed a break so my mom treated us to a round of mini golf. It was a blast! Thank you mom!

Teagan quickly figured out that it's easier to kick the balls then hit them with clubs.

Teagan jumped on my mom's exercise ball pretty much any time he could get the chance. He got pretty good at doing front flips, it was pretty funny and a little scary to watch!

Since the big ball at grandma's house Teagan has become rather attached to jumping. He is jumping off of anything and everything. We found a park with a sand VB court so they started jumping into it. Me and Zac practiced our long jumping skills too it was a blast.

Of course, that wasn't exciting enough so they had to jump off of the walls that were even higher.

Then he wanted to jump by himself....

Then he decided he wanted Dad to jump next to him but he didn't want to hold hands "no, me" was his response to Zac reaching for Teagan's hand...

Of course the last jump resulted in tears and cries of pain, which is why it was the last jump. After a full foot exam Dr. Daniels has come to the conclusion that Teagan is fine, but he's keeping close tabs on Teagan's foot just in case. Of course he was up and running in about 3 minutes and has shown no signs of injury all night....boy will be boys I guess.

We are all loving this time we have to spend together. It's the break we all need after Zac spends so much time studying and prepping for his classes. I can't believe he only has 2 more semesters! December 12th is getting SO close!

Out with the old, In with the New

This might be shocking to all of us, but this post has nothing to do with the Price is Right or Legos. I'm trying to broaden my horizons. :)

I am a girl of lists and checking things off lists. Honestly, I will waste an ENTIRE day and do absolutely nothing, even if I feel great if I don't make a list the night before. There is something about that list, that only I see, that makes me want to do something.

My sister, Julie, and I decided to make one for our workout schedules for a 7 week program. I did SO good! I was out of town for a week and I forgot to bring my chart so I didn't feel the need to exercise so I didn't get to highlight that week very much, but other than that I did pretty dang good as you can see by all the highlighter. :)



SO, I made a new chart, isn't it beautiful and perfectly white? It starts tomorrow. I took last week off and I'm ready to start again. My goal: get faster and stronger and gain more endurance and highlight EVERY square. I think I can do it!
And I think this little guy will like this program better because I'm doing my strength days outside where he likes to play so that he can exercise/play with me!

I'm putting it on here so that I feel even more responsible for making it happen! I'm really excited/nervous, hopefully I won't be too sore!

Legos Are AWESOME!

So since last Wednesday when my legos were delivered we have been having WAY too much fun building our creations. I received 18 sets and we've built 5 of them and 2 of them were already built. So we still have 11 left! I have come to terms with selling at least 6 of those remaining 11 though, but still! It's like Christmas every day!

These are the two that were pre-assembled. They are enormous and incredible, pictures do not do these babies justice!

I actually put together a couple Toy Story ones for Teagan before this one, but I forgot to take pictures of them...

This is Indiana Jones, so much fun! There are trap doors and lots of weapons, plus it's basically a rollercoaster. Teagan LOVED playing with this one. It's already repackaged and put away for a rainy day.

Zac claimed the Sponge Bob set. Teagan was really helpful. :)

CBS put this one together for the show, but took it apart before they gave it back to me. So Zac and I put all 2500 pieces back together over the weekend to make sure all the pieces were there. We are sad to announce that there are 6 missing pieces, I'm about ready to write Drew Carey a letter! just kidding :)

This one was really fun. There are so many tiny details and I love that you can pull apart all 4 levels. Teagan loves to stack and unstack this one all the time!

Although he loves the apartment complex more than the Indiana Jones one, I find comfort in the fact that he likes it because he can throw the lego people out the upstairs window... And that's what he does over and over. He holds them in the window and yells "no, nooooooo" and then pushes them out the window and does a variety of sound effects to represent falling and crashing into the ground. I sure love my little boy!

I'm determined not to open any more sets until Zac is done with finals. We'll see how that goes. :)

THE PRICE IS RIGHT!

I have been DYING to blog about this since March 8th when we actually got onto the Price is Right. But they threatened me and said that I would get my prizes all taken away if I didn't keep it a secret so I've been holding in the BEST secret ever for far too long!

Here are all the great details.

Zac's PT class at school all decided that they wanted to go to the PIR (price is right) together during this semester. I decided that I would just stay home with Teagan so Zac could go, but then decided I didn't want to miss out last minute so we got a babysitter for the day.

Some of the girls from his class made all the matching T-shirts and they even made one for me. Keely, the one in charge found out that usually if you have a group over 20 you are guaranteed to get someone picked from your group. SAWEET! We had 22 I believe. Here is a picture of some of the ones there, we were a little excited if you can't tell. :)

We showed up and waited in line from 12pm until 4:10 when they opened the doors. Everyone in line is crazy. We were all wired and hyper and it was super entertaining. The time passed by quick! While in line they give you your name tag and you have to fill out a little card. You have to write why you think you should get onto the PIR. I wrote something along the lines of:

"I am an AWESOME math teacher and I HAVE to get onto the Price is Right to show all my students how important math is!!! PICK ME because all my students will be watching!!!"

Then, near the end of the line they do an "interview." They basically take about 15 or 20 people at a time and go down the line and ask "what do you do for fun" or "why are you here today" to each person. You have about 15 seconds to sell yourself to the guy who hand picks the contestants.

I had an unfair advantage because I was with a bunch of PTs who all had similar stories. They all are poor, starving students who do high adventure activities in their spare time so it was hard to stand out. Then you have this super nerdo girl in the middle of them all who is begging to win a fancy calculator and acting a little crazy. Needless to say, I got picked which was VERY unexpected. I didn't think I'd get picked since I wasn't really part of their group, but I DID!!!!!!

This is a few minutes before our interview.

Then we watched an episode of the PIR before they let us into the studio, there was a LOT of energy in that room, let me tell ya! The lines for the bathroom were ridiculous. I started waiting in line because I had to go, but got to nervous that I'd loose my spot because they were about to open the doors so I just decided to hold it....big mistake, details to follow.

Once we got in there things started happening really fast. They gave us some explanations about what we were supposed to do and not do and then it started. They had HUGE cue cards in the front that had the names of the people being called to "Come on Down." It was SO LOUD in there that you could hear a word they were saying so we all just stared at the cue cards hoping that our name would appear when they flipped the card over. Mine was the second name called, it was INCREDIBLE.

As I was watching myself on TV I have to admit that I look much more calm and collected than I felt. My heart was racing SO fast and my brain was working even faster. I was so nervous. I totally overbid on the first item, I was just freakin out and not thinking clearly.

The next item to win was the camping gear. I knew I was guessing last so I would have my best chance of getting up on that one. My plan was to either bid $1 if everyone overbid or $1 more than the highest bid if they were low. When it got to my turn my mind went blank and I forgot everyone's bids. PANIC ATTACK! So I asked what the girl's bid next to me was and went $50 higher. I was so shocked when I WON because I thought I'd TOTALLY BLOWN IT!

I was so excited on my way up to stage, I have to admit I peed, just a little...ahhahaha! All the excitement and jumping up and down was a bad combination with my resolve to "hold it" through the show. What was I thinking!

For the camping gear I just get cash for the worth of those prizes which is awesome because it will help pay for the taxes on everything else!

The first prize was a little bit of a blur. I was bidding on 2 dune buggies that were pretty dang sweet! I listened to what Zac told me to do, but he was listening to his class and we both went against our better judgement and lost.....so sad! We were ONE number off, they were supposed to be 7995 or something. It is SO hard to concentrate and think straight when everyone is screaming and you're in an out-of-this world experience!!! Oh well, I knew I still had the wheel so all was not lost.

The wheel will go down in history as my most embarrassing moment EVER!!!! Watching it was much worse than experiencing it. I don't know that I even have an explanation. I spun the wheel and got 5 cents. My mind starts working, "what do I need to get to beat this other girl? How hard should I spin the wheel? Is it going to land on my number." The intensity and anxiety of that moment is CRAZY. Then Mr. Drew Carey comes over and starts asking me these light questions. So do you want to say hi to anyone? NO, I am concentrating!!!! is what I thought I replied something like "ya hi to all my family, all million of em." Dumb comment, but forgivable. Next question: "so how much more do you need for a dollar" I thought he said "what are you gonna do with with a dollar" but I repeated his question so I must have really been in another world or something because I replied "just add a couple zeros and I'll pay off my husbands student loans" Disgraceful....don't know what I was thinking. I hope everyone laughed REALLY hard and that they rewinded it over and over to get the full effect of my moronic reply....that will make me feel better to know that people were at least entertained. haha!

But it doesn't matter, BECAUSE I WON THE WHEEL SPIN! The rest of the show I spent strategizing, running through different scenarios in my head trying to figure out how to win the showcase showdown. You can see me when one of other contestants ( the cute marathon girl) gets called to "come on down" in the front right area. I have a blank stare on my face and everyone around me is going crazy....kinda funny.

So the showcase showdown. The guy I was with was SO nice, I wish we both could have won, but oh well. He passed over 18 sets of legos, a 7 day trip to San Diego, a 5 day trip to NY and a 5 day trip to Denmark to me and I bid 18,500 and was about 5000 off. He bid on 2 scooters, a mac desktop set up and a new car and bid 28500 and was like 15000 off so I WONNNN!!!!!! I was SO excited I peed a little more and danced around on stage for a while, it was INCREDIBLE! I have never felt that much anxiety and excitement in my life before. As I walked out is was SO surreal. I just won almost $25000 in cash and fabulous prizes on the Price is RIGHT!!!!!

So I went home, changed my pants and started waiting. They said a travel agent would contact me for the trips and that my prizes could be delivered between 10 days after the tapping and 90 days after the air date. WHAT!!?!?! The tension was too much! Then on Tuesday I got the phone call. I still have the message saved. "Hello, this message is for Melissa Daniels, this is CBS studios and we have some prizes we'd like to deliver to your home, please call us back at..." I put Teagan down for his nap SO fast and called him right back. He let me choose when I wanted them delivered so I of course told him I wanted him the next morning.

Sure enough, a member of the Price is Right Stage Crew delivered all these HUGE boxes to me Wednesday morning at 10 o' clock sharp. It was SO INCREDIBLE! They left the ones put together that were on the actual Price is Right, funny!



The three of us had a LOT of fun opening all the boxes and pulling out lego set after lego set! I think it was even more fun to go online and figure out how much they're all worth. You're looking at $2250 worth of legos right now my friends. Those Star Wars ones are $400-$550 each! I haven't decided what to do with them all yet. One part of me says "sell them on ebay and use the money to cover the 10% tax on all your winnings." The other part of me says " You LOVE legos and you will have so much fun with these forever. When will you ever spend such ridiculous prices to get legos again??!?!" I've already put together two of the Toy Story ones for Teagan. It is SO fun, I am a huge lego fan now. I think we'll sell a few sets to pay for food and some entertainment on our trips and keep the rest for fun!
The trips have to be taken within one year of today so have to get started ASAP. Especially since there is a very good chance I'll be pregnant before that year is up and I don't want to be 6 months pregnant trying to get through the streets of Denmark!

Zac has a break the week before the fourth of July and we want to take our Denmark trip that week. His parents said they will watch Teagan, but we still have to figure out how to get him to them or them to him and lots of other details.

We wanted to take the New York trip during his break at the end of this month, but the travel agent hasn't contacted us yet. I talked to a lady in charge and she said that the travel agent sends a letter out right after the show airs. If NY doesn't happen this month, which it probably won't, then we might try for this fall when Zac's school isn't as crazy.

The San Diego Trip is kind of funny since we live here, but we've spent hardly any time in down town San Diego and we've never been to legoland so I think we'll still have fun. Zac wants to wait to take that trip until after we move away so that we can come back and enjoy this great city! I want to take the trip right when we move. I thought we could pack all our stuff into one of those unit deals that you can keep for a month or what not. Move out of our apartment. Stay on the beach in San Diego at a fancy hotel for a week and then head to wherever our new home is.

Whatever we do with our cash and fabulous prizes I can guarantee that this year is going to be SOOOOO FUNNNNNNNN!!!! Legos everyday and trips to amazing places in between. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. I owe a HUGE thank you to Zac's class for putting it all together, especially Keely! And thank you for helping me bid on everything, BLUE CLASS ROCKS!!!!!!

Wow, I feel just as excited after writing about it as I felt after actually experiencing it!

Easter!

We had such a fun surprise last week. I found out that all of my students would be on spring break and that my whole family was getting together that same week so my lovely and generous mother flew Teagan and I to Utah for the week. We had a blast seeing everyone. THANK YOU MOM!

The first day we were there was my niece Kate's birthday. We went to this jump house place and we all LOVED it. Sadly, all the pictures are on Julie's camera. But just imagine how much fun we had!

Apparently Teagan is only potty trained at our house because he struggled the whole time we were gone and we're having a rough time getting back into the grove of things. We upped the prize for going potty. A WHOLE package of fruit snacks. Anytime he got a package he had a few cousins around trying to get him to share, it was pretty funny.

Here's Teagan with all his Idaho Falls Cousins. From left to right: baby Jax (one week old), Kai, Ethan, Sasha, Grant, Teagan. Teagan had a blast with his cousins!

He was especially concerned about Jax. He'd come up and say "baby go?" and we'd have to point out Jax before he'd go back to playing. He'd go wash his hands and then ask to hold him. So sweet. I'll just say it, I'm so excited for the time when we get to have another one! This isn't an announcement, but man I love those baby newborns.

He obviously loves me already. :)

We got to see the Daniels' side of the family while we were there too! We went to McDonald's and Teag and Tay played in the play place while the adults chatted. It was SO fun seeing everyone again. I could have done without Teagan pooping his pants and it getting ALL OVER my leg and him and the toilet, but I suppose I better focus on the positive. The two little rugrats had so much fun together! When we went back to Adam and Sheena's house they shared rides on Tay's four wheeler and played golf with their new golf sets from g-ma and g-pa. Sheena has all those cute pictures.

We found out that my little bro is engaged to this cute girl: Congrats Jesse and Bri!

Teagan loves holding hands. He was content as can be the WHOLE way back to Utah just to have his aunt Whitney in the back with him. He would ask for her hand, it was pretty cute.

We drove back with my mom and we were both shocked at how well Teagan did in the car! He entertained himself a lot of the time and just pleasantly sat and watched movies. THANK GOODNESS we got a portable DVD player from Zac's parents for Teagan's birthday. I do not know how anyone ever used to take long car trips without those! The trip was so fun! Thanks everyone for making special efforts to see us while we were there! Hopefully next time we won't have to spread ourselves so thin.