Deck with a view.

Today I have an (slightly) unexpected day off from work.  My mom is out of town for business and we came up short-handed on childcare for Oliver.  I’ve had a wonderful day off today, I did what I used to do when I had a weekday off: I met up with a fellow mom (she’s also a good friend) and went to the Playdate Cafe in Lynnwood (highly recommend) and had lunch at the mall.

My mouse is backwards.

Oliver and I came home, I put him down for a nap immediately and then I did what every person says you should do when you have a baby: I slept when the baby slept.  Midday naps are the best and should be required of all human beings.  The weather today is mostly sunny, the clouds roll in every ten to fifteen minutes but don’t stick around long though.  I decided to blog from our deck at the apartment, seeing as how I should enjoy this weather today because it won’t stick around for the week.

Okay, so let’s just get right into it folks! What are we waiting for, it’s been too damn long since I last posted.

• Brazilian Waxes – Since I haven’t blogged in awhile, I may as well just GO BIG or GO HOME, right?  I warned my mother that she shouldn’t read my blogs because someday I would blog about something that would make her blush, and here we are.

  Brazilian waxes, for me at least, always seemed mythical – apparently they were popular however I didn’t know anyone who had actually had one.  Or so I thought!  It seems that no one is talking about the fact that they’ve had one, so we’re all left thinking that they are for porn stars and … brazilian women?  Well add me to that list, folks, I get brazilians! And I like it (mostly).

  Brazilan waxes are different than bikini waxes, bikini waxes just clean up your bikini line.  Brazilian waxes give you the whole ‘wham-bam-thank-you-mam’ deal!  I’m such a wuss that I don’t go for full removal – I am more of a 50%’er.  However I like brazilians because they last longer than other forms of removal, it’s quick, and man there’s nothing better than showing your junk to a stranger (okay – that last part was a lie).

  I’ve been going to a really great place in Lynnwood called Trieva’s salon.  Yolanda has been doing my waxes and she’s a pro, her bedside manner is great and we talk about our kids the whole time.  The price is $50 and it takes about 20-30 minutes, depending on what you do.  I just got an email from Living Social the other day with a GREAT deal for their salon, I wish I could buy it but it’s only for first-timers.

  The last thing I’ll say about brazilians is, if you’re going to do it, do it for you.  Someone (who also had done a brazilian) once told me that she stopped getting them because her boyfriend didn’t appreciate the effort she put into it.  She said, it’s not worth it if he didn’t care – and I agree.  If you’re going to do it, do it for you, maybe it’s part of your beauty regimen, maybe it makes you feel more manicured, maybe you love waxing your bits for fun – WHATEVER your reason might be!

  Or don’t do it at all and just read this blog post. And then every time you see me after this, let it be all you think about: awkward.

• Being unpredictable (but in a good way) – This year I made a resolution to do things that people wouldn’t expect me to do.  As we get older, people start to form their opinions on us and/or think that they have our personalities pegged.  This past year I became not-okay with this, at least for myself and decided to ‘shake shit up.’

  I would definitely say that one thing I did that people wouldn’t have expected out of me, was to start running.  I’ve blogged about this before and I won’t go on about it anymore in this post (I just wanted to make note of it). However in the beginning of 2013 I decided to really surprise others and take a Introduction to Aerials class at Versatile Arts in Seattle.  Working on the silks is something that i just thought looked really freaking cool and yet I knew it was something I would normally be afraid to do. So I signed my ass up before I could think twice and then Monday rolled around it was time for class.

  It was a four-week series, I believe classes were 90 minutes in length with a maximum of six students in a class.  On the first day during introductions, everyone introduced themselves as either a dancer, gymnast or acrobat.  When it came time for me to introduce myself I just said, “I just thought it looked really cool!”  Everyone else smiled and judged me quietly.

  

  Not me.

  The VERY first thing we did after stretching (a whole lot) was climbing the rope.  The instructor ordered us to do so, like it was as simple as climbing stairs.  Right… climb a rope… I mean sure I could never do it elementary school, middle school or high school, but I’m sure I could do it in front a group of people who were more talented than my pinky toe.  I chalked up, approached the rope, tried hopping up and ungracefully slid down it like an old stripper.  Okay, so rope climbing was a no.  The part that hadn’t occurred to me when I signed up is that rope climbing would be the building blocks for everything else in this class.  We moved on from the rope and did other fun stuff like this and this (for the record, I do not know who those freaks are).  However I went home that night determined to learn how to climb that rope.

  It was one week later and Monday had rolled around.  I had thought about one thing and one thing only that past week, learning how to climb a rope.  I watched YouTube videos obsessively, gone to the park near our house and tried to climb the pole on the jungle gym (I wish you could have seen that), and used my technique from The Secret to imagine myself already climbing that damn rope.  When I arrived at class that night I was both nervous and excited, was I going to be able to do it or not?  Would this be my last night in the class because I couldn’t climb the rope?  After stretching and chalking up, I approached my old friend, knowing full well that other classmates eyes were on me.  I grabbed hold, got my feet into position and pulled up – and then slid.  Feeling the upset in my gut already, I tried again before I could let myself feel defeated! AND I CLIMBED! Not far at first, but I climbed!  I was elated and couldn’t help but have the biggest goddamn grin on my face.  I had just accomplished something that I had not been able to do in my 28 years (do infant years count?).

  What happened from then on out?  Listen, I won’t be in Cirque Du Soliel this summer, however I definitely knocked something off the bucket list.  That class and the next one were much more fun and even more so challenging.  I missed the fourth/last class because of the stomach flu, but I was okay with that.  My big goal would be to tackle the Lyra - but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

  What’s next on my list?  Oh there’s all sorts of small and big stuff in the works – I’m actually taking my first spin class tomorrow (okay, I know that’s not as sexy as Intro to Aerials, but they can’t all be!) and I’m signed up to do a triathlon in August.  I’ve got other stuff planned too that I just don’t want to type out, I don’t want to be held accountable for things I may not be able to get around to.

  What does this mean for you?  You tell me.  Are you willing to step outside your comfort zone and do something completely unexpected of yourself?  If the answer is no, that’s completely okay, maybe you’re just really awesome the way you are. *insert smiley face here*

• Take a Mom-cation – I haven’t blogged about this yet, have I?  These are so important that I would totally not be surprised if I blogged about it 50 times!  If you’re not a Mom, then call it a Me-cation – just attach ‘cation’ to it and it’s all gravy.

  Last October I took a trip down to LA to see friends from college, just me, no one else.  I was in desperate need of a vacation, I really didn’t care who came with I just needed to get away.  I was worried that I would feel guilty as I drove away or miss my family too much to enjoy myself.  Boy, was I wrong!

  

  The good part of the evening.

  I had the best time there!  I stayed with Celeste, in her awesome 1-bedroom apartment in Silverlake and soaked up that October sun like it was my job.  I went drinking with my friend Jessica and was able to go to a gallery opening at Celeste’s work.  The three of us also went to a Halloween party put on by a local radio station – and let’s just say, I danced like a fool and drank like an even bigger fool (but we won’t go into that).

  It was heaven, truly.  For my friends, this is just their life (okay well not drinking and dancing 24/7) – but being “free” to do as they please, was.  For me, I can’t go to QFC without packing a baby bag like it’s the apocolypse and then I can’t spend more than 15 minutes there before someone gets grouchy.  Freedom is limited when you have a child, and I knowingly (and soberly) signed up for this gig.

  Don’t get the wrong impression of me here!  I love Oliver and Kyle more than doughnuts, The Firm or my iPhone 5.  We are a little love triangle and I would be devastated if they were not in my life – with that said, I can appreciate the time we spend apart from each other.  I’m also very certain they would say (especially Kyle) the same thing about me, and that’s healthy.  It’s just taken me a bit of time to realize this.  Being in LA made me appreciate what I had at home and also made me mourn a life I could’ve had.  It was cathartic to go through all of that and I think it made me a better mom.

  Kyle and I went to Palm Springs in January for his works annual meeting.  He spent most of the days indoors at meetings, while I lounged by the pool and scrolled through my Facebook feed.  I guess I would call that another mom-cation, I was alone most of the time and that was wonderful.

  Okay, what should you take away from this blog?  If you’re struggling with yourself or your life, maybe a temporary change of scenery could help you?  Maybe getting away for a few days, with friends or without, might help you gain perspective on what you do have in your life.  I’m so happy I did and I’ll continue to do so to keep my sanity intact.

  Okay that’s it! I won’t be a stranger – I promise.

  Denali

I don’t love you, 2013.

This is a highly belated blog post due to way too many crappy things happening to us (my family). Let’s just jump right in!

• Being positive when shitty things happen - It’s really hard to do so, like really hard.  I’ve had a toddler who’s been sick on/off for the past three months, the stomach flu took us all out for a week, a fucking tree fell on our house, I got pink eye for the second time in two months (yeah,
  

  I always wanted a treehouse.

  gross) and yesterday the genius at the gas station left the lid off when he changed my oil and today my car started smoking.  See?? I’m really trying to stay positive here.  I really can’t stand people who complain about shit going wrong in their lives all the time, it’s annoying.  What’s worse is that most times it seems that the things they’re complaining about seem so trivial and easy to solve.  I feel  like the stuff that keeps happening to me is out of my control and comes out of nowhere (except for the pink eye, I should really stop rubbing poop in my eye).  Despite all of this crap going on (and despite this blog), do you hear me complaining? Do I take to my Facebook page and rant or text my friends and demand sympathy? No.  Trust me I want to, but I know that hearing about someone else’s problems constantly can get old real quick.  If you’re wondering what the point of this blog post was, it’s my way of telling you to not be a Debbie-downer.  I don’t usually befriend Debbie-downers, however we all know they’re out there.  Some of them friend you on Facebook and you think to yourself, “ugh great, there goes my Facebook news-feed ”  That’s it’s really, I don’t have anything else to say about this.

• Running – Never in my life did I ever think that I would say running is something that I like/love.  In fact, up until this past year I had a real
  

  Feeling invincible.

  fear of running in public.  This is due to nightmare gym classes where we had to run the mile and I was literally the last person to finish.  Literally — it took me 16 minutes (or so) to complete the mile run.  It was mortifying as an overweight tween, I used to beg my mom to write me a note to get out of doing it, but it didn’t always work.  It wasn’t until I joined Body Back that I was made to run the mile again, and I was scared.  After not running in public for more than 10 years (and also still carrying a lot of pregnancy weight) I was scared as to what my time would be.  I’m not exactly sure what my number was, maybe 13 (?) but I was delightfully surprised by the outcome.  Knowing that I had improved, even just slightly, was enough motivation for me to continue to up my game.  I spent damn near everyday last summer running, with the goal of completing my first 5K in September.  Long story short, I ran the 5K last year, I’ve completed a few more since then as well as a 15 K.  I can confidently say that running has changed my life, it gave me confidence and also helped me lose a significant amount of weight.  I don’t like/love actually running, but I like/love what running does for me and what it has given to me.

• FatWallet.com – Alright, here’s a money saving tip.  I started using FatWallet.com a few years ago, I’m not really sure where I heard about it however since using it I’ve been refunded/saved $387.16 (they keep a running tab).  In a nutshell: it’s free (important), they require you to sign up (easy), and then when you purchase something online (ANYWHERE) you go to FatWallet.com first and sign in, then click the stores link through their website.  Depending on what store it is, you get back a percentage of your total purchase price.  For instance, Sears current cash back percentage is 5%, Nordstrom and Macy’s is 2.5%, etc.  This may seem small but I use FatWallet every time I purchase things online, meaning – I usually get around $5-10 a month back.  For some (most) of you this might not seem worth it, maybe it’s not.  For me, it’s how I justify a new pair of shoes every few months.

Alright that’s it.  Here’s to hoping that the next post isn’t as shitty as this one was.

Denali

It’s Monday (for me at least).

This past week has literally been a blur for me. On Sunday, March 3rd I ran my first 15k and after finishing, the rest has been has seven days of stomach flu HELL. You might think that I could have produced many blogs during this time, however let me assure you that I was barely capable of making it to the toilet most days (a blog would’ve been more than a stretch). The silver lining? I lost 10lbs, not the way I was hoping to do it but…

• Spotify — Are you still one of the people not in on this yet? Listen, it’s too late to join and tell people you were one of the early adopters so prepare to forfeit those bragging rights. However you’re not so late that it’s like still having an AOL.com email address, however if you’re still using Pandora then it’s like you have a Yahoo.com email adress. Make the switch — ONLY if you’re willing to cough up the $10 a month it costs to have an account. This is what we call “paying for music” (try saying it out loud). For ten bucks a month you get unlimited access to an INSANELY huge catalog of music, that you can create and save your own playlists and even share them with friends (yay social media!).

What happens if you download (to your computer or smartphone) and you don’t pay the $10? Well, it’s essentially like Pandora so you might as well save your time and not get it. The reason I think it’s so great though is because I don’t have to fill my phone up with music because any music that I may want to hear, I can cue up anytime on Spotify. And puh-lease do not complain to me that you can’t find some song on Spotify that your favorite band recorded when they were in grade school and only released the song in Germany — it’s huge catalog, but it ain’t God’s iPod. Anyway, Spotify is awesome.
If you don’t have it, you are missing out and your quality of life is likely not as great as those who have it.

Two bad-ass Ruskies.

• The Americans — Okay, not referring to actual Americans. Actual Americans are kind of shitty and self-centered people (e.g. this blog), which is probably why this show exists. The Americans is a television show on FX about a couple of Russian spies who are living in the United States in the 1980′s and are infiltrating the U.S. government one episode at a time. It stars Keri Russel from Felicity, which is so awesome because I pretty much thought she was useless after that show but she’s great in The Americans. It also stars Matthew Rhys, an English actor whom I had never heard of until this show, but damn is he an excellent actor. Listen, what more can I say about this show? Espionage, the 80′s, great acting, the cable TV version of Homeland… Watch it, trust me.

An IUD, almost looks biblical.

IUD — As in Intrauterine Device. I can’t say enough good things about the Mirena IUD as a form of birth control (yep, I’m going there). Mirena was recommended/offered to me as a form of birth control following the birth of Oliver. I had never had great luck with birth control: Depo Provera made me gain a bunch of weight and I could never remember to take the pill (Yaz — goodbye to you).

Mirena is pretty damn easy though, it’s a normal doctors visit, it takes about 15-20 minutes (probably less) and it’s about as painful as a Pap smear (which can sometimes be a little painful, so yes this is also a little painful). It cost me: nothing, I have really great insurance. What it could cost you? Maybe $100. The benefit? It lasts for FIVE YEARS. Imagine that, not having to take a pill or get a shot for five freaking years! You can have it taken it out at anytime and still be able to get pregnant, which is a nice option if you’re looking to have children in the near, but not too near future. I have recommended Mirena to pretty much everyone I know and a few friends have gone ahead and gotten it. I think they’re pleased? They haven’t told me if they’re not (and don’t go using this blog as a vessel for telling me). It’s really worth the money and time, in my opinion, to get it.

Annnnd done. Whew.

Denali

Posting #4: Birthday Edition

I feel like a fraud typing ‘Day 4′ because they’re not in a row. I am not really loving the title of this post either, well I like the birthday part, but the rest could go. I wasn’t lying when I said these posts could end up being few and far between…

Make A Big Deal About Your Birthday – Because NOBODY else will! How is that for a little bit of reality? If you’re over the age of 18 (and I’m being generous there) you’d better get used to the idea of throwing your own birthday celebration. When we were all younger, we used to have really great birthdays with all of our friends, eating our favorite food (whatever Mom deemed easiest to make) and having our cake of choice. Those days are/have been over for quite some time now. To give my mother (who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of what I may type in this blog) credit, she makes our meal and cake of choice in our birthday month for us.

What I mean is, you purposely have to start making a big deal out of your birthday, for yourself. Why? There are 365 days in a year and you’ve got ONE chance/excuse to make yourself seem a little more special than the rest of us. My anonymous mother was kind enough to pull my brother and I out of school on our birthdays, basically ruining me for the rest of my life. I did something this past birthday that I had never done, I went to work (for the record, I never went to school on my bday – that I can recall). Now granted I only worked a half day and my boss treated me to lunch, but with those two exceptions, I really think no one should ever work on their birthday (despite how much you may love your job and I love mine!).

Like I said, it’s your special day and you shouldn’t have any adult responsibilities on your day. This year I decided that I wanted to throw Kyle and I our own little birthday celebration (his bday was 2/1, mine 2/15). The older you get, the harder it is to get people out of there house to do anything. I knew that if we treated everyone to a fun night out, they would show. So we rented out a room at the Rockbox in Seattle and had a karaoke/drinking birthday party. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I know Kyle and I had an awesome time and I would definitely throw my own shindig again. Props also to my sister-in-law Jaclyn who generously threw down some cash money for the event.

Partying like I’m 19, not 29.

I know everyone’s mood on their birthday are different, I can understand if going out drinking is not what you want to do. However, I still recommend taking the day off for your birthday. I just think you should sleep in, have your favorite breakfast and not be held accountable for anything that day (within reason). Another one of my favorite things to do is visit a spa. In Lynnwood there is a Korean Spa called Olympus Spa that gives you half off on your birthday. It’s a great place to go and relax, meditate and let your worries melt away. Yes the spa is a nude spa, if this bothers you than let me offer you some advice: get over yourself. At some point in my life I also probably thought I could never be naked in front of other people however that has changed. Once you visit Olympus you realize a few things, (1) people may look at your naked body, it’s a glance though, not a stare, (2) you’re not Heidi Klum, you know that and so does everyone else, so don’t act so self-conscious that everyone is staring at you, (3) everyone wears hair nets, which is awesome because it’s very equalizing, not being able to see anyone’s hair makes everyone else just look like a bunch of naked bodies, not ugly, not pretty, just skin.

Okay, that was a tangent on Olympus Spa, there are other great spas though in the area. Seattle has another all-female spa on Capitol Hill called Hot House (it’s about the size of a shoebox) and there is also a co-ed spa near South Lake Union called Banya 5 (Kyle and I LOVE this place and used to come here often, pre-baby). In addition to a spa day on your birthday, a good meal is also very important. Even better — a free meal. I love a freebie on my birthday: I get a free drink from Starbucks, a steak dinner at the Keg, a free ice-cream cone from Baskin Robbins. If I’m at the mall I score: $10 free at Kohl’s (hello, underwear!), mascara at Sephora, and a custom-made shampoo from Aveda. This all falls in line with making your birthday special — can’t say you weren’t treated to a dinner with some nice little gifts, right?

Okay, not sure what else I can say on the birthday topic other than to just enjoy it. Embrace birthdays, they’re fun, they’re about you and they’re supposed to be special. Make a big deal about yourself, even if it’s just celebrating you to you (meaning, you treat yourself right on that day).

Denali

Day 3: Out of order.

I wasn’t lying when I said I wouldn’t post everyday, right? That’s not to say that I wasn’t thinking of posting on the days that I didn’t. I’ve just been so tired lately that the thought of having to use my brain and type with my fingers was too exhausting.

Crest Whitestrips – You might be thinking, really? I clicked on this stupid link to read about Crest Whitestrips? Yes my friend, you did. And there is a good reason that you did too. Not enough people utilize the modern advances in whitening technology (did that even make sense?). If I had a nickel for every person I ran into on a daily basis who could benefit from Crest Whitestrips, I’d have more tip money to give the Baristas at Starbucks.

Seriously though, for whatever reason your teeth aren’t white (coffee, lack of brushing, genetics), get yourself some Crest Whitestrips to help. They’re cheaper than going to the Dentist to get your teeth whitened and more effective than the shitty whitening toothpaste you are using at home. I’ve been using them off and on for about 10 years now and more consistently over the past year. And guess what? I’m pretty damn pleased with how much brighter my teeth are than other peoples.

You might also be thinking that you’re just fine with how yellow your teeth are currently. This is why you clicked on this link, I’m the person who’s supposed to tell you that we’d all appreciate you purchasing a box of Crest Whitestrips. If your argument is money, here’s a tip for you: purchase them on eBay. I buy mine on eBay, they’re cheaper than buying them in the store and you can buy them in smaller quantities than buying them in the store. Yes all the packages are secure, no I don’t think it’s sketchy.

This is BB Cream.

BB Cream – Since I started using Birchbox, I began perusing their most popular/top selling beauty items. One that I discovered was Dr. Jart+ Water Fuse Beauty Balm SPF 25+ and haven’t looked back since. I had heard of BB Cream a long time ago but I had absolutely no idea what it was, I figured it was some weird Japanese face whitening cream that you always hear about. After reading reviews about this specific brand, I felt confident in blindly giving it a chance and so I purchased it.

What I love about this BB Cream is that it’s a moisturizer, a primer, an SPF and tinted foundation all in one. I put this stuff on and my face looks just as good in the evening as it did in the morning (which is saying a lot). I sometimes still use a primer underneath it, just because I really like the primer that I own (tell ya about that one later), but I don’t feel the need for foundation when I use this product. Check it out for yourself (or sign up for Birchbox, this product is actually featured in this months box).

Amazon Prime – What the hell can I say about this little gem that you might not already know? Well, for starters… IT’S AMAZING! If you wanted to never leave your house again and had Amazon Prime, you wouldn’t need to. I signed up for Prime about a year ago and it has paid off big time. What is Prime? The difference between me and you is, when I order my things on Amazon, I get them in 1-2 days (for a lump sum of $79 for the year), when you order, it takes 5-7 days (you could’ve just gone to the store at this point).

Here’s my tip for justifying your Prime membership, split the cost with someone else. For me, I split the cost of it with an unnamed party. When one of us is shopping on Amazon, we share a mutual account, use different credit cards at checkout and then ship to the appropriate address, thus making the membership only $39 something each. I find their prices to be very competitive with the prices of things I already purchase in the store and the best part is, I order on Monday and then I come home from work on Wednesday and it’s there!

Why is $39 or $79 (or whatever amount you’ll pay) worth it? Because let’s face it, time is money. Do you SERIOUSLY want to go to Costco on a Saturday just so you can buy toilet paper in bulk? I don’t, that’s like 2 hours of my day gone, gone, gone. I’d so much rather see that UPS man hand deliver them to me and all I had to do was think to myself, hmmm we’re running out of TP, better go order that online real quick.

Celeste recently posed the question to me, do I feel guilty that I order q-tips with my Prime membership? Her question being, do I feel guilty that I make small purchases and have them delivered very quickly to my home. I didn’t even take a breath to answer, NO (she said her sister said the same thing). Here’s the reason why, 1) I’m paying a premium price for a premium service, 2) job security motherf*****’s! Who do you think is single-handedly keeping my UPS guy employed? MOI! Because of my q-tip purchases, Amazon gets business, UPS gets business, my ears take care of business.

See, NPR Is cool.

Turn on NPR – I grew up listening to NPR. My parents usually had it turned on while driving in the car, I remember so many Saturday mornings spent listening to Car Talk. I hadn’t listened to NPR for a really long time though, however in 2008 — I turned it on. Since then, 94.9 KUOW has been my jam everyday while driving to work, the grocery store, etc. I look forward to beginning of each hour, where I receive my news headlines, and love listening to the local weekday programming on my way to wherever.

I actually don’t listen to most of the popular programs that other people do (name a show, I likely don’t listen to it). Many people I know listen to these programs on podcasts and that’s great! I however just enjoy listening to whatever is on KUOW when I turn it on in the car. I feel like I have become a more informed citizen since doing so and guess what? I’ve even PLEDGED! Ha. I highly recommend adjusting your dial to 94.9 KUOW (Seattleites) for just one week, I dare you not to enjoy.

Turn off NPR – Wait what? Didn’t I just say to turn on NPR? You’re right, I did and thank you for paying attention. This message is for those of us who already listen to NPR, turn the dial away. Why am I suggesting you turn NPR off? It’s not a permanent thing, more just like an every once in awhile thing. This was actually suggested to me from Celeste and I think there is value in it.

Celeste told me that she found herself listening to TOO MUCH (there is such a thing) NPR and that it doesn’t have to be so serious all of the time. I had to agree, as much as I love my weekday shows, I definitely began to feel out of touch and felt like all that I ever listened to was newscasts (a little depressing).

Celeste suggested turning to a rap station (keep reading!) to lighten up and just enjoy my time in the car/at work. I was a little skeptical about her suggestion but I gave it a chance for a week. I tuned my Spotify to Rap/Hip-Hop as well as current Top 40 stations and sat back to enjoy the ride. I was pleasantly surprised what I found, 1) I’m so freakin’ out of touch with the music that has been going around for the past five years, 2) I really enjoyed listening/discovering new music. New music, remember that? Remember when you used to hear new music all the time when you were younger? Yeah, that’s the point of turning off NPR and turning your radio station to something different. Listening to the music you grew up with is great, but there are new artists/music out there just waiting for you to discover.

In closing, turn off NPR every once in awhile. It’s good for you, I promise.

Okay, there you have it. Hopefully that made up for lost time. My weekend is a little busy, so ideally I’d like to say that I’ll try and post but I’m not sure if that’ll happen.

Denali

Day 2: Already I’m making progress.

I have hundreds (or thousands) of little tips/advice floating around in my brain and I’m trying my best to keep them organized. They just randomly come to me during the day and I think, damn I need to blog that! 

Again, here goes…

Liquidate your assets - I really love nice things, who doesn’t? However unless you come from a wealthy family or you’ve recently won the lottery, nice things are a little harder to come by. In the past few years though, anytime that Kyle or I have wanted to buy something nice for ourselves we know that we will need to ‘liquidate our assets.’ Basically this means that Kyle and I start going around the house and assessing things we own that we no longer use/like/need. Everybody has things in their house that they could get rid of and most of these items have value. 

Here’s the hard part though, you have to sell it. This is a deal breaker for some people, I understand that. It does take effort to put your old DVD player up on Craigslist/eBay/have a garage sale, however the pay off is rewarding. You have to ask yourself, how bad do I want the iPhone 5 the day it comes out? How bad do I want that new (insert name brand here) purse? Or if you want to use Kyle as an example, how bad did he want that 60″ flat screen television? Pretty bad.

So we set to work around the house finding things we could sell. We actually had a little pot of gold sitting in our garage, some old dolls that my Grandma had collected. We put them up on eBay, answered bidder questions, packaged them and shipped them out. Our reward? $500. I’d be fooling you if I told you that the TV only cost $500, however that money was a SIGNIFICANT down payment on it.

So there you go. Go walk around your house this afternoon and start looking for things that you have that may be of value to someone else. Old cellphones, laptops, collectors playing cards, books (used bookstores buy them), clothing (take it to Plato’s Closet, Buffalo Exchange, Crossroads Trading), old baby gear (sell it at a consignment sale/store). I’ve got a lot more to say, as well as more tips on liquidating your assets, but I’ll save that for another post.

This is Align.

Align - Wait, does Denali mean the probiotic? Yes that is exactly the Align that I’m talking about. This little wonder pill has been saving my butt (literally) for the past year and I’m so happy to have started taking it. You might be thinking to yourself, naw I’m good Denali, I take  (crappy brand of yogurt here) that contains probiotics, so I’m covered. You should note though that not all probiotics are created equal. 

Align is the only probiotic to contain Bifantis, which is great for the gut. And so for my personal review, my gut loves Align. Without going into the nitty gritty, Align has aligned my inner workings in the right direction If you were taking something with probiotics to begin with, considering giving Align a shot.

Soda Maker – I’m not saying SodaStream because frankly, there are other brands on the market (however SodaStream is great!). I will admit that I used to be one of the many Americans who used to consume soda/pop on a daily basis. I grew up in a house that consumed soda, there were soda machines in my high school and all over my college campus, and worst of all, once I began dating my now husband, I started drinking regular soda. I honestly can’t say which is worse, regular soda, which has a CRAP-TON of calories or diet soda, which allegedly will turn you all sorts of retarded. Either way, last July I finally stopped drinking soda. I stopped cold turkey, just like I did with smoking, I didn’t even finish all of the sodas in my house. I bought myself a soda maker and started making myself carbonated water to drink at home, as a substitute  I absolutely LOVE making soda water at home, it’s refreshing, it’s got kick, and it’s something different that just drinking plain old water. Yes, they’re a little pricier to purchase (then you also have to get new chargers)  however I think they’re worth their weight in gold because they got me off cola/soda/pop (which I also credit to helping me lose over 60lbs, but that’s another blog).

Okay, now go walk around your house and find the extra money!

Denali

You know what I love?

This is Celeste.

I’ve been struggling to keep this blog on track or figure out what sort of direction to give it. I think I may have finally found a new avenue for where I want to go with it.

My friend Celeste and I have been, like all good friends, giving each other our best advice about life and other things over the past few years. These pieces of advice have ranged from shopping, finances, beauty as well as self-improvement. I’ve found many of the things that we shared between each other to be very useful and I thought, maybe someone else could also benefit or at least entertain the advice I could bestow onto them. 

There will be no rhyme or reason to my posts, I might post everyday or I may post every few weeks. I may stick to one topic, many topics, I may post multiple things or I may only post one thing. Basically I am saying, please forgive me if I am unable to, once again, stick with a blog.

With all of the said, here goes nothing…

• Birchbox - Now some of you may already be familiar with Birchbox and some of you might think it’s a bar for birds. If you have never heard of Birchbox, it’s a beauty company that sells makeup as well as has a mail service that sends beauty samples to you monthly. For $10 a month (shipping included), you receive 5 samples based on your beauty preferences. Typically I have received products for hair, some makeup as well as a perfume sample. Some of them I have really loved and others I could have cared less about. Overall I love it though! The reason I really enjoy it is because as I have gotten older, I just don’t have the time or patience to search for new beauty products. I’m totally guilty of keeping makeup from years and years (and YEARS) ago, arguably it’s makeup that I should have thrown away. But when you’re stuck in a makeup rut, it can be hard to break free. So, in closing — check out Birchbox, it’s great, I enjoy it. 

• Hiring A Housecleaner – Okay, this one is pretty indulgent and definitely costs more than $10 a month, but if you can afford it, it pays off in more ways than one. At the end of 2011, I declared to Kyle that I no longer wanted to clean house, and that was that. Doesn’t that sound awesome to just tell the world that you’re not going to scrub toilets anymore? Well that’s what I did and from there I quickly found a woman on Angie’s List who cleans homes in our area. Now why is a house cleaner so great? Well there is the obvious reason, she comes once every three weeks and cleans our bathrooms, kitchen, vacuums, washes our sheets, etc. The not so obvious reason, it’s made me a happier person. Have you ever cleaned a toilet and thought (about your husband), “When was the last time that **** cleaned a toilet?” Yeah, I used to think that sort of stuff a lot when I cleaned toilets, washed the floors, cleaned the tub, etc. And now? I don’t think that sort of stuff (or as much) anymore, nowadays that weight falls on Olga’s shoulders. 

 

• Supercuts Is Not Entirely Useless – One of my old coworkers told me that she still gets her haircut at Supercuts. Being now almost 29, I naturally thought that the only people who still went to Supercuts were either Dads or Bachelors. However I was willing to give it another chance if my coworker was okay with it. The verdict? It still sucks, well mostly my experience sucked. It had been awhile since I had a haircut and I really didn’t want a lot of length taken off of it (and I also didn’t trust the girl). She took barely any hair off of my length, however during the whole service she made sure to let me know how shitty hair was. Seriously, the girl went ON AND ON about how damaged my hair was, was I aware how damaged it was, why didn’t I try and fix all the damage done to my hair, blah blah blah. Apparently this was all part of her technique to get me to buy hair product from her. Well guess what? It freakin’ worked, she had torn down what little I had left of my self-esteem and I ended up buying product from her. So why is Supercuts not entirely useless? Because the product she recommended to me I really love! The product is called It’s A 10 Miracle Leave In Product, you put it in your hair when it’s still wet and then dry and style as usual. It’s a hair protector for those who do a bit of heat styling, basically if you’re a fan of the flat iron you may want to consider this. I’ve got a whole crap-ton more to say about my hair, products I use nowadays, and how to deal with this hornets nest in general, but I’ll save that for another post.

Thanks everyone for reading, hopefully it was useful or at the very least, entertaining to read.

Denali