Big Announcement: Moving, Photoshoot Dress Pics, Toughing It Out or Giving In?

Hi Friends! How's Your Tuesday Going?  Skylar and I schlepped around in the heat running errands.  I re-loaded my produce stash at the grocery store.  A few highlights are the fruit.

 We came home and I opened the mail and there was an international package waiting for me:
I won Tam's Give Away and she sent me a Flax Bar and Handmade Key Chain for Skylar

I must be lucky.  Because I also won Heidi's Give Away! Take me to Vegas, Baby.  That's where we had our $199 Wedding! 
3 different Wild Carrot Herbals Products:  Cuticle Cream, Baby Bum Balm, and Calendula Nipple Cream.  No, I'm not pregnant, that's not my announcement!  But I am a passionate about lactation and am a lactation educator, see here for my Holistic Parenting/Non-Mainstream Choices Post
Calendula is such a healing flower.  You don't need Neosporin when you have Calendula.  And it works on more than just raw nipples.  Cuts, scrapes, you name it, calendula is awesome!  Pick up some calendula salve to keep on hand.

While I was going through the mail, Skylar decided to put on every strand of beads she owns
And she laughed and pretended it was Mardi Gras and played

To Touch on Yesterday's Post...
Glad the Raw Vegan Vanilla Chocolate Chip Softserve
And Vegan Sundaes Looked Good to You!
Anyone want to make their own Caramels or Caramel Sauce, Click Here for my Raw Vegan Caramels Recipe?
 Or make my Raw Vegan Nut-Butter Filled Caramel Bites and just skip the Softserve! 


I'm so glad you all are excited to see my photoshoot photos from the shoot I did this weekend, too!

Since you all asked...this is one of the outfits I wore.   I just threw it on today and snapped a picture of me in it.  Hair and makeup, clearly, not done. 

You'll have to wait for the pictures to come back from my photographer, as will I.  I know, patience is not easy!  But hopefully this tides you over a bit...haha!

Major Appreciation for those of you Who Told me I Look Ready Now for my Fitness Competition.  Yay!

Most of all, I loved hearing from the Blogger's about How your Blog has Changed or Evolved over time.   As I mentioned life is always ticking, spinning, changing, moving, evolving, and it would be boring for me to not have my blog's themes and content change and ebb and flow with life.  I am so glad that many of you feel the same about your blog and thanks to all my readers who said you really don't care about the food anymore, either.  That you come here to read about what I'm up to, some of that is food, but that's not necessarily the big draw.  I appreciate hearing everyone's stories of personal, and therefore subsequent, blog evolution and growth!

And I changed the Title Description of my Blog last night because I am evolving.   I am not first and foremost a Vegan.  First and foremost, I live life.  That happens to be a vegan path.  Subtle, but important for me.
"I Blog about Life, Not Just Recipes. I Live My Life to the Fullest as a Yoga Teacher, Bodybuilding Competitor, Wife & Mother, Powered by Plants as a High Raw Gluten-Free Vegan" 

On to my Big Announcement....

We're moving back to San Diego!  In 3 weeks!  Yes, 3 days after my Fitness Competition, we are moving.  I am ecstatic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For newer readers or those that don't know the story on how and why we ended up in Phoenix, the Cliff's Notes version is that we moved here September 2009 and about a week after getting here, I realized we had made a serious error.  San Diego had been home for the past 6 years and we moved to Phoenix because housing is much more affordable here compared to California, and it was my dream to own a house.  

I love my house, but the rest of Phoenix is just not for me.  I have missed San Diego dearly the past 9 months.  I miss my friends there, the yoga community, the beach and the weather, the vibe, the people, shops, grocery stores, and I am a California Girl and that's "home" and I have been very homesick for it!  So it's time to go back!

Some people would say, well, "you haven't given Phoenix a chance".  Maybe that's true but I don't believe in spending time in a place I don't want to live or "trying to make it work" when we can go back.  Life it too short to be stuck somewhere you don't want to be.  Rather than "giving it a chance" and wasting precious days of my life because there are no guarantees I will have "bonded" with Phoenix in a year or two, I have embraced the situation and have worked hard on getting us back to San Diego, now, and I am thrilled to be going home! 

We are very fortunate that Scott is self-employed and can live anywhere and he's so excited to be going back, too!

Remember the Trip to San Diego I took a few weeks back?
I did some house-hunting and found an amazing place!  Urban, fun, eclectic, upbeat, diverse and a stone's throw from where we used to live. 


What this means for me is that the next 3 weeks of my life are going to be spent training for my Fitness Competition, packing, and getting ready to move. 

Scott and I have lived in IL, NC, SC, CA, and now AZ.  We are no strangers to moving, but it's different when you're moving a household, 3 people, and everything from Vita-Mixes to Baby Cribs to Scott's baseball card collection from 1984 to power tools to 10 sets of sheets and 50 towels.  It's a lot to organize and orchestrate.

Not to mention real-estate transactions are possibly the cause of early gray hair and more stress than anyone needs!  Don't even get me started on the real estate market right now and how stressful it is.

What this means for me as a Blogger is that I will continue to Blog.  However, I am going to be omitting certain sections from my Blog that I simply don't feel like putting in.  Daily yoga pictures, daily gym info, Daily Green Food and Desserts, whatever it is that I don't have time or desire to add that day, I am going to omit it.  This ties into yesterday's question about how your blog has evolved.  Well, and inter-state family and household move on the heels of my fitness show is necessitating a change and evolution for me!

Please, my sweet friends, also excuse my absence if I can't comment on every post you all write.  Believe me, I'd rather be commenting on blogs than packing old candlesticks and glass vases, but there are only so many hours in the day.  You know I love you all and promise to get caught up and will read off my Reader, but may not click through to comment.  And at the same time, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog, for your friendship, and for your support!  Life's about to get even crazier for me!

I am extremely happy, excited, and fortunate to be moving back to sweet and sunny San Diego!  I cannot wait to meetup with all these California Bloggers one day!  





If you're a California Blogger and you want to meetup, or a California Reader and want to Meetup, Let me Know!  California's a huge state, but if you're ever in SoCal, let me know! 

Moving On...
Green Food: Raw Kale, Sugar Snap Peas, Brock, and Tomatoes
Dressed With Vegan Slaw Dressing using Reduced Fat Veganaise 



Dessert: Vegan Cinnamon Sugared Pecans From Chocolate Inspirations that I reviewed in This Post
And Scott Begged for Another Sundae!

Yoga Today is Changing My Address on my YJ Subscription


Gym & Weights Workout Today From my Workouts Tab: Day 5 - Shoulders/Triceps/Biceps

Tip of the Day: LAST CHANCE, WINNER ANNOUNCED WEDNESDAY 5/19/10
My Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Hair Treatment Give Away!!

Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil



Questions
1. Have you ever won a Give Away?  What was it?  Do you bother to enter give aways? 
I used to enter tons.  Lately, I probably enter about 3 per week.  I used to enter everything I saw but lately just haven't had as much time.  But I love Give Aways...who doesn't love winning free stuff?

2. I know there are a small handful of you who knew this move was coming, but are the rest of you surprised?  
I didn't want to jump the gun and announce it until I was 100% sure it was happening, but yes, it's happening!

3. How many times have you moved?  What's the farthest you've moved?  Could you ever move away from friends and family?
I don't even count the moves I did in college and my early 20s because I moved about 3 times a year, for many years.  My goodness, my mother joked that she wrote my address in pencil in her address book because I moved so much!  As an adult, Scott and I explored different parts of the country together, we lived where we wanted, (click here to read our How We Met Story) and were fortunate enough to live in IL, NC, SC, and CA.  I don't count AZ as being fortunate.  No disrespect to any AZ lovers, it's just not for me.  In all the moves we did, it was fun and exciting to explore new places, find new stomping grounds, meet new people, and put down some new roots.   However, this last move from San Diego to Phoenix, our luck wore thin and it didn't pan out as well.  Hey, just chock it up to another move.  How many times have you moved?  Our families are all back in the Midwest and we are thousands of miles apart but it's not a big deal for either of us.

4.  Fave summer fruit? Any fruit you really don't like?
I love blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries.  And then there's peaches, nectarines, and apricots.  And then there's watermelon.  Love them all!  I also like bananas, but I don't "love" them.  I like them "in recipes" rather than solo.  The only fruits I really don't like that many people do are cantaloupe, honeydew, and kiwis. 

5. Do you believe in "toughing out" a situation or do you believe in giving into it?  
I am a bit of both because there are times where giving in is definitely Not advised, i.e. you don't want to work hard in the gym to get the body or results you want.  Sure, you can give in and not train or make excuses about why you're not working hard, but you won't get a 6-pack or sculpt the physique you want.  That's an example where I don't ever "give in". 

I also don't "give in" to people pushing food on me that I can't eat that will make me sick because I am allergic to it.

I don't give in or compromise on my "alternative" lifestyle choices from raising a vegetarian child to my thoughts on vaccinations or unschooling/homeschooling.

But then there are times where I am not too proud to "give in" and where "toughing it out" is just plain...foolish.   As I said in this post, it's great to make choices and to stand up for what you believe, but I also believe it's also prudent to re-visit those choices and make sure they still "fit" for your circumstances and present situation.

I realized that Phoenix is not for us, and while some people would say, well, tough it out a bit, I'm not going to waste precious time living in a place I don't ever think I will "love".

I have also quit jobs that some would say are "perfect" but for me, they weren't, and I wasn't too proud to raise my hand and say you know what, this may be the perfect job for someone, but not for me, and I didn't want to tough it out any longer so I quit.  And no shame in doing so.  In fact, it was liberating and freeing!


What have you toughed out vs. giving in?  Do you look back on the situation happily or second-guess the choice you made?


Stay Tuned For Blogger Meetup Pictures...