Swimming Swimming In The Swimming Hole

I am not sure why this day is always so difficult for me every year. I know it is coming and I should be better prepared for it, but it still always sends a little panic through my heart when I wake up in the morning and still think I should be getting ready to go to work. Nothing is layed out! No lunches are packed! Nothing is ready to go! And then it hits me that I am not going to work today and I won't be going back to work for 10 weeks! 

Then the panic really sets in because I know I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. for some reason! Ahhhhh!! I have to be at Boot camp at 5:30!! Thank the lord I set out my work out clothes and baked some egg, sausage, and spinach "muffins" last night. So there I go running out the door to do some sweating and then it's back home again.  Now it's time to wake the morning monster and get her fed and rolling before we head out the door for our first day of swim class. I will definitely be writing a full post on our swim class experience because it should be interesting. We have taken a class before, but it was just an introduction to the water and I stayed in the water with her. This class however is a little different because parents are not allowed in the class except for the first day and on Fridays to see what they have learned. This kid of mine is definitely a little fish and loves the water, but we shall see how it all goes when we get to the drop off point. I think it will be a good thing because for such a free spirited kid someone has a little bit of an attachment issue when it comes to her Mama. 

As you see even though I am not teaching there is still something to do every single day. We have our swim lessons every day Monday-Friday for the next two weeks, lots of play dates scheduled, and swim dates at Ya Ya and Papa's house so I still need to make sure I am prepared  for everything we have planned for the next day.

I do know however that when it is time for to relax we will definitely be doing it up right. I have been working on getting our backyard ready for some serious summer fun! We have our playhouse and slide, a water table, lots of dirt to roll in, our wireless speaker to jam to all of our favorite Disney tunes, and now we have an appropriate pool to stay cool in.

We started our love affair with the water in this perfect little baby pool and it has done the job for the past 3 years. 

But we have moved on to bigger and better things! Thanks to Backyard Ocean we now get to enjoy the hot and humid southern summer in this glorious piece of aquatic equipment! 

I was so excited when I was contacted by Backyard Ocean to help promote their Summer Sweepstakes because we love any company that sells products promoting family togetherness. Now that I am home with the wild child everyday we will definitely be spending the majority of our time outside and it gets hot down here so we will need a way to stay cool.

Our Deluxe Square Party Pool  arrived on our doorstep after just a few days of being contacted by Backyard Ocean. We didn't get to set up our pool right away because of too much fun at a super muddy Italian Fest, but after a fun day at church we decided to go ahead and get things set up for our first week of summer break.  First things first was to get our pool out of the box and of course I injured myself or I guess you could say I re-injured myself by dropping the box on my foot on the exact spot my sandals rubbed a huge gash the night before. Thankfully my wonderful husband helped me pull it out and he carried it out to the carport for me since our inflator can only be used when hooked up to a car. I wanted to give a good set up time frame for our pool so I set the stop watch on my phone after figuring out which inflator hose and pieces I needed to get started. Thankfully I didn't start the timer until I got all of this figured out because no one would want to know how long this actually took me. 25 minutes later I started my timer and got inflating. finally started inflating.

The Deluxe Square Party Pool has 4 sections to inflate including 3 rings making up the outside of the pool and an inflatable bench around one side of the bottom of the pool. It took me a little over 17 minutes to fill up the whole entire pool! If you have small children and you tell them you are going to blow up a pool for them to swim in it better not take a long time and if my child could patiently make it through this you know it was super easy.

Funny thing is this small bench took the longest to inflate. The 3 large rings around the side actually had your everyday run of the mill blowup ports, but they also have 3 extra ports with a acre off top and a small black plug for letting out the air that made it much easier and faster to inflate. I used one of my smaller inflator needles to fill up the bench which took a little longer. 

After I got everything blown up Brent helped me carry it back into the backyard and we grabbed a hose and started filling up. Someone loves helping me use the hose to water our vegetables and flowers so you can imagine the pure joy when I let her help fill up her new pool.

It took about 30-35 minutes to fill up the pool a little under the top of the inflatable bench which was just enough water for us today. I didn't want to fill it up too full to see how comfortable the wild child was before going all the way. She of course loved it and I will be filling it up the rest of the way tomorrow so she can show us what she learned in swim class.

Hopefully this is the face she has tomorrow swimming in the big pool! Wish us luck!

My Whole30 Journey

Let's go back to the very beginning of this journey and where everything began. A little over a year ago I decided to start following a Paleo diet because I needed a change somewhere in my life to help me feel better and get healthier. I started at the beginning of 2013 and right away started losing weight and feeling better. I was following an 80/20 Paleo diet where I would eat Paleo all week and on the weekends if I wanted a splurge I would go ahead and have a little splurge. I was sleeping better, I wasn't having awful sinus issues anymore and I was just feeling better about myself in general. Then all of a sudden after a sudden loss of a dear friend I went spiraling out of control and started becoming very sick. All of the lymph nodes in my head and neck were very swollen and I could barely turn my head, I was breaking out in hives all over my body and scalp, my eyes were swelling, and I was constantly very sick. I finally visited my Dr. and after a many blood tests, a round of very strong antibiotics and a discussion of concern since swollen lymph nodes are a main sign of Lymphoma (scariest day of my life and thank the lord for clear blood tests) I still wasn't feeling any better. Thankfully my Dr. is amazing and she wanted to figure out what was going on with me so we sat and talked for quite a while about all of the changes in my life recently and in passing I mentioned that I had been following a Paleo Diet for the past few months and had just recently stopped. All of a sudden it was like a light bulb turned on over her head and she said she was almost 95% sure this all stemmed from something dietary. Before running any expensive inconclusive tests she suggested I go back to a very strict Gluten Free diet. I immediately started freaking out because I didn't know what to eat or what to do (mind you I had been living gluten free for the past 3 months so I am not sure why not being able to eat bread sent me into a panic). I of course first turned to anything and everything labeled "Gluten Free" (breads, crackers, cookies, baking mixes, pasta, etc) and initially I lost a ton of weight (best side affect ever). After a while I stopped losing weight and actually started gaining everything back plus some which just goes to show you that just because something is gluten free doesn't mean it is healthy.

After a few months I was feeling a little better and not having as many reactions, but something still wasn't right. It wasn't until right before Christmas 2013 when I had an extremely bad reaction where I broke out in hives all over my face (there is nothing like face hives during your class Christmas Program and every single parents asking you what is wrong with your face) that I was sent to see an allergist. Come to find out I not only have issues with gluten sensitivities, but I am also allergic to black and white pepper (my body doesn't discriminate), and oranges. I thought ok I can live without these things. No biggie. This won't be any more difficult then what I was already living without. So once again I rearranged my diet and stopped using anything with pepper and oranges, but something still wasn't right. Living gluten free these days isn't as difficult as it used to be. There is so much information out there these days about living without gluten, my grocery store offers at least 3-4 brands that are great gluten free replacements for most foods, and most restaurants also offer a few selections that are gluten free these days so you can almost live a normal life even if you are living with celiac or a gluten sensitivity. Sadly there is not a lot of information out there for my awesomely weird allergies. I should have know I was in trouble when my allergist walked in to check my tests and said "Well........This is a surprise! I have never had anyone allergic to pepper before". Thanks doc you are making this so much easier! When I got home that day I tried to find as much research as I could find and became a super label checker and after many more allergic reactions and a few long talks with my sweet husband while he was scratching my back because I was so itchy we both decided that I needed to stay away from anything labeled with spices, citric acid, citric fiber or natural flavors in it. That basically meant no more processed foods especially anything labeled Gluten Free since these foods had so many extra ingredients to make you feel like you are kind of sort of eating something that tastes like real bread.

And this super long story you just read is what lead me to complete my first Whole30.

I knew I needed something to retrain my mind and my body to eat real food and to get rid of any old cravings that might be lingering. Basically Whole30 is Paleo on steroids so no grains, no beans, no sugar, no dairy and no alcohol. Sounds awesome right?  Well it is and I am planning on completing another Whole30 sometime soon. I am so proud of myself for sticking with it and I can honestly say I am a completely different person than I was when all of this allergy mess began a year ago. I now stick to a 95% Paleo diet and I feel amazing! It is always so funny when I tell people why I can't or don't eat something because they always get this sad look on their face and tell me how much that would suck or how they could never live without eating or drinking such-n-such. I just flash my pearly whites and go back to drinking my spinach, banana, spinach smoothie and think how lucky I am that I am still on this journey and how much better not just my life, but my whole families lives are because I can't eat such-n-such. You may not think there any medicine for what I have (Except Benadryl. Lots and Lots of Benadryl!), but I think I might have discovered a cure all.

 

Don't Forget

Go Like Backyard Ocean for a chance to win an awesome pool before it really starts to get hot out there!

All you need to do is click HERE and fill out the form for a chance to win some summer fun!

Let The Giveaways Begin!

I am so excited to be teaming up with Backyard Ocean the next 2 weeks to promote their giveaway to win their Keep It Cool 2014 giveaways.

All you have to do is jump on over to their Facebook Page and give them a Like and every time they hit a Like milestone someone will win a gift certificate for one of these awesome prizes:

 “200 Likes Milestone” – When the Backyard Ocean Facebook Page receives an additional 200 likes from the start of the sweepstakes period, one lucky winner will receive a $50 Backyard Ocean gift certificate. 

“500 Likes Milestone” – When our Page gets an additional 500 likes after the 200th fan mark, we will give away a $100 Backyard Ocean gift certificate. 

“800 Likes Milestone” – When we hit 800 likes after the 500th fan mark, we will give away a $150 Backyard Ocean gift certificate. 

“1,100 Likes Milestone” – When we hit an additional 1,100 likes after the 800th fan mark, we will give away a $200 Backyard Ocean gift certificate. 

“1,400 Likes Milestone” – When we hit 1,400 likes after the 1,100th fan mark, we will give away a $150 Backyard Ocean gift certificate.

 For entry details and other contest information head on over to the Backyard Ocean Blog .

Giveaway Facebook Terms and Conditions 

Summer Summer Summertime!

I hope you are all now singing the title in your best Will Smith voice. And now you are probably starting to hum the fresh price of bel air theme song and you might even be doing the Carlton dance. Now that you have all of that awesomeness stuck in your head lets talk summertime!!!!!!

School is out and it is time to relax with my girl and enjoy our time off. And by relax I mean play outside all day, search for bugs, and get dirty. 

We have so many fun things planned this summer from swimming lessons to zoo dates, but I am already dreaming about the days we strap on our swim suits slather on some sunscreen and I lay in the hammock with my feet in the pool while the wild child splashes around and gets dirty enough to need a bath every single night. I may or may not count a few hours in the pool as a bath some days and some of you may be cringing right now and a few of you are nodding your head and thinkin to yourself "thank god I am not the only one who does that!" 

Last year we spent most of our time in one of those tiny plastic baby pools and while that was great my girl has quickly outgrown her little wading pool. Thankfully we are teaming up with Backyard Ocean this year and they are giving away tons of school stuff this summer!

Between May 26 to June 4, 2014 Backyard Ocean will be hosting some awesome giveaways and yes I said giveaways! 

So stay tuned and go check out Backyard Ocean on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram and be on the look out for a ton of pictures of my feet and my kid in a party pool. I will be posting again soon with more information about how to enter and be on the look out for wild child and my review. I am pretty sure we are going to love chilling in a pool together all day long!