Merry Christmas

This year has been sparse with blog posts. I love to write and so it's a shame for me not to keep my blog up-to-date.

Merry Christmas to all (except those that don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays to them). How did that whole debate begin anyway? Can't we all just stop getting offended?

As much as I enjoy sweet, cute, wonderful, family photo Christmas postcards, I really miss out when people don't give a little letter of cheer. So here is my not so little letter of cheer:

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. 2011 has been a wonderful year. I have done a bit traveling, working, jewelry making, book reading, and a lot of growing, learning, and enjoying life.

Early in the year I participated in a music recital. Yes, me. My awe inspiring piano teacher, Esther Vasefi somehow talked me into playing a duet with her. Our piece was the Sleeping Beauty Waltz. To brag, my piece was the most complicated of all the piano pieces. To take away from my brag, all the other piano students were under age 7. I was so shy to perform that I didn't invite any friends or family. In retrospect, I wish I had shared this with my loved ones. This experience really shaped my life forever. I was nervous, I messed up, but I did it. And in the doing, I felt so proud of myself and confident. I loved getting applauded and I loved feeling the performer's high.

In the birth world, I have many exciting advances. I attended only a few births. The most memorable birth was my beautiful niece, Claire. Heather invited me along, only this time as her doula. She opted for a natural birth experience and by golly she did it! Claire was a hefty 9lb something high-ounces baby. I am so proud of Heather. She knew she could do it all along and totally down played it. When the laboring and delivery came along she showed her true colors of woman lioness power. She was calm, composed (mostly), and very strong.

My eldest sister Shelley had a baby girl Shaliese about a month before Heather had Claire. I didn't attend her birth. Lorilyn my second eldest sister did attend. I love it. Women supporting women in labor. I went to Boise in the late of summer and visited the cuteness, Shaliese. It was a mini family vacation. Mom, Dad, Lorilyn and myself all drove up to Idaho to visit Shelley's family. We had a beautiful time. I don't get to see Shelley and her family near enough.

Big time news on the birth front: I'm attending Midwifery school. I started this month. The opportunity just fell into my lap and I said yes. The class is very small. The approach is brand new and very holistic. The program teaches about body, mind, spirit connection and how that affects fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth. I am learning so much and it's only been three weeks of classes! I am loving it immensely.

I got a bit creative this year with my jewelry making. I started making feather earrings. Real feathers! They are lovely. I am in love with all of the earrings. Unfortunately, the selling hasn't been going well. One boutique opted out last minute and the other doesn't really have much feather earring traffic. So...it leaves me with many feather earrings and no return on creativity/investment. But I am so pleased with the product that I could care less about sales.

One of my friends/clients is a well renowned author and Dr of psychology. She and I do trades. She receives massage and I receive sand tray therapy. Once a week for the past 4 months I have been receiving professional counseling and it's really fun. She works with the sub-conscious so I do most of the discovering and realizations. I love it so much that she is going to teach me the ropes! She normally teaches sand tray therapy to psychologists, social workers and alike but has offered to instruct me. In Utah sand tray therapy requires certification only (not licensing). I will be adding another tool to my box of modalities. And a modality I have experienced and feel passionate about.

Among my most memorable past times of 2011 was my trip to Arizona. I went for a whole week to visit Jeremy's family and the sunshine. We spent our days hiking, fixing cars, thrifting, and exploring Sedona. We spent our nights having Bored to Death  and True Blood marathons, eating turkey leftovers, downloading music, and laughing. Can I express how much I love hanging out with Jeremy? I doubt it. Jadin and Ava are growing like weeds. It must be all the sunshine in AZ. I love being an auntie to many babies and kids I wish were still babies. Time flies when you're watching a child grow. I love them all; related by blood or by God.

Speaking of God relations, I have many wonderful friends who are family to me. I am happy to be surrounded by accepting, loving, funny, and wonderful people. I have always had a special love for my friends.

I recognize my many blessings and easy life. I have few monetary struggles. My life is filled with an abundance of conveniences, loved ones, teachers, and growing opportunities. Thank you for being apart of my life and blessing it with your presence. May you also recognize your abundance and keep it flowing through 2012.

With Love,

Stacie

p.s. top reads of 2011: Inkheart series, Women, Food, and God by Geneen Roth, and Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield

Thanksgiving Break

I am in Arizona for Thanksgiving break. I decided to make a vacation out of it, so I am staying for a week. It's nice and sunny here with occasional bouts of chilly 60 degree weather. I flew in on Thanksgiving morning. Surprisingly Thanksgiving is a really good day to fly. My flight was full, but the airport wasn't very busy.
People were generously happy and even at times, goofy. It reminded me of the nation's happier days. It seems like there has been so much chaos about the TETs (tough economic times). Thanksgiving is the holiday when people are reminded of gratitude and appreciate blessings.

The ride home from the airport was eventful. First of all, Jeremy forgot which of the 9 levels he parked his truck. Luckily we only searched two levels before finding his truck. On the drive home, there was a wreck. The traffic was moving slow as we were going uphill through a mountain range. As per usual, we had the windows down and were rocking out to some music. Our new favorite song, Pumped up Kicks is wildly over played on the radio. We listened to that song two or three times. Imagine us with the windows down, in a traffic jam, busting moves, and occasionally encouraging other drivers to sync radio stations to ours for a party. We were having fun.

Then suddenly out of nowhere his truck starts to over heat. We were on the side of the road cooling down and one of our fellow drivers pulled over and gave us some anti-freeze. Thank you local citizen. We drove to the next exit which thankfully was a rest stop. Then Lori, Amanda and the kids had to come and pick us up. It was a 40 minute drive so Jeremy and I familiarized ourselves with the rest stop. I took some photos for a group of Taiwanese tourists; we met some dogs and their senior citizen owners; spotted honeybees, cattle, and birds; and we read some AZ trivia.

By the time we got home dinner was ready. The table was beautifully set with flowers and the feast. It was somewhat weird celebrating Thanksgiving away from home. I am usually in Utah. Amanda and Lori prepared the spread while Jeremy came to the airport to pick me up. As we sat around the table, I realized that we are all adults (minus Jadin and Ava).  Here we were eating Thanksgiving dinner, creating traditions, and influencing a new generation. We struggled as a whole about what rituals were to be performed before eating. We unanimously agreed to say at least one thing we were thankful for during our feast. We were all excited to be together and to eat yummy food.

Whether you spend the holidays with family, friends, or animals the uniting and joyful denominator is love. Love is all there is. We could have been stuck at the rest stop eating vending machine food with a bunch of seniors and dogs and that would have been wonderful. But we lucky enough to be in cozy house with many beloved family members and a feast. Hope your Thanksgiving was filled with love and gratitude, I know mine was :)

Halloween Make-up

First attempt

Thanks to a little site called pinterest, I decided to have fun butterfly make-up for Halloween. My first attempt was the worst, but still awesome. I was in a rush after work to make it to a fab Halloween party. I put on the make-up at work, by a lamp lit room, trying so hard not to make a mess. In my haste, I neglected to arrange for my wings, but in hindsight the make-up was enough.


Then, on Sunday, we had a little family Halloween get-together. Heather's kids wanted to show off their costumes. I also wanted to show off my new make-up tricks. Long story short, I got so excited that I somehow managed to convince Heather to let me do her make-up as well.

Boise

Dad, Mom, Lori, and I went to Boise last week. Here are a few pictures. I edited them on picnik and I am new to that so........ENJOY!

The Almost Encounter

I used to post so much. Where have the days of blogging gone? The thing is, I didn't blog about anything exceptional. I just said whatever was on my mind. It did help that I was stuck on the computer for 8 hours at work with little work to do :) Dishonest? No, my boss was practically blogging for me. Now things are different.

For those who still check blogs, here is a chuckle, called My Almost Encounter (and it's sort of graphic):

I almost crossed a big line. Almost. So this guy came into to get a massage and it started out pretty awkward because I saw him naked. I knocked on the door and said "all set?" All set, meaning that he had undressed and was lying on the table between the sheets. He replied, "all set." What he really said was "not yet!" When I walked in, he was scrambling: bending over, trying to find something to cover, and also looking at me like get the f out. I was just so taken aback. I have NEVER walked in on a client before. *Disclaimer: before you say 'you hear what you want to hear,' I did not want to hear that. There was a speech barrier. He was Mexican (really, he was from Mexico). He'd only been in the country for a couple of years. His accent was thick.

I was really embarrassed to go back in that room. How could I? How was I going to break the ice? I was still laughing/giggling. I profusely apologized. Then, I apologized again because I had a case of the giggles. Anyone who has had the giggles knows that it takes awhile to calm down. Anyway, he was really cool about it. Unbenounced to me, he thought that I was really shy and flirting with him. In fact, he asked me if I was shy? As I was tightly securing sheet for modest draping, he said something like, "why all the modesty now, you've already seen me naked." So, that isn't okay, but again, I had the giggles- I was just trying to calm down. I remember trying to change the topic a trillion times like, "so how long have you been here?" Then pulling out the big guns, "do you have a work visa?" and "do you want to become a citizen?" Try as I might, it just kept coming back the naked encounter.

Finally the hour was over. Phew. Then, he paid and left. Then, I went to change the table over and he had left some unwanted fluid on my sheets! I was pissed. If you are going to be inappropriate at least do it on something that can be thrown away like a Kleenex. Damn the men who do that after massages on massage therapists sheets. Awhile later, I went to take the defiled sheets to my car, and low and behold he was sitting in his car out in the parking lot. I was very dismissive and rude. I left to make some copies and received a text from him. (phone number on business card- don't be getting any ideas). He was thanking me for the wonderful massage. In a moment of fury, I wrote back "I saw what you did to my sheets." Then there was abundant remorse and apologies. I didn't respond to his many texts for a few hours. When I did, the texts turned from apologizing to flirting. I just tried to wrap things up, but they kept coming. For the span of about a week, the texts kept coming. I would say really vague things and move on. In retrospect, I should have been very bold and blunt and said stop texting me rather than politely dragging him along. Admittedly it was a kick, to receive funny texts all day, until it wasn't. One night I got a close-up picture of his you-know-what. That was enough for me to stop texting back altogether. A few days later, after no response he was remorse and apologetic. Then like clockwork, it was hardcore flirting again, asking me for pictures of myself! Again?, I thought. He crossed a few lines a few times. As the adage goes, "It happens once shame on you, it happens twice shame on me." I wasn't mean, I simply said that I don't get to be treated that way. And it was over. Haven't heard anything since.

This brings up many questions: Does that work for him, sending naked close-ups of his manly parts? Do girls respond positively to that? If so, I am appalled and way out of the loop. People actually do that!?!(I do remember looking through my sister's pics on her phone and seeing some naked photos that she had of herself. I asked her- what? why? etc. She said that you never know when you are going to have to send one. So it's a good idea to have some on hand. Hmmm.)

Looking back, I shouldn't have giggled. I think that set it off. How do you control the giggling once it starts? Also, when a man asks you if you are shy, while you are massaging his body after recently seeing it totally naked, things are probably going in a naughty direction... It was a good learning experience, among others things. Given the right circumstances, I could've gotten into a whole lotta trouble real fast. Not to mention the legal complications, if something happened during the massage. But it's a good story. I hoped you enjoyed reading it.

Scrambled

My thoughts are scrambled. I have been in solitude for about 5 days house sitting- which has been very awesome. It has also made me realize how many rules I have for myself and how often I judge myself and how much I love food.

While house sitting, I have been cleansing and it sure is hard to cleanse. I haven't done a cleanse for about a 1.5 years so I decided to go hard core and am doing the master cleanse.

It would be really nice to be gentle on yourself 100% of the time, then again, maybe the contrast is what keeps us productive.

I have been writing an essay for my birth doula certification and I miss writing. It is more than a release for me, it is a vital part of my self expression.

I have been very into Adele's 21 album.

Also while house sitting, I have been watching movies, reading books, walking the dogs, bathing in an awesome jet tub, dancing, and gardening (well watering the garden and occasionally pulling out weeds).

Speaking of Weeds, don't start the t.v. series unless you are prepared to get totally sucked in. Luckily, like Dexter, all of the seasons aren't available on Netflix and so I have given up on them.

I am actively searching for an additional income. If anyone knows of a cool place to work, in the health and wellness world, then please let me know. I would love to exclusively be massaging and birth doula-ing but am also open to doing other work as long as it is in the same field.

I wanted to be the coolest Auntie in the world and take Jaxon to the swim park all day- so I did. However, I have paid dearly for it because I got a burn from hell. The worst burn in my life-seriously. Yes, all you nay sayers, I applied sunblock- it was even over-the-counter sunblock. Fortunately for me, my mom started making this phenomenal moisturizer- which I have been liberally applying to my skin. Heather says that mom's skin appears smoother and younger. Which brings me to a rant session about all of the crap people put on their skin in the name of beauty. Do your research people and stop buying into the poisons in your beauty must-haves. Still not done, how many people have to be medicated before we do something about our society's beliefs about beauty, health, and wellness? I am not talking about anorexia/body image beliefs either, I am talking about migraines, fibromyalgia, allergies, and depression due to over toxicity from your beauty products.

See what I mean about scrambled? It all started with a sunburn and turned into that.

Mother's Day Gift Certificates

                                           Thanks Heather for the designs!

My Hair After One Month of NO Shampooing

Leah, my grape friend, inspired me to stop shampooing my hair. After reading this blog and some additional online research, I was in both feet. For a month now I have been washing my hair with baking soda and rinsing it with either cold water or vinegar and essential oils. I do this every 2-3 days.

I have noticed that I have more body and that I spend less time encouraging the wavy locks because I have more curl. Yesterday Heather, my sister, told me that I had flakes in my hair, but I am convinced it was baking soda residue, as I don't have any flakes today.

The benefits of washing with baking soda as opposed to shampoo are as follows: Most shampoo is poisonous (fragrance, parabens, and SLS), most shampoo strips hair of it's natural oils causing hair to get oily and greasy the day after shampooing, and shampoo is packaged in plastic bottles so I am eliminating my consumption of two plastic bottles per month.

I am not really sure how to capture my hair- I got a new touch phone and every time I take a picture it's blurry. I figured this picture would be proof enough that my hair is still awesome- if not more so.  April, my hair care professional, told me that my hair looks very healthy.

This experiment has not been all sugar and sweets. I have had several days of my hair looking greasy and not cooperative to styling techniques. It takes a few weeks for your natural oils to balance. Because I was shampooing for nearly my entire life, I figured it is only reasonable that my hair might require some time to get used to baking soda and it's natural oils. If you are not willing to give your hair 2-3 weeks of adjustment time, then don't use baking soda. If, however, your patience and desire for healthier hair and less consumption are governing your overall choices, washing with baking soda is for you.

I have been using a lap top lately and loving it. It's not mine. I am sure going to miss not having one. As I write this, I am lounging. Awww, so convenient.

So a few cool things. I went to a meditation workshop this last weekend. I am already noticing my life improving. I never thought of myself and meditation being friends because my mind wonders. Now I accept mind wonderings as part of the process and have stopped judging it. I find that I enjoy meditation much more now. If you want to read more check out: thepeacefulyou.blogspot.com

I have a birth coming up the first part of March. I am quite excited anytime I get the opportunity to doula. Also, two of my sisters are having their babies in the spring. I have been there for Heather's last two births as a sister. It will be a new experience to serve a doula.

Last night I went to a benefit concert in an underground venue in Provo. It was so cool. The atmosphere was very chic and hip. Provo has a fun underground music and art scene. It would be nice to get more involved in some of the underground workings in Provo.

I've said it before, and I will say it over and over again, Netflix rocks. Recently I watched No Impact Man, The Gerson Miracle, and The Picture of Dorian Gray (I attempted the book, as it's a classic. The writing was very detailed and intense, but I may have ruined my desire to finish the book after watching the movie. Why?!) I would highly recommend both No Impact Man and The Gerson Miracle.

I hope the rest of you are finding fun ways to survive the end of the winter season. It is almost springtime. The grass is showing. The shift is coming and I am ready!

I resolve

Life is about mastering who you are, or some say, remembering who you are. We are all amazing beings with great power and we forget that because....because so many reasons. Reasons that are fed to you from 'the world', community, and family. There is a risk in remembering or mastering yourself and it's not failure. It is much easier to slip into the background and not follow your heart. I resolve to being more authentic. To reclaim who I am, to listen to my heart and then obey it. I resolve to let go of other people's opinions of me and close out the chaos that keeps me stuck in patterns and places that don't serve me. Lastly, I resolve to have fun, laugh more, and seek out joy.