Tuesday, May 3, 2011

I married into Music

     Some women marry into money. I married into music, good music at that. The first time I met Paul Cannon he attempted to serenade me with his guitar and singing skills :-) Though he was a little drunk and off key, I could hear that there was talent inside.... little did I know that this man would become my life and I would watch him grow and flourish as a musician over the next 7 years. 
 
Brett Dennen – Wednesday September 21stBrett has headlined every major city in the United States, Europe and Australia and has been hand-picked by a "who's who" of his contemporaries including John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews and O.A.R. to support tours. This is a MUST SEE SHOW.

CALL (858) 534-4109 FOR TICKETS

Paul Cannon1jpg.jpg
    
      There is a stigma placed on male musicians...that a grown man should have a steady paying job. And as most musicians know... it is a long road to steady paying gigs. I am aware that my family and friends do not quite understand why I am working and why Paul is staying home with Ash and pursuing his love for music. (I would like to add, as any stay at home parent knows, it is a job in itself to be with your child all day and Paul does a lot more than just "music")
 But.... I am a believer in dreams and that a life lived outside of doing what we love is a life of shallow sadness. I knew I married into music and that means more than waking up to and falling asleep to constant melody and guitar picking... it meant scrapping by and saving date night for local shows to be there and support Paul. It means late nights in the studio, it will probably mean me staying home to continue working while Paul and band have their 1st tour.... but it also means...
Ash will grow up seeing that WE do not give up on our dreams and that if you work hard, you CAN create the world you want. I look forward to all the other unknowns that I married into. 
I also look forward to this show in September. I am proud to say Paul Cannon Band will be opening for the AMAZING!!!! Brett Dennen!!!! Brett is sooo talented and I look forward to meeting him. Our path is beginning to cross with many beautiful people and I am excited to see what manifests next. Much gratitude.....

2011 Green Flash Prices



General Admission/Standing-Room Only

General admission (with RSVP): $25 per concert ($120 season pass)
Gate admission (all): $30 per concert 

 Call (858) 534-4109 for tickets

www.paulcannonband.com

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Manifestation ~ Affirmations

     VooDoo shmoodoo.... Positive affirmations have more power in them than a lot of people want to give credit. Manifesting positive outcomes and situations or connections in our lives is something that CAN be done! You may say voodoo but I have seen evidence in my life and lives around me. SO I am creating a collection of positive manifestation photos.... What do I see in my future? 

     This isn't about "things," having nice things or having more than what I have now but rather, what do I see my life looking like... feeling like. I have a feeling inside as we all do... a feeling we strive to create each day in our families and world. My feeling looks like this;


























So this is the beginning of my dream collage... 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Releasing emotions... I owe Pablo an apology P.S. Fibromiagia is bullshit!



I cleaned out my cupboards. 
Today was my 4th week for my RAW journey. I find myself asking what is happening to me? Amazing and scary things....things I read about...heard about. But like anything...when it actually happens we find ourselves doubting...questioning. 
I read about the emotions that come out with the raw food diet... 
Supposedly we carry negative emotions and toxins in our FAT! As we "release" the fat we also "release" the toxins. Hormones....and toxins released into the blood can make for some cranky moments. Today I lost control over my emotions... fear, pain, anger, self-loathing and rage came out. 
So I tried to focus on the positive of this emotional meltdown...which is I AM detoxing! Shit is coming out!!!! Shit I do not want!!!! Sorry Pablo...thanks for your patience with me today. 
Some really cool things have happened too.... the heals on my feet have been dry for a few years. I have to get pedicures and use pumice rocks to keep my heals smooth... I had read that cracked heals are a sign of nutrient deficiency. 
Well.... the cool thing is that my heals are now smooth and not cracked... they feel like  I had a pedicure and put on some good foot lotion.....but I did neither. My body is healing...rebuilding. I am being change!


I cleaned out my cupboards and made my raw foods accessible. I have my blender, juicer, food processor, dehydrator and super foods all where I can easily get to them. 
The two questions I continue being asked are; what do I eat and where do I get my protein? 
Well... 
Breakfast; I make a juice with beats, spinach, celery and carrots. I also have a smoothy with kale, spinach, tomato, avocado, banana, and a nectarine or berries. Some days I eat a raw sprouted gRAWnola with an almond milk and berries....if I am feeling hungry. 
Throughout the day I snack on nuts and avocados if I am at work. 
Lunch; I make a salad....the most amazing salad ever! This is usually what I make for lunch and dinner. 





A mix of greens and spinach, broccoli, carrots, sprouts, brussel sprouts, tomato, cilantro, avocado, raw sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, raw cranberries, cashews and walnuts. I use liquid brags salad dressing...it's raw with amino acids and apple cider vinegar. 
Dessert; if needed... raw coco grawnola. I also make ice cream with coco powder and avocado....

Ok.... protein. Its in sooo many things! It is such a lie that we need meat or dairy products to get our protein. Broccoli has a grip if it... so do nuts and avocados. 


A lot of times in the first few days or weeks of raw people think they are dizzy from a lack of protein... it can be a few things but I thought it was interesting that when the blood has a lot of toxins being dumped into it...the blood thins out to filter through the liver faster (to be cleansed of the toxins) the thinned out blood can make a person feel light headed or dizzy. 

SO what the hell is Fibromialgia? 
Wide spread mussel and join pain. And I have a theory. If toxins are stored in our fat.... and by going raw to release those toxins from the fat...loosing the weight and riding the body of those toxin, this supposedly cures the Fibromialgia... then my theory if that the toxins are what cause the "widespread mussel pain" which I think is really "fat pain". Fat feels like our mussel.... and ya my fat hurts, or did hurt. 
If we keep putting toxins into our body via shity foods...medications, fluoride, vaccines etc... our fat can only hold so much. So we either make new fat or we max out the fat we have.... I think thats what Fibromialgia is. JUST AN OPINION.... lets not get feisty. 
If you lived with the pain of this "disease" for as long as I did...and you found a cure... yes a CURE! I think you would tell as many people as you could. 

So for all my friends friends that are being sent to my blog because you have been diagnosed with Fibomialgia... thanks for taking the time to check out what I am trying. I hope you think about it and just look into it. 

"Man can only live about 40 days without food, about 3 days without water. about 8 minutes without air, but only for 1 second without hope."

I'd rather "starve" then to live without hope, being defeated each day by the pain and exhaustion of a disease. 








Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Rawness....not for the light hearted. A story of my journey to cure my Fibromialgia



Ok, so I am officially NOT a good blogger.... 
I spend a lot of time reading but it seems impossible to make time to blog...but here I am. 
I want to share how my raw journey is going...for anyone interested in all that is transpiring. 

So 19 days ago I chose to take on the raw vegan diet for 6 months to cure my fibromialgia/chronic fatigue syndrome. The raw vegan diet consists of eating uncooked organic vegetables, soaked and or sprouted seeds and organic fresh fruit. I also bought a dehydrator to dehydrate fruits, gRAWnola and veggies/nuts. WHY?
When I was 17 I had an onset of an audo-immune disease that went undiagnosed for years. 
After a slew of vaccines that were required to move to the Philippines (something I did at 18) I had to move home a few months later from various infections and audio-immune deficiencies. I was told I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and that I needed anti-depressants. My mom declined and I moved on. For the next 10 years I would be hospitalized a handful of times, I had countless ER visits, job loss from my immune system attacking itself when hours got long and tons of frustration as each Dr. had a different conclusion. 
A few years ago I had a colonoscopy. The Dr.s found; proctitis, mesenteric adenitis, diberticulosis, polyps, and internal hemorrhoids. I was told I has the intestines of a 65 year old and that my polyps could become cancerous in 3 years. WAKE UP! What the hell. A 26 year old with these problems? We ate organic? We didn't eat McDonalds? Why then?
So I went gluten free. 

A year later I had my repeat colonoscopy and everything was gone!!!!
So, why could my body heal itself? How did it heal itself. The Dr.s didn't believe me. They said there had to have been a mistake and I didn't actually have diberticulosis the year prior...because diberticulosis doesn't go away. Well it did. I have the photos from both colonoscopies to prove it. 
After the colonoscopy #1 I had found a good General Practictioner... she saw me each month and finally diagnosed me with fibromialgia. I will still say on record that she is a good Dr. but she just doesn't know any better. (story is coming)
When I was diagnosed and when all the stomach problems were exposed by the colonoscopy...I was put on a coctail of meds. Oxycotin, percocet, somas, wellbutrin, phenergan for nausia from all the other meds, zoloft, and a few more I cant remember. (all at the same time) I would like to say that the meds helped with the pain and I was able to exercise and loose a lot of weight (65 lbs) but at the end of that I was left physically dependent on a lot of meds. My fibromialgia and stomach problems were better from being gluten free but I still had the fibromialgia and a dependency on pain pills. 
We all have a choice in life to go with the flow of how things are unraveling and accept them, or we can choose the life we want to live and make changes to get there. 
I choose to not be on meds. I choose to not be sick. I choose to do all I can to heal my body. I am sick of being sick.
So.... I have been 100% off all pain meds for a while now. I am freshly off the anti-depressnats/anti-anxiety meds....and I would like to say I can not tell the slightest bit of a difference. 
I inject B12 daily and I am on one last med for Fibromialgia...but it goes next. 
My goal is to be off all meds except the B12 shots by May. 
So far eating raw has been positive and negative. I have to learn what true hunger feels like. 
There is a raw energy that comes over you when you eat this way. I feel light, sustained, connected to myself, God and the earth. I feel like anything is possible. 
My fibromialgia pain is almost obsolete. 
Odd things are happening too. If you have read this far on this blog then I am hoping you wont be too grossed out by my next story. 


     I started loosing blood clots the size of my hands night before last... lots of them. Like 30 or 40 now I have lost. I couldn't control the bleeding and had to leave work to go to the ER yesterday because I thought I was having a miscarriage. Well it turns out the blood clots are the elimination of old endometrium lining in the vaginal tract and uterus. Gross right. All this blood was just kicking it in me? 
I've lost 9 pounds so far... how much old fibroid tissue will I loose from this? How amazing though that by eating the food we should be eating...my body is freaking out this much. It makes me want to stick to it. I have had 2 surgeries for cysts on my ovaries... I have had some fibroid problems....how amazing that I didn't have to have my uterine wall scraped but I just had to eat raw for 3 weeks. CRAZY! 
SO... here I am. 3 weeks in, 9 pounds lighter, almost off all meds, my skin is clearing up. 
People ask me all the time why I would want to eat raw vegan...they want to know if I am dying for some hot real food. Funny...what we think "real food" is. 


The raw vegan diet works to cure your body because it frees up the natural enzymes in your own body to work right. Once you have those enzymes and you aren't overloading your system with cooked or processed foods, the body is able to release the toxins stored in your fat cells. The toxins get stored in the fat cells because the body hasn't had the right enzymes to break them down for who knows how many years. Americans eat more than their body can digest and our food doesn't have the enzymes needed to break itself down...and the body has taken all it can from the natural reserve of enzymes so....what happens? The toxins from the food store as fat. Why are so many americans fat? Why is there so much cancer? 
So eating raw allows your body to release those toxins into your blood....burning away the fat and getting rid of the toxins. Thus curing the fibromiaglia...which I and many others believe is not a disease it is a build up of toxins in the mussel and fat tissues in the body. This is why I think my vaccines were a large part in my onset of it. 
I am excited to see what comes about. I am too excited to give up thats for sure. Am I uncomfortable? YES! Is that a good thing....I think so.

"A life lived that matters is not of circumstance but of choice."

"For each of us, it will one day come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will be passed to someone else.
Your fame, your wealth and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or owed.
Your grudges, frustrations and jealousy will finally disappear.
So to your hopes, ambitions, plans and to do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It will not matter where you came from, or what side of the tracks you lived.
At the end it won't matter if you are beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought but what you built.
Not what you got but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.
What will matter is that every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that empowered enriched or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew but how many will feel a lasting loss when you are gone.
What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those that learned to love from you.
A life lived that matters is not of circumstance but of choice."










Monday, January 31, 2011

Sponge Bobs in my whoohaa





Ok.... sure most of us want to jump on board with the whole Eco movement. While others have been doing it a bit longer than some.... I just had to post about this product.
Yes its Sponge Bob and he goes in your whoohaa....and for over 6 months at that. 
I came home from work and my husband surprised me with his "thoughtful gift"... While most men have a hard time buying kotex my man bought me a sea creature for the vag. Initial reaction? Yuck! Really Paul? What were you up to while I was at work that made you find and buy this thing? 
After my initial grossed outness over Sponge Bob... I thought I'd check out the product. 





 
In all truthfulness...it's a pretty cool company. I'll leave the link for any curious freaks out there.

SO will I try it? 
Maybe.
And maybe just like the cartoon.... Sponge Bob is a little weird and creepy at 1st
but... 
if you give him a chance, he's not that bad. 

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Smell of Dirt! an update on my meeting with Eric

Today I found inspiration in the dirt between my toes. 
Some people love the smell of flowers, or women (come on boys you know you do) while others love the smell of cookies or babies. 
I love the smell of dirt. 
For some reason it has been my favorite smell since my first job harvesting flowers at the Humming Bird farm in Washington State. I have spent my fare share of time in the dirt. Picking lavender in the fields of Sweet Water Lavender Farms with Joanna Thome the summer before our Junior year; working under the green house roof at Sally's Garden while Washington's rain poured like a symphony overhead; digging holes in Murrieta as my school service; and my favorite dirt of all.... living in a barn for 8 months and working as an in-turn in Organic Farming at The Rosehip Farm and Garden on Whidbey Island. 


My most peaceful moments have been in a field or crouched under shrubs pulling weeds. 
Now I live an urban existence, where peace comes in other forms. 
But today I stood with dirt between my toes...well more like dust. Eric Shepard of O'Connell Maintenance and I met to look over the land I singled out on my complexes grounds. What an amazing guy! He has a love for community and putting gardens in them. Last summer when I met him, he took me to like 5 different gardens through out San Elijo that he and his company put in. Usually Eric works with the homeowner associations of the more upscale neighborhoods in the area but has been kind enough to give me his time to help me with the proposal for my garden project. 
He liked the land I picked so now I need to build and interest list from my neighbors to see who is interested in being a part of the garden. Erick will draw up a bid and proposal for my complex and hopefully....fingers crossed, I will be smelling dirt a little closer to home here soon. 


My dream.... that this will work and I will have learned enough to move onto another subsidized apartment complex and help put in another community garden there....and another and another and another, until we fill this town with them.
If you find yourself inspired like I was to start a community garden project, a great website to check out is;
http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/starting-a-community-garden.php






here is the land I hope to plant on!