Daphne in Beijing

Here is Daphne packing for her trip.

She won a gold medal in triathlon which in kitty olympics consists of 100 meter sprint, high jump, and nap time.

Tubing

On Saturday a big group of us went tubing for my friend Lacy's birthday.  Lacy is from Louisiana and we met through my friend Casey when we went to Jazz Fest in New Orleans (I don't want to leave Danielle out who went on the trip as well:).  Anyways, we all had a great time and have been friends ever since.  Lacy's family even came up from Louisiana to celebrate her birthday; and they really know how to party.  Her dad, Ted, is full of hilarious sayings and left me laughing about "can sandwiches" all day.

The company we went with was Up the River Outfitters on GA 20 (www.uptheriveroutfitters.com) and it only costs $12 per person which is really cheap for a whole day of fun.  It is an all day event though-we got there at about 11:30 am and tailgated for a while waiting for tubes.  By the time we got back to our cars at the end of the day it was 5:30pm but there is nothing more relaxing than floating very slowly in a tube with your friends and a cooler full of beer. 

Eco-friendly Cleaning Products

One of the things that I am passionate about is the environment.  I think our earth is a beautiful and fascinating place and I want to keep it that way-or at least not take a part in destroying it.  One way that I have found to reduce my carbon footprint is by buying non-toxic, biodegradable soaps, detergents, and cleaning products.  The reason is that most cleaning products that you find in the average home (including mine) have chemicals and toxins that are harmful to your body, especially your respiratory system.  In addition, these chemicals and toxins eventually find their way to lakes, streams, and oceans via the sewer system and they kill marine flora and fauna which I find devastating and so does our earth.

I'm not saying that I'm perfect; for example, there are certain products that are not yet produced in a non-toxic, biodegradable form and I do still continue to buy some of those products.  My philosophy is that if I am aware of a situation in which I can reduce my damage to our environment and I choose not to do anything about it then that is just ignorance.  It's even easier than you may think to find these products at places where you shop every week and I have found that most are the same price as what we're used to buying.

Here are some examples of my favorite brands and products and I have found all of these at Publix and Target (except for maybe the Aveda).

The brand is Method and I love the daily shower cleaner.

I use the Green Works toilet bowl cleaner and it smells like lime!

This laundry detergent and dish washing soap comes in scents like lavender and eucalyptus.  It's made by Seventh Generation.

Even shower gel can help the environment and I love this one in honey mango but it comes in lavender too if that's more your style.

Aveda products are plant based and the "be curly" line helps me stay "the curl next door".

Honeymoon in Mexico

Tony and I decided to go to Mexico on our honeymoon.  As a Spanish teacher I have made it a goal to go to at least one Spanish-speaking country each year and I had never been to our closest neighbor to the south, Mexico.  Tony didn't want to be "typical" and go to the Yucatan (I did) so we went to Puerto Vallarta on the west coast.  The city is pretty cool; it is situated on the Bay of Banderas and no matter where you are on the beach you can see the circular shape of the coastline as it curves around the bay.  It is also quite mountainous and slopes rather quickly from coastline to steep mountains.  The downside is that PV is a port of call for many cruise ships meaning that the locals are used to making money off of dumb American tourists and you get hassled quite a bit when in town.

Tony and I stayed at two different hotels while in PV.  This was not the original plan.  Originally we booked a beautiful, exotic, hotel off the beaten path.  When Mr. "atypical" arrived to an influx of breeding crabs and no air conditioning, the "typical" hotel that we both thought to be boring and lame was suddenly the object of our envy.  So we relocated.

Please enjoy these pictures of the crabs (we had to have proof so nobody would think we were exaggerating and not as cool as we think we are) and of the rest of our romantic and relaxing vacay. 

The Newlywed Life

Well, I am now a newlywed.  My husband, Tony, and I have been together for almost seven years and we just got married in June.  The best part is that everything is pretty much the exact same as it was before we got married.  We have lived together for a year now so the adjustment period when I wondered what I was getting myself into has already passed. 

The wedding was really quite awesome.  Before being engaged myself I had been a part of a few weddings and because it wasn't my wedding I really didn't understand what all the hype was about.  I didn't think it was worth all the stress, planning, and money and I had plans for a small, casual wedding.  It did remain pretty small and I didn't go overboard with the budget but I did get a lot more in to the planning than I thought I would.  I actually had fun; so much so that as Tony and I wasted away on the beach in Mexico for our honeymoon I found myself depressed that it was over and already asking Tony when we could do it all over again and renew our vows.  His response was typical: "Can we at least make it home from the honeymoon first?"

Here are a few pictures of our special day.