It has been a number of years guys. 

In a nutshell, I've moved twice, had a baby and changed my work. 

And I got married. Did I ever post about that? 

Anyway, I've been feeling encouraged and motivated lately, so I'm going to blog a little bit, see how it goes and maybe blog a little more :)

Costco Organics

Last week I found an excellent deal at Costco

Oraganic mixed greens for $2 a box

That's right, $2

So, I bought as much as I thought we could consume and got straight to work

Apparently, cold lettuce makes less foam in a juicer, but I forgot 

about that until I was already separating the foam out

I'm not really a hardcore veggie juice drinker (although I absolutely love celery juice) 

So I mixed half and half with some sweet fruit juice. Mmmm

4 boxes of lettuce make this much juice, plus a half cup that I drank

This morning Jacob and I got up really early to take a walk up Makapu'u.

I was trying to capture the whole width of the sun rays

That is Molokai'i

Then we took really long naps.

I've had the best of luck today

 I got 5 out of 6 siblings on the phone to just say "hi", all in one morning! The sixth I talked to a few days ago. It's been a great morning!

Great dog/human training

I came across these Victoria Stillwell videos for dog training this morning while I was watching ninja babies
(I got to those by looking for face dancing videos)
and I am very impressed. Not only is the information distilled to bite sized pieces, but her philosophy mirrors what I have come to believe about mammal education. Yay for other species and the gift of education they give us!

So, I made it

through the weekend to my appointment with the doctor today, thanks to that lovely garlic and a steady dose of painkillers. And netflix. Thank you again, Jeanne. The garlic didn't get rid of the infection, but helped to control it until I could get some antibiotics. I was prescribed two. One in drop form to stick in my ear, and one in tablet form to stick in my belly. That's the one that's going to make me feel queezy, but I am just so freaking grateful because I have never

( in my memory)

 experienced an ear infection like this. The doctors assistant was really nice, told me start taking probiotics right away and asked if the over the counter pain meds were enough. Since I don't usually have much pain

(which is why I'm such a baby about it right now)

I really have no cause to take them ever

(I had to go buy some just for the occasion because I didn't even have any at home)

(did you know they recalled Exedrin? That was my favorite for migraines but the pharmacist at Safeway told me it's been recalled)

so they are working fantastic!

(I just took the one with caffeine, can you tell?)

So, back to Netflix, I've been sitting here watching a collection of Ted Talks called Smart laughs and through it was directed to this great site by Ze Frank. He has this awesome drawing tool called the scribbler,

(try it out! It makes anything you draw look cool!)

and a creative challenge of the day to mix two emotions together and thereby make a new emotion.

(my favorite is:

Ennuit: (Pronounced "On Wheat") The state of being soul-wrenchingly bored but also a little hungry.

So funny! Because ennuit is the french word for boredom, but if you pronounce it in an american accent it sound like on wheat which is food.... HAHAHAHA! 

Ahh. I love the internet and I love that other people love it way more than I do and so make great little interesting things on it that I can peruse at my leisure.

Maybe it's just my imagination, but I think I feel better already!

Dear Jeanne,

Thank you so much for letting me use your Netflix account, please feel free to kick me off anytime.

My friend Brandon told me a few years ago (while he and Natalia were living here) that his friend had been part of a research study at BYU that discovered that fresh garlic, within an hour of being crushed, is a more effective anti-bacterial than penicillin. (If you want better references than that, I'll have to ask him for more details.)

I've had this swimmers ear infection for almost 42 hours. I've been resting, drinking fluids, applying lavender and clove and rosemary and eucalyptus essential oils about every hour topically and also down my throat to prevent the spread of infection into my throat. I've been managing the pain with ibuprofen and Safeway brand acetaminophen based pain reliever. Taking hot hot showers and icing my face. I'm really trying to avoid antibiotics, because I feel pretty crummy in my tummy for a few weeks every time I take them. (The last time I had antibiotics was a couple of years ago and I am very grateful to have had them.)

Despite my efforts, the swelling was slowly getting bigger and though I was avoiding developing a sore throat, it was slowly pushing my jaw to the right. That's super annoying when you'd really like to eat solid foods. Feeling crummy, with none of my food plans quite working out, Jacob and I treated ourselves to some hot and delicious Thai coconut soup. I couldn't even chew the rice. I put it in the Vitamix. Gross. don't ever do that, at least not with the rice.

When I thought I had failed at recovery at self healing and was preparing myself emotionally to head to the emergency room, (9 o'clock on the Saturday before Easter - note, I actually did call and make a doctors appointment earlier in the day, just to be safe, but they couldn't fit me in until Monday-) and feeling defeated, Jacob suggested we try a tiny bundle of freshly crushed garlic wrapped in a piece of paper towel in my outer ear, just to see.

Let me just say, fresh garlic in your ear, even through a paper towel, stings like the dickens and burns like fire! For about 10 minutes. I don't think this would work with kids.

Then, miracle of miracles, my infection started to shrink! I felt different emotionally, like I had a tiny little warrior on my side inside my head, brave and brassy and ready for combat, and I could feel the infection drawing back in surprise and confusion. Over the next half hour, I felt the swelling in my ear and jaw diminish to about half the size! Amazing. I fell asleep and woke up just 20 minutes ago to replace my garlic bundle, which brings me back to the stinging and burning and thank you Jeanne, for letting me use your Netflix account to distract myself with the BBC documentary The Lost Kingdoms of Africa.

As for me, I'm feeling great. I have a little heaven sent warrior in my ear beating up the bugs that have infested my head.