The Quiet Life of Violet

An Essential Oil Weekend

Hi friends!

This past weekend I was lucky enough to hear Robbert Tisserand speak about Essential Oil at The Nova Studio! He is supposedly THE go-to guy for all thing essential oil, and after spending two solid days trying to absorb the knowledge he shared with all 18 of us students, I can tell why. He is full of so much information almost everything dream team. And he has an english accent, too. Accents always make thing a bit more fun!

 

The first day was spent mostly on the chemistry of essential oils and the constituents (bits that make up each individual E.O.). I'm talking straight up, college chemistry/oxygen/carbon/cell structure science. You may or may not know this, but it's been YEARS since I've studied anything that has to do with hardcore chemistry , and even when I DID study it, most of it went in one ear and out the other. I was more of an art major. I'll take a big ball of terra cotta clay and an electric wheel over carbon bonds any day.

 

So, yes. We learnt of plant chemistry, which plants/herbs/oils shared similar constituents (we only touched on this briefly, but I found it SO fascinating that two completely different essential oils can be so close in makeup!), the different types of glands in plants that create and store the E.O.s, defensive and attractive chemistry in plants (plant pheromones!), methods of extracting the E.O.s , concretes, absolutes, blends, and the list goes on. I don't know when the last time I actually desired to research or understand organic chemistry, but ever since Saturday, my curiosity keeps knocking. Yikes! Go me!

 

Students behind me.

 
(Meanwhile, back at home...)

After saturday's class, I met up with my friend Cassie and her husband Nick. Cassie and Nick generously offered to put me up for the night so that I wouldn't have to drive the hour home and then turn around early the next morning and drive back. (Gas prices suck, y'all.) We went out to my (our!) favorite Thai place for dinner, then hit up the local (healthy!) mini-mart for snacks. We played a rousing game of The Amazing Labyrinth (I kicked butt! Beginners luck, though) and then watched the first three episodes of The Walking Dead. I've only seen the first season once (and maybe not even the whole season) and they had never seen it, so we powered through and watched 1-3. I loved it and Nick loved it and poor Cassie kept making excuses to go to the bathroom when she wasn't huddled behind her pillow, eyes peeking over the top. Her nervousness was making me nervous and there were a few moments when I totally got scared! Gah! So good, but so scary. I decided to soothe myself my leftover Thai food and some candy. It totally worked.

 

We crawled into our beds around 1 or 1:30am and I was so loving it. I had worn my leg ALL day and just being cozy in bed (your guest bed rocks, Cass!) was perfect. I didn't even have any zombie dreams, either. I remeber the last part of my dream being violent, but no zombies. I woke up around 8:30 and made mental excuses as to why I needed to stay in bed for another 15 minutes and did. Good old InstaGram is happy to help kill 15 minutes anytime of day! We had scrambled eggs and ham for breakfast, piping hot tea, plus muffins and toast. Perfect way to start off my second day of the seminar.

 

Sunday was all about skin and the saftey, uses, remedies made with and application of the oils! No chemistry. Hallelujah! We were shown slides as to why you don't smear full strength essential oil on your skin. And then we we shown slides as to why you don't smear and then GO LAY IN A TANNING BED. (Good grief, people. Common sense and responsibility!)

 

Robert was a hoot.

At the end of the day, Robert had given us a pretty hefty rundown on most (not all, because you can only do so much in two days!) of what there was to know about essential oils. I had my questions answered regaurding pregnancy, breastfeeding and childhood and the oils. I now know preicesly what oils are safe and which to avoid using in my products. BAM. After months of my own research, and 40 years of his, I'm in the know, friends!

 

The Little Artist/Surgeon/Amaze-baby

 

 

So, my 16 month old son holds crayons like this. He'll pick the crayon up and move it around until he's got a nice little grip on it and then goes to work. He holds things like a grown up! Where has my little baby gone?

He also likes to eat the crayons, so his baby genius title only goes so far. ;)

Oh! He learned how to say "one" and does the finger motion, too! He loves to flush the toilet and say, "bye-bye!"  He blows kisses. *melts* He's on the verge of being able to say "I-N-G-O" as in Bingo and is IN LOVE with the outdoors. He is impatient and demanding, but I'm assuming that it is a kid thing. I'm HOPING that it's a kid thing! Gah!

 

5 to 6:30pm is what we call 'The Witching Hour' 'round these parts.  God save your soul if you're around us then. I have been known to call Dustin on the verge of tears during The Witching Hour.  It's caused partly by his hunger (snack time) and partly by his tiredness (even though he refuses to take a second nap). I'm tired around then, too, and I have to start getting dinner ready and it's usually just this big turd on top of our (normally) good day. But it's our turd and I still love and appreciate the time, even if it drives me crazy.

I can't believe that Roman will be a year and a half old in December. It goes by so fast and so slow at the same time!  It seems like just yesterday that he looked like this:

Motherhood is amazing!

Have a good Friday, friends!

Xoxo,
Violet

 

 

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How Did I...

... get so lucky?

 

We had an awesome anniversary yesterday. Bubby took the day off and we had a family morning filled with pajama time breakfast for the boys (mommy got to sleep in!), accordion playing (Roman was like, "WTH is that, guys?"), a quick visit to Mom's (nut hut!) and then a late morning visit with my In-Laws. We chatted for a bit and Boop went down for his nap the. Dustin and I set off to enjoy a day of anniversary activities, holding hands like we were 16 again. I got red roses (aww!) and we got pampered (he at the barber and I at the nail place), we had $1.50 fish tacos at Rubio's for lunch, then scampered around the Halloween store* and then saw Looper at the $5 Tuesday movie at The Rave. Five bucks for adult admissions ALL DAY LONG. Ummm.. We've vowed to make it a habit to have Tuesday date nights more often!

 

After the movie, we hurried home and got all fancy for our annual Anniversary dinner at Benihana. I am in love with that place. It blows my mind and I end up with leftovers, which are beyond awesome. I'm fighting my urges to hop out of bed and go poke around the fridge right this second.

 

We topped our night off with a donut from Krispy Kreme (which my stomach will hate me for tomorrow) and a quick stop in to Old Navy. I can't find pants there that don't look like crap on me there. They all hit me right in the middle of my baby-making hips and look so unflattering. Maybe it's the cut?

 

So, yes, we had a great time and I kept staring at my Husband's freshly cut hair and giving him oogly eyes. He's so freaking handsome. And he's all mine. SCORE!

 

Have a good one,

Vi

 

*rant: What the hell is up with the pre-teen slutty costumes? Why does an eight/nine/ten/eleven/twelve year old need to wear a short shirt and knee high stockings?. Seriously? Am I super old fashioned or... what? Would you let your pre-teen wear one of these?

Eight!

**Momma doesn't have any pictures of their pre-digital camera / post high school / college phase era uploaded and it's far too late to go rummaging through boxes of photos. Let's just say that there was a lot of loafing around, MMORPG -ing  ((if you know what that is, YOU ARE AWESOME)), working at an Amish furniture store together, movie going, date-nighting and sneaking around doing "fun" things. We had a BLAST.**

 

 

 

 

 

Simple Things: On/Off

Light and fan switches and strategically placed couches.
Ten minutes of toddler occupation - totally worth the living room rave.

p.s. - We are having an insanely warm October here in Northern California. It's supposed to rain on today, though! Eeeeekkk! Storm weather!

p.p.s - Even though you can't see it, our couch cushions are dotted with toddler teething-drool spots that leave the couch looking stained. Anyone know how to remedy that? I may have to go all My Big Fat Greek Wedding and bust out a bottle of windex.

A Sickie Friday

Yesterday was a sick day. Thursday evening, I had this feeling of impending scratchy throat doom, so when I woke up with total throat-al pain, I called my Daddy and asked if he could take Roman for the day. Dad's "weekend" off days are Thursday and Friday, which both sucks and is a blessing at the same time. Yesterday it was a major blessing.

Thursday night.

 

I don't like being sick. I don't like being tired beyond belief and having a sniffly nose and pain when I swallow. I don't like headaches and achy bodies. But, then again, who does? You'd think that with all of the chemo and surgeries and nausea and low blood counts, that I'd be used to it or at least not bothered by simple illnesses as much. Yeah, no. I'm a total weenie and whine and sniffle and pity party my way through a baby cold.

Friday morning.

I also have this total germ phobia. Maybe not a TOTAL phobia, but it's no lie that's I've chased people down in my house with a bottle of Purell when something is going around. I think I know WHY I get like that. My reasoning is: if I stay away from germs and don't get sick, my immune system will stay strong and be able to fight off any random cancer cells that might still be floating around in my body. No cancer cells = no cancer = I get to stay alive. It's funny how a cold takes me down that road in my head, huh?

So, yeah. Whine-y sicko day. Dustin dropped Roman off at Dad's in the morning. He played with my sister and brother and Dad all day and then saw Mom once she got off of work. He has a little kid work bench over there with a fake saw and hammer and all that and he just had a blast. He picked fresh, sweet peppers from Dad's pepper plants and munched on them. Mom said he ate three. He chowed down on Dad's homemade pickles. Went for walks. Played with the puggies. He just had a blast.

Auntie thought it would be a good idea to pull his luscious baby locks up into ponytail. Ummmm...

 

 

 

I'm so glad he had a good time. I stayed in pajamas all day, watched Bridesmaids, Grey's Anatomy, Extreme Couponing (no double couponing in California... WTH?!), heated up left overs for sustenance, drank lots of tea, blew my nose, tried to ignore the giant pimple on my cheek, went on Facebook, read GOMI (my dirty little obsession), laid under a blankie and napped. All day. How boring is that, though? I was so bored with laying on the couch, which is HILARIOUS because I normally dream about getting to lay around the house all day. Not the same when you feel crappy, though.

 

 

Early Friday evening, my Mother in Law gave me a call and let me know that she had a whole dinner cooked and ready for Dustin to pick up on his way home, if we were interested. Hell yes we were interested! Dustin gets frustrated making fish sticks from a box and I had 0% desire to cook anything, so it was definitely a blessing.

Dustin, with Roman in tow, got home around 7:30p.m. Dustin popped into the tub with Roman for his nightly bath and then promptly put him down for bed. After that, he served us dinner and we caught up with The Office and Parks & Recs, two of our favorite shows.

An early bedtime for me. Well I GOT into bed early and then watched a few episodes of Extreme Couponing on Netflix. (I can't get over how much STUFF people can get for free or nearly free. Most of it's crap, though. soda and prepackaged snacks and bath and body products full of chemicals and crap. I want to see an extreme couponer get freakin' a $1,000 worth of organic shit from Trader Joe's. That would blow my mind.)

I woke up Saturday and felt like I was getting better, pushing through the itchy, nose blowing and coughing stuff up phase of my cold. Thanks heaven. I'm still tired and didn't object to Dustin telling me I had to go lay down around noon. He visited his parents (with Roman) all afternoon, so I had the house to myself again. After a repeat of the night before (bath and bed for Boopy), we ordered in Chinese food, which is a big deal to us with our new budget. (Can I just officially state how much I love not having to handle dinner? Seriously.) We watched The Hangover II, which was basically just the first one in a different country. Plus a She-Male. And a monkey. 

I'm hoping tomorrow (or today, if you're reading this on Sunday) I can get the grocery shopping done and shake off the last little bit of this cold that's dragging me down.

 

Stay well, friends!