Archive for 2012

Skin Care :)

Saturday, December 8, 2012

     Recently a few of my good friends have been reaching out to me about skin issues. As many of you know I battled severe acne for all of 2012. If you didn't know or "notice" then you'll enjoy the pictures below. I have had acne since I can remember, but nothing like this. This covered my face, neck, chest & back. Sexy, I know... And for you lucky people without skin issues, let me tell you, it is DEpressing! Most of my issues were hormonal from my 18 week pregnancy & then severe depression following. But regardless of why acne attacks your skin, this routine works! Over the years I have tried every face wash you can buy over the counter. Proactive did nothing. Dermalogica made it worse. And that stuff was expensive! I even used several gels prescribed from doctors. ALL of them increased my breakouts. I have never found anything that can compare to these products. And they're reasonably priced! Sounds to good to be true but I am living proof that it works.

 Rhonda Allison Beta Green Tea Cleanser - This stuff is UNbelievable! The product title will link you to the site that will provide more information on the products, but this particular cleanser is for acne. I personally have combination-oily skin. I saw results within the first week. You can purchase a travel/trial size, like the one pictured, for only $12. That size lasted me about 3 weeks. Just long enough to know that I had to have more! The standard size goes for $34 on Amazon. I would pay double for it if I had to. It lasts forever! I buy mine at Maribou hair salon in Folsom, Ca.

Bare Escentuals Matte Foundation - Old news right? Except that I have never ever had one break out from this stuff! I could sleep in it if I had to & never regret it. I used MAC for a while simply because I LOVE MAC products. But holy cow their face makeup sucks! It clogs pores instantly. I know some lucky women can use it, but I am not one of them. This cover up is only $27 and lasts forever! I will never use anything else. 

Clindamycin Phosphate & Benzoyl Peroxide Gel- So this one you can only get with a prescription. BUT it is the best one I have ever been prescribed. And it was the first one we started with at my first appointment. It is a white cream/gel that you can apply up to twice a day. I only use it once before bed. When I wake up, my face looks incredible. This little container only last for 3 months before it expires. Scary for me, our insurance switched to Kaiser so I will have to ask my new Kaiser doctor to prescribe it to me. Seems like a pain in the butt, but if you're struggling with your skin, it doesn't hurt to ask your doctor about it.

Now...The moment you've been waiting for...
BEFORE
Taken May 12, 2012 WITH makeup on. Look at my forehead, neck & chest... EW!

Taken May 4, 2012. DO YOU SEE MY FOREHEAD??? 

AFTER<3
Taken September 14, 2012

Taken October 28th, 2012 with NO face cover up on! 

Taken November 21, 2012. Can't hide anything with your hair in a bun.

     Well, there you have it! I hope this helps someone struggling with skin issues. I am beyond thankful for finding the Rhonda Allison Beta Green Tea Cleanser. That stuff changed my life. I will never use anything else! My next purchase will be their daily Raspberry Lotion for normal-combination skin! It sounds incredible!

A local Rocklin salon that carries the product is Joseph Anthony Salon & Spa. I would call prior to make sure the product is in stock. 
(916)435-9698

A local Roseville salon that carries the product is Charmed Salon in Downtown Roseville. I would call before driving there to make sure the product is in stock.
(916)772-3555 

A local Folsom salon that carries the product is Maribou Salon. Again, make sure you call before & confirm they have it in stock. 
(916)984-5555

Link to order the travel size cleanser online-Mini Beta Green Tea Cleanser $12

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Time Heals All Things

Thursday, December 6, 2012

***Before reading... I know this post is really long & drawn out, but there are only so many ways to tell a story in detail. Also pretty please excuse ALL spelling & grammar errors. I am not a writer so when I write these long posts I tend to get lost & start to stumble over my words. Thanks!***


     Wow! I can't believe 2012 is almost over... Where has the time gone? Crazy to think it has been a full YEAR since I found out I was pregnant! Time has just flown by. Thank god. Not exactly the best year of my life, & definitely one I will never forget. I never blogged in detail about how my surgery turned out & I'm not sure if people still want to know. But I guess it's like everything else I write, nothing more than sheer entertainment. I think we've all learned from Facebook that bored people will read trash about anything or anyone & misery truly loves company. Precisely why Facebook was/is such a great success. On the flip side, my family & few close friends really do follow my blog & enjoy the occasional updates. So with that being said, I will write what I said I would. 
     
     Obviously the last post of my pregnancy blog I left the whole situation in shambles. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to deliver the baby or have a D&E. Dilation & Evacuation. If you are unfamiliar with the procedure, google it. I warn you to NOT look at the Google Images. From all the support groups I had joined, the mothers of stillborns who decided to deliver said that it was the most horrendous day of their lives, but they would do it all over again to be able to hold their tiny baby for a moment & get the footprints & hand prints like you normally do with newborns. And for me, I wanted more than anything to have a "real" memory of our little girl. So just maybe, all the time I had invested wouldn't just fade away like most other memories. If I could just hold her for a second & get those prints of her feet, then everything we've been through over the past 5 months would have been worth it?... Doesn't make sense I know. Sounds crazy to me as I type it out. But pregnant emotional women never produce very rational thoughts or decisions. So I called my doctor & told her I wanted to deliver the baby. 
     
     Took me about 30 seconds after I hung up the phone to realize I had made the wrong decision. As badly as I wanted to hold her & see her for a brief moment, I couldn't do it. I didn't have the strength to be admitted to Sutter Roseville's Labor Delivery & be induced with Pitocin. I couldn't labor for hours until I was ready to push out my lifeless daughter, hold her for a moment & then say goodbye. I didn't want to sit in the hospital for 3 days crying hysterically. And I knew Eric wasn't ready for that either. I didn't want me first memory of L&D to be of that. Labor & delivery is known for being the happy part of a hospital. For me it would have been the morgue. So I called my doctor back about 2 minutes after I hung up the first time to tell her I changed my mind & I wanted a D&E. She was very taken back & knew then that I had no idea what I wanted & wasn't able to make a clear sound decision. She tried to talk me into thinking about it for another day but I was certain I just wanted this entire thing done with. 
     
     I waited a full week for my basic OBGYN to try to find a Doctor who could preform a my D&E. Felt like an eternity sitting on my recliner with a lifeless baby in my stomach just waiting for someone to take her out. At first I was disgusted! I could not get her out fast enough. But as the days past, I grew attached to her again & was scared to lose her. I was terrified to not be pregnant. But we were eventually paired up with Dr. Francis Chan from Sutter Memorial Hospital. He was my saving grace! One of the most amazing doctors I have ever met. He was compassionate, understanding, knowledgeable & made me his #1 priority. I met Dr. Chan on a Wednesday & surgery was scheduled for that Friday. 
   
     The following day on Thursday I was back at Dr.Chan's to start the 2 days process. He placed 5 laminaria sticks into my cervix to cause my to dilate. Laminaria sticks are small cylindrical sticks made of seaweed that expand with moisture. Holy OUCH! It took about 10 minutes for me to be in can't breathe, fetal position, excruciating pain. AND I now had to drive home from downtown Sacramento to Lincoln in bumper to bumper traffic. It took about an hour. I was profusely sweating & salivating trying not to throw up the entire time. It crossed my mind to pull over & call an ambulance from work to get me home but I was too stubborn. Thank god I made it home safe.
     
     I proceeded to have the worst night of my life. I sat in the recliner with a heating pad on my stomach popping 10mg of Norco every 2 hours. Forcing your cervix to dilate is no freaking joke. I was up all night & had to stop my Norcos at 7am because of my surgery. Somehow I survived. 
     
     My surgery was at 1pm on Friday. Eric, my friend Alison & I sat in the PreOp for what felt like hours. Lots of tears & emotions about what was to come. Dr.Chan was in an emergency surgery with another patient so he was running late. Around 5pm it was finally go time. I had only one request. I wanted to know if the baby was a boy or a girl. Dr.Chan's face went blank when I asked. He paused and then said something along the lines of, "Um yea, If I can."  I'm not sure if he was scared for my mental well being, or because the D&E is such a disfiguring procedure. If you googled it like I suggested earlier, than you know what I am referring to when I say disfiguring. It's awful.
     
     I was wheeled away on my hospital bed through the main halls of Sutter Memorial hysterically crying. The operating room was in what looked like a basement & there were at least 6 people in the room waiting for me. Dr. Chan let me squeeze his hand as they injected the Propofol. It felt like a knife! Apparently because the 18 gauge IV in my hand was placed in such a small vein. But I was finally out of my misery. 
     
     I woke up the same way I always do from surgery, shaking uncontrollably & crying. The shaking is a side effect of the anesthesia & the crying is usually from pain. I was groggy and in & out of consciousness, but I remember the nurse bringing Eric back to my bedside. He told me she was a baby girl! I remember being happy when he told me. Kind of a weird reaction but it was partially from being high, and partially because I wanted her to be a girl & I finally knew who was living in my belly all that time. 
     
     That night was better than expected. I was finally out of contracting pain! I felt like a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders. Finally we could move on with life. Or so I thought... Over the next few days I battled the breast milk that had arrived for the baby my body thought I had. And then the depression from hell kicked in...
     
     It's hard to remember now, but I spent a good 4-5 months hysterically crying, hating life, hating everyone & everything. Roughly from April to September 2012. I wanted to die. I was so angry with God. I was fat from being pregnant & had nothing to show for it. My skin was out of control. And Eric & I were constantly at each others throats. I was a TRAIN-WRECK to say the least!
     
     I have this amazing ability to block out traumatic memories so well that I never remember the facts quiet right again. A finely tuned skill I developed from my childhood. So I can't remember how I did it, but I survived. I would say it took around 6 months to feel like myself again. Somewhere around September 2012 I was finally happy.
     
     They never did find a reason why our little girls heart stopped beating... All of the tests they ran came back normal. I have a couple ideas but it's hard for me to fit in the time line of when everything happened. It was a 10 day period between a perfect healthy ultrasound, and the no heart beat ultrasound when she passed away. I had a fever, nausea & vomiting somewhere toward the end of my pregnancy & always wonder if that could have done it. But we will never know. 
     
     I could not be more thankful to my friends, family & husband for all of their support during this past year. My attitude was like poison & somehow everyone stuck right there with me. I definitely did not feel like myself & I am SO happy to be back to being me! 
     
     I will never forget everything that happened but I definitely feel freed of all the sadness & anger. I am still bitter & jaded but I think I was bitter & jaded before all this happened. It will be interesting the see what happens if I ever get pregnant again. My chances of losing another baby are now increased. I was told I will be considered a "high risk" pregnancy & refereed to the appropriate doctors after conception. But hopefully all that means is that I get extra ultrasounds of a new perfectly healthy baby! I would be lying If I said I didn't want another girl. Cause I do! But until I get to have my rainbow baby, it's nice to be back to being me! 

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Eat & Be Merry :)

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Nom Nom Nom!
      
   













  
So first of all, I would like to say that I am NOT a good chef. These are BASIC meal ideas. So here are some disclaimers before you spend your time reading this post...

 1. 99.9% of the time I have no idea what I am doing. Literally.

 2. I have serious problems follows any kind of rules or direct orders. I pretty much do the opposite of what I'm told all of the time. Meaning, I don't follow any recipe to it's exact specifications. 

 3. I make things up as I go. I will improvise ingredients if I don't have them. 

 4. I hate spending money on home cooked food. Everything I make is fairly cheap. I buy all of my meat, zucchini, asparagus, broccoli & salads at Fresh & Easy Grocery. The rest of my food I buy at Raley's.

5. People have very different ideas of what good food is. So if you hate a recipe, I take no offense or responsibility. Everyone likes different things. 

 6. Our dinners are MUCH different while Eric is in academy. He needs the carbs to be able to survive the amount of physical exercise they require. So carbs are very new for us. After he graduates, our normal meals of no carbs after 6pm will be back in the works.

      I decided to write this post because I personally hate to cook something without knowing someone else made it, and liked it. Here are some of the things we have tried lately in the Suarez household...
Staple in our dinners...Steamed Fresh Veggies

 Fancy Huh??? Lol This is my all time favorite veggie to make. I refuse to eat the frozen steam in the bag kind! They're nasty! All I do is cut 2 fresh zucchini, drizzle a little olive oil on top, salt & pepper & then steam in the microwave! After it cooks, I sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on top & set the lid back on for a minute so it melts. It's amazing & take seconds. You can do this with any veggie! We do broccoli, carrots, green beans. The stream container could not be more ghetto. No clue where I got it, the lid doesn't even snap on. I just set it on top. But steam is steam & it works :) No excuses for not having a yummy fresh veggie with dinner :)

Easiest thing EVER! Taco Seasoned Shredded Chicken 
Ingredients...
1 cup chicken broth
1-2 packets taco seasoning (Preference only. I throw in 2 for extra flavor) 
4 chicken breast (At least 1lb worth)

Crock pot
Combine whole chicken breast, broth & seasoning in crock pot & cook on low for 6 hours. Im sure you could cook it on high for 4 hours, I just haven't had to do it yet. 
Around hour 5 I shred the chicken in the crock pot with 2 forks & let it sit another hour. Or you can shred it & eat it right away. 

BEST PART...
You can do ANYTHING with this chicken & it will last for TWO meals! We usually do tacos the first night, and the second night I come up with a random mexican dish like chicken enchiladas! Since the meat is all ready to go on the second night, dinner is quick & easy. Love being able to use all of the leftovers. 











Garlic Pesto Chicken with Tomato Cream Penne

I found this recipe on Pinterest. I attached the link for the blog with the original recipe down below. I changed a few things from the her recipe but it's pretty much the same thing :) 
Chicken marinade

1/2 bottle of Lawrys Herb and Garlic Marinade
2 large spoonfuls of Pesto
2 boneless chicken breasts 
(I never cook less than 4 chicken breast at a time because we like leftovers, so I just added a little extra of the marinade ingredients. For example, 4 chicken breast, 3/4 bottle Lawry's marinade & 3 large spoonfuls pesto.)

 Combine ingredients in large ziplock bag & marinade for up to 24 hours in the fridge. 

 Pasta Sauce
8 ounces of your choice of pasta (I used a box of Penne)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
2 spoonfuls of pesto
1/2 cup of chicken broth
8 ounces of tomato sauce
1 cup of milk
Cook
Boil water and start to cook the noodles.
BBQ the chicken on the grill. 
In a large skillet heat olive oil, cook garlic. Add pesto. Simmer in chicken broth until half has cooked down. Add tomato sauce. Then add milk. Simmer for 5 minutes. Toss pasta in. Add flour if it needs to be thickened. 
Serve sauce over pasta & add the sliced chicken off the BBQ on top! I added shredded parmesan cheese on top because I had it in the fridge already. I served with a caesar salad. Super easy & super yummy!
Source for Original Recipe 
http://cdargis.tumblr.com/post/18818836004/garlic-pesto-chicken-with-tomato-cream-penne
Creamy Bacon Carbonara 

Let me start by saying that this is a lazy, easier version of the original amazing recipe I found on Pinterest. I will add the link for the original below. Feel free to just follow her recipe! It's incredible! Mine is similar, I'm just too lazy to add all the ingredients from the original. The pictures look boring I know. I forgot parsley that time. And the bacon should be way more crispy dark brown!





 SAUCE
4 eggs
1/2 cup Cream or Heavy Cream  (Whipping Cream)
2/3 cup Parmesan
Fresh diced Parsley or dried flakes 
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp Red Pepper flakes
AND...
1/2 lb. bacon fried crisp then crumbled
1 bag spaghetti 
DIRECTIONS:
Boil the pasta. While it's cooking... Beat the eggs, cream, parmesan, salt and the red pepper together in a bowl with a fork. Fry the bacon until crisp, then crumble and set aside. I cook the bacon in the microwave because I don't like taking the time to fry it.  Drain the pasta and let it cool in the pot for a couple minutes. Pour cream mixture into the pasta and stir. If the pasta is too hot, the eggs in the sauce will start to scramble. Add a little at a time to ensure it's not too hot. After stirring in the sauce, cook over low heat for one to two minutes. Again, Do NOT do this on high heat, or you will make scrambled eggs.  Crumble the crisp bacon & stir it in the pasta. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top & you're finished! :) 
SOURCE:
http://www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com/?p=2094

MEAT LOAF & HOMEMADE MASHED POTATOES

So I know that a lot of people don't like meat loaf. I think it's the name that ruins it. But every once in a while Eric & I enjoy this one. Its fast, easy & really good. 
WARNING... This is one of the recipes that I never make the same twice. I guess on measurements & make it up as I go. I tried to add measurements to make it easier to follow, but in general trust yourself & do what you think is right. 




Ingredients
  • 1/2 large chopped yellow onion
  • Salt & ground black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2-3 pounds ground turkey breast or ground beef or both!
  • 1/2 cups plain oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used parmesan bread crumbs) 
  • 2 extra-large eggs, beaten
  • 3/4 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 clove minced garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)

  • Topping 
  • Ketchup
  • Worcestershire
  • BBQ sauce 

  • COOK
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a bowl & mix well. Move mixture to glass dish. Combine the topping ingredients & layer over the top of uncooked mixture. Place in oven & bake for 55-75 minutes at 350 degrees. Internally temperature should be 165 degrees. 

  • Mashed Potatoes-Easy!
  • 3 large russet potatoes
  • 1/2 - 1 cube Butter (to taste)
  • 2 tablespoons Sour Cream (or to taste)
  • Garlic salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste

  • Boil water. Add Potatoes. Let boil until soft. Strain water. In a large bowl mix potatoes with all ingredients to your taste preference. Some people like extra salt or garlic. These are SO quick & yummy!

  • That's it for now! I hope you enjoyed! Send me an email or text if you have a question about any of this randomness! If you all like this, I will continue to post new recipes. Last night I made yummy sweet honey shrimp on the BBQ, I'll add that one next time. Much love people!xo

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Going Crazy!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

    Soooo I know I haven't posted in forever! And I think it sucks. I have been BATTLING with Blogspot because my "custom design" keeps disappearing & defaulting to the ugly nasty one the site has. SO, if it's a weird background at some point in time, I did not pick it. I'm not sure whats going on with it but it's driving me totally & completely CRAZY!!! I'm about to drop $35 for an actual custom template from Etsy. Ugh...
     Anyway, I have so much to update on but I don't know where to start. I am in the middle of writing about everything that happened this past year. Overwhelming to say the least. So much to say, yet I have very little words. I'm also working on a "My Favorites" blog. I'm really excited to share all my favorite products right now :) Sorry this is such a bogus update. Really hoping to get things back on track <3 
     Here's some current pictures of our current crazy life with Roseville Fire new hire academy & my new house wife responsibilities!

                      Eric for the first time in his Roseville Fire uniform :D
Eric's first morning of academy... Sleepy face.
The new hire academy 12-1
First group project. Their custom wood burned wood chocks.
Mainly used to hold a door open on their calls.
Second group project. Huge 12-1 wood chock. 
My first time ever making chicken enchiladas :) It was a success!
We don't get to see each other very much because our schedules are opposite...So make a serious effort to have breakfast together every Saturday & Sunday morning :)

That's it! I promise I will post again soon with something interesting & not so lame! 

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