Seven Random Things

I've been tagged for the seven random things about me meme several times so I figured i'd finally play along. Now what a "meme" is, i'm not quite sure but here go the seven random things.

1. I have played the Viola since I was eleven. I was first chair pretty much all through middle and high school too. I've played in several symphonies over the years including the University of Florida Symphony Orchestra during college but these days I just pull it out around Christmas time to play some carols. I look forward to the boys being old enough to sing along with me. How's that for some Christmas cheer!

2. I have very strong fingernails. They almost never break. I usually end up cutting them off every once in a while because they get in my way. My orchestra conductors in grade school always got onto me for them. I actually learned to play with them even though they told me I wouldn't be able to. They just grow so darn fast that they are always there.

3. I've only had two pedicures in my entire life.

4. I once went almost two years without getting my hair cut. That was in college when it was all the way down to my butt. I miss that hair and i'm currently growing it back out.

5. I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering. You have no idea how many times in my life i've heard the "it's not rocket science" joke/thing.

6. I've worked at two different space centers and i've climbed all over two different space shuttles, both shuttle launch pads and several segments of the International Space Station (before they went into space, obviously).

7. I used to teach bellydancing at UF. (it was a leisure course, not an actual college course)

So there you have it. Seven random things about me. As far as tagging others, i'm not going to but if you read this and want to play along .... well then go right ahead. It's kinda fun. :)

Totally Gross!

A friend of mine that I worked with at KSC sent me this article. I'm so totally grossed out now.

A Better Morning

Well i'm feeling less stressed this morning, which is good. Thanks for all the comments and emails. It's great to know I have that support, even if it is virtually ... i'll take it! I ended up not going to yoga last night. I just knew it was going to be one of those frustrating sessions where I wished I was at home. And Houston got pretty sick yesterday afternoon. He ended up sleeping off and on from 3:30 in the afternoon until about 8:30. He got up and ate some dinner and then went to bed for the night. I got to work on one of my new crafty ideas involving some polymer clay. Turned out good too. I'll take some pictures later. I ended up rocking myself to sleep as I rocked Brody to sleep around ten. I didn't think he was ever going to give it up. That kid is a wild man, for sure. He had so much energy last night it was bordering on craziness! It was entertaining though and helped me not focus on the stress.

I think I lost my mojo at the river this weekend. I feel like a big bump on a log. I think that calls for some knitting today, if the boys allow it. At least my hands will be productive so I can't say I didn't get anything done. :)

Stress

Please excuse me while I vent. I don't have anyone around here to vent to right now so the blog gets it. There's something that's been brewing around here that's causing some stress. I can't say what it is but it's to the point that I can't focus on anything else today because basically ... i'm just pissed off. It started as a small "holy crap what are we gonna do" stress and has turned into an "i feel like we're being crapped on" stress. I'm not exactly sure when it turned from one to the other. It's been a gradual thing and the more it gets talked about the more upset I get. I can't seem to get it out of my head the past couple of days. Maybe it's because I didn't think about it all weekend and now i'm making up for it. I don't know if that's because the river is so peaceful or because I drank so much beer but either way ... it didn't really enter my mind much. Now it is consuming me. It's not between Brett and I but is something we are dealing with together. Maybe my hormones are adding to it. Maybe it's not as big of a deal as i'm making it. Maybe it is. One thing I know for sure ... I'm upset and I don't know what to do about it. I should go to yoga tonight but I don't want to. I would rather scream at somebody. I hate ruining a yoga session because my mind is somewhere else. I always hope to leave my stress at the house and like my teacher says "put your to do list on the shelf when you walk in the door" but it doesn't always happen that way. I feel like tonight will be one of those days. I hope i'm wrong. I should channel this negative energy into some sort of firey crafty project but I just can't seem to focus on anything. I did find some stress relief today by coloring in a coloring book with Houston. It was surprisingly stress relieving ... so much so that I may just go do it again. If anybody has any words of wisdom here i'm all ears. I tend to get consumed by stress when it happens. That's probably why I avoid it as much as I can. I hate stress. There aren't all that many things that I hate but I definitely hate stress. I also hate fleas, fire ants and wasps. And I hate money. I hate how the world revolves around money. I hate how money makes people greedy. I hate how money can hold people back from doing what they love. I hate how some people have money and others don't. Do you know that the number one reason for divorce is financial issues? Can we all just go back to the barter system? I can make you some awesome socks and hats to keep you warm in the winter and can grow you lots of vegetables to eat pretty much year round. Any takers?
Please don't take this post the wrong way. We are fine. I'm just a bit pissed and needed to get it out. Probably should do that in a private journal of some sorts but that just doesn't seem as satisfying as sharing my pissed-offedness with you all.
On a side note, any of you that have XM radio or Direct TV ... if you haven't discovered the channel called Lucy yet you should definitely check it out. Rock on.

Works in Progress for SP10

Another contest for SP10 ... we were asked to blog our works in progress. Here's a Booga Bag I made that I am STILL felting. I've run it through the wash four or five times already. That Kureyon is pretty hard to felt.

Here's another Booga Bag that's not quite finished yet. This wool felted really well ... only one wash cycle. I knit the I-cord handle thicker on this one so tyeing it on the sides isn't working so well. I have to figure out another solution. I'm gonna try sewing the two ends of the I-cord together to make one continuous loop. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

And here's the ugly sock. Technically it's still a WIP but i'm going to frog it sometime soon. Just isn't working out in plain stockinette stitch. I've got some other options but i'm on to other things for now.

This one will be explained later.

And here's the Molly's headband I started at the river this past weekend. I made a little more progress on it last night after I took this picture ... probably about eight more rows.

Birthdays & Blogs

I know Houston's birthday is still three months away but i've been thinking about what to get him. Do you remember the game Hungry Hippos? I loved that game as a child and I know Houston would get a kick out of it. I was in wally world yesterday and decided to paruse the game isle and see if it was still around. Looks like Hungry Hippos is still a favorite because I found it right there next to Candy Land. I also made a great new toy discovery. It's called the Cranium Giggle Gear Mega Fort. I linked to Toys'r'Us so you can check it out. I soooo want to get one of these for the boys. Where were these toys when we were young, huh? This fort kit lets you build a fort in several different configurations, over and over again. Awesome!

And speaking of birthdays ... Brody's is less than two weeks away. I got invitations out last week and i've decided on the menu for the day. Burgers (turkey, beef and veggie) with all the fixings, new potatoes, beans and pasta salad. I did a trial run this past weekend of the new potatoes and beans in one big dish and they turned out really yummy. I've made the pasta salad a hundred times so I didn't need a trial run of that but I did make some and it was good as well. In fact, I just finished it up for lunch today.

I finally got around to posting on my other blog. Poor Andy has been waiting on me for almost two months for this one. Boy how time disappears ... I promise I won't let it go that long again! You can check it out at "A Conversation Between Friends" if you're up for it. I changed our template a bit too but it still needs some work. We'll be adding lots of great stuff in the future so be sure to check back.

River Knitting

Here's the knitting I managed to squeeze in at the river this past weekend.

I finished the hat last night. It's for my nephew-to-be that we should be hearing about any day now. I think Lyndi was due either yesterday or today.

More River Fun

Andre and Stephanie came to visit us on sunday. We rode the three-wheelers and Gator down to the cabin of some friends of ours and we had some difficulties on the way there. Brett and Houston ended up towing Andre the rest of the way there on one of the three wheelers. Stephanie, Brody and I were all cozy in the Gator. That day was a lot of fun. Houston, Brett and I rode on thier wave runner. Houston kept saying "more fast, more fast daddy" every time Brett slowed down. That boy loves speed!

Here's Houston watching Andre get ready for some knee-boarding action ...

Looks like Brody is on his way to being a river rat just like his brother.

Here's Houston and Brody with their cousins Weston and Turner. These boys had a blast this weekend.

Looks like they wore themselves out on the river ...

Apparently neither of the boys were ready to leave last night because they both pitched a royal fit when we put them in the truck to leave. Houston fell asleep pretty quickly but Brody fussed off and on the whole way home. We think he's having some growing pains in his legs. He gets really restless and just can't get comfortable and keeps kicking his legs. He reminds me of myself when I get fits of restless leg syndrome. I get it really bad when i'm pregnant but it hits me occasionally when I'm not pregnant. The only way i've been able to settle him down is to rub on his legs.

Memorial Day Weekend

Well we certainly "did it up" this weekend. Lots of fun and lots of food. I took a bunch of pictures too. We saw some Manatees on the river on saturday. There were about eight of them in a group and they didn't seem to mind all the humans staring at them. They looked they were showing off for us. Here's one of the pics I took of them. You can see one manatee sticking its head out of the water and if you look closely you can see several grey areas under the water ... those are all manatees!

Well that's it for now. I'll post a bunch of pictures later on.

New Links

I just updated the blog a bit ... rearranged my links and added some new ones. Go ahead and browse around ... you never know what you'll run into.

Brody

Yarn Dyeing Gone Right

In the dye pot ...

I can't even explain how excited I am about this whole yarn dyeing thing. It keeps turning out just how I wanted it to and that's a great feeling. So far all my dyeing has been of the kettle variety and i'm really digging how it's going so far. I made a warping board and will use it soon to dye some self-striping sock yarn. I really love the colorway above though and just might have to dye a skein of sock yarn to match. This is a bulky weight wool that I dyed with the thoughts of a felted handbag. How cool would some matching socks be? Or is it just me? Whatever ... i'm happy! I named this colorway "skeletons in the closet" because I used black dye with the hopes that the kettle dying would bring out all the different colors in the black dye. Get it? Or is that just me too? I figured if it turned out black and grey the name would still fit. I dyed another "Red Nancy" too but stuck it back in the pot this morning. I had one of my ties a little too tight which left some white spots ... and we just can't have that. :)

Here's my little helper in the kitchen ...

And here's a close-up of the yarn out of the dye pot ...

And here's my other little helper heading out to the deck to see what mama's up to now ....

And here's the finished product ... not the greatest picture but you get the idea. I'll take another one later today without the shadow.

Head Wrap Project

I'm considering using this merino/tencel sock yarn to make one of these head wraps. I really love the color of the yarn but I don't think I want socks that color. I'm not sure if this yarn will be too slippery for a head wrap though. Any of you knitters have any thoughts on this?

Click here to see a better picture of the awesome head wrap on the right in the pic above.

Mowgli's Birthday Dinner

Steak, brown rice, asparugus and peas. Happy Birthday Mowgli!

Ugly Socks

You'll have to forgive the bad pictures. The lighting and countertop color and shinyness were not working with me. I turned the flash off which ended up in blurry pics but you can still see how the colors are pooling. I'm starting to wonder if there was an error in their dyeing process on these. There's actually a neat pattern going on ... on two of the three "sides" of the sock. See top picture. It almost seems that there should be a tan area in the middle of the large brown blotch. See bottom picture.

What's going on? I'm stuck between frogging them and sticking the yarn back in my stash for another day and continuing the simple stockinette stitch for a while longer just to see what happens.

Feeding Frenzy

I dropped a bowl of dog food this morning and this is the feeding frenzy that followed.

Little Squirt

Blender Action

First Breakfast with the 3hp Blender

UPS delivered my 3hp blender yesterday. This thing is awesome. It does so much. Makes ice cream and milkshakes, kneads dough, chops veggies, makes juice and smoothies and so much more. I was able to clear our old blender, juicer and food processor off the counter and replace it with this blender. And see these veggies? This actually made more juice than we needed this morning and this is only about half as much as I usually use for the juicer. I think our savings on our produce bill alone will pay for the blender eventually.

Happy 10th Birthday Mowgli!

Mowgli turns ten today. In some ways I can't believe she's that old already but then again it seems like I can't remember a time without her. She has seen a lot in her days. From crappy little apartments in Gainesville to Merrit Island to Houston to fifteen acres in Lake City. She's been around, that's for sure. I'm so glad she's still with me and is able to enjoy living on this great piece of land and not having to be on a leash in an aparment complex somewhere. She gets a steak dinner tonight too! :)

Bithday Party Fun

We went to a birthday party on saturday. Our friends Josh & Laura's little boy Michael is turning 2 already. Boy how time flies! We all had a great time and as usual, Houston was joined at the hip to his friend Natalie. I somehow managed to not get a good picture of the birthday boy but I did get a couple of cute shots of Houston & Natalie. As we were getting ready to head to the party I was reminded of this time last year when I was extremely pregnant. Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking of it because several people at the party mentioned it to me. Everyone there thought I was gonna go into labor that day and couldn't believe I was still pregnant. What really got them was when I told them I didn't have Brody until three weeks after that party last year!

New camera takes great pictures, huh? I was just looking through my photo folder and i've already taken 119 pictures with the new camera. I've had it for five days. See why I was freaking out about not being able to take pictures last week?

Interweave Felt ... and other ramblings

Ooooooh ... must ... have ... this ... magazine ... as i've been addicted to felting lately. Too bad it isn't out until SP10 is over because I would soooo buy one for my secret pal. She's an admitted handbag addict too. Good match, huh? Speaking of SP10, i'm really looking forward to sending my last package to my pal next month and revealing myself. I have something super special planned for that one. I just sent her second package this past weekend but let me tell you ... I had a hard time letting that one go. She said one of her favorite yarns is Malabrigo. Well I've never seen it in person until last week when I got some in the mail that I ordered for her. It's a good thing for her that I already planned on sending it to her before I ever saw it because I might not have been able to let it go. That yarn is sooooooo soft and pretty. I love the saturated colors and variations. And the book I ordered for her I could have kept for myself as well but that wouldn't have been very nice now would it? :) We have such similar tastes that it's easy to buy for her but hard to let it go as it's always things I want for myself.

You'll have to excuse this bad picture and even worse background but here's the camera case I knit for our new camera. I wanted a picture of the case on the camera but then I can't very well take a picture of it now can I? I picked the red, white and blue yarn because it reminds me of summertime fun and fireworks. I love the summer and I love the fourth of july. Friends, family, food and fireworks ... usually involving boating and the river or beach ... oh yeah, and some ice cold beer as well. Which I almost forgot about since i've been pregnant/nursing for the last several. And my birthday is the next day so maybe i'm a little biased. It's my favorite holiday though. No pressure to get the right gift. Just lots of fun. And this year will be extra special because we'll be in Tampa with a group of our college friends on my birthday since my very awesomely special friend Rachel is getting married two days later. Yay!

And speaking of weddings and bridesmaid dresses .... I lost some more weight so it looks like I may have to get my dress altered after all ... which i'm really excited about. So far i've lost seven pounds of the twenty I want to. I'm hoping I can drop another five before having my dress altered around the middle of June. Shouldn't be a problem at the rate i'm going now. And speaking of weight loss ... I went to the gym on saturday to walk the treadmill since it was smoky outside. I don't know what came over me, I guess it's because i'm finally back to eating healthy and taking care of myself, but I had this huge burst of energy so I started running (cue forrest gump here) and I couldn't stop. I thought "for sure this won't last". Well I ended up running for close to twenty minutes. I haven't been able to do that since before I had kids. It was awesome. I was all out sprinting at the end too. I felt great. (well until the soreness set in the next day ... i'm walking a little funny still but it's starting to go away) I really think a lot of the energy came from the smoothies I made us for breakfast that morning. I tell ya ... if you want to lose weight ... smoothies are the way to go. They give me so much energy and I don't get hungry for quite a while that day. I've been keeping a food journal where I write down everything I eat and I tend to eat so much less when I've had a smoothie that morning. It is really making a difference for me. Like right now, I have to remind myself that it's lunch time so I should go look for something to eat. It's so much easier to make healthy choices when I'm not hungry. Before my smoothie kick I would just grab the first thing I could find for lunch because I was usually so hungry by then. I've always been bad about not eating breakfast and I know that's bad for your metabolism but I just don't feel like eating first thing in the morning. Maybe that's why I like the smoothies so much .. because I can drink them instead of having to eat something. Hmmm. Probably so.

Seven Wonders of the World

So I ran across a news item on yahoo about people voting on the new "seven wonders of the world" list. I got to thinking that I don't even know what the old seven were. Turns out there have been several lists throughout time and that we apparently don't have one single list even now. Here's an interesting Wikipedia page on the issue. I thought it was interesting that the internet made one of the more current lists.

You really can find just about anything on the internet ...

More scary old ads about Lysol: Nazi babes, spider-crotch

The Crews Family Garden Patch

So can you tell I got a new camera? I love it, love it, love it. It's a Sony DSC-W80. I didn't get it in pink unfortunately but i'll just have to live with that. I spent more than my $150 budget too ... by about $100 dollars. I talked to my mom and she offered to contribute $100 to my new camera fund. I should have gotten a $150 camera and then I only would have spent $50 but instead I decided to take advantage of the extra $100 by adding it to my $150 and getting a really nice camera. I take pictures every single day so I think it's worth it. And let me tell you ... this camera rocks! It has double anti-blur technology and face detection. It also takes pictures in HD and you can play a slide show on an HDTV. It has all kinds of menu options. You can edit photos right on the camera too which is awesome. Lots of special effects options and cropping and red-eye removal.

Corn:

Squash:

Tomato: Which I obviously need to do some weed/grass pulling around.

OH MY!

Check this out. Just a little something I ran across this morning.

Boys

Edited to add: I've been asked several times who the red-head is with my boys. That's their friend Gavin. He's the son of our friends Wrenda & Justin. Wrenda is the one who makes the awesome totes and diaper bags.

Breakfast

My smoothie this morning:

Banana
Frozen Strawberries
Stonyfield Organic Plain Yogurt
Silk Organic Soymilk
Milled Flax Seed
Apple Fiber Powder

Yummy, yum, yum. And I still haven't wanted a cup of coffee! I'm looking forward to trying this in my new blender when it arrives. It should micronize the strawberry seeds. I've got to eat especially healthy today to make up for yesterday. We had some nuggets and fries from Wendy's and pizza for dinner ... yikes!!! Definitely not on my "clean food" list. And I feel like I ate crap yesterday too. It's amazing how much your body reacts to what you eat. It really is true that "you are what you eat".

Camera News...
I played with some cameras yesterday and have decided to stick with Sony. They have the fastest shutter lag time which is the most important feature to me. Now i'm trying to decide which model. There was one I was drooling over that I would buy in a heartbeat if money wasn't an option. It's $330 though so it's definitely not in my budget. It's the T20 model. Right now i'm deciding between the W80 and the W55. They both come in pink which I think is awesome. I used to hate pink so it's kind of funny for me to say that. I fell in love with the color pink when I was pregnant with Houston and it has never gone away. Silly, huh? Anyhow, the W80 has image stabilization and face recognition which are nice to haves but not neccesary since i've never had that before. The image stabilization (IS) would be nice though because there have been several times where I thought I got a good shot but it was blurry and i'm assuming it's because I moved when snapping the picture. The W55 doesn't have IS but has a better price tag. I need to figure this out soon though because Brody is about to start walking and I will be really upset if I don't have a camera for that event. It's so hard to shop online because I can't tell how fast the camera is. I might go play with some cameras again today now that I've done some more research. The boys were a nightmare when I tried to do that yesterday so I was distracted, to say the least. My options here in LC are limited to Walmart and Office Max though, unfortunately. And in Walmart half of the battery packs are broken so you can't turn on all the cameras.

Knitting Progress, Booga Bags Questions & Crafty News

I was able to make some more progress on the gift for my nephews yesterday. I may actually finish before Christmas ... ha ha! I finished two squares and started another. So now only four and a half squares to go. And then the task of weaving in about 500 ends ... ugh! It's gonna be so cool though. I'm excited about it. I hope they love it and play with it for years. And one of the best things about it is that I can add to it later on to make it more challenging. (This will all make sense once I finish it and tell you what it is.)

I've received quite a few comments and emails about the Booga Bags. Yes, they are awesome, I know ... which is why I wanted to knit one. Which turned into two. Which will soon be three. And also what got me thinking .... and the thinking evolved into a project idea ... like I need more stuff to do, right? LOL! Let me first say, anyone who wants one ... I will be happy to knit one for you if you send me the yarn. So everyone who has asked me that, three so far I think, send me an email and we can talk about the yarn. The kureyon is pretty expensive but there are plenty of other feltable yarns that I can use. The blue one I made was a different yarn and it turned out great. I can do stripes or solid colors ... whatever you want. I love knitting them because they are what I call "mindless knitting" which means I can get them done quickly and can work on them while sitting with the kids. It's knit in the round so I just keep knitting and knitting and knitting without having to think about it much. And since it's a bag, it even holds the yarn for me once I get the bottom done. So no ball of yarn hanging around for Brody to grab onto. I was knitting one in a restaraunt recently and a woman came up to me and said "hey ... you're knitting the bag and using it too". She thought it was funny.

Crafty News, part 1: So back to the idea part. Ya'll know I love to dye stuff, right? And that I love to knit, right? And that i've been working on combining my two loves into dyeing yarn, right? Now you also know that I love bags, right? And do you know that i've always wanted to write a book and have worked on several ideas in the past? Well my recent Booga Bag knitting gave me an idea to combine all of these things. I'm designing my own bags all the way from the yarn dyeing to the knitting pattern. My idea is to design a yarn and bag with a person in my life in mind. Then combine them into a book of patterns. Now I know there are tons of books like this out there and that it will probably never get published. But ya know what? That's okay. If all I ever do is have some bound so I can give them out as gifts to my knitting friends then i've accomplished what I wanted to. I'm giving myself a year to complete this project. I want twelve bags so that's one bag per month. I don't have a lot of spare time on my hands right now but the boys are getting bigger and much more independent. It won't be long before I can send them both out into the back yard to play while I sit on the porch and work on my designs.

Crafty News, part 2: I'm starting an Etsy shop. If you don't know about Etsy, you should. It's an online marketplace for handmade goods ... as they say. You see, I decided after the last craft fair that I did ... that I wasn't going to do them anymore until the boys were older. It just wasn't fitting well for various reasons that I won't bore you with. So I decided to start getting rid of all the craft fair stuff I have. Well luckily I had not gotten rid of too much before I found out about Etsy. I'm going to list some of my better tie-dyed items as well as baby slings (i'm sold out now so those will be a little while) and my hand-dyed yarn. I'm also going to sell kits that contain the yarn and pattern for my bags, as I design them. Fun, no? Not like I need extra things to take up my time but part of the whole premise in moving here was that I got to take my life in a new direction. I wanted to be an aerospace engineer since I was about eight years old. I also have loved all things crafty since that time as well. The first doesn't leave much time for the second. Moving here allowed me to change direction and explore my crafty side instead of my technical side. And Brett has stood behind me 100% with all of it. Well okay, the technical side seems to follow me wherever I go. I never thought I would find myself still working as an engineer but from the comfort of my own home, as well as tutoring math ... also from the comfort of my own home. But hey, it pays the bills. And I still manage to find some crafty time. And believe it or not, there is definitely a technical side to the crafty things I take on. The chemistry of dyeing, for example, as well as the math involved in knitting patterns.

So the grand plan is to open a craft shop with a classroom area so I can teach and sell crafty stuff but that's in the long-term planning. One good thing about Lake City is that there is plenty of room for new ventures to pop up. And hey ... we're getting a Starbucks so people actually know we exist! Hee hee. Oh yeah, and don't even think about stealing my idea ... because that's just not cool. Well if you don't live in Lake City then steal away ...

Back to the bags idea for a moment ...
My first bag was the one I posted on sunday. I dyed the yarn with Miss Nancy in mind, hence the colorway "red nancy". She loves red so that was a given. There were several things behind that bag design. One being that it had to be quick. A weekend project. Nothing too fancy, just functional and easy to finish. Sort of a getting my foot in the door kind of thing. My thinking when working on that design was that I wanted it to be something to throw a paperback, some sunglasses and a tube of sunscreen in. I was picturing her throwing these things in at the river cabin and walking down to sit on the deck for a leisurely afternoon. It sits open kind of like a basket so it could sit next to her on the deck and be easy to reach into and grab what you want. (it can also double as a basket to sit on the counter and hold things) I would have prefered it to be just a tad bit bigger but I had to felt it down a little more to get it to stand on it's own. I plan to have a bigger version of the same bag in my book. That yarn is nice and thick so it makes a really sturdy bag. I'm looking forward to knitting the larger version and seeing how it turns out. One of the best things about these bags is that i'm giving them away to the person I designed it around once it's done. Exciting, no? I would love to learn how to spin eventually as well so maybe i'll end up with a design that started all the way from roving that I spun, dyed, designed and knit. Now that would be cool!

My Mother's Day Gift

Ya'll ... I can't even begin to explain how awesome this gift is. Not only because it's something that I've really wanted but could never justify spending this much money on ... it's the fact that Brett thought enough to give me the money for this out of the money he made selling trees out of his nursery. I'm not even going to tell you how much it costs because it's a bit ridiculous ... but it's the only type of blender that will do what I need it to do. It's a 3 horse power blender. Know what that means? It means it micronizes anything you put in it. My accupuncturist has been telling me to get one of these since I started going to him. We talk about it each session and I remind him that at this point in life as a stay-at-home mom, there is no way in you know what that I can justify it. No matter how good it is for me. Brett knows how important it is to me to get myself healthy again and he knows how much this will help. The fact that he thought to do this for me for Mother's Day actually brought tears to my eyes when I opened the card. He put the money in there with a note that said "Blender Fund".

Back to the micronizing thing. With juicing in a juicer you loose a lot of the good stuff that's in the pulp. Ashley (accu guy) explains it much better than I do but i'll give it a try. The anti-cancer stuff is in the pulp. There's also a ton of good stuff for you in skins and seeds and stems. This may sound gross to you but it sounds great to me. With this blender you put everything in it ... seeds, cores, strawberry tops, etc and it completely micronizes everything so you don't even know it's there. You make extremely healthy smoothies this way. His wife makes them one every morning with their blender. Not only does it do this but it makes all kinds of stuff. It grinds coffee, makes ice cream, etc. I'll copy and paste some info here from some websites i've been looking at.

"According to our testing of many blenders, Blendtec makes the best 3 HP blender for the price. It is exceptionally powerful at 1500 Watts and it travels easily. Micronize the specific Fruits & Vegetables (including seeds, skins, rinds etc) based on SSQC's renown Food-Healing system. Smoothies need to be made in a 3 horsepower blender micronizing fiber/seed/rind particles to the micron level. Comes with a solid 3 year warranty."

"The Total Blender is the Total Solution! Blend, Chop, Grind, Freeze, Cook, Hash, Crush, Mince, Dice, Mill, Puree, and Much More! Total Blender is the all-in-one appliance that makes smoothies, fresh juice, ice cream, milkshakes, cappuccinos, margaritas, soups, sauces, breads, dressings, salsas and more! It replaces up to 9 other appliances with one fast easy-to-use machine, at a fraction of the cost. You've seen the unique square jar before; for years blending professionals have used Blendtec machines in the best coffee shops, juice bars, gyms, and restaurants around the world. Blendtec machines are known for producing the best, most consistent results in taste and texture and now with the Total Blender, you'll enjoy the same great results in your home! Total Blender comes with our exclusive Smart-Touch tec-nology™ which means when a cycle button is pushed, the Total Blender automatically speeds up and slows down, then shuts off when the cycle is complete, so recipes turn out perfect every time. Tired of your blender not being able to crush ice? The Total Blender has so much power (1500 Watts) it turns ice to snow and actually comes with an Ice-Crushing Guarantee. From the home gourmet chef to the every day smoothie fan, the Total Blender fits your lifestyle."