soda or cancer?

i mentioned before that i was starting to read ecoholic. well, it's amazing! i love it.

most of the books i've been reading tell you what to do. stop using so much of this, you can find a company for that, use more of this, don't eat anything with that in it. but this book actually names names and gives facts. she tells you that a certain company is saying they're organic, but they're really not. telling which ones to look out for and which ones are safer.

i keep reading things and wanting to post about it, but then that would take away all the information you would find by actually reading it! i don't want to spoil it for you. so you definitely need to go get it from the library or buy it (used, of course). i got mine from half price books.

i did come across something in the book today though. and i'm sure it applies to many of you. it's about soda. i'm not a huge soda drinker; if i do, it's sprite. when we're at home, i pretty much drink water, it's quite tasty! i can't get enough of it. but because of that, i get a little carried away at work sometimes. it's so easy to just grab a cone cup and take a little swig of sprite and dr. pepper. which, by the way, is so utterly wasteful! i really need to start taking my water bottle again so i'm not using so many cone cups.

anyways, back to the soda. this is from the book:

"When sodium benzoate (used to kill microorganisms in fruit juices and soft drinks) is mixed with ascorbic acid (vitamin C), as it is in many drinks, low levels of cancer-causing benzene may be created - the same pollutant that comes coughing out your car's tailpipe. In 2006 the FDA reopened an investigation into the problem preservative that had been closed 15 years earlier. New tests found the carcinogen in soft drinks at levels two and half to five times higher than safety standards. The FDA then tested 200 soft drinks and juices and found that 10 of them failed to meet those standards (including SunnyD, Kool-Aid Jammers, and the kids' juice BellyWashers, whose 2006 scores were off the charts). All the major offenders have been reformulated to eliminate the problem. Notably, some didn't test high enough to get the reformulation request but still tested positive."

now i know it's a low level, but who wants to drink cancer?! and i apparently did, because i have a purse made out of those kool-aid jammers and i drank every single one of the packages...just for the purse. but thanks for making it mom!

although it doesn't sound like a huge issue, it still goes to show you that you have to be careful what you're eating and drinking. and this book definitely brings up LOTS of issues. every time i'm reading, i just keep thinking about all the crazy and harmful stuff our bodies are taking in. ecoholic keeps mentioning that in europe half the things we still allow that harm us, they don't. why is it taking america so long to start realizing it and putting it into action?

door repair

i'm a little late on this one. last saturday my dad came over to replace our back door. it was rotten and rusted...

we were starting to get a draft at the back door too. so that wasn't good. so my dad came over to help. we had to go to home depot to get the door. he had already looked at doors and found one for $99! we found out from the man that helped us that the doors had been marked down because the weren't selling and that they were normally $200 doors! good shopping dad :) parker helped a little, but rode a lottle...

got back home and the repairing process began...

ta da!! new door.

obviously i've known my dad my whole life, but i still don't understand how he knows how to do all this stuff! even jesse commented later that he's always amazed by everything he's able to do. you don't just go to a class for all this. it's crazy!

when i was younger, i didn't really help with a lot of the repair stuff, but i did pick up on a few things over the years. nothing grand, but at least i know how to paint, use a drill, use a hammer and screwdriver...the basics. i was even happy i was able to hang a shelf all by myself! for the first time, mind you.

birthdays, school, and potties

this is a little late, but last saturday we went to parker's cousin's birthday, anaya. she turned 7. it was a tumbling class. definitely suited for children that understand direction...parker was everywhere!

everything started out well. he sat down in the circle...

he didn't want to crawl to the center though...

he even took the time to chat with the birthday girl. and by chat i mean anaya talked and parker spoke parker.

and off he goes! so much for participating.

he got in a little papaw time.

anaya jumping on top of the block. then she jumped down and tumbled down a slope.

and then she practiced some cartwheels. i love how i never managed to get a picture of the front of her. what a quality picture-taker i am!

parker with daddy.

and apparently wanted NOTHING to do with mommy.

until i turned him upside down!

and yes, it was a birthday party. and yes, we did have pizza and cake. but again, this proves i'm a bad picture-taker. i got no cake pictures, anymore anaya pictures, or present pictures. i think i should work on this.

but the party was fun and the older kids enjoyed it. happy belated birthday anaya!

today i started school again. i'm excited for this semester because it's my first semester with classes that actually go towards my major. i'm taking earth science and environmental science. sounds boring, but i think it's gonna be fun.

lots of rocks, soil, plates, atmospheres, sustainability, water, and all that earthy-enivronmental stuff. so pumped!

moving on to the little one (again)...we started trying to potty train parker after he turned 2, a little over a month ago. wasn't going too well, so we stopped. we kinda realized it was a little too early to push it since he still didn't understand anything.

within the last week he as done his business in the bathtub 3 times...not so much fun. so tonight, i asked him if he had to use the potty, which resulted in no. so i made him sit on the potty anyways, just in case. he sat there for about 15 minutes and nothing. so i put him in the tub and he started making his grunting sounds, asked him if he had to potty and he said yes! i was so excited...but unfortunately no. so my hopeful attempt at being pro-active didn't work out as planned...but he looked super cute sitting on his little potty :)

i've been catching up on some "green" reading and organization. my latest find is ecoholic. seems interesting and has lots of links for online information. i'll let ya know how it works out. if you're around me a lot, you know i'm always with a new "green" book or organization book or cleaning book or something of the sorts. they're so intriguing now. i can't get enough of them!

welcome!

this is our first time trying anything like this. we started it to keep in touch with out-of-town family, friends, and our scentsy customers.

who knows what we'll be talking about: family, parker, new scentsy products and news, daily life, and our attempts towards being more green.

make sure to keep in touch with us!

see you soon,

mary, jesse, and parker