Inside the Pharmacy

Ok, so I needed to take these pics today for our toy vendor. It's great because it got me to finally do this. Bad though because I didn't focus on the cool things we did. Oh well, you get the picture right? Enjoy :)

Here it is-the renovated pharmacy! There's still more that could be done, but our money and energy ran out, so this'll have to do for now ;) This is when you first walk into the pharmacy. It's a little disheveled (ok a lot) from after Christmas chaos.
I found this great flower cart for in front of the window. Great ya? That black bookcase was hidden upstairs, but white. Nothing a little paint couldn't fix. That usually is mostly our Salt City Candles line.

Toys!

You can kind of see it-jewelry area. Can you see the aweswome mirror and lovely chandelier? Barely? Well, they're terrific I must say. And those black nesting tables are perfect IMO. It's all a mess right now, but will be fixed by next week. Those counters-we had an employee salvage some barn wood and cover the counters fronts with it. Turned out great.

This green metal shelving is awful!! If money grew on trees...

We tore up the old old old carpet and I painted the concrete floors. I'll never ever do that again. I was sick for a week from the fumes! Looks good now though. :)

Candy/coloring area by front desk. A work in progress, of course.

Favorite Things

Luke: green, art, music, violins, hiking, carrots-big ones, fruit snacks, Little Einsteins, Mario Bros.

Easton: 'creature' hunts, waiting for snow, playing, mysteries, Egypt, drawing, counting to 100, independence, babies, chocolate

Kelly: redecorating the Pharmacy, the weather, health, family time, sleep, walking places

Dave: not working, having good employees, not working-anything when not working!

Brilliant or Crazy?

It's been hard for me to keep healthy snacks on hand. Especially for Easton. His snacks have to be mini meals. And he won't eat granola bars (mine). They love fruit but Easton needs another snack within minutes, even after a whole apple. He loves a jam sandwich for a snack but I don't think it's the best choice. Won't eat nuts, cheese, just wants sweet. Me too! Am I too worried or controlling about this? Anyway...

I decided to try something new-cookie dough. Am I crazy? It's my boys fave thing ever. Cookie dough. So I whipped up a batch tonight. It's chock full of health and fiber.. Don't worry there's no eggs in here. And because it'll never be baked I was able to make it even more healthy than usual. Ingredients:

1/4 c butter

1/4 cup agave nectar

1/4 c applesauce, unsweetened

1/4 c brown sugar

2 c oats

1/4 c milled flax

6 T water

3/4 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c powdered milk

vanilla

1 c almonds

2 c bran cereal

1 c chocolate chips

I think it sounds like a better choice than a lot of things. Next time I'll leave out the brown sugar and butter, maybe up the agave a smidge a/o applesause and see how it tastes. Bet it'll taste pretty much the same.

Crowned

So excited-celebration crowns coming to a store near me! Do you like them? I hope Kanab likes glitter too.

For Real?

I don't know what's real anymore. Do you? Does anyone? I know the sweetener in my flavored waters aren't. I know the color of most of my food isn't. I know the color of most of my home products (lotions, shampoo) sure isn't. Does plastic everything count as real, because somehow it seems like furniture should be made of wood, metal-not of plastic and sawdust.

How about the media. Are the pictures in magazines real? Are the people on tv real? I feel like we are so hammered with so many opinions and untruths out there that there's no fact anymore.

My sisters and I had a long talk about this this summer and it was the first time I really realized that we live in a world where we are bombarded with fakes, perfection. I knew logically that of course not everyone looks like the magazines show. That's unrealistic. But I never took the time to realize that those models don't even look like that. Even the clothing catalogs are tweaked with. So that's why I never look like the model wearing those cute shirts in my catalog. They probably don't look like that either!

It's really disturbing. It's no wonder my self esteem is a wild roller coaster of emotions, and that girls are having a hard time understanding what is appropriate, acceptable and realistic for their bodies. If I have a hard time understanding it all, what about the men out there? We're conditioning our boys and men to think that women should always look glamorous, thin, and yes, let's not forget big boobs. Do they know what a normal woman's body looks like-after decades of life and bearing babies? I sure don't. I'm confused, are we toys and trophies or vessels and souls?

I think we should be focusing on healthy. When it comes to weight that is different for everyone. We should focus on well kept. Do I need to be made up and dressed to the nines every day? I shouldn't. But I should be clean, well groomed, and look self respecting. These are the things Iwant my boys to learn. And while we're at it let's eat real food, shall we? Macaroni and cheese scares the bedittles out of me. Have you read the ingredient list? Yikes. Have I fed it to my boys? Of course. Is there a better option, heck ya.

So, I am going to try to look at the magazines less. Talk about what we see on tv and other media at home. Take care of myself the way I hope my boys will do themselves later. Eat real foods. Better to eat fat than chemicals I say. And get some chickens.

School Pic

Easton's first school picture, aaah. He's like his dad, can't smile real on command ;)

Luke Turns 3

Yesterday was Luke's birthday-yay! We love birthdays around here. And Luke is at that very easy to please age still:).

We started the day with a hike. Luke's most favorite thing to do is go hiking. At the end he was greeted by balloons and a treasure chest-full of fruit snacks (his fave treat)!

I am quite happy with how the cake turned out, and even better Luke thought it was AWESOME.

According to Luke, he is now a grown up. ;) We sure love this little guy, even with his attitude.