The Organ Family

Cabo Here We Come!

This will be the last post until we return from Cabo San Lucas. It will be Mike and my first vacation alone since our honeymoon, five and half years ago. And if you know us we have been on lots of vacations, but we just enjoy going with family and friends. So pray for us! Pray that we don't drive each other insane:)

Martini

My name is Martini Organ. I am a silver-gray Weimaraner. I will be 2 years old on October 24. I am an only child, so I get lots of love and attention. My favorite treat is ICE! Here are some pictures that will help you get to know me better...

This is a picture taken the very first day I arrived at my new home!

This is my favorite spot in the house. I love to lay on my pillow in front of the window and be a watch dog.

This is my very first snow day. Mom and Dad took be to the dog park.

I love to lay in the sunshine!

Scaring off the birds and squirrels

Hunting Rabbits

Playing with my two best friends Angel & Lily. They are Labradoodles.

I love my Mom!

I love my Dad!

Pictured here is what I call "Daddy Time." It happens every night around 10:00. I cuddle for around 20 minutes then I go settle in my house (crate) for the rest of the night.

This was my Christmas picture. I am wearing my Christmas collar that Grandma Organ got me.

I love my blankets!!!

I love to give "high-fives" in return for ice!

The following pictures are what happens when it is time to go to the dog park:

I love riding in the car!!!

I love to ride with my head out of the sunroof!

This is my most favorite place ever...THE DOG PARK!

Dad is playing a game we call "chuck-it." He throws the ball and I go get it.

Here I am playing with some of my friends.

This is my obsession...TENNIS BALLS!!! I love them so much I can get two in my mouth at one time:)

Sometimes my mom likes to dress me up and this is the outcome. This time it just happens to be a pair of my dad's socks!

Isn't this so sad:(

The whole family

Hope you enjoyed!

-Martini

Reuse...Reuse

In the previous post I mentioned that we stopped using paper plates and paper towels/napkins. So here are pictures of the plastic plates and cloth napkins that we are now using.

I got these plates at the dollar store! When the season changes I will probably go back to see what different designs they have.

The following are pictures of the cloth napkins I made. All the fabric was either in the scrap bin, in the clearance section, or at least 50% off.

Paisley Pattern, Light Blue Cotton, School Theme, Royal Blue Cotton

Green & Brown Zebra Print, Petite Fours, Sports Theme

I had to have some special occasion/holiday napkins. Here are the Happy Birthday and Valentines Day prints.

Christmas Prints

Here is the whole collection. I even found some fabric to make hand towels (those are the orange things on the far right). I had a blast making the napkins. In all I spent $17.00 in fabric and ended up with 73 napkins. That averages out to .24 cents a napkin!

Going Green

The Organ family have decided to start being a little more aggressive in our journey to living green and reducing our carbon foot print. We are starting slow for a couple different reasons. The first reason is cost. We don't have the budget right now to go completely green and organic. The second reason is that I don't want to overwhelm myself with a ton of lifestyle changes. Especially when most of them require some sort of research. So my plan is start slow and add new changes once I feel comfortable with the changes we have already made. One of the major reasons why I came to the decision to start making better choices for our family is because living toxin free and eating organic (both as much as possible) will be a wonderful gift that I can give to my husband and eventually our children (sorry for the long sentence). By the time we have children we will hopefully be out of the transition stage and this will just be the way we live. I would like to share with everyone the few things that we do.

1. Recycle, Recycle, Recycle!!! This is something we have done for years. We are lucky to live in a city that offers free curbside pick up of recycle materials. Our only problem is that we fill our recycle bin up so quickly and pick up is only once a month. We usually have to make one or two runs to a drop off facility. But I guess that's not such a bad problem:)

2. Reuse, Reuse, Reuse!!! After looking around the kitchen one afternoon I realized that we could really decrease our use of paper products. We were using a ton of paper plates, napkins, and paper towels each week. So I made the decision no more paper plates, napkins, and paper towels. I bought reusable plastic plates and sewed a ton of cloth napkins. Another item that we reuse are cloth grocery bags. You can get cloth bags at almost any store now for .99 cents. Here in Nashville if you use your cloth bags at Kroger they will take .04 cents off your bill for each bag.

3. Non-Toxic Cleaning Products!!! I have been wanting to use non-toxic cleaning supplies for a while now, but the problem I tend to run into is that I can't find a store that always has a full supply of every product. So it seems like I can't find what I am looking for when I need it. Problem solved! Mike and I have decided to try out an online company that has been around for years. The company's name is Shaklee and in 1960 they made the first biodegradable household cleaner in the world. So they have been around for a while. To help cut the cost we decided to order the new products as we run out of the old products. This will be a slow process, but it is the best option for us.

4. Martini: Our dog lives better than we do. She eats all natural/homeopathic/organic food, she is bathed with all natural products, & we have even found a home remedy/mixture to take the place of here Frontline (flea/tick medication). I can tell that since we do this for our dog, once we have kids it will be a piece of cake. The things you do out of love:)

5. Food: This category will be the hardest thing for us to change for a couple different reasons. I think this will be the most costly once we buy all organic. Also, even though Nashville has a Whole Foods, it is not very convenient, and while Kroger/Publix carry some organic products, their selection is somewhat limited. Here are the few products that we already buy organic: dairy, coffee, peanut butter, cereal & some meats. Spending money on organic meat is something that Mike and I do not see eye to eye on, yet. That's okay, like I said we are starting out slow.

There are a few more things I would eventually like to add to our "going green" lifestyle. Once we move from a town house into our own free standing home I would love to start composting. Also, thanks to the Glissons, we have been introduced to a neat rain catching system. It is basically a big trash can that hooks to your gutter and has a spout at the bottom so you can use the water to water your plants, wash your kids, or serve at a dinner party...just kidding:) I would also like to eventually use all organic beauty products: shampoo, conditioner, lotions, deoderant, etc.

Unfortunately there are things in our life that are definitely Not green, but if we can change the small stuff first maybe the others will follow. I hope some people found this helpful. I am not writing this to pat ourselves on the back, but I would like to help encourage others. After all, reading what other people are doing is one of the reasons I got started. Also, let me know if you have any other ideas. I'd love to hear them.

My Sad Addiction

About 6 months ago, Mike and I finally gave in and got digital cable along with a digital video recorder (DVR). I love it! Unfortunately, since we have got it I spend way too much time in front of the TV. But I guess since we don't have children and I 'm still able to be productive I should just enjoy it while I can.

In order to let some of you get to know me better I thought I would display my DVR list for the entire world to see. The shows aren't listed in any particular order, but I did highlight all the reality shows in red.

So here is my current DVR list:

Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Lost (ABC)
American Idol (Fox)
Survivor (CBS)
Big Love (HBO)
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Oprah
Top Chef (Bravo)
Dog Whisperer (National Geographic)
ER (NBC)
Work Out (Bravo)
Deadliest Catch (Discovery Channel)
The Hills (MTV)
Three Sheets (MoJo)
Flipping Out (Bravo)
Project Runway (Bravo)
Jon & Kate Plus 8 (TLC)
Tori & Dean/ Home Sweet Hollywood (Oxygen)
Amazing Race (CBS)

Now that I have them listed in front of me I think I have a sad addiction.
By the way, here are the shows Mike picked for the DVR:

CSI (CBS)
CSI: Miami (CBS)

Mike's 2 shows compared to my 23, I do think I have a problem:)

The Shack

For those of you that do not know, I LOVE to read. It was a habit that started in college. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I do not remember reading a book prior to that time. Sure I used to read the text books in high school, but when it came to reading books for literature class I was a cliff notes kind of girl.

There are four category of books that I read:

1. Oprah's Book Club

2. Harry Potter (LOVE!)

3. Nicholas Sparks

4. Anything else that has controversy attached to its name (DaVinci Code, A Million Little Pieces, etc.)

Well, a couple of weeks ago I read a christian fiction book called "The Shack" by William Young. I am embarrassed to admit that as much as I read, this is the first christian fiction book that I have ever read. I think I have stayed away from christian fiction because I thought that it wouldn't be as interesting as the books in Oprah's Club, or the story line would be boring or hard to follow. Boy was I wrong.

This book was amazing. I am not going to give away the story or any of the details, partly because this is the kind of book that can mean different things to each individual person. What I will say is that this book for me has really made clear the relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and what kind of relationship I personally can have with them. It also answered a lot of questions that I think almost every human being has asked before or wanted to ask especially when going through a tragedy. I couldn't put the book down.

I am going to have to stop typing because I keep wanting to tell you all the details in the book. So I will end by saying if anyone reads "The Shack" let me know so we can talk!

Renaissance Festival

I know this post is a couple weeks late, but I had to blog about our Renaissance Festival experience. A few weeks ago Mike and I decided that after 5 years of living in Nashville, it was time to visit the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. The festival is very interesting. It takes place on several acres of land that have been made to look like a 16th century English Village. Most everyone seems to go all out. Not only do many people dress the part, they also speak as if they are living in England during the 16th century. At times it was a little creepy. The festival runs each weekend in May and each weekend has a different theme. The theme for Memorial Day Weekend was "International Jousting Tournament."

We arrived at the festival around 10:30 and headed inside to meet up with our friends Kyle & Janna, and their two boys, Cody and Wyatt. We quickly headed to the jousting arena and grabbed a seat for the tournament. The tournament was fun. You could tell it was staged, but I'm sure all the kids really enjoyed it. After the tournament Janna and Cody enjoyed a camel ride (who knew they had camels in England during the 1500's). The rest of our afternoon was spent eating and browsing at the merchant tents, which sold costumes, jewelry, & arts and crafts. The last item on our agenda was to visit "Castell Gwyn".

Castell Gwyn was built by a man who had a dream of living in a castle one day. This is actually someones home. Construction was started in 1980 and was finished just a few weeks ago. Because the castle is someones home we were not allowed to tour the entire residence. It was neat, but very short and not really what I expected, but it made for some good pictures.