April. 2009  and May. 2009

Birthday Dinner   Birthday Desserts   More Birthday Desserts   Wedding jewelry that I made The big flower is a barrette

Hey sweethearts. I think I'm going to be changing things up a bit with my journal. I've been thinking that I'm going to switch to a blog style platform and  focus more on raw food stuff and update regularly, at least twice a week. I'm not sure what I'm going to this with journal, this might be my last entry in this format. It's hard to give it up because I like looking through it from time to time.  It really has been a documentation of my life these last three years and so much good has come out of it. Did you know that my boyfriend read my journal a few years back and it made him want to meet me? Now we're getting married, yay!

Technically 32, but Eternally 29:)

I'll start off with telling you about my birthday. I'm 32! I celebrated it twice. First, with a family outing to Cafe Gratitude in San Rafael. It was awesome, they gave me a raw strawberry shortcake with a candle in it. I freaking love Cafe Gratitude desserts! My favorites are their coconut creme pie and their strawberry cobbler with their vanilla ice cream! Mmmmm!

Then I hosted a birthday/slash engagement party and there were more raw desserts. A tropical fruit coconut cream pie that I made and a mango pie my friend john made. They were a hit. I think about 40+ or so people came to the engagement party and four little Chihuahuas. My in future in-laws were visiting and they met my parents for the first time. It went well and it felt great to be surrounded by so many family and friends. After the preparation and clean up for the engagement party, I was pretty tired and then it dawned on me that a wedding would be the same amount of work times 10! I think it shook me out of wedding mode. It was kinda like fantasy met reality and I didn't like it! I realized I'd be so much happier if Darrell and I had a romantic elopement, just the two of us. My wedding obsession went away quick huh? It was never really me anyways. So I'm pretty much all set; I have my dress and I just made my jewelry (to the right). We are planning our escapade in September and I'm sure it will be very romantic and special:)

Eloping is for Lovers

We have been tossing around cool ideas for eloping such as renting a limo, going to the beach for pictures, eating at a raw food/vegan restaurant, and  staying in a nice hotel. We haven't completely decided yet, but we are excited and relaxed as opposed to feeling pressured and overwhelmed about planning a wedding.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but before I even met Darrell or actually the motivation to meet Darrell was that I had a dream that we fell in love and we eloped! I guess it was meant to be.

After the engagement party we hosted my future in-laws for the week and played tour guide with them again this year. We walked the Golden Gate Bridge, went to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens, and Stayed a night at Bodega Bay.

Tide Pool in Bodega Bay Protia at S.F. Botanical Gardens   Future Golf Pro Raw Food Loving Ladies Shea Baird, Laura Bruno, Me, Elaina Love   Bye for now see you at my new blog!

I'm so blessed I lived in an area that I love to show to my out of town friends and family. Northern California is one of the few places that I could live, but Southern California comes in a close 2nd! Darrell and I just visited Hollywood and Santa Monica and had a raw food adventure! You can see the pictures of my Hollywood Santa Monica adventure here. It was sooooo much fun and the first time Darrell and I were on a plane together!

A few weeks after our sightseeing tour around San Francisco, Darrell entered a local golf tournament. I rode along with him to show my support. For a weekend golfer he is talented. It was so cute, when he sank a putt he turned to me and we both smiled. He didn't feel he did his best so I'm not allowed to tell anyone his score, but he did really well.

Dancer is Fine

Quick note for those of you that e-mailed me about my dog. Don't worry, I love my dog so much that I if I did make her a vegetarian dog I would research it and make sure that she is thriving and getting all she needs. For now she is not vegetarian (although she eats a lot of vegetarian foods) and possibly may never be, but I do make sure that everything she eats is natural and high quality. Funny how nothing I have written before has gotten as much of a reaction.

Thank You

Considering this is probably going to be my last journal entry in this format. I just wanted to thank you for reading my journal and supporting me. I didn't really know where the journal would take me, but my goal was to show other's that living the raw food's lifestyle could be easy and fun. I consider myself a fairly average person for the most part, but I live the raw food's lifestyle and I love it. If anything, it has enhanced my life in so many ways: increased energy, new friends, and it has given me a passion and a purpose in life. I hope that I have encouraged other's to at least try it. You never know where it might take you.

I can't believe where I am right now. Completely in love with my partner, I love where I live, I am so in love with my little Chihuahua, and I love that my work is to spread the word about the power of living and raw foods.

I'm excited about my future. Of course, I look forward to getting married, if you haven't noticed:)  I'm also excited about eventually rescuing another Chihuahua. We are undecided about having children but we are certain we are going to get another dog, they are like our little furry babies. I'm super excited about expanding my business so that I'm able to work from home full time and have the freedom to travel. It is too hard to to leave my precious Dancer, just look at her picture to the left, can you blame me? I also want to focus more on writing articles and developing raw food recipes. I really feel like I'm at a great point in my life. I love where I am but I'm in joyful anticipation about the future.

I do hope you will follow me to my new raw glow blog. My vision for my new blog is to offer a practical, balanced, and light approach to the raw food's lifestyle with community input and of course,  lots of pictures! If you've been reading this journal for awhile you know how much I love taking pictures. I'm going to focus more on education, and include less personal tidbits, but I will share wedding pictures:)

Here's to a new chapter for the raw glow girl, I do hope you will join me.

xoxo
C