Watching Reagan build her very first sand castle at the beach at Santa Monica Pier with her cousin, Mitchell.

Ron and Lisa Beres began with a simple idea to create a website that would be a one-stop shop for green, organic & healthy products at GreenNest.com.

Rachelle Begley Jr. & Lisa

From there, as certified Green Building Professionals and Building Biologists, they’ve become recognized consultants on the topic of green living, appearing on The Today Show, The Doctors, Chelsea Lately, Fox & Friends and Discovery’s Planet Green. Now condensing their years of research into one easy-to-read, flip-thru book filled with “simple swaps to save the planet and your health,” Lisa and Ron have made the green life more accessible to all. Whether you already live the green lifestyle and are looking for more ways to live healthier and help the environment, or you are just getting ready to dip your toe in and test the waters, Just Green It! will satisfy.

Emily, Lisa and me

While I missed meeting Mrs. Rachelle Begley Jr. (Living with Ed) I did meet many other beautiful people at the party – new faces and old friends alike. I’ve never seen so many glowing faces in one place. Literally.

Greenopolis even stopped by the party, at the upscale and one-of-a-kind furniture showroom, Environment Furniture in West Hollywood to interview the authors:

Every detail of the event was perfectly put together including the delicious vegan hors d’ouvres, uniquely blended cocktails and other tasty treats I never knew could be so flavorful and organic at the same time. At the end of the evening, terrific prizes were raffled off including an Austin HealthMate air purifier worth $500!

Though I did not win the air purifier, I did love bringing home my green, eco-friendly, reusable tote bag filled with goodies from the sponsors of the event. My favorite of the bunch – an adorable all organic bear named Chester, by MiYim, which has quickly become my daughter’s favorite and made the plane ride home to Denver all the more pleasant.

I also brought home one copy of Just Green It!, signed by Lisa to give away to one of my blog readers!

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below telling us how long you’ve been living the green lifestyle or if you’re new to it and have just decided to give it a try. The winner will be randomly selected on Saturday, September 4th. Please be sure to include your email address in your contact info when you comment so that I may reach you.

OPTIONAL: Follow this blog at one or more of these 3 places (in right-hand column):

1. Google Friend connect
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3. Twitter (@BirdBanter)

GOOD LUCK!

Photos by Engage Productions

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

While visiting the Garden of Gods in Colorado Springs, a friend informed me there was also a Garden of the Gods on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Curious, I had to look into how it is that the two natural wonder parks would share the same name, while an ocean apart. They are both beautifully carved rock gardens, a result of centuries of erosion, but their differences could also not be more clear. So, for those of us landlocked slobs who aren’t able to fly to the beautiful Hawaiian islands often enough, and then figure out how to get to the tiny, mostly un-inhabited island from the mainland, here are in no particular order, the top 5 reasons why OUR Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, just 20 min from downtown and five minutes from picturesque Manitou Springs, ROCKS!

Garden of the Gods, Lanai

1. Our sign.

Inscribed like the very tablets of Moses himself, clearly the winner over the dirty, unmanicured thumb.

2. Our Trading Post

Established in the 1900′s, The Trading Post is Colorado’s largest art gallery and gift shop, offering everything from Native American Indian arts and crafts to that paperweight you’ve always wanted with the scorpion suspended inside. Lanai? There aren’t even any traffic lights. No shopping malls or public transportation either. Good luck finding that paperweight.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs. Photo by Chris Bird.

Garden of the Gods, Lanai

3. Our Vertical Rise

Try doing this over a pile of boulders.

4. Our Camping

There are no campgrounds on Lanai, only a Four Seasons. Well, two to be precise. But, if you really want to experience the four seasons, stay at the Garden of the Gods Campground!

5. Our Gods Like to Party

Lanai island legend has it that the rocks and boulders were dropped from the sky by the gods tending their gardens. In Colorado Springs, of the two 1859 surveyors who stumbled across the formations dotting the 1350 acre landscape, one thought it the perfect place for a beer garden. The other, thought it the perfect place for the gods to assemble, and incorporating the beer garden idea, it became known as the Garden of the Gods. We win!

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia where otherwise not attributed.

It was a great way to appease Reagan after sitting in the car for half an hour at the base of Seven Falls, waiting for the rain to stop so we could ascend the mountain side as we had promised, to see the great waterfall. Fortunately, there was a family of deer eating dinner on the side of the road to keep her entertained while we sat in the car. The deer didn’t seem to mind the rain, and Reagan did her best to try to convince us she should be able to join them. We knew the rain would stop in about 15 minutes – it always does – so if we could just hold out a little longer…

Like every summer afternoon in Colorado, the rain did stop shortly after the downpour started and was followed by the most beautiful, blue skies. But what wasn’t expected was that they had closed the park! NO! We could deal with a little flooding and rock slides better than we could the flood of tears that ensued when we told Reagan there would be no waterfall. Some quick thinking on Danny’s part, and we were off to see another body of water – the man-made lake at the Broadmoor. Reagan seemed pleased. And that was all that mattered.

We didn’t give up on Seven Falls, making our return the next day – well worth the wait. Reagan wasted no time scurrying up the 244 steps to the top, while Danny and I huffed and puffed all the way up behind her.

We made sure to take a few breaths at each of the viewing platforms along the way, and take in the amazing view:

Once at the top, we decided to take one of the hiking trails around to what we thought, would take us to the staircase on the other side. Would’ve even been nice to take the Mountain Elevator down, but it happened to be broken that day:

Okay, so we admit we aren’t the best at reading maps, because the trail and this staircase would never meet. Our trail actually led to Inspiration Point, and was Seven Fall’s longest trail. About the halfway point, little Reagan finally succumbed to her fatigue after going all day without her usual two-hour nap. She wanted Mommy to carry her. We made it back to the staircase, where after having had the luxury of being carried like Queen Cleopatra for the past half-an-hour, Reagan reluctantly made her way back down again on her own two feet.

By the time we were nearing the bottom of the stairs, I thought we would all be ready for a two-hour nap, but, Reagan suddenly found her second wind when she saw that an Indian dance show was about to begin on the stage below. She about climbed over every last person on those stairs to get to the few remaining seats in front of the stage. And when they asked for volunteers to come up on stage and dance, there was no stopping her:

As unprepared as we were, I was very glad we all made it out of the canyon that day without the need for a helicopter rescue. And especially glad that we were all able to make the journey together. It wasn’t that long ago that all our adventures in this new home state of ours’ were limited to the view from the windows of our car. Hiking was out of the question. It felt so good to be able to get out in the middle of nature with my family, and to know that we will be having many more days like this, without limits. However, next time we may decide to take the elevator.

There was BBQ, beer, Culver’s Frozen Custard (thank you, Culver’s!), snocones, bouncy castles, balloons, music and games for an entire afternoon, and it seemed Reagan was ready to stay until the last bouncy castle was deflated. The poor balloon guy must have inflated hundreds of balloons that day, several over and over again for the same children like mine. Reagan was so proud as she skipped off with her red balloon, only to watch it float off into the clouds a few minutes later. She pleaded with me to go after it, pointing to the sky as her eyes filled with tears. My solution? Get another one! Ten minutes later, tears again. I could see this was not going to work. On her third visit, I think the balloon guy figured the same, and gave my daughter a balloon animal instead. When the balloon animal died, we had snocones. And all was right with the world again.

It’s hard to say which activity was Reagan’s favorite, but she sure did love getting the princess treatment from our friend, Moose, who brought his mules for hayrides around the park. Reagan got to sit up front, hold onto the reigns and bark orders at the mules (something she’s good at).

Danny at Kanadahar Airport, Afghanistan, 2005

That evening we joined several others for a gathering at one of Danny’s friends’ houses. More food, more beer and more good times. The best part, was how many other kids Reagan’s age there were for her to play with, all between the ages of three and four years old. Deployment babies– conceived either before, during (on R&R) or after the 302nd’s deployment to Qatar in 2005-2006. We pondered on whether the Iraq/Afghanistan war could be bringing us our next baby boom generation and how big would it be? And now these families were preparing for another deployment to Qatar in a few weeks. I can’t say I wasn’t secretly happy that Danny wouldn’t be going this time. His medical status doesn’t allow him to fly for the Air Force for another three years, and until then, he has no chance of being deployed. After two deployments in the first five years we were married, the first immediately following our honeymoon, the second during my pregnancy, I’m selfishly happy to have him home with us now, and proud of his service when our country needed him.

We’ll be praying for our friends – our family – as they enter their next deployment to the Middle East again. May God Bless you all and keep you safe!

And how appropriate that the first city he should fly to is the one we left to move to Denver for his new job at Frontier Airlines, three years ago – St. Louis, the Gateway City.

Right now, he is meeting our friends for dinner in the Lou, where it is 95º, but feels like 109º with humidity. Being from Arizona, I can attest to the fact that a dry heat is much preferable to a midwest summer. But, I’m sure the heat is of no consequence right now to my patient husband, whose long wait to get back in the saddle has finally arrived. Ride ‘em cowboy!

If there’s anything that turning 40 and watching your 39-year-old husband battle cancer teaches you, it’s that thinking you’ll always have later to live the life you really want is foolhardiness. Later is NOW and I’d rather not be the fool who on my death bed rattles off my list of “should’a, could’a, would’ves” to my loved ones in a pathetic attempt to add meaning to my life.

That is what I kept thinking when I knew I’d have to give up being a full-time, stay-at-home Mom to return to work. If I now had to give up some of my time caring for my family (which is all I wanted to do), so that I could provide for them, I’d better love what I do. Otherwise, it felt like we were all being cheated.

Gretchen Reid of Motherhood Transitions helped me to see clear of the box I had put myself in, which is why I’ve written a guest post on her blog today about where I started over a year ago and how this month, I finally find myself Coming Full Circle…

Danny had spent the night before pressing his uniform and packing his bag for a four-day trip that would be his Tour de France ala Lance Armstrong. He sprung out of bed at 7am sharp and by 8am was out the door to the old office, DIA, but not before snapping a pic with our princess for posterity’s sake. By 8:30am he had discovered his flight had been canceled because the Captain he was scheduled to fly with had called in sick.

Only a minor setback, for sure. Danny’s first day will come soon enough and will most likely be next week. But, after all the build-up and anticipation, waiting for this day to arrive for so long, it was a bit deflating.

So in the next week or so, we’ll take another “First Day Back” pic, and laugh about how life just seems to keep playing us a Tango: one step forward, two steps back. Eventually the song ends, and even though you might be right back where you started from, getting there gracefully with your partner is what matters.

The only “fun parks” we had growing up in Arizona were water slides. There was only one amusement park in the entire state – Legend City in Phoenix. And anytime we happened to be visiting Phoenix, a 3-hour drive from Lake Havasu City where I grew up, it always seemed to be closed for one reason or another. It was permanently closed in 1983 after suffering several bankruptcies. I guess it was just too hot to expect people to put their kids in metal spinning cups when it was 120 degrees out. Since its’ closing, Phoenix remains the largest metropolitan area in the United States without a major amusement park.

So, I have to say I’m a little jealous of my daughter Reagan, whose summer daycare visits Denver’s Elitch Gardens once a week. There’s also Lakeside Amusement Park and Heritage Square within the Denver metro area. Frontier Airlines does a family picnic at Elitch’s every summer, and though we missed it this summer, I decided it was time to try a different park. So we made the trek to Golden to visit the charming Heritage Square, where all the rides were just right for a 3 & 4-year-old.

Reagan and gal-pal, Sarah were keeping us on our toes as they scampered from ride to ride, sometimes squabbling over which ride to do next. There were enough rides to keep the fun going all day. Thankfully, Sarah’s mommy took on the job of riding the spinning rides with the girls as I didn’t last long after one or two of them. Reagan definitely takes after her mommy as mid-way through the tea-cup ride, she began to look a little queasy with her head between her knees. The ride was stopped so she could get off, despite her protests. I explained that we didn’t want to stay on if it made her tummy hurt. After each subsequent ride she would proudly proclaim “it didn’t make my throat hurt, Mommy!”

We saved the Ferris Wheel for last and enjoyed the spectacular view.

No day out is complete without ice cream, and the Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor at Heritage Square was as quaint as the rest of the village. Reagan enjoyed her usual of mint chip and I had the spumoni, filled with fruit and nuts. Both were homemade and the largest scoops I had ever seen. It was no wonder Reagan had some difficulty keeping hers’ on her cone. As the ice cream dripped all over her hands, I tried to teach her the art of keeping the ice cream equally licked on all sides. She’s still getting it, but is sure to be a pro in no time.

As we drove home, Reagan nodded off in her car seat. That’s when you know it’s been a perfect day.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about blogging over this past year, it’s that you can’t wait to finish the laundry, pay the bills, mop the floors, and have dinner simmering on the stove before you give some love to your blog. Nope. Bloggers are probably some of the worst housekeepers you’ll ever meet, and they’ll be the first to admit it – on their blogs to the whole world. Because it’s all about being genuine, not perfect. And genuine means you may only have 15 minutes to get what’s in your head out on the page; typos and all. I’m still learning to embrace this part of blogging… seizing the moment when inspiration hits. Kind of like a Cialis ad.

There have been many moments of inspiration over these past two months, but since I didn’t seize those moments then, here they are in a nutshell now:

1. Reagan and I attended the new bubbles exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Denver with the Mile High Mamas. We had a blast!
2. Jim Kelly’s Second Annual Crawfish Boil was held. Reagan managed to eat the tops off of 6 cupcakes without me seeing, until I found the evidence all over Jim’s yard.
3. I was finally making progress on my New Year’s resolution to go back to the gym when a short-term, full-time contract position was plopped in my lap. Given a little lapse in my freelance work, I gladly accepted it and started work the next day.
4. After 2+ years on disability because of cancer, my husband won his fight to return to the Air Force Reserves! He won’t be able to fly with his C-130 unit at Petersen Air Force Base for another 3 years, but, will be cross-trained into another position. A letter from Senator Mary Landrieu of Danny’s home state of Louisiana was sure to have helped and we are forever grateful.
5. Danny receives the long-awaited letter from the FAA telling him he can return to work at Frontier! Our livelihood is finally restored!
6. Danny is studying full-time while I’m working full-time and Reagan is at daycare full-time. *Ugh*
7. Working full-time, taking care of my family and the house, begins to take it’s toll. I’m bone-tired and the house is slowly sliding into a sinkhole of disorganization. My perfectionist side gives up.
8. Danny’s first day back at work at Frontier (in training)!
9. My iMac goes in for repair for the 3rd time in as many years. It has now had more parts replaced than Tara Reid. Or Heidi Montag. Take your pick.
10. Apple refuses to see it my way and give me a new computer to replace the lemon they gave me after all the trouble I’ve had. *fuming* But, they will fix it.
11. Reagan gets a new princess sleeping bag and we have the easiest bedtime routine ever every night for the next week!
12. We spend a glorious 4th of July weekend in Steamboat Springs with friends!
13. My contract job is finally up and I’ve decided that two parents working outside the home is definitely not for us.
14. Reagan’s first sleepover birthday party for her friend, Ana (4) in Winter Park!
15. City Park Jazz in Denver with our friends, the Kellys!
16. Packed up Reagan’s baby monitor. Forever. *milestone*
17. My iMac is ready! (2 weeks later) Now for the miserable task of restoring all my files from back-up. *blech*
18. Back to the gym and feeling good again!
19. Another friend turns 4! Good times with the Bickings!
20. Reagan takes her first swim class!

And last night, Danny passes his check ride and we pop open the champagne to toast to his official return to the friendly skies as soon as next week!

But the biggest news of all… today Danny got the official word from his Oncologist that his most recent PET Scan shows no signs of Lymphoma and that he is AS GOOD AS CURED!!!! Hallelujah!!!

Time to pop open another bottle of champagne!