A Little Bit of Everything

Things have been busy lately.

Where to start...?


Ice cream! ;D
So a week or two ago, my sis and I went to a nearby town to spend the morning doing some pictures with a friend. Afterwords, we went to this ice cream shop with really good ice cream. I got coconut ice cream- MMMM!!! So good, try it!


Monday was a Memorial day parade.  Some friends have a "Fife and Drum Corp" and invited me to dress up in my 1800's hoop skirt dress and walk in the parade with them.  We had to wait like 2 hours for the parade to start and it was SO HOT and there wasn't much shade.  But we met some nice people while we were waiting and enjoyed watching the middle school bands line up.  Finally, we were able to start walking.  My part was easy; smile and wave x)   But you'd be amazed how tired your face gets from smiling, and how thirsty you are after walking only 7/8 of a mile in a big hoop skirt.  Overall it was a fun morning; I'm so glad my friends asked me to walk with them! :)


Yesterday I decided to try making something new... "Pumpkin coconut smoothie." 
What words can describe this unique blend? How about: Thanksgiving dinner meets Hawii.
Let's just say it was interesting. But mom liked it! :D


Last night was banquet.  The family who hosted the event asked me to play flute with them,  and we had a fun time!
I really enjoyed banquet- it was a great opportunity to get dressed up formally! It was kind of like a prom, except without dates or dancing Lol
The food was a big international potluck- so good! One of the mom's made 4 sheet cakes and they were just beautiful!
After dinner, one of the senior guys and I were asked to each give a short speech/testimony about band how band has been a blessing to us. I know I was nervous; it was a big group! But God gave grace for me to speak and the speech went well.
I'm so thankful for band and all the people who put so much time and energy into running it!
Praise the Lord for music! :)



I'm excited!! Today my cousin is coming in from out of town! In just a few months, all his siblings will be coming back too! I haven't seen in almost a year, and I so can't wait till they all come back!!


In 2 1/2 weeks, one of my other cousins is getting married!  She'll be the second cousin to get married on mom's side! We're so excited for them :D



In 2 weeks, it's graduation! I have so much to do before then.  Pray that God will give me the grace to stay focused and finish the stuff that's not done yet.



Ok, I'm going out of my MIND! I'm going to explode....
Our house has gone to the animals!
Baby rabbits in the house...
dog sitting starting today...
not to mention our critters outside.
This is insane.


Would you like to know I find really annoying?
That question. You know the one.
"So what are you going to do next year?"
STOP ASKING. I haven't decided, ok?
Maybe I'll join the circus. Maybe I'll get a job with UPS. Maybe I'll become a heart surgeon. Maybe I'll work as a cashier for the grocery store. Maybe I'll become president of the United States.
But I haven't made my decision yet.
So don't ask.
And why does it matter to you? It doesn't affect your life in any way, shape or form.
So please stop being asking.
Thank you :]


Sunglasses- just found out that  non-UVA protected sunglasses don't do any good!
Many people will tell you that it's better to not wear sunglasses, than to wear sunglasses that don't protect your eyes from UV rays.
According to this yahoo article, our eyes are designed to squint when exposed to bright light. Wearing sunglasses that do not protect your eyes from UV rays is dangerous because the glasses block enough light that your eyes can stay open, but they do not prevent harmful light from entering your eyes and causing damage.
So the moral of the story is: make sure your glasses provide UVA/UVB protection, and if they don't, it's time to go sunglasses shopping! ;)




And now, I'm going to share some interesting articles and info I found online about vitamin D.
Vitamin D.
It's important! Without enough vitamin D, our bodies are susceptible to diseases like osteoporosis or rickets. (see link)
Vitamin D plays a big role in many body functions, (source) including: Heart health, Skin health, Hearing, Athletic performance, Vascular system health, Immune health, Weight management, Strong and healthy bones, and food absorption.
Wow! It sounds like vitamin D is an important vitamin!

So the obvious question is: how do we get vitamin D?
Well, there are 3 ways:  The sun, diet, or supplement.

I personally like the idea of the sun best.
While some argue that tanning is horrible for your skin because of the risk of skin cancer, I would argue that limited tanning is actually GOOD for you because your skin uses the sun rays to produce vitamin D.
So how can you get vitamin D from being in the sun, and how do you know when you've been outside long enough?
According to this yahoo article:
"Is ten minutes in the sun enough time to get the vitamin D you need? It really depends on the U.V. index. The U.V. index is a measure of how much U.V. radiation reaches the skin on a particular day. You can determine the daily U.V. index in your area by going to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website. If the index is between five and seven, you need between ten and fifteen minutes of direct sunlight. If it's nine or above, you only need five to seven minutes of direct sunlight. If it's below five, plan on spending around twenty to twenty-five minutes outdoors. Getting more than this doesn't increase the amount of vitamin D your body is able to produce and will only increase the risk of skin damage."
You might be wondering: how exactly does your body use the produce vitamin D? In this article we learn that our skin has D3 in it which reacts with UVB rays and converts them into vitamin D via the liver and kidneys.
According to this source (hsph.harvard.edu) A light skinned person's body could produce as much as 20,000 IU of vitamin D from full sun exposure at the right time of day.
In short, if you spend just a few minutes outside each day, your body can absorb and manufacture it's own vitamin D.

What about diet? According to this article, fatty fish is the best food source of vitamin D, providing 250-360 IU of vitamin D per day. Eggs and beef also provide a limited ammount of viatmin D, 20 and 15 IU respectively. There are many foods fortified with vitamin D including milk, margarine and cereal.  But even these only provide 50-100 IU per serving.
However, according to wikipedia, the tolerable intake for vitamin D is 4,000 IU for people aged 9-71 years.
Thus, if someone were low in vitamin D and wanted to raise their vitamin D levels from diet alone, they might need to eat as many as 11 servings of fish per day!

This is why many people take supplements.
If you do take a supplement, it is important that you take the right one. This article states that there are two types of vitamin D, D2 and D3. Vitamin D2 is not easily absorbed into the body, as it must be converted to D3 before it can be used.  So if you take a supplement, it's best to take D3 which is much easier for the body to absorb.  As stated in the article, you can find D3 over the counter (for as little as $5 - $10!) at most drugstores. 
Supplements are a quick, inexpensive way to get the vitamin D your body needs.
Not only do supplements provide much more vitamin D than you could get from diet alone, but as this yahoo article mentions, some people recommend taking a vitamin D supplement because it's a great way to get vitamin D without the risk skin-cancer-causing sun exposure. The article points out that people with darker skin or elderly people would need a lot of sun exposure to absorb an adequate amount of vitamin D, and we already know that prolonged sun exposure increases risk of skin cancer. This is just one more reason why many people take supplements.
However, there are risks involved when taking supplements.
According to this article, excess Vitamin D in the blood can increase risk of stroke, heart failure, heart attack, and dementia.
People should consider the risks before taking supplement.

So whether you choose to sun, diet, supplement, or a combination thereof, it's obvious that vitamin D is important for each and every one of us.




Esto es todo.
Hasta luego!
Sinceramente,

~~
Isabel