Is a ring really necessary?!

So why an engagement ring?  

Ok, that doesn't answer the question but I thought it was funny.

According to Wikipedia an engagement ring is:

"...presented as a betrothal gift by a man to his prospective spouse while he proposes marriage or directly after she accepts his marriage proposal. It represents a formal agreement to future marriage."

I like the idea of an engagement ring.  There's an exchange.  She gives her word he gives a ring.  I'm a Carrie Bradshaw fan and who could forget the movie ending when Mr. Big asks the question, she says "yes" and then Big says "This is why there is a ring, you gotta have something to close the deal".  I agree.  Let's face it, women love the idea of marriage so much, they would probably go around saying they were engaged if they didn't need a ring to prove it! 


Which is why I'm very much on board with an engagement ring.  So much so that I pause when I think of making any drastic change WITHOUT a ring.  I know my family is expecting a ring.  I know my friends are too.  The Man in my life is such a romantic he could care less about the ring.  He just wants to the girl.  Which I understand and I love that!  But I want both.  The man and the ring.  Women are difficult, and I'm NO exception.


But it's the COST of the ring (as mentioned in my last post) that kills me.  Do you know who is to blame for this?!  De Beers.  Who's that?  That's the guy who said an engagement ring should be two month's income.  Source: Wikipedia- 

"The idea that a man should spend a significant fraction of his annual income for an engagement ring originated from De Beers marketing materials in the early 20th century, in an effort to increase the sale of diamonds.[1] In the 1930s, they suggested that a man should spend the equivalent of one month's income in the engagement ring; later they suggested that he should spend two months' income on it.[1] In 2007, the average cost of an engagement ring in USA as reported by the industry was US$2,100."

It's just marketing.  But it is ingrained in us!  Well, us women.  I'm not sure all men know that expectation.  And even if they do, I'm not sure who actually does it.  And as far as that last line in the quote "Average cost in 2007 was $2,100" - BALONEY or I just hang out with the wrong crowd.  There is no way the average cost of my friends' engagement rings is $2,100.  I don't see any of my friends getting away with NO engagement ring...not in the crowd I run with.  


I do have one friend who wanted to for go the ring all together.  She was engaged in September and married in December (of the same year).  She has a blog and wrote about why she didn't want a diamond ring.  In her conclusion: 

"Dan and I would rather our rings speak more about our hearts than our pocketbooks. Diamonds may be “indestructible,” but the might of our God is stronger."

Ay!  Talk about Catholic guilt.  But I've always felt there is a certain way to do things.  Ask my dad for permission, get down on one knee, have a ring, and then I say "yes".    He has already asked for permission, so I'll let you know when he's on one knee!!

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The Ring

I'm not engaged, but the Man in my life is looking for a ring.  Actually he was looking last June when we went to Vegas together!  Poor guy, walks into a Zales in Vegas and asks me to look for a ring I like.  I look at the engagement rings and even try on a few.  But I realized my fingers are really long, and if I don't get a 3 carat round cut diamond, my ring will be unnoticeable when sitting below my king kong knuckles.

So I convinced myself I needed an oval diamond.  I haven't seen too many oval diamonds and I like being unique, so I love the idea of an oval cut (like above).  However, we're in Vegas and in a diamond store and the Man really wants me to come home with a diamond ring.  So he buys me a "ring with diamonds" not a "diamond ring".  Something similar to these:

As I research diamonds more and more I realize....they are a HUGE rip off!  My goodness!  We went to Zales and found an oval solitaire 1.3 carats...we were quoted $13,000.  $13,000!!!  The Man says it's no big deal and he'll save up.  I'm starting to realize he'll be saving up for a LONG time.  And this girl has an ITCH.  A wedding itch.  A time to move on with my life itch.

While I'm scratching, I stumble across an article on AOL article (yep, I still read AOL news...not a fan of Google news layout). 

This article (which I can't find on AOL anymore, so I'm sorry there is no source) suggested a wholesale company I've never heard of:  James Allen.  They are based out of New York and do not have a store front.  

Their comparable oval diamond at 1.36 carat was $4,130.  $4,000!!  That's one THIRD of Zales.  This made me sick to my stomach!

So why does Zales cost this much?  I'm sure can figure out it's because of the hundreds of locations around the U.S.A.  Also their sales staff and their popularity.  As our sales rep at Zales said "We're the McDonalds of diamond stores".  umm wow - thanks but no thanks.  I do NOT want fries with that! 

I'm on the mad search for wholesale diamonds.  I've looked at BlueNile and ItsHot.com. 

          

I also found a local wholesale jeweler who has the same warranty and trade-in policy as Zales. 

You may be wondering why I am looking for this ring and the Man isn't.  Well for starters, I sit at a computer all day while he's on a tractor.  So I have the resources and time.  Also I'm much more money conscience than he is.  If he had $13,000 cash that day he would have bought that ring.  But I'm a sales person by trade and I know there's more than the value of the ring in that $13,000 price.  And seeing that two thirds is going to the corporation, I'm NOT on board....besides I'd love to support a local jeweler.  I know there's a possibility the local guy will go out of business (even though this company's been around for 20+ years).  But at the same time, that's why you insure your diamond!  He could skip town or I could lose the ring!  Life is full of risks.

So wish me luck on this journey!

Look for the next post on Why I'm getting a ring (and not forgoing it all together).

               Sidebar: as soon as I say I want an oval diamond to be unique, my friend from college gets an oval diamond!  But she doesn't have king kong knuckles....she's super skinny and super tiny.  Her photo below.

She did the 6 prongs, which I thought I didn't like, but it doesn't look too bad and it holds the diamond better than 4 prongs.

My hand with loose 1.3 carat diamond --> 

40 Days of Rest

I ran across this great blog I'd love to share.  If you find yourself with little "me" time.  Or if you're running out of time at the end of the day trying to "squeeze it all in"  read this blog post and consider Turning Off the Lights for 40 days

Jennifer Fulwiler shares...

I had three children under age three, a seemingly endless to-do list, and regularly felt like I was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. I’d begun to deal with my stress by spending too much time on the internet, and my prayer life had become almost nonexistent. As Lent approached that year, I spent a lot of time searching for how I could make it a time of reprioritization and renewal. I wanted to undertake a spiritual practice that would be drastic enough to break me out of my rut, but would also be reasonable for someone with my crazy lifestyle to undertake. And then, during one of my (all-too-rare) prayer times, I got an odd inspiration:
Turn out the lights.

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I felt drawn to do occasional fasts from artificial light during Lent. After talking to my husband about it, we committed to foregoing all electric sources of light after sundown approximately once a week—and this included not only overhead lights, but glowing screens like computers or televisions as well. For safety’s sake we did leave nightlights on in the hallways while we slept, but in terms of illuminating our evening activities, it was all candlelight. The impact it had on our lives was more powerful than I could have imagined. To list just a few of the profound changes this simple once-a-week fast brought to our lives:

1. It forced us to limit our to-do lists. My 98-year-old grandfather often comments that life is much more hectic now than it was when he was growing up on a remote farm in the 1920s, and I think that electric light has a lot to do with that. The first thing I noticed during our artificial light fast was what a large amount of work I typically tried to accomplish after sundown. I found it impossible to tackle laundry by candlelight, and obviously any work on the computer was out. At first it was exasperating, but then I realized that I had been using artificial light to push myself way beyond reasonable human limits in terms of how much I tried to do in a day. On the days that I was forced to do only as much work as I could do during daylight hours, my life became naturally balanced, with times of rest complementing times of work.

2. It taught us humility. The first night I found myself facing an entire evening with no light, I was just about twitching with anxiety. But what about all that laundry? What about those dishes I didn’t get to? What about email?!?! I hadn’t realized how much I relied on myself and how little I relied on God until I was forced to give up control of my schedule. It was humbling to see that the universe actually did not fall apart at the seams without me working 16 hours a day, even when I didn’t get to those items on my to-do list that were “so important.”

3. It inspired us to live intentionally. On the days when I’d have artificial light to extend my work time as late as I wanted to, I tended to shuffle around the house aimlessly, getting to things when I got to them. But when I knew that my work would have to cease at sundown, with whatever didn’t get done being set aside until the next day, I approached my days much more purposefully.

4. It reduced our stress levels. At the time I was burdened by a lot of worries about everything from money to how I would get through the next day without collapsing from exhaustion. Yet every time we switched off the lights and lit the candles, an amazing thing would happen: My stress would be instantly cut in half. Something about the dim, natural glow and the movement of the flames made me feel deeply relaxed, even when I had been full of tension just moments earlier.

5. It carved out time for the things that matter. The two areas of life that were always threatened by our frantic schedules were prayer time and family time. Without being able to do much work or become distracted by glowing screens, we found that our candle-lit evenings left us plenty of time for our real priorities.   Read more:

While we all give up tangible things this Lent, let's not forget to work on our relationship with our own body, mind and soul.  What's the point of giving up TV if you spend that extra time on the computer?  Why give up alcohol if you don't use that clarity of mind to do something GREAT?  Best of Luck my friends!  You can do it!

Living Life to the Fullest...with my body, mind and soul for 40 days! 

well, well, well

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Looks like we had a life altering, fork in the road, forever changing event that lead to an epiphany this weekend.

Stay tuned....things are about to get bumpy!!

Live the PROactive life

Something you may not know about me: my mother is a breast cancer survivor.  Yay!  She was diagnosed when I was a pre-teen, and she's over 10 years in remission.  If you knew my mother, you'd know she's a fighter and her remission wouldn't surprise you at all.


I'm not yet 40, the age recommended for most women to have their first mammogram.  I hope to have mine earlier since it's in my family.  While the clock ticks towards my 30's I have decided to live the PROactive lifestyle instead of the REactive life. 

I don't smoke

 I don't drink coffee everyday

 I do drink green tea every day

 I cut back on drinking alcohol

 I've changed my diet to largely vegetables

 and very little meat

 I'm convinced it's the hormones in meat causing cancer, but who knows

  I've taken up yoga

 I walk every day with my dogs

I have plants indoors

and 

I PRAY EVERYDAY
I don't pray to not get cancer, but the silence in prayer and giving my stress and anxiety to God strongly helps my Type A personality

All of the above are very relaxing and provide a calming effect on my daily lifestyle. 

Something else I've done is begun taking vitamins as I've mentioned in previous posts


I was so happy to stumble across this article about a study in San Antonio linking Vitamin D levels to tumor size in breast cancer. 

This article shares that if you are Vitamin D deficient your tumor will be larger than those with higher levels of Vitamin D.  Remember, Vitamin D is our sunshine vitamin! It gives us energy and it's found in foods such as milk, mushrooms, and fish.  It's main role is to help us absorb calcium.
Now, there is such thing as too many vitamins, so don't go popping pills.  In most cases your body will filter out the excess, but you can still hurt your body if you over indulge.

My personal experience with Vitamin D:  Last year I had my blood tested at my General Practitioner's office and my vitamin D levels were very low.  We should each have over 30 ng/mL of Vitamin D...I had 10 ng/mL  10!!!!  My doctor prescribed these super power pills of 4,000mg of Vitamin D to be taken weekly.  It worked wonders!! 

My 60 year old father recently had a blood test and his Vitamin D levels were low as well!  He's always been overweight and if he gets a chance to sit down and watch a TV show, you'll never get him off the couch.  He's had kidney failure, hyperthyroidism (which led to having his thyroid removed) and basic lethargy.  We thought it was weight (which I'm sure it is) but it also probably has to do with vitamin deficiency. 

Moral of the story: Don't risk your future, don't suffer through illnesses that may be preventable and don't waste your money on coffee when all you need is the natural remedy of your daily vitamins.   My 84 pills cost $23.  That's $0.25 a pill!  Where can you get coffee for that price and with zero calories?!

Yes, I'm an independent associate for Usana.  But you can see my doctor turned me on to vitamins long before Usana did.  I found the need and the resources in my life to continue this journey of PROactive health and I hope to do too!  Step one:  Get a blood test from your doctor and be sure to request Vitamin D testing!

Other Sources:
Vitamin D and Rickets
Government Institute of Health - http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-QuickFacts/

Vitamin D: The forgotten hormone - http://www.publichealthreviews.eu/show/f/35

Living Life to the Fullest by living a PROactive Lifestyle!

-Rachel

Pinterest!!

For the creative person in us all....who is overloaded by work and a million other things in life....I give you the BEST creative outlet I've found so far

Clicking that logo goes to my Pinterest Boards
Check it out!



Have you heard of Pinterest??????

If not, get on board!

Some define Pinterest as the following......

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  But I have completely fallen in love with this virtural scrapbook.  Instead of tearing pages out of magazines and storing them away in my "future house" file or "outfits for fall" book (both of which I only run across when I'm cleaning out my desk); this online pin-board is a continuous reminder of EVERYTHING that's going on in this crazy head of mine!

  Something to keep in mind when pinning.  TRY your hardest to FIND THE ORIGINAL SOURCE of what you find.  I honestly have no clue how to go about finding the original sources for the above images.  But things like photography, interior design, menu ideas, etc. need to be credited to their original creator.  People make a living taking pictures, designing homes, creating menus, and it's only fair to acknowledge that and help them drive their business.  Having said that - if you are a business owner, you MUST have a Pinterest page for your product (or your services) so that you can easily be shared!  It's free marketing!

Best of luck and Happy Pinning!!!

Juicy Juice

My office is hosting a 'Biggest Loser' competition.  $20 to enter and $1 for every pound you gain.  Talk about motivation!  So far I've lost 4 pounds (or 2.3%) and haven't had to pay anything more than the $20.  Thankfully the winner is chosen based on percentages so it's pretty fair.  

I wanted to share with you my secret weapon: Whole Living

Starts with juices - this Grapefruit, Carrot, Ginger - DELISH!

And this Apple, Beet and Mint juice - Tastes like beet more than apple

Next on my list to try Green Juice - broccoli, celery, cucumber, parsley

Just TRY a juice - I don't think you'll be disappointed!!