Hearts with Hope: Hospital

I have received so many lovely emails and phone calls since I wrote my first post on my humanitarian experience. As I mentioned before I wasn't sure my schedule was going to allow for me to go, so most of my friends and even family didn't know I was going on this trip until I was already back. So, thank you for the kind words and if I haven't gotten back to yet I promise I will soon!

Deb and I spent three days in the Hospital on our humanitarian trip. Like many of us I am not one who is a big fan of hospitals, but I put on my scrubs and was willing to do whatever was needed of me. There were four areas in the hospital that we ran between (Ecko Lab, Cath Lab, ICU and Recovery) handing out goody bags to patients that were on their way home, going on rounds with doctors and nurses, comforting parents and their families and doing whatever else needed to be done. Every time we walked into a patients room the entire family would thank us, bless us, hug us and take our picture. Every time we left a patients room tears of emotion would roll down our face. The emotions seemed to hit me heavy half way though the trip. A doctor asked me one afternoon to comfort a mother who was just told her three year old son would need open heart surgery the next morning and I thought, "Are you kidding me, I can't keep it together." I tried my best as tears rolled down my cheek (clearly I am too emotional to ever be a nurse). I'll never forget another moment with that same mother. Her son was in recovery in the ICU the next day after surgery and the doctors were getting ready to pull out his chest tube. This was something very hard for me to watch daily and I noticed the mother was in agony watching her son cry as the doctors and nurses hovered above him. So, I did what was natural for me and I asked her if she wanted to step out for a moment. She looked relieved and although we could barley speak each others languages she understood me and I found a way to comfort her even if just for a few moments.

 Our last two days we were given the responsibility of taking over for a woman (Andrea) who basically runs the show and makes everything run day to day. Andrea, was heading out on an over night outreach (see last post) trip so after a thirteen hour day of training she handed us her clip board and trusted we could fill her shoes. One of the most important jobs on our daily task list was to make the surgery schedules for the next day. This included putting the patients charts together. Basically if we entered any wrong information (procedure, weight, age, sex etc...) we could kill a child! No big deal. So needless to say Deb and I rechecked our work AT LEAST three times over. What an experience. I have an abundance of respect for Andrea and everyone else involved that make this trip happen every year.

Deb and I each got to experience something that is hard to explain in a post. We each sat in on an open heart surgery. As I mentioned before I don't like hospitals. I also don't like, needles, blood, guts, germs  and everything else that goes along with them yet somehow I found myself standing in an OR with a fifteen year old girl who's chest was about to be cut open. The doctors told me is was very common to feel dizzy, noshes or light headed and if that happened to leave the room and lay down outside. I told them not to be concerned if I often left the room to take a breather because I expected myself to go through all of those things. Well...three and a half hours later I hadn't left the room once! The surgeons and anesthesiologists talked me through every step of the surgery and then asked me if I wanted to scrub in and touch a beating heart. Naturally I said yes to this once in a lifetime experience that would never be allowed in America. It was AWESOME. Those are the only words that really come to mind because nothing can really explain it.

{ Little Miss Carolina }

{Thumbs up in the ICU}

{She couldn't stop smiling}

{ Such beauty}

{ Heart breaker}

{Doing it}

{ In the OR with UCLA's top Pediatric Cardiac Surgeons} 

{Saving lives in the Cath Lab}

{ That's me scrubbed in with my hands on a beating heart}

We had an amazing photographer with us on this trip. Her name is Sara Bateman and photos 1-6 and 9 are all taken by her. Thank you Sara for capturing so many amazing moments throughout the trip.

Hearts With Hope: Outreach

Sometimes when you least expect it an opportunity arises that at the time you have no idea will change your life for good. One of my best friends, Deb, invited me to go on a humanitarian trip with her that she bid on at a charity event in Los Angeles last year. I was honored, but after the trip was postponed in the fall I wasn't sure my crazy schedule would allow me to go when it was rescheduled in the spring. I believe things happen at the right time for a reason, so after much thought I cleared my schedule for two weeks and packed my bags. It's near impossible to explain to anyone what I experienced in Peru with these beautiful children.  In order to really soak in the experience and live each moment I made a choice to stay disconnected from my everyday life without emails or social media updates. Instead I wrote in a journal each night so I wouldn't forget all the emotions and details of each day.

I am going to post four different installments on my trip:
OUTREACH
HOSPITAL
CUSCO/MACHU PICCHU
WHAT WE ATE

HEARTS WITH HOPE :  Hearts with Hope is an organization who's goal is to provide Latin American families access to medical care and other necessities for their children with congenital heart disease.

OUTREACH
What is outreach? Outreach is when you are taking out of town to a small village, school or orphanage to help families that don't have access or the financial means to commute to a major city for assistant (in this case dental/medical care). It's hard to pin point what my favorite part of the mission was, but when I think back to my moments at the schools playing with these kids my heart fills up and my eyes start to water.

Day 1 on an outreach day trip:
We would arrive at a school and treat two hundred boys and girls ages 4-10. The dental team would examine their mouths for decay and infection and the doctors and nurses would check vitals and listen to their hearts. The children received a permission slip that they were to take home if they needed to come back the following day for treatment (aka extractions)! Then the fun part came where we educated the children in small groups on dental hygiene. Many children didn't even own a toothbrush. After they were taught how to brush their teeth each child was given a florid treatment and a toothbrush and toothpaste to take home. I spent the day giving florid treatments and I still can't believe what I saw in their little mouths. The average child had 3-6 teeth that were rotted, black and most likely infected. Most of this is caused from lack of nutrition (soda and sugar are their staples) not to mention dental hygiene. My heart broke seeing the lack of knowledge in health and nutrition in this country, although I know a lot of that comes from poverty.

Day 2 on an outreach day trip:
I had no idea what was coming when we set up for day two. We turned a small class room into a mini operating room where children were put under anesthesia to extract rotted teeth. Desks were put together to form an operating table and a small blanket was laid on the floor for the children to recover on. I personally have a fear of going to the dentist, but after seeing these brave little kids go through this I will never complain again. Deb and I's job was to be with the kids (on the floor) as they recovered, swap out their bloody gauze, comfort (aka love them), and give them a fluffy stuffed animal in hopes that it would make this experience not so traumatizing.

We would take time to step out of the treatment rooms and play with the children in their school yard (which was dirt and cement). I have a video of a group of them singing a school song (with hand gestures) to me. I use to speak spanish quite well so after a few days it started to come back to me which made communicating much easier. The children would get so excited when you talked to them and I would have to tell them to slow down so I could understand them. They loved having their picture taken and wanted to see it directly after. They would giggle at the sight of themselves and then beg you to take another with them. I have dozens of stories and pictures so I am picking and choosing as I go along. I love looking back at these pictures because you see so much joy and love in each of their eye's. What a lesson it was to see this with children who have so little yet want nothing more than your attention and love.

A Different Kind of Beauty Book!

Right now I have a stack of books sitting on my nightstand that I have been going through every night. Everything from cookbooks, health and wellness and happy books (aka self help, but I prefer calling them happy books). For some reason or another I am on a more than usual super healthy kick. Maybe it's the change in weather or swimsuit season around the corner, but wouldn't it be great if we wanted to feed our body healthy nutritious foods everyday because that's what it needs not because it's beach season?

One of my oldest and dearest friends Sara who also happens to have a fabulous food blog called Bowls and Books and has an adorable blue eyed toddler named Dane, gave me this awesome book that I can't get my nose out of.  Since Sara became a mommy to sweet Dane she has developed a whole new interest in food and her families health. We now look back and laugh (although, I kind of want to cry) about how in high school we would go to our favorite deli and get sourdough rolls, dip them in ranch dressing (barffff I know) and that is what we called lunch. We now swap emails and text messages weekly with our favorite new food/health blogs and recipes. Sara recently got me hooked to this blog and now this book! Does this girl know me or what?  I must say author Kimberly Snyder is onto something and if I could share her theory with the world I would. After all, she believes the secret to beauty is taking care of your body INSIDE and OUT!

Gwyneth Paltrow is one of my favorite writers, fashionistas and foodies to follow. Out today is her latest book "It's All Good". This book is filled with healthy clean recipes excluding dairy, eggs, sugar, coffee, meat, wheat, no deep water fish, no soy and nothing processed! What does she eat then you ask? Read the book and find out!

Image 1, Image 2 via amazon


xoxo
Alli

Healthy Eats: Quinoa & lentil stuffed peppers

This is one of my all time favorite childhood meals that my Mom use to make. I have swapped out the traditional meat, rice and cheese for some yummy vegan healthy alternatives. This recipe doesn't call for a lot of prep time and it looks impressive to serve for company.

Ingredients:
6 Bell Peppers (I use organic especially since you eat the skin)
1 cup Quinoa
1 1/2 water
2 cups lentils ( or package of Trader Joe's steamed lentils)
olive oil (to taste)
minced garlic (about a table spoon)
1 cup finely chopped zucchini
1/2 a bag of chopped kale (I used double the amount shown in the picture below)
2 medium carrots diced
Seasoning to taste

* Use whatever veggies strike your fancy. This is what I had in my fridge, but broccoli and onion etc would be great to add too!

Instructions:
Make an incision at the rounded top of each pepper. Cut around the stem in an even circle. Then pull out the stem and the seeds.

Rinse quinoa, then add water and quinoa to saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the water is absorbed (about 15-20 minutes). Set quinoa aside.

Saute zucchini, kale, carrots and garlic in olive oil. Add seasoning. Let the veggies simmer for a few minutes and then add lentils and quinoa. You can add a little soy sauce etc to taste if desired.

Once you are satisfied with the filling spoon into peppers. I had enough filling to easily fill 6-8 medium bell peppers. Place peppers into glass baking dish so peppers stay upright. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

*I made a separate mixture for my husband and added lean ground beef to the quinoa/lentil/veggie filling (seen in the red bell pepper).

xoxo

Spring Beauty Pick Me Up!

Spring is here and when the snow starts the melt and the sun starts to shine it also means it's time to change up your beauty regimen.  I like to think of it as my makeup bag getting a little pick me up. This is how I go about it:  First I change my daily winter moisturizer to a light weight formula with SPF (must needed in my LA home base), I tend to wear a tinted moisturizer year round, but I am really loving the light weight formula and multi task in a BB cream, a creamy concealer is a must, a new bright lip and cheek stain, a pop of color on your eyes and a new fresh luxurious scent.

{Josie Maran Argan Oil Daily Moisturizer with SPF 40}

{Tarte BB SPF 30 BB Cream)

{Tarte Creaseless Concealer} 

{Revlon Just Bitten Kissables in cherish and lovesick}

{Stilla Convertible Color in Sweet Peat}

 {Mek Up Forever Aqua Eyes in Metallic Royal Blue}

{Jo Malone Fragrance}

Image via Glitter Guide

xoxo

TGIF: Hello Spring!

This is my favorite time of year (although fall is a very close second) and I have already started celebrating with an impromptu half day at the beach with a pitcher of fresh sangria and girlfriends. I have been living/working at the pilates studio finishing up my ten month certification program (woohoo....one more test and a final to go!). I am so excited for it to finally be official and I feel so lucky to have incredible teachers whom I look up to on this amazing journey. With five weddings ahead of us our spring/summer calendar is full of travel, bridal showers, bachelorette/bachelor weekend get aways, weddings, family vacations and hopefully a lot of one on one time for the hubby and I.  I am also singing in a couple up coming concerts, so if you live in the Los Angeles area stay tuned! Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekend To-Do's:
~Planning the dinner menu for our guests
~Entertaining friends
~Flea Market
~Purchase fresh spring flowers and fruits/veggies from the farmers market
~Sunday brunch

* notice I did not include anything physical this weekend as my body is screaming at me for practicing my pilates moves everyday. So I am giving myself a little rest this weekend.

xoxo

image via Pinterest

Mad for Essie's Spring Collection!

I am mad for Essie's new Spring 2013 collection! So much so that I want to change my nail color every other day! I went with bond with whomever for a spring pedicure this weekend, but I swear it took me fifteen minutes to decide on the color. In my defense, it was my first spring pedi of the season, so clearly this was an important decision.

From left to right: hip-anema, madison ave-hue, maximillian strasse her, avenue maintain, bond with whomever, go ginza

*image

xoxo