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I have never been away from my baby for a full day until this weekend.  My parents poked fun at me after our stay was over because of the fact that I packed so many things; there was almost absolutely nothing they didn’t have.  My heart did sink a little when baby getting transferred, raised her hand at mommy as if saying, ” No more kisses mommy, I’ll be ok.  I’m going to be with grandma and grandpa.”  I fully expected cries and a fight, but there was none of that.  In fact, y father told me that she started clapping once I closed the door.

Anyway, I had just gotten out of having the best experience of my life with the Westin La Cantera Resort spa Nature Facial, so even though it killed me to see my baby be OK without me, there was hardly anything that could bother me at that moment.  I came out with an amazing glow, a smile, felt like I had new skin, and then to top it off, the staff was friendly and sincere, and it was just an overall relaxing experience.  If you have never gotten a facial with the full experience, you have to get one!  You are truly missing out.  I’m spoiled now, and now I think I need a facial at least once a year.

After my daughter left, we explored the resort, and let me tell you, that place is MASSIVE!  We got lost just trying to get back to our hotel room.  The best part of the resort was that it felt like I was in a parallel universe where all my needs where important, and my every desire was taken care of.  We felt like were were half way across the world, where there was not a responsibility to be seen.

Later we took a nap, got dressed and then off to dinner reservations at Francesca’s at Sunset.  One word: Spectacular!  The dinner was a full and separate and breath-taking experience all it’s own.  To start we enjoyed a cocktail at sunset, and got the complete experience from start to finish.  After we decided we’d enjoy the Valentine’s day menu, that’s where the experience really began.

From chocolate consomme with white chocolate shavings on to sea scallops with lemongrass, sweet and sour mango with orange- perfumed chocolate sauce, and cocao nib juiles (Bluefin Tuna Tataki with white chocolate shavings, sancho pepper, crispy rice, citrus and yuzu sauce for hubby).

For our entrees I had poached lobster tail with creamy white chocolate, lemon and verbena, over sauteed spinach (prime beef fillet with  rum marinated grapes and Tahitian vanilla and chocolate demi for hubby) .

For dessert we were graced with the delectable chocolate pillar with saffron, and sauteed pear.  Delish! In addition to all of the food, we also went ahead with the wine pairings, and it was all perfectly matched.  My personal favorite was the wine that came with dessert: Brachetto D’Acqui, Rosa Regale, Banfi, Strevi, Italy, 2007.  The way the sweet wine matched a sweet treat was superb.  I was gushing the whole time about how everything was so perfect, including the service and attentiveness of all the staff, and of course the beautiful view.

We even added a cup of coffee to the very end of the meal, which perfectly completed the meal.

After dinner, we watched a few Olympic Ice Skating races while in Steinheimer’s and then decided to go do some more exploring, and eventually made it in the whirlpool when it was freezing outside!  I don’t know if it was because it was so cold, but the whirlpool wasn’t very hot, but we still had fun.

Then I was so exhausted from all the excitement and probably the wine, that I passed out on the king sized bed that wasn’t too hard, not too soft, but just right.  I actually got to lay out and roll around in my sleep for just one night.  Some cuddling did happen, but it was sort of hard to while I was sprawled out (something I haven’t done in a VERY long time!)

We woke up in the morning, and had breakfast away from the resort, then came back to indulge in our two 50 minute full body massages.  A perfect way to spend Valentine’s day, getting an essential oil infused body rub.  My husband had never had a professional massage before, so he was a little hesitant to go, but after some convincing, he came along and after we got out, his aching back was gone, and so was his headache (just a little too much to drink!)

Upon our arrival to the room, we decided we should get one more rest in the bed, then we got up.  I took a final shower in the deluxe bath tub, which had a double shower head, and put me over the top in relaxation and pleasure.  AHHHH, I feel good. *breaks out in song*

Check in and out went smoothly and every single person at the hotel was cheery, happy, helpful and sincere.  It seems like everyone that works there truly loves their jobs, and why wouldn’t you when you have such a great view of the hill country, and are in such a beautiful resort.  Just being there made me happy, for sure.

I can’t even think of anything that I wasn’t happy with, besides the temperature of the hot tub and the lack of robes, but that may have been attributed to the temperature outside and to the Valentine day weekend.  It’s ok though, because my husband and I are already discussing when we’re going back.  Perhaps we’ll go back for our anniversary later in the year.

My special little Valentine was waiting for retrieval, but when she saw me again after a whole day, she looked at me, and sank back into grandma.  My heart sank just a little more.  That little girl almost made me cry!  She seemed to have so much fun, she didn’t even want me to pick her up!  Then after a moment, it seemed as she was just yanking my chain, then wanted me to pick her up.  I think it was only after the sight of daddy that she realized oh yeah, I remember them. *sigh* My baby really can survive without me within arm’s reach of her at all times.

I’m glad my parents were able to come and give us the chance to have some time out and enjoy ourselves.  It was a very special Valentine’s day this year, and I thank Westin La Cantera Resort in San Antonio for every minute of it.  The stay has truly opened my eyes to luxury and every place I stay in the future will be compared to our stay for Valentine’s day 2010, and the bar has been set VERY high!

*Disclosure: This review was a result of my stay from a contest I won with the Westin.  The opinions are my own and are NO way influenced by the contest, Westin’s marketing strategy, or anything else for that matter.

A truly amazing experience from start to finish. Goodbye Westin La Cantera, you will be sorely missed. I’m still in a pleasure coma, so my brain is a little disfunctional right now. Stay tuned for all the details about our wonderful valentine’s day with a view at the Westin La Cantera!

~Hale Mom

Opportunities come and they go, but sometimes there are opportunities that look us right in the face and make us think twice.  I’ve been given the opportunity to encounter a relatively new blog (although older than mine) and wanted everyone to check out Ira Riklis’s blog about charities and philanthropy.

I like his most recent post about what charity actually is. He believes that what we normally call charity is “really a form of restoring justice and fairness.” I couldn’t agree more! It saddens me to see that there are so many inequalities while there are many people living in massive abundance, and although some might give to charity, it may be for the tax deductions.  Any time I’ve ever made any donations or given my time, I’ve never asked for anything in return such as a tax deduction or recognition.  It’s important to help others get what is rightfully theirs without expecting something from the situation.

Ira also speaks about his consistency in donating blood for the past 15 years. There is a daily need for blood of all types, but it seems that people don’t go out to donate.  I know that I should have probably gone out to give blood more often before I got pregnant, but there really wasn’t any excuse, and I think Ira’s words really made me think twice.

Not only did the words make me think twice, but I actually had a nephew that was hospitalized, on the verge of dying because he had severe anemia and needed several blood transfusions.  I am still breastfeeding, and concerned that donating blood could cause anemia in me and my baby, and throw off the milk supply so I wasn’t able to donate at the time, and we’re also not the same blood type.  It was a very concerning time for my family, but luckily my nephew made it through the ordeal.

There are so many other entries that Ira has posted on his blog.  He has very interesting insights into philanthropy and helping others, and I have already bookmarked his site and wished he had an RSS reader link somewhere on his site so it would be easy for others to stay up to date.

What have you done lately to restore justice to those that needed a hand?  Take a minute to read Ira’s blog, and let me know what you think.

~Hale Mom

*Disclosure-this is sponsored post, however the opinions are my own and in no way were influenced by this being a sponsored post.

I had a pretty great Christmas, and one of the highlights was getting a Wii. Getting the Wii was kind of a large purchase for us, especially with finances being a bit tight. I’m glad that we took the plunge because the Mother-in-law got the Wii Fit Plus for us.

I thought that the Wii Fit Plus was going to be a lot different than it is. Actually, now that I think about it, I probably should have waited to do my body test while in my own privacy, because now all of my husband’s family now knows exactly how much I weigh and what my BMI is.

Oh well.

Body Test
Once you get passed the BMI and weight part, you get a Center of Balance test, and it tells you whether you put too much weight on any one side of your body. It also makes you establish exactly where your center of balance is so that you will be aware of where it is. It also makes you do some kind of balancing test where you lean to make the levels on the screen match up for three seconds in the blue area. It told me that that test wasn’t my forte, and asked me if I find myself tripping when I walk a lot. HAH! The audacity!

Wii Age
After you go through all of the tests, drum roll…..it gives you your Wii Age. Yikes. It took all of the factors above, including my height, and gave me an age, and basically said I have some work to do, and it told me I am way older than I really am. Yikes!

Work Out
So that being said, I start working out. Ok. It can be a bit confusing at first, especially when there are other people in the room telling you what to do. But I digress…

It’s pretty intense, and tracks how many calories that are burned, and the time that is spent on each workout, and rates how hard you actually worked out. I can’t say enough good things about it, and it’s great to do in the privacy of your own home without shoes, and without having to pay high gym memberships, and without being embarrassed, if you don’t really work out that much.

What I found funny was that the game will actually kind of taunt you if you don’t work out every day. We had registered the date wrong, and were a day behind, so we fixed the date, and I hadn’t worked out for the date that we skipped yet, so it told me that I wasn’t very dedicated or something like that.

That being said, it’s pretty good at keeping you motivated, and I can see us working out on it everyday. My husband has totally gotten into it, and is dedicated to working out on it everyday.

What I thought was really cute is that when we tried to register my daughter’s profile, it actually registered that she was a baby and made her Mii into a little baby with a bib. You’re also able to track pet stats, but can’t do body tests for either. I thought it was such a cool addition to the game that it’s going to be a great way to track how much my daughter is growing, and how my dog is doing.

Anyway, we’ve only had the Wii and the Wii Fit Plus for a few days, so I can’t give an extensive review about it, but it’s pretty nifty. Not only does it have aerobics, it has strength training, yoga, it also has a bonus Training Plus that is only included in the Wii Fit Plus.

Pretty cool console, and pretty cool work out game. So far I give it a thumbs up. I can’t give it any stars until I start losing some of this darn baby weight. I’ll keep you in the loop!

~Hale Mom

*Disclosure: This is NOT a paid review, nor did I get a free console, game or anything else Wii related to post about the Wii and the Wii Fit Plus. The opinion above is my own and is in no way influenced by any gift or any money, because I didn’t get any…it would have been nice though.

No, this is not a paid or freebie review, but I just wanted to let everyone know how the run of the new baby food grinder went. Thank you Santa for bringing me this because it made dinner time so easy!

First, taking it out of the package was NO easy feat. I actually cut myself on it, so be careful of doing the same. I guess I could have just used some scissors to snip away at it, but I wanted to open it my way–that’s what I get for being hard headed.

Anyway, next I read the instructions, and it doesn’t tell me right away that I need to wash the thing. I expected that I should, so I had to skip down to that part, and see if there are any special instructions. It’s dishwasher safe, and should be taken apart. The small pieces need to be cleaned separately by hand to avoid getting lost, and it can be washed by hand with warm soapy water.

Moving on, I was kind of confused on how it worked. I obviously didn’t read all the instructions thoroughly because i ended up spilling the *hot* cooked food on myself because I was trying to figure out how it worked. Again, this is chalked up to my hard headedness of wanting to do something without reading out how it’s supposed to work.

Fidgeting with it for a bit, I finally figured out that it works in a sort of pump, and turn action. The food goes in the inner chamber, and once the top is secure and the grinding plate is in line, the food outer mechanism must be pushed down and the swivel arm must be turned. In a couple of turns the food and the tool pushed down, everything was all mashed, and ready to be served. It literally took seconds, I was thinking the process would take much longer.

After getting over the fact that I couldn’t learn how to do it intuitively, and having to go back to the instructions, it was pretty easy to do once i got the hang of it, and realized how it actually worked.

Now, I haven’t taken it out on any traveling trips, but I feel that if ever at a restaurant and I want to give baby girl a serving of my food, then it would come in handy so I wouldn’t have to mash everything up. It is kind of big, but I would probably only bring it along if I know we’re going out somewhere and I want to give baby something fresh.

Eventhough I still have yet to see if it will pass the “on the go” test that it claims on the package, it overall seems to be a pretty good little device for something that is solely powered by hand motion. NO batteries, No electricity.

Good job munchkin, I can see this thing coming in handy in the future, and I think I saw it at Whole Foods for around 8 bucks. Not bad!

I’d have to give it 4 1/2 stars. This is ONLY based off of one use, and I will update further as I have any other pertinent information.

What tools did you find that came in handy when feeding your baby solids? Food processor? Blender? Fork? Which method was the biggest headache for you?

I’m all about easy application and easy clean up, and I think this passed both tests.

Happy and healthy eating!
~Hale Mom