Brave, Bold & Buzzed!

Buzzed Hairstyle

It's February.  My 6 month post-bilateral mastectomy, without reconstruction mark - and all is well.  I was going to have another new tattoo done this month, but due to being nasty sick I have to wait until next month.  Oh and this coming weekend Mark is going to take more photos of my healing process for my mastectomy section of the blog, which I'll post later next week.

"Why the buzz cut Rocki?" As you can tell from my blog my hair has been short for quite some time.   Years ago it it used to be super long, down to my waist. In fact, when I was a kid it was so long that I literally sat on it.  My mom would put it in a bun each morning before school and I would take it down by recess time.  A tom-boy just doesn't look right with a big ol'bun!

My hair is thick and wavy in spots - and unruly because of cowlicks.  When it was long I basically just wore it as is - mainly because I never had the knack of fixing it up.  I'm simple in that respect and love low maintenance hairstyles.  I actually used to dream of having very short hair, but wouldn't dare do it!  Obviously, over the years that started happening as I was cutting it shorter and shorter.

Love my buzz cut!

My long hair was my safety net.  It hid me, so I thought.  I felt vulnerable if I pulled it back into a ponytail. It exposed far too much of me.  I didn't want people to see me so vividly.  I was a very timid person with low self-esteem and lacking confidence.

Then life started to throw stuff at me.  Actually, it started when I was young.  Over the years with all the crap that has been thrown at me left and right, I just couldn't understand why.  I'm a good person and felt I didn't deserve what all I was receiving.  Funny, but since following the Buddhist path for several years now, I understand it as karma.  Then I start thinking...what kind of crappy person was I in my previous lives?! LOL! 

Rocki's Brave Bold Buzz!

With each punch and kick that knocked me down, it toughened me up, I fought back and got right back up for the next round (which is why one of my docs years ago tagged me with "Rocky Balboa") - and I continue to do so!  I honestly believe all that crappy bad stuff was meant to happen to make me strong enough to handle what I just went through.  Even with Mark's unconditional love and support, if the breast cancer crap happened years ago, I would be handling this a lot differently - as in hiding in a corner somewhere. 

I've wanted to do a buzz cut for years and would joke with Mark about it, but deep down inside I really wanted to do it.  Just didn't have the guts and was afraid what others might think.  So now I did it and absolutely LOVE how it makes me feel!  Without sounding cocky, others can think what they want as that is their right, but it doesn't matter to me.

Here I am today.  Braver than I've EVER been in my life.  More bold than I ever could have imagined.  Still strong enought to deal with life's punches.  Confident with the person I am, as is.  With or without hair - or boobs.

So you still want to know why I buzzed my hair?

Peace & Love,
Rocki

Valentine's Day in the Raw

Raw Valentine's Day

Yep.  Despite being sick with an acute upper respiratory infection (doc said up to 14 days to get over it, now on day 14 and feeling better every day), we celebrated Valentine's Day in the raw.  WAIT!  Before you hit the brakes, click the back button and go bleach your eyes, its not what you think - lol!  *Raw* as in a raw vegan dinner. 

There, now you can relax.

Compressed Wild Mushrooms & Avocados with Red Pepper Coulis

I came across this recipe via Pinterest and just had to try it.  Oh and let me just say here that Pinterest is awesome!  I love that not only you can find pictures like cute & funny animals, humor, tattoo's, Breast Cancer Awareness, hair styles, clothes, travel ideas, etc., but food too.  LOTS of food!  A variety of food for every taste.  Let's just say recipes out the wazoo.

Raw Vegan Dish with Carrot Hearts and Steamed Brussels Sprouts

I pretty much followed the recipe by Raw Food Rehab, but did alter it just a tad.  In a word about the taste: awesome!  Preparation, etc. was easy, so I really liked that part too.

Since it was Valentine's Day and me being sick, I wanted to at least make it a little more Valentine's'ish.  Yep, that's a word.  So I *tried* making little hearts out of carrots (yep, Pinterest).  I'm glad the kids (our 3 little dogs) love carrots because between the 4 of us, we ate 2 of them while I tried to make those darn little hearts.  While some of them looked like they were shot by a drunk cupid, I did manage to create a few good ones.



Simple Salad with Hearts

We usually have a large salad along with the rest of our raw vegan meal, but I figured that the mushroom dish was going to be rather filling, so I made small salad and tossed the best of the drunk cupid hearts and also some lightly steamed fresh brussels sprouts (not raw, but not *cooked* either).



Raw Chocolate Banana with Raspberries

You can't have a Valentine's Day meal without a dessert - especially a chocolate one.  So I whipped up a little dessert with frozen bananas, raw cacao, vanilla and fresh raspberries.  It was DEEEEELISH!  I really need to get some better serving dishes.  That plastic one has been around the block several times.  It's a wine glass, but we don't drink.  I use them for this type of thing.  We're just not real fancy here.

See?  Being in the raw on Valentine's Day wasn't that scary, now was it!

Peace and ♥
Rocki

The lighter side of doing monthly breast checks

If this doesn't get you motivated to do your monthy breast checks...

well...

just sayin ;-)

 

Please make sure to watch over and over and over...to make sure you get the idea.

 

Peace,

Rocki

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk - taking off

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk - scanning the back yard

So our little, well not so little actually, feathered friend has been visiting our yard just about daily.  Yesterday was perfect to get some good shots of him as it was a cloudy day with the sun peaking in and out.  Before he went into the tree, he was by my studio window again standing on our utility trailer - about 6 feet from the window.  So I stood there and watched him, like a hawk.

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk - still scanning

I got these shots from our bedroom patio.  Like last time, I just sat there watching him through the binoculars.  He is a large, gorgeous bird with beautiful markings.  He continued to scan the yard, which was full of birds.

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk - found something

Something caught his eye, so I decided to just keep clicking away.  Glad I did because I am really happy with how the photos turned out.  I'm no professional photographer by any means, but I think they are pretty cool!

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk - getting ready to take off!

This is my favorite of the day!  When I looked at the pictures I became REAL excited!  I just LOVE this shot.  I have another one in flight, but all you can see is tree...totally missed the hawk.  Oh and if you click on the pictures you get the larger view.

That's all for today.  Just had to share these awesome photos.  Now it's time for me to take off.

Peace,
Rocki

Raw Scetti and Not Meat Balls

 



I just LOVE my spiralizers and use them a lot!  I now have two of them because Mark bought me the Paderno World Cuisine Spiral thing-a-majig for Christmas.  It makes two sizes of noodles, ribbons and slices.  It is very cool.  The other one I have is the Saladacco Spiral Slicer that makes awesome angel hair pasta out of zucchini - and other veggies - like in my pasta dish above.   

 





The raw vegan gluten-free "not-meat"balls are walnut based and have plenty of herbs and spices. I got the recipe from Raw Food Made Easy, but altered it little bit.

I made just a small batch for dinner that night, which was plenty.  By looking at the "not-meat" in the bowl and the formed balls above, they look like the real deal.  I think so at least.

So as you can see, eating raw is far from boring.  It's so funny, before I was like "ugh... now I have to make dinner..." and now... I can hardly wait to get into the kitchen to create!

Peace,
Rocki

Hawk in our back yard - awesome!

Hawk in the back yard 1/19/13

Saturday afternoon we had a pleasant surprise in our back yard. The hawk that visited us a few weeks ago returned!  He was perched on our back wall, about 20' from our bedroom patio, scanning the yard that WAS full of our regular feathered friends.  I was SOOOO ecstactic that I yelled for Mark to come see and forgot to grab my camera - which I thought was charging.




Close-up view of the pic above

So there we were, me on the floor at the arcadia door with my binoculars and Mark standing beside me.  We just kept watching him as he continued to scan the yard and look for, sadly, little mammals or unsuspecting birds - which obviously knew he arrived as they were all in hiding. 

I can't tell you how freakin' exciting this was - better than last time!  I didn't want to stop watching him, but decided to head into the other room to grab my camera real quick.  Well, he then flew into our neighbor's large tree that is right by our back wall.  This was fine because I was able to get better pics than last time.




"I see you Rocki!"

I went out back and got as close as I could...he did NOT budge!  He was rather large, around 2 foot tall is my guess.  He turned his head around and just looked at me as if to say "you know, I love squirrels too."  It was beyond amazing.  The adrenalin was shooting through me like coffee in Mark's veins!




Beautiful bird!

Then I got to thinking about the kids...our dogs.  For those who do not know, we have 3 little ones and I'm not sure if they would be too big or not for the hawk to take off with.  Yogi probably not, but Maelyn and Sasha possibly.  So, there was scary thoughts mingling with the excitement.  I would be absolutely mortified if that happened - or seeing any other animal in his talons.  But, I understand that's what he eats.  Still scary.




Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk?

I stayed out there until he flew away, then immediately grabbed my bird book.  After pouring through the book and the internet, I've concluded that he's either a Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk.  It's really hard to tell because they are so closely matched, but I believe he was a Cooper's Hawk. 

 

Hawk at studio window - 1/3/13

Okay, pardon these last two pics, but these were taken with my cell phone from inside my studio and through a sunscreen.  I have feeders out there and love watching the birds while I work.  Anyway, that day something caught my eye so I looked up.  There was a hawk!  I practically squealed with excitement!  Wait.  Scratch that.  I in fact DID squeal!  Our neighbors probably thought I was bleeding to death or just won the lottery.




This was an awesome site!

Honestly, I was fumbling with my phone like hot potato as I was afraid that he would be gone before I got the camera up.  It finally came on then... click click click click!  I even got a short video of him sitting there and then flying away, but it won't upload.  I was bummed that the pics came out so crappy, but at least I got a little proof of our new visitor. 

I called Mark afterwards and...okay... squealed like a little girl while telling him of what just happened.  (I didn't know my voice went up that high)  He thought it was pretty cool, but since he got to see him up close and in person this time, he was pretty excited too.  Well, he didn't squeal though.  Oh, and I'm not sure if it was the same hawk because the one in the back yard seemed much larger.

Every day we have a huge variety of birds that visit all of our feeders, so I'm always looking outside.  However, now I'm looking out there even more - like a kid on Christmas eve waiting to see Santa!  I just hope that I don't ever see him with a little one and flying off with it.

I also hope he doesn't like squirrels.

Peace,
Rocki