So here I go...

As if I don't have enough on my plate I started a blog. Who knows where this adventure will take me or how it will affect the multitude of visitors I plan on having flock to my words of wisdom and delight. Hey, there's nothing like aiming big right?

So I guess you'll need a bit of background about me and the fam. for those of you following from the beginning. I'm Rana, pronounced "raH-NAy" if you're wondering. I'm 33 years old and a wife to Edgard and Non-Toxic Mama to my two beautiful boys Luciano and Marcelo.

Luciano is 8 years old and in a few days going to go back to school as a BIG 3rd grader. Amazing how time flies. His name means "giver of light" and boy does he fit the bill. Luciano has never met a stranger and really does make people around him light up. He's an electronics aficionado, from his computer to every game console imaginable he's a video game-aholic and has been surfing the Internet for years. Now as for being electronically inclined most likely one could assume he got that trait from his father. I however have a secret, I am a female computer nerd myself, so I'm certain he got it from both angles. There really was no hope for him. His aspirations for life are HUGE, he plans on being a pilot. Of course this in an endeavour I plan to encourage at all costs. Imagine your child is a pilot and can arrange for free travel for you around the world. Go son, GO!!!

My youngest son is Marcelo and he's my precious little SPITFIRE!!! He's almost 20 months old and he definitely keeps me on my toes. His name means "little warrior" and at the time when we decided on the name we had NO IDEA the implications of it. You see Marcelo is a "heart baby." This means he was born with a Congenital Heart Defect (or CHD). His official diagnosis is d-Transposition of the Great Arteries, Ventricular Septal Defect and Pulmonic Stenosis; sounds scary I know. Maybe one day I'll go into all the technical stuff but LONG story short, he's considered "blue" because his heart mixes the blood that is suppose to go to the lungs to get more oxygen and sends it back out to the body un-oxygenated and it gives his skin a slight blue tinge and can make him winded easily as he runs around. He's had two open heart surgeries to help with this problem. One @ 5 days and the other @ about 10 months and he's doing really really well. We're hoping to get him to 6 or 7 years old without another surgery and who knows what great advances in medicine will occur to help fix his heart. As for just being a baby, that is certainly him. If you cannot see his scar you'd never know he was a heart baby, and I like it that way. I'm chalking a good portion of that up to him being breastfed. He's rarely been sick and knock wood for a heart baby he's NEVER seen the inside of an ER. He's a "warrior" alright, and he'll keep fighting and I'll be by his side to fight right along with him forever.

My husband and I have been married for 10 years. We live in Orange County, California and I love it that Orange County has officially become a place. We used to have to say the city we lived in which most people outside of the greater So. Cal. area generally did not know or that we lived by Disneyland or outside of Los Angeles, none of which were ever really acceptable to me because it didn't pinpoint your location good enough. We aren't part of L.A. (thank God) and I don't think Disneyland is the most distinguished landmark in the world. So thank you Bravo and The Housewives of Orange County not only did you put The O.C. on the map but you made people think we all spend our days basking by the pool and drinking margaritas while having our nails done and our hair did. And I'm OK with that.

I've been a stay-at-home mother for too many years to count. I "own" my own business, though I do use the term "business" quite lightly. I am a Certified Nutritional Consultant and a Holistic Health Practitioner and have my own nutritional consulting firm. I've been working at it (off and on) since 2003 and I can tell you it's a tough field to break into. People are HUGE skeptics and if insurance is not paying for it they won't shell it out. So I have a VAST wealth of knowledge in my head and I mostly give it away for free. This is not a bad thing, I went into this field to help myself and others but hey a girl's gotta get paid eventually, right? So my website is http://www.love2bewell.com/ and I'm going to keep plugging along and one day might hit my stride. Only time will tell I guess.

Recently, though, I have decided the bills are piling too high for comfort...don't get me wrong my husband makes a good living but we along with 75% of America enjoy living WELL beyond our means and in the present economic climate it might be a good idea to pay the bills off for good. So I went out and got a job. Here I am 33 years old, a college graduate, with extra certificates and two children going back to work in retail no doubt. It's @ a nearby healthfood store in the vitamin department and that suits me pretty well. My mother has graciously offered to take care of the kids and since childcare won't be an issue I'm diving in headfirst. Well, I'm hoping it becomes a platform for bigger and better things and I guess we'll just have to see how it works out.

OK, there you have it in a nutshell. I'm a non-toxic mama trying to live in a toxic world, I breastfeed my children and advocate others to do so as well, I'm not very keen on vaccines though I get their purpose. I'm addicted to knowledge and I think everyone should be, if it's not whatever in the world caused my son's heart defect, to swine flu that isn't, to air quality and climate change even where there's political craziness abound we live in a precarious time in history and now I've decided to blog about it. So welcome to my toxic world friends, I'm glad to have you here.