HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVEEEEEEEEE! Gosh, I have been terrible about posting. Bah. Just been so unmotivated lately.

Before I review my 2013 – I’ll review since my last post. We did get to visit Brad’s family and had a good time! We stayed for 5 days and left to come home on Christmas Day. I had noooo food when I got home (that i usually eat) so I had to eat wheat bread (with gluten) but oh well. The trip threw off my medicine timing and I’ve been tired ever since… =( sucks. Katie got to open her Christmas presents from under our tree Christmas evening, since we got home about 6pm and then I fixed them food then we opened presents! She got the items she wanted – a watch, Legos, and cars! Of course a whole bunch of other goodies. Just have been laying around and playing Lord of the Rings Online since we got back, plus the usual house chores, etc etc. Finished up Katie’s “homework” that her teacher gave her over the holiday. Starting to review stuff so she’ll be good to go when she goes back to school next week. I looked into colon hydrotherapy for my situation and THAT will get my health back on track… cleaning all the toxins out! I found a clinic nearby so my first “internal bath” is Saturday morning! I’M SUPER EXCITED. I have experience with doing the “internal baths” at home, but this is deeper cleaning so to speak hahaha. This is the only option and hope I have left to get my gut straight, since I have literally TRIED EVERYTHING ELSE. It might take like 6 sessions to feel great again, but it will be worth it. We’ll see!

OK, so 2013 ….
– lots of my dental work done
– hubby got a raise at his job!
– new computers for early birthday
– got my hair professionally colored
– bought our baby ferret!
– met my birth mom for the first time since I was 5
– did the HCG program and lost 20lbs in 6 weeks
– reached 140 pounds again
– started my thyroid meds
– this summer was 10 yrs since I met my lovie
– graduated from my AA in Business & got my diploma
– Katie started Kindergarten
– 8 year wedding anni and he bought me flowers <3 I am so determined to finally get my health better and I pray that 2014 will be it. There’s so much I want to accomplish and need to do. I want to lose this extra weight, get really fit, RUN AGAIN!!!!, keep moving forward with college, get back to our church Temple, get a job & my driver’s license and just work to serve my Heavenly Father by helping others. I just feel so miserable most of the time that i just don’t feel like doing more than necessary. I’d love to re-arrange the pictures on our walls, plus hang up new ones, re-organize closets and drawers but I just have not had the energy or motivation. SUCKS because I realllllllly want to do all of the above. AND I WILL. Come on 2014 – I want my health back!!!!!!! Praying that everyone has a great start to the New Year too!

Yea. Been totally unmotivated to post, but here’s some highlights for December!

* Brad’s gout flared up right around Thanksgiving. He went to the Doc eventually and is getting better.
* Our 25 year old dryer finally gave out! It was my Great Grandmas Kenmore. We ordered a new Kenmore and it came early December.. think the 3rd? It’s nice!
* Was going to do a food tolerance test but then didn’t get to
* Have been in PAIN gut wise and just don’t know what to eat.
* Our EIGHT year wedding anni was the 10th and he got me pretty flowers!! AWWWH. I LOVES HIM.
* Finished my final project for my current college class and I have ONE MORE WEEK till holiday break!
* Katie’s been doing so well in school & just has the rest of this week then her break
* We are going to visit Brad’s family this weekend and prob will come back Monday or Tuesday
* Just put up our tree Saturday, lol.
* Rewatched The HOBBIT: An Unexpected Journey last night and can’t wait to see The Desolation of Smaaaug!
* LOVING Lord of the Rings Online!!!
* I just want a healthy gut for my Christmas, birthday, and every other present =(
* I want to see 2239847237 movies!!! We saw THE HEAT a while back… omg HILARIOUS.

Hopefully I’ll post more often, but we’ll see. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!! PS – go watch the SHAYTARDS on YouTube. I LOVE THEM.

Well, TMI, but I got my Paragard IUD removed after 3 1/2 years because I honestly think it may have been linked to my health imbalances. So it went byebye Tuesday… good riddance.

Nothing much else has been going on, really. I’ve been having more off symptoms that have left me feeling a bit meh, so I’m trying to really sort out what foods are doing that to me. My church friend came over again Monday and then Brad wanted to help buy this person a few things for their apartment so he and another church friend took our friend to the store that evening. They were so grateful and I’m so happy we got to help them out.

I bought the next expansion for Lord of the Rings Online… Helm’s Deep! It’s awesome, so I’ve been enjoying that and keeping up with college. Our heat isn’t working right so gotta get Brad to see if he can get it to work tonight. If not, then I’ll have to call the front office. Ugh. I guess I’ll just have to keep my jacket on for extra warmth.

Katie’s off all next week from school for Thanksgiving! Brad is off Thursday and Friday then he’ll have the whole weekend off as usual.

I’m so very thankful for everything Heavenly Father has given me!!!

WOOPS. Forgot to make a post for last week! Katie was sick most of last week with fever, sore throat, and then got a bit of a cough too. She was sick Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday… so we went ahead and took her to the Doc Wednesday. Same as a few months ago – just give her over the counter meds and wait it out, since it was a non-contagious virus. She stayed home Thursday, but was able to go back to school Friday. So far so good for this week!

I’m so thankful for my church. It seems things are really moving forward for us spiritually. Brad finally got his new home visiting teaching list and I know that will help him build his faith even moreso. A few weekends ago he went to help a church family move and he said he felt so good to be able to do that, and hearing him say that totally made me happy! I’ve been able to talk with and help a new convert in our church understand scripture and help her feel supported and I’m so happy to have that opportunity. She came over yesterday and we were able to study The Book of Mormon together. What a true blessing!!!! I’m excited to get to know her more each week. Loving one another makes all the difference. We will be going back to the temple soon and I’m so eager to go back to such a holy and pure place. We haven’t been in years and we will be much more consistent with going.

I start a new college class today! Health and Wellness Promotion Throughout Lifespan is the name of the class and I’m excited to see what I will learn. Speaking of health, I am fighting to find something to help tame the chronic EBV virus I have. I know it will help to reduce the sugar/carbs even more, but sheesh. I’ll keep digging and searching to learn all I can about it. It sucks because if I talk too much or use too much energy I feel baaaaaaad. Then I just don’t want to talk or move and have to lay down to feel relief. *sigh*

What else? Ummm, my friend that I babysit for that lives in the apartment building next to ours is moving in across the hall from us! That should be pretty cool.

In sad news, Friday before last – Brad’s Aunt had a brain aneursym that led to a stroke she was in ICU and then passed away last week. RIP Robin

Wishing everyone a positive week!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEENIE! I hope everyone has a great one!

I don’t have much to talk about, really. I’ve done well with limiting my carb intake to a much lower range, but I made a foolish mistake of eating dairy last Saturday evening and some on Sunday. No, no, no. Totally messed with my digestion, so still trying to recover from that. Also, finding out what supplements make me feel better/worse – all that trial and error mess.

What else? Just college work, keeping up with Katie’s school work, and trying to balance everything.

I’m totally boring, lol. HAPPY BOO-DAY TO YOU!!!

And I am back for another highlight and recap of my last week or so!

– Last Saturday I cleaned house then we went out for pet stuff and a few groceries
– Sunday was church, plus coming home to get more stuff done, then had church people come over & I went to Mom’s for usual card playing
– Katie has been coming home early this week because of conference week! home at 1pm, instead of 3pm.
– Tuesday was very very busy! I went to my Naturopath appointment, where I got papers for new thyroid labs to be done then we went to browse around Kroger & came back home before it was time to go to Katie’s school for our parent/teacher conference. My Mom/Aunt picked Katie up from the bus. We got Katie’s report card and she is so smart!!! They are graded 1-3, 3 being the highest and she got mostly 3’s and no 1’s!!! Her only problem is being distracted by the other kids at her table, so the teacher suggested that she may move her to a table by herself to help her refocus and so far that has worked! We left and went to get my blood drawn for my thyroid labs… drove all the way out there and they said we owed money from 2011?! What in the??? Well, we drove back home – dealt with that then drove back and I got the blood drawn. Gah.
– Yesterday I was starting to get some stuff for church done then the church missionaries wanted me to go with them at 4:30pm, but I didn’t have a ride at first, so I was on edge about that all day and that didn’t help me health-wise. In the end, however, a brother from church came with the missionary and picked me up. I’m so happy I got to go out and talk to someone about The Gospel. However, I ended up waiting too long to eat then having to rush home to a million things before Katie’s bath/bed time so that realllllly threw me off.

TODAY IS MY DOWN DAY, for sure. I have a little college to finish, need to wash my hair, and continue writing church letters. Also, my Naturopath emailed me about the thyroid test results and my numbers (both T4 and T3) are going up! Good news, except I still feel like poo. I’m taking thyroid meds, taking supplements to help with my low cortisol, yet I still am having symptoms and complications. The only other option is to change my food intake. Yea… I know I need to because I eat way too many carbs. The problem IS my food intake. It’s so hard tho to wean away from carbs/sugar because I just feel so terrible when I attempt, but it’s my onlllllly option if I want to fully heal and be able to reach fitness/weight loss/etc goals. I’ve only fully had success with getting away from the carbs/fruit/sugar ONE TIME in the last few years because I just fought through the fatigue/cravings/irritability that comes with getting rid of the carbs and sugar. I felt terrible for two weeks then felt wonderful, until I gave into carbs again. My gut is in such a mess and I want to feel energetic again. I usually have wonderful motivation and willpower, but when it comes to feeling like THIS when trying to cut down then rid of carbs/sugar? It is literally TORTURE because I feel all sorts of bad symptoms and just don’t know what to do with myself when I feel that way! I’ll get through it, but this time there will be NO going back because I’m determined more than ever. I’m tired of staying in this cycle of lower energy, gut problems, etc etc. This is not where I am meant to be!!! I wanna be able to do soooooo much more than I can right now energy wise. I thought oh, well maybe if the thyroid levels were more balanced that would fix my problem? Thyroid levels are better… nope, still not feeling the way I should! Oh, maybe it’s the low cortisol, but I’ve been taking stuff for that too, so it is my food choices.

I’ve made a list and will start to wean down from the carbs/sugar then hold on for the ride. I may just want to stay in a corner for two weeks, but I will put one foot in front of the other and make it. Anyway, it got COLD TOO. BRRR.

Hope everyone has an excellent Halloween! Brad is helping my neighbor move this weekend so that should be interesting. I’m gonna try to take it easy and rest up. I’ll post progress about my health and food situation.

BOO! How has everyone’s week been??! Let’s back up. This last weekend on Saturday Katie helped Daddy out with our pumpkin! Here is the scaaaary end result:

If you look closely you can see “something” in the pumpkin’s other eye – it’s a heart! Guess who’s idea that was to carve in? Heh. Brad chose the overall face tho. Mr. Pumpkin is sitting on our front porch!

The last month or two I have had a new co-teacher at church and she asked to be released, so I’m awaiting a new partner. We were short on time for my lesson, but I’m great at just winging it and trying to summarize what I had already planned to teach. I know I owe this learning and growing in teaching from just going with the flow and listening to the Holy Ghost. It’s incredible, but I do admit that I enjoy teaching adults more than children. However, there is always something to learn from teaching, whether young or adults. I’m thankful for the opportunities to teach The Gospel. After church, I actually felt like I wanted to do something, so I decided to get mine and Katie’s bikes and take them out. When Brad saw that I was going to take the bikes out – he said he would join too! I’m happy he did. Katie is getting better with learning to pedal, but she still needs lots of practice! It was actually pretty hot and I pushed myself too hard, but I wanted to get out there and let her practice. I ended up telling Brad to take over and help, while I sat on the pavement. It sucks to want to do so much physically and my body is just like – NOPE! I still have a ways to go with healing, and it seems I get a little bit of energy and end up going backwards because I do too much. Arrrgh. Anyway, we spent about an hour outside then Brad said, “Welp, that’s enough for now!” We gathered bikes and went back in.

On Monday my Aunt came over to talk, watch music videos, and the 1st episode of Surviving Evil (Charisma Carpenter’s story). It was awesome, but then she went to smoke outside and we talked out there. I was not careful and ended up coming back in to eat my lunch an HOUR out of my usual time frame. NOT GOOD. It always take a toll If I DO NOT eat within a certain amount of time. Needless to say, from doing too much Sunday and not eating on time Monday – I used Tuesday as my do-as-little-as-possible day and mostly laid around. It really helped! I felt better yesterday, but I’ve noticed I have felt “off”, so I stopped taking the liquid adrenal support because It seems from previous trial and errors I’ve done that If I take too much then I start to feel a certain way, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m excited for my next appointment with my Naturopath this coming Tuesday! I am def gonna order a new thyroid lab to see where my levels are and go from there. I am 100% certain that If I get my thyroid levels balanced that I will see a big improvement, since I’ve also now been supporting my adrenals.

Katie has been very talkative at school this week and has gotten yellow every day so far, even with trying to talk to her and put her to bed a little earlier than usual. I think she might be coming down with a cold, so that might be a little part of it, but still she knows better. Hopefully today she will come home with a good “green”!!!

EWWW, it’s such a rainy, dreary day. I really dislike winter, to be honest. The beautiful, sunny, mild fall days are awesome and welcomed. I looked at the 10 day forecast and it looks like it will jump from 70 during the day to the 50’s towards the end of October, with 30’s at night. BRRRR. Have an awesome weekend!!! Peace, love, and light to you guys. <3

Saturday we went to Brad’s work company picnic! We had a blast and it was a sunny (and quite hot!) day. Katie got to play a few games (and got prizes), get her face painted, Brad got to play laser shooting, and we got to watch two different dog shows!

We didn’t have usual church services Sunday because of our General Conference, so I watched the talks Saturday and Sunday. There were so many wonderful, brilliant, inspiring messages in them. I loved it! I watched all of them, except two that weren’t online yet when I last checked. Still need to go back and watch those. I loved the talks on mental illness, the story of the old man that was blind and deaf, yet still reached out for a priesthood blessing then died a few days later. I love The Gospel so much and the talks help me realize how wonderful this life is and can be when we live righteously. <3 “Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith” -President Uchtdorf.

I finished my Personal Wellness college class and moved onto Cultural Diversity in Health and Illness, which should be interesting. We’ve already talked about how it can be difficult and cause barriers when patients do not speak English and what to do to be sure that the patient gets the proper treatment and understanding. Soaking it all up! I love learning about health so much.

The sublingual liquid I’ve been taking for my adrenals seems to be “helping” a bit, but not as much as it was when I first started taking it. I decided to order another adrenal booster called Isocort, that has excellent reviews to help people with low cortisol…. AKA ME!!!! The supplements are arriving in the mail this afternoon, so I’m super excited! It’s so bad because the low cortisol has caused low blood pressure, low blood sugar, low hormones, low low low low low the last few years – which is why enough cortisol is SUPER IMPORTANT. That’s why my thyroid function went wonky because the cortisol was too high years ago then that stress was not relieved and the cortisol fell. Well, once it falls for so long then it can mess with the thyroid function too. It’s so frustrating because wonky thyroid and adrenals = higher weight and body fat, even though I eat clean and try to get some movement in, but another drawback is that anything above walking (or even really long walks!!!!) only seems to suppress that cortisol, which makes me feel WORSE. Exercise intolerance sucks for someone who LOOOOOOOOVES to exercise, which is another reason why I ended up with such low cortisol because when I first got sick I just kept pushing-pushing-pushing the exercise, even tho my body was like W-T-F, NoOOoOO. Hah. Yea, live & learn and all that. I certainly have.

Brad and I watched the movie World War Z last night, which turned out to be a pretty good one. Super speedy zombies! Speaking of, The Walking Dead starts again Sunday!!! I love my life and I am determined to revive my adrenals, which will boost my thyroid, which will mean I can finally be on my way to leaning down and building that muscle I WANT AND WILL HAVE! =) I think about running every day and how much I miss that feeling. I miss being sore from exercise, but I know it’s MUCH WISER to listen to your body, rather than what your mind wants. So, I’ll keep healing, keep mending, and then when my BODY is ready I will be the runner, the athlete that I know I am. I will say that I would not be the person I am today if it were not for my Heavenly Father and everything I’ve learned through The Gospel. I’m so thankful, grateful, and blessed. Always.

There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for!!! I’m thankful for my health struggles, thankful for my handsome husband, thankful for our beautiful daughter, thankful for LOVE, thankful for everything we have that Heavenly Father has gifted us with, and thankful for the beauty outside my door that HE created. Nothing will stand in my way of being at peace because I find it in Him. <3 Sending out positive vibes to everyone today. Know that I pray for this world and my brothers and sisters!

Kids get a fall break now?! Katie doesn’t have school today, tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday! Lucky kids get a break in October, November, and December! She’s currently watching a cartoon with animals about phonics.

So, rewind. Last time I posted about doing exercise on my exercise bike. I did 20 minutes at a pretty fast pace last Thursday. Bad idea. I’m learning that with low cortisol and every other imbalance I have that getting my heart rate up too high only makes me worse. I felt terrible that evening. I tried to rest on Friday then the weekend was packed! Brad went out for errands Saturday while I cleaned house then in the afternoon we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and my thyroid meds. I came home to do a million other things, so any time I am crazy busy like that it also takes a toll on me. Sunday was busy too with church then cooking chicken/fish for the week then went to visit with Mom, as I usually do. The week has been decent so far and I got 100% on one of my college assignments, woot! It was on the link between physical activity and chronic illness. I felt “off” health-wise day before yesterday and my weight/body fat had stalled, so I know from past trial and error that-that means I’m taking too much supplement/vitamin wise. It always happens! I was taking extra vitamins that my Naturopath gave me, but I seem to do better with keeping the vitamin intake where it was prior to taking the new ones.

I watched the first episode of Surviving Evil online last night before bed. I had no idea that Charisma Carpenter was attacked like that in the 90’s. I loved her in Buffy and Angel. Excited to watch new Revolution tonight!!! It won’t be long and The Biggest Loser and The Walking Dead will be back… yay!

Umm, well I have run out of things to say. It has been gorgeous lately and we haven’t had to run our air conditioner in the last week or so, which is nice. Alright, off to get some chores done then one of my college discussions! Wishing everyone an awesome weekend.

HAPPY THURSDAAAAAY!!! Bum bum bum… time for my update. We went to the pet store this last Saturday, the mall- where I got my eyebrows done and my trimmed, then stopped by Wal-Mart to get hair dye! I tried going light blonde and it just was a lighter brown, lol. That’s fine, as long as I covered up the horribly dark roots of my hair that have been showing. Sunday was awesome, as always. I sent my Naturopath an email Sunday, asking about my saliva testing results and she sent me one back saying that she wanted to see me in person and that she had an appointment available Monday… so after calling my neighbor Sunday evening – I emailed her back and said I would come in Monday. I WAS EXCITED!!!!!!! I’ve waited about 2 months for the results. I got everything ready and headed out with my neighbor to my appointment! Long story short: the appointment went awesome! Test results show I have low morning, noon, and almost low afternoon cortisol – plus, high testosterone. She gave me something to boost my adrenals (thus raise cortisol to healthy levels) and a supplement to help balance testosterone and estrogen levels, plus a good B vitamin supplement to help with energy and getting those in. She wants to see me in 3 weeks! She recommended I cut out my evening adrenal supplements I had been taking and the thyroid supporting supplement I usually take in the morning. So, this week I tried cutting those out and no…. I really honestly need them. I had bad morning fatigue AGAIN when I didn’t take the thyroid supporter and my Naturopath’s MD told me to not stop the supporter when I started my thyroid meds back in… May?, but my Naturopath thought I could probably stop them now. Ummm, nope lol. I feel better today because I took the evening adrenal supplements last night and the thyroid supporter this morning. WOOT. I felt AMAZING Monday evening because I took the new adrenal booster. I can’t wait to see how I will feel in a month or so with the new additions. My body already feels a little slimmer!!!! YES. I know the key is to rebalance my hormones and boost those adrenals.

Since we have been putting Katie to bed earlier on school nights she has done wonderfully! I hope that continues. Everything else has been going great – still moving along with college stuff. It’s been a good week and will be an excellent weekend! I’m gonna start a simple exercise routine again. I just at least want to get 30 minutes of exercise that I can tolerate, since I need at least 30 minutes to get those endorphins going, but I know it has to be a bit more than just walking. I’m gonna hop on my exercise bike in a bit and see what happens. Slow and steady, but the exercise will benefit me for suuuuure.

Alright… that’s all I got!