10 on Tuesday

 Wow, it's been a while since I have done one of these.

1. Please pray for my hubby. He has 3 different interviews today with Disney. This would seriously be a dream job to him to go back to Disney. (Only in the corporate side.) He is just so excited to even have the opportunity to interview with them.

2. Speaking of not having a job. At some point this month the bank will be calling about our house. We will have 4 options. (2 if he has a job and 2 if he doesn't). We are really down to the wire on this one. I am so stressed out about the potential of losing our house. Who would have ever thought he would be unemployed so long? Not for a lack of trying though. He is constantly applying to jobs. It's just so stressful thinking of losing our home and what that will mean for us and the kids and all of that. We did hear recently about housing being able to go 1 year without paying the mortgage (when unemployed) and then having to deal with that. Right now it's at 6 months and August is our 6th month. And on top of that, Scott's unemployment checks will end in October. Please God, let him get this job so that we don't have to worry about either thing any longer.

3. MOPS is starting back up on September 22nd!! I'm excited about that. Planning time is under way. I love MOPS and am excited to be getting calls from new moms who want to join us. I hope they actually do. This will be my last year Coordinating MOPS. Originally it was because Skyler would be in kindergarten this year so I would be graduating at the end of the year (and out of MOPS). But we decided to expand our MOPS group to moms of 1st graders. We were going to expand to all of elementary, but we didn't want to put too much on our leadership team who was already on overload. So, we just expanded it one grade to include more moms. (Especially since there is currently no program at our church specifically for elementary school moms.) Maybe next year they could expand it to all of elementary. Or maybe not. Who knows? So, Amy (a fellow member of the steering team) and I will be done after this year but still in MOPS the year after. We can help them but won't be leading it. Hopefully this will make an easier transition so we can answer questions and be there for support.

4. My girls love this VBS (vacation bible school) they are going to right now. It's at Shepherd of the Hills and the theme is "PandaMania". The kids have rave reviews about it. Our church's was last week and they loved that one too. Courtney especially loved "Discovery Days". She picked the casting call (drama class) and water world (water games/play class). I was so excited for her to experience it because I remember doing it when I was her age.

5. Our whole family is trying to be healthier. So you're all on notice. No more pizza runs or letting my kids have 2 servings of ice cream when they're at your house. We are going to try to not reward with food either. We are going to try to be very active and have healthy eating combine with that. This will be interesting considering we are camping this weekend.

6. Yeah...camping is this weekend!! Usually we go to Shaver Lake. But the parental figures decided to do Lake of the Springs instead. Boo!!! It's never better than Shaver when we pick a different place (even if it's free). Let's do Shaver next year. lol Let's remember Bass Lake..lol My family knows what this means.  (1 ambulance ride and 2 trips to the hospital and 2 kidney stones later.)

7. This last year has not been good on my waist line. I have been giving myself too much slack in the eating department and trying to work it off only to stay the same or gain. This is going to change. I want my workouts to be decreasing the number on the scale not evening out what I already did that day. Now that I'm not in a challenge right now I just know I need to do this for me. No other reasons than that. No more excuses.

8. I often wonder why my "friends" don't "like" my photography page. I have more friends on facebook than people who "like" my page. (And some of my fans or people who like it I don't know.) I mean really, it's not like it really matters. I know not everyone will actually like it. Not everyone's work is going to appeal to everyone. Just thought my friends would do me a favor. Supposedly the more likes you have the further up on searches you are. So, it would help the business. I'm not worried about it though. It is what it is. People will like it or not. And my business does not hang on the balance of how many likes I have. Some people I have even invited a couple times. The thing about this is that Facebook doesn't tell you who ignored it or who just hasn't looked at the request that is sitting there in their requests. So, I don't know if you simply want to not have anything to do with it or if you just haven't looked at it. (However, the people who frequent facebook I'm assuming either don't know where their requests are or are ignoring it. boo) The really only reason this matters is when I'm posting pictures. I want to gain more interest so I was posting them on my personal page (simply to reach more people and so their friends can be tagged and make comments). But I would think it would drive more to my business page if I only put them there. That way if friends and family would like to comment on them they have to like the page first. This doesn't always work though because people just look and choose not to comment/like. Then you have no idea if people like what you just posted or not. Just my ramblings of the issues with using facebook to try to gage more interest for your business.

9.  I filed my first e-file for taxes for my business to the BOE (Board of Equalization) for the state of CA. It was easier than I thought it would be. Especially since I just had to have all of my numbers ready and wasn't sure which ones I would need. Getting ready for it was more than actually doing it. Glad that's over. I only have to do that fiscal yearly so I'm glad I won't have to do it til next July.

10. If we have funds I'm going to throw a business 1 year birthday party in October. My photography business started last October so I thought it would be fun to throw a 1 year "birthday" party. I'm thinking of inviting all of my past clients and anyone interested in the future. I'm thinking of holding a model search and taking pics of those interested. And I would take pics of everyone who came and give them those pics. And am thinking about doing a photo contest on my facebook page. I just need to figure out the details and get-er-done. So much fun just thinking about it all. :)

Boy, I guess I had a lot to say today.

Relief After The Doctor Appointment

So, this tale doesn't start with relief, but it sure does end with it.

I went to the doctor almost 2 weeks ago now wanting to be tested for fructose intolerance and hypoglycemia. The test needed for the fructose intolerance the lab didn't have. It's apparently a new type of test so that wouldn't be happening. I did get my blood taken and had my liver, kidneys, and glucose tested.

All of the results were normal. AHHHHHHHHHH So, what does that mean? How the heck could it be normal. I was happy the other things were normal, but the blood sugar didn't make any sense for it to be normal. I had sooo many symptoms when they tested it too.

This started me in a frenzy to figure out how the test could have been in the normal range even with hypoglycemia symptoms. I did find in the papers I already researched that people could have symptoms and be in the normal range. That made me feel a little better but not totally. Then I found another paper said that birth control pills (which I'm on) can also affect the test. I just didn't know how much. My original lab result was 88. My cousin's wife (and my friend) Anny so generously offered to let me have her glucose meter so that I could test myself when I'm having symptoms so that I would have another reading to tell my doctor. My reading that next morning at the first sign of symptoms was at 79. Much closer to below normal, but still in the normal range.

I went to my appointment today with my million papers filled with so many questions for him. It was a great appointment. I don't know if I have ever felt more HEARD at a doctor than today. He said that it really doesn't matter what the reading said. I am having Hypoglycemic symptoms so we need to treat my Hypoglycemia. He reiterated what I read that people's bodies are different and can experience symptoms starting at varying levels. I need to have smaller more frequent meals (which I do but am not great at). Maintaining my blood sugar is something that I really have to work on because I still am having symptoms every single day because I'm not quite getting it right. I need to be more careful about that.

Also, we talked about Heredity Fructose Intolerance vs. Fructose Malabsorption (which sometimes is referred as Fructose Intolerance). The difference is huge with regards to how I would need to change my diet so I felt like I needed to know. I don't think it's the heredity one because I can have small amounts of fructose and be ok. Just not the liquid version, apparently. (Because he said it gets absorbed faster.) So most likely I have the Fructose Malabsorption. He is going to routinely check my liver and kidney function anyway just in case to make sure. Right now they are ok.

My mind has been opened up. Since the last appointment I found a website that lists so many more things that I'm not supposed to eat and things that might be ok to try and test out. And since I have been trying out that diet my symptoms of FM have drastically gotten better. It is hard to follow though because I pretty much can't have any drink other than water and tea. I can have small quantities of somethings but not much. Also wheat is something I'm not supposed to have. That one is probably the hardest. Especially since everything has wheat in it. Thankfully since I most likely have FM instead of HFI I can still have small amounts of wheat and not get sick or do damage.

What a relief this is. I literally let out a huge sigh when I shook his hand as I was leaving. I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I even teared up on the way home. Finally I knew what I thought I had, I really do have. It's not in my mind. It's 2 conditions that I need to manage but that's ok. I'm not excited that I have them, because really they both are a pain in the &*%*&! I'm just glad that I finally know what I have an can go from there. A lifetime of dealing with symptoms that I had no idea were all related finally have some meaning.

I encourage you to get your body checked out. Do you have ailments that make you think something might be wrong? I encourage you to get it checked out until you figure out what's going on.

Ah...I just had to get that all off my chest. Praise God for finally getting answers.

10 on Tuesday

Ok, so I logged into my blog on Tuesday, and as I'm writing this it is already after midnight. Why am I still up?

1. I went to Disneyland again today. My sorority sister's daughter was celebrating her birthday at the happiest place on earth. I'm so glad that we went. The girls all had a blast together. So compatible as friends. And it was great reconnecting after so long.

2. I let Jillian kick my butt tonight. I did the 30 Day Shred LEVEL 3!!! This was only the second time I have done level 3 and it was easier this time. I was actually able to do the full sit ups. I couldn't even do it last time. I was so excited. I also did a few other moves better/easier than last time too. woho!

3. I am determined to make this week a great week for my weigh in on Friday. Last week I lost 1.8. It's good, but I want to be losing more. I know I can if I just get better on the weekends. A couple friends and I talked about our weekend battles today. We decided that we are going to pretend that we have another weigh in on Monday as well. So, the 3 of us are actually going to weigh in together just to make sure we were good on the weekends. Keeping each other accountable. I'm so excited about this. I think it's just what I need. Motivation to stay the course.

4. I hear Skyler coughing in her room right now. Oh, how I pray that she isn't getting sick. The poor girl seems to be getting sick left and right.

5. Oh the drama with the doctor. I will have to elaborate more. I have a follow up appt. on Monday.

6. The girls and I ditched the BMX bike show tonight. I seriously did not want to go. And I totally forgot about it and had thought we were doing Disneyland. Then I get the illustrious "golden ticket" home from school that Courtney won. This entitles her to get there early for better seating. Still no desire to go other than to make her happy if this is what she wants to go to. So, I gave her the choice. I told her all about the bike show and that her friends would be there or Disneyland where she would meet some new friends. It was such a quick choice. Disneyland it was. Then she kept going back and forth, but ended on Disneyland. :)

7. Oh good. No more coughing sounds from the other room. I hope she can get some good sleep tonight. They both should with all of that fun and exercise tonight at Disneyland.

8. I asked the teacher about the "3rd grade phonics book" because it was hard to believe. She said that she didn't really know for sure if it was 3rd grade for sure, but that it was the 3rd phonics book. So, even if there is one per year, it would be 2nd. Regardless, it's above reading level.

9. I also found out that she started the Accelerated Reader Program at school too. And from the mouth of her grandma (who is the librarian), she didn't think there were any kindergartners in that program. How exciting. Charting new waters. So, she will be reading the book and coming to school and taking a test on it. Then she gets a new book. There are points and prizes and fun stuff like that. We read the book today and she did so well with it. Several new words and she is learning them fast. She could probably test on it tomorrow. I'll have her read it again just to be sure before school. Ya, ya....I'm a bragging mom tonight. So proud of how well she is doing and excited about her eagerness to learn.

10. Only a couple more days until weigh in. More workouts coming my way. :)

10 on Tuesday

1. We soooo need to go to the store.

2. Only a few more days until the pile up of donations will be out of here. We are still accepting donations for our yard sale. We also need shoppers 6am to 1pm on Saturday the 1st of May.

3. Ug I am sick today. I ran out of Zicam. I usually take it at the first sign of sickness. I couldn't this time and now I'm really feeling it. It's amazing how different a cold is without Zicam. I'm all achy and miserable today. Courtney's not feeling well either. She has a bad sounding cough, and has been more lethargic than normal. I kept her home from school today.

4. Don't know why I'm blogging and facebooking while I'm just wanting to lay down.

5. I had fun on Sunday stamping. It was so fun to be so crafty.

6. Needs to borrow lots of folding tables for Saturday. Do you have one we could borrow for the day? I will label it with masking tape on the bottom to be sure yours gets back to you.

7. Can you tell what's consuming my thoughts right now? So much about the sale...and other things too. Not enough energy for it all.

8. We are at 35 people in the challenge!!

9. What's up with T-Ball having playoffs?? I thought the point was not to point out who won or didn't win.

10. Loves our new table and chairs!!

Weekend Review

Our weekends usually start with Friday since Scott is off on Fridays. So, I will start there. Friday morning was started with a fun trip to Disney's California Adventure. Courtney wanted to ride the big roller coaster (California Screamin') again, so we went over there. Daddy and Courtney did that ride while Skyler and I did a few rides ourselves. We went on the Jellyfish ride and the Zephyr. Then we waited for them to walk over to Mulholland Madness. I decided to try Skyler out with the height measurement just to see if she was tall enough for it. She was so we waited for them to come over so we could do that ride. I personally, can not stand that ride. I went on it one time and hated it. No one else had ever ridden it, so we all went on it. The girls loved it, of course. Then we walked on over to the Grizzly River Run to make sure it was the same height requirement as Mulholland Madness and it was. She was tall enough, but the wait was too long. The fast pass was way too late. So we went to lunch and then headed out. I had to be at an eye apt by 2.

I am finally getting new glasses! I have needed them for a while, but haven't been able to get new ones because I usually need new contacts. Those are way more important to me. The vision in the glasses was really bad, plus, they were so scratched up that it was harder to see. When I do have to wear them, it was hard to see.

That night we went out to Chilli's for dinner with my parents. Ooh their chips and salsa is so good. And I tried a salad I hadn't ever had before too. We then went over to my parent's house to watch a movie with them and the girls ended up spending the night. I had to come early in the morning to bring Courtney some ear drops because she was complaining of ear pain. Poor thing.

Saturday morning Courtney had a softball game. I just love seeing her all suited up in catcher's gear.

The rest of the weekend was filled with sorting all of the stuff for the baby item exchange. I had taken over a car load to Candice's house only to be met with Dawn's car load waiting for me to sort all of that. :) It's wonderful we have so many donations. I just want to get it all out of my house!!!!!! Thankfully some of it will be gone on Thursday. Then not too much longer to wait until the yard sale on May 1st. It's been hurting my back a little by night time sitting and sorting and moving it all around and all of that. It will all be worth it in the end. I just can't wait for it to be over. lol

During Courtney's softball game, she started complaining of her ear hurting again. She didn't play the last half inning because it was hurting so bad. Then at home she started getting a fever. Scott took her to urgent care where we found out she had an ear infection and a throat infection. The doctor couldn't believe she wasn't complaining about her throat. She is now on medication for both.

Thankfully Sunday she didn't have any more ear pain and no more fever either. She's been on the antibiotics and ear drops and is doing much better.

I stayed home with Courtney during church so Scott and Skyler could go. Courtney was feeling great and wanted to take a walk. It then turned into a bike ride for her and I ran alongside of her. Well, I walked and jogged. I had to stop so many times, but it was fun doing that with her. We stayed on what little sidewalk there is near our house the whole time. Just going back and forth. Then we did the 30 Day Shred DVD for the first time. She did some of it with me. It was fun. I'm hearing it on right now ready to go, so off to do day 2.

Thoughtful Thursday

I'm so happy to report that everyone is healthy in our house! This is so huge. It feels like we have been on puke watch forever.

One of my friends has a blog full of blog prompts that she thinks of. So I might be occasionally doing those as I think of something relevant to the topic.

Tomorrow night is Fondue night with MOPS. Oooh sounds so yummy. However, it will be hard to be good. I think I have to find a way to allow myself a couple little things and just have the other stuff plain. And a nice workout that day would be good too. I'm making beer bread and meatballs for it.

I had to work the snack shack last night for the softball league. Boy was that interesting. First of all they were almost a half hour late to open it up. We were giving them until 5:30 to show up before we left and they got there at 5:25. Bummer. So the 3 of us had to learn how to use all of the machines since none of us had ever done it before. They seemed to half teach us how to do it. I'm glad I was asking questions while they were there cuz they left fairly quickly. They should have had someone staying just in case we had questions or needed more change or where items were. Then they were out of most things we needed. So, we kept having to say we didn't have any more_____. Fill in the blank and we probably didn't have everything we needed to do it. Thankfully we still had enough to make most people happy. The hot chocolate ran out fairly quickly. What a horrible night to run out of that. It was freezing. The hot dog machine wasn't making the hot dogs hot enough or cooked enough so most of them we had to heat more in the microwave. It was quite the experience. We had a line for 2 hours straight. Then had a line off and on the rest of the time (2 more hours). I'm just glad it's over. I did my duty and am done with it.

I feel like I have a million things to accomplish, yet I'm on here blogging. lol Oh well, it's helping me have some down time before the craziness.

10 on Tuesday

1. Skyler got sick last night throwing up. So incredibly gross. And I'm trying to not puke on her from the smell. Uh, how that gets me queasy. Today she is feeling better already. She says she feels all better, her tummy doesn't hurt, and she just started eating some normal foods. Hopefully it's a sign of a really quick bug that's about to be gone. Poor thing.

2. Sometimes it's just nice to talk to a friend. Just someone who gets you and loves you anyway. Who needs grace and shows grace. (Grace = Showing someone Mercy when they do not deserve it/not earned)

3. Is so frustrated right now.

4. I missed hanging out with my bible study ladies today because Sky was sick and last week had to miss MOPS because Courtney was sick. And Scott was sick in between. I really have had enough of the sicknesses in this house.

5. I'm back to 5th place in the competition. I'm hoping something was off with the scale for a bunch of people because it seemed like a lot of people didn't do as well as they normally do this week. Hopefully it will bounce back to normal next week.

6. So, with Scott's bonus coming in we were able to finally get some things we have not been able to get due to lack of money. It totally felt like a shameful spending spree since we should be saving most of it. But some things needed to happen and others were really fun things we splurged on (that we have not been able to spend money on at all last year). Scott's car was a necessity to fix several things. My car too. We also had to put a bunch away for property taxes.

7. I got the Nike+ Sportband to go with the shoes my friend, Sarah gave me. I can now run anywhere and be able to keep track of my time, miles, & pace. It's been fun trying it out. It makes me want to run more. Anything that offers me more motivation and variety is a good thing. I'm always looking for new ways to get exercise or be healthy.

8. I haven't even really said anything about this because it feels like such a huge expense that we weren't planning on. I can not be more excited though. We finally got a new camera. It has been hard not having one since Christmas day. We were originally going to get another one like we had but ended up getting the Canon Rebel SLR. (I'm totally drooling over it.) Since I have always had an aspiration to have my own photography business, this camera just brings out that photographer in me. Especially since it has an incredibly fast shutter speed. Getting the exact shot I wanted will be much easier now. Purchasing this new camera was supposed to be my award from my hubby for reaching a huge weight loss milestone. But we figured it would be better to get it now while we had the money. Because I will for sure be hitting that milestone this year. 20 pounds away. I promised Scott he could use it too. :) And he already has several times. Maybe at that time I will finally reveal my weight. Maybe.

9. I can't wait, but when we get the taxes back I can go clothes shopping for some much needed smaller clothes. Especially jeans. My jeans are all big. Even straight from the dryer I can wear them for a couple hours before they start falling off. What a problem to have, right? I love it.

10. I can't wait for this challenge to be over. It's wearing on me a little bit. It's hard when I feel like I have done a great job losing (like last week of 5.6 lb.)and still only gain a fraction of a percentage on people above me. If Roselia doesn't do another challenge again, I might run one. I would add a couple rules too. I like the motivation of the challenge, but being part of the front runners feels stressful. I need a break. A chance to relax a bit. I want some PANDA!!! (Panda Express that is.)


This blog would have been so much better unedited.

10 on Tuesday

ya ya so it's a day late. Who cares?

1. Please pray for my husband's job. Right now if you can. He and his whole department yesterday were asked if they were mobile (willing to move to another refinery far away to keep their job). He said no because really, we don't want to move away. I'm hoping they are going to weed out those who can just switch to somewhere else instead of being let go. His company is doing massive lay offs. He said it's getting scarier today because he sees people being walked out (being let go) today. PLEASE pray hard. We are just barely managing to get by WITH his paycheck, let alone if we didn't have it.

2. I ran 4 miles yesterday!!! That was a major accomplishment for me! I haven't ever run that far let alone in 49 minutes. It was hard and felt like torture. I didn't have my running buddy with me, so that's probably partially why. It's the first time I went past 3.1 miles (5K).

3. My asthma is driving me nuts. I keep feeling it come on. I had to use my inhailer 2 different times yesterday. Yet, it was fine during my run. Go figure. I can feel it again today too.

4. Courtney has her 1st ever softball game tonight. I'm excited and hope it doesn't get rained out. 5:15pm at EWMS.

5. I'm now in a 2 way tie for 4th place in the challenge. I lost 5.6 pounds last week. Insane. I can't believe it was only 2.2% for the week though. ug!

6. Why do cookies have to be so good?

7. Last week we woke up to find 2 chocolate bar wrappers on the table (with no chocolate in them). We knew there had been some candy thieves. Then all of a sudden we noticed 20 little dimes piled on the table. See, the night before we told them that they couldn't just eat the softball candy we were selling. They had to buy it. Then we let them eat buy a candy from the money in their piggy banks. We had a lesson about coins and they ended up paying in dimes. I guess I should have explained that they couldn't just buy as many as they wanted. It was a one time thing. lol But cute that they now know how many dimes are in a dollar.

8. Taxes are done. Woho! That was a huge accomplishment of last week. The whole process stresses me out.

9. Can't decide if I'm going to the gym after writing this blog or going to skip it today. My body says skip it. My mind is reminding me of how little we have til the final weigh in. Maybe I'll just do a smaller workout.

10. I should have a PartyLite shipment coming soon. I finally spent a bunch of gift certificates I had been saving to get some new product. I will probably be hosting my own party in April (PL's anniversary month) and have all kinds of stuff to sell off my table as well as all of the incredible specials and catalog they always do.