My favorite Holiday Meal!

Thanksgiving Day at my mom’s house was awesome.  Everyone brought a dish-I already blogged about mine and can I just tell you that there was not ONE stick of celery left.  I had nothing to clean up-I love it when that happens.

Our family has a tradition of writing down one thing (I know the pressure-only one thing) we are thankful for-and before we pray and eat we pass around a bowl and everyone picks out one slip…so we have to read what someone else wrote.  That’s cool because it is really fun to try to figure out who wrote what.  Sometimes it is easy if you recognize the handwritting. 

My cousin’s always say something about UK (university of KY) athletics.  And even this year they found something good to say!

After we all ate entirely to much, my spouselet put in the DVD of home movies that my grandparents took while we were all growing up.  As it played he recorded what everyone said and is going to over lay our comments.  How cool of a present!

My sister and I are the biggest goober-butts ever.  Neither one of us made it through the day with out missing our popaw.  One thing about my sister and I-we are NOT pretty when we cry and we make noise.  just so you know, there isn’t any of that quietly dabbing your eyes and being misty with maybe a quiet sniffle.  Oh no!  We are the full blown red nose, splashing tears, suckin’ our lower lip, wailing kinda criers and when we TRY to stiffle them-much snot is produced and hyperventalation is highly possible.  However, we very very rarely cry at the same time, to minimize the global impact.

Oh and then my son and one of my sister’s neices (her brother in law’s kid-so no relation to me and mine) were born on the same day, 2 years apart…they have this special connection.  They haven’t seen each other in about 6 years and there was some serious eyeball batting going on.  He will be 14 this week, she will be 12.  Her mama said she wanted to wear mascara and spent alot of time on her hair.  The 13 yr old put on a bit of the cologne and took a shower.  They were so very cute.

When we got home I told him that she thought he was the cat’s pajamas and he said “Gross mom, that is like my cousin.”  Yeah, LIKE your cousin, but NOT.  No relation baby. “Really? (trying not to bounce out of his skin) But she is a 6th grader!”  Which, apparently is WORSE than being related. 

Yeah, we will see about that when he is 17 and she is 15 won’t we!

It was a great day all around, I think even the 13 yr old would agree.

What was your favorite part about your Thanksgiving day?

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I have been kind of obsessed with Vitamin D and the Sun this week, so this song is not only a childhood favorite, it has been the soundtrack of my week.

When I was a child I could not listen to this song with out bawlin’ my head off.
Some movie I saw way back in the 70’s and according to wiki answers-it was called sunshine.

so, enjoy a little John Denver on this first Saturday after the biggest shopping day of the year!

Visit Amy for more great music today!

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It has been a few weeks since I was able to participate in Sunday Scribblings and this is one of my favorite topics: A Winter’s Tale (which translates to me SNOW STORM!)

Right off the bat three storms come to mind.

January 16th 1978, January 17th 1994 and March 7, 2008.

All three of the storms had record level snow fall the two in January were over 15 inches in a 24 hour period and the one in March was about a foot-but it was MARCH!

The first storm I was 9 years old and it seemed like school was cancelled for a full month. School was cancelled for so long that the local PBS station started broadcasting “school” for kids to keep up with some of the things they learned. We also had to add 45 minutes on to every day so that we wouldn’t be in school through most of the summer (I guess it was alot!) My sister and I spent alot of time at my grandparents farm. I remember the fence in the front yard colapsing under the weight of the snow. My great uncle Emanuel had snowmobiles that we got to ride all over the back 70 acres. We would come in after an hour of bone numbing cold and warm by the fire and eat snow cream. It seems that the whole family stayed there for days, but that could just be one of those fabricated childhood memories.

The next storm was about as much fun but I was much older-25 and the night the snow started several of my friends and I went to see our favorite local band play- The Merry Pranksters. During set breaks we ventured outside to have snowball fights and make snow angels in the middle of Bardstown Road. Yes, the MIDDLE of the road-no one was driving anywhere. I think that the 150 or so of us who were crazy enough to stay out in that storm WERE the only people in the city who did so. By the time the band was done playing at 3 am there was already at least 12 inches of snow on the ground.

By the next morning-16 inches! It took us over 2 hours to dig my car out of the snow. My 1988 Seville was the only car on the road that didn’t have any issues with the compacted snow. We even passed police cruisers sliding down Lexington Road-backward. My friends Andy and Carrie had spent the night at my apartment but we thought it would be better to go to her place because she had a working fireplace-so we did! After we found an open store to buy food and firewood-the only open store in the entire city. That time it was a full week before everything was back on track. We worked at a Mexican Restaurant and between the three of us and a few other people that lived above it, we were able to work when the owner couldn’t get out of his house for another 4 days. Ah-good times were had by all!

And the last storm-the most recent.
This past March.

The 13 yr old had a soccer game that was thankfully cancelled-mainly because you would not be able to FIND the ball in a foot of snow. So, spouselet, the 13 yr old and several other kids from the neighborhood went to the bottom of the hill and rode sleds, garbage can lids and peices of plastic for hours. Spouselet took tons of video that he is still editing. I made snow cream-for the first time in almost 20 years.

I think the dogs had more fun in the fluffy white stuff than the kids did as the picture above displays.

I love a storm, but the ones in winter will always be my favorite!

Tomorrow at my mother’s Thanksgiving Day table, I won’t have my popaw or my son.

Popaw died this past April and this will be the first Thanksgiving with out him. It is going to be incredibly hard. He was a lot of the glue that held this clan together. We all miss him very much-Thanksgiving was one of his most favorite holidays because the focus is on family and food! It is going to be a difficult day indeed.

The 13 year old has decided to spend the day with his father and my former in-laws. I am very proud of him for making that choice, on his own. Usually there isn’t the opportunity for him to visit with them for a ton of reasons. He will be missed as well, but I know he will be coming back to my mom’s house later in the day to visit with extended family he hasn’t seen in about 7 years.

I am so thankful about so many things and I am going to focus on those great blessings from God throughout the day and in the weeks to come.

I wish you and yours a most abundant day filled with lots of love and laughter…
and football, if you must!

Part 2 Who said I didn’t have Patience?

My new GP was (and continues to be) a breath of fresh air.
He isn’t a fan of medication unless it is the last and only option.

Exercise.
Eating right.
Vitamins and Minerals.

He ran tests of his own and decided that yes, I do have an issue with Insulin but there are other things to be concerned about as well.
Cholesterol-high.
Liver function-high.
Weight-high, but don’t obsess about it-

Plan of action.
No Sugar.
No Potatoes or other starches.
No Corn.
Limit sweet fruits-eat all the berries you want.
No White Flour-actually cut back on wheat significantly.
Very very limited amounts of complex carbs-keep it simple.

Limit fat.

Lots of veggies.
Lots of whole grains.

Ok-people. That doesn’t leave a heck of a lot to eat. especially in winter.

Broccoli.
I can eat Broccoli.
and maybe a little Cauliflower.
with some flax seed on top.

Oh and exercise at least 10 minutes a day.
That is EVERY DAY.

I quit weight watchers. I had to.
I couldn’t trust myself on the points plan because there aren’t any limits on it and I am not paying for the core plan when THAT was even to liberal for my new restraints.

It has been about 8 months.
The only thing that has stabilized is my sugar levels, which is great news!
Everything else still needs work, which is where the Vitamin D came in.
I am going to take 4000UI a day for the next 3 months and hope this helps with the other numbers.

I have a feeling I am right on the cusp of that “magic” weight. I can not push below 180. I get almost to it and then the numbers creep back up I waffle between 181 and 185 and have since the first drop of 15.

So, there is most of my story up until this point.

It looks like I have forgiven my first doctor for being a twit, good thing he is pretty.
(oh, guess I haven’t-I still need to work on that.)

Part 1 “In the beginning”
Part 2
Who said I don’t have patience?

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Part 1 “In the beginning”

I went to my Ob/Gyn and he ran the tests. He listened to my symptoms and agreed that it did sound like a thyroid problem, but he also said it could be a few other things. He wanted to run some tests to be sure. He didn’t think that I was old and in the first stages of Menopause.

He never once said I was fat.
(I love that man!)

I took a few days for the tests to come back so we made an appointment to go over them.

Good news. Bad news.
Not so great news.

Good news-you don’t have a thyroid problem. You have PCOS and Insulin Resistance. They usually go hand in hand. More good news, PCOS makes you infertile (YAY).

Bad news (really) PCOS also causes cancer. Insulin Resistance if left un treated can become Type 2 Diabetes.

Oh and this happened-probably because you quit smoking and that pushed you over your “magic” weight. Everyone has that number, no one knows where it is. People can develop this by being 5 lbs over weight and other women are 100 lbs to heavy and never get it.

Losing weight will help.
Losing weight will NOT be easy.
Your body doesn’t function like it should-

He gave me a prescription for Oral Contraceptives and suggested a new GP to help with the diet, exercise and medication options for the non-reproductive parts of this diagnosis.

I was not happy about taking the Oral Contraceptives because they make me nuts and I am not a huge fan of what they do to a woman’s body (which is kind of ironic, considering all I have done to my OWN body-like smoking).

After almost 2 years, I was FINALLY getting some answers.
I called the new guy and he got me in right away!

Part 1 “In the beginning”
Part 3 What a long strange trip it’s been.

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way after God created the heavens and the earth, I quit smoking.

FYI. Talking about this makes me a little angry, so you might want to keep that in mind when you read the following. I am getting better-but it still leaks out occasionally. You have been warned.

Then I gained weight.
No big deal, everyone says you gain a bit-so I didn’t worry. 10 became 20 and before I knew it, I had gained 40 lbs.

FYI-Forty pounds in 2 years is a sign that something is not right with your body-especially if you weren’t eating 2 cheesecakes a day!

At the 20lb mark, I went to my GP and said, I think there is a problem.
He said “You are fat.”
Yeah, I know but I don’t feel right.
“You don’t when you are fat. Exercise.”

So I did-and it did nothing, some weeks I even gained more.
And exercising is supposed to give you more energy right?
Then why am I so darned tired all the time?

Back to the doctor.
“Being fat makes you tired.”
“I think I have a thyroid problem. My mom and sister have a thyroid problem-so did my grand mother. Can you test me for it?”
“No need. We did that 3 years ago, you were fine then. You are fat, you need to exercise.”
“But, I am…nothing is changing.”
“do it more.”

So, I joined Weight Watchers again.
4 months I lost 15 lbs.
I went out of town to plan my wedding.
Gained 7 of it back.
ONE WEEK.

HELLO-that is a problem and it isn’t called being “Just Fat”

I decided to forget about losing weight for my wedding and concentrate on being happy and NOT starving. By the time I got married I weighed over 200lbs (more than I have ever weighed in my life and I can not believe I just typed that on my blog!)

I went to my GP one more time, because now my hair was falling out. And when I say my hair was falling out…it was, you could see my scalp. my pony tail was about the size of my pinky finger.

Hair falling out, dry sking, fat around the middle, tired (all the time), irregular menstrual cycle (between 40 and 50 days)-exercise isn’t helping, watching what I eat, isn’t helping. Girls, I was messed up!

So, back to the doctor. I go through my list.
Now i am FAT AND OLD.
Excuse me, but screw this.
At this point I had been trying to figure this stuff out for over a year.

I knew something wasn’t right.
WebMD said it could be several things anywhere from a brain tumor to cancer to thyroid.
I didn’t feel cancerous or brain tumor like…my money was still on thyroid.

I called my Ob/Gyn and asked if at my yearly they could run some tests.
I explained that my GP wouldn’t help and I was getting worried.
They agreed to run the tests.

Who said I don’t have patience? (part 2)
what a long strange trip it’s been (part 3)

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apparently doesn’t just make you happy, it also keeps you healthy.

As I am reading about my current health situation, I am making some interesting connections.

Like we need sunshine to get our daily doses of vitamin D-so that the cholesterol our liver produces can be used for good, not evil. With out enough vitamin D it appears that our bodies keep on makin’ the bad stuff and we develop all sorts of issues-heart disease, diabetes and golly gosh, oh gee-PCOS and Insulin Resistance, my personal favorites.

But, in the past several years (like 20) we have been asked to stay out of the sun-slather on a TON of sunscreen lest we get skin cancer….and in doing so, we are cutting out natural sources of Vitamin D-and actually increasing our chances of getting all sorts of cancers.

Dr. Michael Richman over at WebMD has a series on Vitamin D and Cardiovascular Disease that is very interesting. (I read the whole thing with out my eyeballs glazing over, which is huge when I am reading medical stuff). He says right off the bat that Vitamin D deficiency is a pandemic.

People, that is scary!
AIDS is a pandemic.

pan⋅dem⋅ic   [pan-dem-ik]
–adjective
1. (of a disease) prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world; epidemic over a large area.
2. general; universal: pandemic fear of atomic war.
–noun
3. a pandemic disease.
Origin:
1660–70; < LL pandēm(us) < Gk pándēmos common, public (pan- pan- + dêm(os) the people + -os adj. suffix) + -ic

and here is a bit of anecdotal evidence-
My daddy and my momaw do not and have not and will not ever wear sunscreen. They are both the brownest little button people who have never had a bad mole removed OR had a weight issue (ok as brown as irish/german peoples can be)- My momaw is 81 years old and doesn’t take any pills at all-other than her Geritol (do they even still make that?um yes, they do.)

Maybe I should start paying more attention to what she does and eats.
She is a healthy old bird (and I love her dearly)

bad news.
Not so great news.

I finally got a call from the Doctor with test results from my appointment Last Week. Someone from his office called and left a message that they were in on Friday, but that was 4 minutes before they closed for the weekend. So, I worried myself sick. Until 6pm when he FINALLY called with the results.

Good news-my sugar numbers are good. That has been the case for the past 2 tests. (since the OB diagnosed me with Insulin Resistance and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in February) I am confident that I know what my body can and can’t handle in this area.

Unfortunately, that is the ONLY thing I have gotten regulated (so far with out prescription medication).

My bad Cholesterol is high (like REALLY high) and my good is low-and my vitamin D levels are also extremely low. He said he thought that may be the case and that was a new test that had been added to the blood they take (so now two tubes instead of one-gee thanks).

So, right now we are going to try 4000 UI of Vitamin D a day and see if that helps get some of these numbers under control-if not it looks like statins are in my future.

Honestly, I am to young for this crap.

So, back to watching every little thing I eat and keeping away from some of my very favorites and ramp the exercise back up to 50 minutes of cardio a day. Which is going to be interesting since we canned the YMCA. (but we do still have the Fitness channel)

I need to be accountable.
I feel several blog topics on this in the future.