Minivan Envy!

'Twas one of those days.  Let me first say that I am so incredibly thankful for Brent's job and it pays better than my full-time job I had.  But it's a double-edged sword, since he has to use the car.  It's a part-time medical courier position and he has to use our most fuel efficient vehicle.  I would suck it up and use the big chunky van, but the car seat does not fit in it well at all.  I can't get the seat belts tight enough, so it can tip over.  Most days, it's fine.  My parent's don't live far away, so my mom will pick us up and we will get an outing.  When it gets cooler, there will be nice opportunities for walks.  There's a nice park close and a shopping center is not too horribly far away.  But today my mom had thing's she needed to do, so I was stranded at home with a particularly cranky toddler.  So I got cranky right back.  Not one of my finer moments.

Lord, I want a minivan.  Preferably a Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey.  I find myself staring at shiny new minivans and drooling slightly.  I will definitely need one by the time baby #2 comes, because the Corolla can barely fit the car seat as it is.  Forget 2.  Hopefully things will start looking up for us soon, and it can be my 30th birthday present.  Is that too much to ask?!

At least I did apply to something like 8 jobs on behalf of Brent.  A few here (free rent is nice), a few in Colorado (yes, cooler weather would be AWESOME), a few in California (because that's where a ton of Japanese jobs are) and several in Houston (I imagine my MIL singing the full Hallelujah Chorus in her head if she finds out).  When he got back, we worked together to get his book published on Amazon Kindle.  It won't be on in 24 hours, so I will be sure to put a link up when it becomes available.  So it was a productive day, just got stir-crazy.

Hence, the minivan envy.

Last few days

Thought I would share my favorite site for thyroid help.  It's Mary Shomon's http://thyroid-info.com/.  So full of information and you can subscribe to a newsletter too.  I have found it extremely helpful.

Audrey woke up before 7 these last 2 days.  Today she was quite the crank and I didn't get much done.  Oh well, I am hoping she will finally get straightened out.

It all started when we went to a party Saturday night, but I mainly hung out with Audrey and our friend's 4 1/2 year old daughter.  I think they had a pretty good time.  I made this award-winning recipe of bread pudding with whiskey sauce.  It turned out so good.  Let me know if you want me to post it.  Love the fact that our pastor of young adults took 2 large helpings.  He said he was taking one to his wife.  I will have to ask her if she got hers :)  I think I'll be making that for my brother Reed's birthday.  I think he would really like it.

1st Plane Trip/1st Beach Trip!

My Dad took my mom, sister, Audrey and I to the beach yesterday and we got back today.  It was Audrey's first time in the plane and her first time to the sea.  She LOVED both!  We had such a good time :)

Flippin' Annoyed...

So finally after over a month of waiting, Derek and Sarah's wedding pictures are all available online.  Yay! So I was just looking through them, especially excited to see the reception pictures, because I had gone up to one of the photographers and asked for a picture of the 3 of us and I was going to use it for our Christmas cards.  Sweet!  Professional photo without paying a sitting fee.  But I look just now, and there are only 3 pictures of us, only 1 including Audrey.  I am so flippin' mad.  Maybe they haven't gotten them all up yet?!  But seriously, I know I annoyed the photographer earlier for accidently getting in a shot when I was chasing after my 2 year old and I am wondering if this is just her way of getting back, because there are like a BILLION of Sarah's snotty little niece and none of my child.  Sorry, just annoyed.  If you like looking at wedding pictures though, it's www.jwbaugh.com/blauser.

Crab Stacks

I'm making crab stacks for dinner.  It's an easy, no-cook dinner recipe that my mom put together after having something very similar at some fancy restaurant.  Brent always wants something else to go with it, but I like it by itself.

For 2:
Get a couple of cups
Put about 1/4 crab at the bottom of each cup (I use imitation.  It's already cooked, so I just chop it up and put it right in.)
Cube about 1/2 a small or 1/4 large mango for each cup and that's the next layer.
Cube 1/2 an avocado for each cup and pack that in.
Top each cup with 1/2 diced small tomato.
Cover and chill.
Meanwhile in small bowl, add the juice of a lemon or a lime with a couple of tablespoons of mayo and stir it up.
Grab cups from fridge, take a knife along the edge and turn out on to plate.  Spoon sauce over crab stack.

Let me know if you try this out.  I was a little skeptical at first, but I really like it.  Plus, it has been just too dadgum hot here to cook!

CURSES!!!!

I got my blood tests back today.  My flippin' thyroid is normal.  NORMAL?!?!   Not even on one end, but right smack dab in the middle.  Argh.  So that means my issues lately don't have to do with thyroid, even though I have thyroid symptoms.

My cholesterol was slightly high and so was hematocrit (whatever the heck that is).  The only crazy thing was Vitamin D: 14.1 ng/mL.  It should be between 50.0-100.0, so yay I am extremely Vitamin D deficient, so my doctor's office called me up and gave me a high dose of Vitamin D-3 with Vitamin K-2 MenaQ (25,000 IU[!]).

I delivered my frozen poop to the lab today and that can take up to 3 weeks to process.  I hope since I hand delivered, I will get my results faster.  Then I will meet with Dr. Heidi and get to the bottom of whatever is my issue.

I am sort of bummed it wasn't my thyroid.  That would have been an easy enough fix. :/

You Know You're the Mommy of a Toddler....

When you discover spaghetti sauce on the back of your shirt, you've been like that all day and you don't even care.

Your dreams include full episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

You might not remember what you did this morning, but you can sing along with all the lyrics to Wonderpets.

You start talking to other adults about needing to go poopie and wee-wee.

Two words: minivan envy.

I'll be adding to this I'm sure.

I Keep Forgetting....

to take my drops that are supposed to help with my memory.  So poetic.  They are out in the fridge, so I just don't think about them.  Yes, I did say "out".  Our inside fridge doesn't work so instead of figuring out how to switch the 2 out, we just go out to the garage and it's not that big of a deal.

My nephew Austin was in town for the last week and he went back yesterday.  We had a good time.  I still think he thinks of me as the chick that goes with Uncle Brent, but at one point he hugged me and told me he loved me.  It was a pretty big deal.  I admit, I teared up a bit.  It's the first time to my recollection.  No one telling him to do it anyway, just him being a sweetie.  His big phrase was "Let me tell you something".  He started everything with that.  My mom, Austin, Audrey and I surprised my grandparent's on Thursday by paying them a visit.  Pretty sure we made their whole month.  I am just glad they actually had their AC on.  I had been worried about that.

Nancy and I went out on a sister date yesterday.  We went for sushi, then went to see "The Help" after shopping around for a bit.  It was an excellent book and the movie was very good as well.  I love that they kept the pie in there.  I wondered if they would, since it is somewhat scandalous.

Got Skype to work with my in-laws.  They really enjoyed seeing Audrey even though she kept hanging up on them.  I wish the end call button wasn't right on the screen of the iPod Touch, but no one asked me.  I hope we get to do this more.

Promotion Sunday was today and so Audrey went to a real Sunday School class!  I can't believe they start at 2!  I don't get to drop her off or pick her up, since I do choir then we rush over to our Japanese church, so I have no idea how her first day went.  I think she was a little freaked out just simply because it was a new room.  I am so excited about this though!

I've been feeling pretty good with the stuff the holistic doctor gave me.  Glutathione, high dose Omega 3, and dopamine for those interested.  I am glad that I am able to get some relief while waiting on results.  Of course I said I've done the blood tests so I am waiting to hear those results.  I got the kit for the stool and DNA kit.  The swabbing of the cheek thing was simple enough, but these folks want an entire cup of poop.  TMI?!  Oh well, that's what this thing is.  Anyway, so that's been fun.

So it's been a lazy Sunday afternoon, like a Sunday afternoon is supposed to be.  I got in to the dang Mother's iced animal crackers.  Curses.  Why are they so flippin' good?  I am just glad they are almost gone and I won't buy them again.  Bad, bad, BAD!

Blood work done!

Got my blood work done first thing this morning.  When you have to fast before hand, you sorta want to be the first in line.  I do anyway.  And of course, I got lightheaded and had to sit with my head between my legs for a minute.  I felt ill for a little while as well, but that might have been from the fact I actually heard my blood shoot in the vile.  Ew.  But my momma took me and got an orange juice and breakfast burrito from McD's.  Did much better after that.

I got up too early.  But other than that, I have felt much better today.  I think this stuff helps with some of my issues and I am eager to get the results of this test back!  Still need to order the other one *sigh*

First Holistic Doctor Visit

I had a good experience at the holistic doctor today.  She read all of my previous tests, and somehow I had missed the one that proves that I do have an autoimmune disease.  She wants me to get checked for gluten intolerance, since that has been linked to autoimmune diseases and if I do and then start eating a gluten-free diet, that is all I will need to do.  It would be a pain in the butt, but I can do it.  Especially if that makes me feel human again.  I will also get they typical blood tests, so that's more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  I get to fast too.  Joy.  I get so light-headed.  Fun times.

She gave me some things I can be taking to help my foggy mind and my general feeling of irritability.  Tried the stuff earlier, and wow it helps.  I will be upping my dose a little, but I could already tell it was helping.  It's something that I can be doing now while I wait for my tests to come back.  The blood one is really quick, but the gluten is a stool one, so I get to poop in a box and send it off.  How would you like that job?!  Anyway, that one takes something like 3 weeks to get back.  

This stuff is expensive initially, but it's past time to feel better.

Free 2 year old!

Seriously.  What is up with my kid today?!  She has been screaming at my heels pretty much constantly since waking up this morning.  I guess more molars are coming in.  I am almost tempted to heed one of my mom's friend's advice and take some ice and work those boogers through!  Now she's being sweet, because I set her up with some lunch.  Of course, the chips are the first to go.  After this is nap time.  Thank you, dear Lord, for nap time!  My sanity has been tested today and I need that few hours of regrouping.

Now, mothering a toddler can really be stressful when you're normal, but let's add in thyroid issues.  Fun times.  It can make me feel like such a shoddy mother.  It's like my emotions are on steroids.  I can control them most of the time, but every time I can pretty much tell you I am screaming in my head.  I cry at little thing's.  I hate it.  Forgive me for using a double negative, but I am never not tired.  I get really down on myself.  I worry about Audrey.

I know it's typical 2 to scream and yell to get what she wants, but why oh why can't she use her words?  She is pretty good, but I am hard of hearing and usually don't catch what she says.  Not like Brent or my mother can.  Plus, she is learning Japanese.  But it just seems to me that every other kid her age has this expansive vocabulary and I know you're not supposed to, but it's hard not to compare.  I try to remind myself that Einstein didn't talk at all until 3, so that is not a measure of intelligence.  She is crazy smart.  She can figure out thing's for herself.  For crying out loud, she can understand and speak a little Japanese!

I sometimes think a mother's worse enemy can be other mothers.  Everyone wants to let the world know what their kid can do.  Like it's a competition.  Don't know where I was going with that, but just thought I would throw that out there.

Tricky Thyroid

I have always struggled with my thyroid.  Usually I am hypothyroid, so in January 2008 when I got a panicked call from my gen prac not to take the thyroid she had just given me and immediately take myself to an endocrinologist, I was a bit concerned.  I had somehow become hyperthyroid.
Valentine's Day of 2008, that endocrinologist diagnosed me with Graves' Disease then proceeded to tell me I would not be able to have children.  Worst Valentine's Day ever.  I looked at my sweet Brent and chocking back tears, I told him that I will be fighting this and we decided we would start to try for a baby even though we had originally thought to wait a few more years.
I started doing my own research.  I went to another endocrinologist who told me the same sort of thing.  Yeah, it's Graves' let's remove your thyroid.  By now I am thinking I am going crazy, these doctors are not listening to me.  I was hypothyroid at one time, there is no way it could be Graves'!
In my research, I came across the benefits of acupuncture.  Now I am a huge advocate of alternative medicine.  Instead of prescribing drugs that these drug companies pay doctors to prescribe, why not treat the cause not just a symptom?!
By the time I went to my 3rd endocrinologist the summer of 2008, my thyroid was normal!  Then here comes the kicker: when I told her what doctor's A and B had said, she asked if they had done this basic blood test which determines Graves'.  Well, they didn't.  She was so angry that she wrote them both.
I became pregnant in September of 2008 and my thyroid continued to be normal.  I remember her suspecting Hoshimoto's, but have not been tested for that.  For some reason, you can't be tested while you're pregnant.  We moved a short time after Audrey was born and due to un and under employment, I have not been checked.
Within the last year though, I can tell my thyroid is acting up again.  I can't seem to lose this last 15 lbs. from 2 years ago no matter what I eat or how much I exercise, I am tired all the time, I get chilled easily, I am foggy-brained and can't think well, and pretty much every other symptom of hypothyroidism.
Well, I have finally sucked it up and scheduled an appointment with a holistic doctor on Tuesday.  Her patient forms have got to be the most detailed papers I've ever filled out!  Well, that and Dr. Jimmy the acupuncturist's.  Since she's holistic, she practices acupuncture and other alternative medicines.  I am praying that she can offer me relief.  I've felt like a zombie for far too long.

Let's try this again!

I've tried the blog thing before, but it didn't work out so well for multiple reasons.  So I am trying this again...

This came up today while in the middle of prayer in Sunday School.  We were asked to sit in prayer and ask God how He wants to use me and to pray against things that distract me from this.  I thought about this.  A raw blog with thing's I battle with: the stresses I deal with on a daily basis such as parenting a toddler, thyroid issues, underemployment, the uncertainty of our future, faith testing, etc.

Let this experiment begin!