Fun with Photoshop

Like my new blog design? I did it all myself, using photoshop. The only thing that I didn't come up with is the font (2peas scrapbook), which I got from twopeasinabucket.com. I think it's a really cute font!

I figured out how to do the polka dots, which I used for the background, and I finally figured out how to use drop shadows effectively. It only took me about two weeks of searching on the internet and reading tutorials and trying different things, but I think I was fairly successful. My brain seems to be working better these days, now that I'm not eating gluten (yay!).

The only problem is that I'm not real happy with how blurry my polka dots are on the side. They weren't that way originally- I think it happened in the uploading/making it fit process. They're supposed to be clean and clear like the ones in the header. I need to do some experimenting to see if I can figure out what happened and how to keep it from happening again. I also need to see what I can do about changing the font on my headers. I don't think it'll be too hard, but it's late and I'm not going to mess with it tonight.

The next thing I want to figure out how to do is make embellishments to add to my blog header and background. That will take some more research and experimentation, though.

Ok, I admit I have this morbid fascination with the bruise on my arm. It's so big and ugly! Here's what it looked like last night. I went to the chiropractor today and she saw my bruise and told me to put arnica on it to help the bruise heal. Apparently with a bruise this size, scar tissue can form in the really yellow parts. Sure don't want that happening...

Now that I've got the blog stuff mostly figured out, I need to finish it up and then get back to sewing. I need to sew the dress for LMS still, and I want to sew some drawstring bags to store our bike helmets and my bike shoes. They're all tossed into the back of the bike trailer right now, and my inner OCD is cringing at the disorderliness. Also need to get thank you's for bday presents done and pictures hung on the wall. And when I'm done with that, I need to dig out our cooler (from the very back of our 24' storage container) and sort the things I've put aside to sell (an ebay pile and a garage sale pile). So much to do...

Oh yes, I almost forgot! I weighed myself yesterday morning and I've lost another 3 pounds, for a total of 10 pounds so far. Yay!!

Spending time with the in-laws

Yesterday I ran a 9 minute mile! Ok, I did have a bit of a tailwind, but I still ran a 9 minute mile!

This morning my SIL and I finished sorting girls clothes. We spent time on Monday doing the same and were able to finish today. We had bags and bags (Ziploc XXL Big Bags) of clothes newborn to 4T, and there was just too many of them. Some of them were hand-me-downs from girls who are quite a bit older (and are therefore way less-than-attractive and stylish), some were worn by the oldest niece (turning 7 in a couple months), and we have bought clothes for each of the younger girls (5, 3, and 18 months), so we had way more clothes than one little girl can wear before growing out of them.

We sorted each size, making piles for: keep (good condition; cute), sell at a garage sale (good condition; not super cute, or never fit quite right on any of the girls), donate to Goodwill (ok condition; not super cute), and toss (stained and/or absolutely hideous). We halved the amount of clothes that need to be stored for the next girl, which is great! There is no reason to store clothes that neither of us would actually put on our girls. Now that there's a lot less, we can store them in space bags, which will save even more space.

I also spent time this past week helping my BIL figure out what he needs to do to get a divorce. His wife locked him out of their house 6 months into their marriage, but didn't do anything about a divorce (he thought she had). 4 years later, he wants to marry someone else, but has to get the first one taken care of. If you have no money to hire an attorney to take care of it all for you, it's quite confusing to figure out what needs to be done. You almost need a law degree! We finally got the paperwork figured out and filed at the courthouse. We sent off the summons to where we think she's living (sure hope that address is correct), and once she's served and the papers signed the hard part will be done.

Spectacular bruises

The promised pictures from my losing fight with my bike.

The first one is in the evening on Wednesday. The purple bruising is just starting to show up. It had been red, and looked like a scrape. Not anymore!



This picture was taken on Thursday evening- the bruising is much more evident now. It looks a lot worse than it is, but it sure isn't pretty.

The bruises are looking really great today- nice and yellowy-green. Guess I'll be wearing a long sleeved shirt to church tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to me!

For my birthday, my visiting teacher took LMS and me on a bike ride. We did about ten miles and had a good time. I did manage to biff it pretty good, though. I don't remember when the last time I crashed my bike was. I do remember crashing when I was 6 and just learning to ride a two-wheeler, but that's it. Anyway, I was coming to a stop, thought I had time to unclip my shoes, tried to unclip them, came to a stop, still hadn't unclipped them, and fell over, getting tangled in my handlebars on the way down. Once I had fallen over, I still couldn't get my foot unclipped, and my friend had to help me twist my foot enough to get it unclipped.

When they tell you to tighten your cleats before you ride your bike, there's a good reason for that- if they come loose you can't twist your foot enough to unclip yourself, and then you have an accident. Lots of fun. I had hubby take some pictures of the pretty spectacular bruises on my arm, but I think we'll do another round tomorrow- they'll be even more spectacular then.

We had Belgian waffles with whipped cream and strawberries (yum!) for my birthday dinner. They're generally too much sugar for me to handle, so I only have them about once a year. Mom made regular ones for everyone else, and I made gluten free ones for me. They tasted good, but didn't rise quite as much as I wanted and they didn't crisp up very much. I'm trying to decide if it's worth tweaking the recipe since I only eat them once a year or so. I'll have to think about it some more....

Fun with my sewing machine

I had a really great run yesterday. It was just me and my ipod (only one earbud in so I can hear what's going on around me).The ipod made a huge difference. My sister shared her workout playlist with me awhile (thanks!), but I don't use my ipod when LMS is with me. I've started running more without her, so I'm starting to use it again. I ran a mile and a half in 15 minutes, which is a 10 minute per mile pace, which I haven't managed in quite awhile. I walked the mile and a half back, and expected to take 30 minutes to do it. I managed to walk the mile and a half in 19 minutes! I credit my pace to the upbeat playlist- apparently a faster beat really does help you keep your pace up.

I got the duffel bags all finished last week, now I just need to go to the dollar store and get toothbrushes, toothpaste, and combs, and 5 Christmas presents will be done!

What they started out looking like

The finished products

As I was working on the duffel bags, LMS brought her backpack and lunchbag out and said 'sew e, mommy'. She calls all letters 'E', and wanted me to sew her name on her backpack and lunchbag. Since she might use them for preschool or kindergarten, I did her initials instead of her name. I even got adventurous and tried out some flowers, which didn't turn out too bad. It was fun experimenting and seeing what my sewing machine can do.

Not professional results, but I am learning

I decided not to make felt food for LMS. They're cute and all, but she has some play food that I found on ebay awhile ago. We had these when we were little, and they're great. I decided she didn't really need more play food, and we don't have space for more, so there will be no felt food at this point.

Cautiously optimistic...

about running.

I've been increasing my mileage and working on running longer distances without stopping, and I've been feeling good. I feel like my asthma is under control, so I can breathe (no more gasping for oxygen); I bought new running shoes to replace my old, worn-out pair; I'm icing my shins after I run and my orthotics really seem to make a difference. I can run without my shins killing me, and my shins aren't hurting after I run, either. Such an improvement!

I had ten minutes to run today (LMS was asleep, but mom had to leave in ten minutes) so I tried to run a mile in ten minutes. Not a challenge for lots of people, I know, but given my current fitness level and the pace I've been running (12 minute miles when pushing LMS in the stroller), it was a challenge for me. The unfortunate thing is that the half mile out from our house is hilly, which means that the half mile back is also hilly- almost a full mile of up and down, up and down. Not the best for trying to do some speedwork for the first time in who-knows-how-long, but it did add to the challenge.

The results? I'm seriously out of shape. The faster speed really took it out of me. While I managed to run the first half mile in 4 minutes, I did not have the juice left to keep my pace up for the second half mile. So, I need to do more speedwork to get my body used to faster speeds, and I need to work on my endurance. I used to (many years ago) be able to run for miles without problems. I wasn't fast, but I could keep going for quite awhile. I need to get my body used to running more miles and going faster. I want to get my pace at least down to 10 minutes per mile.

I've been trying to decide on a major race or two to work towards, but there's a lot of variables to consider. I'd like to run the half marathon that I did last year, but it's in the middle of August and I don't have the mileage base for it yet. This also means I don't have the mileage base for the marathon I did last year, which is run in September. I do want to run it again, but I want to be properly trained for it so I can get a really good time. In order to have the time to build up my mileage base, I need to be looking at a half marathon in October or November. Unfortunately, we don't know where we'll be living at that point, so it's hard to choose a race. I don't want to have to spend a lot of money traveling to and from the race, so it needs to be fairly close. I think I'll pick one in each of the areas that I think we might end up, and then wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I'll start running some 5Ks and maybe a 10K or two.

I've lost some weight!!

I weighed myself yesterday morning, and lo and behold, I've lost 7 pounds! Woohoo!!!

I haven't lost weight since giving birth to LMS (the baby weight came off quickly, but nothing else), and the 10 pounds I lost (doing Atkins) just before getting pregnant with her. I've been gradually gaining weight for the last 5 or 6 years without being able to lose it, no matter what I tried.

So whether the weight loss is a result of the meds I'm on or the GF diet or a combination of the two, I don't know. However, it happened, and I have great hopes that I will be able to continue to lose weight in the coming months.

7 down, 53 more to go...

Job hunt update

Just thought I'd update everyone on what the job plans are at this point. We ultimately decided not to go with the state patrol, but it did open us up to other options that we hadn't been considering.

Because the jobs hubby wants to apply for are dependent on an active security clearance, we have to wait for it to get renewed. It lapsed while he was deployed and he was told it would be good for 6 months after he got back. However, if anyone checked to see if it was active, it would only show up as lapsed. So no point in applying for those jobs yet. We finally got the paperwork (we weren't first in line), got it all filled in and sent back in (this week), and now we just have to wait for the investigation/verification process to be completed. Once that happens, we can start looking for a real job.

In the meantime, hubby is going to school full time (3 classes) and working part time. He's started his master's degree in Intelligence Operations, which will be very beneficial to his career. Once he gets a real job he'll drop down to one class at a time, but for now he's getting a good start. He's working for a guy that he worked for before his mission- then he did construction work, now he's doing inspections and installation of residential fire sprinklers in assisted living homes. The pay's not great, but it's somewhat flexible, which allows him to work on his schoolwork while still bringing in some money.

As for me, well, I'm still resisting going out and getting a job. We've been able to pay the bills so far, and I really feel that LMS benefits from the stability of having one parent around all the time. And, for all the schooling I've done, I'm not actually very employable. I haven't done anything with my Animal Science degree since I graduated; I've really struggled to keep a little Japanese in my head, but there's not much demand for people who know a little Japanese. I could do more with my massage therapy- I am current on my certification, though a bit out of practice. But it still goes back to spending time away from LMS.

I feel like I need to get a masters degree, but I'm still not sure in what. It has to be an online program- I can't go back to school full time in a traditional classroom setting without putting LMS in daycare or something, which I won't do- which limits my options. I've found a professional writing program that looks good, but I would need to confirm that they'll participate in the MyCAA program before I commit to anything there. I know hubby's school participates in the MyCAA program, but I'm not sure any of there programs would be really useful to me- I need to look into that some more. Realistically, now is not the right time for it, so I still have time to consider my options. Hopefully I'll be able to get started in a year or so, though.

Road trip pictures part 1

I finally got the pictures from hubby's camera from our road trip. The rest are on his brother's camera, and he's sending them to us, so when they get here, I'll post some more. The battery in hubby's camera died during the second day at Disneyland, and we left the charger several hours away at his brother's house. So we had to use his brother's camera the rest of the time.

Pointing at a statue in Lover's Point Park
















Digging her toes into the sand at Lover's Point Beach
















Hugging Winnie the Pooh





















Being silly with Tigger
















Riding the Dumbo ride with Mommy
















Sniffing the 'flowers' while waiting in line to see Tinkerbell (where hubby's camera died)

A tornado?

What a day!

After taking hubby in to work this morning, Little Miss Sunshine and I went for a nice run/walk (1 mile of each), where I decided I just could not keep running in my shoes. I've rubbed through the heels of both shoes, and they're just too uncomfortable now. And old and worn out.

So after showering and getting dressed, LMS and I drove to town and I bought new running shoes, some Father's Day gifts, and then we went to WalMart. While we were shopping, we could hear the rain coming down hard on the roof, and at one point it turned into hail. As we went to the checkouts at the front, the hail started coming down harder, and the noise got louder and louder. I stopped and looked towards the doors, and it was dark and very, very windy out there. Everyone else was stopped and looking out the doors, too. The noise got louder and louder and sounded like a train overhead. At that point the employees shooed everyone to the back wall (shoe section, apparently the safest place in the store) to wait out whatever storm was passing over us. We spent about a half hour back there, waiting, but the noise lessened and didn't get worse again, so they let us go about our business. After paying for our things, we walked out and saw that the ground was carpeted with hail and leaves that had been stripped from the trees. The hail wasn't big enough to damage the car, but it was bigger than any I've seen before. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so no pictures.

When we got home, I got online to see if I could find anything about a tornado. There were tornado watches all over the area, and I heard people talking about tornadoes in the area, but I haven't yet found anything to back up my thought that a tornado went over the WalMart. All I've found so far just mention thunder and lightening storms and hail. I'll keep looking though.

LMS did fine through out it all. She didn't really like the noise, but it didn't bother her too much. She got a little upset when she saw other people getting upset, but she calmed down pretty quick.

Book review and pieces coming together

I just finished reading the book 'Healthier without Wheat' by Dr. Stephen Wangen. It was informative and got me thinking about the symptoms and experiences I've had throughout my life. He does talk about celiac disease, but makes the point that not everyone with a gluten intolerance has celiac disease. On the other hand, celiac disease is a type of gluten intolerance.

Some of the symptoms he mentions:
*Short stature due to malabsorption of nutrients (maybe that's why I'm so much shorter than all my siblings)
*Mental fogginess (have had this for years)
*Infertility (check)
*Miscarriage (double check)
*Gas, bloating, etc (check)
*Fatigue (for a period of time it was so bad I couldn't do much of anything)
*Weight gain/inability to lose weight (check)
*Abdominal pain and nausea (had this off and on for years, currently being treated with Nexium, but we're just treating the symptoms, not the cause)

There's others as well, a lot of which I've experienced in one way or another, these are just the major ones that caught my attention.

With gluten intolerance, the body doesn't absorb nutrients properly and/or causes immune reactions (inflammations of the various body systems), both of which end up causing systemic problems. One thing gets damaged, which stresses other parts of the body, which causes more problems, and it just keeps going and going, getting worse and worse.

It's all about balance
Because the gut is out of whack, bacteria, parasites and yeast can all proliferate and get out of balance. When I saw that he mentioned yeast, I was so happy! So many doctors just don't believe that yeast can cause systemic problems, so anytime I find one who does it's almost a cause for celebration. A lot of the symptoms of yeast overgrowth parallel those of gluten intolerance, which causes further confusion. I've known for years that I have yeast problems, but have been unsuccessful in treating it on a long term basis. I can do it for short periods, but not for very long.

I need to read the other book by this author- it sounded like he talked more about bacteria, yeast and parasite overgrowths in his other book.

My symptoms
In any case, I feel validated about my yeast problems. I've been thinking about it all, and I think I may have come up with a timeline for it all.

*As a child, I didn't have intestinal problems or anything, though I did have ear problems and sinus problems and I am a good 4 or 5 inches shorter than my next shortest sibling. Not sure if I got the short end of the genetic stick, or if it's due to nutrition issues caused by gluten intolerance.

* 10 years ago, on my mission, I had two bouts of food poisoning fairly close together, and I think that's what compromised my system. The gluten intolerance became more active and started causing debilitating symptoms (horrible fatigue, muscle aches, gas and bloating, mental fogginess, etc).

*After my mission my body was able to rest, and, I think, gradually was able to cope with everything better. The fatigue became bearable, the muscle aches went away, the gas lessened, etc. The mental fogginess has always followed me, unfortunately (it's why I barely passed my intro to organic chem class my last semester of college- I had a really hard time understanding an already difficult subject because my brain was so fuzzy).

The pieces come together
I got used to dealing with the symptoms and got on with life. I had problems getting pregnant, and had my first miscarriage 5 years ago. A year later, I was on the Atkins diet to lose weight (finally managed to lose 10 pounds), and managed to get pregnant with our daughter. Two years ago I had another miscarriage. In thinking about it, I think the reason I was able to stay pregnant with our daughter was because I'd been doing Atkins, which means I wasn't eating any grains, gluten-containing or otherwise.

Another thing I read that stuck out was that gluten itself is addicting. When I thought about it, this too made sense. I've always considered myself a 'carb addict', but it was usually cookies, crackers, and bread that I wanted to eat (and chocolate, but we won't get into that...), not potato chips or corn chips. Except Doritos- I love Doritos. I was eating some this weekend, and after the 3rd handful stopped to read the ingredients list. There's wheat in Doritos. Now I know why I have such a hard time eating just a couple of them.

Lessening of cravings
As I've made an effort to stay away from gluten, my cravings for carbs have lessened, and so have my cravings for chocolate. In the past, I could eat a bag of Ghiradelli peanut butter chocolate squares (super yummy!) in one afternoon. Now, if I eat 2 Hershey's Kisses (inferior chocolate, I know), I'm good. I don't have that urge to keep eating more and more. My brother's birthday was Sunday, so I had a piece of German chocolate cake. It was good in the moment, but not in the long run. I felt blah on Monday, and noticed more cravings to eat food (even though I wasn't really hungry).

Now that we're home from Disneyland (where I did eat some gluten-containing food), I've gone back to eating gluten free, and have also eliminated yeast, so no bread. It's so much easier this time- in the past when I tried to eliminate yeast and sugar it was very hard. I still need to lower my sugar intake, but it's going so much better. LMS's annual check up is in a week and a half and I'm going to have them do a full panel to test for food allergies. I'd like to know for sure if she has any problems we need to be aware of. If not, I don't need to worry so much about what she is/isn't eating. If she does, then we'll have to adjust our diet accordingly. She's had problems with milk in the past. Hopefully she doesn't actually have an allergy to it. It will be difficult to eliminate dairy- we do love our cheese and yogurt.

I didn't take the time and effort to plan GF meals for our Disney trip, but I will have to plan out our meals for our family reunion in July. We'll probably be gone for at least a week and a half: traveling, staying with family, and camping. When it comes to eating bread or jeopardizing a possible pregnancy, I'll skip the bread. Put in that context, it's a lot easier to resist the foods I shouldn't be eating. And it's nice not to have the cravings that have plagued me for years.

Some progress made

Exercise Report:

I went running on Friday- another mile straight, followed by walking the mile back. This time I was pushing Little Miss Sunshine in her stroller. Saturday I did some walking around our little town for the town rodeo parade. I haven't done any running yesterday or today (though I almost went for a run this evening after getting LMS into bed- good thing I didn't since it's now raining and lightening out there), mostly because I've been feeling quite blah. I really hate this time of the month...

1. Still haven't done the thank you's.

2. Still haven't hung the pictures yet.

3. Still need to sew the dress and fabric food- did find several pictures of food others have made, so I have some good ideas now.

4. Credit reports taken care of.

5. Sorted and organized most of the papers and put them away. Still have a few more things to sort through and find places for.

6. Still need to take care of LMS's clothes.

7. Did look into MyCAA- I am eligible till the end of September, which isn't enough time to get going on my degree, and since hubby doesn't have a good job yet, there's no way to continue paying for the classes once my eligibility is over. I'll wait till the next deployment to use it- MyCAA will pay for 6 classes, which would give me a good start. Once we get settled in a good job and the rest of our debt paid off, I may start on classes, one at a time.

8. Haven't taken care of the duffle bags yet.

9. Did set up shelves and sorted about half our food storage. Donated gluten-containing items. Once dad finishes with the plumbing in the bathroom (which is right over where my shelves need to go), I can finish sorting our food storage.

Project progress report

So far this week I've made pretty good progress on my current projects.

I didn't exercise till Wednesday because of my chiropractic appt on Monday (they always leave me sore, and I like to give my legs a day or two to recover). On Wednesday I ran a mile without stopping. Woohoo! It's been a really long time since I've done that. Usually I run some, walk some, run some more, etc. Ok, so I usually am pushing Little Miss Sunshine in her stroller, too, which I didn't do yesterday. It was just me, which was very freeing. It felt pretty good, and I only had a few twinges in my shins. After finishing running the mile, I walked the mile back home for a total of two miles. I think I'll make that a regular thing once a week- running longer distances without stopping. I used to have really good endurance, but that is definitely a thing of the past. Now's the time to start building it up again. I went for a bike ride with LMS this morning. It felt good also, but I can tell how out of shape I am. It's so pathetic.

1. Haven't done the thank you's yet. Hopefully on Friday...

2. Haven't hung the pictures yet, though I did unwrap them and set them on the back of the futon.

3. Mended the coat and sewed the dress for my friend. Also sewed the apron for LMS, which she loves. Still need to sew a dress for her and make some fabric food. Yes, it is wrinkly from her toy box, but I hate ironing. I meant to take a picture right after I finished, but LMS wanted to wear it immediately.
4. Ordered our credit scores and reports today. It wasn't nearly as traumatizing as I thought it would be, which is why I've never done it before. It helps that we've paid a lot of debt off, but we still need to pay off some more before we buy a house. I did find a problem dating from July of 2004. Apparently, when I went to the doctor after my first miscarriage, the doctor's office submitted the claim to my insurance company three times, but was denied each time. I never received any notification of this, and they never contacted me for payment. The following summer it went to a collections agency, but I've never heard from them either. I talked to the doctor's office (they couldn't figure out why I hadn't been contacted) and my insurance company (who couldn't find any record of the claim, let alone it being submitted and denied three times). So the doctor's office is sending me the paperwork and I'll submit it. However, I think I'll have to pay the collections company and then get reimbursed by my insurance company. Unfortunately, I think it'll still be on my credit report, which really stinks since I never even knew about it till now. Don't put off checking your credit reports! Get things taken care of as soon as possible so they don't negatively impact you. Luckily, I don't think we'll be in a position to buy a house for another year, and by then our scores should be higher, which will be helpful when it comes to mortgage rates.

5. Haven't sorted and organized papers yet. I've been putting this one off because it'll be a bit of a hassle and take up space while I sort everything into different piles.

6. Haven't packed away winter things, though I did find LMS's summer clothes.

7. Haven't found out more about MyCAA yet.

8. Haven't taken care of the duffle bags, though I did buy some canvas to sew new monograms onto, which I will then sew on the duffle bags.

9. Haven't set up shelves or done anything with food storage yet.