Weight Loss

So, I haven't been working out like I should. My weight loss has really slowed down because of it. However, I was at 20 pounds. But then the holiday season is here and I find myself munching here and there on things I shouldn't. So, my current weight loss is 18 pounds.

Current temperature is -30! Therefore, we only had Sacrament today.

I have been busy making cookies for caroling this evening. (This is not what I was munching on.) It is tradition that I started with my dear friend, Angie, and I have continued it with James as Angie lives in Ohio and I live in Alaska.

My New Business Scentsy! and the strange weather.

Some of you may know of Scentsy. If you don't it is a company that sells high fragrance wax that melts using a warmer that has a 25 watt light bulb or smaller. They also sell travel tins, air fresheners, and room sprays. These scents smell really good. I have a list of favorites that I love! I went to one party and fell in love with them, so I decided to join the company and sell it myself. I got my starter kit tonight. I opened it up and realized that some of the things are broken. It obviously broke after they shipped it as the box was smashed. I suspect UPS dropped it when they stepped on ice.

This is my own warmer that I purchased before I was a consultant. I love the moose.
The weather here is very wacky right now. We warmed up and have had freezing rain for the last two days. School has been canceled for the last two days and is canceled for tomorrow due to the road conditions. This is the first time in decades that school has been canceled for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

Our Trip to the Vet E R

Sally, James and I were over at a friend's house. They have dogs too and Sally was running around outside playing with them. There was a saw on the porch. Sally ran up the porch and then went to jump off and hit her leg on the saw. She cut her leg pretty deep. Because it was the weekend, our regular vet was not open so we went into Fairbanks and took her to the Vet. E R. A big wad of money later we came home with a dog that looked like this...

I am sure you have seen these, but in case you haven't, this is to keep her from chewing/ licking her bandage/ sutures.

This is her booty she has to wear whenever she goes outside because of all the snow and her bandage can't get wet.

My Delicious Styrofoam Cake

So, at work, the student counselor is always teasing and playing jokes on people. I decided I wanted to play a little joke on him. I came up with this idea about 3 months ago and planned it for psychology week, since his birthday had already passed.
I made a cake out of "tasty" styrofoam. Then planned a "Surprise party" in one of the classrooms he was supposed to go to that day. (I talked with the teacher before hand and he actually helped me come up with when to pull the trick on him.) So, I took the cake to work and quickly learned that the counselor was out sick. I was disappointed but I decided to leave it on his desk with a note that told him about the party that he missed and that I wanted him to be able to enjoy the cake so I saved it for him.
When he came to work, I approached him about the cake. He said it looked great and he couldn't wait to go home and have ice cream on it.
The next day, I decided to go inquiry about the cake and see how it "tasted." I found the cake still on his desk not even touched. I played along and said, "you didn't eat the cake?!"
Counselor: "It was a little hard."
Me: "why?"
"Because it isn't real. I picked it up to take it home and realized it didn't weigh as much as a regular cake so I tapped it and it didn't sound quite normal."

(Note to self: Put weights in it next time.)
We both laughed and he thought it was a great joke. He took it around with him for the majority of the day showing off his fake cake. I did make him a real cake but he wasn't nearly as happy about it.

Below is the real cake, not quite as fancy.

Anchorage

I went to Anchorage. I looked at the weather before I left and all was good. Jim had to work so I went by myself. All was well till I hit Cantwell. There was a snowstorm. It wasn't horrible but there was plenty of snow and ice on the road. I started slipping so I started to correct it. It didn't help. I remembered Jim's exact phrase running through my head from two years ago when he taught me how to drive in the snow, "About 90% of the time you'll be able to correct." I started thinking, this is the 10% right now. I can't do anything. Finally out of desperation I hit my brakes! Which I know I am not supposed to do but I was going in the ditch no matter what. There was no way around it. I ended up in the ditch and was stuck, really stuck. Sorry I didn't get a picture, but at the time, I was more concerned with getting out of the ditch.

Well, not more than 5 minutes later, I had my snow boots on and had a guy with a truck stopped on the side of the road and he was able to pull me out. I thank Heavenly Father for this man, because I know it isn't something that most people would stop and do or have the equipment to do so. He actually put the tow strap in his truck that morning because he had a feeling it was going to come in handy! WOW! I wondered if he was a member of the church. I didn't think to ask I was more of thinking Thank you!!

After about 1 hour longer of being in the snow storm, I hit Wasilla and the roads were finally clear. I made it to Anchorage and checked into my hotel and headed straight for the whole reason I went there for in the first place, THE TEMPLE! I went through 4 sessions. It was soooo nice. I love the temple.

I also ate at a very delicious restaurant that you must eat at if you are ever in Anchorage, called the Mooses Tooth.

I am Unique and I am Confused by it!

I went and had a blood test done at Saturday. The results came back and I went and consulted with my doctor about them. I am very interested in why the results say this because PCOS is linked with high cholesterol. However, I am unique and I have really low cholesterol, too low. So low she put me on cholesterol supplements immediatly. We do not know the cause of it. I still have PCOS and I am still having a little bit of problems with my blood sugar but it is going down and becoming more normal.
What I have learned tonight about cholesterol is a lot. It controls your hormones in your body anywhere from the estrogen to happiness. I have problems in both. Now that I have researched it, I can see how I have PCOS and Low cholesterol. My doctor says I am the first person she has heard of that has PCOS with low cholesterol. It has to be very rare because I have to research them separatley. They never come up together.

Country Concert, Pumpkins, Snow!

A few weeks ago we had a chance to go to a country concert of Pam Tillis. James is a fan and I know of a few songs she sings like "Memphis." I don't know if that is the real name of it but I hope you know what song I am talking about. Unfortuntaley, we both forgot our cameras. We did take pictures with our phones, but they didn't show up too well.


It snowed a few weeks ago. It hasn't snowed much more than this. I am and so are many others disapointed by how little snow we have. We NEED more. It is supposed to snow on Thursday- Saturday so hopefully that will help things move along. The darkness comes around 6:30 PM and leaves around 8:30 AM. I haven't seen any negative temperatures yet, but they are coming. We have seen single digits and I think there was a night at 0 degrees.


Pumpkin carving time! Here are our pumpkins for this year. Mine is supposed to say, Goblin Goodies, Dusk to Dawn" BUt I had some issues with the knife breaking and wasn't able to finish. So This is as good as it will get. :-( (Note my skin in this picture. It has really cleared up with being on this diet. I have not pinpointed the reason it has cleared up, except I do know it has something to do with the diet. My suspicion is food allergy.)

Well...

I am no longer stuck at 11.5 pounds. I have lost 13.5. It has been slowing down lately, which I expect. I also am over half way to my goal. I want to be the weight I was when James and I got married.
Nothing else has been happening with the PCOS other than weight. I have a blood test in a few weeks to test my hormone and blood sugar levels.
Not much has been happpening other than working out, and going to work. Sally has been begging for attention because no more walks. She is getting better with the treadmill, but hasn't warmed up to it enough that she gets on without a treat.
It snowed the day before yesterday and today, but hasn't stuck past noon yet. It will soon though.

Frustrated with Palteau

I hit one of those plateaus that everyone gets while losing weight. I have been stuck at 11.5 pounds all week. Although I have lost another 1/2 in around my waist so something is happening at least. That is a total of 3 inches. I am still considered over weight.:-(

Spearmint Tea Upadate

I just thought you would like to know that other people are saying that the Spearmint tea is noticeably working on me. I however, never even knew my facial hair was noticeable in the first place. I thought I kept the plucking up to snuff enough. Apparently not.
Current weight loss 11.5 lbs!!! I have to go buy a belt tomorrow. My pants that I bought tight are starting to fall off. 2.5 inches just around my stomach.

Taking the Dog for a Walk in the Livingroom?

I love this treadmill. It shows so many different options and workouts. Sally on the other hand is still warming up to it. She isn't as scared as when we first brought it home. She will climb on when it is the slowest pace possible and only stay for a few steps if I have a treat. Compared to when we first got it, she didn't even want to go near it. I would say we are making a lot of progress.
In this picture I am 9 pounds down. Sorry I didn't take a before picture. But just imagine I had a muffin top pretty bad and a little double chin. I also bought those pants tight (on purpose so I would have pants that fit later on) just a few weeks ago.

This was my workout from last night. I was glad when I was done. This is when I started cooling down. My speed was faster. (about 4.3 MPH)

PCOS and Infertility (My longest post ever)

Well, this post is about a problem I have had for many years. It may contain too much information for some, however, I have been way excited about all of this and am telling my story about being infertile.

I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 18. I went in to the doctor for irregular periods and came out with birth control to regulate my cycle. PCOS stands for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.

I was told that when I wanted to become pregnant to go to a fertility specailist and do fertility drugs. Therefore, when James and I had been married for 6 months and prayed about having children and received the answer to try, I went to a fertility specialist. This doctor said, he would be able to help me. I believed it and was 100% relieved. I had faith in him and no worries. 5 months later, I had been on three different types of fertility drugs and some of them I tried different doses. I never once ovulated. I was disgusted and fed up with this doctor. So, I switched doctors. I went to this new doctor for a total of about 4 months. Basically, the same thing happened. I decided to take a break from the whole situation and later went to my gynecologist in Fairbanks. She is not a fertility specialist but still knows just as much as the other doctors did, as far as I noticed. She was nicer about it too. However, she was not able to get me to respond to the treatments either. I was still heart broken. Through all the drugs and stress, I gained 20 pounds. (I was a stress eater) I ate chocolate galore. I had it at lunch, dinner and late night snacks.

I took a much needed break from the drugs, but was still stressed and still eating tons of candy, especially chocolate.

I got so stressed, I ended up in the hospital for suicidal thoughts and depression.

After this episode, I started looking at my faith. I read my Patriarchal blessing and looked back at all the priesthood blessings that James had given me over the past 2 years. I remembered every single one of them said the doctors would know what to do. I thought, how could this be, I have been through so much and none of them seem to be able to help me at all they just make me more depressed and more stressed. I started really thinking about it and decided I hadn't found the right type of doctor.

After getting out of the hospital, I went to a psychiatrist. She pointed out that I am allergic to a lot of different medications and that I could be allergic to these fertility drugs. "There is a reason for your reactions," she had said. I decided that if I am not responding to fertility drugs, then what can I do?

I googled natural treatments for PCOS andcame a whole bunch of things including a naturopath doctor who I have been seeing for 1 month. I love her. I am 100% stress free. When on occasion I do get stressed, I handle it completely different and don't eat candy and chocolate!!

I have lost almost 10 pounds. My whole point to this post is not to tell you that I am happier, but that PCOS is reversible, treatable, and curable. It is the exact opposite of what all the other "specialists" have told me.

PCOS is diet and exercise related. It is also genetic. If you have a family member that has it, you are more likely to get it. It is a precursor to diabetes, heart disease, uterine cancer, and many other health risks. If one has PCOS then she is most likely insulin resistant. This makes it extremley hard to lose weight.

Here is what I have done so far......

*cut out all sugar including fruit. I do not eat anything that has added sugar or anything that has fruit. Fruit has a high level of natural sugar. Natural sugar is fine in moderation but fruit has too much for PCOS. This is only in the beginning. I will eat fruit later on in my diet. This helps to reverse the insulin resistance.

* Exercise is very important. I walk at least 3 miles a day. (Sally loves this part) I do sit ups as many as I can do then add 5 more. I need to exercise more, I just haven't set aside the time yet. I bought the following treadmill to walk on during the winter. Here is James and his brother Joe putting it together for me. They are wonderful.

*I take the following vitamins and herbs everyday as my naturopath prescribed.

* I do not eat simple carbs at all. I always make sure there is plenty of fiber in the carbs that I do eat.

* I eat some type of protein with every meal.

*I have always been big on staying away from fat, but now I am even more strict. I also eat more healthy fat.

The differences I have noticed in me are.....

*I am way happier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (This is an understatement)

*I am no longer depressed even though I am not pregnant.

*I have more energy

*I no longer have dark skin in certain spots of my body. (one of the so many symptoms of having PCOS I have had this dark skin since about 20 years old.)

*I have lost 8 pounds.

This process to reverse PCOS can take anywhere from 2 months, to a year. I think I have a ways to go. I am looking forward to it.

There are a few things I am doing that have not been scientifically proven but my doctor says they won't hurt me. They are....

drinking a little tiny bit of apple cidar vinegar with some water. It is to help blood sugar and insulin.

Sprinkling cinnamon on my cereal in the morning. It is to also help lower blood sugar.

Drinking 2 cups of spearmint tea everyday. This has helped with facial hair and other bod hair that I don't want. I have noticed a very slight difference. However, I have to drink it everyday or the hair instantly grows back.

I am horrible!!!!!

So, we had our three year wedding anniversary and I didn't think once to take pictures!
We were actually kind of lame this anniversary too. We had a home made dinner that resembled a really nice restaraurant (Turtle Club). I made it homemade because I am seeing a new doctor and long story short I can't have a lot of different types of food for a few more weeks. So, it was homemade so I knew exaclty what was in it.
We also rented movies. We talked and hung out. It was nice. I would have liked to have done more, but it was kind of hard with hunting season, company over and our work schedules. Originally, one of the reasons we wanted to get married on Labor day weekend was so that we would have a 3 day weekend around the time of our anniversary so that we could go off and do things. It hasn't really worked to our advantage since we got married. lol

Life- back to the boring routine!

Well, I have been taking two correspondence courses through the Univeristy of Alaska. Because I am still working on them, I decided not to persue a full time teaching job. I am back as a building sub same as last year.
My life consists of walking my dog every morning, (she looks forward to her walks and when we don't go, I hear about it) loading a dish washer, going to work, coming home, making dinner, laundry, playing with Sally (the dog) and then if I have time and am not too tired I do some homework before bed. So, as you can see, there really is not much for me to post about.
However, I threw a surprise Birthday (3 weeks late) for James. Katelyn decorated the cupcakes this time since I was at work all day and didn't see the reason in taking the day off work to decorate cupcakes when it was only the second day of school. I can not take credit for these sharks, although I have made one before. Pictures will come later

A Friend in Town

My friend Sara is up visiting from Washington. We have had tons of fun. Here are some of the very fun things we have done!

On our way to and From Chena Hot Springs we saw 5 moose. While at Chena Hot Springs, we saw many, many ducks, 2 geese and birds. We have seen 1 rabbit and domestice reindeer at Santa's house.

Sara's gold pan, FINISHED!! She got a little more gold than me, so I showed her finished pan. this was extremely fun and I recommend it to anyone who is coming up here.

My gold pan not almost finished.


Sara's gold pan, almost finished.

My famous cupcake making was one of the activities we did. We made Panda Bears. It was very fun.

It's so nice to have someone with us that takes pictures. Now we have pictures of us when we least expect it. This is me and James walking around Pioneer Park (the area tat has the -40 room.)

This is proof that I have been in negative 40! I was kind of frustrated that I had to pay for this experience because I can experience it for free in the winter more than I want. However, I did it for Sara. (Notice how her hood is on and her coat is all the way zipped up and mine is not. LOL)




This is the McKinley Mac from McDonalds in North Pole. I love this meal. It is very similar to the Big Mac except it has bigger hamburger patties.

This is me in a lovely swimming suit. I just got out of the Hot Spring at Chena Hot Springs. It was my first time in the hot springs. It was wonderful. The hot springs are open year round and people go in them when it is negative 40 and so forth.

Sara and I on my four wheeler. We went four wheeling and it was one of Sara's favorite activities.

Sara in outhouse in ice museum. This is a mess to clean up and shouldn't be used. It is just for looks. There are rooms in the ice museum that can be rented out. They are very expensive and very cool! This outhouse is in one of the rooms.



Tomatoes at Chena Hot Springs' greenhouse. These tomato plants are unique because they are never cut or trimmed and they grow year round.


Goats at Chena Hot Springs. There are two goats. We fed them and they are very cute.

Baby Cupcakes

These cupcakes were easy to make, but they took a long time. I made them for Katelyn's baby shower.

Sally's Spot

Okay I can't figure out why it isn't working on the last post but here is Sally's favorite spot. It's under our bed. She sleeps here when I am in the room folding Laundry, reading scriptures, cleaning, or we are sleeping. I think it is because it is a tight, closed in space and she feels cozy. She is not claustrophobic. It is part of her breed.

Games and Sally's Spot

I was not able to get this on video but I can try to describe it. Sally was chasing a fly around the house. If you have ever seen a dog or cat chase a laser light you get somewhat of the idea what was going on with this. However, it seemed better. It kept her entertained for a while too.


We had some people over tonight for pizza and a game night. We had fun. However, I want to share the game that we played. John bought it. It is called Dirty Minds. For example this phrase would be read out loud and the other people would have to guess what it is. If you can't get it correctly, meaning your mind wanders to the gutter, then you have a dirty mind. "What is long, hard, wet and full of sea men?" now this read out loud would make those last two words sound like the word semen, and well you get the picture. The actual answer is a submarine.How many of you got the correct answer???

Camping

We camped along the Chena river. There are no roads back to this spot so we rode our fourwheelers. It was very nice. I rained for about 5 minutes then the sun came back out and dried everything. We saw about 5 boats go by on the river.


We ate dinner, built a fire and roasted hotdogs and then made s'mores. One of Jim's hotdogs fell off his stick because the stick burned off. He later used it as fishing bait. Surprise! He didn't catch anything.



This picture was taken just before midnight. I had to show you how light it is so late in the night.




We all three took cots, but none of us used them. Jim's ripped (the cot was old and ready to retire. It was from W W II !!!) So, I figured if he is sleeping on the ground, I might as well sleep next to him. Sorry about the darkness. It was taken pretty late, around 12:30.This is as dark as it gets though, it starts getting light again right around this time.

Accidents, Naps, and Selling

John for those of you who don't know, is Jim's brother and he has been living with us. He needed to go somewhere yesterday and decided to take Sally along since she loves car rides. Well he has a truck and she was riding in the bed, which she always does in Jim's truck. We have never had any problems. However, it may have been the truck, or something else but she decided to jump out when John was going 45 MPH. He was shocked and scared that she got hurt. Well, it has been more than a day later, she is acting as happy as can be and we only found two scratches on her. They aren't even bothering her. So, there are new rules for her going on car rides: She is only allowed in my explorer because she can't jump out of it. No more truck beds for her. And she still loves car rides. I took her on one today.
Jim and Sally (and sometimes me) like to take naps on the couch. Jim works hard for us so I let him. I on the other hand feel guilty when I don't have to work all day.
I am going through all the stuff that we don't use anymore because Katelyn is having a yard sale and we are joining in. This extra bedroom is where we are storing everything till it happens.

Summer

Well, it is really exciting but yet sad. It's a bitter sweet thing that school is out for the summer. I really enjoyed my job of being a building sub this year, especially the 9 weeks that I was a full time teacher for one who was on maternity leave. I miss it already and it has only been 2 days (aka the weekend).
My summer will be filled with correspondence courses that I have to take to keep my teacing certificate up to date. It doesn't expire until June 2011 but I don't want to be a procrastinater so I have already started. YUCK!!! I am back in school. Luckily it is only two classes but they seem to be interesting but hard.
Another thing we plan on doing this summer is camping. I will make sure to take pictures and all.
The sun is up around 4 AM I am guessing by the way it looks in our bedroom coming in through the blinds, and goes down around midnight. It's soooooo NICE!

spring Clean Up

So, last year, we raked and raked and raked some more leaves and couldn't keep up with them. We raked the ones from our yard, but then the ones from the neighbor's yard would blow into our yard. We were never able to keep up with them. We still have leaves in our yard from last year. So, Jim asked the Landlord if we could cut down some of the trees. He said that was fine. We cut down the ones that were closest to our house and are going to make a horse shoe shape out of pine trees, or some other non leaf producing tree, and put a picnic table in the middle.
The twigs and small branches that were left over from cutting down the trees, were used to make a fire and we roasted marshmallows.
Sally had to be locked up because she kept barking at the flames and it was already 11 at night. It was funny because she looked like she wanted to play with the fire. Once she was locked up for a while, we gave her a second chance and she realized she couldn't bark and she laid down next to the fire.

Birthday Butterflies

I had a Birthday! These are my "cake." I decorated them with Katelyn again. We had fun. They tasted good.

Melting Snow and a Long Lost Toy

This green dot is a long lost toy stuck in snow on our roof. I threw the ball for Sally at the beginning of winter. It went on the roof. We got it back today.

My New Toy! St. Bernards, and a Wagon of Fun

Since I am done with the maternity leave position, I am back subbing in all grades. I was in a fourth grade class this particular day. We had St. Bernards visit the school and pull us in a wagon. It was way fun!


We went down to ANchorage last weekend. I mentioned to Jim, on the way down, that I was getting tired of riding double on his four wheeler. Next thing I know, he is researching where to get the best deal, and takes me to a place in ANchorage to get a bike. I was not planning on getting one so soon, but evidently, Jim was tired of riding double too.

This particular day, it was perfect weather to go riding. Wearing the snowgear blocked the windchill. We rode for four hours and only came home because we were thirsy. We had a blast.

Playing Pool with Cupcakes?

I am on Spring break right now. I am done with the maternity leave position, which is really depressing for me. I am not really looking forward to being a sub again. I have been spoiled getting to know the same class for the past 9 weeks.
Anyhow, since I am on Spring Break, I have some extra time on my hands that I haven't had in quite some time. I used this time to clean the house, play with Sally (who was starving for attention) and have a cupcake decorating day with a really good friend that I have made up here. Her name is Kate. She is a blast!



James and I are going to the Temple this weekend. It is a much needed trip down there. We are not use to living so far away from a temple and it gets really hard. We both have to take time off work, then we have to drive 8 hours (that's if weather is good, which there is a blizzard right now) and we have to stay in a hotel. That is just our first day. The next day, we actually get to go to the temple. We try to make it down every three months, but I didn't go last time because I was not able to get the day off. Sad times.