Normal

I used to be very abnormal in more ways than I like to think. Then again, what is normal?
I am normal in a lot of different ways. Today, I would like to talk about the healthy portion of it. I recently had a blood test done. This blood test said I was normal. My FSH, LH, Thyroid, A1C, and insulin are normal. My vitamin D is low and my Thalassimia is still holding strong. My Vit. D is low due to the fact I live in a dark, cold place. For this reason I am now taking 4,000 I.U. of Vitamin D a day. My Thallasimia is genetic and as far as I know and the doctors at this current time, I will continue to have it whether I eat healthy, take supplements or exercise or not. It isn't cureable.
Yesterday I had a spiritual experience that made me feel really good. I had an overwhelming comfort that I was doing everything right and that I will be blessed.
Through this life lesson, I have learned patience. Therefore, I don't know when I will be blessed. I just know that I will and I have to wait and see. I am totally fine with that. I probably have already been blessed, but I just haven't counted the blessings yet.
Having PCOS is not the end of anything. It is simply a wake up call that your body needs help. For me, it was a HUGE lifestyle change. Not a change that will last for a few weeks or months, but it will have to last for a lifetime. It takes courage and a lot of "no Thank you" to people offering you treats. Especially during the holidays. It is the hardest time. I find that if I don't give in at all, it is easier to turn all of it down.
Merry Christmas
Happy New Year!
My resolution for the new year is to be as healthy and as happy as I can be with what I have. "COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS Name them one by one."

You Might Be Tired of Hearing about all this, But I have to Update You!

So, I was in Barnes and Noble getting books for Christmas gifts, and for my classroom when I stumbled upon this book.

Healing and Preventing Autism A Complete Guide by Jenny McCarthy and Jerry Kartzinel, M.D.

It interested me because ever since Autism started being on the rise, I have always had this feeling that my child(ren) would have some form of autism. This really scared me and for a few years before marriage, I thought I didn't want kids, for this very reason. I also had a feeling (for the majority of my life) that I would develop some type of cancer. Well, since I have been on the diet, exercising, and herbs, that feeling has gone away along with the children having autism. However, it still interests me and I thought I would read the book anyway.
So, you may ask, What does cause autism? The world doesn't know.
Actually, it is a list of different things that cause autism. This is why it is so hard to figure out what causes it. There have been studies done, that I read about not from this book, that say those kids are deficient in B vitamins. So, I figured give the kids supplements. Well, that is not the only thing that they have wrong with them.
The book talks about the TOXINs in our environment. HMMMM! That is what caused my infertility. No wonder I no longer have the feelings I used to about the cancer and autism, because I got rid of the toxins. So the author is a Pediatrician that adopted a son that later developed autism. He started documenting what made his son act out more, and also started documenting when he got worse. The first thing he realized was that it happened right after he gave him, his MMR shot. So, he started doing research on vaccines and found that they have a million different side effects. He started informing all the parents of these side effects and offering them the choice of vaccinating or not. Most of the parents chose not to vaccinate. Then he started realizing that gluten and dairy foods made him worse, so he researched that. Did some blood tests and so forth. He found that gluten and dairy act as an opiate for these children which is why they have such a high pain tolerance. They are also ADDICTED to these foods. He says start the kids on a casein free and gluten free diet as soon as possible. The longer you hold off, the harder it will get. (This was a very interesting part of the book. He talked about kids licking the floor because the mop solution their moms used had gluten in it.)
The point I am making is that this book is a must read if you are interested in learning how to prevent, or improve the autism in children of your own, or around you.
Another milestone in my life is that I started using more organic products. I now use organic face wash, organic hand lotion and organic deodorant and a different chapstick. I now use Burt's Bees and not the one that I was using that is full of parabens. Parabens act like estrogen in the body. The body has its own estrogen and doesn't need more. This in turn, turns into a toxin. I will switch over to other organic ingredients later, however it is very expensive to switch over, over night. A little bit here and there is going to have to do for now. In so doing this, I lost 2 more pounds in two weeks of using these products. Now, I am a little baffled by this too. However, a lady at my church said she believes it because she knows someone else that had the same thing happen. Toxins cause weight gain. another thing the Pediatrician talked about in the book is toxins. He said that we are all born with a garbage can. Everyone has a different size and so everyone's can gets full at different points in life. I personally think that the can gets bigger as we grow up. This is why it is soooooo important for young kids to eat organic and eat healthy, their garbage cans are smaller. He also said, that if the garbage can is not full, then you are fine. It is when the can overflows, when it turns into disease, illness, and other things.

I AM...

speechless, still jumping up and down after nearly 5 hours of finding out, telling everyone (I made sure to tell Jim first) My heart is still pounding, I am now wondering, "AM I READY for THIS?" My head is spinning..... I am a third grade teacher!

I also want to mention, it is our 4 year wedding anniversary. We went out to a restaurant that we have not been to before, called The Pump House. Oh WOW! It was delicious. I had halibut and James had prime rib. Then we broke my diet to celebrate, not just the four years of marriage, but also the job, and I ordered dessert. That is something I have not done in quite a while. I had a lemon custard with blueberries.
Well, I need to get going, I have tons to do to get ready for tomorrow. I guess this also means, I will be neglecting this blog more than usual. Sorry.

Just a Regular Update!

I just wanted to update on what has been happening and all that I have been thinking lately.
I decided that I want to become a Naturopathic Doctor. however, I will not do it at this time. For the simple fact that they are not very popular right now. In the last 10 years they have grown in popularity. So, I figure in 20 years, I will go back to school, and become a doctor. I realize that because they are not very popular, it would be very hard to run a business when I am not one for advertisement and selling myself. I am not a good sales person.
Other things that I have been up to....
Studying magnesium and its affects on the body. It really is important to make sure you are getting enough. It helps with preventing depression, anxiety, infertility, osteoporosis, the absorption of other nutrients, and so on. The absorption of B6 is just one of the many things this mineral does for our bodies. It is also higher in organic foods compared to nonorganic foods. The majority of it is found in the bones. Hence why when one is lacking it, they are prone to osteoporosis.

The Complete Woman's Herbal by Anne McIntyre

So I have been reading a really The Complete Woman's Herbal. I have fallen in love with it. I borrowed it from a friend and decided I will buy my own copy.

It talks about what to eat and why. It says tht non organic food doesn't have magnesium. The reason the body needs magnesium is because it helps with the absorption of vitamin B6. It also helps stabilize hormones. Another thing I have learned from this book is about chromium. Chromium helps regulate blood sugar. However, sugar decreases the amount of chromium in the body so the more sugar you eat, naturally you will have worse and worse blood sugar levels. Now, that is kind of a given. However, I found it facsinating about the chromium.
Not only does it talk about infertility and the organic vs. nonorganic, it also goes through the entire life of a women. I have mainly been focusing on the infertility part. I have been glancing at other parts of the book as well and find them just as facsinating but don't have time to read everything right now.
Also, my computer is acting up so I can only view other people's blogs, but I can't leave comments. So, just know that I still love you all.

Something to Contemplate?

Well, as you all know... I have been seeing a naturopathic doctor for a year now. This month marks the one year mark. I know I wrote that it would take a year. However, I know it is working, but it will take longer. (my cycles have returned somewhat.) My naturopathic doctor (ND) never gave me an exact time frame, just that it would take a while (Years). The internet is what said it would take a year.
Through all this I have learned tons and tons and even more tons about the human body that I would love to share with others. For this purpose, it has been crossing my mind to become a naturopathic doctor. I think I would enjoy this very much. However, there are things about it I don't think I would like so much.

Pros...
I can help people who have problems like I had.
I can still teach. (It will be different types of students.)
I have always been fascinated with nutrition and and biology.

Cons...
Chemistry scares me! I have never actually taken a chemistry class.
There is at least 5 years of school ahead of me.
I would have to at least temporarily move back to Washington as there isn't a university here that has ND degree provided. Or find a distance degree program which I am not sure it exists up here.

I have prayed about it. I have not yet received an answer.
To give you a little more information on what a Naturopathic doctor stands for, here are 6 principles that I found on a ND univeristy website...
1. The healing power of nature- Trust in the body's inherent wisdom to heal itself.
2. Identify and treat the causes- Look beyond the symptom to the underlying cause.
3. First do no harm- Utilize the most natural, least invasive and least toxic therapies.
4. Doctor as a teacher- Educate patients in the steps to achieving and maintaining health.
5. Treat the whole person- View the body as an integrated whole in all its typical and spiritual dimensions.
6. Prevention- Focus on overall health, wellness and disease prevention.

Do you think I should become a Naturopathic Doctor? What do you personally think of them?

The things I have learned over the year...
what are some things that cause miscarriage.
What are some things that cause heavy painful periods.
What happens to our food.
Why we should eat organic.
What cholesterol does for us.
Signs of ovulation and a whole bunch of other female bodily functions.
Detox- in my mind it is a wonder drug. It isn't really but it feels like it the way I see it.
What causes PCOS. (Well this is tricky because it isn't just one thing. It is a mixture of a whole bunch of things. I am sure my list will grow.)
The importance of castor oil packs.
The liver and all it does for the body.

Knowing what I know now, I will think long and hard about going to a MD again. I will probably not go back to a gynecologist since she is the one that told me PCOS can't be reversed or at least not that one. That is one thing that I have learned the most about. The body really does have an amazing healing power to heal itself.
I have suffered from this for 10 years. I have been on all different types of drugs for it... clomid, letrozol, another butt injection I can't remember the name of, metformin and birth control...
After 1 year of naturopathic medicine, it is almost gone.
Through this, I have also learned patience. Great things take time. My children are teaching me patience and they aren't even here on Earth. Faith in the Lord includes faith in his timing.
Just so you know, I used to be very skeptical on this whole go natural thing. I prayed about going to this doctor, and the answer was yes. My skepticism continued until about 6 months ago. 3 months ago it crossed my mind to become one. Today, researched what classes I need as pre requisites.

Weddings!

We were n Washington for a few weeks at the end of July. We attended two weddings. John, James' brother, married Alyshia on July 29th. My sister, Rebecca, married Keith on August 6th. Both weddings had some type of mistake during the actual wedding. It is ironic because both were done by two different people. Apparently Alyshia was trying to marry her brother according to the person doing the marrying. (He said John Hunt instead of John Compton.) And my brother in law tried to marry me, as the bishop said Keith and Veronica.
James and I both had fun. We were running around like chickens with our heads cutoff trying to see everyone and do everything we wanted.
We went to Wildwaves while in there. We had a blast.
Sorry, I am not a picture taker. I took a total of three pictures the whole time I was there and I don't even have them. I will have to get a picture rounded up of my bride's maid dress. I was getting complements left and right. I actually was getting tired of them.

My Garden

This is our second garden while living in Alaska. However, it is our first at our house, even though it is not OUR house. I can't wait to find a house of our own.

By the way, I don't think I ever posted about that. We did find a house. We both loved it. It was in our price range, perfect in everyway that we could see. We prayed about it and the answer was no. We didn't understand why until a few days ago. The foundation has issues that just now started showing up. If we had moved in we would have been living there for about a month then we would have had major issues on our hands. So, we are thankful for answered prayers, even if we don't understand them at the time. We are still looking, but haven't found anything that we both like and is in our price range.

Almost One Year Mark

Last summer when I started seeing my naturopath to reverse my PCOS, I had this strange feeling that it was going to take that entire year to make things work. (Remember I said that it would take anywhere from 2 months to a year.) As the year mark approaches in the next two months, (beginning of August) I can certainly say that it will probably be that year that I had a funny feeling about. I think it is part of "your children will teach you patience" that is stated in my patriarchal blessing. Although, I do admit, I have not stuck to the diet and exercise like I was supposed to throughout the whole year. I mean, I still went out to eat, sometimes more than I ever should have allowed, I still ate sugar every once in a while, and there were times, I forgot to take my herbs.
However, I still have faith this is going to work to regulate my system. Some people (including my husband) seem to have some doubts. Well, if I am wrong, I did make my body healthier, lesss stressed, I lost weight, my facial hair reduced and my acne also reduced. (Which is more than any of the other doctors were able to do.) So, given those signs, I seriously believe this will work, but it will take the whole year. I also think it is a trial of my faith.

Organic Update

I have been organic for almost three days now. I have noticed slight changes in my eating. I used to crave carbs, which lessened when I cut out sugar but didn't go away, but I seriously have not had cravings for anything all day. I also am eating less and feeling full at the end of my meals. I wonder if this will continue? It would make sense for it to continue because of the excess hormones they put in non-organic foods make the animals eat more and crave more. So, I am not taking those into my body therefore I should not have the cravings. Right?


Eating organic has made it so much easier to cut out the sugar too. I am not tempted to eat sweets. You might think this is because organic junk food is not available. Well, you're right it isn't but I simply don't have the urge to eat those things at all.
Organic food does cost more but I find that if I am not eating as much doesn't it even out?

I also have lost 1/2 an inch and about 1 pound.

PCOS Post

So, I have a friend that has endometriosis. She started going to a naturopath too because she didn't want to have a hysterectomy. She said that through her studying and doctor visits she was told that excess estrogen can be what is causing her endometriosis. So, I started thinking. Could that be causing my cysts? I did some reserach. I found out that it could be true.
I am allergic to cow's milk so you would think I would be fine because I am not drinking the excess hormones they give the cows. However, since I found out I am allergic to cow's milk, I switched to soy which is a natural estrogen. So, I still have excess estrogen entering my body that could be contributing to my cyst problems.
Could this be ..... hmmmmm? This also means I will have to go organic on cheese and yogurt, and all other types of meat such as steak and ground beef and so on. This is part of the reason I am seriously thinking of switching to organic.

Summer!

This is my birthday cake. In case you can't tell, it is an oreo cookie, with yellow frosting for leaves and a red m&m with black frosting for the dots. I loved making these. And they were super easy.














So, this is not my or my husband's foot. However, I loved these shoes and just had to take a picture of it and post it. These shoes are running shoes. I have seen them one other time. They cost about 100 bucks.



Here are a few other things that have happened.
-my husband hurt himself taking the jeep top off. (I offered to help and he said no. He lifted it by himself and twisted his hip. So, for the next week he has been hobbling around. He finally got into the chiropractor today. He has to go in for two more visits.
-We were going to the Temple this weekend, but that has been canceled because of the hip problem. The doctor said he can't sit in one place for any more than one hour. (It takes at least 6 hours to drive to Anchorage.)
-I have 1.5 lessons and 2 tests to go before I am done with my continuing education classes for my AK teaching certificate.
-I went off my no sugar diet. Then I went to the doctor and my cysts were still there so I went back on my no sugar diet. I am currently thinking of going all organic foods. My doctor says to eat organic when possible. Well, I haven't been doing that. So, I think I am going to make it possible. I am just having a hard time forking over the money to pay for it.
- I started acupuncture. This is to help the energy and blood flow to the ovary area and hopefully reduce the cysts. I have had one session. It will be a while before I notice a difference. There was no pain because the needles are so small it is not like a shot.
-School is out!!!
I have been riding my bike everywhere. The weather is beautiful. Sally comes with me the majority of the time. However, she did not come with me this morning because her paws are tender. I took her on a really long walk/ride to the church yesterday and she started feeling it. On the way back she was limping. I looked at her paws when we got home and she has some soars. Not bad, but I don't want to make them worse. I am wondering if I should get her shoes. Jim says no. If he is going to get an animal shoes, he is getting a horse. Sorry I don't have a picture of her actually running along side me. I didn't think of it while Jim was home so maybe later.














-I am planning a girls night for tonight. I don't know what we are watching but we will be eating popcorn and watching a movie. I bought ice cream. Well, so my no sugar diet isn't 100%.

My Birthday and a Bike

Sorry for not posting for a while. I have been busy and then James came to me and said he wants to wipe everything off of our computer. So, I don't want to put any more pictures on the computer until after he has finished that. Even though I could just put them on the blog. I know that sounds kind of weird.
Anyway, my birthday was a few weeks ago. I decorated cupcakes and a very small cake for my birthday party that was just a small gathering. I didn't do anything spectacular. They were great tasting and looking. Pictures will come later.
I bought a bike today. My reasons for this bike is to have something to do other than walking for exercise because I am getting bored of it. Also, with gas prices, I figured I could save some money by riding my bike around town and to work. Well, given that I have not been on a bike in close to 15 years, it was a little tricky getting use to it again. I didn't crash but I was a little wobbly at first. I am nowhere near what I used to be. I am sure it is just like "riding a bike" and it will all come back to me. I think there were people looking at me funny today when I was riding it in town because I was "ahhh" a few times.

Snow

This is a stegosaurus salad. I babysat. We also made different colored playdough, finger painted, played alphabet bingo and Uno.

This was quite a few months ago. I haven't had time to post these pictures. (The snow is actually starting to slowly melt now.) So, the three winters that we have been up here this is the most snow we have seen. This is not the most snow that has been here. The eyes are Sally's head poking through. It was deeper than her.

My Brakes

Well, my brakes on my explorer needed some work. Maybe this was the reason I was having the nightmares. Ever since we fixed the breaks, I have not had any more nightmares. Who knows?!

My Therapy for Infertility

Last weekend I had a slumber party with a five year old. It was a blast!!! I had the most fun. Our activities we did were...
-made playdough, and played with it.
-ate popcorn and watched Cinderella
-made a fort out of blankets and the kitchen table, sat under it to watch Cinderella.
-Played Don't Break the Ice.
-Decorated cupcakes
-Slept in the living room on a twin mattress with Savanah, Sally slept on the floor next to the mattress, and James slept on the couch.
-Ate pancakes, eggs and sausage for breakfast.
-Read stories.

In two weekends, I will have another slumber party with Savannah. Our agenda for that party so far is...
-Pudding finger paint
-French toast people for Breakfast.
-Picnic in the living room.
-making banana bread from scratch.
-melting crayons and putting them in the shape of hearts.

Tomorrow I will make Oobleck with Savannah. I made some tonight by myself, and I played with it at work as a Dr. Suess day celebration. (read across America). (If you don't know what it is... it is an interesting substance that is a liquid and a solid. Easy to clean up and very fun to play with for little kids under 10. Or in cases like me you never grow too old for it.)
These are all activities that I would do with my own kids or I have been wanting to do for a while and was thinking I would do them when I have kids and then I decided I couldn't wait any longer.

Infertility Update Warning too much info for some!

A while back I did a post talking about my infertility issues. I would like to update that information as I am starting to see new things come to pass. For some, this may be too much info, however, I am posting it anyway because I am way excited about it.
I have been charting my Basal Body Temperature every morning about 4 months now. This is to help women to see when they are ovulating so they can plan around that time to get pregnant. I however, didn't start doing this charting to get pregnant. I started to see if I could see any patterns with what little I have of a woman cycle. Ok so I will be honest, mine has been nonexistant since I was 17. (Unless I took drugs to induce things to happen. But that is a different story.)
The first month, I saw absolutely no sign. My temps were very weird. I couldn't predict anything. I didn't show signs of ovualting. My second month, I showed a slight sign of ovulating, but it wasn't a for sure because it was a very slight dip in temp. However, I did have some spotting, at what time I think (according to the ?Ovulating? that happened) I should have been on my period. So, that was very exciting. Yes, I was excited about bleeding.
The next month, I showed a definant sign of ovulating, but no bleeding.
This month, I showed a definant sign of ovulating and I am having an extremely light period! My cycles are still not completely predictable. I am anywhere from 28 days to 32 days.
I still have a ways to go before I will be able to conceive on my own. However, this is a HUGE deal for me.
I have not lost anymore weight. I don't need to, I just want to. I am 5 pounds away from what I was when I got married.
My cholesterol is on the low end of normal. I enjoy eating my sausage every morning for breakfast. LOL Darn it if I ever have high cholesterol.

Brakes and Nightmares

I have been having reoccurring nightmares that my brakes go out on my car. My first dream was not that bad. I hit my brakes and I was only able to slow down to 10 MPH. So therefore, I ran a stop sign on level ground. However, this last nightmare I had, I was going backwards down a cliff and my brakes didn't work at all. To make matters worse there was a fast moving river at the bottom of the Cliff that I landed in. Then I had to swim out and I was drowning.
Why am I having this dream? I am not one to read into dreams and think they mean something. But, why is it that I dream of the same thing over and over and each time it gets worse?

What Have I been Doing?

This is how I feel lately with all my homework, jobs and house cleaning.

We had a visitor in our front yard. It was pretty interesting. Sally was running around in the house barking. I let her outside not knowing what she was barking about. That was a mistake. I decided to go out and see what she was barking and chasing. Well, I got to the side of the house where it leads around to the back yard and a HUGE momma moose poked her head out of the trees. I came flying back in the house and started screaming at Sally to come. Of course she was having too much fun chasing the moose. I knew that if they were mad enough or had a baby near, which there was, she could be stomped and hurt. I finally go Sally in the house. The moose moved around front and this is them eating twigs out of our front yard. Sally was going CRAZY! while they were out in the yard eating. I didn't zoom in very much. They were really that close to the house.

For about a week, there was a horrible oder coming from our bathroom. We told our landlord about it before we left for Christmas. He said he would come over and fix it. We came back from Christmas and the smell was still there. We told him again and told him our suspicion was that it was the septic tank. He agreed and we had it pumped. Our bathroom smelled much better for about a day and a half. Then the smell was just as bad as it was before. I cleaned everything, mopped the walls, floor, ceiling, scrubbed bathtub, toilet and sink inside and out of all three. I cleaned EVERYTTHING. The smell was still there! I sprayed the Scentsy room spray. It worked wonders. I knew it wouldn't last. We told the landlord again and this time we told him our suspicion was the wax seal. We were right. It smells so much better. The towel is where the toilet goes. It was fun watching.

We had -30 weather for quite a while. (It was a little while ago. ) Sally was really starting to get a lot of excess energy so I decided to bundle up and take her out.

She looks kind of like an Alien. I promise she isn't. We had fun. We came in often to warm up.

What Kind of Breath Do You Have?

I was substituting in a kindergarten class on Friday. One of the girls came up to me during centers time (she was playing on the computer) and needed help with getting to a website she wanted to go to. I went and sat down next her her and was typing in the website. She asked me, while I was sitting next to her in close proximity, What kind of breath do you have?

I thought for a moment to try to figure out what she could be trying to say.

I said, "Does my breath smell?

She replied, "It smells minty.

I said, "that is my toothpaste."

Man, I am glad I brushed my teeth! Well, I brush my teeth every morning but still, I am glad it wasn't the stinky kind of breath.