Best Christmas Ever!

The camera took a back seat this year in our celebrations so we have very few photos from Christmas. I think there are 9 in all...lol. Here are some of the best ones.

My favorite part of Christmas was having all my kids home!

Hannah was happy with her copy of "Twilight"

John is explaining the gift he gave to Tim. We told him to get something that we didn't know he would need on his mission. So John gave Tim a couple lightweight, simple games that he can play on P-day.

(I just looked at this photo closely...no, Tom is not picking his nose. He is wiping his eye!)

The next best gift, as far as I'm concerned, was the cd I got from my mom and dad. They had an album of Christmas Barbershop style music that I loved as a kid. I've been looking all over online for it and apparently it is out of print, not found anywhere. I asked mom about it several months ago and she didn't know if they still had it. Well, I guess they did because mom had that record converted to cd for me!

Pre-Christmas Fun

Tom let John have the privilege of being Santa at the ward party. He did a great job and loved every minute of talking to the kids.

And we couldn't resist the chance to sit on Santa's lap either!

Have you been naughty or good?

If you flip through those two photos quickly it looks like on of those flip books and Santa is beating James up. LOL

The Traditional Gingerbread Houses

James's house

Hannah's house


Tim's house


My house


My house found a welcome home at a friend's. This is the 5th year that I have given my house away. I decided the real fun is in the decorating and then watching the glee of the kids when I show up at the door with a house for them!



And then there was the not so traditional trip to Utah! My sister came from North Carolina for a visit so I HAD to go see her. Linda and I traveled together with 3 of the kids and stayed at Nancy's house. They had a blast playing on Nancy's slide with their other teenage cousins. It's so fun to see all those teenagers having fun together. And us grown ups had plenty of girl time to gab and enjoy each other.



On Monday we went to Temple Square to see the lights. I hadn't been there since before we moved to Boise 9.5 years ago. Can you believe it's been that long?

Hooray!

My wacky cholesterol is no longer wacky. It's nearly perfect!

hdl 43
ldl 79
triglycerides 278 (that's what needs more work, but it will come)
total 178

From here on out the regular doctor doesn't treat my heart unless it's desperately necessary.

Encouraged and frustrated

I was very disappointed when I could finally start walking again after healing from my foot injury in May because I could only go 1/4 way around the mall before my shin started hurting. I had gone from walking 2 miles five days per week to not being able to walk 1/4 mile. I was very frustrated. I've never been in that bad of shape!

My friend and I walk twice a week and just kept our pace slow while I tried to improve. Three months later I am very encouraged. I can now walk all the way around the mall at a decent pace with no pain in my shins! My heart even got pumping yesterday and I was breathing hard! Yeah!

For a long time now I have not been happy with the direction my body has been taking. Almost 2 1/2 years ago I started suspecting that my blood pressure was creeping up. I tried to control it with food for a year. Finally, I gave up and had a visit with my regular doctor. She prescribed a medication for blood pressure while discouraging any hope that I'd be able to stop taking the medication when I lost weight . She was sure I would need TWO medications to bring my blood pressure down. I showed her! After TWO WEEKS my blood pressure had come all the way from exceedingly high to normal range, and that is where it has stayed with only one medication.

However, the blood pressure was only one symptom and now that is being taken care of another symptom popped up this year. Wacky cholesterol. My regular doctor wants to make sure the cholesterol is getting under control, but I know she has more medications in mind. In the meantime I have all kinds of aches and pains and I believe that heart disease is in my future. That's why I don't like the direction my body is taking.

I have been one of the healthiest eaters for the past 6 years, but my body has been slowly wearing out. I felt better than ever when I was walking 10 miles a week, but at the same time I felt like I was falling apart. I had taken care of all emotional eating and worked on my portion control. As good as I eat I should have lost tons of weight by now, but I was maintaining despite every effort.

A while back I decided to take a community education class by a naturopath about female hormones (my hormones have been out of balance ever since I had kids). A couple weeks later I took one on balancing blood sugar. I decided that enough was enough and went to visit with the naturopath who taught the classes. He has given me supplements for my heart, liver, pancreas, and pituitary gland. He has also recommended that for two months I cut all the gluten I can from my diet. That's not too hard...I loved eating Honduran while on my mission and it won't hurt to have more rice and corn in our diets. He says I can reintroduce gluten after two months.

He says I am responding very well. The frustrating part is that he keeps finding more things to work on. I guess that's good in a way because my healing will be thorough, but it's frustrating, too. This time he added calcium and iodine for deficiencies. I really hope new things will stop popping up and we will have reached the complete cause of my problems...SOON.

In the meantime, I am encouraged. My heart feels happier, aches in my joints are gone, cravings for sweets and chocolate are gone, I have more energy and I'm slowly starting to lose weight and inches. My naturopath is telling me to consult with my regular doctor to adjust my blood pressure meds as I start not needing them! WooHoo!