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!

Final Thankful for...

Nov 22--thankful for the gospel.

Nov 23--thankful that she and her sisters are no longer isolated, but can talk about things and work through them together.

Nov 24--thankful for some quiet time.

Nov 25--thankful she's done Christmas shopping. Have you seen the traffic out there?! I have two words for Christmas shopping..."online" and "early"

Nov 26--thankful that all her children are present, happy and safe this year. Next year we'll be missing Tim.

And most of all I'm thankful for my wonderful husband. He has put up with me for 23 years, and is a great father. I don't know what I would do without him.

Thankful for...

Nov 15--thankful for a good secretary. You don't realize how much they do until they aren't there. I'll be thanking her for all her hard work tomorrow when I see her.

Nov 16--thankful for the sisters in the ward. They are awesome. Anything need done? They do it!

Nov 17--thankful for her mission and the benefit it has been in the last few weeks.

Nov 18--thankful for a wood burning stove, lots of dry wood and boys who are willing to keep the fire stoked.

Nov 19--thankful for batteries. My mouse was running out of energy.

Nov 20--It seems I'm thankful alot for things from the past...specifically past learned knowledge. Today I am thankful for the knowledge I've gained about abuse and overcoming it as I help a loved one deal with it in her life. I'm thankful I got past my issues so I can help. I'm thankful that I KNOW Heavenly Father loves me personally so I can help her learn that HE loves HER, too.

Nov 21--is thankful for a good marriage. We're celebrating 23 years tonight since Thanksgiving is our actually anniversary this year.

Thankful for...

Nov 8--I've been too busy to decide what I'm thankful for today. So...I am thankful for a nice warm bed. Goodnight.

Nov 9--I'm thankful for telephones. Except I like them best if they keep quiet! I couldn't have done everything today if I'd had to visit everyone in person.

Nov 10--Thankful for a doctor that makes sense...finally!

Nov 11--I'm thankful for inspiration...even when it comes at 4 AM!

Nov 12--I'm thankful for our Young Women leaders and the influence they are on the girls in our ward...including ours.

Nov 13--Thankful that every week has a Friday in it, and that today was Friday. It's been a long day.

Nov 14--thankful for knowledge learned from the last decade. With my new dietary guidelines, at least I'm not starting from scratch. I have alot of good habits already in place.

Recital and thankfulness

Nov 4--I'm thankful for busy days. They sure aren't boring. Got another busy one today.

Nov 5--Thankful for long weekends.

Nov 6--Thankful for sisters, biological and otherwise.

Nov 7--Thankful for piano recitals? Thankful for a good piano teacher!

We forgot the camera tonight so I took a picture of the piece I played. I really was proud of making it through the song even with a few rough spots. When I first saw this song I couldn't figure out how I'd ever play it, but the cd sounded so intriguing. The orange notes are played by the left hand.

Family Photos

The Youngbergs did such a good job on our photos! You can see them in the slideshow above.

Thankful for...

During one of our hardest times one of my college roommates emailed me every day and told me one thing she was thankful for. They were always small things like the new sidewalk in front of her house, or the sunshine, etc. It helped me to not feel so sorry for myself and realize all the blessings I have. I like to do that especially at this time of year to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Nov 1--I was thankful Halloween was over.
Nov 2--I was thankful for holidays that remind us of the Savior.
Today I was thankful for the opportunity to vote.

This afternoon I'm thankful for church callings that somehow fill all the spare time I used to have and make it productive time without me even trying. ha ha ha

Halloween Fun

I am not a fan of Halloween. When I was a kid I loved dressing up and trick or treating as much as anyone else. Then I got into high school and mom said I couldn't do that anymore. Since we lived in a country area and houses were a mile apart, it became my job to drive the kids from house to house on Halloween, but I couldn't trick or treat with them.

As a parent I tolerated the whole dress the kids up for Halloween, but when they became pre-teens I decided that they were old enough to figure out their own costumes. So every year they get out the Halloween costume box and try to decide what they want to be.

Here's this year's results:

Tim is Sponge Bob Square pants

James is a super hero...I think Monkey Boy is the name

And Hannah is Alice from Twilight.

Isn't Hannah's haircut cute?! All that natural curl! All the kids got some of my natural curl (except Tim who got Tom's fine straight hair).

I'm glad Halloween is over. On to the other holidays...my favorites...Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!