Sunday Funday ~ on horseback :-)

Leona spent the night on Saturday and Sunday after church we decided to have some fun.  Bella is taking after me in the animal department!  This is my friend Kim's Quarter horse mare.  I think Bella had the most fun.

I think a horse for Bella (and me) is in our future.

Busy Busy Busy!!!

It's been over a month since I last posted.  I have been so busy, I barely get a chance to sit down at the computer.  I've done 2 vending events with the fleece leashes and have another one coming up on the 29th.  That will probablyh be the last one for a while.  I might sign up to do a booth at our kennel club show in April, but it depends how much the fee is and if I have to have a booth all 4 days.  I have gone ahead and gotten a website for the leashes, but I haven't done anything with it yet.  It'll be http://www.nikkisleashes.com/.

The kids are doing awesome! Bella got straight A's on her report card.  Alex got A's, B's and 1 C.  That's actually the first time Alex got anything lower than a B.  I was a little surprised, but thinking about it, it's his first report card period his first year at the middle school.  So I guess I can cut him a little slack.  I am sure he'll pull it up with no problem.  Abby doesn't get letter grades in kindergarten, but she got S's for satisfactory with 1 P for progressing. The P was in the "Uses Appropriate Voice" column - I'd like to think that means she is soft spoken, but not my Abby - she's loud like her Momma  :-)

Elijah is running around like crazy and babbling up a storm.  He's a sweet and love able little boy, but he boy can he be stubborn!  When he gets something in his head, he is determined to do it.  You can almost see the wheels turning in his head to figure stuff out.  And he's QUICK.  While it's awesome that he is learning and developing his problem solving skills, he sure does keep us on our toes! 

I am doing OK.  I have lost 9 lbs since I went to the doctor last month.  My blood sugars have been lower due to a combination of diet, medication and exercise.  I have been kind of bad the last couple weeks on the diet and exercise due to so much running around, vending and traveling.  It's harder to eat right when you're out. Well I better get back to trying to figure out this web site thing.  I have a week to get it up and running.

I can't believe it's been a year.

Tomorrow is Elijah's first birthday!!! I can't believe that it's been a year.  It is amazing to me how the time flies. He has 4 teeth, he's walking all over the place and he's saying a few words.  Really, a year already? Wow.

Now come May I'll have to wrap my mind about Cory turning 18!!!!

Doctor appointment

With getting back on track with my health and weight, I went to the doctor for a physical.  I didn't really want to go, but I need to be sure I am doing the right things for my bloods sugar and be sure that is the only thing going on that I "can't see".  Other than my OB, I havent seen a doctor in several years, so I made the appointment.

The office is close and quite nice.  The Dr. took a lot of time to talk to me about everything and answer all of my questions.  We talked a lot about the diabetes and my recent rapid weight gain.  She did agree with me that the zoloft probably played a huge role in the weight gain and that for some people it is near impossible to get the pounds off while you are taking it.  She ordered lots of blood tests including a thyroid panel, CBC, hemoglobin A1C, and a few others that I can't remember.  I was pretty sure the thyroid test would come back normal, but she said she wanted to check it all.  I figure if you're taking my blood, do as many tests as you want on it because I'd rather just get stuck once.  I don't like needles.
The tests results were in yesterday.  I AM a type 2 diabetic.  Big surprise there (can you feel my sarcasim?) so she started me on Metformin.  The throid did come back normal.  What surprised me a bit was my cholesterol and triglycerides are on the low end of being high and she prescribed medication. That actually scares me as much as the diabetes.  33 year olds aren't suppose to have high cholesterol.

I have to make changes, more than I thought when it was just the blood sugar issues, but it's OK.  I am not real happy about having to take medication, partly because I am just so bad about taking it (I forget a lot).  BUT, if i need to take it for a little while until I can get some of this weight off then OK.  I know that I don't have to take it for the rest of my life.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  It just happens to be a very long, up hill tunnel.  With that being said, I better get my 20 minutes of morning exercise in now that Bean is down for a nap. Good thing this glider is very quiet.

Getting back on track

When I was pregnant with Elijah at about 14 weeks the doctor told me I was spilling sugar into my urine which was an indication of diabetes.  Well surprise, surprise.  My mother, father, sister and grand mom are all diabetic, so I figured it would catch up with me sooner or later.  Now granted, I also didn't do anything to prevent it either.  Sodas, especially Coke, is my weakness.  I can drink a 2 liter bottle a day or more.  Unfortunately ever since I was little, I have not been able to tolerate any artificial sweeteners, they literally make me throw up.  I have tried all kids over the years and it's always the same result.  In addition to Coke, I also love chocolate.  So even knowing the family history, I hadn't had any issues with my blood sugar or any gestational diabetes with the previous 4 babies, so I just didn't take the precautions to prevent it. 

I wasn't heavy growing up, I only gained 29 lbs when I was pregnant with Cory and I lost that right away.  I am not sure what happened, inactivity or depression maybe.  I don't know, but I slowly started gaining.  Always losing weight when I was pregnant, then gaining it back after several months. 

When the Doc told me I was spilling sugar, I knew exactly what I had to do and I started immediately watching everything I ate and trying to be more active even during the pregnancy. The doc told me he thought it was type 2 diabetes, not gestational because of the fact that it was caught so early.  Much earlier than the time they normally check for gestational diabetes and with the fact that both parents and my sister have it as well.  During the pregnancy and for about a month after Elijah was born I continued to lose weight and my blood sugar was normal.  I was down about 55 lbs. Then it started.  The weight just packed on so quickly.  I was taking Zoloft for depression and after I realized how quickly the weight was coming on, I looked and found that Zoloft is one of the anti-depressants that can cause weight gain, especially in women and that while you are on it, it's near impossible to get the weight off. I had gained 50 pounds in 6 months.  How is that humanly possible?  That is nearly 10 pounds a month! You have to consume and NOT burn off about 3500 calories to gain a pound.  Most days I don't even consume 2000 calories.  So I took myself off of the Zoloft cold turkey.  Probably not one of the smartest things I have done because I did suffer from withdraw symptoms for about a month, which wasn't fun. So with the weight back on my blood sugars have gone up again.

So fast forward to today.  I decided a few days ago that I was done, I want this weight gone and to kick this type 2 diabetes. It was so easy when I was pregnant probably for 2 reasons - it wasn't just me, my baby's health would be at risk if I didn't watch what I ate and also the fact that when I am pregnant, sugary stuff makes me feel worse. But I am not pregnant and I have to use sheer will power - something I don't have a lot of anyway LOL 

I have stopped drinking all soda and sweet tea, and eating any sweets. I am also watching my carb intake - bye bye morning bagel.  I still have my coffee with 2 teaspoons of sugar which is 8 carbs.  I am going to wean that down to 1 teaspoon of sugar soon, then hopefully no sugar.  I have to basically "detox" from sugar.  I also need to get more structured exercise, so last night, even thought it was still hot, I made myself go out for a walk for about 30-35 minutes.  It was hard, but I just did it. It will get easier.

So that is what's going on with me.  I am getting myself back on track so I can be healthy and take care of my kids.  I also want to set a good example for the kids.  I try to be sure that they eat healthy, but if they see me eating bad, they are more likely to follow the same way.  I don't want that for them.

I am loving these Sunday Fundays!!!!!

Today we went back to Alabama Adventure, but this time we did the water park.  I didn't have my phone or camera with me for fear of dropping it in the water. But we had a great time, even the Bean did too.  Although I think it was a bit much for him and maybe next time we should call it quits a little sooner.  Today was "Kids Day"  they had balloon twisters, sidewalk chalk people, and face painters. The girls wanted their faces painted  :-)

I thought it turned out quite pretty. 

THE BEAN IS WALKING!!!

He's getting really good and is now starting to walk more than he crawls. He's also tall enough now to reach about 3-4 inches on the top of the dining room table.  So pretty much nothing is going to be safe anymore LOL.  I can't believe he is going to be a year old in 3 weeks!