Errand Tuesday

Good Morning!!  The sun is shining and it is going to be a warm "Summery" day today!

Yesterday, Ava and I got up and did some coloring and cartoon watching and ate a little breakfast.  Toast and an egg for me.  I am still having a few issues, but so much better than I was.  I know when to notice a problem coming on and handle it before it gets out of control.

I wanted to do some exercise yesterday, so I did a half Bodyrock workout to give my body a little wake up call.  Then, I ran an easy 1 mile on the treadmill.  Still want to go easy on the treadmill, since running can cause the intestines to move around quite a bit.  Tomorrow, I am going to try 3 miles and see how that does. 

Ava and I got ready. I made lunch for Clint and made us a juice to take on the road and some snacks for Ava.  We headed out for a busy day.

We took Clint some lunch (Ava was asleep), said a quick hi and headed to Green Hills Mall.  This mall is the "fancy shmancy" mall in Nashville. 

Dillard's was having a great sale on kid's clothes, so I bought Ava 3 outfits, that "Santa" will bring her for Christmas.  Hey, you can never start too early shopping for Christmas. 

I looked for some dresses for my brother's rehearsal dinner, but found none that I really liked. 

We then headed to Charming Charlie's. This is the cutest most cost effective way to shop for all accessories.  My mom's birthday is tomorrow, so I volunteered to shop for my brother and dad for her gifts.  Yea twist my arm to go shop with someone else's money!!  It was so fun.  But hard!  Hard because I had Ava's stroller, a bag from Dillard's, alternating holding 2 boxes of shoes and jewelry and Ava.  All while trying to get her to eat her lunch.  Sheesh, forget bodyrock.  This was a way harder workout.



Sorry for the sideways picture!!

Then we headed to this heaven on earth!

ugh!

We have decided to budget in a Trader Joe's trip once a month.  I have been before a long time ago, before I was super health conscious.  We had so much fun in there!!  I could have spend WAY more, but reigned it in!  I can't wait until next month!!

Our next stop was picking up something that Clint needed for work and then on to TJMAXX.  I tried on a few dresses but none that I loved, so we walked out empty handed. 

Supper (for Clint, because I ate some Pita Chips from Trader Joe's that were AMAZING, but were not sitting well in my belly) was marinaded chicken with homemade healthier red potato salad.

I chopped up 4 red potatoes and boiled them in a pot of water until they were soft. About 30minutes.  I drained them and let them continue to drain and cool for about 20 minutes, while I folded laundry.

I put them in a mixing bowl and mixed in 3tbsp light mayo, about 3tbsp mustard, 2 tbsp green onions, dash of salt, freshed cracked pepper and seasoning salt.  I tasted it and it was pretty darn good!

The HIGHLIGHT of my day, was when Clint was taking Ava to bed, she said "love you".  She has told Clint "love you" twice and I was waiting for my moment!  It happened and no sweeter words were spoken!!  My heart grew 3x it size!!

What was the highlight of your day??

Have a great day and I'll see you soon!!

Weekend in review

Well, Thank Goodness it is Monday......said NO ONE, Right!  ha

Even though it is Monday, it is such a beautiful Fall day today.  In fact this weekend was such a great weekend with the weather!! 

My mom was out of town on Friday so my sister, brother and dad all tag teamed and watched Ava while Clint and I were at work.  No one was injured!




Saturday morning we got up and Clint left before us to go start on my brother's house and the electrical stuff.  Ava and I went to the store and got some breakfast, plates, cups and drinks for the day ahead.  Oh, and I needed apples and oranges to juice.  Yes, I brought my juicer!

 

We were at his house from about 9 until 3.  We were machines.  Clint put in new light fixtures, a fan, and light in the kitchen and then helped in all other areas that needed his ahem..expertise.  I painted and painted...went to pick up pizza for everyone and painted.  Ava was so amazing.  I don't know too many 2 year olds who could be in the environment that she was in and not get in to everything and be a nuisance.  She just did her own thing and "helped" when she was asked.  Oh and she took a nap for an hour! 

Ava and I left about 3 and came home so I could make supper, get her a bath, and get ready myself. Me and my sister were going to supper at Demos's for our future sister in law's "bachelorette" supper. 

Fun times were had with my sis!  We have so much fun. 





The funny thing is people probably thought we had been drinking the way we were giggling, but we were stone sober AND I wasn't able to eat.  Do you know HOW HARD IT IS TO WATCH PEOPLE EAT????  Torture!  But it was the first day in 2 weeks!  That I had been pain free and I wasn't about to jinx it!

Sunday was church.  I snuck a quick picture of the kids building a "church" in Sunday school class before we left to go to our class. 


In our class we are reading "ScreamFree Parenting" by Hal Runkel.  I have actually read this book about a year ago.  (It's in our guest bathroom, haha) 
His points are really good.  Although, I don't agree with him 100%, im a sold 85%.  His main point is that "You are not responsible FOR your kids, you are responsible TO them."  Meaning that your kids are ultimately responsible for the choices they make and those choices have consequences. 

We came home for lunch, well juice and lounged around and watched football. Ava climbed on the couch with me and said, "let's take a nap."  Yes ma'am.

Although, I didn't nap, she did for 2.5 hours! 

After her nap, we took Pekka for a quick walk around the neighborhood and then came back to get ready to go to the


CARRIE UNDERWOOD concert!
Clint was able to get box seats from his work!

She is absolutely amazing!  Her voice is unreal!!!  It was a date night for us and we loved it!!



There is our weekend in a nutshell!  Oh and I was able to eat some solid food yesterday after a WEEK!!  Crazyiness! 

Today, has been ok.  I'm adding in foods slowly and not eating much in one sitting.  Don't want to cause a ruckus in my belly! Still no exercise until I can get back to eating enough calories to sustain some exercise!

Have a great rest of the day!  See ya soon!

Still pushing through

Happy Friday and Last day of Summer.  I Love Summer time and I am not a big fan of cold weather.  But, I do love crisp mornings and warm days!  Oh and sweat pants and long sleeve shirts just scream cozy!!  Hot chocolate and cider.  Fire places and bonfires.  Crockpots and cornbread.  MMM!  Sounds like I like Fall a lot more than I thought!

If you missed my last post on my "no bug, but worse", I let y'all know about my issues with Diverticulitis.  I am going on Day 13 of this mess!  I did a clear liquid diet for 48 hours Monday through Wednesday.  For lunch Wednesday I had some chicken noodle soup and some crackers.  Thinking that would be ok. That's what everyone says to eat after you have been sick with stomach issues right?  Well, not this girl.  Like clock work about 2:30 after lunch I had horrible cramps and chills until I got home from work at about 7:15pm. 

I was able to get a Facebook friend to drop off a Juicer that she didn't need anymore.  Heck yea! 
When I got home, Clint and I got to experimenting. 

1 orange
1 apple
3 carrots

turned into this



It doesn't look all that great, but it tasted really good!! 

I have been juicing since and some issues come and go. 

I'm pushing through this.

I also started a 30 day Colonix Cleanse from Dr. Natura's website.  My boss and his wife have does this particular cleanse before and had good results.  You can eat regularly (well not this girl) and you take 2 pills in the morning on an empty stomach with 8oz of water.  After 15 minutes, you scoop 1/2 scoop of this fiber stuff in 8oz of water and drink.  Follow this with another 8oz glass of water.  Go about your day.  At night, you drink this tea to help your colon get rid of waste the next morning.  I'll keep ya posted on that!

I am going to juice for the next 4 days or so and continue to let my colon calm down and not be so mad at me.  I will try to chew something after that and see how I react.  I am anti-medical doctor, but there is a point when I may need to cave and go see what can be done.  As much as I hate that, sometimes your body needs a little help. Especially when you are only able to get calories from juicing.

Yesterday, Ava and I went and cleaned the office and then came back and cleaned our house.  Our close friends and there 1 year old daughter were coming over about 3:30pm to spend some time with us and see our new house.  We had planned to make homemade pizzas and I had made brownies.  She called at 2pm and had to cancel.  She put too many irons in her fire and they weren't going to be able to make it.  I was disappointed, but what can ya do!  At least, we had a clean house and Clint and Ava still were getting brownies and pizza! 

I made the pizza dough in the bread machine and after it was done cut it into 4 pieces.  Clint decided to make one into a calzone and a small pizza for Ava.  His calzone turned out looking wonderful and the house smelled freaking fantastic.  He put the other two leftover pieces together and made a pizza for leftovers.  I prepared my juice....wah wah wah.  The first batch was an ultimate FAIL.  I had to throw most of it out it was so bad!  The second batch was a winner!  Simple and not too many ingredients is best!!  This juicing thing is a work in process, but one that I really enjoy! 

We are helping my brother paint his house tomorrow and then me and my sis are going to our future sister in law's bachelorette shindig.  Dinner and lingerie party.  That should be interesting!

Have a great weekend! See ya soon!

No bug, but worse!

Hey there!  Happy Wednesday.  Last week I posted about getting a stomach bug late Sunday night.  Well, this "bug" is still with me.  I have been scouring the internet each and every day to see what in the world could be wrong with me. 

EVERY time I eat, about an hour or so after my stomach would have these EXTREMELY painful pains and I could literally tell you where my food was traveling in my intestines.  I would get nauseous and get chills during this 4-5 hour process. It was waking me up at night with the same deal, no matter what time I ate before I went to bed.

 I thought at first it could be something with gluten.  I took that out to see if it was still an issue.  Well, still same type of pain.  I took out most things and still horrible pain. 

I am NOT a doctor or medicine person. I believe that God made the body an amazing thing that heals itself when given the proper environment, i.e. chiropractic adjustments, the right foods, probiotics, vitamins and minerals. 

I went from looking in to stomach ulcers, to a parasite, to finally talking to my doctor of choice, my boss and chiropractor.  We were both on the case trying to figure this thing out.  We came across diverticulitis and I KNEW!  It had all of my symptoms point on and made total sense to me. 

According to Wikipedia, "Diverticulitis is a common digestive disease particularly found in the large intestine. Diverticulitis develops from diverticulosis, which involves the formation of pouches (diverticula) on the outside of the colon. Diverticulitis results if one of these diverticula becomes inflamed." Source

Once these pouches are formed they are permanent, so flare ups can happen again.

So what to do??

Flare up diet:
I researched this too and when you are having a flare up, the first few days should be a liquid, super easy to digest diet. (water, tea, jello, popscicles, juicing)

After the intestines have had time to calm down, you slowly add in low fiber foods(pastas, cereals, soft vegetables, potatoes no skin, lean meats and proteins).

The last and long lasting stage is a HIGH fiber diet.  This will allow the intestines to not have to work so hard to get things moving.

Now, it is uncommon for people my age to get diverticulitis and it is typically when people have unhealthy diets.  I do NOT fit this criteria.  But with further research, healthy people do get this and there is no real reason. 

So how have I handled this?

Since it took me 8 days to figure this out, Monday's lunch was my last "meal". From then I started liquids, popscicles, I had 2 glasses of juice from a juicing machine, NO EXERCISE, and probiotics.  (I DO NOT reccommend this for a long amount of time.  It is not a healthy way to live!  I can tell my body is starting to get drained.

I am hoping to add in a little bit of solid foods either this afternoon or tomorrow.  We shall see how that goes.

Oh and I am gettting a JUICER!  So excited.  My boss and his family juice religiously and believe in its healing powers.  I went over to their house yesterday and got some and I am hooked.  I was even able to digest it somewhat easily. 

Does any one JUICE?? 
I had one that had carrots, grapefruit, lemon and oranges and the other was chard, apples, and celery.  They both were yummy. 

I am praying this flare will be over soon.  Even though I am still working and doing my normal routine, when I am not in pain, I want to get back to feeling normal!

Well, there is my woe is me for the day.  I hope y'all have a great Hump day.  See you soon!