 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March/April 2006 May 2006 June/July 2006 July/August 2006 September/October 2006 November /December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March/April 2007 May/June 2007 June/July/August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008  March:
 www.scrapsupply.com www.shudan.com www.inspiritnews.com Carden genealogy www.kodakgallery.com Blue Letter Bible Ebay My Scrapsupply Gallery My Photo a Day Galleries: You can find me here: |
March 31, 2008, 2:27 pm I love peanut butter cookies... I haven't uploaded photos to albums yet, but I DID get my photo-a-day pages updated. There are quite a few gaps over the past month or so, but hopefully I'll keep up with it now. I can't believe I hadn't updated it since February 23rd. What can I say? It's been a crazy month. But hey - even with the flu, I'm feeling better than I have in ages. No more gluten for me! March 31, 2008, 10:07 am M, N, O, P, I could go on all day... So I ended up catching the flu from the kids (it was inevitable since I was taking care of all the sicklies). The kids are all bummed out that it's been gorgeous outside AND it's spring break, but none of them really feel up to doing anything yet, except Darby and Jacob. Jacob had it first, so he's long over it, and Darby didn't really get sick. Man! I had so many plans for spring break. Oh well. The plans'll have to wait. Andy was nice and got the house all cleaned up for me yesterday though. It's amazing how messy it gets in just a short amount of time when I'm not feeling well! But Andy mopped, vacuumed, scrubbed the bathroom, dusted, etc. He's awesome! I am going to try to upload photos to kodakgallery later today. My first priority is to go soak in a hot tub though, so don't hold your breath on seeing the photos anytime in the next few minutes. I think it's probably time for another movie review as well - I know how you guys look forward to those and don't even watch a movie until I've recommended it. ;) Later gators! March 27, 2008, 9:35 pm "Through it all, I've learned to depend upon His Word"... Okay, so I ended up having a second child come down with the flu (Justice) this afternoon, and Jacob was fussy and whiny all day today (teething and growing), and he didn't want to let me out of his sight. So I didn't get photos edited. BUT I did promise, so I will leave you with three photos before the day is through (okay, so the day is through for most of my readers, but there's still a couple hours left, here on the west coast)...
TONS more photos to come as soon as I get the chance. My two biggest helpers are down with the flu and Jacob is being clingy (which is fine - I like cuddling with him), but hopefully it won't last long, and everyone will feel better, and we can get back to a normal routine... or rather, IN a normal routine. I am just recently feeling good myself, so 'normal' is kind of a novelty around here. :) March 26, 2008, 10:20 pm Lego people stick together! Um, yeah... I got distracted today. I did get caught up on most of the blogs I read (still have a few left), but never got around to posting photos. If you're on Facebook, Andy has uploaded some photos from the last week onto his page. I made some gluten-free chocolate chip cookies tonight (Bob's Red Mill cookie mix), and yeah - they were interesting. Hopefully Jacob will like them. Let's just say they tasted 'healthy'. Soon, I will try making some from scratch instead of from a mix and maybe those will be better. :) We got snow tonight!!! Darby is the only one that got out and played in it - she made a little snowman in the dark. It was my photo for today. I will try to get my photo-a-day page caught up (and keep up with it) very soon. My kids have spring break this next week too - yay. And my three middle kids have had a 1/2 day every day this week (though they ditched school on Monday and Tuesday since G-ma and Pappy were here - we're such cool parents). ;) Andy is sighing loudly - I wonder if that means he is tired of me clicking away on here and is ready for me to be quiet and get ready for sleep!?!? lol. Okay, more tomorrow. I PROMISE!!! March 26, 2008, 10:38 am Come as you are... 11 days? Have I really neglected my public for that long?! I'm going to try to get some photos up here today, and also to get caught up on everyone else's blogs. Andy is on his way to the airport with his parents. We had a great week with them here, and got some great sight-seeing in (*side note: Petra loves the ocean*). I have been feeling better and better the longer I go without eating gluten! Hallelujah!!! Brittany is home with a fever and sore throat for the second day in a row. Hopefully she gets better soon. Jacob had a vomit day last week, but it was short-lived, and apparently no one else caught that (thank goodness!). Easter was awesome and we have lots of photos. There's lots more to update you on, and I will be back later to share. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend and remembered what it is all about (hint: it's not about eggs and bunnies). :) March 15, 2008, 10:24 am Brain dump:
March 12, 2008, 12:54 pm No title for you! I haven't really felt like blogging lately. I'm so focused on getting healthy, everything else is pretty much on the back burner. I have had good days and bad days - more bad days, unfortunately. Tomorrow, I am going to the lab for allergy tests and a gluten test, so that should hopefully narrow some things down for me (my doc finally ordered those things for me). I'm researching the altitude here and the effects that can have on health. I've started working out. I have a migraine today, but it's the first one I've had in about a week and a half. I'm making progress, slowly but surely. I'm determined to get healthy, even though it's taking forEVER to figure it all out. I started getting really serious about this stuff in July. And I still feel like I'm back to square one on most days. Jarvis' soccer practices have started, and his first game is this Saturday. His team is small so he'll pretty much be playing all game, every game. They've combined two school teams because not enough fourth graders signed up. Probably because they start soccer here while it's still cold and raining!!! Hopefully Saturdays will be nice for the next six weeks or so. I can sit in the van for practice and watch from the dry warmth, but I'll have to go outside to watch the games. My in-laws are coming for a visit next week, and we're looking forward to having them here. The kids are so excited! They don't like living so far away from family - a year or two at a time without seeing relatives is like an eternity to them. I tried a new TV on DVD series... My So Called Life... turns out it's pretty stupid and horribly directed. I'm only a few episodes in, but I probably won't even finish it. I got it from the library so no funds lost there. I just received an email from the library saying Mork & Mindy is ready for pick-up though. Hopefully that's better. I like TV on DVD - you can sit down for 23 or 48 minutes (depends on how long the show was) and watch an episode while you have a snack or whatever and then get back to life. The t-shirt I'm wearing today says "I wish I was in bed" and it has a photo of a monkey in sunglasses (not sure of the relation between the picture and the saying, but whatever). Anyway, it completely reveals how I feel today. But I'm going to do my Pilates DVD instead - I'm so sore from doing it yesterday... which means I really need to keep it up! Oh, and I won't even go into how much I detest daylight savings time. Almost makes me want to move to Arizona where they are smart enough to not even bother with it because it is absolutely retarded and there is no point except to screw up everyone's biological schedule!!! March 7, 2008, 1:48 pm I have a minute to spare for you... So I had another episode where I almost passed out (would have had I not sat down immediately) and felt dizzy and weak - just came on all of a sudden after feeling pretty good. Since I had the blood sugar test strips, I was able to test this time. This doesn't happen all the time, just now and again. Anyway, my blood sugar was 70. The lowest it's been when I checked it - but this is the first time I've ever checked it when feeling like that. Anyway, had some orange juice (always perks me up when feeling 'light') and an organic gluten-free rice bar, and checked 20 minutes later and my blood sugar was 192 - so that was quite the roller coaster ride my body was just on. I'm eating more food now and will test it again after an hour from when I started drinking/eating and then two hours - for the records (am starting another health diary to keep track of how my new diet is working). WHY my doctor didn't want to give me blood sugar test strips is beyond me. I'm already feeling a little better with the food in my system. I waited too long to eat (only three hours, which usually I can go a little longer before this reaction)... I usually try to have something every couple hours, even if it's just a small handful of baby carrots. Gotta remember to keep food in my system! OTHER than the above little episode I just had, I've been feeling a bit better. Still having headaches, but NO migraines this week - praise the LORD! I can get rid of the headaches with just the regular over-the-counter meds, so that's nice. I was *about* to get some stuff done, as I was tired all morning, but then this happened causing me to sit again for a little while. I'll get there though - at least I have roads to go down now, though, with the blood sugar and the gluten! I actually have hope for the first time in a long time!! :) DOES ANYONE SHOP AT KROGER, SAFEWAY, ETC.? Because the food there is TWICE, if not three times, what it is at Wal-mart and WinCo!!! I bought some rice milk at Wal-mart the other day for $2.93 (a 1/2 gallon). Then last night, I wanted to check out Safeway to get some gluten-free frozen waffles that I found out online were sold there. Um, the SAME rice milk there was $4.98!!! And everything else was double the price. I was like "do people actually spend all this money on groceries when they can get it HALF prcie elsewhere??!!" Amazing! I will still go there to get a few gluten-free items I can't find anywhere else, but the majority of my shopping will be done at the places I've been going where they charge fairly reasonable prices. I'd go bankrupt in three months if I bought our groceries at those places!!! I was going to get a couple other things we needed, but after seeing the prices, I decided those things could wait until my next trip to Wal-mart. Now if only Wal-mart would expand their health food section. Granted, the Wal-mart near our house is a bit smaller than a lot of the Super Wally Worlds, so maybe if I hit the one ten minutes down the road, they'd have a better selection. I'm hoping, for my wallet's sake, that that's true. I shopped at Kroger for a while when we lived in Tennessee, because it was right near my house, and was about the only thing around with any kind of selection... and I remember that my grocery bill was about 75% MORE than it had been at the Marine Corps commissary I had shopped at before we moved there. Then I discovered a Super Walmart the next time we moved, and my grocery bill was cut in half, and I never went back to Kroger. So if you are unaware of the price differences, and you are throwing your money away at Kroger or Safeway (or a similar place), heed my advice and shop elsewhere. Your purse will thank you! :) March 6, 2008, 10:02 am Chickens don't clap! I felt better as the day wore on yesterday, and had actual energy - which I used to start sorting through all the boxes in the garage (Andy and I are trying to get it all cleaned and organized... it's our storage facility). And just think I might live today. Yay. And my skin is clearing up! Woo hoo. Still having headaches, but NOT migraines - thank goodness (a headache is no big deal compared to the migraines!). Brittany is home with a bad cold today - apparently it was going around at school. Hopefully she'll feel better after a day of rest. Jarvis' soccer practice starts on Friday. He's very excited. The van ended up costing a pretty penny (thank goodness for 90 days same as cash!). Apparently it still had all it's original parts and never had a tune-up. So my driving it around on empty had nothing to do with it, thank you very much! So they replaced a few things and did the tune-up, and now hopefully it will be just fine. And now I'm going to go work some more in the garage before answering several emails (though I have gotten my inbox down to 100-something... just haven't written a lot of people back yet). March 5, 2008, 1:25 pm This stuff is fascinating! I guess this is day 6 of detox. I'm still not feeling great, but this stuff takes time. I'm having fewer migraines though, and my blood sugar numbers are down - even with all the fruit I'm eating. I'm wondering if I need to cut eggs out as well, but I'm hoping not. I like eggs. They are easy to make and are a good source of protein. Found this at doctorgluten.com: Gluten-sensitive symptoms can be very wide-ranging. Gut symptoms are frequent. But also you can have lots of other complaints such as brain symptoms, joint aches and pains, low iron levels, irritability, fatigue and low energy. As you can see, many symptoms do not relate to your gut. The full list of symptoms can be found in our "Symptom Check List". People suffering these symptoms from gluten have " The Gluten Syndrome ". Here are some of the symptoms
Yeah, I have ALL of those symptoms!!! Every single one of them. Pretty much all the time. There is another list of symptoms on the celiac.com website, that Timberly listed on her blog - and I have all those symptoms as well... at least one from each bullet point. Except the hypoglycemia, but I do have blood sugar issues most of the time. The more research I do, the more I think this whole gluten thing may be the source of all my issues - the high blood sugar, the migraines, the fatigue, etc. I've had health problems all my life; they've just gotten worse as I've gotten older and the more kids and miscarriages that I've had, which have been hard on my body. I was saying on Timberly's blog, that it's so weird that I just always thought this stuff was normal and there was nothing I could do about it. Ugh. I mean really - how many of you have ALL of the above symptoms, along with ALL of the symptoms on Timberly's blog on a daily basis?! Seriously - I'd like to know the percentage of my readers that experience this stuff. It's probably low. I just can't believe I've been living like this for so long. No wonder I've had problems with depression in the past!!! Living like this would definitely cause depression in most people - which is why it is on both symptom lists!! It is a constant struggle with me to fight the anxiety and depression - that is something that I've only been able to overcome because of my relationship with Jesus!! Without Him, I'd be a MESS! Oh, the symptoms from the celiac website that Timberly listed are: •gastrointestinal complaints: stomach ache, irritable bowel, Crohns disease, ulcerative colitis Well, with the help of Sarah - a girl that Andy was friends with in high school, she hung out with us some in NC during the Marine Corps days (she was a Marine), and she contacted me after me and Andy found her on facebook - I am finding out so much! She has been SUCH a blessing in sharing all the information she has found!!! There are tons of foods out there that are gluten-free. They are just more expensive, and of course, I'm going to have to re-train my taste buds, which I've already started doing. I'm convinced that one or both of my parents have the same problem - and I am going to STOP the cycle of unhealthiness that runs rampant in my family's genes. My dad's mom - who would never go to the doctor - probably had this as well, the more I think of it. I have suggested they try a gluten-free diet for a while to see if it helps them as well. My mom already can't eat much of anything, and my dad has more symptoms than I do. I'm even going to 'finally' have my family start eating healthier - but that's going to be gradual, because eating healthy is EXPENSIVE! Of course, I won't take them off the wheat, barley, etc. that contain gluten because I don't think they have a problem with it (though I do suspect Jacob may with his extremely low weight and his diarrhea that is there more often than not)... but we are going to start by cutting out the junky cereals and pop tarts. They can still have cereal, it's just going to be the healthy stuff (which I actually used to buy all the time, and we rarely had crap like fruit loops in the house, but those bags of cereal at walmart are so cheap, and the kids love them, that I gradually just started getting them all the time). Anyway. Oh, and I am reading that it can take several months for the symptoms to go away once you go gluten-free. But I'm willing to go that long. I'll let you all know how it goes. And those with the same genes that are reading - if you have similar symptoms, just keep an eye on this blog and I'll be the lab rat for all of you! ha! ;) Seriously, hopefully it doesn't take THAT long to start feeling better, but I was pretty bad off so I wasn't really expecting an overnight change, ya know? Well, I was HOPING for one, but well - I should know better by now, huh? :) I'm sure I will be boring you all with more of this stuff, since this is my online JOURNAL. But hey - it's what I'm going through right now, so it's what I'm writing about. :) And I still have no photos to share, but I will try to share something later. :) March 4, 2008, 3:14 pm HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT! :) March 3, 2008, 9:15 am Happy birthday Dr. Seuss! Day 4... woke up with an aching head. Ugh. Was feeling better last night, but this morning isn't awesome. And I'm in a fog again. Isn't detox supposed to help clear my head?! Our van broke down on Saturday. It's been sitting in the parking lot at the pizza place where Justice's basketball banquet took place, since Saturday afternoon. Hopefully we'll get it taken care of today... not really sure what the problem is, but I think it's the starter. Andy thinks I ruined it by driving around with the gas tank on empty all the time. :-P I made some cards yesterday, and forgot to take photos of them before putting them all in sealed envelopes to mail. Oh well. Some of them turned out cute - you'll just have to take my word for it. :) Yeah, I'm ready for a nap. I don't think Jacob is though, so I guess I'll have to wait until after lunch when he's ready to sleep. Right now, he's way too busy trashing the house to think about naps. :-P March 1, 2008, 10:57 am "'Bout a nine on the tension scale there, Reub." Detox day 2: Things are going pretty good. Slight headache, but not a migraine, not as ill as I thought I'd be (so far). Yay. Craving bread/crackers/anything along that line. I prefer unsweet tea withOUT lemon, apparently. I've come a long way baby; I used to not even be able to have ONE drink of unsweet tea without spitting it out. The music I'm listening to is making me dance in my chair while I type. ('Yummy' by Gwen - ok, so the lyrics aren't the best, but the music is very catchy). I'm playing a wide variety. The last song that played was Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix singing 'Jackson'. I wonder what will be next? Still no photos. I think I only have two for the photo-a-day page since I updated the last photo on the 23rd of February. I'll have to get back into the photo groove. Now I'm dancing to 'Bad Reputation' by Joan Jett. Fun stuff. Apparently I'm dancy today. We are headed to Justice's basketball banquet today, also a couple of errands like the library and Wally World. And some house cleaning. And since I really don't like posts without photos (though I've been doing more and more of them lately), I'll leave you with a self-portrait from almost exactly a year ago. Should I go blonde again?! No? Yes? Not that my hair looks great in that photo - it actually looks kind of horrible, and I look like I have a lazy eye (what's up with that?!). Anyway. I definitely should let my hair get long again. I just clicked on a photo folder from about a year ago and this photo was in it. Maybe I'll start regularly sharing a photo from the past here and there. Especially when I have no current ones to share. :)
'I Saw the Light in your Window Tonight' by Wynonna is now playing. "I cried baby cried, now I'm walkin' out the door....." Sing it with me now! February 29, 2008, 11:00 pm This, that, and the other... Okay, so it's not March here yet, but it will be in an hour. And it's already March for most of my readers. So I'm gonna go ahead and upload the new March banner. I decided to add a self-portrait to this month's page as well (I kind of missed my face by a few inches, but whatever). The detox went okay today. I've been hungry all day, even though it seems like I've been eating a lot. Fruits and veggies just aren't as filling as bread and meat! I hit the store again this afternoon for a few more things. I'm all stocked up on fruit/veggies and a few other things. Pumpkin seeds are really good when you are craving popcorn... just fyi! I also found some soups made by 'Amy's' that are gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, artificial crap-free, etc. So I'll probably have one for lunch tomorrow. It beats making soup from scratch, that's for sure! 'Amy' also makes some frozen meals, one of which I had today - organic, free of all the junk, it had brown rice, lots of veggies, and tofu (which I pulled out, b/c I don't do tofu). I'm not gonna lie, it did not taste good. But I ate it. Because the thought of another romaine and carrot plain salad was not tempting me (this was before my trip to the store), and I wasn't up to cooking anything crazy from scratch. I'm hoping my salads and soups get me through the next couple of days until I (hopefully) get past the hump and have more energy and fewer migraines, etc. I made the blog banner earlier today, after realizing a couple days ago that pretty much everything I've been buying for my scrap area is teal and/or red (I had no idea, I was just getting stuff I liked). So I went for those colors with this month's blog graphics. Then, I was looking at Kim Kesti's blog today (a fellow scrapper - she was on the design team at ScrapSupply until very recently - and another fun fact, she just had baby number eight!), and saw she had posted photos of her scrap studio. Using red and a color very close to teal. I just thought that was nifty. Or something. February's posts are in the archives on the left if you missed any. I know you don't want to miss ANY of my incredibly mesmerizing journal entries! It's time for me to hit the hay. I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!!
|
website created by petra carden 2005/2006/2007/2008
visitors to this site since 03/25/2005: