We are blessed....

In many ways, we are blessed. We CHOOSE to focus on the good in our lives. While it may be much easier to focus on the hardships, it is so much more fullfilling to focus on the positive!

For instance: both my car and John's car were out of commission this week. Late last week, John noticed that his transmission seemed to be faltering - the first course of action was to flush the tranny fluids. Luckily, we have a good friend that charges way less than taking it into a shop! We'll run his car for a few days and see if there are any further problems (we hope not!). Wednesday this week I was about to hop into my car and noticed a pool of liquid underneath - gas. :( John put a bucket under it and we saved most of the full tank, but we still weren't sure what was wrong - could have been anything from a $2 "o" ring to replacing the gas tank! God helped see us through this too: it ended up being a small, rubber plug: it only cost $5 and probably would have been less, but it wasn't sold separately - only in a variety pack.

We are also blessed that we have awesome family! From one brother who often helps us with our mechanical problems to a different brother who has a friend that can help with other mechanical issues to my parents, who loaned us the Big Red Dodge so that John could still get to work and I could get the kids to appointments - we are blessed indeed!

Speaking of appts: I am now officially 10 pounds down since my first appt that diagnosed me with hypothyroidism.  Also: we met with a wonderful allergist, so we hope to be getting our 9 year olds' asthma and allergies under control. He was amazing and we are so blessed to have not only a spectacular medical facility so close to us, but also some great doctors to go with it!

We are wrapping up the school year - only 3 days left for the children. I have been done for about 2 weeks now - with one more week to go until my summer class starts.

Physical Update

Things are going GREAT!!! I have way more energy than I did before - my get-up-and-go is back!!My BP is well within normal limits and without trying, I'm down 6 pounds. I'm also making a larger effort to get out and exercise - less eating out than before and instead of meeting friends for lunch or breakfast, we are meeting and going for walks - yay!

School is still going great. It's hard and ALOT of work - but so worth it....in just 18 months I'll be able to put an RN behind my name - YAY!!! We did our first injections - on REAL PEOPLE  (most of the time we have dummies that we practice on) and an instructor passing by commented on how well I had executed it - "perfect" she said!

Anyway - it's a beautiful day, and I need to get outside!

Hope to update soon - God Bless.

This rollercoaster called life....

Wow - what a crazy week this has been!

First thing Monday morning, I went in for my second annual physical....good thing too!

At 6 a.m. - I forgot we would take a fasting CBC and popped a Hershey's kiss in my mouth. Oops. But I know my BG is usually on the low side of normal anyway....so I just told my doc when I got there. We opted to do the CBC anyway and if the BG came high - we would go ahead and retake it, but fasting this time. It was fine and came back at 82.

Anyways.....not so great was my b/p. We had been practicing this on others in our Skills Labs class and while mine was high, the cuffs aren't always calibrated correctly, etc. But I knew that my physical was coming up and I'd get it checked. It was high. Scary high: 162/115. Normal for me (even three months ago) had been 130-135 over 80-85. Yeah, not good. I had the MA take the b/p in the other arm (as you are supposed to do when hypertensive, but she's a new MA, formally Surg Tech, so she didn't know) and it was only marginally lower. Boo. We decided to go with a low dose of an ace inhibitor, just to get it down quickly so as not to cause any heart damage. When weight-loss occurs, this will go down naturally, so we also talked weightloss....maybe this is my "trigger" to get moving?!

Or not. Maybe my loss/gains have less to do with me and more to do with something else? Yep. It does. First though.....Wed, my doc calls back. Says that the BG is great (lower end of normal) and my cholesterol is fantastic - my LDL's are within normal ranges and, as a bonus (almost unheard of) I raised my HDL from an unhealthy low range up 8 points into a healthy range (see, our eating habits HAVE been changing!!). So fantastic. Except: I have hypothyroidism.

S/S of hypothyroidism include:

• Coarse and thinning hair.
• Dry skin. It's winter, who isn't dry?
• Brittle nails.
• Irritability (nursing school, 5 kids, husband, house, bills....hello?)
• Cold skin. again, winter
• Inability to tolerate cold. winter
• Feeling tired, sluggish, or weak. (Winter, nursing school, 5 kids, husband, house, bills)
• Memory problems, depression, or problems concentrating. (nursing school, 5 kids, husband, house, bills....hello?)
• Heavy or irregular menstrual periods (your "normal" can change!)
• An enlarged thyroid gland .
• Weight gain/inability to loose weight (A-HA!!)
• Swelling of the arms, hands, legs, and feet, and facial puffiness, particularly around the eyes.
• Hoarseness.
• Muscle aches and cramps.

Wow - yeah.....most of these can TOTALLY be contributed to something else. The great news? With the meds, all symptoms are reversible  - including the inability to loose weight!! YAY!!!! And....both meds - for hypertension and hypothyroidism, are very cheap meds and have been around a LONG TIME and show almost no side effects!!

So.....all this has been going on, as well as school (did you know: a nursing student spends about 60-80 hours per week between classes, clinicals, studying, etc? yeah - don't talk to ME about being busy!!!), caring for the kids/hubby/house (meals, cleaning, etc) AND....the start of clinicals this week - WAHOO!! It was soooo cooooolllll yesterday to be able to introduce myself as Jessica, Student Nurse!!!

Even though we've had some rocky roads lately.....the sun is always there, waiting behind the clouds!

GOD IS GOOD - ALL THE TIME!!

(now....back to homework!)

2012 Goals

Since we had family fun doing various handmade gifts last year, I have a plan this year!! Month - by - month.....but only through August....as I'm sure I'll find many more things to do!!

J: Crochet wash rags (done!)
F: Cut out Halloween 2 x 4's
M: Felt PB & J game
A: Felt tic-tac-toe game
M: Paint Halloween 2 x 4's
J: Sew Carson's play tent
J: Sew Christmas PJ's
A: Peg doll nativity sets x 5

Menu Plan Week of 9-16

M: Homemade mac-n-cheese, ring bologna
T: Chicken Tetrizinni,
W: cheesy tator tot casserole
Th: Taco salads
F: Chicken dumpling soup

Weekend: grilled food.....

Update: due to getting up so early - lots got done. The chicken is on the stove, boiling and the spag. water is also going. However, the mac-n-cheese is ready for supper and the taco meat is seasoned and in the fridge. The tator tot casserole is all done and in a pan too. Wow - today will prove to be pretty productive!

Busy, busy, busy!!

Did you just say the title in the voice of the magician from Frosty the Snowman? Well, you should have! Lol!

We have been super busy here lately! God has truly blessed us with many things on our plate: friends to minister to, people to help and lots of other things to keep us busy.

While I am on the computer occasionally: both hubby and I have seen too many people that are weaving dangerously into computer addiction and we have decided to cut our computer time. It is sad when your computer friends get in the way of real life friends - not cool!

All of my school books are purchased and the semester starts on Tuesday. Plans to get the boy to school are all in order - we are blessed to have two very awesome people in our life that help us with this task!!

We have been looking for a free woodstove for the garage - while out and about yesterday, a friends' husband said we could have theirs - thank you God for providing for us!

Hubby's car wouldn't start last Sat. after work. Thanks to his brother (and $169 starter), it should be up and running after the weekend.

I'm really glad an old friend called - we had breakfast early this week and she was key in helping solve many problems I'd been twirling around in my head recently. She has a great outlook on life and her outlook is so positive.

In my prayer life, I have made great strides: a prayer intention booklet - which is awesome because it helps me keep track of people that I've promised to pray for; positive people - it was brought to my attention during my prayer time one day that I really needed to keep positive people in my life....it's too easy to allow negative people (even if they ARE christian) to pull you down with them - being positive makes life a whole lot easier!

Healthy living: after last year's winnings through hubby's work (we were able to purchase a Kindle Fire for only $59!!) we are making a renewed effort, together, to get our family on a healthier living track. So far, so GREAT!! I have lost 3 pounds since the beginning of the year, nighttime snacking is at an all-time low and hubby and I have been taking some nice walks (with this unseasonably warm WI weather!)

There's so much more, but lots to do today! :)