Category Archives: Life

Things I like Thursday: Feeling good

24 Thursday May 2012

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I stopped the estrogen on Saturday.

Started feeling better on Tuesday.

Doesn’t really solve the low estrogen issue, but it did solve some other things.

I don’t feel 100%, but at least I am not going to sleep at 7:30 pm and I was able to get back to a regular workout and extra-curricular routine!    Sleep and waking my whole body up is still a huge issue, like it has been, but i’m improving in other areas.

I go back to the Endocrinologist in July (soonest I could get) to review labs i’ll do in a few weeks, plus another round of ultrasounds.  This time maybe they’ll look more at the Hashimoto’s, since we aren’t looking at any tests for the adenoma.

On to other things….Gearing up for the weekend.  Dan’s parents arrive Friday night and stay until Thursday morning.  I really like them, although I am still nervous to be around them.  I still get the impression every time I see Dan’s mom that she’s disappointed I didn’t make her son healthy.  He is the only person who can do that.  I learned a long time ago, that I can’t force anything on anyone and while he may eat what I eat at home, he eats 1-2 meals a day out and I do not influence his decisions.

I am hoping for a fun weekend away from work and life’s stresses!  I am sure we will have a great time catching up and taking them sight-seeing on Sunday.

What’s in/on your desk?

23 Wednesday May 2012

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I’ve seen the what’s in your purse, wallet, drawer, gym bag, etc.  What about your desk?

People find my desk amusing for some reason around my office.  To a normal person, I guess there are some odd things in/on my desk.

Yes. I try to be prepared for emergency snacks, food, etc.  Sometimes I forget to replace things.  Seeing this photo, reminds me, time for more pepper!  These two photos are just of one of my overhead bins (I have 3 large ones).  Only one has the food and food stuff in it.  The other 2 actually contain work items.

Olive oil, coasters,  pepper grinder, snacks, utensils, toaster oven pan, drinkware, paper plates, teas, and in the blue bowl there are snacks, condiments, and other random things. Oh and sunscreen, that’s behind my food too, needed to be upright so it didn’t leak.

I also take my reusable stuff home at least once a week to wash in the dishwasher.  I wash things at work, but going through the dishwasher to me makes it seem way more clean!

And then there are my quirky desk-top items.  My good luck 3 legged pig (blogged about him before).   The flamingo is new.  My coworker was trying to make people smile :-)

And my little cove of stuff I bring from home.  It’s not unusual for me to carry a purse, lunchbox, and 2 bags in the am.  I think half the building probably thinks I live at work.  I have a fruit bowl, but I don’t keep fruit in it anymore, because we had a fly problem at one time.  So now it holds random stuff.

What’s in your desk?

 

Life’s little blessings

20 Sunday May 2012

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Great Saturday afternoon, celebrating the upcoming arrival of our friends Kristi and Devon’s little blessing!  The little guy is scheduled to arrive at the end of June.

They are the first ones in our immediate Austin friends to have kids.  Ironically enough, they are also the youngest in our group.  That baby boy is going to be SO spoiled between all of our friends :-)

Their house is really coming along, you may remember we helped them move in a few months ago.  Momma has nested and the place looks great!

Kristi’s parents really overdid themselves on the food.  BBQ galore.  I wound up eating dinner at 4:30, because that’s when everyone else ate.  Good thing lunch was early!  

They are almost ready with the little guy’s room, just some odds and ends to go.

 We gave them a gift card to Target to finish up whatever they needed.

And a box of Thin Mints!  Kristi told me a few months ago how upset she was that cookie season was over.  I sought out and saved her a box!

Good times, met some new people, which was also fun.  Missed some of our friends that were out of town for graduations, weddings, etc.

Can’t wait for the little guy to be here! I need to get together with a few people to start planning ahead to stock mommy and daddy to be’s freezer with food, since they’ll have no time and energy to cook :-)  Hayjay, Trisha, etc, I am talking to you here! 1 month to go.

What matters most

18 Friday May 2012

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It’s been a rough month for some of my pet owner friends :-(

At the beginning of the month, Terra lost her long time kitty friend.

Then last week, a few more people I know had bad pet news…

Yesterday, my friend and LUNA teammate Cindy had to put down their long-time dog-pal Murphy.  Mike, Cindy, and their daughter love pets.  They’d had to put down another pet last year and then again yesterday.  They have 1 dog remaining, that isn’t taking the loss well either.

I sometimes think about how Missy and Chanel are older, and I burst into tears, especially if I am talking to Dan about them.  I’ve had them both forever and love them dearly.

I’m a horrible mom. Yesterday I forgot to get the cats food until they were completely out. I was reminded of this when they scarfed the remaining food down so fast, that it caused “gifts” left all over my carpet because they ate too much too fast.  I couldn’t even be upset.  It was my fault and I am lucky to have 2 healthy and happy kitties.

Here is Missy helping me work on Monday morning during the “I have to work from home because we don’t have a front door fiasco.”

She was worn out by time we ate dinner, she worked way too hard!

I wasn’t feeling well yesterday after work.  The muscle and joint fatigue has continued to be a huge issue this week, along with other issues.  Last night I ate dinner and then watched crap tv with Missy.  We cuddled on the couch for a few hours.

Happiness.  I need to remind myself how lucky I am to have them in my life, even if it’s a short while.

Comfort Food at it’s finest

15 Tuesday May 2012

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King Ranch chicken is one of the greatest things on earth. If you don’t like it, I am pretty sure you should be kicked out of Texas. I cannot believe my sister has always hated it.  One of the favorite things my mom always made when I was a kid.

Recently featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives when Matthew McCoughney and Guy Fieri went to Monument Cafe in Georgetown (down the street from Dan’s office) and learned how to make King Ranch Chicken.  Their recipe and method was very different!  Sounded good, but not gluten free or waistline friendly.

King Ranch Chicken is legendary in Texas.  I’ve blogged it before Here.

I’d been craving it for over a week (since I saw it on DDD on Food Network), but my schedule and other plans didn’t allow me to make it.  I put it together on Sunday, to toss in the oven on Monday evening.  Leftovers planned for Tuesday night, since I don’t have time to cook after LUNA.

KING RANCH CHICKEN

Serves – 6

10 oz. cooked, cubed chicken breast
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can Rotel tomatoes (I use extra spicy)
8 corn tortillas, cut into fourths
1 cup shredded cheddar (regular, sharp, or jack)
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup celery, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Methods/steps

Saute onion, garlic and celery in a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray until tender. Add soups, Rotel tomatoes and chicken; heat and mix thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Spray 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray. Layer 1/2 of tortillas in bottom of dish. Pour 1/2 of soup mixture over tortillas. Sprinkle 1/2 of shredded cheese over soup mixture. Repeat layers ending with cheese. Cover with foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and cook additional 10 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Tips, notes, suggestions

  • I use Pacific Naturals soups, because they are GF. Campbells, store brand, or others work fine if you don’t have food intolerance.
  • You can certainly reduce the amount of cheese or use reduced fat.  Or mix the cheese types.  I used sharp cheddar and Monterrey jack this go-round.
  • Dan’s mom likes to use flour tortillas.  I’m not a fan of that method, the traditional way is with corn.  Some people even use tortilla chips.  I like the oven to make the edges and tortillas sticking out crispy, so I don’t do the chips thing either.
  • I cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot on Sunday and used most of it for this.
  • You can put it together the day/night before and just cover with foil and bake when you want to eat it.  I’d recommend baking a little longer if you do that, because the sauce will be cold before you bake it and it may need a little extra time to heat throughout.  It you make it and bake it all at the same time, the sauce will be hot before you put it in the oven.
  • Good with mexican rice, salad, beans, or just about anything!
  • Weight Watchers Points will vary on the type/brand tortillas, soup, and cheese you use.  As I made it, for 6 servings, it was 6 P+ each.

It’s been a hard week

11 Friday May 2012

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And i’m not just whining about work.

Tuesday it stormed all day long.  Canceled our run and while the core group was happy because no one wanted to get out in the traffic disasters, some were not.  Had to deal with backlash from that.  I started feeling poorly around 2 that day, which only compounded as time went on.  Add in the fact that my usual 30 minute commute took 1.5 hours in the sloppy weather, not happy.  Unplanned day of rest.

Wednesday I woke up weak with a sore throat, chalked it up to running out of Allegra.  All day work conference went fine, got through my first of FIVE presentations in three days.  Mandatory happy hour after work with our 200 guests (which I found out about at 5 pm), got home at 8.  I attempted a run then, and was paranoid the whole time.  Heavy legs and weakness that I thought would pass and never did.

Same old story Thursday.  Same sore throat and weakness, despite more Allegra.  Three more presentations down, all before lunch.  Could barely walk by the end of the day.  I am glad Dirty River Boys at Shady Grove got cancelled due to weather, because I was DEAD.  I lied around and got caught up on work emails and was lazy instead that evening.

Friday, allergies better, but the weakness is not.  I am convinced now that the issues come in cycles.  This is the worst joint and muscle fatigue i’ve had in a while (proceeding weeks were fine or just joints).  I am trying to convince the Dr. to let me do blood and urine tests when I feel this coming on again.

There were positives too, despite how my body felt, mentally I felt GREAT!  Dan is done with classes until the fall.  I got to see many great coworkers from all over the great state of Texas.  Was overwhelmed by the compliments I received on my work from people I’ve either never met or seldom see.  Tons of great feedback on my LUNA events I helped put on last week.

Fingers crossed for a good weekend and getting more strength back.  Yard work and house chores planned, although its SUPER muddy outside and there is more rain predicted tonight.  I need to finish the giant mess I made in our backyard a few weeks ago ;-)

Power of a Word

11 Friday May 2012

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Loved this from Heather :-)  It made me laugh that there are so many words that annoy people.  I have my words too that just irritate or annoy the heck out of me…

Here are a few:

  • nom
  • yummers
  • hubster
  • preggers
  • yada-yada-yada
  • negative (instead of saying no)  It’s especially irritating when my sister or her bf say it in a valley-girl type voice
  • boogies, booger, snotties
  • any slang word for women’s body parts

Dan and I actually share a bunch that I can’t even remember off the top of my head. I know on a frequent basis, these words are used on Facebook or Twitter and he’ll rant over them and we’ll laugh.
And then there are those words that I make up or use wrong that irritate Dan. Like calling someone “a ghetto”. Like, “OMG, that girl is such a ghetto, look at those shoes!”. I don’t pull that one out often, unless we are at Walmart or in San Antonio.
I can only imagine the words that I use or make up that must annoy people other than him and they just don’t say anything ;-)

Monday mayhem

30 Monday Apr 2012

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Today was a case of the Mondays for sure!

It started off well, hit the gym for some cardio cross on the stairmill.  I paged through 5 magazines briefly and then donated them to the gym’s stash.  I am uninterested in most of them, but felt I should at least page through them (I did rip out a few pages I wanted).   I need to not renew any magazines, I never read them.

Speaking of reading, I read Dan’s book on the trip in 2 sittings.  All In by Gene Chizik is a great book.  Yes, it’s about football, but it’s also about life, obstacles, and faith.  Even if you don’t like football, you can take away some great spiritual and life lessons from the book.  And, haha, Dan is still not even 1/3 of the way through the book.   I hadn’t even planned on reading his book, but once I read 2 pages, I was hooked.  I need to go ahead and buy some books to read and commit to reading them.  I love reading and I just don’t anymore.

Anyhow, back to Monday.  Got to work extra early, only to discover that my PC was dead.  Had to wait an hour for 8 am to roll around to call the help desk, which wasn’t helpful.  An hour later they came and took my PC, and I never saw it again.  Right before lunch I borrowed a company laptop (I don’t usually take mine in).  I’ll be taking it the rest of the week just in case.

In the 2 hours of waiting this morning, I ran errands to other buildings and got to see many old coworkers friends.  Made me realize I need to visit more often, I miss my friends in my old office.

In the afternoon I got an email with a mug shot, the face being someone I’ve done business with (not work related).  Nice.  Charged with theft.  Fabulous.  I tried doing more research on that, nothing determined yet.

As if my head didn’t hurt already from the morning, my coworker apparently has chosen to avoid a certain customer’s calls for a while.  That person got transferred to me and I got yelled at for 45 minutes.  This man was so mad that he couldn’t even catch his breath on his rant.  I felt badly that he was ignored, but the more I spoke to him, the more I figured out he was half crazy.  I handled it well, but it wasn’t pleasant.  Said coworker wasn’t there today, it’s probably a good thing I’m out of the office tomorrow, or I may actually say something to them.

Plus side is, although my back is sore, the rest of me feels better.  No more burning in my hands and my energy level was good.  My fingers are crossed that it stays that way :-)  I’ve got a busy week ahead with tons of work and after work special events, I need all of the healthy I can get!

Catch Up

29 Sunday Apr 2012

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I don’t think I’ve ever had such a rough week coming off of vacation.  #1 reason I think is that my mind was still thousands of miles away!

The end of this past week was rough for me and i’m still feeling it.  Joint and muscle aches I couldn’t shake.  It started Thursday and is still around.  I can’t trace it to anything, although I wish I could.  The worst is in my hands, which is very odd to me.

Worked the Texas Round-Up 5K Expo on Friday afternoon (worked Friday morning), which was a nice change of pace.  I like working expos whether it be for work or running events.  I’ve become so much better at engaging people about whatever the topic is at hand.  I was exhausted afterwards and was falling asleep between in traffic on my way to see Toy Story 3 on Ice with my girl scouts and my sister.

I did end up running the 5K on Saturday, it was the 6 year anniversary of my sister and I doing our first, which was the same race.  I chose to help her PR, which she did by 30 seconds.  Very proud of her.  It was a warm and not-flat course.

Gearing up for another busy week ahead.  Did a little meal prep today and tore up my back yard while Dan was gone.  I’m glad it’s dark outside and he can’t see the mess I made, lol!  I think I bit off a little more than I could chew.  It’s hard to rip up mass amounts of St. Augustine sod!

Eventually maybe i’ll get some vacation blogs up.  I’d hoped for that to happen over the weekend, but I was too busy working on race stuff, chores, and catching up on everything!

Medical update…or lack thereof

27 Friday Apr 2012

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While on vacation, my local Dr. finally called me back about the tests done in Houston in March. It was 3 am Hawaii time, lol! Unfortunately, the nurse didn’t say much.

I played email and phone tag with them all of this week to get more information.

She said that she thought the cortisol level would be the explanation.  The MD Anderson results did not prove this. She said in interim we watch the pituitary lesion and the cortisol level. I go back and get retested here for the same things in June and September.

I asked her about my estradiol levels being off and being that of a post-menopausal woman. She said that I can go on back BC pills and see if that levels it off. Guess i’ll be trying that. Because really, if my body’s hormones are off, that isn’t helping me any.

So I guess I sit and wait some more. I’ve been feeling better for the most part, but I still have my days.  I felt better in SF and Hawaii, likely because there was ZERO stress in both places.  This week hasn’t been bad, until yesterday.  I went to bed at 7:45 pm, hit snooze for an hour this morning (not like me), and felt stiff and tired.  Needless to say, there was no run.

Trying to be optimistic, but it’s hard.  Not really a fan of being told “sit and wait”.

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