20lbs lighter!

It's official, I've lost 20lbs. I still have a long way to go, but I'm super happy with myself. The last few weeks I've "fallen off the wagon" so to speak due to moving and having my wisdom teeth out, but I haven't gained anything back, so that's good.
My knees are finally feeling better again, so I went for a run/walk. I only did an hour, as I had to push the baby which makes me way more tired than just running on the treadmill alone. It is so much easier to run on the treadmill than it is to run out on the street.
Since we had to move to the Bangor area due to Dew getting a new job, I've been commuting to the Portland area during the week. A good friend of mine lets me stay with her, which is good.
I'm pretty happy to be at the new house, I can have a garden again, and it's right near the woods, as a matter of fact thats all you can really see out my bedroom windows, which again, I love.
The dogs are super excited about being there too. This past weekend we started building the Shed. We got the floor all put together and mapped out.

Last week my half sister contacted me after seeing me at the drug store. It was completely unexpected. Apparently I turned around (she was in line behind me), I smiled and walked away. I've never even seen as much as a picture of her, so I wouldn't have a clue that this was her. She knew it was me however, and went and looked me up on my facebook. It was a pleasant surprise. Someone had apparently told her that I wanted nothing to do with her, and I just figured if she wanted to talk to me she would have made contact since she had made contact with my sister. My sister went to lunch with her, I wonder if my sister is the one who told her that I didn't want anything to do with her? Unfortunately I could see my sister saying something like that. Oh well.

If we never had to move, I never would have been staying out here with my friend, and so would not have been at that Walgreens that night. It was obviously meant to be.

I can't wait till this semester is OVER.

I found a farm I can ride at, I can't wait. I need to get on a horse again! It's so stressful not to be able to ride.


Miss Kyra is doing well. She is getting so big! She is 10months old, and is in the 90-95th percentile for height! She is babbling a lot now, and gorilla crawling all over the place. She even climbed up a set of stairs the other day. She refuses to eat "baby food", so she gets toddler meals for lunch at the sitter :D. Tonight she had half a chicken breast and a sweet potato/corn/black bean stir fry for dinner. She loved it! I thought it was pretty tasty too.

Miss Kyra 6 months old

Hypothyroid

I found out this week that my blood test came back showing that I was Hypothyroid. I've been doing a lot of research on the subject, and it looks like there are a lot of things I should avoid in my diet to make things better. No Soy, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Corn, Gluten, and Red Meat just to name a few. I don't eat a lot of red meat any way so that should be an okay thing. Corn and Broccoli are some of my favorite vegetables, so they will be hard to eliminate. I figure I can have them every so often.

It's a little frustrating to think that I've just now been diagnosed, and ALL of these things that I've had issues with for YEARS now are all due to being hypothyroid. I've been treated off and on for depression which is linked to hypothyroid. I've had headaches and migraines for quite a few years now. I even had an MRI a couple years back about them. The doctors couldn't find anything, and just assumed that since I was in college they were stress related. I complained about being tired all the time. So they sent me in for a sleep study, they determined I did not have sleep apnea, but probably was just a problem with Seasonal Affective Disorder....again more anti-depressants. Abdominal cramping, the weird *gas bubbles* under my ribcage, my dry skin, joint and muscle soreness, weight issues, ALL of it are symptoms of an under active thyroid.

I have been wondering how long ago they could have tested me for this and it would have resulted in a positive test? I found a study stating that if you have elevated TSH levels but normal T4 levels then most likely you were sub-clinical for hypothyroid, and that most people with this result will test positive for hypothyroid at some point in the future. That it was a matter of "when" and not "if". What I find *really* interesting about this is that when I was 16 I was tested and was told I had the elevated TSH, but the T4 were fine. It was about 2 years after that point that I started having issues with "depression" and weight gain. I'm wondering now if they had retested me at that point if I would have had a hypothyroid at that point.

I know there isn't much use on focusing on such things that can not be changed, but part of me knows that I could have lived the last 10 years very differently. I think that I'm a fairly active person (more so before I had the baby...she makes it hard for me to get out and really work with the horses and such. She's 6 months old now BTW), and now that I'm taking the synthetic thyroid hormone, hopefully it will be easier to get back into shape. I've lost a LOT of muscle tone after the C-section and Gallbladder surgery.

So the future will tell how this all will work out. I'm hoping for the best. I meet with the endocrinologist in a couple of weeks to find out more about the whole thing, but I think that I've learned quite a bit just by the research I have done on my own.

On a lighter note, I've signed up for classes, they start August 30th....Within the next couple of years I'll be a Nurse! Hopefully!

4 1/2 months

This week I turned 28 :) Miss Kyra (aka: the "urchin" or the "duette") is 4 1/2 months old. She is a happy little baby, and reminds me of a guinea pig. Randomly squeaking and doing an all over body quiver jump thing. Right now she rocks the jenny jump up and watches the kitties wrestle. She has figured out that her new toy will make noise if she moves the little joy stick. The toy is for 6+ months so its pretty good that she is making that distinction already.

This week she really has started to look like a "big" baby to me. Before she was still too much of an infant if that makes any sense. She's also been gaining weight like crazy. For about 3 weeks she hadn't gained anything (only 3 oz) and it was freaking me out, so I started to supplement with formula....and because of that she's gained nearly a pound a week for the last 3 weeks! It's been insane, but she is so much happier now. Naps can still be a bit of a challenge, we are attempting to nap right now.....and there is a lot of fuss going on. but she's tired. You can see it in her face, hear it in her voice, and she keeps rubbing her eyes.

I've finally made the decision and jumped in the water so to speak. I applied to Nursing school, and it was full.....but taking classes anyways. Starting in September. I know that over the last year or so I've been talking about potentially doing this or that. I jut want job security and I believe nursing is the ticket! So we shall see how it goes. I'll be taking micro biology and other such classes I haven't taken yet that I will need to take to get the degree. Which thankfully will only be like 2 years due to having my BS in Animal Veterinary Sciences. I have to take the "human" classes :)

Pumpkin shirt

February 25, 2010 was when these photos were taken :)