Friday 10 August 2012

Gluten Free!!!!

A friend of mine has started trying to eat gluten free as it helps her system. Mm, I've tried the gluten free pre-made chocolate cookies, they're so good! And the gluten free white cheddar mac and cheese. Wade didn't like it as much as I did, but he doesn't usually like any of the different things that I try to see if they help my stomach out. I did notice that the few days I was eating this gluten free stuff, I hadn't had any white bread, or anything that would contain wheat and possibly gluten, and it did me some good with managing my stomach! I enjoyed it a lot, it didn't taste too bad, but I'm wondering if the gluten free pasta alone doesn't taste too great, I'd had some before and it was mushy, and honestly it was gross. Thoughts?

The only downside to eating stuff that's gluten free is that it's so damn expensive, and when you have as much stuff going on as we do, it's not feasible.

We had this really nasty storm the other night causing our door to leak buckets of water into the house, under the laminate, and we had to tear up the laminate and rip up the floor to the house as it was soaked in water and moldy!! So now we're fixing it, it's drying out at the moment, we're going to put new boards in, and temporarily put the laminate back in but we've decided to tile in the entrance area as that way there's less chance of this happening again.

We're getting Sadie fixed tomorrow, that's a big bill! Something that needs done though, my friend is dog sitting her for the week and a bit we're gone to BC for our wedding, I'm very grateful to have such incredible friends!

And then there's the wedding, it's quite a big cost for everyone, but I can't wait for it, it's going to be incredible. Everythings picked out, picked up, and getting ready. We're working on the wedding favors slowly, it's a big and long process. DIY stuff is incredible though, and I really love it! Wedding party gifts should be in by next weekend I'm hoping, or this guy is cutting it really short and making me mad!

In September/October we have to put a new roof on our place, as it doesn't meet the mobile parks "standards" :( Ohhhhh well, we're also going to get IPHONE's in the fall! I can't wait for that, it will be awesome!

Surgery Averted!

Well over the past few weeks I though I'd torn the cartilage in my knee, I've been stressing and stressing about it, think about the surgery that's involved in that, and the recovery time, the time off work, the weeks and weeks of rehab after the surgery!

I went to the clinic this morning and the doctor poked at me knee and did some bending and what not of my knee too, and he concluded that it's the "patello femoral syndrome" that I've had since I was 14 years old, it's flaring up causing me all this pain! I cried myself to sleep last night, that's how much it hurts. Well he's given me some pain meds, ones that are stronger than advil! They're helping drastically, I'd been trying to stay off my knee, I got crutches, and wore my knee brace, did very little at home, but nothing was helping, and it was all for nothing! I'm extremely relieved that it wasn't torn cartilage! I did go for xrays but he didn't feel it was anything other than patello femoral syndrome! THANK GOD!

Our wedding is in 2 and a half weeks, I don't have time to be messing around with a surgery that would put me on bed rest for 2 weeks to immobilize my knee, light weight baring for 2 weeks, and then 21 weeks of rehab, there's no time for it! I will be playing volleyball this fall and winter with our team, I can't wait! I still have to do rehab but it won't be as serious!

On another note, everything is coming together for the wedding, or I feel like it is, I guess we'll find out when we get to BC the weekend before! It should be an interesting time getting the chairs, and everything all together! I'm getting really excited about it all, and for it all to come together the way I want it. I've had lots of ups and downs with friends and my bridal party, but I think those only make me stronger, even though I feel like giving up and not caring. It's my wedding, and will be my only wedding, I can't let a few people get to me now can I? That's letting people walk all over me, it's not fair.

Work has been very slow this week, and even more so today, only 2 hours and 45 minutes to go and I can head home, but that 2 hours and 45 minutes of sitting here doing nothing! I have no quotes, no jobs installing, no anything! And to top it off I forgot my damn book at home! Oh well, I guess I'll have to lay out and suntan while I read it as it's nice outside today!

Monday 6 August 2012

The Past Week...

I realize I haven't written in a week!! Work's been slow and I've been busy reading the "Fifty Shades" series! Getting lots of stuff ready for the wedding, doing tons of stuff around the house, trying to get the bridal parties gifts sorted out, watching a TON of the Olympics, currently watching Canada vs. USA!! Unfortunately Canada didn't win :( At least they can still go for bronze! I hope they get it!

We've had a number of storms over the last few nights, and I am sensing we will have one tonight. It's seeming like we get them when it's been really hot out, and it's been 27+ all weekend! It's been incredible, and the lightning in the storms is incredible! A video will be posted below.


I find it hard to blog every day, my life doesn't change enough each day for me to write about! Almost everything is ready for the wedding, just waiting on the bridal party gifts, have to get a few more things, the candies and such for the wedding favours, and I have to do up the table numbers!


A video of the incredible lightning and the sounds of the thunder is below! It's incredible, I've never seen lightning like this in our province!!! Every day that it's been warm, we've been getting storms like this, they're amazing, the lightning that's showing up, sheet lightning and strikes, the light in them is unbelievable.





Is there anything that anyone would like to see me post about? Or would like to know?

What's your favourite song? If you're married, what was your first dance song?

Ours is "God Gave Me You - Blake Shelton" it's going to be incredible. Wade is the most amazing man in my life, and the most amazing man I've ever met.

Monday 30 July 2012

The Weekend!

This weekend we attended our first engagement party and our first house warming party! Both for the same people, my lovely cousin CD, and his incredible fiancĂ© KY. It was fun, we got to see all of my aunt's and uncle's along with a bunch of cousins that we haven't seen in about a year, and wouldn't have seen for another 4 weeks.

Our wedding is in only 4 weeks, or only 33 days left! It's incredibly insane! I can't believe that in only 33 days, I'm going to marry my best friend, the man of my dreams, and the only guy that is keeping me sane. He's keeping me healthy by keeping me, well me. He's been keeping me calm, and very stress free. I know that I'm only staying healthy because I have him, so much has happened that it's driving me nuts, but there's some reason, some how that I am not going crazy with only 4 weeks left!


I know that life will only get better from here on out! Wade is incredible, he's been the most incredible guy in my life, helping me with absolutely everything I need help with, making my life what I want it to be, working his butt off to support me when i wasn't working from October-April. He's supportive in everything I do, and I'm supportive in everything he does. We've discussed starting to try and have a baby when I'm 24, and be in a new house, not a mobile home, when we're 25. WP's only 6 months older than me. I'm extremely thrilled about this, about all of it, I can't wait to start a family with Wade. Or even buy a bigger house! We've bought a new vehicle, a mobile, we've done so much, and have gotten so far in our lives, I'm extraordinarily proud of us and what we've accomplished.


What have you accomplished that you are extremely proud of in your life? Something you would like to share?


I've started reading "Fifty Shades of Grey", and I'm understanding why people are so in to it! All it is about is sex so far, it's rather interesting and hot, for being a book! I'm quite enjoying it so far.

Friday 27 July 2012

It's Friday!

Well, the end of the week has arrived! I cannot wait! I haven't been to the farmers market here in over 7 weeks because every weekend we've been out of town! It's been crazy busy for us. Tomorrow we're going to the farmers market and then heading to Calgary for my cousins house warming/engagement party! I cannot wait to see everyone! It'll be awesome!

We're ording the bridesmaids gifts this weekend too, they're all curious as to why I've been asking for lyrics, or a quote...well they've been told "never you mind" and will find out in approximately 5 weeks.

The process of getting married in BC, and living in AB is a lot harder. I can only do so much from here, and it's such a long drive to go out there for a weekend. We can't get our marriage license until the week before the wedding when we're in BC, because we both have to be present! :( So much to do, so little time. Only 5 weeks, and things don't seem to end by any means!

My close friend, who I consider a sister is working on getting her dress in, and getting a slide show done! I emailed her a ton of pictures over the last few days, along with some information that she may need to know about us! I'm super excited, we weren't going to have a slide show before now, unless I did it, and I don't have the time to get it done, not on top of everything else. Wade's been incredibly helpful with everything, but the list of to-do's for a wedding is never ending. You think you have stuff done, but then more things arise for you to do. I'm not sure how I haven't stressed myself out so bad to the point I'm extremely sick, and have a Crohn's flare up! But I have an idea as to why this is. Wade, he's been amazing, trying to keep me as stress free as possible because what fun is it when the bride gets extremely sick?!? Our wedding is rustic country themed, I can't wait! It's going to be awesome, we all get to wear cowboy boots, hats for pictures, play a "lasso for a kiss" game (any one want to know more, let me know), drink, have a pig roast and deep fried turkey for dinner, mmmmmm it's going to be so good!

I most likely won't write on the weekends, as I spend a lot of time with Wade, doing stuff that needs to get done! Weed the garden and flower garden, go to the farmers market! All kinds of things!

Thursday 26 July 2012

Life Today

Today has been really good! No stomach issues, got quite a lot of work completed, and a lot of jobs into production! Very very productive day today! It will be a productive day at home as well! So so much to do!

Had my three month review yesterday! Super excited about that! I get my benefits next month, 3 months ahead of time, and then I will get a raise around October! I've already had a bit of a raise, and a promotion, so I'm completely thrilled about all of this new news!

Not house work kind of stuff, just wedding stuff. More seating chart issues, have to reprint some of them, shuffle some people aroud, that kind of stuff. Have to scan in some pictures to my Maid Of Honor for the slide show she's creating! She's getting so much done for only having about 6 weeks to complete everything. My maid of honor that I initially had backed out due to stress! It's getting down to major crunch time, it seems like there is so so so much to do, it's unbelievable. It feels like we get a few steps ahead, but only to realize or feel like we're still a few steps behind, so much to consider, find, look in to, and resource! I will post pictures of the wedding when it happens! Also more about the wedding, and everything I will post.

Does anyone have a "Bucket List"? I was thinking about mine, with having Crohn's one never knows when things can take a turn for the worst. So far, I don't have much.

- Find an incredible man that treats me right - check
- Buy a house - check
- Start a family - we have a date/age set for when we want to start having kids, 2  years from now
- Buy a bigger house - we have a goal set for this, 3 years from now
- Nickelback Concert - I hear they are amazing!
- Go on the Calgary Tower!
- Take an airplane somewhere hot!
- Go on a helicopter/go heli-skiing - I've done both! - check



Other than that, I am a planner, I do want to do so much in my life, but I've already done so much with my fiance, Wade. We've gone to a Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames game, a Keith Urban concert, Calgary Stampede - 2 years in a row, Calgary Zoo, Ponoka Stampede, Caroline Rodeo and Dance. We've done so much, I've been to West Edmonton Mall water park, we stayed at Fantasyland Hotel. Attended bridal galas, won some stuff through them. We've seen Deric Ruttan, I've seen Thompson Square, both were private VIP shows. A lot has been experienced, but there's only a world full of experiences left!

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Mornings...

I find morning to be the worst time of the day for me! That and when I'm trying to lay in bed at night, I could lay there for up to three hours to fall asleep, it's horrible! Today isn't a good morning, the neighbours dog was outside barking his head off at 5:40am. It's barely even light out yet, he's yapping! It's incredibly ridiculous how much that dog barks!! Our dog barks, but nothing like the neighbours dog!


Mornings, it takes me forever to wake up, and forever to function properly! Generally I shower at night before I go to bed, and then I just went my hair in the morning to style it. Sometimes I barely feel like doing that. This morning however, was a full blown shower! So the hair styling was easy, now its getting dressed, doing my make up and finishing the "making lunch" process. It's terrible, I'm beyond ridiculously tired in the morning, not motivated to do anything. Some mornings I get up earlier to straighten my naturally curly hair, and it seems that those mornings are better for me than others! Unfortunately I can't drink coffee, so that is out for me as a wake up helper!


Plus, this morning I don't want to go into the office because of what went down yesterday. My female co worker noticed something was up with our male co worker, he'd sat in his desk chair, with his computer turned on, playing on his cell for almost 45 minutes! He got a phone call and left. I'll give you some history, M (male coworker) has snooped through J's (female coworker) work emails when she wasn't there and found a "rant" email that she had said to a friend. He then brought it up with the general manager who is also M's best friend. Anyways they had a meeting, this was before I got there, and things were resolved.
So yesterday, J went and looked in M's emails because she knew something was up. Well sure enough there was an email in his sent folder, calling her skewed, and saying that she's already got me believing his ridiculous (obviously other words).


Quite honestly, I had formed this opinion before J had come back to work after her accident. He was ridiculous to work with, couldn't do anything for himself, just pushed everything on to the new employee that had no idea of how to do anything or even what was going on. Just ridiculous to work with, I'm not going to lie.


So I guess he got in big shit yesterday over the phone with the general manager as he'd sent this rude email to him. No idea what was said or if M will say anything, all I know is J and I are pissed beyond belief with him, because he also said a ton of stuff that didn't even make sense that we would do, or things that don't concern him!


Either way, I guess things will work themselves out, or J and I will quite possibly quit. We shall wait and see.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Life Changing Events

In the past few years, I've experienced a lot of life changing events. From moving to a new province, getting into my first accident, getting my first photo radar ticket (and only ticket ever), getting engaged, buying a house, planning a wedding, to becoming a God Mother <3

Moved to a new province with my fiance almost 2 years ago now! It was a big change as I'd stayed in a close radius to all family, now I'm miles and miles away from them, which is okay with me! We got a rental, and a roommate moved in with us! Nothing special happened, until one morning, I was on my way to my clients house, in my fiance's truck as he was working up north, and someone cut me off on a corner, in the middle of winter, I hit the ditch, and it felt not that bad, but I got whip lash, and had to take some time off work, well that time off turned into me resigning as my company did not care about the well being of their staff, and requested that I go back to work immediately.

A few weeks ago, I got my first ever ticket in the mail! I've never been pulled over by the cops, or gotten a photo radar ticket, until now. Photo radar, 15kms over the speed limit, which I find funny because if you passed a cop on the highway going 15kms over the speed limit, THEY DON'T CARE! Stupid ticket, but no demerits. 

I already told you a bit about getting engaged. So I don't feel it's necessary to go into any further details about our engagement or our wedding yet.

I was laying in bed one morning, and one of my closest friends text me, a very odd text. Asking if I went to church, if I was baptized, those kinds of questions. I knew what she was getting at as she'd just had a little girl. Kathia is her name. She's adorable, and when I saw pictures I was instantly in love. A later text asked me to be Kathia's god mother! I was instantly overwhelmed, excited, thrilled, and so in love with this little girl! In May 2012, I got to meet her for the first time. She was 3 months old when I met her, and oh my goodness, the most adorable baby I have ever seen. I held her, and looked after her to give momma a break! I even got her to have a few more naps than usual, although they're only 20 minutes long at a time, they're still some naps. I made her a quilt, and a Hello Kitty painting.

News Today

No problems with my stomach today! Well not yet anyways. Today at work, it's been crazy. Lots of shop drawings to get out for approval, and lots of issues with them. Also some issues amongst staff, issues that don't actually exist to two out of three of us. I'm not going to go into detail.

Got an oil change in my SUV over lunch break, and had to make an appointment to go and see the dealership mechanic as it has something leaking :( Not impressed by that, but oh well, nothing I can do.

Sadie didn't push my buttons this morning like she usually does, she runs away from me when I go to put her in her kennel, she growls at me, bites at me. I don't think she really likes me, she's testing me as she's not fixed and she's a female. Instead today she crawled right into her kennel and went to sleep :)

I got this microwave omelette maker for my bridal shower, this morning I thought I would give it a shot, opened it too soon and steam burned myself. On the flip side, it was delicious! I always put a little bit of cream cheese in with the eggs, even when I do scrambled eggs, it gives them a bit of a different taste, and it's quite enjoyable. Should give it a try! I've got lots of different things that I make, or my own special recipes for stuff, like Parmesan Chicken Cordon Bleu, you'll have to ask for this one. It's a favourite of anyone I've made it for!

Was searching through some DYAC this morning as we haven't been getting our daily comics at work. I found this.


funny auto-correct texts - TMI

Monday 23 July 2012

Life Today

Today, life is great. I just finished getting over Gastroenteritis, which ultimately is just as painful as Crohn's flare ups are! It was intense, I had to work from home, I didn't feel like doing the drive to work, or even being near people.

For anyone who has had Gastroenteritis, it's not fun, and for those with Crohn's it's more painful for us!

I've been lucky however, only one flare up, no malnourishment, no surgeries, and only one hospital visit so far. I hope there are more people that are as lucky as I am when it comes to managing a disease such as Crohn's.

Work has been slow the last few days, so I haven't been doing too much. I've been able to concentrate on my bridal showers, weekends planned with my fiance, we've been busy for the last 7 weekends straight, and still have one more weekend to go before we have nothing planned on a weekend. Sleep deprivation is really getting to me, and bugging my stomach and digestion, I generally require about 9 or more hours of sleep a night to have a good day and to function at full speed!

Anyone else notice that?

Our Puppy!!


Meet Sadie! She's a Miniature Pinscher (Doberman). Very very high energy and athletism! It is truly unbelievable. She's only 8 weeks in this picture, but she is now 13 months old, and hasn't changed one bit, only in size!

Past Year in a Nutshell!

I was laid off from the job I was working as a Health Care Aid, as my health was becoming an issue with me making my night shifts. I didn't work for about 5 months. Tried to pick up some child care, to give me something to do. In August 2011, I enrolled myself in an online program for Administrative Assistant. Since then, I've completed the course, averaging 85%. Pretty good for an online course.

The hours are better, they don't cause many if any issues for me with Crohn's. I work 8-5 from Monday to Thursday and 8-4 on Friday's. My job is laid back, but extremely busy.

My finace proposed to me on May 19th, 2011. We've been planning our wedding ever since for September 1st, 2012. Things have happened in our families that are sometimes making things difficult, but the wedding planning experience for the most part has been extremely positive and stress free. I've come across some problems with wedding party, but each one has worked itself out, so everything is good. The part that I think most women stress about is that their fiance doesn't want to help plan! I will tell you now, my fiance has been absolutely incredible, came up with the idea for invitations, helped me design and make the seating chart, he helped put invites together, and did the address labels for them. He's been a key factor in helping with everything, from decisions, to picking stuff out, and picking it up. He's been extrodinary.

We bought our first house together, and moved in on Christmas weekend. I've never felt more involved, loved, cherished, and cared for by anyone than I do my soon to be husband!

Crohn's Flare Up :(

I've only ever had one flare up, minus the initial time I got sick. I went into the hospital and they gave me Asacol again to try. It helped a bit but not nearly enough, I went away for a weekend, and went back to the hospital when I got back, in which I was given two antibiotics to help kill the infection. They made me vomit and reacted, so I stopped taking them immediately. This all happened in January/February 2010

We went away for Valentine's Day weekend as it was my soon to be mother in laws birthday, and unfortunately I hardly ate, I slept the whole time, and spent a fair amount of time in the washroom. When we got home, I went in to the hospital yet again. I was put on an IV for the antibiotics they'd tried to get me to take orally, as well as a Prednisone drip. They tried me on a Potassium drip, but it just burned my veins. I did one treatment that night, and my fiance came and picked me up when he got off work at 11:30pm. He brought me back at 6am the next morning, and stayed with me for the 2.5hr course of the treatment. We went home and slept, we were tired, set an alarm for 11:30am as my next treatment was at 2:00pm, but I needed to go to the college and sort a few things out.

I hadn't showered in a few days, and my hand was stiff and not normal from the IV treatments, it was bandaged up as I still had my IV in. Everyone showed concern when I showed up, asked how I was doing, when I was going to be back, and what the hell was going on! I answered their questions, they all commented on my again, drastic weight loss, over 20lbs in only 15 days. My instructor wasn't there however so I left her a message, and my classmates brought me my homework over the next few days.

My days turned in to me laying on the couch, as still as possible, eating very little, drinking gatorade for the electrolytes, and eating the chocolate chip banana bread my fiance brought home for me from work. I did very little school work, and days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into well, a month and a week, of me doing so. By the time a month hit, I had started to go back to classes for half days, but was still extremely weak, and unable to concentrate. I got 99% on my exam the first week I was back! And I hardly did my school work! Impressed with myself again :)

Things smoothed out, I was on Prednisone daily to control my stomach but then started taking Acidophilus daily in which did the same things for me as Prednisone but wasn't at all damaging unlike Prednisone. I was on decreasing doses of Prednisone and I was thrilled! I didn't want to be on it by any means! School finished good, and I had no issues what so ever with my stomach after that flare up, even the stress didn't bug me!

Crohn's Treatment

Throughout the years, I haven't done much for Crohn's treatment, I tried a two week diet of gluten free (not my favourite at all!), a 2 week diet of dairy free (also not my favourite as I love cheese), and a few other two week diet experiments. None of which really seemed to help me at all.

I've never been on medication for Crohn's, not permanently. I've been on Asacol, well only for 1 month, just to see how it helped me, and I didn't notice much of a difference.


The treatment for me, is diet. I don't keep a food diary, I keep a memory bank of what I eat that ends up bugging me. There's lots I don't eat because it affects my stomach and there's lots I don't eat because I just don't like it. There's also various ways I can eat certain things, that I can't eat raw. Below is a list.


Avoids:


- spicy food (but because of my love for it, I have it once a year)

- cabbage, lettuce
- cauliflower
- raw tomatoes (can have ketchup, tomato soup, and clamato juice)
- raw onions (can have them cooked or deep fried in onion rings)
- most raw vegetables, carrots especially - I can eat anything if it's steamed or cooked
- rice milk (doesn't agree with my tummy, but I can eat all the rice I want)
- soy products (they bug my tummy, soya sauce is excluded from that list)
- 3.25%, 2% milks (don't agree with my tummy, but can handle 1%, and chocolate milks)
- aged and old cheddar cheeses (too strong for my tummy, can have marble, light, and medium cheddars, as well as mozza)
-grapefruits, oranges (allergies)

Right now, as you can see, my avoids are small. This I feel is a very great accomplishment that I have it narrowed down and that it isn't actually that much that I need to avoid. I eat almost everything my fiance eats, I can go to restaurants, even though I sometimes pick things off of my order, for personal choice mostly :)


One thing I do avoid for the most part is drinking alcohol. When I do drink, which is about 4-5 a year, and I'm talking heavily drink, I pick a drink and stick to it all night. Generally it's Vodka and 7Up or Sprite, I rarely get hangovers if I do this, even if I drink over half a 26oz. in one night. Stay away from beer as the yeast content is extreme.

My Crohn's History

All of the websites out there now-a-days say what people with Crohn's Disease should and shouldn't eat. I can tell you right now that I don't live off of what a website about Crohn's Disease has to tell me that I can and cannot eat.

Want my history?

I first got really sick at Christmas 2006, I was 16 at the time, ended up in the hospital, lost over 15 lbs in a week, that kinda thing. Enlarged liver, not hungry, not thirsty, really dehydrated and skinny, in severe stomach pain with vomiting and uncontrolable bowels. They did all kinds of blood tests. Where I'm from, it's small, they don't have all the equipment to do much more than just blood tests, but I tell you, they did almost every blood test possible within a months time. A few days later I was rushed to a near by city hospital for an ultrasound which showed nothing, except that my liver was enlarged.

I started getting better, slowly, no sports, no gym class, no high physical activity because my liver was still enlarged, and I was still in a lot of pain. I slowly gained back a bit of my weight, missed a few weeks of school after Christmas break.

They did another round of blood tests, to test things in my muscles, and basically to test everything they possibly could by blood. Still nothing showed up. I got better, and went on with life. A new doctor came to our town, and I went in one day because I was having the stomach pain, decreased appetite, and decreased need for fluids. She asked what tests I was sent for, and there was none. Then became the summer of tests, only 3, but long ones, and weird ones, along with my parents trying to get us moved.

I first had one of those tests where they hook you up to an IV, inject some dye into your veins, and they have an xray type machine circling you, 3 hours later on a hard metal bed, these scans showed nothing. Disappointed with the results, my doctor sent me for some scopes. These came back as having inflammation in my gut, but it wasn't localized, therefore the root of where my Crohn's is sitting, is undetermined still almost 6 years later.