Quick Update

Last week Scott traveled. He left before 6 am on Tuesday and made it home just after 5 pm on Thursday. He drove to Rexburg then on to Pinedale, Wyoming. We fared pretty well while he was gone.

Saturday we had our neighbors, the Masons, over for a firepit dinner of hot dogs and smores.

Sunday we went to church. As I dropped Aaron off at primary, I told him to be his very best. When I picked him up 2 hours later, his primary teacher told me, "He totally redeemed himself this week. He was so reverent and answered all the questions. He was great!". Ok, so I guess we don't need to go inactive yet.

This week is spring break. We are going to head to Aberdeen tomorrow afternoon (we have to wait til then because Scott has a meeting tomorrow he has to attend). We'll stay through Sunday and get to celebrate Easter with G'ma and G'pa Sorensen. The kids are having a hard time waiting. It wouldn't be so bad if we were doing fun things in the meantime, but we aren't. I had hoped to go to the zoo, to some parks, etc. But the weather is horrible this week and we are trapped indoors. It actually snowed yesterday. Our whole yard was covered in a wet, sloppy snow for about an hour. So we are just hanging out inside, watching movies and trying to clean (well, the kids aren't so much). Today is going to be a bread making day. The kids usually have a lot of fun helping me knead and shape the loaves, so just maybe we'll have a successful day today.

Cousins, Fire Trucks, and Little Cheeks

We've had a fun week. On Thursday, my cousin Kristy and her family came to visit from Twin Falls. Savannah and Josh had school, but Sara, Aaron, Nate and I met them in the morning at the Discovery Center and spent time together exploring. We took a break for lunch and played at the park that's nearby. After eating and playing, Sara stayed with them to do more exploring, and I took my two little boys home for naptime. Thursday evening the kids had a wonderful time playing together. Kristy has three kids (Zoey 10, Clay 7, and Mason 3). My kids loved having them here. On Friday Josh and Savannah reluctantly went to school, but as soon as they got home, they resumed playing. While they were at school, Kristy and I took the other kids to the park for a couple of hours. It was great having them here. They headed back to Twin Falls Friday after dinner. After they left, Scott and I had a babysitter come watch our kids, and we went to an open house for our old Stake President and wife who are headed to Russia on a mission.

Saturday we took the kids downtown and had a picnic at Julia Davis Park and let the kids play for a while. Then we all went to the Discovery Center (because Savannah and Josh had missed going on Thursday). After the Discovery Center, we drove past Scott's dad's office to see if he was there (it's just a block away from the Discovery Center). As we turned the corner to the office, we saw a big ladder fire engine set up just across the street from Scott's dad's office. We pulled into the parking lot and the kids lined up on the sidewalk to watch. The fire truck had all four supports out and had the ladder extended about 70 feet in the air. It was pretty impressive. One of the firemen noticed this new little audience, and he walked over to explain to the kids what they were doing. They were just doing training (they do it on the weekend when there aren't people working in the office buildings). He told the kids everything they wanted to know. After a bit, they retracted the ladder back down, and another fireman came over to talk to us. He was carrying a red bag, which the kids soon learned contained coloring books, stickers, and temporary tattoos. The kids loved it. Then the other two firemen headed over, so we had four firemen, totally decked out in fire suits, there catering to our kids. And then one of them walked back to the fire truck, and backed it up to where we were and opened it up for the kids to climb up and sit in. They also opened up the sides of the firetruck and showed the kids some of their tools. It was awesome!!! These men were so wonderful to take the time to make my kids' day.

Today was church. It was one of those days that makes me not want to ever go back. In sharing time, they were doing a demonstration on tithing with apples, and had volunteers up at the front of the room helping. Aaron was one of those volunteers. In the middle of it, Aaron turned around, dropped his pants, and mooned the entire junior primary. His story was that he had an itch he needed to scratch. I was mortified when the primary president came to tell me. Scott pulled him out of primary and had a good long talk with him, and I don't think he'll ever do that again. But, how embarrassing!!! Word spread fast of what "the Howell kid did in primary", and all the other adults/parents found it hilarious (because it wasn't their kid that did it). I seriously just don't want to ever show my face at church again!

Spring (we hope)!

So on Saturday, it snowed. And the wind blew 100 miles an hour. It was very cold....Yesterday the weather was beautiful! It hit 60 degrees. So I mowed our lawn! And the kids played outside. It was so nice. Today it is supposed to hit 65 degrees! So as soon as Josh and Savannah step off the bus, we are all heading to the park and we are going to play and play and play. Happy days are here again (aka Spring)!!!

UPDATE: We spent three glorious hours at the park. Scott picked up Happy Meals on the way from work and brought them to us at the park. The kids are tired and happy!

Easter Skirts

I decided that this year instead of making Easter dresses, that I would make Easter skirts. I found an easy pattern on a friend's blog, and a few weeks ago, Savannah and I went fabric shopping. She picked out the pink and brown fabric. This week I got around to sewing. I got the brown and pink skirts made on Tuesday, and then decided they weren't very Easter-y. So on Wednesday I went back to the fabric store. That time I had Sara with me, and she couldn't decide between two fabrics, so we got both of them. I just finished sewing the 6th and final skirt. Now I just have to decide which to save for Easter. What's your vote?

Good-Bye Grouchies

We've all been a bit grouchy lately. We've all been yelling, fighting, complaining, yelling, fighting, and....well, you get the picture. So, this last Saturday, I decided we needed a day of fun to try and cheer everyone up. I was supposed to be doing a 14 mile run, but that would take a good chunk of our day (2 1/2 hours and more), and I'm already a week ahead in my training schedule, so I blew off running for the day. And instead, we packed up all the kids into the suburban and we went to the zoo. It was a beautiful day and it was just what we needed. The kids had a great time seeing the animals. I didn't take any pictures because I tend to ruin things when I'm concerned about getting the kids to pose just so for pictures. So, I left the camera home and just enjoyed watching the kids. After we had seen all the animals we wanted, we headed home. Josh has been begging to have a fire pit, so that's what we did. We roasted hot dogs and had smores and enjoyed our first backyard camp fire of the year. At the end of the day, we let the kids have a sleep over in the bonus room all together. It was a fantastic day, and has seemed to help with the overall mood of the house. Now if only it will last.

Medical Breakthrough

I had an appointment with my endocrinologist yesterday. It's been a year since I started thyroid medication and overall my health has greatly improved. But, there are still some things that I think could be better, so I took a list with me yesterday so I wouldn't forget what I wanted to discuss. My thryroid levels were right where they should be, meaning that I should be feeling good, so I pulled out my list.

First on my list was how pregnancy affected my thyroid levels. The short amount of time I was pregnant, my thyroid was thrown way off. She said that some doctors will just up your dose the minute a pregnancy is confirmed, others will wait for blood work to show the levels being off. She said some people have no effects in pregnancy and others have to double or triple their dose of thyroid medication when they are pregnant, especially during the first trimester. She said that with the way my body reacted with this latest pregnancy, that she will probably just up the dose as soon as I know I'm pregnant, and then follow up with blood work from there.

The next thing on my list was my arms falling asleep at night. Every night several times a night, I will wake up with my left arm totally asleep past my shoulder. I assumed the poor circulation went hand in hand with my being cold all the time (you have cold hands/feet because of poor circulation). She said that next time I do blood work, she wants to check me for a B12 deficiency (which causes numbness). She said that because I have one autoimmune disorder (Hashimoto's), it opens me up to a bunch of other autoimmune disorders (one of which manifests in a B12 deficiency). So, we'll see what comes of that. She also said that I could just have poor circulation because my blood pressure is consistently low (yesterday it was 100/60). Low blood pressure means your heart doesn't pump as hard, which can effect circulation.

The last thing on my list was weight loss. I feel like this is always my complaint when I go into my appointments, but it's a big deal to me. I live in a town where there is A LOT of emphasis on how you look. I also married into a family where I am painfully aware of how much bigger I am than them. So I do everything I possibly can to try and lose weight, with very little success. I explained to my doctor that I was running 45 minutes a day three days a week and then doing long runs (10 plus miles) on Saturdays--I'm doing A LOT of running. In all my other time I am running around taking care of 5 kids and a big house. I get a lot of exercise. And I'm eating nearly nothing. If I eat 1400 calories I maintain my weight. If I eat any more, I gain weight. In order to lose weight, I have to cut back to 1000 calories, which I can't sustain for very long because my body is starving. I only allow myself dessert once a week. And my idea of a snack is 6 plain almonds and a glass of water. I just don't get it. I don't understand how my thyroid level can be right on and I still am having such a hard time losing weight. All of a sudden, something clicked with my doctor. She said, "Wait, you were diagnosed with PCOS, weren't you?". Then she threw her hands in the air excitedly and said, "That's it! I've got it!". She asked if I'd ever been on Metformin. I said I hadn't. "Ok," she said, "I'm almost certain this is the answer." As she started to explain, everything started to come back to me. I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) 10 years ago. At the time, I did extensive research about it. People with PCOS are at a greater risk of developing diabetes and have an extremely hard time losing weight, essentially making it a double edge sword--in order to fight off diabetes, you need to lose weight, but it's nearly impossible to lose weight. At the time, my biggest concern was the fact that PCOS makes it very difficult to get pregnant, and at the time we were struggling with trying to have our first baby. Over the past 10 years, I've given the diagnosis very little thought--till now. She explained that people with PCOS can have what is very similar to "pre-diabetes" where their body can't process insulin, causing a build up of extra insulin, which then turns to fat. She said it's nearly impossible to loose weight when that happens. She said that Metformin is a diabetic drug which aids in the breakdown of insulin. She said they use it with PCOS patients also. She's pretty sure this is going to be the key to my weight loss struggles. It should also help with trying to get pregnant. She said that for some reason, in PCOS patients, it increases fertility (it doesn't in diabetic patients). After trying to get pregnant for almost a year now, that sounds like a wonderful side effect. The drug information page that came from the pharmacy with my prescriptions lists the following under "other uses--It is also used in women with certain disease of the ovaries (polycystic ovarian syndrome). By helping your body to respond better to insulin, metformin may decrease the risk of diabetes, make menstrual cycles more regular, and increase fertility".

I came home from the appointment so excited and hopeful. I'm pretty sure Scott is a little tired of hearing just how excited and hopeful I am. Now I just have to wait and see if it works.