My First Design

So here's something i've been working on. This is my first knitting design.


Yarn: Paton's UpCountry, colorway is "Red Nancy" and was hand-dyed by Celena (that would be me) and let me just say that I am in love with this yarn. I've heard it may have been discontinued so i'm going to have to look into it. I did find a place to buy it online although thier shipping fees are outrageous so I'm going to keep looking.

Needles: US 15

Pattern: my own design, to be shared later

Here it is pre-felted. I just love, love, love how the color turned out. It is exactly what I was hoping for. I'm so excited about this. (I hope the recipient is half as excited as I am)


And here it is post-felting.

ps ... this is a hint of what is to come in the "crafty news" department

Bugaboo Fire Update

So they just closed 90 miles of both I-10 and I-75 surrounding Lake City. Part of 441 has been closed for a couple of days. Hope nobody was planning a trip through LC today. The smoke cleared out some this morning but now it is back in full force. Fox News Channel is covering the fire so if you want to see some footage of the smoke and fire trucks, turn it on. Orlando Salinas is here covering the fire and is giving regular updates. Wish we made national news for a better reason than an out-of-control wildfire but so goes it. I feel bad for all the wildlife out there. You can tell the birds are hurting from the smoke. There are several that are hanging out on our porch today trying to get some relief. Lucky for them I have all the dogs in the house. They are quite the hunters these days. Rabbits, birds, squirrels, even a fox squirrel last weekend. I hate it but that's what they do. I was planning a trip to the gym and the cafe today for some quiet knitting time but it's gotten so smoky over the past hour that i'm going to stay home. Not the best idea to go drive around when you can't see 1/4 mile ahead of you. Unbelievably though, I just heard our neighbors lawn mower crank up! What is that guy thinking?!?!? Hope he's wearing a mask at least.

Wildfires

Click here for a map of existing Florida wildfires. It's getting pretty scary around here. Anyone know any of those native american rain dances?

Schools are closed. Roads are closed. Crews fighting fires elsewhere in Florida are being redeployed to Columbia County. The fairgrounds are full of emergency vehicles from all over in case the hospitals and nursing homes need to be evacuated.

Knitting & Project Linus

Here's a picture of a blanket I donated to Project Linus last week.

I've done some yarn dyeing and my results are promising so far. I've been knitting bags like crazy over the past two weeks. I'm actually designing one as well. I plan to post the pattern here once I finish it. I really want to start another pair of socks when i'm done with the bags but I have to finish the gift for my nephews first if they are going to get it anytime this year. :) I'm holding off on releasing my crafty news until I get some other things finished. More on that some other time.

For SP10 we were asked to blog about our favorite place to knit. My favorite place to knit is always changing. It is wherever I can get a few minutes of peace. I prefer for that to be in the comfy recliner in the picture above with the blanket on it but that doesn't always happen. I often end up knitting in the car. Not while driving, of course. If I head out somewhere in the afternoon the boys are likely to fall asleep so I make sure to always bring some knitting with me. That way if they fall asleep I can sit in a parking lot somewhere listening to some music or a book on CD and do a little knitting while they nap. May sound strange but it's one of the only times I get a little peace and quiet.

Here's a picture of booga bag #2, pre-felted. I absolutely love the colors. I don't think i've ever seen a yarn that fits me any better. In fact, I may just have to keep this bag for myself. ;)

Boyz in the Tub

Day Turned Into Night

all jacked up and nothing to do ... ha ha

Nothing to do ... ha ha ... when is the last time that happened? I always have something to do. More like several somethings. Most of them admittedly self-inflicted. Is that a word? Anyway, I just had a cup and a half of coffee so I could stay awake to do a wind load and energy report tonight. I made dinner, some yummy cabbage taco soup and fresh baked whole wheat bread, got the kids to sleep and got ready to hang in there for the long haul tonight. I got on the computer and opened the CAD file I was sent and guess what? It's an incomplete file. I should have about ten sheets and I only have four. Can't do much with that. Know what that means? Now i'm wide awake and couldn't go to sleep if I tried. So I get to sit and blog and load pictures and knit. Not such a bad thing after all. Kinda fits the day though ... it's been a strange one. If you have ever wondered what the end of times will look like, today was a bit of a peek ... or at least it felt that way to me. The big wildfire north of us has finally made it's way here. It was the strangest thing .. just like on monday but much worse ... in the middle of the afternoon it got dark as night out. I took some pictures and a little video clip to post here. On the news tonight they said the fire jumped the county line this evening. So it's officially made it's way to Columbia County. They expect it to reach I-10 sometime tonight and move down towards Gainesville. Know what's right in that path between I-10 and Gainesville? Yep ... us. Well all of Lake City actually. I don't think we have anything to worry about personally because there is a lot of town and open field between us and the fire. Still really eery around here. It was so much darker than monday when we had the similar situation of a smoke plume coming between us and the sun. The really strange thing was how it started to get light again around 7pm like the sun was coming up for the day as the smoke moved. Our dogs know something is up too. They didn't play at all today. They just layed around on the porch like lazy bones on guard.

This is stepping out the front door at four in the afternoon. See all the ash? And notice how dark it is?
See all that white stuff in the grass? Yep, that's ash too.


I took this picture while driving towards town. Four in the afternoon and everyone's headlights were on as well as all the street lights and business lights. I can't even begin to explain how strange it was to drive around town like this. When I stopped at the produce stand I had to brush the ashes off of me when I got inside.

I also took a short video clip at the house before I left that i'll post through photobucket once it's done uploading.

Here's a snippet of the latest fire update from the Lake City Journal.

Wildfires nearing Interstate 10 and U.S. 441; families evacuated from Deep Creek area

By Karl Burkhardt
Wildfires from Southern Georgia, which crossed into the corners of Columbia and Baker counties Thursday, swept southwestward and may reach Interstate 10 at U.S. 441 by 4 a.m. Friday morning. That area is the northern limit of Lake City and the site of the Target Distribution Center that is under construction.
Harvey Campbell, Emergency Management Information Officer, said a voluntary evacuation of about 20 families in the Deep Creek area, along Drew Road, began Thursday evening. By 10 p.m. the fire was only six miles north of Deep Creek and could reach that area by 2 a.m. People from an area 10 miles north of I-10 and east of U.S. 441 were sent to the Winfield Community Center.
Columbia County’s Emergency Management Center went to level 2 at about 8 p.m.
A dense cloud of smoke drifted over part of the county Thursday afternoon, from the Georgia border to Fort White. Streetlights, activated by light sensors, automatically turned on and drivers turned on their headlights.
Ash fell from the cloud of smoke. Looking like snow as it drifted to the ground. Many people reported sore throats, irritated eyes and difficulty breathing when the smoke blanketed the area.

Check the link above for the rest of the article. Also, here's a link to the SSD Fire Detection Program.

Not kid friendly but freakin' hilarious!

I got these in an email that said "Buttons we can't wear to work but want to". I thought they were too funny not to share. I usually try to keep things family friendly around here so excuse the language on this one.

Astronaut Photo of the Week

A little late but here it is ...

I cut out the good part here so you can see what you're looking for ...

YIPEE!

So I weighed myself on my way in to yoga class last night and i'm down another 2-1/2 pounds. I almost started doing the happy dance right there in the middle of the YMCA. That's 4-1/2 pounds in one month. I'm so happy to FINALLY lose some weight.

My accupuncturist said it sounds like I was detoxing when I got that wierd sick thing a couple weeks ago ... which is exactly what I felt like ... like my body had gone toxic on me. My lymph glands were all swollen and when I took a lemon bath to detox (like I usually do when I get that sick) I ended up with a rash .. which has never happened before. Also, since I wasn't eating my body had time to clear out all the preservatives and processed foods i'd been so bad about eating since Brody was born. That may just have been the jump start my body needed to start losing weight. He said it's good to get a fever once a year to kill off the latent viruses hanging out in your body. He said that's why you get sick when you get stressed. Because your immune system goes down and allows the latent viruses that have been hanging out to take over. So even though it was the worst sick I've been in many, many years it looks like it did me some good. Who would have guessed? He also said I finally have a kidney pulse .. which is exciting stuff for me! He hasn't felt a kidney pulse since I started going to him last year. He said it's weak but it's finally there so things are looking good. I'm feeling good, i'm eating super healthy, i'm losing weight and I finally feel like i'm getting back to my old self again. YAY! Now all I have to do is keep from getting pregnant again. :O

Today's breakfast: tomato-carrot-celery-apple-ginger juice
YUMMY! And I made it before Brett left so he got to have some too.

Lunch!

I just had the yummiest lunch i've made in a very long time. Spinach salad with mushrooms, fresh strawberries that I just picked from my strawberry patch, red pepper and a littlle blue cheese. I made some really yummy salad dressing too. I put some of my over ripe strawberries in a mini food processor with some raspberry balsamic vinegar. YUMMY!!! I have a new favorite salad dressing. :) I also had a sandwich with no-bean hummus, cucumbers and red peppers. Also very, very yummy.

Here's a link to an interesting article a friend sent me about toxins in the kitchen. Interesting point about the microwave. Brett and I always try to avoid the microwave. We probably use our toaster oven more than anything else. We both learned a lot about this type of thing after his mom was diagnosed with cancer. We couldn't fix the cancer but we learned all we could to try and help her. Obviously we weren't able to save her but we learned a lot to help ourselves and our kids will have a great start to a healthy life. That's something i'm proud to pass on.

Brody Forrest is 11 months old ...

Where did the time go? I can't believe he's going to be a year old in only one short month! I took this picture on monday when we were running errands. Houston was sleeping and Brody kept pitching a fit. I was afraid he was going to wake Houston up so I gave him the only thing there was to eat in the car until I could stop and get something else. There was part of a chocolate chip cookie that Brett got when we stopped for sandwiches on the way home from Amelia Island the day before. I gave Brody one little piece of it and he managed to get it all over his face and not even eat the piece of cookie. (you can see the piece of cookie on his seat buckle) I don't know how they manage to make such a mess with such a small amount of food ...

He is such a sweetie pie. He is so different than Houston in so many ways but then the same in others. I call him my little snuggle bug because he loves, loves, loves to snuggle. He thinks everything is funny and he takes about anything that Houston does to him without much fuss at all. He's very strong willed too. If he wants something or doesn't like something you'll surely know about it. Not because he cries ... nope ... it's more of a scream to get your attention with a flailing of the arms just in case you were not sure that he wasn't happy about something. He's almost walking. He stands up all over the place and walks along the furniture and around the kitchen with his hands on the cabinets. I'm sure he could walk if he just let go but he hasn't done it yet. Sometimes if he is really into something you hand him he will let go of what he was holding onto and doesn't even seem to realize that he's standing there on his own. If you try to make him stand on his own though he will throw one of those ear-piercing Brody screams your way. He waves bye-bye and he eats like a champ. I can hand him a whole banana and he holds it and takes bites like he's been doing it forever. And I have no idea how this happened but he is apparently a morning person. When Houston was a baby we would sleep in until nine-thirty or even ten some days. Not Brody though. He's up at seven-thirty every day. Doesn't matter what time he went to bed the night before. And not only is he up ... he's rarin' to go. I'm talking serious amounts of energy and squeels and laughter ... and screams if I don't get up with him. It's actually kind of nice because we have close to two hours together in the morning before Houston wakes up. Houston, like Brett and I, is a true night owl. And when he gets up he has about an hour or so of laying around before he really gets going. Brody is also way more vocal than Houston ever was. (which plays into the speech delay thing) He talks all the time. If he's awake, he's making noise. We joke around that Brody is going to learn how to talk and teach Houston. Speaking of which, Houston is making a lot of progress. Just in the past two weeks he's added a lot of words and they are much more well-pronounced too. He's started asking "why" all the time too which is cute at first and then just plain annoying. I ask him "why do you think" and he looks at me like i've got something sticking out of my forehead. It's pretty funny. He's also just started saying "mine", "you", "me" and "i do".

Look What We Did Yesterday ...

It wasn't as dark as I wanted it to be for the secret project i'm working on ... so this morning, back in the dye bath it went.

Raw Detox, Day 3

I made some yummy, yummy juice for breakfast this morning. I made extra so I could drink some before accupuncture and yoga tonight but it might not last until then. This stuff is sooooo good that I could drink all 12 ounces right now! It's been a long time since we've used the juicer. I was motivated to break it back out by Stephanie this past weekend and i'm so glad I did. I actually made some coffee before I got the juicer and all the veggies out but I ended up only drinking about a third of it. The juice was looking so good that I didn't want the yucky coffee anymore. I did really well yesterday with my diet. Note that I mean diet as in what food I eat and not as in restricting fat and calories. I don't diet in that way. It always sets me up for failure if I restrict myself from things. Then I end up chowing down late at night. If I fill myself up with lots of healthy stuff then I don't feel like eating crap later on. So for me it's not about how much I eat, it's about what I eat. So this morning i'm feeling great. We walked three miles last night and then had a yummy dinner of spinach salad and some stir-fried veggies with a little chicken. And today I have an accupuncture appointment at 5 and then on to yoga at 6:30. Know what that means? That means I get three whole hours of doing something for myself without kids in tow! Yay!!! This happens so rarely that I almost don't know what to do with myself.

And here's a picture of my juice. Why, you ask? Because it's my blog and that's what I do. :) It's tomato-spinach-carrot-celery juice and it is some yummy, yummy stuff. So yummy, in fact, that I think I have to go back for more when i'm done with this post. I made this mix up myself out of what I had in the fride but I plan on trying some different mixes in the near future. I have two juicing books that are really great. They give recipes based on what health problem you are trying to fix. The two books I have are "Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Juices" by John Heinerman and "Power Juices Super Drinks" by Steve Meyerowitz. I linked to Books-a-Million for each of those in case you want to check them out. I've had these books for about five years. Brett and I used to juice in the morning before work when we lived in Texas. What a great way to start the day. Makes you feel great and gives you way more energy than coffee does. Maybe i'll actually have the juice made before he leaves for work tomorrow and he can share in the vegetable energy yumminess.

Not Walkin' in That!

So yesterday I had a wind load to get finished before I could do anything else. I usually do them at night after the kids are asleep but I had to get this one done by lunch so the engineer I work for could get it turned in. It was a beautiful morning and I was feeling good about my raw food diet and I was excited to get out there for a walk and to go to the produce stand. I finally finished the wind load, took a shower and got myself and the boys ready. Well as I was getting ready I noticed the color of light filtering into the house had changed to sort of an orange color. I stepped outside to see what was going on and let me tell you ... I felt like I had stepped into the twilight zone or something. It's been smoky here for a few weeks now from the big fire in Georgia but this was something new. Not only was it extremely smoky and orange, there was actually ash falling all over the place. I was sure that Lake City was on fire somewhere. So much for walking. I couldn't even breathe very well while standing still. And the boys definitely don't need to be breathing that stuff in. So we headed out to the produce stand and I couldn't believe what I was seeing while driving around. It was two in the afternoon and the sun was out yet everyone was driving with their headlights on. Visibility on the road was about a half mile at the most. I had my camera with me, as usual, so I took some pictures. Note that I did not change the color of these photos at all. This was actually what it looked like outside yesterday. It got darker and even more orange the closer I got to town. The ash was really bad in town. I opened my window at the drive up atm and my truck was scattered with little white ashes almost immediately. I've seen a lot of wildfire craziness in this part of Florida but i've never seen anything like I saw yesterday.

Shrimp Fest & Raw Food

We went to visit our friends Andre and Stephanie in Amelia Island this past weekend. We went to Shrimp Fest on saturday. MMMmmmm ... shrimp! It's always great to hang out with some good friends. Andre and Brett and I have been friends for a long time. Actually Andre and I were friends before either of us knew Brett. The three of us are all fraternity brothers from college. Bunch of dorky engineers ... ha ha. Actually, we were the cool people ... or so we tell ourselves. And his wife Stephanie is a hoot. We have a lot in common and always have a good time. She's been doing the raw food diet which is something i've been interested in and have been trying to incorporate myself. We talked a lot about it and I read a bunch of stuff in a book she has called "The Raw Food Detox Diet". It even had a section on raw food detoxing while pregnant and nursing ... which is why I haven't gone all out with the detox yet. So yesterday the boys and I went and loaded up on produce from the produce stand here in town and I spent about three hours in the kitchen last night making some yummy raw food. I made salsa, guacamole, no-bean hummus and some really yummy sweet corn salad ... all made from raw foods. My goal is to eventually get to an 80% raw diet. Since i'm nursing i'm going to gradually work my way to that goal. That way the detox will happen slowly and Brody won't be slammed with toxins. I probably ate around 80% raw yesterday just because I was trying out so much new stuff. I'll have to eat more cooked foods today to balance things out. I want to start with about 50% raw for the first couple of weeks. I'm rearranging the kitchen counters today to make room for our juicer to sit out permanently. That way I can make fresh veggie juice each morning. Brett and I used to do that a lot when we lived in Texas. The life changes we have been through over the past few years have done a number on our diet. I never used to eat junk food or comfort foods or convenience foods. I never used to eat meat either. I truly feel that if I can cut out all the processed foods and refined sugars and give my body more live foods that I will have the energy I need to get motivated to exercise more regularly and to keep up with the kids. We eat so much junk in this country and so many people don't even realize how bad it is. Just look at the childhood obesity problem ... it's terrible. And cancer? And how many other things that we can link to our diet. Our body was meant to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Not packaged, processed, preserved, canned or even frozen.

Old Pictures

I'm having a blast looking through all these old pictures. Lucky you ... you get to take a trip down memory lane with me. :)

The wee little girl scout ...

My 18th birthday. Check out those eyebrows!

This is halloween '97. Cute, no?

This is '99. All of these people are mine and Brett's fraternity brothers. What I wouldn't do to have that stomach again. Talk about motivation!

Moon Chair

Yep, that's me!

Contrary to the look on my face, I really did have a great time at Space Camp. This was before they had the facility completely set up at KSC so we stayed in a hotel nearby (Howard Johnson) and were bused to the training site each day. The food was awful but other than that everything was great fun. My favorite was the moon chair. It's this chair type thing you sit in that basically lets you bounce around like you are on the moon. Lots of fun. I have a picture of myself in that chair somewhere around here. I'll see if I can dig it up.

This is a good one ... SPACE CAMP!

Me at Space Camp, Summer of 1989. Do you see me? I'll give you a hint. I was on team Mercury and our visors were purple. That and i'm the only one wearing makeup and earrings (a bit of a rebel yes, that was the beginning of a very rough year for me). I was a little older than most of the kids at camp. I was on a waiting list for a few years before I was accepted to go (or so i was told). They put all the older girls on one team though so I wasn't the only one. You can probably tell in the picture that the girls sitting near me are a little older than the girls in the other rows. I actually still have that purple visor along with my notebook from space camp and a few other things from that week. The camp counselors were all astronauts themselves. My counselor was David S. He's the cute one in the back row (on the left) and if I remember right he was also a navy test pilot. Wonder if he ever made it up ...

Looking through my space camp notebook now and there is a section about the space station and it's possible configurations. It was still called Space Station Freedom back then. I guess that's before NASA realized they needed help with the money end of things and brought in international partners, hence the change to the International Space Station. Oh the foreshadowing. I knew at that point that I wanted to be an aerospace engineer but I was pretty focused on working shuttle and not station. It wasn't until I interviewed for postions on each program near the end of college that I decided to go the space station route. I interviewed for three positions: hydraulics engineer on shuttle, propulsion engineer on shuttle and structures & mechanisms engineer on the space station. I got offers for the shuttle propulsion and (obviously) the space station positions. The irony (if you want to call it that) of it all is that if I had chosen the shuttle position then I may still be working at NASA right now as it was the space station position that led me to the transfer to Houston. Oh well ... i'll never know. But had we lived in Florida when Brett's mom got sick it would have been much, much easier for me to keep my job. I still believe i'll be back someday though. Don't know how or where but it will happen. I'm holding out for a private aerospace firm to see all the land still left around this area and come put a big facility right here in the promise land. (I keep hearing that Lake City is considered "the promise land" but I still haven't figure out why) I hear there are some aerospace things going on near the airport in Gainesville. Maybe when the kids start school i'll look into working there. Then the kids can go to a private school in Gainesville. Okay ... now i'm getting REALLY off track!

Walter "Wally" Schirra, 1923-2007

One of my childhood idols has left this place we call Earth. One of the true pioneers of human spaceflight. By the time I was ten I could name all of the original seven Mercury astronauts as well as the names of thier capsules and even why some of them chose the names they did for those capsules. For as long as I can remember, I have been enthralled by space and space travel and by the thought that there is just no way that we are the only life that exists in the universe. I always wanted to be an astronaut and if someone ever gave me the chance to go up ... i'd be on my way in a second. It is probably the only thing that I would ever put before my family. I love the space program and I support if fully, however I also believe in the privatization of space travel. I'm getting off subject here though. Back to Wally ... there's a great link on NASA's homepage that shares his story. Click here to see it. There are few people in this world who accomplished as much as those seven men did or who are nearly as brave. I respect them more than any human could ever respect another. They dedicated their lives to the space program and because men like them exist, we have the space program that we have today. While it's true that NASA is having some hardships, please don't lose sight of the greatness that exists there. I've been there, i've seen it ... it is truly amazing. And on that note, now would probably be as good a time as any to scan in and post those pictures I mentioned recently. Stay tuned ...

One Good Thing ...

... from being sick is that I lost two pounds. Whhhooooooo hooooooo!!! :) I went to yoga last night and as usual I stopped on the scale on my way in. (ha ha ... weigh in, way in ... get it?) I do this to myself every week and it is usually followed but some not-so-nice words muttered under my breath because I have been stuck at the same weight for many months now. So maybe it was being sick, maybe it's the little bit of walking i've been doing, maybe it's my "clean food" diet. Whatever it is, I like it and hope it continues. T-minus two months and two days until I have to wear a bridesmaids dress. Which means about a month and a half before I have to have it tailored. It fits now but I was really hoping to have to have it taken in a bit by then. I'm finally feeling back to my old self again so it's time to get walking. And the "clean diet" is going pretty well. I'll blog more about that later. Right now I have to go get the boys and I ready to go to my nephews preschool graduation program. Wish me luck with all that. Getting the three of us out of the house to get anywhere on time is always a challenge. And of course I add to it all by my usual methods of procrastination. Like sitting here blogging and drinking my coffee.

Answering a Comment from My Secret Pal

My pal from SP10 asked if I could recommend any books or websites to check out regarding natural healing. Instead of replying directly to her I decided to post it here. Maybe someone else can gain something from it as well. First let me start with a story so you understand what led me to my ways. I'll try not to ramble on for too long before I get to the point and i'll try my best not to offend anyone. :)

Let's start way back with the wee baby Celena. I was a very sick child. In fact, I was so sick at one point as an infant that I was in the hospital in a tub of ice and they basically told my parents that I was a gonner. There was even a priest involved. My immune system turned on itself and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Well thankfully I turned around and got better. Sometime later in my childhood my doctor from back then, Dr. Goldstein (who incidentally ended up quitting his pediatric practice and got into research of infectious diseases) called my mom out of the blue and told her he figured out what I had all those years ago that had baffled he and his staff. It was a pseudamonis infection of some sort. Well I truly attribute that (and I could be wrong but it's what I think) to my terrible immune system through the years. If anything was going around, I got it. I had terrible allergies so bad that I had to go for allergy shots every week. I still remember plain as day the room and the stool I had to sit on and how they would give me two shots in one arm and one in the other and then they would let me pick which cartoon character bandaids I got to put on my newest needle holes. I had migraines throughout middle and high school. So bad that I had CAT scans done while in high school to check for a brain tumor. I had to start going to the chiropractor when I was eight years old and have continued that my whole life since. It's not an option for me, it's a requirement to manage my constant neck pain. I had sinus infections all the time. I went through so many different antibiotics throughout my childhood (here starts my dislike of those things) that by the time I was a junior in high school I was taking "experimental" antibiotics. Scary, huh? See the thing is that when I took something one of two things happened. 1.) I had an allergic reaction to it right away or 2.) I could take it once but the second time ALWAYS brought on an allergic reaction. I distincly remember sitting in the First Care clinic and the doctor telling my mom that there are no more drugs for me to take. That i'm just going to have to be sick for a while. See looking back I realize that my mom relied heavily on doctors and thought that I needed medicine for everything. I'm not blaming her, she didn't know any better. Still ... I truly believe those drugs really screwed up my body. You see, antibiotics don't know the difference between good and bad stuff. That's why you sometimes get yeast infections and diahrea and all that fun stuff from taking them. They kill off all the good intestinal bacteria as well as the bad stuff. (okay, so much for not rambling on ... this is going to be long but i promise it's about to get a little more positive)

So forward on to the 18-year-old Celena going off to college. The summer of 1994 I packed up and moved to Gainesville. Over the next two years I got sick everytime anyone near me sneezed. Anytime I was under stress like during exams ... yep, always sick. I was extremely sick during finals week for my first two years of college. Not the best way to do well on tests, mind you. After being drug to the emergency clinic by my rooomates halfway through finals week of spring 96, I had enough. My third year of school came along and I decided to make some changes. Major changes, ha ha ... pardon the pun. I changed my major from Aerospace Engineering to Psychology. I guess I wanted to know why I was all screwed up and so stressed out all the time. That year marks a major milestone in my life. That year is the year that I took control of my life. I got student loans so I didn't have as much stress dealing with money and family and I started doing a lot of research about vitamins, minerals and herbs. The first books I bought were Earl Mindel's Vitamin Bible and The Encylopedia of Natural Medicine. I learned a lot about supplements and even more about myself. There are so many great herbs out there that will heal your body. UTI? Take Uva Ursi. Works every time. Yeast? Take acidophilus (also great to take while on antibiotics to avoid some side effects). And so on. I'll try to make a very long story very short here. I was stressed out and my body was seriously lacking the nutrients it needed to be well. I worked up a supplement regimin for myself and stuck to it. And I started meditating and exercising to relieve stress. And guess what?!?!?! I hardly ever got sick again. And the migraines? They went away as well. Those were stress related. I grew up in the middle of a split up family and some really nasty custody battles and other dysfunctions. Not good for a kid ... hence all the stress headaches and screwed up neck and chiropractor visits. Unfortunately for me the damage to my neck is pretty much permanent so that's something I still have to deal with. Yoga and chiropractor visits take care of it for me though for the most part.

Okay, now fast forward again to the 28-year-old mom-to-be Celena. You see, Western medicine tells us that pregnant mothers should not take a bunch of supplements. So I stopped dosing up on all the good stuff besides my prenatal vitamins and folic acid. Here comes 9 lb. 10 oz. Houston. I'm nursing so still no supplements. Forward to 29-year-old once again preggo Celena. Still nursing and preggo so no extra supplements. Here comes 12 pound Brody. (yes i said 12 pounds, no it's not a typo, yes i had him at home with no drugs, no i'm not crazy .. okay, got that out of the way) So now i'm 30 and i've had two very large babies and no supplements for a few years. And things are not going good. I learned to be very in tune with my body over the last ten years. Ask my midwife, she was always impressed. I could tell her when my blood pressure was going to be a little high before she even measured it. So I knew something was wrong. I'll spare you all the details but let's just say my body was going a little haywire (think menopause). We talked about options (traditional vs. non, east vs. west, etc) and I decided to go to an accupuncturist/herbologist that I've heard great things about over the past few years. I didn't want drugs to mask my symptoms ... I wanted to get to the bottom of things and fix what was causing me to not be well. So I called Ashley (my accu/herb guy) and we had a great talk on the phone. I then went to see him and he after doing what he does he said "your adrenals are fried and it's like you don't have any kidneys". Lovely, huh? Explains why I've had such a hard time losing my bellyfat. (And speaking of which, I actually lost one pant size in the first month of going to see him once a week.) We talked about the difference in eastern and western medicine. How in the west pregnant and nursing women are told not to take extra supplements and in the east they are given more herbs and supplements than anyone else. Completely different ways of thinking. And I know western medicine has it's place but can you really argue with something that has been around for many more centuries than our entire country? Don't think so. That first visit with Ashley was back in November or December, can't remember which. And while I'm still catching the bugs that are going around it's not near as often. He's had me on some ancient herbal remedies and i'm feeling much, much better. We're still working on my adrenals but my kidneys are doing much better. We worked on my liver some and that is doing better as well. Here's what I think is very interesting and makes so much sense. This is our theory of how everything went down ...

My body really needed all those supplements over the last ten years. I really built myself up to being a very healthy person but when my body needed the extra help the most, when I was pregnant and nursing ... that's when I stopped helping it out. I had enough reserves stored up so that Houston was fine and I was fine after having him but when Brody came along I had no more reserves to give. He used up all my extras and then some. And him being 12 pounds didn't help much. Having him basically fried my body. You see ... you're body will take care of your baby first. If you don't have enough calcium, for example, your baby will get what's there first and then you are left with none. That's why often times a mother will have teeth and bone issues after having a baby if she doesn't have enough calcium in her diet. So now I have to build myself back up. It's going to take some time but i'm on my way. This all explains why Houston was almost never sick as a baby (besides a scary UTI that we still can't explain) and why Brody gets sick every time someone sneezes anywhere near him. Brody and I have been sick a lot since he's been born. We're working on it though and while i'm building myself back up his immune system is being built up by nursing and getting the benefits of the supplements i'm taking.

So now you all have more info than you probably ever cared to but at least now you know where i'm coming from. Well you know the short story anyway. There's much more to it than I typed here but if you want to know more or have any questions, shoot me an email or give me a call. I'll be happy to discuss things with you or answer any questions you have. I could go on for a while about the eastern and western medicine thing but i'm tired of typing and you, if you are still with me at this point, are probably tired of reading. Maybe i'll go into it more in a future post.

And by the way, after three semesters I changed my major back to Aerospace Engineering. Good thing because I met Brett after we both rushed the same professional engineering fraternity! And thanks to that degree, I had some great experiences working in the space program. Which reminds me ... I have some pictures I've wanted to scan in and post here. Me in the the drivers seat of one of the space shuttles and some other good stuff like that. :)

Neato Cabeato!

Ya know that web tool I posted about recently? Well I put it on my blog last night. Check it out to the right down below the current moon phase widget. Do you see that? It shows where people are coming from each day to look at my blog. Pretty cool, huh? Can you tell that I am easily amused? :)

Wildflowers

Cool Tool & More Stitch Markers

Check this out. You put it on your blog and it shows where people are viewing your site from each day.

Here are the stitch markers I sent out yesterday. I was asked to be an angel for someone in the stitch marker exchange, meaning someone didn't hold up thier end of the deal. But I don't mind at all ... I had fun making these and I think they turned out tres cute!