Listen to your doctor...It's good for your health

This is Brant posting (Chris always wants me to make sure people know that).

Many of you may  know that I have a rare non-fatal disease called Addisons disease. Many people have had it including John F. Kennedy. I've been living with it since February 14, 2000 with little to no complications, however because of this disease I have a higher risk of having Schmidt's syndrome which is what I currently have plus diabetes. Due to this concern my doctors routinely check my blood. Here recently they have noticed that my cholesterol was off (too little good stuff and too much bad stuff) as well as extremely high triglycerides (I won't say how high, but it becomes dangerous above 150 mg and my results looked more like a year when Cowboys and Indians were still around; for those of you that didn't get that there are four digits in my test results).  He said I needed to do two things if I want to get this corrected quickly: diet and exercise!

So about 3 weeks ago I went to see my regular doctor about this concern. He said that I would need to put everything I have into loosing weight and working out if I wanted to avoid taking even more pills on a daily basis for the rest of my life. I went home and set a goal of loosing 10 pounds in the next three months. Little did I know that I would loose those 10 desired pounds in 3 WEEKS by following some very simple guidelines (looks like I'm going to have to reset my goal to even lower!).


LEGAL NOTE: Actual results may vary. This picture may not represent the person who actually wrote this blog.

I felt like sharing with everyone a couple simple things I've been doing with the help of my wife to loose this weight.

Step One: Set a goal

I wouldn't be writing this right now if I wasn't so excited that I met/exceeding my goal and expectations.

Step Two: *Learn what foods you should be eating

We've always heard low fat, high protein/low carb diets will help you loose weight. We've also heard that vegetables and fruits are extremely good for you.  I used two things to help me determine what types of food I should be eating:

First, a great book I recommend reading is called The Abs Diet by David Zinczenko. This is one of my favorite books in helping dispel myths and get you eating the right stuff.  A couple key points from this book are:

1. Eat Breakfast
2. Eat throughout the day
3. True/clear medical explanations of the types of foods that are really bad for you
4. The Abs Diet is actually an acronym for the different types of foods you should be putting into your body to help you naturally loose weight.

I've been eating a real breakfast (oat mill/eggs, etc.) which I've never done before and am eating about every 2 hours throughout the day (lots of little healthy snacks throughout the day). I seriously don't think I've cut back on my calorie intake at all.

Secondly, I included a web link to a site that helps you clearly see what foods are bad for you and what foods are good (some of the things listed are very surprising). http://commonsensehealth.com/Diet-and-Nutrition/List_of_Glycemic_Foods_Index_of_Healthy_Foods.shtml

Step Three: Start working out

I had to brush the dust off the P90X workout videos and decided to actually do something while it was playing rather than just eating a bag of popcorn. I have found that even if I miss a day or two the weight is still coming off because as you work out your muscles continue to rebuild (and burn calories/fat) while you are sleeping/working, etc.

Step Four: Celebrate

I am now planning a shopping spree for Chris and I since none of our clothes seem to be fitting any more and for the right reasons - THEY'RE TOO BIG!

Good luck everyone and don't hesitate to call if you have questions. I am not an expert, but I think my current enthusiasm will help me find the answers you might have.

*One thing to keep in mind is the eating healthy is more expensive. You may need to look at your budget and view a few more circulars to help find the cheapest prices. Also, a healthy diet can and will severely limit the kinds of places you can go eat. I have also had to use a bigger lunch bag to fit all the different kinds of foods I'm eating throughout the day (i.e. nuts, apples, celery, etc.).

Ummm, we've been a bit busy with a baby!

The same day as our last post we got another call & a beautiful foster baby boy entered our lives. Baby G is such a joy. He's thriving & gaining weight as he should. My days have been packed getting him situated & stocking up on things he needs. Now excuse me, I need to go buy stock in Target after all the trips we've made.

The phone is ringing!!!

We got a call this afternoon from the foster agency asking us if we could provide care for a 2 week old baby boy. CPS ended up picking a different agency this time. Please don't be sad. This is good news, the phone is ringing! Someday soon we will have a child, or 3, in our home. Happy Happy Day :)If you are curious on the fostering process here you go:

CPS coordinates all foster care placements through their Centralized Placement Unit. They operate 24-7, and so does our foster care agency.  We could get a call in the middle of the night from our agency's on-call staff.  Weekdays, during office hours, they have a dedicated employee (his name is Jim) who receives all the calls and emails requesting foster care placements. Placement knows what openings our agency has, as they are required to list their available placements on on the DFPS "Extranet", a secure website. This database lists all of the foster homes currently accepting children at our foster agency and all the other foster care agencies in the area. When Placement needs a home, they look at what is listed on the Extranet before contacting the foster care agency. If they need one of our agency's homes, they contact Jim. Jim reviews the information about the foster child or children, then calls us if he thinks we are a good match. He has an hour to respond.

Jim sends a short written profile about us. Most times Placement has more than one family to choose from, so they ask for a written profile to help them in the selection process. Jim calls us back to let us know if they picked us or not. When we are chosen, the child/ren's case manager will call to arrange time to bring the child/ren to our home.

We re now CERTIFIED to become Foster Parents!

The Heavens have just opened. We are now certified to become foster parents. Brant & I decided, in November of 2010, we wanted to become foster parents to a sibling group. We picked an agency & started the application process that same month. Normally the certification process doesn't take 10 months.
We've had a few "never happens" moments that kept delaying the process. Wednesday I found out about another major potential delay. If we were not approved by Friday (today) there could be another long delay. My heart sunk thinking of even more time that would go by. A few amazing miracles happened yesterday. There is no doubt that God made it happen. In the past 12 years we've opened so many doors that lead to other doors that lead to other doors, etc. I started to wonder if fostering was going to lead to yet, another door. Who knows, it still could but it looks like we will finally have children in our home soon. That realization hit me with all kinds of emotion. I can't even think about it without crying. Today is a joyful day.

Jane Eyre vs. Jane Eyre

This weekend I finally watched the new Jane Eyre.

 I have to say I did enjoy it but I still prefer my 3.5 hr 2006  version.

Pest Control Gone Wild!

Black bird lovers beware, you may not want to read this post.

Last week my Mom & I went on a trip to see my living grandparents. I loved hearing new stories from my papaw.
My favorite is from his days of farming 400+ acres of pecan trees. Enjoy this abbreviated pest control story:
Papaw had a problem with black birds eating his crop. One day he found out about about an extremely deadly poison. After learning of it's success he decided to place a few laced pecans out past the orchard thinking he might catch a few birds. Well,he caught a few hundred birds! They died immediately on the scene. How in the world do you dispose of 300 birds without someone noticing? A backhoe of course. Can you imagine having to bury 300 dead black birds? He didn't have a problem with those nasty black birds after that! Yuck!

Jane Austen Baby Shower

I wish I had a better camera & I wish I had a picture of the entry table. It was so cute.

If you ever throw a party you have to have my 2 amazing helpers. They even helped clean up. Amazing can't describe these women. As Jane would say, they are "far superior."

We had a blast!! Enjoy the pics.

 Mormons don't drink real tea so we made wassail. It's much better tasting too!

Feather pen

I am throwing a Jane Austen themed baby shower this weekend with the help of some great friends. As I was pulling everything out, planning how to decorate, I realized we needed some feather pens.
A quick trip to the store, a couple hot glue gun burns & WALLAH we have feather pens!

Road Trip!

Uncle Getting Hitched = Road Trip!

We decided to leave a day early to take a detour through the mountains. It was so worth it!

Our hotel was the most luxurious & relaxing resort we've ever stayed in.

Can you say, Ahhhhhhhh ...

rain shower

extra deep soaking tub

cozy fire with turquoise encrusted cow skull

breathtaking view

Michael's Kitchen is our favorite New Mexican restaurant of all time.

Little Miracles

Our library has 2 copies of Catching Fire, the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series. Both copies were checked out so I reserved one last week. Today I went inside to return some DVDs I checked out. While in line I chatted with a girl interested in one of the movies I was returning & I noticed she was returning the book I had on reservation. The librarian was amazed at the timing. Apparently that doesn't really happen. Some might call it luck; I call it a little library miracle :)
With the fire extingisher reciept & other small miracles, we've sure had a lot lately.

Fostering Update

Our final inspection is Friday for us to become fully licensed foster parents. We bought our new fire extingishers back in February in preperation for all this. Apperently the local fire marshall wants the receipt attached to them. They said it would be cheaper to buy new ones than have ours inspected each year. STINK BOMB, Really! One more thing we have to do; really!
Wel,l the Lord blessed us:
I went to Sam's Club to buy a new set today. Apparently Sam's no longer carries fire extingishers. After walking down every isle, looking for them, I was prompted to go the the customer service desk. Good thing I listened because they were able to pull up my old receipt using my membership card.
Talk about a relief. Hopefully this helps us pass Friday.
You'd be surprised by all you have to do to become certified foster parents. Much more than a standard adoption home study, that's for sure. Oh well, we will be better parents for it I guess.

Just jumped on the bandwagon

I just jumped on the bandwagon to read Hunger Games & yes, it was good great!
Now someone needs to return the 2nd book to the library so I can read Catching Fire.

It actually worked!

It's nice when something you invent in your head can actually be created.
(Just a reminder I am not a seamstress or even crafty. This is new to me; I don't even know how to follow a pattern)
Someone showed me how to make a travel baby wipes case last year. I wanted to make a changing pad to go with it. In my head I figured there had to be some sort of vinyl that can adhere or iron onto fabric to make a changing pad. A year later I got around to looking & guess what, there is!
In my sewing box was a scrap piece of coordinating fabric I used for pockets.

 Here it is folded with a couple diapers in one of the pockets.

A 12 Year Old's 1st Time at the Lake

Our 12 year old niece was #5 of the 7 groups of house guests. Can you believe she has never been boating on the lake before? The invitation to go boating couldn't have come at a better time. She LOVED it!

I'm installing a front revolving door

After 7 weeks of 7 different groups of house guests don't you think we need one!

Hosting has been loads of fun! My arms even got an amazing workout from continually washing/changing sheets along with washing/folding towels.

Unfortunately we don't have very many pictures of our guests. Our camera takes really bad pictures so we tend to shove it in a drawer in hopes that it will magically turn into something wonderful. Fortunately we took it out to play a few times.

Enjoy these pics from the 1st Sheen Family Reunion

 Max wanted Aunt Chris to read to him

 Tommy & Logan making awesome music!

 Grandma made homemade sparkle playdough!

We've been EGGED!!

Who gets EGGED on Easter? We do!

This is what we found in our yard this morning. Dozens of plastic

eggs filled with candy.

Ignore my sad herb garden (it needs new herbs) & focus on those

cute plastic Easter eggs.

The sprinklers came on & got everything wet.

Good thing they were plastic eggs.

What a sweet (get the pun!) thing to find

Easter morning. Thanks guys!

Texas Thunderstorm

We are having a normal Texas thunderstorm accompanied by tiny hail pellets. Wanna guess where the dog is? In the closet hidden between the laundry baskets!

I can sew, I can sew!!!

Spring is in the air, accompanied by tons of sun shine.

I love spring, it gave me the urge to dust off my sewing machine & put it to work. Who knows why, I'm no seamstress & can barely sew a straight line! All I needed was inspiration ...

I've been invited to several baby showers, most registered for nursing covers. Wallah! inspiration.
They looked fairly simple & used lots of straight lines, right up my alley!

After perusing several blogs I found out nursing covers are not as simple as I thought but I wanted to try anyway. I'm really glad I did because I had fun & didn't make too many mistakes!

This is the final project. I used thick decorator's fabric so that it would hang well.

Yes, that's an 11" fleece pocket in the corner. I know I'm awesome :)

It can be used as a pocket or to wipe off the baby's mouth.

Excuse me while I log off now. I need to pat myself on the back -he hee

Special Day!

I love driving down a particular street in our town. There is such a charm about it. The homes vary in age, size, shape and landscaping. The only thing alike are the acre+ lots. Driving down this short, but oh so sweet, road calms & soothes my soul.
This weekend we found ourselves taking this route & witnessed something even more special. One of the older homes had a homemade yard sign that read "Happy 96th Birthday!" That's definitely not something you see everyday. I wanted to stop the car, run to the door & wish this sweet man a Happy Birthday. He usually sits on his front porch waving to all the cars that drive by. His chair has been empty for months so I didn't want to be the cause of a fall by making him answer the door for a stranger. Part of me still wishes I took time out of my busy schedule to stop the car.

I Can Breathe, I Can Breathe!!!!

After decades of suffering from a severe deviated septum and a mega-sized turbine, I finally decided to bite the bullet and have the surgery.  Dr Kirkham did an amazing job. Admittedly I was completely sceptical when he told me I would not have any black eyes afterward. I was shocked when I looked in the mirror afterward. I don't think the anesthesiologist and surgeon took me seriously when I told them how sick anesthesia and pain meds make me. Lets just say they were a bit surprised. All Brant said when he came to see me was "Is she dead. Is she dead". Yes he said it twice. My lips were white and my face had no color;  it scared him just a tad. He told me later that it looked like I had been dead for two days.
No worries :) I am very much alive and yes I CAN BREATHE with my mouth closed!!!!!!

My sweet husband took a picture of me before going under the knife. What a lovely picture!

Here I am the day after surgery. No makeup with the same old dark circles. No black eyes. I feel relatively good for just having surgery. I kind of went a little over kill with moving around today and will be taking it easy the rest of the day :)

Forever Friends

The Koch's came to visit for their spring break again. Last year I neglected to charge my camera beforehand so we didn't get any pictures with them. No way was I going to make that mistake again. Saturday we went out to eat & stopped by the carnival. Sunday we went to church then came home for a killer meal Lisa & Tony made. I seriously think I gained 5 million pounds. Monday we went shopping & played more games at Dave & Busters.

 After Cosa Nostra, mmm delish.

 Our men got a bit wabbly after spinning around the inside of Starship 2000!

Tony won Lisa the TEXAS sized basketball she had her eye on. Ahhh, how sweet!

We're Back!

After battling with my brochial astma then turning into full blown brochitis, my dad having back surgery, foster training classes, birthday's & finally Brant getting sick, lets just say we've been a bit off & zapped of all energy.

We are still recovering but are 85-90% better.

From 9:30-12:30pm today we knocked out the majority of our to-do list.  Went to Sherwin Williams for caulking stuff, the vet to get our dog's rabies certificate, Walmart, Sams, got fertilizer from a landscape supplier (they let us shop there too!), Fry's electronics, back home to pick up dog, dropped dog off at the groomer, Target, gas station & TWO grocery stores. Now Brant is removing & replacing our exterior caulk with his resporator mask on. Those Texas allergies are out in full force!

While at the 2nd grocery store I fell in L-O-V-E!

We decided to ditch the prepacked lunch meat & try out the premium fresh stuff. The ladies were adorable & incredibly helpful. After getting our 2 different turkey's we decided to try out cheese. They suggested we try Havarti & gave us a slice to sample. Oh my my, what a mouth pleasing delight! I really do think I'm in L-O-V-E! That cheese was delicious. I don't think I can ever go back to my standard Gouda or Sharp Cheddar. We couldn't wait to go home & make our own deli masterpieces. We gobbled them up before we could even get around to taking a picture.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Coming Soon ...

Thanks Everyone we will not be going private :)
Our week has been quite busy & I don't have time to blog right now but will leave you with a teaser ...
Coming Soon ...
Insight from a fostering certification class
Sickness & Celebrations
XOXO

Private Anyone???

After looking at our blog stats, I became concerned. It shows we have viewers from India, Netherlands, Greece, Russia and Latvia. Don't get me wrong I love those places but we are not world travelers & do not know of anyone visiting/living in theses countries. Or do we :)
Anyway we want this blog to be available to as many family and friends that want to read about our lives. That being said B and I may be going private.
What do you think? Am I just being too paranoid or should we really protect ourselves by going private?

I Feel Like This Guy!

I got this e-mail notification from Netflix today. I laughed because I feel EXACTLY like the guy in the picture. Not an ounce of my being has any desire to watch this. However my husband has been dying to see it. Out of love for him, I added it to the top of our queue. Love makes us do crazy things doesn't it; Ahhh.

"Stats"

Have you ever checked out the "Stats" tab on your blog dashboard? It's quite interesting.
Do it, Do it. You'll be hooked!

Word of the Day ...

Septoplasty: The surgery Chris is going to get to allow her to fully breath through her nose!

Are you Ready for Spring and Summer?

I don't know about you, but the start of this year has been extremely busy.  I just wrapped up a major project at work and can get back to a relatively normal schedule. I was getting home late and going in early and so I stopped working out for a couple weeks (hence the picture of me at the beach this past weekend).

I'm getting back on that horse this week and plan to be ready for summer.  I did several push ups, pull ups, and curls last night just trying to gauge how much muscle I'd lost and I was surprised to find the only thing that was tough for me was the pull up.s

So who's excited to join me in getting ready for summer?  - Brant

For my Wife

Happy Valentines!!!

I am grateful for this once a year opportunity to publicly express how much I love you!  I am so glad to have you as a companion.  Thanks for all you do for us and your commitment to keeping me grounded.

Hope you have great day!  Love you!

For my cousins!

Aren't these old pictures fun! I dressed up my younger cousins for a fashion show the summer I stayed with my grandparents in Taos. Enjoy the cuteness!!

Maria & Rachel

Natalie

The grass is greener on the other side ... or is it?

I just finished reading this article from the Ensign on being content. It pretty much sums up how I've been feeling lately. https://lds.org/ensign/2011/02/learning-to-be-content?lang=eng

I often find myself not being happy with what I have. If you talked to a doctor they'd diagnose me with "the grass is always greener on the other side" syndrome.

For some reason I forget about the amazing things I do have. Yes, there are always going to be bigger better & much prettier "things" out there just waiting  to be obtained. However there are also plenty of people out there who survive on much less & are completely safe, secure & happy. Being dependant on worldly things or having those things define me is something I've strived to change lately.

For instance my wedding ring it's absolutely gorgeous, huge & worth more than the cars I drove in high school, all three combined. It never came off my finger, not even to wash my hands. In the past 11 years we've been married my finger has grown a bit. Consequently the ring needed to be cut off. We were going to resize it but then I decided to try a simple band, no diamond. I found one that was regularly $50 but I got it for only $13. It has been one of the best things. Seriously I haven't missed that huge rock I sported on my left hand & I've had this thing for months. 

Also I realized we do live in a very beautiful home & have more space than what's necessary. I know life would be easier if we had another living room/playroom or tv (we have lots of nieces & nephews, friends with kids, eventually we will have kids of our own). How many kids live in a small 1 story house or tiny apartment & do just fine? Tons. The house I grew up in was much smaller & have wonderful memories of it. Thousands of people live in homes with dirt floors outside of this country & couldn't be happier. Why can't I be happy with less? Who knows. The one thing I do know is that I CAN change.

Time to grab a big fat permanent marker & write the words "The Grass is Pretty Darn Green HERE!" all over my walls.

Winter Celebrations ...

If Dallas didn't get a crazy winter storm, that actually stayed around for a few days, we wouldn't have been able to show our super bowl support with style.

 This was in our neighborhood. I bet they were happy Cheeseheads won :)

Found this house when we were driving home from the store.

This beauty was by my parents house. It's not super bowl related but thought it was awesome!