Weekends in February

I feel like each day gets better and better being a mommy.

Fridays are always my favorite because Joe has them off.

It's so nice because most people work still,

so I feel like it's extra special we can spend the day together 

as a family of three and do whatever we want without a ton

of places being super busy.

Daddy making faces and Brooke imitating them!

Not that we really went anywhere,

but Friday we did go for a nice long drive.

We are always looking for land to build our future home on.

We stopped and picked up some sushi

and came home.

I took the dogs on a nice walk for the first time in months

{the pain is still there in my pelvis, but I needed to move}

We built a fire,

I made Paula Dean's Company Shrimp Pasta

(So easy and sooooo good!)

and called it a night.

Saturday  

Daddy brought Brooke down,

put her in the swing,

and she just kills me with her looks.

I cleaned a bit and my girl Alison came over for a visit,

while her husband took their kids out to lunch with some coworkers.

The twins wanted to meet baby Brooke though!

They're getting so big!

Joe got caught up at work an extra hour and a half...

we patiently waited.

 When he got home I could tell he wasn't feeling great.

It was a quiet night and by the morning,

he was definitely feeling the effects of his Crohn's.

As always, we never know what "triggered" it to flare up,

but he spent Sunday and Monday on the couch.

I just hate when he's sick;

the energy in the house is sad and there's no laughing.

We caught up on Revenge and I looked through cookbooks

so I could try to get ahead on meal planning,

once Joe can eat again...

I also had the Baby Book out...

and Brooke was reading to me about what she should be able to do by two months.

 Monday 

I had scheduled my mama in law Maria to babysit a few hours..

I felt so guilty leaving Joe and the baby,

but she assured she would take good care of them.

It was nice to get out for a few hours.

I stocked up on some healthy eats at Trader Joes

and some fun new scented soaps at Bath and Body Works.

My toes got a new look

and of course a Vanilla Spice Latte.

We watched Sky Fall and it was pretty good.

Again, days when my husband is sick,

makes all the small crap seem irrelevant.

Feeling healthy is so important;

take good care of yourselves and your loved ones!

We pray Brooke won't get Crohn's,

as watching my husband in pain is awful enough.

I cannot imagine seeing my little girl in that sort of pain too.

Just be thankful for this day and live it to its fullest!!

Getting Real on a Monday

Well, as much as I'd love to brag about how awesome 

my Sunday was with my husband,

I can't.

Instead of driving around,
enjoying breakfast sandwiches,
grabbing PSL's, 

snapping photos of pumpkins & my bump,

playing football with the guys,

jumping up and down, hooting & hollering at the SF game,

cooking up delicious foods and just laughing and enjoying time with each other...

We spent the entire day in repose & quiet.

The whole house seems sad when he's not well.

He must have eaten something that didn't agree with his digestive system,

and his Crohn's acted up.

It's days like yesterday

 {and even today, when he has to go to work for 13 hours because no one can fill in for him}

that make me so mad when people get pissed off and upset over dumb shit.

I don't usually swear on my blog,

but if there is one thing I have learned with my husband's Crohn's,

life is a gift.

We all need reminders of this from time to time.
I used to think, "Oh woe is me" and that I had problems...

well, when you meet a guy like Joe,

who smiles at everything and loves life more than I have ever seen anyone love life,

you realize if there's anyone who has a right to be angry and upset most of the time,

it'd be him.

But guess what?
Instead of being a miserable person,

on the days when he feels great and has no stomach pains?
He acts like he has won the lotto, because to him?
He has.

I am not saying you're not entitled to your moments,

or bad days,

because you are.

 But my husband never has them. 

EVER.

His bad days, are like yesterday.
Where he can barely take a breath, 

without stabbing shooting pains through his abdomen.

He slept most of the day, since being up most of the night,

and fortunately began to feel a bit better as the day wore on.

I got him to dutifully sip his Gatorade

and eat some organic free range scrambled eggs.

He only awoke 3-4 times in the middle of last night.

So this flare up? 

Not nearly as bad as this one I wrote about here,

but still a damper on our lovely Sundays that we cherish so much.

He thanked me this morning for taking care of him,

and I tear up wondering if he really knows that he in turn 

has truly taken care of me?
He made me appreciate all the small things that I used to neglect,

because I was so wrapped up in all the day-to-day
BS

crap

that I thought was life.
Everyone else's drama and problems used to consume me.
Not any more.

Now,

I'm someone who is constantly reading, learning, teaching.

We believe in foods affecting us 100% and it is so hard to eat 100% organic,

100% of the time.

It's a constant battle of what's readily available, looks/sounds good and what is

really meant to nurture our bodies.

I know it's up to me to prepare fully nutritious meals and snacks for him,

and it's hard because there is so much he cannot handle.

So, I plan on making lots of fresh pureed soups, pastas, 

and other foods that I know are great for all (3) of us.

[baby girl is quite active this morning, I feel her moving as I type this!]
We pray that she doesn't inherit this awful, stupid disease...

This post is not a pity party,

but hopefully a not so gentle reminder to realize how good you really have it.

If you're angry or pissed off about something trivial,

is it really worth carrying that stress, or perhaps are you over-reacting?
Get over it.
Or yourself.
I did.
I'll admit, I was a complete stress-case all the time.
It takes a lot to control it, and I slip up, I'm not perfect.
But I do know that I am a hell of a lot different today than I was 5 years ago.
It's something I work on every day.

Stress plays a huuuuuuuuuuge role in your GI tract.

It's usually the first thing to become unbalanced when we're upset.

That's why I have learned over the years to slowly weed out those

who interfere with my family's health and happiness.

Stress can lead to all sorts of problems and can easily be avoided,

once you learn how to control yourself.

And perhaps eliminating those around you who cause strife.

And if you are healthy,

maybe take an extra look at your diet.

Even though you feel good now, are you truly giving your body the right nutrients?

Or maybe your stomach does get upset time to time, and  you just turn to

modern medicine to alleviate the pain...it's not fixing it you know.

Source: crohnschronicals.tumblr.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Source: maybelline.tumblr.com via Jenn on Pinterest

Source: bellamumma.com via Jenn on Pinterest

It really is as simple as:

Source: Uploaded by user via Eliza on Pinterest

Make the most out of your today and enjoy this crazy life!!

Eat your fruits & veggies.

Cook a real meal with real foods.

Go on a walk for some fresh air.

Do yoga.

Meditate.

Be nice to yourself.

 Think about the people you choose  to surround yourself with

and the person you're choosing to be.

Don't Take your Health or Love for Granted

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to host a pity party.

This post is not all sunshine and roses.

As upbeat and positive as I want this blog to be, 

I equally want it to be real. Thanks.

Dear Crohn's Disease:
I hate you.

I don't hate many things, but you are one that I loathe.

You make days that could be good, turn bad.

You cast an evil spell over the one person 

who means more to me than anything that walks this earth.

You've ruined 4th of Julys.

You've ruined some wonderful meals.

You've made me miss my girls night.

Worst of all, you've caused such pain and suffering, in my love,

I can't bear to watch him go through it.

I thank God daily that our wedding and honeymoon were not affected by

your hideous effects and awful atrocities.

You've taken away the ability for those affected by this disease to enjoy

caffeine.

Can any of you imagine a world without 

Coffee?

Espresso?
Iced tea?

Red Bull?

What about soda?

No carbonation.
No Champagne. 

No pop.

No bubbly water.

No alcohol.

No wine.
No Vodka.
No Jack & Cokes.

I know these aren't good in high doses,

but even a 'once in awhile' really causes such problems, 

to him it's not worth the risk.

He has to take caution in every bite.

I try so hard to control everything that goes into his mouth,

but it's so hard to judge,

when is too much?

So many questions...

Will this fruit bother him?
How many veggies can he eat and be ok?

How long should I cook the veggies?
Should he even eat the vegetables?
My man LOVES vegetables.

You name it, he'd eat it, if he could.

Which sucks, because I know people 

who don't eat vegetables because they don't like them.

How evil.

Corn on the cob.

Such a simple and silly summer staple.

He can't have an entire ear of corn.

He gets violently ill.

Can I cook with wheat or will it trigger something?
Can I leave a bowl of cherries on the counter without him devouring them all?
Can he have Chia seeds in his salad?

Sesame seeds on our sushi rolls?

Pumpkin seeds?

Will it be passed along to our children one day?
Can we have children?
We've all had our fair of stomach aches and pains.

I don't have Crohn's, but I can tell you, it's described as

"A disease that doesn't kill you, but makes you wish you were dead."
As my eyes fill with tears, as I type this post, I can't help but

wish there were something I could do.

Pray it's not a long bout of a flare up.

I will say that my menu will change and we will be eating more pasta...

for some reason his body digests that so well.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may know that one of the

reasons why I chose to stay home from teaching this year, was to see if we'd

{hubs, dogs, home, me}

would be better off if I were here full time.

Up til now, it had been working like a charm.

Sadie has had no seizures, and Joe had no flare-ups.

I also looked back through at the last 2 times he was ill;

both fell on the first of the month.

Oddly, his "last few days" of each month are most stressful in the car business.

Late nights, not a ton of down time or sleep.

Late night meals.

I will take this into account and hope he recovers from this quickly.

His worst flare up was when he turned 21.

He lived in Boston and worked crazy hours making that cheddar.

He was 120 lbs.

He's 6'2

He was almost dead.

Thank God he some how pulled through and made it home 

and was nursed back to health.

Because of this experience, he has learned to really live life to its fullest.

He doesn't take life for granted.
He's never in a bad mood or grumpy for no reason.
He works harder than most people I know, and I take my job

as "Just a Housewife" seriously.

I try to run the house by myself, cook, clean, organize, etc.
So he doesn't have to.
So when he's laying in pain,

I feel so helpless.

Since we've met, we've made many changes to keep him healthy.

He also decided to go off all his prescription medicines so we can one day

have a family, a healthy family.

I've been wanting to do a post on what we are doing holistically to keep him healthy.

Well, I'll tell you, not eating a large meal before bed is one way.

The hard thing with CD is that every person is so different.
Each body reacts to foods so uniquely. 

It's really all about trial 

and unfortunately, error.

We take our health seriously and it breaks my heart my love is in so much pain.

Instead of silly favors at our wedding that most people throw away anyway 

we donated to the Crohn's Colitis Foundation of America.

I hope that one day they figure out what truly causes this.
I truly believe it's our food; processed shit that wasn't nature made.

If you're still with me, lovely readers, and you have an extra prayer laying around,

please send positive thoughts our way.

I'll be trying to get Gatorade to stay down him, and keep our dogs quiet...

Two very tricky tasks...sigh.

What do you do when your loved ones are sick?
And there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

Enjoy your coffee and take care of your health.

It's the only body you've got for the rest of your life.

Fabulous Fridays

Friday was the first day since 10.2 that Joe actually had off....what'd we do? For starters, slept in until almost 10!!  No waking up at 7am to have him rush out the door by 8:30.  

Then I made him breakfast in bed {I've been doing it since we met, it's just routine on some days off, which are far and few between, he gets his eggs & bacon in bed.}  The key to that is, SLOW COOK THE BACON.  Seriously. I put it on low, don't touch it and let it cook for at least 20+ minutes.  If you cook it too high, too fast, it either gets too crispy or too much of the fat never cooks up.  Plus it needs to be Applewood Smoked Bacon. Yes, it matters!

We hung around the house for a bit, then went out for Acupuncture. He actually got me to try it when we first started dating, it was a bit scary but intriguing at the same time. 

He has Crohn's Disease, so anything to try and ease his pain, he was willing to try. 

Now that we've been going to T, Joe feels physically well, and I the over-analyzing, worry wart, Type-A, has calmed down immensely.  I can do yoga and completely zen out at the end, as opposed to staring at the ceiling and thinking of the ten million things that need to get done.  I started seeing her in the midst of my wedding planing, honeymoon booking, wrapping up the school year as an 8th grade English teacher....and a bunch of other things going on that just don't matter now, but back then, all of it combined was too much.  So I figured I'd rather go the more natural, holistic approach to dealing with my stress {I didn't want to pop prescriptions, just my preference.  Everyone is different.}

 

So if you've got an issue or ailment, and thought about giving acupuncture a try, GO!

 

The worst is that you see no results. The best? 

 

Well, you feel emotionally, physically, & mentally well and whole.

 

Joe~hooked up to a stim

 Just a few in my wrists....and my legs, toes, belly, forehead! No, it really doesn't hurt!

And then it got a little interesting.  Joe noticed glass jars and wanted to know what they were used for...

That's my back. Thanks babe!

This is what is known as, "Cupping."  I found an article if you want to know more, click here

And of course, what treatment wouldn't be complete without a little Moxa?

 More about moxa

Not going to lie, when I heard the word blow torch, I got worried.  But it really didn't hurt at all...I just smelled like burning skin the rest of the night haha.

So, acupuncture--does it hurt? No.  You may feel a 'dull' sensation of the needles, but really I fall right to sleep on my stomach. 
Cupping? Yeah, that definitely was more of an annoying suction feeling...I still have marks on my back 3 days later, so don't do it if you have to wear a skimpy outfit! {luckily, i do not.}

And we ended our fantabulous Friday with a night out {off--no cooking for me wow!} At Plum Garden, where I enjoyed a nice glass of Pinot Noir and sushi.

We are sushi addicts!!

What natural ways do you help deal with stress or other health ailments?