The Shannon cometh!

Yay! Shannon is here forever! I am so happy to have her back in town and to have someone to "take care" of me. Craig flew into Seattle and drove across the country with her to make sure she got here safely. I will have to post a nice long blog about their trip!

In the mean time, enjoy an old picture of the two of us!

My brothers wedding:

Here are just a few pictures from the wedding. You can see all of the pictures that I took on my facebook page!

Chippendale's night out!

I had a great Friday! I got together a bunch of friends/family to celebrate my soon to be sister in law's loss of singleness. One of her friends is getting married soon to so, we celebrated her loss of singleness also. The day kind of went as follows:

Friday morning my mother in law came over so that we could spend the day together and could "primp" for the evenings events. I also took a couple of hours to make two home made mini veils for the two brides to be. I added little rose and pearl embellishments to them to make them super flashy.

One of my friends came over in the later afternoon to hangout and get pretty before we went out. We also went out to a late lunch at Wendy's. YUMMY!

Everyone gathered at my house around 6:30 to leave for club Metropolis, where The Chippendale's were going to perform. We all got ready to go and headed to the club around 7:30.

Once we maneuvered our way through the parking lot (6 females all with different ideas of where we were supposed to go made us turn around a few times), we finally arrived. The line was short, and the place was not at all crowded. I was greatful. It really helped with my anxiety to know that I could easily walk to the bathroom if need be and could walk outside without too much of a problem.

Once we got inside we only had to wait a little while before the show started and BOY WAS IT A SHOW. We all enjoyed ourselves tremendously. What more can I say?! What woman wouldn't enjoy a bunch of good looking guys dancing and stinging right in front of them? NOT MANY. We were all a little shocked and embarrassed at various times but, that was part of the fun. We we especially enjoyed seeing an 80 year old women get up on stage and be .... well I guess the only way to say it is man handled and have a good time! She just smiled and turned bright red but, you could tell she was having a great time all in the name of the bachelorette she was there to "support." I suppose that was why we were all there too!

After the show, we stood in line to have our own Polaroids taken with the "guys." Hehehe. We even got to sit in their laps. It was quite amusing.

A handful of us stayed at the Metropolis after the show to dance for awhile because the night was still young and we didn't want it to be over just yet. We finally headed home and, I quickly posted some pic's to Facebook that my friend and I took. I have included a few.

Ashley

Hashimotos Thyrioditis Update.

So, many people have asked me about my health and how my thyroid is doing. Typically it takes me a good 10-15 min. of explaining before they have any idea of why I am so sick. I figure, not to many people want to go and sift through gobs and gobs of technical information about the disease. I have, so I will make it simple. I figured it would be a good idea to write kind of a summary in my blog about it. Kind of a readers digest version, if you will. I hope this helps anyone who is interested.

Mayo Clinic states that:

"Hashimoto's disease causes inflammation of your thyroid, a butterfly-shaped gland located at the base of your neck, just below your Adam's apple. Although it weighs less than an ounce, the thyroid gland has an enormous effect on your health. It's part of your endocrine system, which is made up of several glands and tissues that produce hormones. These chemical messengers coordinate many of your body's activities, from digestion to metabolism to reproduction.

Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune disorder in which your immune system inappropriately attacks your thyroid gland, causing damage to your thyroid cells and upsetting the balance of chemical reactions in your body."

Wikipedia states (with my interjections) that:

"Hashimoto's thyroiditis or chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease where the body's own T-cells attack the cells of the thyroid. It was the first disease to be recognized as an autoimmune disease (and can go hand in hand with other autoimmune diseases, and diseases like celiac).

This disorder is believed to be the most common cause of primary hypothyroidism (under active thyroid function) in North America. It occurs far more often in women than in men (10:1 to 20:1), and is most prevalent between 45 and 65 years of age (I am obviously not an older lady so me having this in my 20's is kinda of scary)."

"Symptoms might include symptoms of hyperthyroidism in the early phase of the disease, and then hypothyroidism. Weight gain, depression, mania, fatigue, panic attacks, bradycardia (slow heart beat), tachycardia (fast heart beat), high cholesterol, reactive hypoglycemia, constipation, migraines, memory loss, infertility and hair loss are a few possible symptoms (I have the large majority of these symptoms plus others consistent with hypothyroidism like, brain fog, dry skin, hair falling out, and sensitivity to cold)."

Here are some questions that I have been asked:

Well, can't you just take a pill?

As my thyroid dies over the course of an unknown number of years, I will try to replace its functioning with synthetic thyroid hormones (its doesn't do a great job, and there are many brands, types and doses to try before the right one is found) and we will always be chasing a roller coaster so to speak. My thyroid goes through periods of trying to work so I am forced to deal with periods of hyperthyroidism (heart palpitations, etc.) when its trying to work and then hypo. periods.

Cant they just give you a blood test and figure out whats going on?

Well, the blood tests can't exactly say what is happening and most endocrinologists will not really test "all" of your thyroid function. There is more than just one level to test. They just kinda get a general idea (unless you have an awesome Dr.). I also have to wait three plus months before every changes dosage to see how my blood work has changed. The waiting hurts. Especially since I have not driven in months.

Why not just take out your thyroid?

This is an option for some people. Usually those who have pain like fibromyalgia from it. The problem is that once your body has built up antibodies, it will always have them and you will continue to have symptoms. It keeps you from having the swing from hyper to hypo but, you will still have to deal with being hypo for the rest of your life and all that comes with that. I will likely be without my thyroid at some point. I just have to wait for it to die on its own for now.

How will this affect your ability to have kids?

Ah. Here is the kicker. The thing that makes me sad is this. Since this disease slows down, and messes with your ovulation, it can and does cause infertility. Even if I was able to get pregnant, a low thyroid hormone level during pregnancy causes low IQ and other issues like miscarriage in babies. So, I have to have everything really well leveled out before I can even think of having kids. With a dieing thyroid who knows how long that will be.

So, thats a BRIEF semi-scientific explanation of what I am going through - minus the complaining about how I feel. For that, I'll have to write another blog. Lol.

Ashley

Ps. If you have any questions, I will add those to my blog too.

Our wildlife

So I thought I would make a little running list of the various wildlife that now frequents our deck. The cats have been enjoying it as much as we have.

Ruby Throated Humming Birds
Golden Finches
Carolina Chickadee
Cardinals
Squirrels (who raid my humming bird feeder)
Four or Five Juvenile Raccoons (who raid my humming bird feeder, finch feeder and my tomatoes)
Bumble Bees (who raid my humming bird feeder)
Various Giant Ants(who raid my humming bird feeder)
Stink Bugs
Various types of moths and butterflys


Ps. I know that the pic's stink but, I took them through glass, far away, and with a bad camera.

When it rains, it pours.

Why is it that when it rains, it seems to pour? I understand that God never gives us more than we can bear but, I don't have to like it.

Let me explain. I thought that dealing with my health, all of the bills associated with it (for labs, scripts, and the MRI) and lack of driving was quite enough for me to deal with for the summer. This on top of not being able to find a job AGAIN and having to come to grips with it. The random tutoring schedule has been eating at me but, I have been able to come to grips with it too. I thought that would be it but, no.

On the way to tutoring this past week, hubby's car started making crazy noises. He spent half a day working on it, changing the transmission oil, etc. He finally realized we needed to take it in to a shop. They told us it is the transmission. Great. Now we have to pay a couple thousand dollars to pay for a new transmission, and are without his car for a couple/few weeks. Since I am not driving, we even had to pay for a rental car for a day just to get home from the shop. Talk about depressing. The shop is only like 10 min. from our house but, I couldn't even get it together enough to drive that far.

Then, add the canoe trip to the Boundary Water Canoe Area in MN that hubby has been planning for awhile and has been looking forward to (he even managed to get off 11 days straight, of summer none the less, so we could go). It has taken GOBS of planning, researching, talking to people in MN, buying of permits, and sending of non-refundable deposits to arrange. Now we have canceled it. One, because of my health, and two because of the bills we were not expecting.

Now, here is the biggie. We are currently starting the process of buying a house that we like. Even with my health, bills from my health, lack of job, loss of monies from the canceled trip, and exploded car, we are crazy enough to try to get the money together for a down payment, closing costs, application fees, etc.

I am currently overwhelmed with my lack of understanding of the entire home buying process and feel as though I am about 10 steps behind trying desperately to get caught up. Unless you just want to be led around by the hand, the house buying process is daunting. I mean, who really knows off hand if its better to use a realtor as a dual agent or to bring in a buyers agent after the sellers agent has already shown you the house twice? I didn't (until I spent the day going back and forth between a total of three agents and my dad).

It's pouring. Can you see it?

Ok, now that I have complained here is the good part about today.

Hubby and I just put up a hummingbird feeder yesterday. Today I was overjoyed as I was given the blessing of watching a humming bird come to and from my feeder all morning. At one point, as it was feeding, a golden finch was feeding from the thistle feeder right next to it. The two just eyeballed each other and kept on eating. Couple that with the pretty white moths in my flowers and a big orange butterfly and it was a picture that melted my stress away. Even if just for a moment.

I suppose it could always be worse.

When animals strike back...

These pictures hardly do this justice. There were many more wounds than pictured and this was after some of the blood was cleaned. He ended up having cuts on both hands, legs, and one foot. I would estimate that there were around 50 cuts and deep punctures that were still bleeding when hubby left for work.

So, here is the scoop. I slept terribly all night last night and after hours of tossing and turning I went to sleep on the couch downstairs. I thought this was for the best.

Well, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to loud banging and terrible cat noises coming from upstairs. The noises continued until I heard Hubby sized thudding and then him yelling. All fell fairly quiet and then I heard, "Shit I have blood all over me." So, I ran upstairs to see what the crap happened. There were cats flying every where, urine all over the hall way carpet and walls, and Craig standing in the bath room covered in blood. I yelled as I was heading up the stairs, "Is it your blood or a cats?!" Craig said in a confused voice, "I don't know!" So, when I got upstairs and saw him I realized it was his. He then told me he was going to faint. He quickly laid down in the bathroom while I got him a glass of water and tried to keep myself from fainting. Lots of calming down of hubby, and the cats, and blood and urine clean up happened after that. Finally, sometime during all of that, hubby me what happened.

As far as we could figure, mama cat got spooked or caught in something at the foot of the bed (we think the cloth hamper because it was ripped and had some of hubbies blood on it). She then proceeded to freak out, involving Theta in the whole mess, and freaking out the rest of the cats who came running to see what all of the cat fight noises were about (they were so spooked that they urinated everywhere). Well hubby, in all of his still sleeping glory, tried to free mama cat from whatever had her and break up the invisible fight he couldn't see because it was pitch black. Mama then decided that hubby was the cause of all of her trouble. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ouch.