CHICKEN DAY!

So, I knew I would get around to posting this eventually!

Thursday, Craig and I went to Columbus to help our friends, Ben and Ket, slaughter some of their chicken (I believe they have around 100). The chicken were fairly young but, were getting to the point that they were eating Ben and Ket out of house and home and were beginning to be less cost effective. They had to go!

Craig and Ben slaughtered around 14 birds all together. They painstakingly dry plucked the first bird or so to find out "just how hard it was." Yeah. It took them an hour to pluck one. After that they dunked the birds in boiling water for around 10 seconds. It shortened the plucking time to around 5 min. Not too shabby.

While Craig and Ben were slaughtering, feathering, and dressing the birds, Ket and I froze, cooked, pulled, and canned the meat. We also cooked a nice big roasted chicken dinner with homemade rolls and mashed potatoes while we took care of the meat from all of the birds. I can't forget that we watched little Mori while we did all of this.

All in all, it was a productive, long day. By the end of it all, we all were ready to go to bed and didn't want to see another chicken that day!

The FRESH roasted chicken dinner sure was good though! Yum!

ba*by*i*tis:

ba*by*i*tis: Relating to or characterized by a total obsession with babies; current babies, things baby related and having babies.

I thought I was home free from this affliction because I had been without it for months. I was sadly mistaken. It all started when my friend Sara came over with an incredulous look on her face that led to the dreaded, "I have big news," statement. Of course, she thought she was (and still doesn't know yet) pregnant. Immediate thoughts of babydom and living vicariously through her popped into my mind. It was impossible not to be giddy. Impossible.

Then I went to my friend Ket's house hoping to get past it after being around her one year old daughter Mori. No such luck. Ket is pregnant with baby number two, also not helpful.

To put the icing on the cake, another friend/acquaintance, Erin, is keeping a blog about her pregnancy and just posted a beautiful sonogram picture. Its a fact, I am doomed to babyitis for forever...

Oh wait. Tonight I spent some time with my sister in law's three year old niece who is ADORABLE. I was hoping that being around a three year old HAD to help. Nope. I loose.

Without pen and paper.

I often find writing do to lists very therapeutic.
I get to clear my head of all of the "things" that I was supposed to remember to do. No longer having to remember them because they are written down. I also have the pleasure of ticking off each thing as I get "things" done. That makes me feel accomplished and as though I actually spent my day wisely. Then, I can look back in my planner the next day to see what I did. I can also look back at the past weeks and months and give myself a pat on the back when I realize how much stuff I got done (and can be depressed about how much of my life has been spend doing the same mindless things, ie. cleaning cat boxes). Tonight I am sitting down on the couch thinking about what I have to do tomorrow. I don't have my planner handy so, I will put in here just this one time.

To Do:
-Make salt water
-Clean salt water fish tank
-Replenish cat food and water
-Scoop cat boxes
-Take out garbage
-Call tutee's parent
-Tutor new student Hunter
-Print out/organize new tutee's math work
-Call back new tutoring family
-Help Shannon job hunt out in the world
-Vacuum
-Put out Halloween decorations
-Sweep family room
-Return Caroline's phone call
-Frost bedroom windows
-Caulk Shannon's room
-Unload dishwasher
-Hang a few more pictures
-...


I am sure I will think of some more things to do in the morning! Night!

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.