Day 3 of the (more) Natural Diet

I paranthesized the more because my diet isn't technically 100% all natural, just cutting out most processed foods and as much wheat as I can (trying for all but I may miss some here and there). Not a weight loss diet by the way.

Breakfast: Banana, coffee
Lunch: Hamburger patty (no bun) with cheese, baked beans queso dip and cheesecake
Snack: Tangeolo
Dinner: Spinch/spring greens salad with dried cranberries, walnut pieces and vinegrette
Snack: Mango Fruit Bar

Once again I have shirked on my commitment to stay current on my blogging. To anyone remaining, I apologize.

In the past few weeks, I have been busy becoming a team roper. Before I start explaing the how, I suppose I should begin with a why or a how, as in how have you not been committed for losing your mind. You see, I am dating a team roper, and have been for over a year now. In fact, this nice young man even moved from Arizona to Texas after my internship. He is apparently quite smitten (coughgigglesnort). But he is a team roper and I love roping events (and my team roper), and after watching him rope many times, I decided it can't be that hard, right? I mean all you're doing is throwing a rope at a steers's head, or feet depending on which end you're facing. So I found a rope (Omega 3 if you're keeping up) and started swinging. Apparently this whole roping this is a little harder than I thought. With some coaching I got pretty darn good roping the dummy steer, from the ground. He got the bright idea to add a horse to the equation, and a moving animal. This changed everything, I now have to coordinate making a horse move forward, staying in my saddle, not falling off the horse, keeping her straight, not droping the reins and twirling my lasso. The final step is actually throwing the loop at the moving steer (or burro in my case) without falling off as the horse stops. Whew! It's a lot of work, and coordination. Did I previously mention I have no coordination or grace, well I don't, not even a small fragment buried somewhere deep inside. As a person who rides cutting horses, roping is hard. But to get back to the beginning, how did I become a roper? Since I haven't actually caught my prey with my rope, the only claim I have to being a roper is my roping glove. At least with my roping glove on and my Omega coiled up in my hand, I at least look like I know what I'm doing, giggle giggle snort.

Finally spring weather has made its way to Central Texas and we've had weather in the 80's. Of course the wind has been blowing like crazy, but spending so much time in west Texas and Oklahoma, I don't seem to mind.

Interestingly, I read another blog and had 2 emails yesterday (I don't normally get "junk" emails) about gluten free diets. This is of sudden interest because I'm seriously considering a major diet change, that may possibly include gluten free. You see, since the fall, I have been chronically fatigued, to the point of not being able to function on less than 8-10 hours of sleep a night and very little activity other than work. I've never been one to sleep this much. I was diagnosed with acute Mononucleosis in the fall which explained the sudden decline in my health. I was told 4-6 weeks and I should be "back to normal." I was cleared to continue working as long as there was no fever. Well, fast forward to March and I'm still not much better, work is about all I can handle, which means nothing in the evening or weekends without being completely exhausted. It's taking a toll on lots of things, as many can imagine. I recently returned to my doctor for full diagnostics, including repeat bloodwork for a multitude of obscure and common diseases. I continue to test positive for Epstein-Barr virus with very high titers (which is similar to chronic mononucleosis). Based on the online questionnaires I can find during my "research" (not self diagnosing here), I fit all the criteria that the CDC publishes for chronic fatigue syndrome. I have not been diagnosed with this (and hope I don't), but am reading about natural remedies and diet modifications.

So all that being said, if anyone has any tips of the diet change trade, I'd love to hear them.

So much for my pledge to post more often.. Oops! Life has been super busy. We're entering our "busy" season right now, which means I'm working 8 am - 7 pm 6 days a week.. Talk about tiring.. Not really anything exciting happening around here, work and thats it.. The budget got sidetracked and out of wack due to the move, but is back on track for April, and the number disclosure will return. Scentsy has been a huge blessing and help with the debt paydown plan. It has been an awesome way to supplement my income with not a whole lot of extra work. Someone who actually had time to put in to it, could really do well. My warmer sitting at my clinic has done the most sells for me the past few weeks. That's about it for now, hopefully will update a little more frequently. Promise!

I mentioned its been a busy couple of weeks.. Well, it started with Dally's truck breaking down permentantly and needing to get a new(to us) truck for him. So on my Saturday off (2 weeks ag), we packed up and headed to Ft. Worth to truck shop. He had been doing a good job searching online and in our area for a truck that meets our needs. First stop, Mansfield, Tx. They had sold the truck we wanted an hour earlier, oops! Next stop, Arlington, Texas. Shady looking dealership/lot, didn't even stop. They we decide to head to Weatherford, TX (other side of Ft. Worth) since they have heavy truck lots. Found a truck we liked, price was right, financing was right, and ended up buying a 03 Dodge 2500 Diesel truck, exactly what we wanted. Since I'm a Dave Ramsy follower, I had a $1000.00 emergency fund saved up that I used as a down payment on the truck. Now I know that he wouldn't consider that an emergency, but it was a very used truck for $13,900 and I only financed it for 3 years. So, now back to builiding that emergency fund. After buying the truck, we visit a friend in Weatherford and get home around 11:00 pm.

On Sunday, we get up for church and then come home. We have been trying to get out of our rental house for a while, because it costs too much money (plus some problems with the property managment company). They found a renter who wants us out by the next weekend, i.e. 7 days! So my mom and dad come up to help us (Dally!). They managed to move us completely out of that house in 3 days total. AMAZING! We're still fighting with the PM company, but that' s a whole 'nother story. I'll post pictures about this amazing place we've moved to next time. But my money savings tip of the month, moving to this place will save us $1000.00 a month, an entire $1000.00 (if not more).

Scentsy is doing well - about to place another order, if anyone is interested February is 10% off the old catalog. I have the Spring/Summer catalog I can email for a sneak preview. Lots of cute stuff!

I know its been a while (so much for my pledge to keep up better).. January and February was a whirlwind of activity that included no internet for about 10 days.

But first.. I have a friend and Kojie sister from college named Jenny Bizaillion that is in the hospital in Dallas literally fighting for her life. She was diagnosed with the flu about 10-12 days ago that rapidly progressed to pneumonia to a life threatening septic shock and MODS with DIC. She is on a ventilator and has been on the brink of death a couple of times. The doctors and nurses are attributing a lot of her so far survival on prayer alone, they have no medical explanation for why she hasn't passed away several times now. They are the most wonderful people, her brother and sis -in -law are also good friends from my ACU days. Thousands of people are praying for them, and a few more prayers sure wouldn't hurt. If you want to follow her story, here's the link, its free to sign up for care pages to read her story.

My beautiful (and super talented) friend Jenni, nominated me for a blog award - its my first. Thanks Jenni! Seriously folks, she's super talented, check out her site or her design site at Swell Mail, she's going to design/coordinate/plan my wedding (if it ever occurs).

But anyway, my blog award..

Here's the rules:

To accept this award I must list 10 things that make me happy and then pass this award along to 10 fabulous blogs!

10 things that bring a smile to my face are (in no particular order):

1. A day off from work. Especially if I get to sleep in, then enjoy a hot cup of coffee and read the newspaper.

2. The boyfriend - he's pretty amazing

3. All my animals - the dogs, the horses, the burros, the cows and the cat

4. New cowboy boots

5. Bluebonnets

6. Summer days at the lake, or summer days in general

7. Opening non- bill mail. Hand written note cards always make me smile

8. Pumpkin Pie or Banana Pudding or Peach Cobbler or most any dessert

9. Did I mention the boyfriend. Ok, so how about all my family and friends (that I never see enough anymore :( )

10. Peanut butter M&M's

11. Looking out my window and seeing an arena, roping chutes, cows and my horses/dogs/critters

I nominate:

- Amy, I love hearing about your mixed animal stories, makes my own day not seem quite so crazy sometimes.

- Heather - Here's to hoping you get to move to Austin soon, that' s a long drive to make so much :)

- Kayce - will 4 kids, you deserve a bloggie award

-Amalia - my beautiful Physician friend, who does amazing things to help people every single day.

If you read my blog and I haven't nominated you, well, you are nominated too (and please comment so I know who else is reading)