I haven't used my blog in months! I think this will be a good place to start with keeping track of my recipe creations for my new diet. I don't have anything today to put on here, but check back because I will. :) 

Also, I've actually had a couple folks ask about my ability to sell doTERRA. If you are interested in essential oils, send me a message. I'd be happy to help if I can and if you decide you'd like to try some, then most definitely, I can sell them to you. It's no secret I love my oils. They are life changers and in my opinion, when used correctly, are way more safe than the chemicals in the drugs that can be bought OTC.

Here's hoping I have a real brownie recipe to share soon!!

It's been quite a bit of time

I haven't used my blog for months. I have decided to start it up again and hopefully keep it up. I am fairly certain most folks know I've had to deal with a health issue the past two years. I am also fairly certain most do not know what the issue was/still is. Let me first just get it out there and say that I (after months and months of being basically blown off by doctors, more on that later) finally was fortunate enough to find the cause of my issues. All of my issues. At first I didn't want to share it with anyone other than Kevin and a person or two more. I was embarrassed I think and I shouldn't have been. The more I've learned about what I have the more I know how common it is and that I'm not weird. I have "candida overgrowth with leaky gut", so there, it's out there for the world to see now. Turns out, we ALL have yeast in our bodies but some of us are lucky (not really) enough to have it get all out of whack. Used to be it was thought to only be those with cancer (going through chemo), or those with AIDS. Thankfully we now know that just isn't the case and that most folks with it (there are thousands of us) have gotten to this point by any number of ways. Women from using birth control pills. Men and women having used antibiotics. People eating a high sugar/high carb/high processed diet. I'm so lucky I fit into all those categories! So now that it's out there....

I first started actually knowing something was wrong with me in March of 2014. My allergies were 100 times worse than they'd ever been and no one else was really bothered by them. I went from that to my ears itching and then ear pain with some pressure. I started having insomnia and at one point in July was sleeping, at BEST, 4-5 hours a WEEK. You read that right. I had all over body itching, sweating like crazy, aches and pains constantly. A relentless brain fog. A LOT of digestive issues. A rash that NO one could figure out. I was so exhausted some mornings I couldn't get out of bed. I was not functioning. At least twice Kevin woke up to me sobbing because I was so emotionally and physically exhausted and in pain and scared. He was my rock!! He would call and demand appointments for me to be seen. He took time off work. When he did work he'd come home and have to cook and clean because I simply wasn't able. I never let on to many what I was going through. A high school friend, known on Facebook as Virginia Lee, we knew her as Ginny, got me onto essential oils and doTERRA. From that point I ended up speaking with one lady, Jackie, and was put in touch with another lady within doTERRA that is also an RN and well (very well, as she deals with this, too) versed in my condition. She put me on a strict supplement and oil regimen and diet. Prior to this I was made to feel as if I was crazy for thinking something was wrong. I would be blown off by this or that doctor telling me I was fine, I looked healthy. I learned to not like doctors much and still only trust my OB/GYN. The regimen worked right off but I quickly realized it wasn't going to work long term. After searching and searching and reading so many things on the subject (I'm still doing this) I had to come up with sort of my own plan taking into consideration the main points that all candida experts agree on. 

I won't go on and on today. There is so much more. I just thought maybe if I write this all down, someone might come across it while doing their own searches and trying to figure out what is wrong with them. The symptoms are many and seemingly unrelated. You feel as if you're dying and no one has a clue how to help or what to do. I plan to weekly update on here with my story and also with different supplements that have worked the best for me. You don't have to agree with what I have and you certainly don't have to even read the blog. I truly am doing it for myself, some peace, and to maybe help others dealing with it.

I realized that I haven't posted a new blog update since January! That is crazy. It is almost 2016 and in some ways this year has gone way too fast. It was a fun filled, happy, crazy, laughter filled year. Here then, is a look back at the CO Lidh family. . .

In February we decided to book a vacation to Oahu. Chris, Michelle, and Ryder were there and not coming back to Colorado until early July. We were very excited about going. Of course as most of you know, I ended up not being able to fly, and therefore Jason and myself had to stay in Colorado while Kevin/Grampy went for a week to visit and for Chris's graduation from Hawai'i Pacific University. I have several pictures of Michelle from that trip but not on the file that I can retrieve for this, so you are welcome to look at the albums on Facebook from the trip. :)

 

This picture I believe was prior to the ceremony but I'm not sure. I do not remember.

 

March and April were violently stormy for us.

 

 

It wasn't a fun couple of months!

 

May was cold but not as stormy.

We repainted our kitchen over Memorial Day weekend but I don't have pictures of this particular project.

 

June was a month that found me finishing up 7th grade with Jason. Mostly math, but a few other things as well that I wanted to get done with him before we started back in late August.

 

July found us celebrating the 4th cooking out, having a picnic, and watching the Sky Sox. We lost, but it was a fun afternoon and evening.

 

 

Michael moved back down right after and we got him situated in his old room. Kevin/Grampy picked up Sable and Bailey at DIA. They flew in a day before Chris, Michelle, and Ryder. They landed the next day and Kevin/Grampy went and picked the three of them up at DIA.

Having lunch at Cracker Barrel. :)

They were here for three weeks and although we had 5 adults, 1 baby, a 13 year old and 3 dogs, we loved every single minute of it. Again, I am having a difficult time with this wanting to upload pictures, but there are several in my pictures on Facebook.

 

They left the last day or two of July or actually it might have been the first couple of days of August, for their trek to Florida. They are stationed at Hurlburt Field.

Ryder showing off their new home in base housing. :)

 

August we rested and enjoyed our last few weeks of summer break before we started back to school.

 

September seemed to really sort of come and go and we're not certain where it went. October was a full and fast month.

 

November came and it was finally time to head out on our trek down to Florida to visit. We had a great time.

 

We got to spend a bit with Michelle on her birthday, and were there for Thanksgiving, the Iron Bowl, and Ryder's 1st birthday. Again...you'll have to look in my pictures to see more from the trip. We were sad to leave but happy we'd all had such a great time. We are already anxious for our trip in July to hurry up and get here.

 

This month has been hectic and we've all been sick except Kevin/Grampy. Looking forward to Christmas.

 

Here's looking forward to a happy and healthy 2016!!

November, December, and Thanksgiving/Ryder/Christmas

I realized after my blog post last week that I should also have done a blog about our holiday season. I didn't mention October in the title, but the month flew by! I enjoy Halloween in the fact that I love seeing what the little kids are dressed like. I love pumpkins. I love cool, crisp days and chilly nights. Halloween like October came and went and I don't know what happened! It seems in a way that it should just now be time for it.

November happened. It also kind of passed by us in quite a hurry. Michael was down for a few days and we always enjoy having our kids home. We watched the parade, of course, and lots of football. I mean, who doesn't? And then Saturday happened. Saturday the 29th. Watching the Iron Bowl and we get a text saying Michael is in the ER with severe abdominal pain. They were to do testing and see what was happening. At that time we beating Alabama quite handily. THEN.....then it all started. Michael might have to have surgery. Auburn decided it was really all that important to continue playing in the game. Then, I get a text from Chris. He tells me Michelle's water broke and she's being admitted! WHAT!!?? Are you kidding me? Talk about your range of emotions that evening! Oh my gosh! Winning, then losing in the 4th quarter. One son in Denver that might require surgery and your son and daughter in love about to embark on bringing little Ryder into the world. I didn't sleep at all that night. Michael ended up needing no surgery and baby Ryder was born on November 30th.

Flu hit our house and hit it hard in December. Knocked us out for two weeks! School became something that would wait until January. Christmas was great. Michael spent a week with us and we were able to talk to the kids and see Ryder twice. We've had some snow, some crazy cold and a good bit of ice. My heart decided why not? Let's feel as if there were a knife inside me stabbing me several times a day. That was fun. We watched movies and managed to stay awake until midnight.

Now we're back to our normal routines and that is just no fun. It's always a bit of a let down after the holidays are over. We are looking forward to our trip to Hawaii in May though so our spirits weren't dampened for long. :)

Hello 2015!

I am going to try and be better about posting something new on here this year, maybe once a month? That seems doable? I was no doubt horrible at doing it last year, you know, life happened and all.

2014 had it's good points. The birth of our first grandchild, a grandson, Ryder on November 30th was the highlight for sure! We also got the exterior of our house painted a year late, but hey, we DID finally do it. Health issues were more abundant for us than we've seen in a while and for that reason we're pretty happy to see the start of a new year.

I am not making any resolutions. I don't like them. In reading Candace Cameron Bure's first blog of the new year I noticed one thing in particular that stood out in my mind and I feel the same way. If you make a ton of resolutions for the new year, you could quite possibly be setting yourself up for failure if you don't follow through. I like that she talked about setting goals for yourself. Goals that are actually obtainable. I have set a few for myself and I hope that a year from now I can look back and realize I checked one or two off my list. I certainly want to read more. It sounds odd, I'm sure, to hear someone say they don't always have time to read, but I'm not sure how else to put it. I don't always have the time I'd like to devote to reading. I want to be better at it this year. While like most, I could stand to lose 5lbs, I'm not going to make myself crazy about it this year. I am going to focus on just eating better and trying to get in even a little exercise. Maybe my heart acting up is a sign to take better overall care of myself. I am, as of today, no longer going to post anything, at all, on social media that is controversial. I know how I feel about things and ranting on social media isn't going to help my cause. It will do little to change the minds of others. I will not be commenting on things by others that are of a controversial nature. Debating things over the internet is probably not the best choice. Please understand I am not in any way at all saying you are an evil person if you do post such. I'm just not going to anymore. I also think we all, at least most of us, tend to feel that regardless of what the topic is on someone's post, they need our opinion on the matter. No, no they don't, we don't. I think if someone asks what others think or feel about something that is one thing, but if not, that person probably truly doesn't give a rat's behind what you think about what they've said. I am going to take more time to just be. To enjoy little moments. To be silly more. To be more in the moment.

I am hoping for 2015 to be the best year yet and I am very positive about it being just that. I want to get back to trying recipes and posting them on here with the opinions of Kevin/Daddy/Grandpa on the dish.

For now, I need to get off here and make lunch for Jason and myself as spelling and reading time are now over. Two hours of school this, our first morning back is not bad, not bad at all!!

Our February

I don't seem to be able to do an "end of month" blog update as I hoped, but thankfully I remember not *too* far into the new month. ;)

February was a good month and a very quick month. We celebrated Michael's birthday which was nice. I made a very chocolate-y cake and we decided to try out the new "Bourbon Brothers" place across from the new Bass Pro Shop. The food was incredibly good and we look forward to going back. We really enjoy the time with him when he gets the chance to come down.

We went back to a place we'd eaten at once a few years ago that we really enjoyed, " Rock Bottom Brewery" and it was fantastic! It so good that we went back the following Saturday to eat there again! They brew their own root beer on site and even though I'm not a particularly huge fan of root beer, this is pretty darn awesome! The shrimp and lobster tacos are out of this world good. We will be going back next week in fact as Jason wants it for his birthday lunch. :)

We celebrated that holiday, you know, on the 14th. :) We actually had a guy come out to talk with us about painting the outside of our house. We're having that done next week and can't wait!

I tried a new breakfast that I most certainly would have again, baked avocado with egg. YUM! If you don't like avocado, you won't like it. You take as many as you want, cut them in half, scoop out the pit and a spoonful of the meat, put a tiny bit of oil(I like olive)and salt, then break an egg into each half and sprinkle with pepper. LOVE!! You bake them for 15 minutes at 425. You can add crumbled bacon or sausage if you want, or chopped onion, and really you can put any seasoning you want. I tried splitting one egg into the two halves of one avocado which didn't work all that well, so next time I'll use two eggs. Still very tasty!

Chris and Michelle will be here next week for a few days and we're really excited about that. Michael is taking a day or two of vacation time and we'll have all 4 kids at home at the same time.

Now we're looking forward to spring and having the house painted and a few upcoming small trips out of town.

It's into February now....

I said at the end of each month I would write something on here, and it's already February 3rd, so I should probably put some words on here. :)

For the most part I think January was much like December. I truly don't recall much from the month as it seemed to go by as quickly as a few seconds! The most important part of our month was the first week and the National Title game. :o) If you paid even the slightest attention to college football during the 2013 season, you would no doubt have heard about Auburn's season and "the team of destiny" as they've been called. Coming off our dismal 2012 season, no one, and I mean NO one saw this season coming. Sure, we lost to LSU early on, but the remaining season was nothing short of magical. The ending of the GA game was crazy(lost my voice, had the sore throat, scared the dog..), but again with the "nothing", nothing could have prepared anyone for the ending of the Iron Bowl. Best. Game. EVER!! And no, we Auburn faithful still aren't tired of seeing either of the above mentioned games(mostly the two plays). If you guessed I again screamed to the point of losing my voice and the ever painful sore throat, you guessed right. :) Beating BAMA and going to the SEC Championship game was awesome(I know that was in December), but finding out we would be playing FSU for the big kahuna was incredible! Yes, we lost in the last few seconds and blah...blah...BLAH, but it doesn't matter to us. We made it there, and we played a good game.

I did try a few new recipes during the month but none worth sharing unfortunately. Here's hoping for something better this month. :)

We don't have any huge plans for February that I know of. Michael's birthday is the most important event this month. I cannot believe he will be 22. 22! How? He should be like, 2. :)

We are doing several unit studies right now in school that make up the bulk of our learning. Jason does math, and reading, but everything else is tied up with the studies. Winter(seasons and this is mostly a science unit), a month long study on the Olympics(we're tying various subjects into this study), and WWII which has various learning with various subjects as well. I love unit studies and lap booking in school and Jason learns much better this way. He is just NOT a sit there and listen and then do the worksheet kind of kid!

We had a warmer than normal beginning of January and a colder than normal end. We seem to be in a cycle of cold and snow right now. We'll the moisture!

Have a great February folks!