I'm kind of a skinny kid. I always have been. Now, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it, or that it's anything fantastic. It just is. However, when I was 12 (the year I was intensely ill) my 5'6" body whittled down to a skeletal number on the scale. Since then, it has been really hard for me to gain any weight, and up until I graduated high school, I was still toothpick skinny. Now, (finally!) I am at an almost normal weight, but I'm still thin.
But there is this one thing... One little thing, just one teensy, tiny, itty bitty thing that's just buggin' the dirt out of me, because I've NEVER had to deal with anything remotely similar to this before in my LIFE!
I fondly refer to this phenomenon as...
The Celiac Gut.
You heard me. Gut. Like the gut in "Beer Gut," only minus the beer.
You see, dear readers, I have a condition. A disease, if you will. Celiac Disease. It's a particularly frustrating thing to have, because everything I eat has usually come in contact (inadvertently) with some glutenous substance, thereby creating a very unpleasant sensation to occur within my bowels, and usually in my mouth, too.
It's rather annoying for everyone around me, I'm sure. You see, when I attend social gatherings of various sorts, I inform my formal (or informal) host (or hostess) of my condition, and they usually accommodate me with copious amounts of appropriate food and nourishment. However, my body also likes to do this stupid thing where it has allergic reactions to things that I wasn't allergic to last week. Therefore, I do not know what foods to avoid, and which to ingest.
Sadness inevitably ensues. But not for very long. It usually lasts about 5 seconds.
I know at this point you are wondering where I was going with all this. I will tell you.
When I eat anything glutenous, my body gets angry at me for feeding them this hazardous substance, inadvertent though it may be. The way my body shows me how angry it is, is as follows:
1. Intense mouth sores. At first, this was the tell-tale sign that something was amiss. It basically felt like my mouth was covered in the cuts and sores you get from eating way too much pineapple... times ten. That's the best way to describe it. It hurt to eat anything, brush my teeth... kinda miserable.
2. A belly very much in pain. Later, as I discovered that gluten was that something, I noticed the pain in my gut. You see, once I removed gluten from the picture and my gut started feeling better, then I noticed the intense pain I got when I accidentally ate anything glutenous.
3. Extreme fatigue. I don't know if this happens to any other Celiac victims, but oft times I will simply feel like crap. Tired, even though I have done nothing strenuous, sleepy, even though I have slept copious amounts, and achy.
4. The Celiac Gut. I know this is the one you have been waiting for. After all, it IS the title of my post. You see... whenever I eat anything glutenous, I ALWAYS get this really stupid GUT! This is the "thing" that haunts me.... all my toothpick-y life I have had very little of any sort of protrusion on any part of my body, so when I ingest gluten, I tend to get very saddened, because the great gut protrusion appears atop the jeans and ceases to disappear for days!!!
Oh well. The very cute boy says he sees no gut, but sometimes I wonder if he just thinks it's fun to poke.
I don't think it's fun to poke.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
My Big Baby Puppy: Bear
Bear. The big, black, furry, sweet, loveable mutt. We all loved him. I don't know anyone that has met him who hasn't loved him. He was just that way. So sweet, so loving, so gentle, never barked, and he did the cutest dance when he was excited to see you! He was just so big and yet so lovey. I always said if he had been a human, he would have been a big, fat British man that wore a monacle and just smiled all the time. He was the sweetest dog in the world.
Isn't he beautiful?
He started getting really sick last week and just wasn't getting better. They took him to the vet, and the vet was pretty hopeful that he would recover. He had a high white blood cell count, which was causing his organs to become toxic, but he was on an IV and she was pretty confident it would help him.
The next day, he was doing a little better. He was able to sit up, and shake without falling over, and was eating better than he had in days. They kept him overnight again just to make sure that everything was solid, but this morning he was worse. :(
I don't have a whole lot of words to say right now. It's hard being away from home and having to work while all of this went on. I wish I could be there with my family, and I wish I could have been there with my mom when they put him to sleep. It's totally sad, but I know it's better now that he doesn't have to suffer in pain any longer. For that, I'm grateful. Still sad, but grateful.
Love you and miss you, Bear.
He started getting really sick last week and just wasn't getting better. They took him to the vet, and the vet was pretty hopeful that he would recover. He had a high white blood cell count, which was causing his organs to become toxic, but he was on an IV and she was pretty confident it would help him.
The next day, he was doing a little better. He was able to sit up, and shake without falling over, and was eating better than he had in days. They kept him overnight again just to make sure that everything was solid, but this morning he was worse. :(
I don't have a whole lot of words to say right now. It's hard being away from home and having to work while all of this went on. I wish I could be there with my family, and I wish I could have been there with my mom when they put him to sleep. It's totally sad, but I know it's better now that he doesn't have to suffer in pain any longer. For that, I'm grateful. Still sad, but grateful.
Love you and miss you, Bear.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
You know what makes me happy? You.
So the title of this blog comes from the mouth of one of the sweet little boys I nanny. One day, I hate to admit it, but I was a little annoyed with him. He didn't get a nap that day, so he was quite grumpy, he was whining and not listening to a thing I said. I told him he needed to be still and stop whining and tell me all about the pretty colors he saw outside. He interrupted me by saying, "You know what makes me happy?" And I said, "What makes you happy?" And he just said, "You." I just melted!
It's kind of interesting how Heavenly Father places us exactly where we need to be, even though it makes no sense. Take where I live, for example. At the beginning of the summer, I knew I needed to move, and I knew it had to be in Provo. I even knew why it had to be there. I also knew I needed to go back to school. Needless to say, after everything that had happened, it was a little hard not to feel a little overwhelmed. I had absolutely no idea how anything was going to work out because, in my mind, it made absolutely zero sense. However, I knew what the Lord had revealed to me, and I had learned that when the Lord tells you to do something, and gives you a time frame, you just have to do it - do your part, and He will make up for the rest.
So I did. I set out apartment, job, and car hunting. It was a little scary because I was finding apartments left and right, but jobs and affordable cars were harder to come by. Well, I finally found a job, which I quit, and then I found another job, where I met a wonderful girl who is now one of my very good friends. I had one item on my list checked off: job. Next item of business? Preferably, a car. Well... it didn't work out that way. I definitely went out of order on the list of logic. It would have been ideal to have found a job and a car, and then move, but... the Lord blessed me.
I had spent a lot of time looking on craigslist and ksl for apartments. I knew I needed to find something that I could afford, but most of all, I knew I needed to feel good about where I was moving. I know I physically looked at at least 3 apartments, and it's not that I felt "bad" about them, but I definitely didn't feel like that was where the Lord wanted me to be. So I kept looking. One day, I had really been praying about where I should go, and I had the thought to go look at the byu website, and look at off campus housing. There were only a few postings, but I called every one of them, and the only one that called me back was one of the Brownstone Condos. He was, by far, the nicest landlord I had talked to throughout the whole process. My brother and I went to meet him at the condo a few days later, and when I walked in, I had this overhwelming feeling that this was where the Lord wated me to be! It was such a cool feeling!
I knew that I didn't have a car yet, but I signed the contract anyway, paid my deposit, and just made sure I had everything taken care of so that I could move in when I wanted to. Well, the mandatory move in date was fast approaching, and I still didn't have a car. Long story short, one of my best friends knew about my predicament and told me to use her car until I had my own, no questions asked.
The Lord totally blesses us through other people, and that was one of the biggest blessings I have ever received when I was in great need of blessings. I still don't think that this friend knows exactly how much of a blessing she was in my life at that time, and I probably haven't done a good enough job at thanking her for it.
Living where I do has definitely been the greatest experience of my life thus far. I couldn't be more grateful for all the people that I've met there. They are all so amazing in their own way and have helped me in so many ways. I am here to tell you that whatever your circumstances, whatever trials you are going through, the Lord will not leave you alone! He wants you to be happy, and you can choose to see His hand in your life, because I know it's there! When your burden feels to heavy, He's there to ease the pain. It still hurts, but it's so much easier knowing that there is light and joy at the end of the tunnel, and all along the journey.
There was a conference talk that I LOVED this past session. It said sometimes bad things happen even though you are doing everything right, but the Lord weeps with His innocent lambs.
Blessings come when you're following the Lord's will for you. Bad things still happen, and I don't know how or when the blessings will come, but I know they do, and I know it's all worth it :)
It's kind of interesting how Heavenly Father places us exactly where we need to be, even though it makes no sense. Take where I live, for example. At the beginning of the summer, I knew I needed to move, and I knew it had to be in Provo. I even knew why it had to be there. I also knew I needed to go back to school. Needless to say, after everything that had happened, it was a little hard not to feel a little overwhelmed. I had absolutely no idea how anything was going to work out because, in my mind, it made absolutely zero sense. However, I knew what the Lord had revealed to me, and I had learned that when the Lord tells you to do something, and gives you a time frame, you just have to do it - do your part, and He will make up for the rest.
So I did. I set out apartment, job, and car hunting. It was a little scary because I was finding apartments left and right, but jobs and affordable cars were harder to come by. Well, I finally found a job, which I quit, and then I found another job, where I met a wonderful girl who is now one of my very good friends. I had one item on my list checked off: job. Next item of business? Preferably, a car. Well... it didn't work out that way. I definitely went out of order on the list of logic. It would have been ideal to have found a job and a car, and then move, but... the Lord blessed me.
I had spent a lot of time looking on craigslist and ksl for apartments. I knew I needed to find something that I could afford, but most of all, I knew I needed to feel good about where I was moving. I know I physically looked at at least 3 apartments, and it's not that I felt "bad" about them, but I definitely didn't feel like that was where the Lord wanted me to be. So I kept looking. One day, I had really been praying about where I should go, and I had the thought to go look at the byu website, and look at off campus housing. There were only a few postings, but I called every one of them, and the only one that called me back was one of the Brownstone Condos. He was, by far, the nicest landlord I had talked to throughout the whole process. My brother and I went to meet him at the condo a few days later, and when I walked in, I had this overhwelming feeling that this was where the Lord wated me to be! It was such a cool feeling!
I knew that I didn't have a car yet, but I signed the contract anyway, paid my deposit, and just made sure I had everything taken care of so that I could move in when I wanted to. Well, the mandatory move in date was fast approaching, and I still didn't have a car. Long story short, one of my best friends knew about my predicament and told me to use her car until I had my own, no questions asked.
The Lord totally blesses us through other people, and that was one of the biggest blessings I have ever received when I was in great need of blessings. I still don't think that this friend knows exactly how much of a blessing she was in my life at that time, and I probably haven't done a good enough job at thanking her for it.
Living where I do has definitely been the greatest experience of my life thus far. I couldn't be more grateful for all the people that I've met there. They are all so amazing in their own way and have helped me in so many ways. I am here to tell you that whatever your circumstances, whatever trials you are going through, the Lord will not leave you alone! He wants you to be happy, and you can choose to see His hand in your life, because I know it's there! When your burden feels to heavy, He's there to ease the pain. It still hurts, but it's so much easier knowing that there is light and joy at the end of the tunnel, and all along the journey.
There was a conference talk that I LOVED this past session. It said sometimes bad things happen even though you are doing everything right, but the Lord weeps with His innocent lambs.
Blessings come when you're following the Lord's will for you. Bad things still happen, and I don't know how or when the blessings will come, but I know they do, and I know it's all worth it :)
Saturday, October 16, 2010
What more could I ask for?
Oh where, Oh just WHERE do I begin? So much time has passed since we have last spoken, dear readers, or in this case, since I have last spoken, and you have last read. In said amount of time, very much has come to pass. Let's see, where did we last leave each other...
Jobs. We shall start there. So last YOU heard, I applied to and got hired at APX working as a customer support representative. I went through the two weeks of training, and met a very WONDERFUL gal there (who has since become a very dear friend to me) and other fine people there. However, in my short time there, I knew that this job was only going to last a very short while, and that I was soon going to have another job. A family contacted me that lived in Orem, only ten minutes from where I lived, offering me a part time nanny job that I felt really great about. I went over, met them, and we both felt great and they hired me on the spot. I was taking a huge pay cut, but I knew without a doubt this was what I needed to do. So I did it. Only a few days later did I get a cal from another lady, who lives 2 minutes (yes, 2 minutes) away from me, who needed some extra help around her house and a tutor for her son, and she was offering to pay me quite a bit of money. So I went to meet her and her kids and, once again, kids, I felt great about it and knew I needed to take this job as well.
In this time, I decided that I was going to quit on the last day of training. So I did. I expected it to be a lot uglier than it was. In reality, it was pretty awesome! The big boss was way nice about everything and my trainer was even nicer. And so, I started my two new jobs. I love them! Need I say more? Two sweet little buggers of the ages 3 and 9 months.
The 3 year old surprised me the other day after I was getting a tad bit annoyed when he kept asking me "why" questions over and over, even though he knew full well that I did not know the answers. When I told him he should probably stop asking me questions and then started pointing out all the pretty colors and different cars outside, he stopped me and said, "You know what makes me happy?" and I said, "What makes you happy?" and what does that sweet little boy say? "You."
AWWW!!!!! How stinking cute is that?!?! I pretty much melted. He gives me kisses when I come and when I leave and tells me he loves me and tells everyone that I'm his "special friend" that he gets to play with all day. I love that little boy. :)
So that is the job story.
Now. The car story. I will make it short and sweet, because I KNOW full well that most of you (specifically a certain one of you...) are going to skip down to the bottom where you know I will save the best story for last. But never fear, gentle readers! That story just happens to tie into my car story!! Look at me, I learned something after writing all those essays.
My car. Antoine. It is black. His name is Antoine. It's logical. Homeboy. Fo'real.
One day, Antoine stopped working. Poor, poor Antoine. I was so very, very sad. A very cute boy in my complex offered to help me fix Antoine. At first, he helped me jump Antoine for a couple days, until one day, Antoine just died and would not start again. Antoine needed a new battery. The very cute boy and I went to Walmart and found the correct battery, purchased the battery, returned to the complex to replace the part, returned to Walmart to return the broken part, returned once more to the complex to actually replace the part. The very cute boy and I stood around the car, and before we knew it, his two roommates had joined us. Collectively, we thought we knew what we were doing. Dear readers, we did not. After removing battery #1, we placed battery #2 in and, failing to actually look at the terminals, merely matched said part in such a way that it seemed to "match" the direction of battery #1. Antoine smoked like a chimney. Antoine smelled like death. The boys looked like they were going to die.
The very cute boy had unknowingly fried my alternator. Long story short, the very cute boy offered to buy me dinner because of what had happened. So the next day he took me to HumorU and we got Thai food and had a very grand time. The day after that, he and his daddy fixed my alternator, and the day after that, after very little deliberation, we decided to start dating.
It has been a month today since that day. Ladies and gentleman, I couldn't be happier. :)
Jobs. We shall start there. So last YOU heard, I applied to and got hired at APX working as a customer support representative. I went through the two weeks of training, and met a very WONDERFUL gal there (who has since become a very dear friend to me) and other fine people there. However, in my short time there, I knew that this job was only going to last a very short while, and that I was soon going to have another job. A family contacted me that lived in Orem, only ten minutes from where I lived, offering me a part time nanny job that I felt really great about. I went over, met them, and we both felt great and they hired me on the spot. I was taking a huge pay cut, but I knew without a doubt this was what I needed to do. So I did it. Only a few days later did I get a cal from another lady, who lives 2 minutes (yes, 2 minutes) away from me, who needed some extra help around her house and a tutor for her son, and she was offering to pay me quite a bit of money. So I went to meet her and her kids and, once again, kids, I felt great about it and knew I needed to take this job as well.
In this time, I decided that I was going to quit on the last day of training. So I did. I expected it to be a lot uglier than it was. In reality, it was pretty awesome! The big boss was way nice about everything and my trainer was even nicer. And so, I started my two new jobs. I love them! Need I say more? Two sweet little buggers of the ages 3 and 9 months.
The 3 year old surprised me the other day after I was getting a tad bit annoyed when he kept asking me "why" questions over and over, even though he knew full well that I did not know the answers. When I told him he should probably stop asking me questions and then started pointing out all the pretty colors and different cars outside, he stopped me and said, "You know what makes me happy?" and I said, "What makes you happy?" and what does that sweet little boy say? "You."
AWWW!!!!! How stinking cute is that?!?! I pretty much melted. He gives me kisses when I come and when I leave and tells me he loves me and tells everyone that I'm his "special friend" that he gets to play with all day. I love that little boy. :)
So that is the job story.
Now. The car story. I will make it short and sweet, because I KNOW full well that most of you (specifically a certain one of you...) are going to skip down to the bottom where you know I will save the best story for last. But never fear, gentle readers! That story just happens to tie into my car story!! Look at me, I learned something after writing all those essays.
My car. Antoine. It is black. His name is Antoine. It's logical. Homeboy. Fo'real.
One day, Antoine stopped working. Poor, poor Antoine. I was so very, very sad. A very cute boy in my complex offered to help me fix Antoine. At first, he helped me jump Antoine for a couple days, until one day, Antoine just died and would not start again. Antoine needed a new battery. The very cute boy and I went to Walmart and found the correct battery, purchased the battery, returned to the complex to replace the part, returned to Walmart to return the broken part, returned once more to the complex to actually replace the part. The very cute boy and I stood around the car, and before we knew it, his two roommates had joined us. Collectively, we thought we knew what we were doing. Dear readers, we did not. After removing battery #1, we placed battery #2 in and, failing to actually look at the terminals, merely matched said part in such a way that it seemed to "match" the direction of battery #1. Antoine smoked like a chimney. Antoine smelled like death. The boys looked like they were going to die.
The very cute boy had unknowingly fried my alternator. Long story short, the very cute boy offered to buy me dinner because of what had happened. So the next day he took me to HumorU and we got Thai food and had a very grand time. The day after that, he and his daddy fixed my alternator, and the day after that, after very little deliberation, we decided to start dating.
It has been a month today since that day. Ladies and gentleman, I couldn't be happier. :)
My life is so so SO incredibly blessed. My ward, my home teachers, my friends, my family, that very cute boy... there is not a thing about my life that I don't love, or that I'm not learning to love. Heavenly Father sure does love me!! And He loves you too ;) And I'm so grateful!!
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