Weight Watchers... again!

As a wise friend reminded me this morning...

 

It's not a destination... it's a journey.

 

My reply was that I was hoping for a destination!

 

 

What were we talking about? Weight Watchers.

 

Yep, while I said I wasn't going to obsess over every bite I put into my mouth this year... the only way to actually not do that is to track what I eat.. yep, track every bite.

 

I know it sounds weird, but when I was on Weight Watchers, I didn't obsess over food. I made smart choices and enjoyed eating.

 

Then I hit my goal and enjoyed food too much! I used the excuse that I was training for a marathon to eat high calorie unhealthy foods... cause surely I was burning it off!

 

Well, 12 pounds gained in the last year is too much! So today I rejoined and am going to focus on being healthy.

 

I'd like to lose 20 pounds. I'd be happy with 15. Sad that if I would have just made better choices over this last year that I could just have 8 to lose.  But isn't that the way things work!?!

 

My goal is to lose the 20 by my 40th birthday in June. I have time to do it right. I just have to get started!

 

So this morning I did it. I even took arm, bust, waist, thigh, and hip measurements. eek.

 

And I'm off on my journey... trying to not stare at the destination!

 

Reserve Grand Champion Rabbits

Lexi won Reserve Grand Champion Rabbits this weekend at our county stock show!! Yep, it was a really big deal! In Junior Livestock world, kids compete all together based on the weight/breed of the animal, not age of the kid. So as a 3rd grader and first time participant, Lexi competed with high school seniors. And she took 2nd place!!  It was really, really cool!

But let me back up a little... you can click here if you missed the post about us getting the rabbits.

This last week leading up to show was a little nerve-wracking. The rabbits had to weigh between 3 and 5 pounds a piece. Over 5 pounds and you were disqualified... but you want to be as close to 5 pounds as possible. So we played the feed game the last week. How much to feed, how much filler, and all manner of questions that we didn't even know to ask much less to answer!  We were weighing twice a day at the end afraid we were over. But we weren't sure, all we had was a food scale, and it was borrowed at that!

So we go to weigh in on Thursday afternoon and the rabbits weigh 4.7 pounds! We ended up having plenty of room and could have just kept on feeding the rabbits full feed those last few days!

Then finally, it was time to get ready for the show! 

Doug and Lexi

Lexi and Mrs. Williams our incredible FFA teacher!

Lexi had a blast walking around the barns with her friends who were showing lambs and goats. She also enjoyed showing off her rabbits to anyone who stopped by!

One last wipe down and we were ready.

When it was finally show time, Lexi did a great job getting her rabbits from the carrier into the pen. Thankfully our FFA teacher was in the pen with her and able to help out.

And then the judging started and all we could do was sit back and watch. Lexi was a pro and kept her focus on the judge the entire time. While some of the other students started talking to each other and shifting back and forth, Lexi just remained focused!

In fact, look at this awesome picture a friend of ours took! I love how you can see how tiny she is compared to some of the other exhibitors!

As we watched in the stands, Doug and I were talking. Of course, we didn't know that she would win her class and get second place overall in the breed, but we knew that she had already won. She started this process scared and unsure of what to do around an animal and so shy around new people. And now here we were and she was confident with her animals and standing tall around a bunch of people she didn't know! 

And then of course, she won Reserve Grand Champion! That was incredible! 

One excited girl! 

My entire life I have heard families talk about FFA and the impact sponsors/teachers have on kids. Now I understand it. What a gift these teachers are to our kids!

She even stopped and put Lexi's buckle on her belt!

We went home an exhausted but very happy family! Friday morning, Lexi was back out at the stock show to support her friends who were showing. There is just something incredibly special about a group of kids helping each other to succeed without any thought to what they can get out of it. Over the weekend I saw countless times kids helping each other out just because! I even got to be a tiny part of the weekend as one of the judges for the 4-H arts and crafts entries!

Then Saturday afternoon, we were back for the supper and sale. Lexi helped to serve the dinner to the buyers and then it was time for the auction. 

Aren't we country! I had to go buy a pair of jeans to wear with my boots! I now understand why you wear boots and jeans... barns are messy! :) 

Lexi's pen of rabbits was the 12th auction of the night. Only the Grand and the Reserve rabbits were sold, so Lexi making the sale was big.

Here is Lexi with two friends who helped her show off the rabbits. 

And the auction in process. They were adorable!

The high bidder was a joint purchase between a local pharmacy, Tanglewood Pharmacy and a service club, the Stephenville Evening Lions Club.

They took official pictures with the buyers, so I'm hoping I can get a better picture!

And that was it for the night. We stayed through 90 of the 186 auctions and Doug's company, McLemore Financial Group bought auction #88 a lamb and then we left. No, we didn't bring the animal home, just our rabbits. At this stock show, the animals usually stay with the kids, it's really more of a scholarship auction.

Today, Doug and Lexi are taking the rabbits back to the breeder. We've already to committed to a pen for next year!

Who knows how we will do in the future. It is possible that she could never win again. But while the winning was wonderful, it is the experience that has been life changing for our family. Lexi hadn't found her niche yet, and this was obviously her thing! Her smile and excitement was contagious. 

Lexi is now talking lambs, goats, horses and more! Kylie is talking pigs! 

What have we gotten ourselves into! :)

And a sidenote: Lexi even got to be in the newspaper! Here is the photo that was taken and here is the link: 
http://www.yourstephenvilletx.com/news/local/article_f7b75358-0a18-5eb6-89ba-ca07b69b87de.html

what does it mean to be .1 in 100,000?

One of the absolute best things about Maddie being relatively healthy the last couple years is that I'm not constantly searching the internet, reading the latest on forums and picking apart medical journals.

In fact, Maddie has done so well in the last year or so that I hadn't even read the recently published articles specifically about IgA Nephropathy. (This from the woman that has read countless scholarly articles about pediatric kidney disease and has a spreadsheet with over a hundred entries on it filled with urinalysis results, lab reports and doctor visits!)

But this week, the National Kidney Foundation posted on their facebook page about the new blood pressure guidelines for people with kidney disease, so I decided to refresh my memory and read the article.. and that lead to their website... and that lead to a couple of new articles on kidney disease.

Interestingly, one of the articles I read is about updated care for patients with glomerulonephritis (IgAN is in this family.) If Maddie went to a nephrologist presenting symptoms today like she did back in 2007 (?) her treatment might have been drastically different and much more aggressive. Hopefully with the new treatment protocols, patients and families don't have "lost years" while they try to get a diagnosis and treatment! I consider 2007 and 2008 (I think those are the years!) l"ost years" as all we did was survive and live in doctor's offices!

Reading these articles that have come out in the last year or so gives me great hope future generations of children with glomerulonephristis as more and more research is being done. It's interesting to read these studies where the pool of patients is 20 to 100 IgAN patients (and that's considered a strong, well funded and supported study!) I am reminded that while IgAN is the "most common form of primary glumerolnephritis" with up to 30% of all glomerulonephritis patients being diagnosed with IgAN it still a tiny percentage of people.  Take a look at this table below...



That's upto 30% of 7.6%.... What does that mean in numbers? Well, a recent article states that adults with IgAN are 2.5/100,000 people. Children with IgAN are .1/100,000.

Yeah. Not many people. No wonder there isn't much research!

These days I'm not worrying about research and prognosis so much. You get to a point in life that you have to say, I can't worry about that! We don't know how long Maddie will stay in remission. We don't know if it will progress to end-stage renal disease. Thankfully we are too busy LIVING life to worry about those things! 

New Hairdo's!

Lexi and Kylie were desperate for new do's! 

I mean desperate.

When we walked into Great Clips, I think I saw the stylists shudder.

You see, both girls have super fine hair that gets matted extremely easily.
Add that they have a TON of hair, and we get problems.

Add winter break and no schedule and you have PROBLEMS!

So finally, I loaded them up into the car and made it someone else's problem! :)

Here is Kylie having her hair worked on.  Look at how much we cut off.

I was sad to see the golden locks go, but she really, really needed shorter hair.

I didn't get a good picture of Lexi's hair in progress, but there was a lot of detangling.

I also had the stylist thin the back out. There was just too much hair!

Here are Lexi and Kylie afterwards.

See the pile on the floor... that was Lexi's hair alone!! WOW!

Afterwards, we went for yogurt. 

Isn't she adorable. I think the short hair makes her eyes look even bigger!

2013 was a great year... what will 2014 bring?

2013 was a great year for our family.

I looked back to see if I blogged about any resolutions for 2013 and we were just too busy!!  So here is a quick recap for you...

January:moved to new house and went to Disney World

February: ran the Cowtown Challenge which included my first 1/2 marathon.

April: ran my second 1/2 marathon, lots of kid activities, Doug and I had a weekend away.

May: finally sold our house on Cleveland! Maddie turned 13.

July: Maddie was sick, yuck! I worked out and ran a lot. I had my best month of the year from a running perspective. My Grandmother died at 97 years old. 

September: busy at school and the Big Show was performed a dozen times.

November: ran my first marathon and Doug his first 1/2 marathon and Maddie her first 5k!

And that's the condensed version! Sure there were struggles during the year, who doesn't have hurts and struggles, but the sum total of the year was great.

So looking ahead, my resolutions are pretty simple. I'm not looking to overhaul my life. But here are my goals:

1. I'm going to stop obsessing about every bite I put into my mouth. Obsessing about it doesn't make me make better choices, it only causes stress. I am healthy and strong and while I'd like to dump another 15 pounds, I refuse to stress over it. I have obsessed over food for the last 25 years, this is the year of letting it go.

2. I am going to eat 2 healthy, unprocessed meals a day. (I know, I just said I wasn't going to stress over food... but striving to eat unprocessed foods is totally different than counting calories or points!) 

3. I'm going to run a race for charity. I'd really like to do at least a 1/2 marathon for a big charity, maybe even a full.

4. I'd like to create a chore chart for the girls that incorporates accountability and incentives that actually works and that we will use! 

5. I'd like to do a family activity/date once a month. It may just be walking the trail as a family, or going to a museum, but these days are flying by and by the end of 2014 Maddie will be in high school!

And that's it. I love my life and my family. I am so very thankful for the life we live together. My family is my happy place and we are blessed.