Kid's Mass

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a churchy person. I was raised Catholic but no longer practice except at Christmas when I go with my parents to appease my Mom (sorry Mom). So we went to mass on Christmas Eve the other night. As usual the church is pretty full even though we got there 30 minutes early, so we ended up sitting in the "family room" - one of two rooms enclosed on either side of the altar where parents can sit with small children. This way they don't disturb the entire congregation if their child starts screaming but they can still hear the service.

I think it was one of the most entertaining masses I have ever attended! We also discovered that it was the mass where the choir was made up entirely of kids.....under ten I would estimate. I would venture to guess that they had practiced once together.....maybe more and they just didn't pick up on the different cues. Needless to say, there was one kid who happened to get right in front of the microphone for each song and just sang his heart out. His enthusiasm was wonderful....the singing was not. But it was great to hear anyway.

The other entertainment was watching all the kids in the room. We had a boy next to us who was about two and his big sister who was four, they both kept vying for their Grandma's attention. There were two girls in front of us as well.....about 6 and 9 years old. They kept climbing on their Grandfather during the service, which was cute. Then throughout the service the 9 year old kept whispering to her Grandfather but she would cup his ear with her hand and get her mouth right in his ear to whisper. It was so funny.

Of course we also had the variety of crying, screaming, whining, and temper tantrums going on. It made it challenging to listen to the mass, which was fine with me. My attention span isn't long enough to pay attention to mass the whole time anyway, so it was much more fun to watch the kids. There was one girl about three years old who had fallen asleep in her Grandfather's arms. It's always amazing to me what kids can sleep through.....she never stirred through all the off key singing, screaming, and crying.....she was completely gone! The only way I can sleep that deeply is if I take a sleeping pill.

Aside from the shenanigans of the kids, the only other part of the mass I found intriguing was that they had a guy dressed as Santa Claus come up to the front of the church at the end of the mass. Apparently he came in to get a blessing on his travels for the night.....cute idea for the kids. Surprising that the church would bring in Santa Claus but a nice touch for the kid's mass. It was great to be around all the kids and be entertained by their antics....good reminder of the innocence of youth on Christmas Eve!

I Matter

Every year our program (Cardiac Rehab) has a Holiday party for our patients so that they can get together to socialize. Not that they don't already do this on a regular basis when they are exercising (or supposed to be exercising), but apparently it's been a tradition to give them another chance to socialize with each other. This year I took charge of locating a venue and putting everything together. I loved it!! Anyone who knows me, knows that I love organizing social gatherings (I'm working on being less introverted, let me know if I'm succeeding....HA!).

The day of the party, everything went great and many of the patients let us know that they had a great time, the food was good, the games were fun, and the company was great! It was a great feeling to know that my first attempt at organizing this shindig worked out so well. The icing on the cake though was when one of our heart transplant patients (the one mentioned in a previous blog) stood up at the end of the luncheon and gave the staff a little speech of heartfelt thanks. She is an excellent speaker and with tears in her eyes, she proceeded to let us know how much we mean to her and the other patients. How much we help them in their struggle to improve their health, not only physically but also guiding them through their emotional upheavals and bringing a smile to their faces with our quirky personalities. You really play the role of psychologist when you work in Cardiac Rehab and there are many days when you are not sure if you've reached the person you're trying to help or not. It was wonderful to hear the gratitude in her voice and see the sincerity in her eyes...to know that our work is actually making a difference and that we DO matter!!

Replacing After Dinner Mints

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid and we took family vacations, I always LOVED checking out the bathroom in the hotel rooms! They always had cool stuff in there....I mean where else do you find a coffeemaker in a bathroom?! Or an iron and ironing board? To a six year old kid, that was really cool!

I haven't encountered anything in a bathroom in several years that took me back to that childhood memory until last night. I had dinner at a sushi place in the UTC area (Sushi Edo)...they had a very interesting AND USEFUL addition to their bathroom!! How many times have you finished dinner and wished you had a piece of gum or some kind of mint to counteract the aftereffects of your meal?

Here is your answer!! You may have seen this in your dentists office but this is the first time I've seen it in a restaurant!! It's a mouthwash dispenser!! There is a cylinder with mini cups on the side and you just push the lever to dispense the mouthwash into your cup. Genius, right?! WHY aren't all restaurants doing this?? Granted this was in a single person restroom versus one with eight stalls in it, but still...I think it's a fabulous idea! Don't you??

Now if only they had a floss dispenser....

Family

I was back in Kansas City, Missouri the first weekend in October (I know, this took me awhile to get out) - went there for a Wheeler family reunion. I haven't been there for six years...the last time was for my cousin Kristin's wedding. Since then she has had two kids! So I got to meet my second cousins, Maddie and Will, who are adorable!! (More pics to come) I also got to see my aunts (see pic to the left) from left to right, Judy, Marilyn, and Bev standing behind my Dad. He's the baby of the family and hasn't been back in several years himself.

It was wonderful to be able to catch up with everyone! My Aunt Marilyn doesn't look any different than she did six years ago when I saw her....great genes there! Bev and Judy look very similar as well. Judy still has her sarcastic sense of humor - it runs in the family.
For example, check out the welcome mat in her house:
















One of the highlights of my trip was going to a Farmstead with Kristin and her kids to pick out pumpkins! We had a great time playing various games, going on a hayride, and climbing hay bales.




The last full day I was there, we all went to a portrait studio to take pictures. My cousins and I had a picture taken together which we weren't all that crazy about so we took another one at Judy's house. We look like sisters! Well, Mehgan (left) and Kristin (right) are sisters....I'm just the cousin.Hopefully my next trip to see my family in Missouri will not be another six years!! I love you!!

Dating SNL Style

I feel like my dating life has become a Saturday Night Live skit. I went out with a guy from Match.com almost six weeks ago and the first date wasn't all that great. He's originally from Serbia and although we were able to carry on a conversation, it was somewhat awkward. His English is fine but he had a tendency to mumble a lot, so half the conversation was me asking him to repeat himself. The other quirk I noticed was that he would giggle after asking me a question....a nervous kind of giggle. It was somewhat annoying but I figured he was just nervous because it was a first date.

We went out again because I figured the second date might go better - maybe he wouldn't be as nervous. Maybe he wouldn't do the annoying giggle....maybe I would find myself attracted to him (I wasn't noticing that on the first date). He wanted to see a movie, so that's what we did for our second date. Not a good choice as far as I was concerned but whatever. He was 15 minutes late for the date (even though he picked which theater to go to) and the first thing he did was ask how my day was and then that nervous giggle came out! Yuck! We didn't talk during the movie and I was feeling uncomfortable.....I found myself angling away from him in the theater seat and holding my hands together and away from him so he wouldn't attempt to hold my hand.

After the movie he walked me to my truck (it was late, so we had no plans to do anything else). He asked me about going out again...followed by the nervous giggle. (Eeeww) I told him I didn't think there was any chemistry between us and he turned and walked away! I thought that was kind of funny but didn't think anything more of it. I didn't want to be too vague and give him the idea that I was interested.....I definitely was not.

Soooo......this past weekend (about six weeks after this movie date) he emailed me on the dating site! He wanted to know how I was doing and if I'd like to get together again. HUH?? Maybe he forgot who I was? Selective memory?? So, being the straightforward person I am, I emailed him back and reminded him that the last time we had gone out I told him there was no chemistry between us so why would we go out again....?? His response was: "I think you are attractive, I feel there is a connection. Can I call you?"

Seriously?? I thought I was pretty blunt in saying there was no chemistry. Apparently he thinks that he can sway me because HE felt there was a connection! HA! I appreciate persistence but that was just too much! My response: "I am not interested in getting together again and I do not feel a connection with you. Do not contact me."

Do you think maybe that will work?! Sheesh! Can I get a ruling on this? Crazy? Stalker? Language barrier??

Soy and Gluten and Dairy, oh my!!

As promised in my previous post, I wanted to give you the specifics of the cleansing diet I did and how it affected me. I started seeing an acupuncturist about two months ago to try to get some relief from my chronic back pain that I have had since I was in high school (car accident). I've tried chiropractors, massage, and even acupuncture before but nothing produced long term results. This particular doctor I am seeing now is not only an acupuncturist but also a certified nutritionist, doctor of oriental medicine, and a medical evaluator. Anyway, he doesn't just do treatments with needles...he puts his patients on an overall health program to improve their health. He doesn't look at problems you currently have and decide to just treat those...he looks at everything and tries to prevent a minor issue or nuisance from becoming a major health concern. For instance, if someone has blood pressure that is in the "normal" range but on the high side, he would work to get it lowered so that the blood pressure wouldn't even get into the high range.

I had a blood test done in the beginning and it showed that I was deficient in iron, B12, and my T3 was low - 21 (Thyroid hormone that controls metabolism - ideal is 28-38). On top of that my cholesterol numbers weren't the best - Total cholesterol 217, Triglycerides 126, HDL 65, and LDL 127. So he had me do a five day fast where I drank a mixture of green tea, lemon juice, and maple syrup. That's all you have for five days....if you feel lightheaded or dizzy you are allowed to have some vegetables but that's it. After that, I started a cleansing diet. For three weeks I couldn't have soy, dairy, gluten, caffeine, or alcohol (no wine tasting!). During this time he also had me taking supplements to improve my liver function, reduce cholesterol, increase my thyroid function, and increase my red blood cell production.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it might be and I did feel better. It wasn't a huge change that I felt though since I eat pretty healthy anyway. But I didn't have cravings for sweets like I had been and I have noticed that I do not get cold as easily as I did. So I had my blood work done last week and everything improved! What was very interesting was how much my cholesterol had changed. Total cholesterol went from 217 to 176, Triglycerides went from 126 to 63 (HUGE change!), HDL dropped from 65 to 51 but only because the total cholesterol went down, and LDL went from 127 to 112. My T3 went from 21 to 31, which put me right in the middle of the range for ideal functioning.

I also had a test done for my adrenals and discovered they were overworked (really? me stressed with the economy in a slump and working part time??). So now I am adjusting my eating so that I do not have any high carb meals, especially in the evening....apparently this adds to the stress on the adrenals. I am also taking new supplements to support adrenal function. We will see how this affects me in the coming weeks.



So far I've lost about seven pounds and I am beginning to notice an increase in my energy level. I've also noticed an increase in my libido which is not an unwelcome change by any means! Single woman on the prowl....watch out!!

John Hughes Flashback

As many of you know I have been doing a cleansing diet for the past few weeks (more to come on that). There were a few reasons for the diet but the result has been that I have lost a few pounds (woohoo!) in the last few weeks. My scale had noticed the difference and I had kind of noticed the change in how my clothes fit, but it wasn't a drastic weight loss. So it was nice to hear one of our cardiac patients telling another patient that she thought I looked thinner. After working at it for a few weeks it's nice that other people notice when you do get results, especially when the results don't seem that noticeable to yourself!

Later in the class, this same patient decided to come up and tell me that she thought I looked like I had lost weight and was looking good. I thanked her and told her a little bit about the diet I had been following. This particular patient likes to talk...and give more details than necessary. She also has a tendency to talk with her hands so she can embellish her story. She went back to complimenting me on how I looked (which was very nice of her) but this time pointing out the specific areas where she saw the changes. Apparently my bosom (yes, she used that word) is more noticeable because my torso has gotten thinner. She kept bringing her hands towards my torso as if she wanted to grab me to make her point. I immediately thought of that scene in Sixteen Candles when Molly Ringwald's grandmother exclaims how perky her "boobies" are and then proceeds to feel her up! Luckily I was able to avoid any groping from the patient....but it was a close call! Whew!!