Orlando and much more!

It seems like the only time I blog is when I go somewhere and need to document my trip. I hate that, I really do, but I just haven't been in the blogging mood lately. More about that later. So I was in Orlando for a work conference last week. We made a pretty quick trip of it....or that was the plan anyways. It was supposed to be Thursday-Saturday but due to some unforeseen circumstances we stretched it out to Sunday. 

Richard, Debra, Matt and I set off for Orlando very early on Thursday morning. We made it to Orlando by 1:00pm and went straight to the conference until 5:00pm. We walked around the exhibit hall and for the first time in my life my shoes were actually a good choice and my feet weren't killing me. I always have so much shoe anxiety when I travel because I struggle with the balance of looking cute and being functional. Some girls can just compartmentalize the pain when their feet hurt but I'm just not one of them...it's consumes me. Oh the devastation! After the exhibit hall we completely gorged ourselves at Fogo de Chao which was beyond gluttonous and incredible. Side note- the cheese rolls are gluten free! Score. Then we headed to a very lame audiology sponsored concert to see Smash Mouth...ear plugs and Smash Mouth. Somehow, I had to leave early...

Headed to the conference! 

Richie, Deb and me after dinner. Wish I wasn't slouching but I was just really full...

Day two called for a huge breakfast and then a slight cab mishap for Debra and I. I was having a great time with the gluten free bar at the Ritz and then BAM my day took a detour. I was getting out of the cab at the convention center (in the drop off zone) when a van sped past us and hit my door. He proceeded to get out and scream at me and ask me "Why would you do that?! Why would you open your door?!" Seriously guy? Because I was in the drop off/pedestrian zone but I felt terrible although it wasn't technically my fault since I was in motion first. It still sucked for everyone involved, especially our really really nice cab driver. :( 

We finally met up with Matt and Richard who got up early and went to the convention like we were on a work trip instead of gorging on breakfast and causing a cab wreck. After the conference we may have done a little shopping...maybe. 

But first, let's give Matt a round of applause for losing 85lbs since this time last year!!

Love him!!

Then this happened....yikes! Chanel for moi? 

Oh and this was the cute dress for day two! You should know that wedges are a great travel but still cute shoe choice. :)

Day two ended with another incredible dinner, room service dessert and a movie. Lushes. 

Day three (also known as the day we didn't make it home) started promising with a little time spent at the spa. I'm pretty partial to ANY Ritz Carlton spa, never met one I didn't love. I went with a tried and true combo of massage and facial. Heavenly! After my facial we had to go straight to the airport. I wasn't looking my best due to the lack of makeup and ton of massage oil in my hair but figured I would be home in a few short hours...right? Wrong! This is when things started to get interesting/scary. We made it to the airport just in time to learn that our flight had been delayed by two hours. We soon found out why when tornado warning sirens to start going off in the airport and on everyone's phones! To help matters he entire airport was made of glass and they asked everyone to stay away from the glass...or as we called it--mission impossible. Debra has actual human children that she needs to survive for so we sought shelter in the ladies' bathroom along with mothers with small children. After a couple of hours and a very discombobulated airport we ended up delayed seven hours and missed our Lubbock connection in Dallas. 

Staying alive. 

We may be here a while...

Played a game called "Where will Matt put his Invisalign next?" to pass the time. 

We finally made it to Dallas at 10:15pm and learned that we wouldn't be able to go home until 7:45am the next morning.  We got a hotel for a very short night, grabbed some Taco C and some toiletries and went to sleep. The next morning was possibly my worst public appearance ever. My hair was even more atrocious (complete grease ball) than I could imagine and I didn't have any makeup (stuck in my checked bag at the airport) and I had been in my clothes for a full 24 hours. We made it back to Lubbock by 9:00am and it was good to be home and see my favorite guy and pups! :) 

So that was that trip. Never a dull moment and always great company!

Part two of this post is a little more on the serious side. Back in February (I think?) I posted about some health problems I was having. Well the bad news is that I'm still having them and still don't have a true cause or solution. I've had multiple tests run and tried to do everything that I can with diet, exercise and supplements but still feel pretty bad abt 60-75% of the time. Oddly, I feel worse after each time that I eat. I get foggy headed/confused, chills, exhausted and am having trouble sleeping. Needless to say it's getting frustrating especially because work is soooo demanding right now and feeling bad/exhausted/foggy headed is not in the game plan. I do have great hope though! I won't get into a rant about traditional American medicine except to say that I'm disappointed in the system overall. Our medical system strives to spend as little time as possible with patients, bill insurance and prescribe medication to just treat symptoms as opposed to finding the root cause. I don't think that doctors are to blame necessarily...they are just the product of a bad system. Unless I have a limb missing or another acute issue you will not find me calling on a traditional doctor. Waste of my time and money. Ok, so I guess I ranted a little. Anyways, my hope comes from a new doctor that I found in Lubbock that practices functional medicine. Functional medicine combines the advanced technology of traditional medicine and the mindset and treatment of eastern medicine. It seeks to determine the root cause and treat the whole person and not just symptoms. The idea is that if you weren't born with it then it's curable. I have my first appointment on Thursday and I feel hopeful for the first time in months. It's completely private pay but I'm to the point where I'll do almost anything to feel normal/better. I believe that God has led me this direction and I am commited to whatever program/plan they recommend for me. Afterall, I've already given up gluten, all other grains, processed food, most dairy, refined sugar, soy and red meat. I'm determine to regain my health and be 'well'. I don't want to just be 'ok', I want to be vibrant and energetic. My goal is to be healthier than I've ever been as an "adult". Prayers and positive vibes are appreciated. I'll keep you updated!

ht

On the road again!

I'm in Tyler, Texas this week for work and let me just say that it is beautiful! Trees and warmer weather are some of my favorites this week. 

Some of my not-favorites include being on a cleanse while out of town. It's a little inconvenient to be out of town this week because it's the last week of my cleanse and I really wanted to finish strong. I've been doing a 21-day cleanse to continue the task of rebalancing my system from the appetite suppressants. The word 'cleanse' sounds a little extreme but it's actually been decently easy to stick to it once I got used to it. I read a book called Clean by Alejandro Junger, MD where he discusses the importance of digestive health to your overall health and basically how the standard American diet is creating a pill popping, toxic, and unhealthy culture. After reading the book and reflecting on some of my past diet choices, I absolutely agree with him. It's been a goal of mine to begin to 'eat clean' so I decided to embark on his recommended cleanse. The 'rules' are have a liquid breakfast (smoothie or fresh juice), a solid lunch and a liquid dinner (smoothie or fresh juice). No gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, night shades, peanuts, beef, pork, or any other possible allergen provoking food to allow the digestive system to heal and the body to detoxify. Whole foods and preferably organic whole foods are on the menu. I broke out my juicer and have quickly fallen back in love with juicing again. Smoothies haven't been my favorite because bananas aren't allowed in the cleanse but luckily I love all of the allowed fresh fruits and vegetables so I've gotten along just fine. Surprisingly, I haven't been hungry at all, crazy...I know AND I am feeling much better overall. I've improvised in Tyler to make it work the best I can. Jay smoked an organic chicken for me before I left and I packed it, my magic bullet and a few healthy snacks in my suitcase. Then once I made it to Tyler, I found an awesome grocery store called FRESH and did some grocery shopping. I found that the market part of FRESH makes fresh juice so I was able to stick to my juicing routine. Pretty big win for me! 

I've done really well overall, although tonight I went a little crazy at dinner and ordered two entrees and dessert...oops gluten, eggs and dairy were all in attendance. Back on the wagon tomorrow to finish strong!

Here are a couple of recent pictures:

My favorite juice concoction is pineapple, cucumber, broccoli, kale, Swiss chard and apples! So good!!

I'm practically a real mom. I haven't gone to the bathroom or taken a bath completely alone in years. Here is my entourage. 

Saturday night Jay and I went to a concert with our friends Chase and Karla. Karla's cousin and his wife have a band called Nocona and they were on their way to SXSW in Austin and stopped in Lubbock to play a show. They were great...even though we left at midnight. That's late enough for the Taylor's. The girl on the chello blew my mind. 

You mean not everyone packs a whole deboned chicken, dates, figs, a magic bullet and coconut water in their suit case? Oh...

Pho or yellow curry? Couldn't chose...so I got both! Excellent choices for my derailment dinner!

Ready to head back to west Tx but happy to have missed the haboob that blew through last night. Ready to see these little beggars and their dad!

ht

Another Week in the Books

February has been a tough month to get my act together. I've been doing a lot of traveling for work and although I'm by myself in the evenings I haven't felt like doing much blogging. You see...I did something pretty stupid and now I'm having to deal with the consequences. It's a really long story that I'm not going to get into but basically I joined a medically supervised weight loss plan because a friend of mine had great success and wasn't working nearly as hard for nearly as long as I had been. I got a little envious and decided to short cut the ole 'healthy diet and regular exercise' plan that I had been using since January 2013. Well great news, I lost the last 10 lbs and got to my goal weight... but bad news I did it with the help of a prescription appetite suppressant that threw my endocrine system into a tailspin.  It began in Vegas in mid-January with a anxiety-like attack/stroke feeling. It completely caught me off guard and was terrifying. That same weird heavy feeling, confusion, trouble speaking, heart racing, panic type feeling came back over and over for about two weeks and has now progressively tapered off to extreme exhaustion or not able to sleep at all, extreme hunger or no hunger at all, headaches, trouble regulating body temperature, poor memory, etc. Basically, I'm a complete mess and I'm working hard to rebalance my hormones naturally and holistically. I'm trying to correct the health of my gut and digestive system with a cleanse and eating clean and rebalancing my hormones with exercise, relaxation, prayer and natural supplements. Oh and yes, I went to the doctor but the doctor who prescribed the meds acted as though it was impossible that the medication could have this effect and my personal PCP wanted to potentially treat me (i.e., prescribe more medicine) for things that he wasn't sure were going on and didn't want to give the Rx appetite suppressant much attention. I wasn't open to taking any additional medication and have felt since day one that it was the medication because it was the only recent change in my routine and I am otherwise a healthy and active 29 year old. Also, any drug that acts to falsely increase neurotransmitters to fool your body into ignoring it's survival signals (hunger) can negatively effect your endocrine system. So...oops, I went into much more detail than I intended on but the moral of the story is that weight loss is best handled with common sense. If your program seems too good to be true then it's probably not good for you. Lesson learned...and continues to be learned the really hard way. I am really grateful for the progressive improvements though! 

Enough of that! Here's a peek at my week in pictures. 

We started a new series at church called "Marriage Makers and Marriage Breakers". It's a 6-week study on what the bible says about marriage and how to create oneness (not sameness) in your marriage. We're finding great value in it even though some of the principles aren't easy to follow. I can't imagine a better investment of my time than preparing for a successful and biblical marriage. 

Monday morning at 6:30am I flew to Dallas and then drove to Cleburne for the opening of a new office. What a beautiful look above the clouds! 

On Monday evening I drove to FTW to visit one of my best friends, Celia, and her mom, Cynthia, who is battling Stage 4 bone cancer. They recently placed her on home hospice and therefore, I really expected my visit to be be somber and depressing but it was the exact opposite. Cynthia was so excited to see me (it was a surprise!) and had a huge smile on her face when I walked into her room. We sat and talked for about an hour and just shared stories (new and old) and laughed. It was literally one of the best moments of my life and I'm so grateful for Celia's parents in my life. They have always been so good to me and although I don't understand God's timing in this situation, Cynthia trusts Him and so do I. Cynthia told me as I was leaving that we are going to Chuy's to have a New Mexican Green Chile Margarita very soon! I'm in!

Call me goofy but I had been resisting jumping on the EOS chapstick train until Tuesday. It was freezing and my lips were so dry. I couldn't find my Burt's Bees so I picked up one of these at CVS...and I love it! Go get one!!

On Wednesday morning I drove from Cleburne to Greenville to meet my team for another office set-up. We got everything ready and then I got to fly home on the private plane instead of going through security and waiting at the airport. I won't lie...it's MUCH better! Breanne seems pretty comfortable too!

Thursday was a praise day! My dad had a pretty major neck surgery to separate several vertebrae that were grinding on one another. Ouch! Here he is before surgery in his fancy surgical cap! Thankfully the surgery went very well and now he's at home recooperating for a few weeks. 

Valentine's Day was Owen's first birthday!!! We are waiting to have his party until my dad can participate but wow, what a joy he is in our lives! I can't believe that he's already a whole year old!

 

I used to hate 'food on face' baby pictures but now I'm a convert. This guy makes spaghetti look adorable!

On Saturday evening Jay used his new smoker (Christmas gift from yours truly) to make dinner. He smoked himself a ribeye and a piece of ahi tuna for me. This smoker might be the best purchase I've ever made! Everything is delicious and not overly smokey tasting. We spent the night at home watching the Olympics.

Well that was pretty much it. Work is great, my family is great and my health is on the rebound. I wish I didn't have to learn things the hard way but...I guess I just do! 

ht

Some good ones.

It's been mentioned to me once or twice that I need to have children so that I'll stop posting pictures of my dogs...but...they're pretty adorable and they are my babies right now. And since all I do is snap pictures of them it should be represented on this blog. 

Without further a due...

And a couple of my favorite baby humans...

ht

Vegas Trip: Strictly Business

Last week (umm...I mean the week before that...it's taken me a while to write this post) I was lucky enough to travel to Las Vegas with my work family and take part in Starkey's Hearing Aid Technology Innovation. It was amazing!! It was at the Cosmopolitan which is gorgeous and Richard ended up with a penthouse suite on the top floor next door to Bill Clinton!! Serious. Anyways, the expo had huge speakers, amazing information, great food and some pretty awesome shopping! The only thing that I didn't get enough of was sleep!

We arrived on Wednesday and went straight to a restaurant called Holsteins. Gourmet burgers, fries and alcoholic milkshakes. Let's just say that it was not disgusting. 

Thursday morning we started bright and early and ended before lunch with guest speaker, Donald Trump! As he was finishing his speech, Matt and I got a surprise invitation to meet him and take a picture with him after he finished! It was pretty cool but I wasn't able to get a picture of us meeting him. 

After meeting The Donald, we bailed on the afternoon session and went shopping! 

I found a new travel bag that I had to have...and got it!

Ahhh!!! It's perfect and fits my iPad and notebook on one side and all my personal stuff on the other. Winner. 

Thursday night we went to the Wynn and had dinner at the Red 8. It's an Asian bistro that serves the best steamed pork buns on the planet! We ended the night with every dessert on the room service menu...oops! Living large!

Friday we decided to be good and go to class all day. I'm glad we did because we ended the afternoon session with President Bill Clinton! He was quite the inspiration. 

We went to Wolf Gang Puck's steakhouse, CUT on Friday night. It was legendary. 

My hot dates!

Saturday was the best day yet! Richard's class was Saturday afternoon and he did an amazing job! We were all nervous for him but he rocked it. :)

That afternoon we ended the expo with guest speaker...wait for it...President Goerge W. Bush!! We weren't allowed to take pictures but just let me say that I've never enjoyed anything more! He was honest, genuine, funny, blunt and kind. Miss that guy being in the spot light but he shared that it was purposeful to live a life out of the public. AMAZING!!!

Saturday night was a private concert by Brad Paisely. He was so much fun!! Ginger and Debra and I had a great time...even if we were slightly overdressed. 

And...the cherry on top was an after party on the top floor of the Cosmopolitan with the best view in Vegas. 

Well that was that!

ht

A Picture a Day: Week One

I'm a little late to the dance on this one but it sounds fun and I have more than enough pictures to play along. I'll start with last week--January 5-11, 2014. 

Sunday, January 5th

Jay and I spent the weekend in McKinney with some good friends--the Morrow's. They have an adorable baby girl, Emma and a pug and lab. We had a great time, went to bed by 10:00pm each night, and then got up on Sunday morning and drove home. When we got home I proceeded to take down all of my Christmas decor. I was sad to see it go but it gets prettier every year because each January I hit the Dillard's after Christmas  sale for more decorations for my tree. I didn't post a picture of my tree this year so I'll pick the last picture that I took of it on Sunday before it came down. It's not the best but it will have to do. I continue to be really happy with my choice to remove red from my Christmas. 

Monday, January 6th

Back to work and back to wearing high heels. I spent the evening with Jay watching tv and rocking my yoga toes. These things really work! They are rubber and you spread your toes out into each hole. They hold your toes in a way that realigns your feet after wearing heels or anything with a pointy or narrow toe. I'm a fan but of course Jay thinks they're goofy. 

Tuesday, January 7th

This was the day that poor Job was kicked out of family time. It seems harsh but the guy was out of control. Really. It all started with the elk antler dog chews that we bought at Cabelas when we were in McKinney. We bought two so that Job and Ally could each have one, but of course, they both wanted the same one. Ally typically wins these competitions and Job either finds a different toy or he just lays down...but not this time. That guy barked and whined and howled and ran around in circles and pleaded for the bone until we couldn't take it anymore. We tried to get him to take the other one. We tried to get Ally to take the other one. Neither would go for it so like the good dad that he is, Jay held the bone and they both chewed on it for a little while until Ally had had enough and recaptured it for herself. Job completely freaked out and I had to kick him out of the bedroom so we could watch our shows. Bless him. Have you ever heard of a dog being kicked out of family time?!

Wednesday, January 8th

I posted this one on my Instagram already but it truly was the highlight of my Wednesday. This was the first thing I saw when I walked into work on Wednesday morning. 

My thoughtful friend, Matt, made this lovely banner for me. "Wide load Wide load" Who needs enemies...

Thursday, January 9th

I took a screen shot of this on Thursday. It resonated with me on a personal and professional level. 

Friday, January 10th

These two loves went to bed without me on Friday night. Jay and I met at Las Brisas for dinner on Friday evening. He had been working in Plainview all day and the wind blew about 30-40 mph all day. It was a typical brownish-red WTX day. Poor Jay actually smelled just like dirt and was exhausted. He showered and then he and B hit the sack. 

Saturday, January 11th

Saturday was wild. We woke up early and Ally and Stella refused to go back to bed. I had some work that I needed to catch up on and Jay and I had a vet trip planned for the whole crew. My office is near the vet clinic so I told Jay that I would take B and get some work done and then we would meet him and the other two pups at the vet. Stell and I started our morning at Starbucks and B got a puppy-whip (whipped cream in a cup). She was overjoyed! I got a little work done while Stella whined and sniffed around. Then we went to the vet and they were running an hour behind and had a lobby of HUGE and vicious dogs. We decided to reschedule and went to the movies instead (sans the dogs). We saw Lone Survivor. It's was devastating but evoked pride. Mark Wahlberg was incredible and so was that guy from Friday Night Lights...? Oh yeah, back to my pic of the day...here she is:

Loved my week. 

ht