Vegas Baby!

Well, Patrick and I have been in Vegas for a total of two days now. We are officially the lamest people to ever go to Vegas in that both nights we have been here, we have been in our room and ready for bed by 11:30. BUT, we can blame a few legitimate excuses - first, we left for the airport at 5:00 am yesterday morning. That means we were up by 4:15 - AM! Most of you know I am an AWFUL person so early in the morning. But I do believe I behaved myself nicely. :) The second is that in Vegas you are pretty much walking all over the place - despite how little you think you walked - it is still ALOT! Couple that with our Central Time Zone-attuned bodies and we are running low on gas a lot faster than we thought. But, we have accomplished quite a bit in those two days (despite the lame hours we are getting in bed - I mean the TI pirate show was still going on when we were in bed last night! :) ). Here is a breakdown of our days so far:

Saturday - up at the butt-crack of dawn to get on our plane - I pop my first Xanax and soon realize why this drug is so popular on the "streets". I L-O-V-E it and will simply not ever get on a plane without one ever again! We land around 8:30 Vegas time (10:30 for you CTZ peeps!) and get our stuff, hop on the shuttle bus and head to the hotel. We can't actually check in yet, but we leave our stuff with the bell hop and head over to meet some friends who came in the day before. We walk from the Wynn to Caesar's Palace because we have absolutely NO judge of distance and think it is not that far away. WRONG! But lesson learned, we head in and play a few penny slots while we wait for our friends. Then we go to get a little breakfast for Patrick and I since we hadn't eaten - in all the great places to eat, where do we go? The Casino Royale so we can get some Cinnabon. Yup - high rolling now! :) Then we walk around and see a few of the casinos in the area. First we go in the Paris. Amazing. I love the painted cloud ceiling and the old world feel faux shop fronts all along the casino. Even the bathrooms have french lessons piped in. How to day "I think you are a nice person, but we should get to know each other first" and "Did I shave my legs for this?". Then we walked around outside a bit, grabbed a quick drink to go from an outside vendor, and went back to Caesar's Palace for a tour of the shopping and animatronic fountain. The fountain was cool, the shopping a bit out of my budget and by then my tootsies were on fire - not to mention those long lost muscles I rarely use! So we made our way back to our hotel to check in. I promptly took a nap - I slept so hard that when it was time to wake up it was like waking the dead! We got dressed and ready to go down for some dinner and to see La Reve. Dinner was with our friends who showed us around a bit at Red 8 at the Wynn. Red 8 is chinese/cantonese and absolutely delicious. We went to La Reve right after that. AMAZING! What an incredible show. The skill of these people is mind blowing. I think my favorite part (aside from the more theatrical acrobatic type stuff in the air) was the scene with two players who were symbolizing a fight scene - think wrestling/UFC type kind of thing. But it was all simulated of course and carefully choreographed. The best part was near the end when one of the men flipped the other man over upside down above his head. The upside down man was then balanced on the other man's shoulders with no hands. So basically one dude is legs in the air upside down with nothing holding him up but the other dude's shoulders. My words can do not justice. It was awesome! When the show ended we came up to bed...lame....but so necessary from our VERY long day.

Day two started at 8:00 for me, 7:00 for Patrick. We still haven't quite kicked in to the Vegas time just yet. We get up and go downstairs for breakfast. We decided on the Wynn brunch buffet - we are homebodies even in Vegas. Old habits die hard! The food was amazing. The bacon alone was worth the price to eat there! We head back to our room for a bit and meet up with some of our other friends who came to Vegas with us. One of which won $1000 on the slots on his way up to our room! We went down to try our luck again and of course Patrick and I only lost money instead of won it....oh well, that's Vegas. Our next adventure - The Gun Store. ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! I got the ladies' package. I shot a handgun (don't ask me what kind, I wouldn't be able to tell you) and an AR-15 (That's what Patrick says it was called) - it was Pink, so that's why I chose it. Patrick chose the The Coalition Package (the Iraq pack) that had a handgun and some other big automatic weapons as well. You will have to ask him what they are because I have no idea - something about it being the kind of guns the soldiers use in Iraq. We went with our buddies who won big on the slots and they got some individual guns to shoot as well. We put on our protective gear and head out to the gun range with our instructor. He showed me how to hold the guns properly and then I got to shoot until my ammo ran out. I was blown away at how powerful those guns are. I was actually not such a bad shot - though I definitely am not a sharpshooter! Patrick did pretty good with his guns too! After that we went back to the hotel and took our time getting ready for our big Garth concert tonight. Again, AWESOME! I was a little disappointed at first when I learned this concert was not like his tour concerts with the big stunts and such. But after he stepped on the stage I decided this was a much better way to go to a concert. The theater was very intimate and Garth was just there with his guitar - in a sweatshirt, jeans and a baseball hat. It was very personal in that he played some songs and told stories about his life and influences. He played songs by other artists that influenced him. Halfway through the show Trisha Yearwood came on stage and sang two songs...BONUS! He finished the show with a few of his own songs and then ran off stage. He of course came back for the encore! He played a few more songs and then ended with Piano Man...which he sang beautifully! It was such a great show and totally worth coming out here for. As I said in my facebook post, we are so blessed to be able to be out here on vacation!

Now, we are in the room for the night. No more gambling tonight - we have two more days for that! I am about to get ready for bed and Patrick is watching the swing out TV in our awesome room. I think the TI pirate show is about to begin...we should pull back the curtains and get a sneak peak! :)

Till tomorrow, much love and God bless!

PCOS and Vitamin D

Ok, Men, this is your fair warning to stop reading now. You don't want to know about this and even if you are a little curious now that I told you to stop reading, you really don't want to continue. You have been WARNED. :)

That out of the way, today something very interesting and rather important happened. I won't say exciting because once you know what it is you will know it is not necessarily something a woman cheers about, but it is significant in my life. I started my period today! Yippee right?!? Well, for me it is. For anyone who has been following our little blog and has ANY idea of what we have gone through in the past 8 years, you know that this is a big deal. You will know it is a bigger deal in that I have been off birth control since January. That's right ladies (and hopefully not gentlemen!) I have been birth control free for enough time now that I should not be starting my period without some kind of chemical help. Well, to be honest, I have had a little help I think. I started taking 1000 IU of Vitamin D3 every day since the end of January. I did this at the suggestion of my PCP who told me after some blood work that my Vitamin D levels were "sub-optimal". I don't fall in the "deficient" range, but the levels are definitely lower than normal. So I have been taking the Vitamin D religiously every day. The interesting thing is, I can tell the difference when I take it later in the day than usual - like if I forget or get busy and don't take it in the morning.

Here is what I know about Vitamin D - first it is a necessary component to help with bone strength in that is helps your body maintain proper calcium levels. Second, it has it's little fingers in just about every other aspect of your body's health - from immune system, cardiovascular and pulmonary systems to - you guessed it - hormonal and insulin use. After doing some more research I learned that studies have been done that document the impact Vitamin D can have on restoring balanced hormone and insulin levels in PCOS patients. One study showed that PCOS patients deficient in Vitamin D were able to not only regulate their cycles (and their hormone and blood sugar levels) but some of those patients were pregnant within two months of starting Vitamin D therapy! Without knowing the specifics of those patients, I can't even begin to guess how Vitamin D will affect me - and only being one month in means there will likely be more changes to come, but it is exciting to see this small step has already taken place.

In the mean time, I keep researching and finding out more and more information about Vitamin D and the impact it has on pretty much all of your major functioning systems. That being said, it is important to note that Vitamin D alone does not necessarily "change" things. It is also important to remember that Vitamin D has a list of co-factors(like other minerals and vitamins that should be taken with it - like magnesium for instance) that it needs to work at "optimal" levels and there are certainly a number of factors that play in to a person's individual health that means Vitamin D supplements will affect everyone differently. But, it is an interesting development in our world and one I will be keeping my eyes on. If nothing else, I will at least be tracking my "progress" and if this strange occurrence of starting a period without taking medication to do so occurs again I think I will make an appointment with my OB/GYN to run my levels again just to see what is going on.

So I share this with you as an update in the world of Kellie with PCOS and also as a bit of information I never knew. Until my mother was told she was vitamin D deficient I never even knew there was such a thing. And until I was told I was also Vitamin D "lacking" I would never have stumbled upon the connection of Vitamin D to PCOS. So in that same vein I hope to spread the word to others who are dealing with the same "stuff" that I am - the word that none of the numerous doctors I have been to yet have even thought to check or mention (yeah - that's not frustrating at all!) and up until just recently, the word that many PCOS sufferers didn't know anything about. I'm not saying it will solve the world's problems, but in my little corner, it just might make some improvement! (and on a side note - no I am not letting my hopes run wild that this could be our "answer" to getting pregnant. I just can't let myself hope that much again, but I am praying that it will at least be an answer to regulate things that need regulating - and hopefully it will help me drop a dress size or too! What? A girl can hope! :) )

Here is one of the websites I have found some good information on if you are interested: http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

A little boy explains God

Got this forward from a friend and thought it was a good one to pass along:

I certainly don't think an adult could explain this more beautifully! It was written by an 8-year-old named Danny Dutton, who lives in Chula Vista , CA ... He wrote it for his third grade homework assignment, to 'explain God.' I wonder if any of us could have done as well? (And he had such an assignment, in California , and someone published it, I guess miracles do happen!)

EXPLANATION OF GOD: 'One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.'

'God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.'

'God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.' 'Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista . At least there aren't any who come to our church.'

'Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them and they crucified him But he was good and kind, like his father, and he told his father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K.'

'His dad (God) appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard work on earth so he told him he didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.'

'You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.'

'You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God! Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.'

'If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared, in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.'

'But ... you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases. And ... that's why I believe in God.'

(If you believe in God, please pass this on, and may God bless you too.)

Back On the List We Go

Well, in an interesting turn of events the young one we had placed in our home on Saturday is being picked up by her caseworker now to be placed with a grandmother. Apparently, the person doing the removal over the weekend did not attempt to find family placement first before placing her in a foster home - a BIG no no as far as this process is concerned. They are going to pick her up from day care and take her to her grandmother's house this afternoon. Her case worker will arrange to get her things from our house later on this week - so I am praying her grandmother will have some things that she needs so she is not without for the next couple of days.

My heart is broken for this little girl. She was unnecessarily removed from her family this weekend and while I am sure there are worse places she could be for a few days it is still upsetting to be gone from everyone you know. I am hopeful that this situation will work itself out and that God will one day help us to understand the frustratingly ineffective process this can be some times. Though of course it is not our place to question God and while I want to, I will continue to say "yes, Lord. I will do as you bid." For now we will go home and clean up her room and pack her things and make sure we have it ready for the next little one God has in store for us.

Thank you again for your continued prayers and support.