See Ya Later, Gluten!

This post will likely seem random to a few people, because if you don't know me in real life, you don't know that my stomach hurts. A lot. Like oh, every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. And for my entire life. As in, as a baby, I had stomach aches on breast milk, which is supposedly quite rare.

I've tried everything. According to the GI doctor, there's nothing wrong with me, this is just my lot in life. So pro is that I'm not dying. Con is that sometimes it sure feels like I am.

My younger sister gets similar stomach aches and decided to try going gluten-free just after Christmas. Within a few days, she felt completely better. She has hardly had any issues in the past month, which was good enough reason for me to try.

And it's about all I have left to try. I tried tracking my food, giving up dairy, every OTC product that exists, and to no avail. Which, if I have a gluten sensitivity would make sense, since gluten is in almost everything.

                                                         

The last time I ate gluten was Monday night (February 13).  The last time I had a stomach ache was Tuesday the 14th. I won't say that I'm 100% yet (apparently it can take a little while to "detox" from the gluten) but I feel so much better. Amazing. Enough for me to have drank the kool-aid (not literally. That probably has gluten in it).

My friend Ashley has Celiac. She has it rough. Like, so so so so much worse than me. She's been gluten free for over a year, so she sent me some great advice. If you're curious about giving up gluten, read on!

"First off, gluten affects people differently. The one thing that I think is pretty obvious when you start looking into it is that we are a society eat way more gluten than we should--and in that way it affects everyone to some degree. You will start to find out really quickly (if you are being very strict) that we use gluten as a filler in a lot of our foods. So, the good news is that I think most people that cut gluten feel better to some degree because we just consume more than we are made to in the first place. Some people, once they "detox," can reintroduce the gluten foods they like, and just scale back on the amount of (what I would call) "bad gluten" you eat without even knowing it. Some people also have a gluten allergy--which can lead to the GI issues--some have an intolerance, and then others have Celiac which leads to more violent reactions that get worse over time because the disease causes damage to your intestines when you eat gluten. Good news--when you cut gluten you will see more benefits than just the tummy problems clearing up. Another friend cut gluten and her mental health drastically changed! I know I noticed I had a lot more energy and was less "foggy" and she noted the same things.

Okay, so what is gluten? To really detox you have to be really diligent in checking labels. It's annoying at first, but quickly becomes second nature. Also, you just stop missing the things you cut out, I promise! Gluten is a by-product of wheat. Wheat includes a lot of things like barely and some other grains.  

Here are the things to look out for (some you will know, some you may not, all of which have gluten):

Wheat (Duh)

Flour

Barley

Malt

Oats (You can find gluten free oats--it depends on how they are processed.)

Soy Sauce (I put this because it is used in a lot of meals--more than you think!)

Any Wheat Germ, etc.

Caramel Color (Found a lot in soft drinks, juice drinks, baking supplies (vanilla extract, etc.) and candy)

Modified Food Starch (Found in almost everything. Used as a filler. Check the Allergy Info or Research.)

Modified Corn Starch (Same as above. Non-modified of both of these are fine!)

You'll find that although that list is short, it rules out a LOT of food because of the last three--which is kinda disturbing when you think about it because none of those are naturally found in food. 

What you CAN eat:

Rice (Any Kind)

Any Rice Noodle

Quinoa 

Glutamate (You'll see it as an ingredient. Not actually gluten.)

Obviously anything listed as gluten free

Any and all alcohol EXCEPT Beer and Malt Beverages. But all liquor is good because of the distillation process it does through. :)

Safe things to eat out:

Mexican food is relatively safe--just substitute corn tortillas.

Thai food is relatively safe because they don't usually cook with soy sauce.

Meditteranean food is pretty easy. They really don't use flour too much in anything other than soups.

O' Charley's potato soup. I list this because it is important to me.

Chipotle Bowls. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT to me.

Balsamic Dressing (Most other dressings are a no go.)

Skyline. Seriously. Gluten free chili, baby!

Coke Products!!! (As of April 2011 they changed their process to make everything gluten free!)"

Ok, it's Tara again. It sounds like a lot, but it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. I actually had a much harder time cutting out dairy. You can still eat potatoes, corn tortillas, some chips... and honestly, I didn't need to eat that much bread anyway. And I feel better, which makes it easier to keep going.

So, it's early. And who knows where this will go, but for now, it's helping so I'm going to stick with it. I guess I just want you to know so that if you bring me dinner you'll make it gluten-free.

Did I trick you? Were you really going to bring me dinner?? Because my poor husband could probably use a night off from cooking, and pizza is out of the question now!

Couch To 5K Progress Report

With two weeks left to go in December, I decided to start the Couch to 5 K program. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically an 8 week program of workouts that gradually works you up to running a 5 K.

                                               
                       
I tried it for two weeks in July, at which point it became almost 100 degrees at 6:00 AM and I gave up. Plus, at that point, Derby wasn't big enough to come with me. All of that has now changed.

Let me interject here with an embarrassing tidbit. This isn't my first time at the party. I was a runner in high school. I ran cross country and long distance track. I have six varsity letters for running sports. I even ran at the State Championship meet once.

I tell you that not so you think I'm awesome (if you think I'm awesome for 10 year old accomplishments, I have more I can tell you about!), but so that you can get some perspective. I used to be able to run a mile in under 6 minutes. And I needed to start again with walk one minute, run one minute. And that was hard for me.

I haven't seriously run since high school, actually. I enjoyed running then because I was good at it and I liked being part of a team. The day I ran my last track meet was the day I last really ran. I just didn't enjoy it outside of the organized team aspect.

Fast forward to now. I knew I needed to do something. I was getting sick of my exercise videos and needed something more routine. Plus, we now have a 50 pound puppy who needs exercise as much as I do.

We started this program the week of Christmas. This was actually a great time for me to start, because while the holidays are busy, they aren't normal life busy for me. I had time to run three times a week. By the time the new year came around and things got busy again, we were already two weeks in. It was already starting to feel like a routine.

We're now on Week 5, which is honestly further than I even hoped we would get. Right now we run at least three times a week, more than that if my schedule allows it (which has happened once). There are a few things that are different this time around for me, so I'll share them with you:

1. I got a new phone, and downloaded the "Get Running" app. This was $2.99 well spent. Not only does it track when you do the runs, there is a sweet British lady who tells you when to run and when to walk. You can also stream music while the app is running. Which brings me to my next point...
                                                        
                                                         
   
   
2. Find something you like to run to. For me, that's NPR. Don't judge - it's like someone's talking to you the whole time you're running but you don't have to talk back. I love listening to their news programs, and I don't have a ton of time during the day to hear them. I had a friend who downloaded audio books and only listened to them while exercising. Another friend does pump me up music. Find something that works for you and makes you look forward to running.
                                                    
3. Get an accountability partner. Mine happens to be a puppy. He loves running with me. When I get my tennis shoes out of the closet, he knows exactly what we're doing. The other perk? He pulls me along when I get tired and I run faster than I would on my own. Plus, I love him and I want him to be healthy, which means even when I don't feel like going, we usually go.
   
4. Find somewhere you like to run. I hate running with Derby on the streets because there's so many people to dodge. We walk to a park by our house and then do the run there where there isn't as much traffic. I'd rather run loops around a field then dodge cars any day.
   
                                              
   
   My park!
   
5. Reward yourself if you need to. Get a new pair of shoes, some new running pants, or a pedicure if you meet your workout goals. I don't actually do this, but now that I've thought about it I might start.
   
6. STICK WITH IT FOR AT LEAST 4 WEEKS! My friend Katy ran her first half marathon last weekend (yay, Katy!) and she gave me this advice. It takes 4 weeks before you'll start to see changes in your body. It takes 8 before other people will notice them. Push to this 4 week mark. I wanted to see changes earlier than that (let's be honest - after one run), but it wasn't until last week that I began to see them for real. And once you get to that point, it's a whole lot easier to continue.

Do you have any tips that help you stick to an exercise routine? I'd love to hear them!

LASIK Update: 4 Months In

It's been almost four months since I had my LASIK surgery, and I wanted to give you an update. You can read about my surgery here.

Immediately after the surgery, my eyes were dry. Unbelievably dry. Eye drops multiple times an hour dry. Four months later, they're a lot better. I still use eye drops first thing in the morning, and by the end of the night, my eyes are pretty dry. They're more dry if I'm tired, but most days I forget to put drops in at all.

My vision was 20/15 the day after the surgery, and that's what it still is when the eye doctor tests it. The less dry my eyes are, the more clear my vision seems. The change in vision is unbelievable - I can see more clearly than I ever could with contacts.

My night vision improved dramatically. I probably wasn't safe on the roads before this at night - lights had a huge halo. I didn't realize how bad it was until everything became so clear. This isn't a guaranteed result of LASIK, but it does happen for most people.

So any downsides? I actually miss coming home and putting my glasses on at night, which was sort of like changing into my PJs after work. Zac likes to watch TV as he's falling asleep, and it was easier for me to tune it out when I couldn't see it. Now I sometimes get sucked in and stay up later than I mean to!

I can't believe how quickly I adjusted. I thought it would take awhile to get used to not wearing glasses or contacts -- when in reality, it took about a week. Now, I can't really remember ever wearing them, which is ridiculous considering I wore them for more than 20 years!

I am SO glad that I did it. Worth every single penny. Every single one. Four months in, I'm even happier than I was a few weeks after the surgery. Hope this wasn't too boring of an update... just thought you might be curious!

Prayers needed today!

Today, my aunt will be donating part of her liver to my uncle. They are working with one of the best transplant teams in the country, but it's still a complicated and difficult surgery and recovery process.

If you have any extra prayers to spare, please send them their way today.



You can never have too many prayers, right?!? I love you, Aunt Sue and Uncle Mark!

2011 - The Highlights!

2011 was a BIG year for us. I feel like so much happened this year, most of which was so, so good. If 2012 is anything like 2011, we're in for a good year.

Here's a recap of my year:

Zac got a new job! He officially has 9-5 hours and gets to work from home a lot of the time. And it's been a very good thing for us! It took us a while to adjust, but I think we're finally in the swing of things.


                                               
Funny side note - the first weekend after he started there and didn't have to work, we just sat there looking at each other. We had no idea what married people did on weekends together. So we went to IKEA, which seemed appropriate. We've figured it out now, I think!


We got married! I was definitely looking forward to this, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be as much fun as it was! It was one of the best days - just magical from start to finish. Just looking at how happy we are in the pictures makes me all teary. I wish we could bottle that feeling and just sip a little bit of it from time to time!





We went on the best vacation (honeymoon!) of all time! We're scheming hard about how we can get back there as our last hurrah before we think about kiddos...Oh how I wish I was there RIGHT NOW.






I survived the craziest semester of my life thus far. Full time job + volunteer activities + two classes + a 20 hour a week internship nearly kicked my butt. Thank goodness for a supportive husband who picked up all the slack at home and hardly ever complained. Only one more to go until I'm finished!!



We tackled some house projects, some of which I've shown you and others I haven't blogged about yet. We're about halfway to making it totally ours.

We adopted this sweet little puppy...

Who has since grown up to be this guy.

I am NOT a dog person. I don't just love all dogs, just because they are dogs. But oh my goodness, I could not love this ball of fur any more. He has the sweetest temperament, is SUCH a good listener, and is a general joy to have around (most of the time!). I get this whole why-people-have-dogs-thing now. For sure. 

We made a budget - and we stuck to it. Even in a year of so many awesome things, this might be what I'm most proud of. It wasn't easy, and it involved about 6 months of buying nothing we didn't absolutely need. But... we've established an emergency fund (that made a $600 car repair bill last week not a huge deal), we bought everyone Christmas gifts with pre-saved moolah, we're saving for a vacation that is actually a possibility, and I no longer flinch when I check our bank account balance. We worked hard to get here, and it was worth every sacrifice along the way. I don't know if there's any better feeling (at least to anxiety ridden people like myself) than feeling financially secure.

The wrapping up of an old year and start of a new year is always so exciting for me. I just love new beginnings I guess. Here's hoping that 2011 was as wonderful of a year for you as it was for us. I'm so excited to see what 2012 brings!!

2011 Resolutions -- How I did!

I made a list of resolutions last January that I shared here. I remembered that I made this list today, and checked it for the first time. Oops. I might have done a better job if I'd checked it more often.

Oh well - water under the bridge now. Here's the list I made last year and what I managed to unconsciously accomplish:

• Get married! Check! We are super duper married. Read about that here, here, here, here, here, and here!
  
  
  
  
• Organize all of my craft ideas into a binder, so I can actually create! Uncheck. Though ironically, I had written this down on my I'm-not-working-next-week-and-want-to-be-productive list a few days before reading this!
  
• Donate a quilt to a local fundraiser Done!
  
  
  
• Start an exercise routine (about 3x/week)  About halfway done (get it?). I did a lot more exercising this year than I've done in the past, but didn't get on a permanent 3x/week schedule. I have big plans for this year, though! Oh, don't we all...
  
• Re-connect with old friends with whom I've lost touch This is an ongoing goal, but I'm happy to report reconnecting with a few old friends and also purposely staying in better touch with current friends. I think this will re-make it onto my 2012 list.
  
• Visit my grandma in New York for a sewing weekend Done!! And so much fun!
  
• Make an album of all of our pictures from 2010. Not even close. But I added it to my list for this week!
  
• Pack my lunch / eat lunch at home as much as possible.  We did a great job with this one. We did a better job creating menus, and I've eaten a lot of leftovers for lunch (yum!). Packing my lunch the night before was the biggest helper here.
  
• Make time to read. Sort of! I've read more than I was able to last year, but there were still a few book club months that got away from me. Re-adding this to the 2012 list.
  
• Make smarter food choices like wheat bread over white. This has become pretty standard for us now. Whole wheat bread, cutting calories where possible. Always room for improvement, of course, but definitely a step in the right direction!
  
• Stick to a cleaning schedule The biggest help here was that we gave in earlier this year and hired a cleaning lady. She is such a blessing to us, and worth every penny. We just had to accept that we aren't good at keeping our house clean, and with my crazy schedule this year, it wasn't worth using our little bit of time together to clean. Add to that how cranky I get when the house is messy and yeah, worth the money! Our end of the bargain is keeping our house picked up between cleaning sessions. We've made leaps and bounds in this area - hoping it's become a habit at this point!
  
• Stop worrying about what other people think and whether I'm doing things the "right way." I can't imagine I'll ever be able to really check this one off, but I've definitely made substantial progress here. Maybe it's just part of growing older, but I've spent a lot less time this year worrying about what I should be doing or stressing about what other people will think. That doesn't mean I haven't done it at all, of course, but less often counts as progress!
  
• Make the most of my wardrobe. I tend to be a lazy dresser - I have great clothes, but I usually can't be bothered to put an actual outfit together. Another halfer. I haven't bought a single new piece of clothing since April, and I've still gotten dressed every day. This is another one I want to continue to focus on in the new year, but I think I've done a better job with it this year.

So there you have it - a sort of productive 2011! Of course, I did a lot of other things this year as well, but it's fun to check back and see what I accomplished. Have you re-visited your resolutions from this year? Were you more successful than I was?

Can we really have it all?

There's no question that the past year and half have been extra busy for me. The addition of graduate school on top of work and everything else has definitely been a challenge. I'm thankful everyday for a husband who has stepped up to the plate and taken over way more than his fair share of the housework, cooking, and errand running. He doesn't even flinch anymore when I text him and say, "I need a favor. Like, today."

I don't know if this is something others in our generation relate to, but I want to have IT ALL. Like, absolutely everything. A few weeks ago, the following conversation happened at our house:

Zac: You know you can't possibly do everything right?
Tara: Well I'll be damned if I don't die trying.

And I'm serious. Because I can't say no to anything, and I don't want to say no to anything. I've had fantastic opportunities in my life because I'm willing to say yes and get involved in things. I've met amazing people, learned crazy awesome things, and had unique experiences.
                                           

Someone should get me this as a mug.

And I want to keep doing all that stuff. While always having a spotlessly clean house, looking slender and put together, and throwing fancy parties with napkins that look like this.

                                             

I want to do it all while blogging about how creative and frugal I am. I want to have sweet little babies running around who are always well behaved and smart. I want to be around for everything important in their lives while having a meaningful and valuable career. And be the kind of mom my mom was, and make everything feel special and fun.

I want to be the kind of person who writes thank you notes in a timely fashion, and brings meals when people have sick family members or new babies. I want to have time to sew/craft/crochet/paint/decorate all of the projects I've found on Pinterest. I want to never forget a birthday, and give thoughtful gifts like Leslie Knope (any other Parks & Rec fans out there)?

I also want to read books, take walks, better my community, have enough money that I don't have to worry about money but can add central A/C to my house, and snuggle with my cute puppy (and husband!).

I get that this is an unrealistic list. A friend once told me that you truly can have it all, just not at once. She's probably right. So the question becomes - will striving to have it all give me a fulfilling life or hospitalized with a mental breakdown within weeks? But what would I give up or put on hold? I don't want or need to be perfect, but I do seem to want to cram three lives into one.

                                              

Thanks for listening to the madness that is my brain. And yes, this is what it's like to be me. 24/7. Or to be married to me. Zac appreciates that I'm writing this to you instead of talking about it to him, probably.

How do you balance everything? How do you choose what's the most important, and what you can give up? Does it change for you depending on the time in your life? If I can't have it all, how can I have the most all at once??

I can see clearly now...

After more than 20 years of wearing glasses and/or contacts, I finally bit the bullet. Last Friday, I had LASIK surgery! This is a long and complicated story, so bear with me as I start from the beginning...

I have worn glasses or contacts for what feels like my entire life. We found out I needed glasses when I was in first grade. My parents had taken us bowling, and a few frames in, I hadn't hit a single pin. My mom said, "Tara! Look at the pins! You need to aim the ball to the pins!" I said, "What pins? I don't see any pins?"

A picture of me, pre-glasses. I'm the one in the middle. This picture is

mostly to show you that I was a ridiculously cute child.

My mom probably thinks of that as a parenting failure moment, but there wasn't any way that we would have known that my eyesight had changed -- it changed dramatically in just a few short months. The eye doctor gave me some coke bottle glasses and the journey began.

Just kidding. Those weren't my real glasses. This is just to show you that my

parents were fun and to embarrass my little sisters.

In second grade, I started to wear rigid gas permeable contacts. At that time, any young person whose eyes changed so dramatically was recommended for these. They thought that wearing them would slow down any more changes in your eyes (this has since been prove false, by the way). Anyone who has ever worn them is probably full of empathy at this point. They are rigid and hard and expensive and easily breakable and uncomfortable. Combine that with a second grader and you have years of difficulty! My mom actually put my contacts in and took them out each day for a few years. I lost more than one down the sink and my dad rescued them out of the drain. Once, we couldn't find a contact anywhere. I mean - anywhere. Because it had stuck to my shirt and we had thrown it down the laundry chute. And we found it in tact.

When I was a senior in high school, I made the switch to soft contacts. I was heading off to college and wanted to have more flexibility and comfort. I wore soft lenses without a problem until just over a year ago. All of a sudden, contacts were brutally uncomfortable, made me blink uncontrollably, and led to all sorts of watery eyes and irritation. I apparently just developed an intolerance to them. Side note - so did my friend Claire, who does not live in Cincinnati. But also, so did another friend who developed it just after moving to Cincinnati, which is when I did. Strange!

I've been thinking about Lasik since high school. When I was able to wear contacts, it was mostly an inconvenience. When I could only wear glasses, it became almost unbearable. Let me clarify that I have a lot of friends and family members who look amazing in glasses. Even better than they do without glasses in glasses. I am not one of those people. I hate the way I look in glasses. Case and point:

My aunt's crazy friend Jan, who is super fun.

It's probably because I wore contacts for so many years during the day, but I associate myself wearing glasses with being tired, sick, or going to bed. When I look at this picture (or any picture of me in glasses), I just don't like it. 

All of the people I knew in Cincinnati who had had LASIK used Dr. Varley -- quick shout out to his office for being amazing. It was pricey, but five days in, already so worth it. I did all the normal pre-procedure stuff, and then arrived on Friday for the surgery. Zac took me, and my parents came down as well. My dad said he wanted to see me when I realized I could see. Yes, he is the best dad ever.

They gave me some numbing drops and some valium. I was way more nervous than I thought I'd be. They took me into the procedure room, and Zac and my parents got to watch the whole thing.  I could wear my normal clothes, but had to wear a sweet hair cover thing. They gave me a teddy bear to hold, which made a ridiculous difference. It was great having something soft to hold on to.

Dr. Varley was wonderful, and really calming. I just had to focus on his voice, look where he told me to look,  and not freak out. Let me say that this was the strangest experience of my entire life (which I actually told him during the procedure!). It didn't hurt at all, but it was just so strange. If you have ever had a tooth pulled, it felt like that -- no pain, but you can feel it happening. Weird.

The first thing they do is cut flaps in your eye so they can laser off the parts that are making your vision bad. This is my unscientific description, by the way. This takes all of 5 seconds for each eye, but after they do it, your vision is really blurry and hazy. This is normal and the doctor told me it would happen, but it was still a bit disconcerting. 

Lining up my eye so they could cut the flap.

After they cut the flap, they line up your eye for the actual lasering (which for this post, counts as a real word). I don't really know what you're looking at here, but here's a picture of my eye, post flap cutting, but before any lasering:

The final step is the laser re-shaping your eye. Again, no pain, but super weird. I had the laser for about 30 seconds each eye, but my eyes were pretty bad. If your prescription is less, you don't have to have as much time under the laser.

Lining up my eye for the laser

One neat part about the technology is that if your eye moves for any reason, the laser stops and won't start again until it is repositioned.

The whole thing took less than 20 minutes. I got a complicated schedule of eye drops, some sweet goggles, and was sent home to sleep for as long as possible (at least 4-6 hours). I slept for awhile, woke up and had a milkshake, then went to bed for the night. I had some pretty intense discomfort the first night, but it wasn't bad enough to prevent me from sleeping.

First picture, post surgery!

When I went back the next morning, my vision tested at 20/15. Absolutely incredible!! It has gotten clearer each day sense. It's not necessary blurry, but my eyes are SO dry that it feels like it is. So far, that's been the worst part. I think I'll buy stock in artificial tears. Oh, and my eyes are super bloodshot and it looks like I do drugs. Except I told my kids at work I got bitten by a zombie (and three of them believed it). And I get to sleep in those cool goggles for three weeks (do you love how they matched my outfit that day??).

So... the verdict is that I am SO glad I did this, even though I'm not totally back to normal yet comfort-wise. It's amazing to wake up and see the alarm clock, see the tv without having glasses on, and be able to read a book in bed without having it 4 inches from my face. It's amazing not to have to clean my glasses all day, look in the mirror and hate them, or to be able to wear sunglasses in the car.  It isn't the right choice for everyone, but it sure was for me!!

Has anyone else had LASIK? Do you love contacts or glasses? Are you one of those people who has perfect vision and makes everyone else jealous?

Feeling the Burn

Zac and I have been searching for an exercise routine that we can both stick to.  Our requirements? Fun enough that we want to do it. Cheap. Easy to do at home. Works.

So... on the recommendation of friends, we bought one of these:

It's an XBox Kinect. It hooks onto an XBox (we already had one) and detects your movements. It's totally creepy. It knows exactly what you're doing, and you show up on the screen. Cool - but weird!

That purchase was justified with the addition of this:

It really is like working with a personal trainer! First, you take a fitness test and then the program creates personalized workouts based on your preferences. The workouts are HARD, and if you aren't doing the exercises right, Jillian's voice tells you to lift your knees higher!!

We're only on day 2, but so far, so good. It's a lot of fun, and hey, if we've actually been doing it, that's better than what we were doing before!

Do you have any exercise secrets? Are you a gym rat, or an exercise homebody like me?

How I Stopped Biting My Nails

I'm a recovering nail biter. I've been a nail biter for as long as I can remember... and I even hold my pen in a way that doesn't work as well when I have actual nails. I've tried to quit a ton of times - when I was in middle school, my dad even offered me $50 to stop. I've actually stopped a few times, only to quickly start again when I have a huge project at work or immediately upon stepping foot on an airplane.

I figured I'd stop when I got engaged. Nope - a few months into getting engaged and I would try to show people my ring with my fingers curled so they wouldn't notice my ugly nails.  Finally, enough was enough. I went to a local nail salon and got fake nails put on. They looked like this:

Just kidding! They did NOT look like that - though I had avoided fake nails for years because I was afraid that this is how they would look.  You can see them if you look closely in our engagement pictures:

Yep - just pretty. I had them filled twice, and really enjoyed them. Overall, I spent about $80, which to me, was money well spent to stop having this nasty habit.  

I went today, and they took off the nails. What you see below is 100% MY nails!! (You get a left hand shot because I am right handed and it's the only way I can take a picture one-handed that is almost in focus).

Why I think this time I was successful:

1. My nails always looked great. It was a lot easier to leave them alone when they looked pretty.
2. I couldn't really bite them. They were essentially hard acrylic. That would have been dumb.
3. I had them on for long enough to break the habit. At the beginning, I found myself still going through the motions of biting/picking my nails, even though I wasn't actually doing it. Now, I just leave them alone.

It seems small, but this is one of my proudest accomplishments! I know fellow nail biters / past nail biters will understand. I have gotten more compliments on my engagement ring ever since my nails have looked nice - which is just icing on the cake!

Have you kicked any bad habits? How did you do it?

National Women's Self Appreciation Day

So that's not actually a real day. Katy from No Big Dill made it up. But I think it's awesome and should become a national holiday. She's right - I spend so much time thinking about things I wish were different about myself, and things I want to work on changing, and I forget that there are some things about me that are pretty darn awesome.

So - without further ado, things I like about myself:

1. I work fast. I can complete things quickly and that helps me get a lot done.
2. I have an eye for patterns and colors. I can match fabrics for projects that just work.
3. I love to learn. I love school, I love learning new skills. I love everything about learning.
4. I fit in most places. While I've never really found myself whole heartedly belonging to one "group" of people, I love that my friends are so eclectic and unique, and that I can be friends with such different people and enjoy all of them.
5. I make a mean derby pie (thanks for the recipe, Momma Lo!).

Thanks, Katy, for reminding me to think happy thoughts today. What about everyone else? What do YOU like about yourself?

My happiness project

Maybe it's because vacations are such a great time for reflection, or maybe because we went to the beach and truly had TONS of time for reflection, but I've found myself thinking about a lot of things this week. I'm starting school in a few weeks - how is that going to fit into everything else I have going on? What about this wedding stuff? What can do to make our everyday lives easier and increase our happiness?

I got this book for Emily for her birthday, and because we were together on vacation, managed to sneak it away from her and read it.

I stumbled upon it at the bookstore, but this book is GOOD. I've tried to read Eat, Pray, Love a few times but could never really get into it. Maybe because it seems so unrealistic? Gretchen Rubin had the same problem, and she pointed out that she wasn't unhappy - she just thought she could be happier. I get that. I'm happy, but I know there are things I could do to make myself happier.

The book is great, and her blog is pretty good too. I really loved her writing style and related to a lot of her challenges (I also love gold stars for doing good things and need to shut up and listen more).  I need a few days to think about my commandments and resolutions, but then I'm jumping right in. I'm trying to get Zac involved, though he doesn't usually like stuff like this. Call me crazy, but if I can be happier and focus on my relationship by nagging less, etc., I feel like his attitude will improve just because mine sucks less. Yes?

I'm not planning anything totally crazy - don't worry! But if we made a weekly menu and had some healthy meals prepped in the freezer for nights we get home late, that could make a big difference in my day-to-day mood and patience level.

Stay tuned... I have a feeling this is going to be good!

Have you noticed my glasses lately?

I can't remember if I told you already, but I have been fighting some sort of crazy eye thing since February.  First the doctor thought it was an infection and gave me some steroid drops.  Two weeks of glasses and drops later, eyes were doing better and I was allowed to start wearing contacts again.

Except that it came back.  More drops. More glasses.  Cleared again. Contacts again - and it came back.

I decided to get a second opinion and went to see Dr. Sands at the Cincinnati Eye Institute, who is awesome.  He ruled out contacts (more glasses. Hence why after 18 years of wearing glasses you are just seeing them in pictures this year).  Gave me this ridiculous test to check my tear production - by sticking something in my eyes to see if they tear. Yes, sir, I do feel that painful foreign object.  Check "dry eyes" off the list. Allergy drops didn't help - and it wasn't an infection.  Dr. Sands referred me to a "cornea and external disease specialist."  And I'm sorry, but that referral should come with a reassurance that you aren't dying.

Finally got in to see Dr. Wander today, and he was awesome.  He had a hunch and all of his investigating proved right - after, of course, I was revived from my fainting spell.  Seriously - halfway through my exam I just straight up passed out.  He told me that there is this nerve that connects your eyes with your stomach and it's used to help you control stomach acid.  A few times a year (4 - 5, he said) he has a patient pass out, and it's related to this nerve.  So I am not the only one.  Still embarrassed!

Diagnosis is this: my contact solution caused a "toxic reaction" in my eyes. He said he's seen it in about a dozen other patients using the same solution (stop buying Opti-free solution!) - they use it for years and then one day it just starts destroying their eyes.  If his idea is right, I can start wearing contacts again tomorrow with a new solution and I should be totally fine.  Fingers crossed!

$250 in co-pays and 10 eye doctor visits later (my insurance company probably hates me), I should start getting better!  And my pupils are on their way back down from being dilated (that is so horrible) and I can stop worrying about going blind / having a brain tumor. Which, of course, is what I was worried about!!!