May 18th, 2010 by Busy Mommy

I’ll give you 5 choices regarding the word Hashimoto:

1. Yoshi’s cousin from Super Mario Brothers who never became as famous, thus why you’ve never heard of him.

2. A transliteration of Nolan in Japanese

3. Japanese Hashbrowns

4. The first baby to have a reality show in Japan

5. The physician who first described the symptoms of a thyroid disease

Ding Ding Ding Ding!!!!  You win….Japanese Hashbrowns!!!!  Just kidding.  All joking aside now, I found out yesterday that I have Hashimoto’s Disease, aka Autoimmune Thyroiditis.  For some reason, my own body doesn’t like my thyroid and has been attacking it the past few years.  Don’t ask me why they aren’t friends- they just aren’t.  My thyroid has thus been unable to produce much thyroid hormone for my body.  Thankfully, a little thyroid medication is supposed to make up for this lack and help me feel better.  I truly hope so.  The following pictures were taken of a backpacking trip we took in August of 2005, almost 5 years ago.  I carried 40 lbs on my back and we were out hiking around for 8 days.  That was my last time backpacking.  Not long after this my health started going downhill and I didn’t know why.  All I knew was that I could no longer hike the way I used to without getting extremely exhausted and depressed afterwards.  Over the past few years, the symptoms became more and more pronounced until I couldn’t even walk 1/4 mile anymore without suffering consequences.  Grocery shopping required a 3 hour nap afterwards to recover.  I often look at these photos and really hope that someday I’ll be out there in those mountains again, this time with not only my husband but with my beautiful son as well.

I’ll let you know how I progress with the medication and some other treatments for some other health issues that I have as well.

So thank you Hashimoto for helping to figure out this disease back in 1912 so that I today in 2010 could have a few simple blood tests done to discover a nameless illness I’ve been fighting for years now.  Love that guy!

May 14th, 2010 by Overallgirl

How does our grow right now in May?  Well- we’ve got some lovely little items just popping out that will get bigger and ripen in ensuing months….

First off Ben’s new growlight system and heat pad- to get certain items like Tomatoes and Basil off to a quicker start earlier in the year….

Figalicious….

Dino Kale- my one true love….

Cherries….

A Monstrous Chard that has no business in our garden anymore because we’re just not eating it but we don’t have the heart to take it out yet because it’s become this beautiful, huge, tree-like thing….

As I said, tree-like…the chard if you’ll notice is almost as tall as the plum tree behind it which is about 8 feet tall now

Bush Cherries– first cherries to show up since we planted this little guy- interested to see what they taste like….

Thornless Blackberry blossom buds….I’m looking forward most to the fruiting and ripening of these…I can see the blackberry stains on my hand already….

Apricots…I think these are my next favorite out of what we have in our garden

Teeny tiny apples…well they’ll get much bigger but not till late summer

Santa Rosa Plums…Ben awaits his favorite fruit to ripen

Nectarines on tree in front yard- the tree that last year a specific neighbor stole most of the Nectarines from (and there were like 100- we ate like 5).

Mulberries…these are the ones on the technically “just for looks” tree- but honestly I think the berries still taste pretty good.

These are the mulberries on the “meant to be eaten” tree- the berries on this tree are much sweeter and have a dynamic sour taste lacking in the “just for looks” tree

Limes…so tiny still, but already I have committed them to use in my carne asada tacos….

Gooseberries- we just planted these this late winter and are interested to see what they taste like

May 14th, 2010 by Overallgirl

I have more I’d like to share later, but for now- a couple pics of Ben and I as babes in arms…

Ben looks like such a nice, kind, sweet, person, even as a baby- there’s just a soft look to his eyes that makes you feel like you can share your problems with him and he’ll listen patiently and offer kind consoling words….

“Huh…this guy looks verrrry interesting….”

I have a very round face- that’s the main thing I noticed about myself.  Very round.