Happy Birthday to my Baby Girl!

Today my Baby Girl turns 4! I am so blessed to have been chosen by God to be her Mommy! As per our family tradition, I woke her up this morning singing "Happy Birthday" to her. She yawned and gave me a BIG smile and said "Yay! It's my birfffday!" We gave her our presents this morning. A HUGE Fisher Price Dollhouse complete with tons of little dolls, furniture, and accessories. Thank you Craigslist for saving me a bundle on this. I think I spent about $100 on all her gifts. I think the dollhouse itself would have been over $100 if I bought it brand new. I wasn't sure that she would really like it, but she has been playing with it all morning :). It's such a wonderful sound to hear her pretend play :). I love little girls giggly voices! Tonight she gets a little birthday cake and gets to open her package from my in-laws. Then in 2 weeks a party with all her friends at Pump It Up. Healthwise I have been feeling better everyday. Today is my first official day "Back to Normal" schedule. I dropped my son off at his charter school at 8am, came home and ran some laundry, walked/jogged on the treadmill for 30 minutes, played dollhouse with my daughter, ate breakfast, took my supplements, checked my emails, and am now blogging while I wait for the pool repair guy to fix our pool pump. In the last two weeks we have replaced our over the range microwave ($500), spent $350 for my Integrative Specialist appointments and all my supplements, and now the pool pump motor went out so out goes another $500. Thank goodness we got our tax refund last week! I can't complain though since we havent had to replace anything since we moved into this house 5 years ago. Both the pool pump and the microwave were 10 years old. I am still taking supplements to elevate my mood for minor depression (hello, with all I have gone through no wonder I get emotional), liver detox, greens drink (gotta get my fiber), Ceralin Forte to improve my mental brain neuron connectivity (I think we all need a little help in this area..lol!), Anti inflammatory, and now I have added back in Orthobiotic (a really good probiotic) and Omega 3 fish oil capsules. I swear I take a lot of capsules everyday! Let me count: 15 in the morning, 6 at lunch, 11 after dinner. BUT they help my body to heal and feel better so I guess I will have to suck it up (or rather suck them down) like a big girl. And it's not like I have to take them forever, just until my body can regulate and manage itself in a healthy manner. I also had an ultrasound done last week for my ovarian cyst. The one on the right side went from 6.8 cm down to 3.8 cm. But they found another one on my left side that is 2 cm in diameter. SO I will have another ultrasound done in 5 weeks to monitor them. In a couple of days I will also start taking an Iodine supplement to help heal the ovarian cysts. Things I am happy about today:
1) The Lakers won last night so are 3-1 in the first round of the playoff series against New Orleans. Yes we are Laker fans in this home!
2) It's my cute little girls 4th birthday today!
3) Taking my little girl to the GNI (Gluten Not Included) Bakery in Escondido for a birthday treat for lunch..yay!
4) Looking forward to taking my daughter to her friends M & T's birthday party at Build A Bear on Saturday.
5) I actually jogged a whole quarter of a lap on the treadmill today during my 30 minute workout. That's the farthest I have jogged in about 2 years! I have been walking between 1 and 2 miles about 5 days a week the last 2 weeks.
6) The sun is finally out! We had 2 weeks of overcast or rain all day. I am loving the sun and the warmth!

Have a good week everyone!

Driving again...finally!

So it's been over 2 weeks since I drove with either of my kids in the van. I just didn't feel safe driving them around given my condition. In fact, in the last 2 weeks I have driven only twice. Both times just 3 blocks up the street to my chiropractors office. I felt strong enough to drive my 6yo son to my optometrist to pick up my new glasses and to stop at Target on the way home. Woohoo! Focused on something fun and positive..getting goody bag treats for my daughters upcoming 4th birthday party. And my son even cooperated (popcorn and an icee helped with this...lol!). An hour and a half later we are home and I am pooped, but at least I did it. I drove and got us home safely and got out of the house. Each day I am getting stronger and healthier. I still feel a bit disoriented and like have a fog covering my brain and still get the brain tingles every so often, but it is getting better. Emotionally I am feeling healthier too. Yesterday I did great until I crashed around 3pm emotionally. But after crying for an hour I was able to put on my Big Girl Panties and get up and focus on folding laundry while deep breathing. I figured if I was going to cry and be emotional, I may as well get some laundry done. So this morning I washed a few more loads of laundry in preparation for my late afternoon melt down :). More good news! I just ordered my daughters birthday cake. Since we both have several good allergies (hers being wheat and nuts), it is very difficult to find something simple like a birthday cake. It makes me sad when we go to her friends birthday parties and she is always left out when it comes to birthday cakes and cupcakes. So it is well worth the $70 for an allergy friendly 6 inch birthday cake that she can eat on her birthday that actually tastes yummy. It is $54 for the cake itself and $15 for delivery. The bakery is in Los Angeles and we live near San Diego, so having it delivered is totally worth it for us. If you are interested..check out Baby Cakes in either NYC or Los Angeles at www.babycakesnyc.com. They also have two cookbooks where they share some of their yummy recipes. They make by far THE best gluten free and allergy friendly birthday cake and FROSTING that my family has ever tasted! Now only if they would open up a location in San Diego :). We are getting a Vanilla/Lemon cake with yellow frosting..can't wait to try it! Off to walk on the treadmill and read my new James Patterson book.