Creek side shower

I mentioned the baby shower I went to a couple posts down. I finally have uploaded the pics from my camera.

It was a gorgeous day on the most gorgeous weekend of the year so far.


The food was great. At least the fruit and the inside of the sandwich were. That's all I could eat, but everything else looked good too.


The hostess with the mostest, Tiffany, and I standing in the creek with our galoshes. Yes, galoshes were a requirement of this shower.


Some of the girls with the mom-to-be, Dana.

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Pics from Jack Daniels tour

Okay, finally figured out the problem with posting pictures. Some security setting on this computer. So here are several pics from the last few weeks.

Nick and I before our tour of Jack Daniels. What makes me laugh about this picture is the blurry thumb in the upper left corner. That's Nick's mom's thumb, and it's humorous to me because she got snippy with Nick's dad when he couldn't figure out how to work my camera because his thumb was in the way.

Nick and his Dad standing next to Mr. Jack.


Thank you Mr. Jack for your tasty beverage.

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Busy weekend

**I tried to post images for this post, but it won't let me. I'll try to upload them again later**

It has been a very busy two weeks around here in the Baldwin household. First the in-laws visited, which meant much entertaining. We decided to go to Lynchburg to tour Jack Daniels, which also served to wear them out.

The work-week went rather quickly since I was steadily busy...not ridiculously busy...just steady. I also had a flag football game on Thursday which is always fun. It was a good start for the season even though we lost. This weekend, Nick's good friend Gary came in town, which means I cooked a huge pot of jambalaya. I made the mistake of making jambalaya once when Gary was around, and now I make it everytime he visits. I don't mind though. He's a great guy, and jambalaya isn't that hard to make. In addition to this, I went to a baby shower in a creek. That's right, a creek. It was such a cute idea and the weather worked out perfectly. It was a warm 80+ degree day, and the sun was shining brightly. I got to see some of my sweet friends that I just don't get to hang out with enough. I definitely need to make more time for them because they are such a support and so fun to be with.

On another front, the "It's working!" just continues on. My "aunt" came to visit me this weekend. Now most people would think this is not a good thing, and that I really wouldn't be happy to see her appearance. But this is such good news. My usual cycle was cut from 40 days to just 29! There were also signs of ovulation about 14 days ago. So double yah! I believe it is all because of my change in diet, so it just gives me more motivation to pass on the baked good and sweets.

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It's working! It's working!

Have you seen the commercial about the guy that loves having two shampoos and his wife comments that they are just trying to win him over. He says in a funny voice, "It's working! It's so working!" That's how I've been feeling lately. I've been going no carb for almost a month now, and I'm feeling good. My clothes are way looser, people are commenting that I look trimmer and best of all, I think I might have ovulated!

I don't really know if I ovulated because I'm horrible about taking my temperature, but all other signs pointed to the big O! This is a good thing because my elevated insulin was making me not ovulate. I was annovulating, which meant I was still having a period. It was just after a super long cycle of on average 40 days. I'm hoping now that my cycles will be more normal and of the 28-30 day variety.



Oh, and I had to take a picture the other day of my baggy jeans. These were fresh out of the dryer jeans, too and not the I've-been-worn-three-times-already jeans. It's so nice to see something working, and it makes me want to stick to it more. Oh, and I'm so kicking butt on the family's biggest loser challenge.

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Looking trim

So, I've been working very hard to lose weight and get healthier. And this week, I've been feeling good because people are starting to notice. I've had a few comments come my way about looking trimmer and losing weight. Now, most people would say they don't need people to tell them to feel good, but I'm going to be honest. It's nice and it feels good.
My ultimate goal is to get to my goal weight in order to be healthier so I can have a baby. If I look better along the way then just added bonus. Also, I'm hoping that the no-carb diet is helping my elevated insulin levels. If it does, then maybe I won't have to go on medicine. I hate medicine. I don't want to be stuck on pills for the rest of my life. I already take a pill for my thyroid, and I'm afraid if I start taking another for my insulin level then I'll always have to take it. So I'm hoping I can control it with diet and exercise. Since I can't get in to my doctor for another three weeks, I'll just have to wait and see.

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Birthday fun

It was my birthday a couple weeks ago, and luckily I had lots of friends to celebrate with. Luckily I was able to not go in to work that day and hang out with the hubby. That night we met up with several good friends for a little Mexican food (my favorite) and bowling.

I won't post all the pictures, but I did want to post the group shot.


These are some of the most fun people I know. It's probably a good thing we all get along since I work with some of them, carpool with some of them and even work out and play flag football. So there is a lot of time spent together, but this is a good thing. I think we keep each other sane. There are always lots of jokes and lots of laughs. I'm talking about serious laughter. Pretty much we just make fun of each other and make stupid "that's what she said" jokes, but we get each other. We do sometimes have serious conversations and we tend to over-share sometimes...okay, I tend to over-share.

I'm so happy to have these folks in my life. Of course, my hubby is included in there because he's my best friend of all, and I'm not just saying that. He really is. So I'm pretty lucky to have such good friends.

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The results are in!

So I had a quick call from my doc's nurse, and guess what? I have a level off. I'm just happy that it was only one. Last week I had four vials of blood drawn to test for all kinds of things from cystic fibrosis to hormones. The one I really wanted to know about was the PCOS test just because I've been reading about it a lot on the internet. Well, that one came back okay, but I have elevated insulin levels. I've now got another appointment scheduled to go talk to the doc about how to take care of it and get it all leveled out.
Of course, as soon as I got off the phone I started doing some research on the internet. It seems as though, like my thyroid issue, my insulin being off a bit can really mess up quite a bit. It can cause weight gain, especially around the belly, as well as mess with ovulation to the point of not ovulating. There is medicine out there and of course, losing weight and exercise helps. So I'm already working on that, which the diet I'm on now should help quite a bit. Because carbs and simple sugars raise insulin levels, my cutting of carbs should bring it down, hopefully.
So I'm hoping to be on the road to regular cycles and then baby. Unfortunately, I can't get in to see my doc for another month. So the waiting continues...so not only am I praying to be blessed with a bun in my oven, but I'm also praying to keep my sanity as I wait and wait and wait some more.

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