www.nimbitmusic.com/ngmusic

Click on the above link for some FREE music downloads.  This year we added “What Child Is This” which is sung by my friend Traci.  Cook arranged and recorded the music.  Also, you will find “Comfort and Joy” the Christmas CD Cook recorded a couple of years ago, as well as “A Child Shall Lead Them,” the CD Cook did with the kids last year.  There are a couple of free downloads on those CDs as well.  Hope everyone has a Wonderful Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!

You can read more about these CDs in my post from last year at:

Holiday Music

The other day I was talking with the kids about going to the store.  Olivia had received a shirt for her birthday that was the wrong size, so she needed to take it back.  Benji then says, “Yeah, mom, I need to take my shirt back too, I don’t want it anymore.”  If that wasn’t funny in itself, but I looked at the shirt that he was wearing, and I quickly calculated that it was about 12 years old!!  It’s a red polo shirt with a black, grey and white stripe across the middle.  I had to pull out a photo album to see if that was correct, 12 years?  Yes, I have a picture of Joshua wearing it for his 2nd birthday and he wore it until he outgrew it, Elijah wore it, now Benji is wearing it.  It’s still in good shape.  But I had to laugh, wouldn’t it be nice if we could return hand-me-down clothes back to the store because we don’t like them anymore…after 12 years of use?!?!?!

The other day my oldest son Joshua decided that he was going to start getting up at 6:00 a.m. He was having trouble getting up in the morning to start school at 9:00 a.m. so his solution is to take it to the extreme and get up way before he needs to.  Me, I like to sleep as long as I can, but that’s me.  So he set several clocks to be sure he would get up.  I did inform him to be quiet as to not disturb anyone else.  Well Elijah (8) decided that he was going to join his big brother.  So he got ready for bed and off he went to sleep.  The next morning the clock(s) goes off and they both get up.  While Joshua was in the bathroom, I heard Elijah get up and he knocked on the door and said, “Josh, is it still night time?”  He had never been up that early.  So that was the joke for the day.  Later that day he was having some trouble focusing in school since he was up so early.  So I told Cook what was happening, and Cook said, “Give him a break, you know he just woke up last night.”  We also heard him telling Olivia that him and Josh had so much fun “last night.”  

Well we made it through those first couple of days, and now they get up early every morning with no problem.  We’ll see what happens when we have to set our clocks back!!

With the growing popularity of Facebook and Twitter, it is no wonder that the latest virtual experience is called an eParty.  An eParty is just like those home parties we’ve all had, or have gone too. But the best part of an eParty is you don’t have to leave your house or clean your house to host one, it is all done online.   AVON is offering the opportunity for anyone to host an eParty.  It’s really quite clever, free and easy.  Here’s how it works:

• You decide you want to be the host of an eParty
• Contact me, and we arrange the time frame for your eParty
• A special Web page is set up for your eParty with your name and a special message from you
• Send your friends and family to this page to shop
• Their products will be delivered directly to their home
• At the end of the party you can receive a percentage of the sales, OR a discount from products you would like to purchase

This is also available for fundraising for any group or organization you are involved with. The difference is the percentage of sales goes to the group or organization. But it works the same, everything is done online, no order forms or booklets to carry around, no products to deliver.

If you haven’t seen what’s new at AVON, check out the link below. AVON offers so many things now; gadgets, items for the home, shoes, clothing, purses, skin care products, hair care products, Disney products and of course make-up, jewelry and perfume.  I especially like their hair products and skin care products.

If you’re interested, email me at anniehow@ymail.com or visit the link below:

www.youravon.com/cwilliams3507

I haven’t blogged in awhile, but hopefully I can get back to it more.  I’ve wanted posts on here to be positive as well as informative, so that is one of the reasons for my absence.  I have been dealing with some health issues in my life, and am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and have some answers for my crisis.

I believe it really started last November.  There wasn’t one particular day, but looking back, that’s where it seems to have started.  I started feeling really down and just worn out and with my desire for sleep all the time, or having trouble staying asleep, I knew I was depressed.  I started dreading going anywhere, so I didn’t go out.  Around the holidays, I stayed home.  On Thanksgiving Day, Cook took the kids to my mom’s while I stayed home by myself.  I knew there was something really wrong.  In my mind I struggled with the thought of being depressed.  I thought I needed to pray more and fight against the enemy.  But I was praying, I just didn’t have the physical strength to fight.  I’m sure a lot of you have heard one time or another in church that Christians (saints) have no business being depressed.  It’s a nice thought, but it doesn’t always apply.  It’s comments like that, that makes the struggle even harder for a person who is physically weak not necessarily spiritually weak.  This is where I found myself and stopped beating myself up and continued to pray, and asked God to give me some answers.  During this time, along with not wanting to go anywhere, I would have such anxiety when I knew I had to go some place.  Cook would grocery shop for me, or he would have to go with me.  I stopped driving anywhere.  I stopped getting my B12 shot because I just couldn’t think about going to get it in spite of knowing it would help me feel better.  I stopped going to church.  Just the typical day to day stresses as well as the new stresses that the recession has added to many families, mine included, made me feel worse.  Each day I just pretty much existed.  I know when people talk about depression, in the worst cases people cannot even do simple tasks.  That was not the case with me, I was able to carry on my daily tasks, so that gave me hope.  But there were days that I would just cry for no reason. 

Finally one Sunday morning as Cook took the kids to church, I watched them pull away and began to cry.  I knew I had to find answers, this was so unlike me.  I got on the Internet, I don’t know what I searched for but I found this site: www.womentowomen.com I found my answers!!  These are the main points that hit home:

• What many women don’t realize is that the Pill actually has higher amounts of synthetic hormones than HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) – up to twice as much, depending on the brand.  Even the low-dose pills have 35 mcg of estrogen combined with a progestin (a synthetic form of progesterone), slightly higher than an average HRT prescription.  Article – “Birth Control Pills in Perimenopause”
• The Pill also chews up B vitamins, including folic acid, and many other nutrients, leaving the body at serious risk for nutritional deficiency.  Studies have shown (and our own patient monitoring backs this up) that women on the Pill are deficient in B vitamins. Article – “Birth Control Pills in Perimenopause”
• Symptoms of perimenopause can begin as early as 10-15 years before menses completely stop.  Women in their late 30’s, 40’s and early 50’s may transition in and out of a perimenopausal state many times before they finally enter menopause. Article – “Perimenopause – The Beginning of Hormonal Change”
• Yet fuzzy thinking and an inability to multitask can definitely be traced to your physical state, as can increased anxiety, fatigue, depression and drastic mood swings.  If you have irregular periods, heavy bleeding, hot flashes, sleep disruption, headaches, dry eyes, vaginal changes, hair loss, weight gain, loss of libido or extreme emotional distress, you may be relieved to know that these are all common signs of perimenopause.  Article – “Perimenopause – The Beginning of Hormonal Change”
• Birth control pills cause high triglycerides. www.webmd.com

It was probably when I was about 39 that I started asking my Gynecologist about coming off the birth control pill.  She assured me that I could stay on it until menopause.  So being that I was used to the pill, I continued to stay on it.  This site states “A conventional practitioner may simply pick an age (typically 50) and move you then from BCP’s (Birth Control Pills) directly to HRT.  This is a convenient way of keeping your appointment time to a minimum.”  I also researched the pill I was on.  I had switched to the Yaz birth control pill in September the same year I found the B12 deficiency.  In my research, I found that Yaz was just put on the market that year.  I also found many women on a forum talking about the symptoms they were having while on Yaz, including depression, anxiety and fatigue.  After finding this info, Cook and I discussed it and decided to take steps in getting me better.  The first step was to stop taking Yaz.  The doctor’s at www.womentowomen.com state “It is true that just dropping BCP’s “cold turkey” will usually result in some very unpleasant symptoms.”  I was fully aware of this, but I knew I had to get off the pill, nothing could be worse than what I was dealing with.  I haven’t experienced any unpleasant symptoms being off the pill.  One thing I have noticed is that I have more acne break-outs, nothing too major though.

What really bothered me about all this is I was regularly seeing three different doctors: my regular doctor, an Oncology Specialist that my regular doctor referred me to, and my Gynecologist.  All of them knew I was on the pill and getting B12 shots.  The Specialist was the only one that actually said he didn’t like the idea of me being on the pill.  He was seeing me for macrocytosis, which means your red blood cells are enlarged.  After dozens of blood tests and a bone marrow aspiration (ouch!) he found no serious reason for the condition and summed it up as an isolated case.  In doing my research I just wondered why didn’t any of these doctors put 2 and 2 together and make the connection to the B12 deficiency and the birth control pill?

My second step was to begin the B12 again.  I decided to try it in pill form.  I did this in the past and realized now that it wasn’t effective since I was still on the pill, it was kinda like pouring water through a funnel.  So I started with a Sublingual B12 pill from Walgreen’s.  Sublingual means “under the tongue” the B12 is absorbed into the blood stream through the vein under your tongue.  These particular pills seem to dissolve too fast.  They helped me feel a little better.  My original plan was to get the TriVita Sublingual B12.  I recently found that they now have a Super Sublingual B12, and those are the ones that I bought, and they have made a significant difference.  I’m sleeping better, my mind isn’t all fuzzy, and I am actually going places again and driving.  I still have some bad days, but I am taking small steps one at a time to regain my health and get back to the way I used to be.  I haven’t been to the doctor yet (that has to do with the not going places thingy) but when I do, I will discuss all this information with them.  I also plan to have my hormone levels checked as well.  Through this I have found that hormonal imbalance wreaks havoc on our bodies, and it doesn’t have to.

This is my journey.  This blog is not to suggest anything to anyone, but to inform.  As women we are all different and our bodies react differently.  As women we tend to suffer in silence as we try to “keep it all together” and not admit we are overwhelmed or depressed.  I just wanted you to know that if you have been feeling like I have been, you are not alone.  These are starting points for you to talk to your doctor about.  We know when we just don’t feel right, don’t be afraid to ask questions.  Check out the web site I mentioned, it has a lot of good information, and will help you in finding the questions to ask your doctor.  Take time to take care of yourself, so that you can be the healthy wife, mother, sister, and daughter that your family deserves.

www.womentowomen.com

www.trivita.com