Well it’s near the end of January, already –it’s gone so fast! Last night it got cold, not our first cold of this Winter, but I do think the coldest thus far. It was in the very low 20′s overnight, and only has gotten to 37 degrees today so far, 3:18pm Eastern, with a “supposed to” get to of 41 degrees this afternoon.

I’m doing OK but not great. The baby I’ve felt moving some, I do think, nothing major still though. I’m struggling with the remains of a cold –and possibly a migraine today. I’m taking it all more seriously, the migraine thing, trying to keep track of what I eat and what I feel like, and hopefully determine a better way for myself, like I’ve done with some things the last few years, but getting moreso into the natural migraine way of seeking to avoid things that layer upon each other and trigger at some point.

I haven’t been as migraine-prone the last few years as I was before that. My migraines aren’t as debilatating, though I react to them nearly as laid back as I can (relaxing as much as possible, but not staying down, necessarily.)

I’ve had more migraines in this pregnancy than I’ve had before getting pregnant the last year or more.

One thing is potatoes. I stopped having them in the house quite a long time ago, and we were OK with it. I did that for blood type reasons, and seeing how I felt after giving them up. It was a good thing. I didn’t feel as horrible, not over full and icky after meals in general that used to have P’s in them.

Also I had a thing in my wrist that hurt, and it felt arthritic, and went away after being off of P’s for a few weeks. That was a couple of years ago. In November 2006 FIL was here for Thanksgiving and I got P’s to make mashed potatoes since he was there. Since then we’ve had potatoes in the house sometimes, shred and fry them for breakfast, or whatever. I’ve also had some in restaurants just to have something more than meat to eat :rolleyes: so many restaurants are so not into alternatives for people seeking to not eat Potatoes still.

It’s all added up to something in my wrist/hand starting to hurt in the last week and a half.

I have usually had trouble with tense muscles in my neck/back and so many things seem to come into play symptomatically with this: migraines and this thing in my arm now. So I’m turning off the intake of potatoes all the way with me again. I have a list of foods from a website that’s not up and running right now, I had linked it on my other blog a long while ago, and looked recently and did find a cache of what I wanted.

Potatoes are one thing on that list, being part of a list of things I love that might be causation for migraines. (In particular it’s interesting to note my not being on potatoes then being on them again, and my ramped up problems with head and muscles of late.)

Too many other things that are staples in our lives here are on that list … so I need to try so hard to figure out which things are problematic for me, and which things are not. I want to do this for my whole family, for me to be a better me for them, and also for them, my children are sensative individuals and come with historical connection on both sides of their family for allergies, migraines, etc. I don’t want my boys or girl to be overwhelmed with migraines. I started having “headaches” in my childhood, which the doctor poo-pooed as “familial” and nothing he cared to do about it. By the time I was 16 I had debilatating headaches occassionally, which I carried with me into my future life, and self-diagnosed myself as a migraine sufferer in my early 20′s finally. I had episodes of horrible times, very inconvenient, and nothing to aide my assuaging the pain, not understanding what was what.

I finally did develop diffent techniques on my own to deal with them, and one is the aide of my DH, rubbing out my shoulders, neck and back, feet too if I can get him to do that much. If I have a migraine, these things can aide me greatly, and also rubbing my head on whichever side the pain is on can be dramatic relief, aiding my body to relax more, which is key to less symptoms, at least. He’s not always around when I need him though, and when he is around he’s not always ‘in the mood’ to aide me as much as I would like/need.

Right now I’m in a mode of tight muscles, he knows it and will do something for me, but hasn’t had the time to do it today where I need it for as long as I need it, and I really need a whole feet/back/shoulders deal, then into a nice salty warm bath with beeswax candles lit. Ahhh.

Another mode of aide to a horrid migraine that has helped me is icing the pain out. It’s not something that just anyone could tolerate, but I find it a super thing (but we don’t have ice in the house usually anymore, our ice maker isn’t hooked up to water since we moved the fridge to another spot a long, long time ago.) Ziplock gallon freezer bags with cubes of ice, on my neck and top and side of the head if it’s debilatating can be so freeing. Sinking into sleep as the pain is numbed … it often worked well, sometimes less than others, but usually worked really well.

If it’s a headache that won’t go away, one seemingly working thing was to do the ice, and make sure I get to the point that my body just shivers and I get a cold shiver rise from my feet to the top of my head, and at that point it can be a turning of the pain to calmness and relief.

Another way is to take a hot shower and then stand out in the bathroom without toweling off and get that shiver started.

I’ve not had much to do with those things the last few years. I started using Excedrin and find it works some, or well, depending. I don’t want to continue on it though, being pregnant. So I’ll delve back into the natural ways I dealt with pain before as much as I can, keeping up with muscle rubs before getting a migraine, if possible, and relaxing and being as into eating better as I can (avoiding all low-blood sugar events as possible being key, and avoiding triggers, whatever they are for me in the food department.)

I have to say though, get rid of milk, cheese, tomatoes, just those three (that are on the same list as the potatoes) I can’t imagine doing. Especially the cheese and tomato. Eek!

I know that my headaches aren’t totally hormonally connected, not sure how much they are. I know I feel triggers with environmental things, lights and sounds and such can trigger it for me. Allergies don’t aide me, no doubt, either.

So what am I making for dinner? Cheesed Stuffed Mannicotti w/marinara/meatsauce — :rolleyes:

I am very tired. We had a crazy last several days and today is the first day to even really have the opportunity to recover.

On Friday morning we left for a trip to Janesville, WI, east of Madison. We flew in to Milwaukee’s Int. airport from Atlanta. Going through security was my biggest advanced hate, and it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, no doubt, but it was against my whole being to have to take off my boots and put them in a plastic bin and send them down the row to be scanned, and also all my carry-on bags, and taking out anything that was supposed to go into a zip-lock bag (liquid, cream sorts of things, 3 oz. or less only) and also take out my camera and laptop and plop them into bins and send them and all the previous down the line to be scanned.

In the old days, last time I ever flew on an airline, in the 90′s, things were quite much more simple, put your stuff on the moving belt to be scanned and you walk through the thingie and pick up your bags and move on.

Well, this time, it was my first post-911 flight, and walking through the thingie was no big deal, just doing it sans shoes was annoying to me, and then having to wait while those in front of you were putting all their things back together before you could move ahead and start gathering up your own possessions.

We were travelling as a family, so it problably made it easier on us, in some ways, but also harder. I mean, just normal scrutiny, but major hassle, talking here about two adults, and three children, all the stuff 5 people tote around.

We only checked one bag, so everything else was ‘carry-on’ — and taking it apart as “they” make you, it was a huge stream of stuff coming out of the scanner ever so sloooo-wwww-ly and the people behind us moved through the thingie faster than our stuff, so bog up … that was that.

We were on a smaller jet, Delta, and the flight was alright, overcast skies the whole way. Landing was rough, and though I haven’t flown much in my lifetime, it’s been enough to know that I’ve never had such a rough landing. DH flies a lot, and he says the same thing about that landing. Seems possible from how it felt, and a few things I side-heard from the flight people as I walked by, that maybe it was a rear tire that blew. It was alright, just really rough and noisy –crazy.

We were in WI due to DH’s work, a “late Christmas party” of sorts. We went to dinner with a few people from work that night, and then on Saturday we were on our own for the day. We drove to Madison and did some shopping. While there it began to snow, and got colder. There was no snow on the ground when we arrived. The snow didn’t hit Janesville until much later. That night we met with the work people and got on a chartered bus to go to Medieval Times in IL.

That was a great time for the children. We’d not ever been there before, but we did get a new one in the Atlanta area recently and have been interested in going. I’d also wanted to go to one before now, before we had children and since, but we just never did it.

So then, we got seats middle on the end, first row. Excellent seats, it wasn’t planned that WE’D have those seats, but it just so happened that those seats were what were handed to us as we went through our special group line when arriving.

Dinner was good. The show was nice. We had the Blue Knight assigned to our section, and he did good, but then was ‘killed’ later. But before that, he did throw flowers to the crowd a few times, and I tried to get my daughter, 8-yrs, to put her hands up asking for one … she was reticent at first, then the second time she was more vibrant about it, and he ‘whispered’ to us “I have something special for you later” …

So eventually it came to the time where he presented a special ribbon to the “Queen … of Beauty … ” and it was my dear little daughter. Made our night.

There were official pictures taken of that event, and of course we were privy to being able to buy a composite special photo in a folder. I’ll scan it later for another post, or page.

I have photos from my camera of the show, but I haven’t downloaded them from my camera yet, so I’m not sure how well most of them turned out.

On Sunday we were worn out and didn’t feel so good overall, all of us, so we later got into our rental car and drove around Janesville, at my request, looking for the older houses of the area. We found them easily, and they do have a nice variety of older houses, well kept up too.

It snowed more that afternoon/night and was nice, not too much. Monday morning we got ready and finally left for the airport to come home. Our flight was scheduled for about 4:30pm Central, and that was just before sunset. Going through security this time wasn’t as intensive, smaller airport, only one line, but not many people. (Atlanta had many lines open and tons of people in all lines with people waiting to get into line as well.) We still had to do all the “things” but it was less pressure. (Though I still disliked it just as much!)

We were on a larger jet this time. Beforehand we ate at the Gen. Mitchell Cafe … an airport restaurant there in Gen. Mitchell Int. Airport, Milwaukee … , it was the best meal “out” that I’ve had in ages. I had a bowl of cheddar cheese soup (fantastic) and an entree that was a brat and a knock (worst) with German Potato Salad. Wow it was all great. My 10-yr-old boy had his first Patty Melt there, and loved it, but I must say, it looked nicer than anything from any “normal place” you could find one on the menu. My other two children shared a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, and it was also good, big meatballs, not huge, very tasty they said and they enjoyed it greatly. Now then, my hubby, he had … I don’t remember. Well I do recall he started with a ‘green salad’ and that was a beauty. It’s what you DO NOT find in any chain restaurant, and something I’ve rarely seen anywhere. (I have one experience of a fantastic salad from a restaurant north of Atlanta metro nearly several years ago. We don’t try many “small” establishments, mostly going with (not my favorite thing) chain restaurants.)

So filled very happily we set off to go through security from there, and then on to find our gate. We were able to switch our seats around after boarding, and all had seats right behind the wing on the right side of the plane, V. in her own seat by the window, then R. in his own seat by the window, then A. in his own seat by the window, then My hubby and me behind, with me by the window.

It was overcast the whole trip from Milwaukee to Atlanta. Landing was smooth as butter. Getting off the plane into the terminal began the nightmare of a clogged up airport, people, people, people, ugh. It wasn’t fun getting through to the doors, to collect our one checked bag, and then traverse the parking area to find our vehicle, which wasn’t exactly where DH thought it was.

Finally we arrived home. Home, Home, Home. Where my lovely kitties live, whom I missed greatly while we were away. It’s a lovely thing to have kitties again, when you didn’t have even one from Friday morning to Monday Night.

Tuesday we ended up having to go out to grocery shop (knowing it worth the pain of doing so right away, rather than waiting with little food in the house, resting but knowing we HAVE to go out sooner than later … so it was a pull ourselves up by bootstraps time, get into the vehicle and drive … again.)

So today is recoupe time. We have laundry to do, and cleanup that we didn’t do before leaving, and more. But also, rest, rest, rest.