From the Mailbag!

Errr, shall I say, comment bag?

Throughout the holidays, I was seriously lacking in replying to my comments. That's bad, especially when I have SO many people who are waiting for my replies.




That's a joke, folks. I only have 5 followers (but who knows how many lurkers!).

Anyway. Some of the comments to my comments might actually "give away" some details about me.

First, The 1000 Minute Challenge, since a few of you asked about that. Results: 700/1000. I have a snowstorm to thank for that! We got DUMPED with feet of snow, after Christmas, which was a good thing for the challenge. Without the blizzard, I might not have even shared the end results. While I didn't make 1000, I am pleased with doing as much as I did!

Second, a special thank you to the Priest's Wife. While I don't know her, and she doesn't know me, she finds the time in her busy life to comment here, on almost every post I write. I guess she'd be my biggest fan then. Thank you for commenting on my posts, as trivial as they might be, and for your encouragement and support! And I don't know why some of your comments appeared on the A/C post instead of where they should have been--that's so strange...

Third, to answer some questions about me, primarily about my health. No, I don't have lupus, thank God, although I do have a positive ANA (you can Google that if you don't know what it means), and my mom did test false positive for lupus when she was younger, so anything's possible. I am not a Type II Diabetic, either, (also thank God), but...I could be someday. I have insulin resistance (IR), which could turn into prediabetes, then Type II. So, I have to be careful. Am I? Not as much as I should be...

I also have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), but no one knows if that is caused by the IR or if it causes the IR. I was always a "bigger" kid, even though I ate a very healthy diet, was breast-fed, did not eat store-bought baby food, etc. Bigger kid turned into bigger adult, and after college, I really put a lot of weight on. It's not easy to lose weight for many people with PCOS, and everyone knows the older you get, the harder it is. To look at me, you probably wouldn't think I'm THAT unhealthy (I'm not like 400 lbs or anything, actually well under 300!), but my doctors think I am. I also have high blood pressure, so between that and my weight, my doctors want me to be much healthier before we think about having kids.

(This is SO weird--as I finished this last paragraph, my endocrinologist called to give me my latest lab results. I almost asked her if her ears were ringing! I was a little scared to see her name come up on my Caller ID especially on a SUNDAY, but she told me that she had some catching up to do...this woman has four children and her husband is a cardiologist. Glucose was 99 and insulin was 14--yup, still IR and teetering on the precipice of prediabetes. Lovely. So, I still need to keep things in check and keep striving towards lower numbers. Vitamin D was 30--she'd like to see it a bit higher, more towards 40, and my liver and kidney functions were good. I had her check the liver and kidneys given that I'm on something for my blood pressure and I don't want to have my organs fail anytime soon.)

I agree with my doctors, about being more healthy before I try to conceive--and also, for a lot of other reasons, we just aren't ready to take on the enormous responsibility of one or more other people. It's not selfish--shouldn't all women try be in the best physical condition before they have a baby, for themselves and their child? It's not for selfish reasons either, like I can't lose my figure, or we need to go on a million vacations first, or advance our careers. I really don't care about my figure (if you saw me, I look like I've already had a few kids) and it's not really about having more fun since we're not crazy partiers and never have been. Our careers...meh, it's important to have a decent income, although people do it on much much less all of the time. It's not so much the "career" aspect as it is the "steady job," since Turtle was laid off less than 6 months after the wedding and it took him over a year to find a new job. A honeymoon baby would have made things very interesting! And where we live, 2 incomes are needed...

Physical health on both our ends is very important, given both of our backgrounds, and along with the physical things, our emotional health needs to be strong, too. That has suffered in the past few years, as life stress in general took its toll. This home was not always a good place to be...but things are getting to where they need to be.

With a lot of prayer and a lot of positivity and putting good ideas into use (hello exercise!), it's my hope that things will improve, physically and mentally, and that whatever will be, will be. I say that last part only because many women with PCOS have fertility problems, and my doctors always say "you won't know til you try" so I honestly have no idea of what might be ahead for us...plus, I am over 30 now (not by much, haha), soooo...but I am not worried. There's a plan for me, and for Turtle--with children and with life in general--and whatever happens, happens.

Last, if you're on Twitter, you can follow me there. I'm @JentoInfinity which, yes, gives away my first name. I'm sure many of you had guessed it already ;-) Just a warning: I get a little snarky and sassy on there, mostly because I tend to vent about things that bug me, but I also share links, comment on other tweets, etc.

Happy New Year! I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be a good one for me, and I hope it is for you as well.