I'm not just saying, "I don't care." Like kids who say they don't when they do--'cause I don't.

So I have a disease y'all. Not terminal or anything but a disease nonetheless. I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis which is an autoimmune disease. My body does not like my thyroid at all. It's a real bitch and likes to send cells and antibodies to attack it. Fortunately there is medication I can take but just when you think you're in a thyroid/medication nirvana, your body decides to get all ninja on your thyroid again to shake things up. Sometimes I'm hypo (thyroid not working enough), sometimes I'm hyper (CRAZY thyroid! Works too well.) It's strange because the symptoms for hypo and hyper can kind of be the same. Exhaustion, brain fog (What is your name again? Ryan?), weight gain/loss, dry skin, dry eyes, muscle weakness, ANXIETY!, depression, constipation, leaky gut, loss of appetite, appetite never satisfied and a long list of other things I won't bore you with. I don't look sick but I can be. So what can you do, you say? I take synthetic thyroid hormone and sometimes natural dessicated thyroid and a drug called Cytomel. I take quite a few supplements. I get a lot of sleep. I exercise regularly but not a lot of long cardio. I go here. I should do yoga and meditate. I'm working on it. I go to a therapist I love. I also follow a strict diet. It was recommended by my doctor, an anti-inflammatory diet that, if followed, should help keep me from feeling worse or getting an even more horrible auto-immune disease. Shudder. Another more trendy name for how I eat is Primal or Paleo. I had been gluten free since October but going full on paleo was a bit daunting. I started having some muscle and joint pain a few weeks ago and it scared me into trying this. I bought some cook books, researched eating and made a meal plan. It's been two weeks and it's getting easier. I cook A LOT more, or at least I cook from scratch a lot more. We already ate pretty healthy but not nearly enough veg. So a sample day for me would look like this:

Breakfast: 1 egg, two egg whites scrambled. Tablespoon of fresh ground almond butter.
10am: Albacore tuna salad, topped with avocado and balsamic vinegar.
Lunch: Leftovers from the night before. Usually a meat and veg. I can do some amazing this with cauliflower. I get a lot of recipes from the nomnompaleo app
2pm: Oberto beef jerky and sugar snap peas
Dinner: Shrimp with onions and cherry tomatoes (yum!)
Snack: Kale chips or Guacamole or paleo deviled eggs or sometimes I need something sweet and make an apple "crisp" with crust made from almond meal flour, ghee and honey.

 There really are so many things I can eat. My friend recommended I focus on what I can eat, not what I can't and that has been helpful. The whole family eats this way at mealtimes. Hanna has even developed a love for Brussels sprout and kale chips. I don't make them eat this way when I'm not cooking. I bought them all ice-cream last night while I ate my apple crisp. I told Ryan I felt like a pioneer having to cook everything from scratch. I bet the pioneers just didn't eat because preparing food took too much effort. I try to buy organic as much as I can but it can get expensive. Costco is a good place for organic meat. True paleo eaters want grass-fed meat but I just can't justify that expense. I'm not a caveman. Evolution happens.

 Do I feel better? I think so. I went to the gym yesterday and was apple to do 21 box jumps in a row without my usual pause at the bottom. Progress. I did more pull-ups than usual. I didn't feel like puking after burpees.  I lifted a really heavy paint bucket into my car and Hanna was impressed. My joint pain is better. My gut is happier and less bloaty. I still feel exhausted at about 2pm on Thursdays and Fridays at school and my anxiety is still there. I'll keep working with my doctor to find the right dose of medications.

Here is a good article on Hashi's and another article for if you think you might be suffering from low thyroid. When I was diagnosed 11 years ago with hypothyroid I had never even heard of it but I think more women suffer from it than you'd think and it's diagnosed with a simple blood test. It's also really common after pregnancy. I was diagnosed after I had Grace.
 Now excuse me, I'm going to eat some of my homemade guacamole.

The old west was dirty. Everything isn't like home. If everything were like home, there would be no reason for leaving home.

The stars aligned and the Tolys and The Van Fleets had the same spring break. It also happened to land on both Ryan and Beth's birthdays, so we felt like we had to be together. Our original plan was to meet in Yellowstone but we realized, just a few days before we left, that Yellowstone is not really open year round. So we changed our plans and decided to meet in Cody, WY instead. This is the family, minus Grace who is taking the photo, in front of Buffalo Bill Cody's hotel, The Irma. I made sure we booked nicer hotels in the towns we stayed in so the kids could swim. Give kids a nice swimming pool and they are happy. Our adventure begins...

After a night in Cody we drove to Charlotte and Mike's ranch in Shell, WY. This is one of our family's favorite places so I was excited to share it with Monti and his family. A few minutes after we get there, Mart (Mike's brother) takes the kids out on the 4-wheeler and lets them drive. These are city kids Mart!

You don't see the fear in Mart's face.

This is what I love about farms. Kids can do whatever they want. The girls are building something here and Bubba is ever watchful. He's wishing one of them would throw one of those sticks.

Brother and sister fo eh va!

Ethan and Becky

Grace took this photo of Hanna and Bubba.

Mike took us on a walk to look at calves and try to find arrowheads. We didn't find any but Mike showed us his collection when we got back to the house. Impressive!

The homestead.

We were sad to leave. Char was a great host. She made us a yummy Easter meal and even had baskets, hunts and crafts for the kids.

The girls love these guys.

I don't know what is going on here but it made me laugh.

We drove through the Big Horns to get to Sheridan, WY where Ryan went to High School for grade 11 and 12, then two years of college. Ryan said he had climbed the rock under my arm.

Ryan's home in Story, WY. His parents sold the place a few years back but I have a lot of good memories at the house.

These buffalo were crossing the road. My western experience is complete.

Yes, I made the family get out of their cars for this photo. We learned that Hanna can't take photos into the sun...ever.

Gracie at Devil's Tower with her King Ropes hat she bought in Sheridan.

Hanna wanted to look like she was holding the tower up. Almost.

Hanna bomb!

I really wanted to stay in the same cabins we stayed in when Ryan and I went to Rushmore in 1995. They were $20 then and only $50 now. These were the highlight of Hot Springs, SD. I'm still baffled by a town named Hot Springs that has a indoor pool with no hot tub.

Me in 1995. Classic Girbaud sleeveless shirt.

It's Christmas all year at the cabins.

This is me saying, "Go away!" to Hanna. Last day of road trip=kids on my nerves.

My favorite discussion we had at Rushmore was about why they didn't carve nostrils. We speculated that it wouldn't look very presidential to have bird boogers coming out of your stone nose.

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I'm pretty sure the kids were thinking about "Thomas Jefferson ice-cream" the entire time we were looking at the monument.

Perfect ending to a great trip.

You have what made America great: no understanding of the limits of your power and a complete lack of concern for what anyone thinks of you.

 I hope The United States of America thinks I have what it takes to become a citizen. I'm sending in my paperwork and substantial check tomorrow in hopes that I will be citizen by summer. My feelings about the USA are complicated. I've waited 20 years because I love being a Canadian but the fact is, I most likely will never go back to live permanently. We've made a life for ourselves here and it's a good country. I'll always be a Canadian in my heart (and fortunately Canada will still consider me a citizen) but I've grown tired of living, working and  paying taxes in a country that I can't vote in. I know my vote doesn't really count in Utah but it's still a good feeling to exercise that right. I've only voted once in my life in Alberta when I was 18, over 20 years ago! I'm also really tired of renewing green cards and Canadian passports. I've been fingerprinted, biometric tested and photographed so many times it's ridiculous. So, fingers crossed that this is an easy process.

Immigration photo #1 taken in 1994 after we were married.

I think this was my original permanent resident alien (green card) photo taken at a Kinkos in Laramie, WY in 1996. You had to show your right ear. Man I loved that denim shirt.

I got a break for a few years until I applied for my Canadian passport in 2008. Someone needed to take the eyebrow tweezers away from me!

Permanent resident alien renewal in 2010. This was an surprisingly easy process.

My photo taken today to send with my naturalization application almost 20 years in photos. Hopefully soon I'll have another one for my US passport.