Vitamin D deficiency

Yesterday I got the awaited call from my doctor about some blood tests. My thyroid is still raging and building up antibodies to someday attack, but that's no surprise. I was shocked to hear that I have a scarily low amount of Vitamin D in my body so action needs to be taken.

This is the plan. For the next month, I'll be on taking 50,000 mg of Vitamin D once a week in pill form. Then I'll be tapering it off to 3000 mg a day for another two months. Then the testing will be done again to see if my body is absorbing the huge amounts of the vitamin. I've been a huge advocate against tanning, however, I'm considering this option to up the anti. I have almost half of the minimum requirement in my body, and this must change. The symptoms must be obliterated - fatigue, bone and muscle pain, weight gain, and depression. It also doesn't help my thyroid either. Or my heart. There's also potential of stroke too. Let's fix this.

Perhaps I need to go somewhere I can sunbathe nude. That's certainly not here for another few months at the very least. I'll be guesting in Florida in March or April, but in the meantime artificial sun might be the option. How's that for irony, folks. I'll be tanning very soon. Just let me know if I start looking like an Oompa Lompa.

Jan 4, 2011

Yesterday was the first day without a binky for my 29 month old son. It's been way overdue. Hubby was supposed to attempt the battle during my guest spot in Orlando, however they both got sick. After a couple of days of tremendous tantrums, we've had it! It's supposed to pacify his moods, and now he was freaking out for it.

Day one was tough especially in the morning. It seemed our son broke the world record for the longest tantrum. The day went by with what we thought no nap until finally I rocked him to sleep. Unfortunately the nap only lasted barely an hour with him soaking the bed. With every good comes something bad or however that goes, but we're praying that his nap isn't obliterated yet. Nap time is precious whether or not we nap with him from exhaustion or have some time cleaning or simply to ourselves. Last night he didn't fall asleep until about 9:30pm which is in an hour past his usual bedtime. However there wasn't much fuss or crying for the binky. On the other hand, he did wake p several times last night. Certainly there are two people who are going to live the day as zombies. Although I know my husband is sleeping in bed while Talon watches one of his fave movies, Astro Boy. My plan was to not give the paci at all until a nurse at the hospital said that he'd suck his thumb and screw up his teeth. It seems like his teeth have a significant space in the middle of it, but we'll never know if it's caused by the sucker or genetics. I still wish we never gave it to him at all.

Today is going to be rough. Early this morning at 7am, I had to go and get some blood work done especially to check my thyroid. I'm kind of screwed genetically in that department since my father and mother's gene pool both include different types of thyroid disease. Unfortunately, I seem to be predisposed to the under active thyroid causing me to gain weight. Over a year ago, I showed an antibody that could possibly attack my thyroid causing it not to work. I also slacked on getting it retested until now, a mere 9 months overdue and after some significant weight gain. Then I'm scheduled to work at Body Graphics in Pennsauken, NJ from 12 - 10pm. Worry is settling over me since there are no appointments in my book today. I might not make any money since this shop isn't especially known to be a hight traffic walk in shop. However, I'll bring plenty to do including some drawings for upcoming tattoos. I know some of my clients are on their toes waiting for drawing previews so I should be able to appease them after some QT drawing. Besides tomorrow off, I have a pretty busy work week.

Where does the time go?

My hubby is at his new job applying for his gaming license. You have no idea how excited I am. Even though it's not the jobs he's used to, including hours and pay, we're so excited. He's been a Stay at Home Dad for a year and a week now. It's apparent that he's had some good times, but overall that wasn't what he'd had in mind. However, in a terrible economy even highly educated people with lots of experience have a difficult time finding a job. With this new year, comes new changes to our lives and daily routines. It might get a little complicated here and there, but we're willing to make it work.

On this last day of 2010, I think about resolutions. I have the usual ones everyone has. Eat less and more healthier, drink less, exercise more, read more, work less, save more money, and make more money!! I hope that in this new year, I can spend some more time with my son. It's great to watch him learn and grow while teaching him new things. He's most attentive when I teach him new things. I'm not sure why this is so, but it's true.

Last night was the first dry night Talon had. He woke up in the middle of the night to go to the potty. I'm so proud of him! At less then 2 and a half years old, he's potty trained. We've been working on it for the last 6 months, but all of the hard work has paid off, and soon we'll even be free of diapers overnight. It's the little things that excite me, folks.

On another note, I must get ready for a balloon drop play date at Little Sport. I always find myself making a plan, but then I get caught up with tasks at home. For instance last night I had plans to get a drink with some of my mommy friends, but cooking got into the way. The grilled octopus took way longer than I thought to stew... Hence the tortilla soup came out better with a longer stewing time as well. There will be other nights... It's unbelievable how messy and dirty a house can get when you have two adults, one toddler, and two dogs. I can hardly do anything at all. I suppose the dirty house will wait for me, but now I've also sacrificed showering before we go out today. I suppose there's always time for that later too. Another resolution could be to plan my time more efficiently.

There are more original resolutions that have been flowing through my head that I'd like to share. We'll be doing more Organic gardening this year, but there are a few different things that I'd like to try. Heirloom seeds are what I'm hoping to get to start my own seedlings instead of commercial GMO seeds. Then I can collect my own seeds, and have them ready for seedlings next year. Vertical gardening will also be employed in this years gardening adventures since our space is small. My neighbors are going to love the tall PVC pipes with holes cut out of them and plants sprouting out of them in the small back yard. Hopefully we'll be composting too, and we can start using our own fertilizer. In addition, my goals are to utilize as much local food as possible. We'll be visiting 7th heaven farm on a regular basis to purchase our local grass fed meats. Perhaps I can persuade my family into eating more goat and lamb. Maybe goat is pushing it. We're also going to continue using our CSA Organic farm share despite the spike in price. My determination is to act globally by shopping locally. If I can help other people to do so, I will. Please ask me if you have any questions or want to do some gardening together. These hobbies excite me. I love cooking and good quality food in addition to trying to lessen my carbon footprint as much as possible.

Although we're not doing anything special in the adult department tonight, I'm satisfied with being home. I'd like to wish a Happy New Year to everyone out the in cyber world. Im not sure if I'll even be able to muster the energy to stay up to midnight when the ball drops. It's been years since this old lady has done that. There's always next year!

Home, home on the range

This traveling tattoo mom is home again, but I've been on the road so much that it hardly feels like it. Every time I go on a guest spot, I have such a great time. Then I want to move there, however it's not that easy. "Home is where the heart is", and my two hearts are in southern New Jersey.

Those two hearts presently have some kind of virus that's causing them vomit amongst other things. They've been in the clear so far today, but who knows if germs are still lingering in their systems. Besides food shopping this am, I'm probably staying in with the family until I have to work on Sunday. That actually sounds good to me even though we had some other exciting plans that had to be cancelled. I can cook and clean, and perhaps organize this toy cluttered house of ours. Domestication is so pleasant for me. Cooking (and eating) is on I'm trying to get creative reinventing a large pork roast into dishes for the family so it doesn't go to waste. I also purchased a thawed octopus at the market so I'm wondering what the heck to do with it. Over linguine sounds nice, however, we'll see. I might be the only one eating it.

On a good note, my husband is applying for his gaming license tomorrow. If he passes the rigorous background check of all of the last three years bank statements, jobs, parking tickets, underwear drawer etc, then he'll have a new job as a Security Manager at a local casino. Cross your fingers for us, kids.

So good riddance to this past year. It had it's up and downs, but I'm not looking back. 2011 here we come!

Not so merry Christmas Eve

This trip is bittersweet. So far the money has been good, and I had a fantastic time at the parks yesterday. The Wizardly World of Harry Potter was great despite the insane crowds. You had to get a ticket to come back for an entry time. I got my ticket at 12 for 3:30pm. Wish I would've had the "heads up" on that one. I even got tattooed last night by my old coworker. The work days have been long, and I'm tired from a long day of partying. Universal is a magical place. Even though I went alone, I ended up chatting with some people.

On the flip side, I miss my family dearly. My husband planned a Christmas dinner at our house, and I'm not going to be there. It's like buying dinner for a bunch of people and not going. Ah well I hope they have a merry time. I really do, but I'm jealous What a bummer. Then I tried to video chat with my son, which has never been successful. Of course he didn't say a word the whole time. Then he proceeded to turn his head and not even look me in the eye...

Originally I was supposed to stay until Wednesday morning, but the schedule comes out week to week. I'm waiting to hear back from the manager to see if I'll be on the schedule Tuesday or I'm coming back then. Or Monday. I don't want to stay any longer if I don't have to. It's fun getting in some "me" time, but I've been on the road so much lately that I could use some family time.

We shall see. Until then, I'm going to attempt on getting some fancy Christmas Eve dinner by myself...

Merry Christmas

I know it's only the 20th of December, but it's our big day of celebration in the Beyer house. So that makes last night our Christmas Eve. The work day dragged due to a cold attacking my immune system. My second client could not make up her mind. Well she would, then she'd change her mind and repeat. After sending her away to digest on the different images and ideas, I ended up escaping a little early.

We attempted to have a home cooked meal, but a low sugar halted that to a stop. My husband was out of it so we trekked over to our local wannabe country restaurant equipped with a train that circles the dining room. After putting the excited little tyke to bed, we sorted through the many children's gift's, and I even opted to remove some from the repertoire to my husband's dismay. Although after everything was opened this morning he gave me reassurance that he was in agreeance.

Now that I've used the word "agrreance", let's side track a little bit to rewind in time. A few years ago when I was a big bellied pregger, I used that word in a sentence while in the presence of my my mother in law and husband. They lol'd at me for an extended period of time telling me that the word didn't exist and as if I was making up I know the word. Little did they know that the word wasn't my own invention. It's an oldie, but it's out of date since the 1700's. However, it's still widely used in Australia and New Zealand. Now after reading the urban dictionary I'm not sure it's actually considered a word presently... Discuss in comments, please.

Anyway back to our Christmas Day. Talon had a great morning merry go rounding on each toy or some combination thereof. Josh and I exchanged only a few gifts, but he did good. On the other had, I always feel like my presents to my husband aren't adequate enough. Not that I don't know what to get the man who has everything, but he's a giant that's practically impossible to buy for. Seriously, he's almost a foot and a half taller than I am. I want to buy him lots of things, but in duress of ordering him the wrong size I digress.

Tomorrow Ill be working at Hart & Huntington Tattoo Co, Universal Studios Citywalk, Orlando, Fl. Come on over and say "hello" if you live there!!!

xo,

Tegan

Our Christmas Eve is tomorrow.

That means Santa's coming to town a little earlier than everyone else. We have VIP passes this year since I'll be all the way down in sunny and warm Orlando for a guest spot at my former employer, Hart & Huntington . I'll be there Dec 21 - 28. Let's hope that weather is warming up since it was colder there than here in South Jersey last week. Although I'm in no particular mood for it to be summer hot and humid, some nice weather is welcome to warm my lonely spirits that week.

It seems like taking a gamble this time around. If it's slow, paintings will be made. Body Graphics Portside Parlour is having a "Brotherly Love" themed art show next month, and I'm determined to create at least one for the show. I'm not a big gambler so hopefully I get lucky and make some bank next week. I'd love to do some girlie stuff like flowers and victorian fillagre stuff, animals, pin ups, portraits, birds, names, stars, whatever.... Email me at teganink@mac.com if you want to get tattooed.

I'm going to miss the heck out of my family. I already miss them just thinking about my absence for eight nights. This is going to be tough, but it'll surely be easy to get some much needed "me time" in. Perhaps I can even get some rest through the night. I'm going to set up my hubby with his ichat account stat so I can keep in close contact.

I also wanted to mention that my full night appointment cancelled tonight at No Ka Oi Tiki Tattoo, so I'm wide open from 5pm - 12am.