NEW HOUUUUSSSSE!

EVERYONE. We are moving into our flat! Slowly but surely, we are moving everything from Kilrymont over to New Park House. We had some friends who were kind enough to help us move the giant suitcases with their car (vehicles are hard to come by around these parts), and they also were giving away a futon, so we took that with us as well! Woohoo! Free stuuuuufffff!

As of right now, we have a few items of clothing and our food left at the temporary housing. It's been a fun, adventurous month and a half, but we are ready to settle in to our flat. We realized that it's been a little over 5 months since we've had our own place. That's crazy to think about.

So. Tomorrow, the chair of the New Park Trust (and also our kind-of landlord) is going to put together the rest of the furniture that has been delivered (dining table, chairs, coffee table) and put everything in its place. Our beds won't be delivered until Thursday, but we're going to just sleep on the futon and GET OVER IT.

So here comes the fun part. Get the electricity set up. Get the gas set up. Get the water set up. Get the internet set up. Yay. I looooove being a grownup. Oooooh, and I have a doctor's appointment Wednesday. Hopefully, they can give my eye a little Harry Potter fix.

Still waiting on a job. I have a few more big jobs that I'm waiting to hear back from. So far, rejection has been pretty difficult. I've been turned down from the Fairmont Resort (2x), the Old Course Hotel (2x), the University (4x), and haven't heard back from quite a few others. Sooooo, I'm still holding out for a few jobs that I would love before we start to panic. We've still got time, so I'm trying not to worry about it.

Gotta make this quick since church is in less than an hour, but I wanted to give yall a video tour of our new place! Hope you enjoy!

Carm

It's back

I woke up this morning with that familiar twinge of pain in my eye. I knew what was going on before I even looked in the mirror.

My uveitis decided to flare up today.

If you are reading this and have no clue what I’m talking about, go back and read the posts from April and May. I promise, they’re very interesting and hilarious.

It’s been 3 and a half months since that last flare up where I called the eye doctor to make an appointment and then called back crying because I couldn't afford another $100 appointment. What a long way I've come… or so I thought..

I got some coffee and sat on the bed, having my own little pity party. All those same questions crept back in. Why me? Why now? What’s wrong with me that my eye won’t just heal already? Am I doing something wrong? I think these are all natural questions for us to ask, even as Christians. For the last 6 months, I've been pondering a lot of things.

Do I think God allows my suffering? 

I do. I also know that God works everything out for his own glory, even if I totally screw everything up, which I am prone to doing. In the beginning, I begged God to heal me. He could have, but he didn’t.

Do I think God caused my suffering? 

Well, he hasn't come out and told me yet. He very well could have. This is an interesting question though. The Bible is very clear about God controlling sickness. He yells at Moses in Exodus 4:11 (I imagine it as yelling because of the way my mom always read it to me) “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind (or uveitisy)?” In Deuteronomy, God also said “I kill and make alive; I wound and I heal.” God could have chosen me to have weird blood problems and a weird red eye.

Do I think God is punishing me for something I did wrong? 

“Punishing” is a strong word. I think “discipline” is a good possibility though. I’m about to get real with you guys. I can talk all day about being a Christian and God working in me and here I raise mine Ebenezer. How is my sanctification? Pretty lousy. When crazy things are possible, I tend to avoid God because he likes to take me places that are uncomfortable. (i.e. Scotland, not having a job)… even though he takes me there anyway, whether I pray about it or not. I know it doesn't make sense. Everyone has their struggles. Mine are consistency and giving up control of the crazy.

So does this mean I think God gave me uveitis because I’m not reading my Bible or praying enough? 

He could have. I’m not going to rule that one out. It’s interesting that the girl with control issues has an internal problem that she can’t control.

So, how has God gotten glory from this?

Well, for starters, I still have my vision, even if it is funky. When I think about the way things looked out of this eye in the beginning, it’s a miracle that my eye didn't just fall out.

Secondly, it has alerted me to possible blood issues that I would have never known about had the uveitis symptoms not shown up. HLA-B27, mixed connective tissue disease, Lupus. These things weren't even on my radar at all before this. On the outside, I was completely healthy.

Also, through the whole 4 months from the beginning of my uveitis to the time when we left for Scotland, we were paying thousands of dollars in doctor bills and prescriptions. On top of that, we had to pay for visas, passports, the deposit on Clay’s degree, and some other pretty ridiculous emergency bills. And after it was all over, we had somehow accumulated enough money to live for a year without jobs. Whenever I think about how expensive my eye has been, I can’t help but think how God provided for us above and beyond our wildest expectations. And this always comes up in conversation. “Yeah, Carmen had uveitis, and our health insurance paid for none of it, but somehow, money came from everywhere…” It absolutely makes no logical sense how it happened except that God has control of all of it.

His strength is made perfect in my weakness.

So, today, I have uveitis again. And it’s ok. 

Carm

The Primal Life

I wanted to take this opportunity to blog about something I haven't blogged about yet. It's about our adventures in the Primal Life.

Now, some of you may have heard about the Paleo diet, and the Primal diet is very similar. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll go back to the beginning.

Clay woke up on Ash Wednesday in 2011 feeling like God was calling him to fast from food completely until Easter. Long story short, he completed the fast, and lost a lot of weight in the process. It was at this point that he realized he needed to do something about his weight. On our first anniversary in 2011, Clay begged me and begged me for P90x until I caved. I don't know if you realize this, but P90x is expensiiiiiive. And since I control the money in our relationship, he had to ask permission. He purchased the videos, got some resistance bands, and set out on his P90x adventure.

day 1

working out like beast.

He worked out like a champ and sweated all over the living room rug that John and Lauren gave us. He started Couch to 5K and finished it. He downloaded this Calorie Count app to track his eating and exercise. We completely changed our diet and eliminated most processed foods and drank only water. We opted for turkey bacon and whole wheat pasta and egg whites. We incorporated more veggies and fruit than I think he ever ate when he was a kid. He dramatically lost weight, like, to the point where people were telling him he needed to stop (in Louisiana, you're not allowed to be skinny). A year later, in 2012, we were running the Crescent City Classic 10K, he was getting all tan as a lifeguard on campus, and he had lost 100 pounds.

one year later

Crescent City Classic!

That was when we needed a transition. Calorie counting was becoming old and tedious. Clay stumbled upon Mark Sisson's book The Primal Blueprint and pulled some concepts out of it. Basically, it is a lifestyle based on the diet/exercise of our ancient ancestors. Eat plants and animals (it says insects too, but GROSS). Play. Move around a lot at a slow pace. Lift heavy things. Get lots of sleep. Use your mind. Avoid poisonous things (one of which is sugar). Get a little sunlight. Run occasionally. This is what our bodies were designed for.

So we deleted the Calorie Count app. Clay quit running 30 miles a week. He still did P90x, but we started eating differently. The most drastic was absolutely no carbs, and not just the sugary things. No bread, no pasta, no flour, no oats, no grains, nothing. This was/is the hardest thing for me to deal with, which is why I'm still only about 50/50. But Clay plunged into it and guess what? He is maintaining a healthy weight without killing himself or denying himself. In fact, if you've seen his primal breakfast omelets, you'd think he was going to turn back into Fat Clay.

But here's the fun part. We get to experiment with new things. At first meals were just chicken or pork, and two different kinds of veggies. Booooooring. Now, I bake cookies with almond flour and coconut flour. I made a chocolate/cookie dough cake for his birthday that was completely primal. We use honey, agave nectar, or pure maple syrup instead of sugar. We slice up zucchini and saute it into "pasta" (and it's much tastier, lemme tell ya). We stick cauliflower in the food processor and cook it over the stove with spices to make "rice." We ditched the chips and baked veggies until they were crispy. We make pie crusts out of honey, butter, and cashews. Fajitas come in lettuce wraps now (and OhMyGoodness are they sooooooo good). We've started buying spices and seasoning everything ourselves instead of seasoning packets or sauces that are packed with sugar, salt, and corn syrup. Dessert became dark chocolate, strawberries, and homemade whipped cream sweetened with honey. Our friends Matt and Elise got on board and started to lose weight as well.

Zucchini Pasta

Birthday Cake!

Do I miss carbs? Yeah. Do I still binge on ice cream and cookies and bread? OOOOOOH yeah. But the Primal Life is completely satisfying. We don't have to "give up" anything. And Clay is still Mr. Skinny.

Wedding and 3rd Anniversary

2010 vs. 2013 - note that I'm in the same dress!

Sooooooo. For those of you who had questions about what we were doing or why, there ya go. For those of you who have never seen Fat Clay, welcome to the World of Crazy. And for those of you who are struggling with your weight, who are exercising a lot but not seeing results, or are dieting and experiencing the rollercoaster of weight loss/gain, maybe this is something to check out.

Until next time,
Carm

PS. I could not be more proud of Clay!

Scottish things.

Well, I think even less has happened since I posted last.

We are still staying with Alex. We have been in contact with the person renting our flat to us, and he has been keeping us updated on all of the setbacks with the renovations. Originally, we were supposed to be in the flat September 1. When we met with him and looked around the flat and decided we wanted to take it, he told us it would be more like the second week of September. Wellllll. Apparently, the water is not hooked up, and that is keeping the contractors from being able to release the property to the trust, allowing them to put in carpet and furniture and GIVE IT TO US. So, we were informed it would be more like October 1 before we can get it. I'm still praying for a contracting miracle and that we'll be able to move in earlier than that.

The other miracle we need is a JOB for me! Unemployment is driving me insane. I am used to working 45-50 hours a week and being in constant motion. All we've really done is wander around and watch That 70's Show and the Vicar of Dibley. I have applied for 7 jobs now, all across different fields: restaurants, administrative, library, dorm cleaning staff. I'm going to start on hotels next. So far, I've been rejected for 2 and haven't heard back from any of the others. Let's hope someone out there is desperate for a girl who has a Christian Ed degree she doesn't want to use and lots of management and customer service experience!

So, in an effort to keep y'all entertained, I have compiled some fun facts about the UK that I've noticed since I've been here.

Someone somewhere told me that the water here had a different taste. I guess because of the filtration being different from the states. Some people have said that it tastes like soap. Some have said that it's really super sweet. PEOPLE. It's WATER. It tastes like water.

I also want to talk about the wonderful invention called roundabouts. Four cars coming into an intersection. Everybody goes left. You yield to the people already in the roundabout. You get off on whatever street you want. No pesky red lights to wait on. No turn lanes and yielding to the other side in order to turn left or right. You just ride around in circles. It's genius. But the COOL thing is... the redlights? They are for pedestrians! You know that button you push in the states? That cross/don't cross button that doesn't really do anything? It triggers a red light here, so the cars stop and you can cross! Yaaaaaaay!

Yesterday, I saw a rabbit on a leash the size of a cocker spaniel. I was going to get a picture, but I was just too stunned to make it happen. If I happen to see the rabbit again, I will get a picture for sure.

Lastly, I want to tell you about something very serious... Breakfast cereal. They have the same brands of stuff here, but a lot of them have different names. I literally stood in the cereal aisle of Morrison's for 10 minutes looking at all the different cereals and being very confused.

Same concept, different taste (probably the lack of corn syrup!)

say whaaaaaaaat?

almost the same. the dog wears a sweater in the UK. seems appropriate. 

i don't understand why they keep Tony the Tiger, but they change the name?

same little talking shredded wheat mascots, but different name. 

slightly different little elves, but exactly the same. 

Hope this was good enough for now. Gotta go apply for more jobs!

Carm