Visalus - Body By Vi Challenge

Last night I went to a Boby by Vi challenge party. Here's what the website says and then I'll tell you what I think and attach the link to my profile and give you info:

The ViSalus Sciences Body by Vi - 90 Day Challenge
The ViSalus Sciences by Vi Challenge is geared to help you reach your goals, no matter what they are. From simply losing a few pounds, to getting fit and toned, we have the tools, the products, and the community of supportive people to celebrate your success. The Body by Vi program is easy, fun, and guarantees results.

The Body by Vi Challenge is not another fad diet. The program is based on nutrition that helps you burn fat and keep lean muscle, boosts your metabolism and helps control hunger. The patented ingredients and formulas help you achieve your goals, on your terms and guaranteed results. Included in our program are nutrition guides, fitness tips and plans, and downloadable tracking tools.

This is what I got out of the meeting last night: you buy this packet of powder. You drink 2 shakes a day. You chose which meals to drink the shakes instead of eating. Then you eat WHATEVER YOU WANT for the 3rd meal. They even said you don't have to exercise and you don't have to crash diet. Even recommend you snack in between shakes. Obviously. My thing was "these shakes are going to be nasty! and expensive!" NOPE! They were freakin awesome! They taste like milkshakes. Me & Amanda went together & we're both going to give this a try. The 1st shake they gave us to try was a strawberry cheesecake...not bad but could have done without the cheesecake pudding flavoring they put in it. But definately tolerable twice a day if I had to! I turned down the cinnamon one because well, yuck! But the banana...wow! I'm not even a fan of banana. But you better believe all my shakes are going to be strawberry & banana!!! So I'm going to make a big step & tell everyone how I'm doing (might possibly put my weight down if I get the nerve) & keep track on here how I'm doing. I'd love for everyone to try this with me too. I've already told them that since they taste really good, then if this actually works then I'll go in & sell the product as well. Plus here's an even better catch! If you can get 3 people to try it with you then you get your shakes for FREE! As long as you have 3 people underneath you at all times then you can get your shakes free EVERY SINGLE MONTH. Because that was my first question, free for just a month?!? Nope FREE FREE FREE! Did I say free milkshakes...I think I did. :) So go on & check my website out. I'll let you guys know if this works & if anyone would like to try it with me I'll let you try some shakes before you decide. Keep ya posted!
http://jenniferdennison.myvi.net/challenge

Easter 2011

Well we started Easter off right this year with a trip to the ER. LOL We were in the ER Saturday night because Addison swallowed something (not sure exactly what yet) and we had to go back on Sunday morning to see if she was starting to pass the "foreign body" yet or not. So we're sitting in the ER and Addison decides to scratch me. So I grab her baby (clip proof supposedly) baby clippers. I got her finger of course. She starts bleeding like crazy. So I ask the ER desk nurse for a band aid. They have none. It's a stinkin ER and they have no band aids! So she gives me a gauze (no tape) and I rig her up with a piece of gauze and hold it on there with the sticker that traige gave her to play with. Get her (and me) cleaned up, get an xray (it's passing thru but slowly), get told she'll poop it out then leave. Nice start...

Then we head to our first stop for Easter which is Josh's family's church for lunch. Josh's mom is feeding Addison her baby food when I notice on the back of the jar it says it has milk in it. Nice! So not long after she eats she has diarrhea which wasn't so bad since we've been doing really good lately with cutting out the milk. Anyways. The kids get ready to go hunt eggs and Addison gets about one egg and we go inside (which she could have cared less) then Josh's oldest is having breathing problems. That's 2 people now. (It keeps going...) So me and Addison head to Steve and Robin's while Josh heads to the ER with Gabe.

At Steve and Robin's we eat again (LOL) and actually get a partial family picture with the Gouge's. (Minus Traci, Andrew, and their clans. :() Then I get a call saying they took Josh's mom to the ER. 3 strikes! So I go to another hospital after Easter at Steve and Robin's.

I only had the boys about 2 hours because it was Jonathan's weekend so I only got to spend enough time with them to give them their presents then they took off to play with the others. Go figure. :)

THEN last night I get on facebook and realize my cousin Jennifer is in labor and apparently having a c-section. Somehow I didn't know this until I read it on facebook. LOL She ended up having another Gouge baby boy. 19 inches and 6 pounds something. Still haven't heard all the details but we have Caiden Nathaniel Gouge. Will post pictures if I ever receive one! LOL. So now we're up to 4 girl grandkids and 8 boy grandkids. Then 5 girl great grand kids and 6 boy great grand kids. The girls were starting to catch up. :( LOL Ok here's the Easter pics.
Yeah I know "she looks just like her daddy" blah blah LOL

Getting her 1st egg

Hmm...this has something in it!

Minnie Mouse Easter basket from Aunt Gail

Playing with Tia and Justin :)

Pick me up!

Love this face!

Addison's 1st birthday

Addison's 1st birthday party was CRAZY! We started off the day with a yard sale (big mistake.) We've been wanting to have one for several weeks now. The 1st weekend she was admitted into the hospital and the 2nd weekend it was rainy so I was more than determined to get it in this weekend either way.

Josh had to get up and go sign Gabe up for football and then he headed to Fountain City Park to reserve a shelter for the birthday party. This was Easter weekend...no chance of a shelter. So we made do with a bench basically. So I had to rush to throw all the yard sale stuff in the garage and go round up some chairs and a table.

Mom made Addison her own "milk free & whey free" cake. (And it didn't take any different than the cake that Amanda made with normal ingredients.)Addison tore into her cake but actually didn't get it all over the place...I had to help her with that part. LOL She loved her presents, party, decorations, and cake. Everything was Minnie Mouse themed. She liked her cake a little too much. After the party she apparently had to much cake and was starting to gag because she had too much sugar and couldn't spit anything up due to her surgery. :/ oops

Then to top it all off...we were sitting at the apartment and I noticed something in the floor so I picked it up before she could stick it in her mouth. I sat her in my lap and was feeding her Cherrios. Dang it if she didn't already have something else in her mouth! She started choking on it and ended up swallowing it. Well, since her surgery she can't spit it up even if you did the hylemic on her. So another trip to the ER. 2 xrays later and a drink to try to push it down and we were told to return on Easter for another xray. (I'll tell you about that one on my Easter post.) :) Here's bday party pictures tho. She loved it!
She refused to turn around and look at me.

Her new toy from mommy and daddy. She only fell off once. LOL

The bday cake that Aunt Manda made. :)

Pushing her car. This was a little more difficult for her. She crashed and burned a couple times.

The cake Mamaw made "smash cake."

The smashing starts

Opening presents

Loves Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse!

And goofy Tia with Addison's tutu on her head. :)

And yet again...another hospital stay.

I had made Addison a GI appointment on Friday since she had been gagging and having constant diarrhea for a week. We ended up seeing the Nurse Practitioner again which I'm not too fond of but she didn't seem half bad this time. She asked all the normal questions. How long has she had diarrhea? How many pee diapers a day does she have? What is she eating? Blah blah. When I told her that I couldn't honestly tell her how many times she was peeing because of how many times she was pooping she went and got Dr. Al-Tawil. She had also checked her fontanelle (her soft spot) and it was a little sunken in...she was dehydrated (or getting there at least.) Dr. Al-Tawil came in and said they were going to put her on IV fluids and continue her antibiotic (she had an ear infection) and also put her on Flagyl for a few days. Which I sat there a minute and just thought "ok this is fine" but then I realized he said IV fluids and I said "crap!" Automatic hospital admittance. Ugh! Then they leave and get Dr. Cuevas in the room. Two GI doctors in the same visit?!? Nice... So I make the necessary phone calls, once crying spell, and took Addison to my office to get my stuff to be sent across the street to be admitted.

Josh meets me in admitting and they get us into a room (one of the same rooms we were in back in June when she was admitted the 1st time actually.) We ended up staying until Tuesday and two of the nurses we had actually recognized us. Sad... After doing a urine sample, stool sample, and a blood sample they still couldn't come up with why she was having diarrhea. They tried giving her different kinds of foods and different kinds of formula. She was being SOOOOOO good. She would eat or drink anything they gave her, took all her medicine with a smile, and even sat there and watched the phlebotomist prick her finger. Literally turned her head like a puppy and watched her own blood go into the vial. I about grabbed my camera and took a picture because she didn't cry at all! Finally I asked several nurses and finally convinced the Nurse Practitioner to order a celiac disease which she finally caved in and did. Thankfully a food allergy test goes along with that.

While we were in the hospital, Addison stayed in her crib for 4 nights and played with toys, watched tv, she was perfect. I was amazed and couldn't have asked for a better time for her to be so good. She didn't mind the diarrhea...even handed me a pile of it at one point. LOL (Not even kidding there.)

Then I find out today that Addison is allergic to milk and whey. That would explain why she's been having the diarrhea lately, why she had problems before most likely, and why she's had a small rash and all this going on since we've been feeding her table food. What this all means is that she can eat absolutely NOTHING that she loves. No macaroni & cheese is the big thing. :( But I'm just glad that we finally got some kind of answer and can start to work on finding things she can eat and getting her stomach issues fixed after 10 months.

Now the aggravating part...
When we were in the hospital back in June with all this and they ended up doing surgery, could this have been avoided and not even needed the surgery in the 1st place? I think so! I asked and asked several times for the doctor's to do a celiac test on her. Would it have hurt? Noooo. Even would have been covered under my insurance. So I'm definately going to be saying "uh huh, now what" to my doctor because I'm thinking if they would have just humored me and done one simple blood test then Addison's surgery and all of this could have been avoided in the 1st place. I work in a hospital. I understand that things get over looked many many times but when I asked every single doctor, nurse, nurse practitioner to have someone test her for allergies/celiac then HUMOR ME and just do it! Enough ranting and on to the pictures. :)
Standing in her crib when we first got admitted.

She fell asleep with her hands crosed after they putting the numbing cream before putting the IV in.

Smiling with her IV. She did so good. :)

Seepy baby

Her "Get Well" balloon

Taking her medicine like a pro!

All smiles :)

At IHOP after being discharged. Someone gave her her first dollar for her birthday next week.

Then I had to show off Jacob's puppet he made. It's supposed to be someone from the 1800s I think. He did an awesome job! And got 100!

Sickness...again.

The weekend of April 1st we had EVERYONE at mom's house sick. Addison started getting a little (A LOT) of diarrhea and started gagging every time she would eat or drink. We went to eat Friday night and I noticed that everytime she would gag, 10 minutes later she would have an explosive diaper. This went on all weekend. Then Sunday was Wrestlemania night at mom's. :) From that morning we had Eli throw up, Daddy, throw up, Addison still having TONS of diaper changes, and Joey throwing up as well. I told everyone at work that God's punishing me for making fun of Mexicans because we were living like Mexicans. LOL (5 out 9 people were sick in a house together with only one bathroom.)

Joey, Daddy, and Eli got over there's that night. Addison STILL 6 days later has diarrhea really bad. Me and Josh took her to the ER and all they could come up with was a virus. She just started eating solid foods again on Tuesday and still won't drink a full bottle or eat as much as she usually does and has lost a pound. We ended up coming home with some Zofran and a doctor actually offering to give her Mountain Dew just to get her to drink something. (He was being funny.LOL)

Yes, I'm a little paranoid when it comes to Addison being sick. With her being in the hospital as much as she was when she was a baby, I don't hesitate taking her to the ER for just about anything anymore. Especially since I work at Children's and get a discount too. :) She's sleeps right next to me, it took me 9 months to even more her from my arm to her own bed, and she's not stayed over night with anyone yet. Not that I don't trust anyone but I always have this fear that something else is going to happen and I won't be there. I was nowhere near this paranoid with the boys. It's stressing me out!! Anyways, cute picture time. :) This is Addison while she was sick. She was so sleepy and fell asleep sitting up. :(