Did I survive Indy?!

 #1 question people have asked me about my trip "Did you survive?!" 

Yes! I did survive! It was a great week of conference! 8500 women gathering together to seek and praise the Lord! Even though I was busy photographing, I was still immensely blessed by being there. 

Mom, and us girls! 

 Friends from MD met up with us at the conference! Fun times! 

(photo taken by random stranger with my Mom's phone)

#2 Question people have been asking me about my trip is "What did you eat?" For meals I had salads because that was the easiest thing on my diet to find. 

 I carried around a bag of cashews with me all the time in my camera bag, just in case I needed something to eat. 

 Fruit! Here was some rasberries from our car ride. 

Blackberries from an Aldi store. 

Did I stay 100% on my diet... ummm no. One night (after the last conference) I ate lettuce wraps at P.F. Changs... it was incredibly good! I can't even begin to tell you... 

and then we found these veggie crisps that were pretty close to being on the diet. The only thing I couldn't have that was in them was a little bit of oil. So I enjoyed some of those during our car ride home. 

How did I fare healthwise? Well, I was in a lot of pain a few days, but nothing ever got bad enough that it hindered me from doing what I needed to do. I did a LOT of walking and a LOT of carrying gear around. WAY WAY more than I've done in such a long long time. I could feel peoples prayers for me. SO thank you! I never would have made it through on my own strength. God got me through the conference hour by hour. 

 The drive home... Mom and I were so tired... We kept having to change out drivers almost every hour trying to stay awake. It took a long time to get home because of all the stops we made. I also needed to walk around a little bit because my body was hurting pretty bad during the ride home. 

 We did finally make it to Home Sweet HOME! 

And my sweetheart, Archie, was sooooo EXCITED to see me! :-) I missed this guy!

So yes, I had a great trip, and God was extremely faithful and gave me exactly what I needed when I needed it to get me through! 

What am I doing now? Now, I'm back to not only being 100% faithful to my diet, but also trying to eat high nutrient foods, to build it back up in my system... Also back to drinking tons of veggie juice. :-) A huge thank you to those praying for me and checking up on me. It means a lot to me. I know I wouldn't have made it through the last couple weeks on my own strength. I'm feeling very blessed! 

Psalm 45:2

New King James Version (NKJV)

You are fairer than the sons of men;

Grace is poured upon Your lips;

Therefore God has blessed You forever.

Leaving!

This is a quick post simply to let everyone know how I'm doing as I head out of town for a little trip. So excited to be traveling again! GOODNESS, I miss traveling. I didn't realize how much traveling I'm used to doing. This last year... I haven't really gone anywhere. So I'm very excited to be heading to a Christian Women's Conference in Indy this week. :-) 

Right now... I have come down with a cold, I have an infection on my toe, and I have been dealing with the a slight flare up of my Lupus. So prayers for this upcoming week (as I will most likely be overdoing things anyways) would be much appreciated! I am attending a photo workshop on Tuesday and then I will be helping a friend photograph the Women's Conference Thursday-Saturday. So I have a full week and I'm trusting in God to get me through it! I'm excited to see what God has in store and too see how things go. :-) 

A huge thank you to all of you for your prayers and support! 

Kristina

Baked Potato Happiness!

I thought everyone would love to hear that I'm starting to feel a lot better. It has been a rough couple of weeks since the death of my friend. However, my body finally seems to be calming down. 

The family and I enjoyed a great Labor Day weekend with family. It was great, we were able to offer food that I wasn't allowed to eat and for the most part it didn't bother me. I think I've simply been eating this way long enough now that it is just part of life. 

The weekend was full of playing with new backdrops, lots of kids, TONS of marbles games... It was a great time!

We even splurged and did baked potatoes! I'm not supposed to eat a lot of white potatoes so we tend to not make them very often, so I was SUPER excited. We had them with a black bean chili, pico de gallo, and guacamole. 

Yesterday I dropped my steroids another 5mg so I'm now at 10 mg a day. I can feel the drop in the meds, so that has it's challenges, but I'm very excited to be bringing it down. 

Prayer request. Tomorrow I go to see my Rheumatologist I am concerned about her thoughts on my new diet, and that she isn't going to see enough improvement and will still want to put me on the experimental drugs, which I have NO desire to do. So, I would appreciate everyone's prayers that the visit would go well, and God would give guidance, and peace to me. 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support through all of this I appreciate it. 

Psalm 63:1-3

New King James Version (NKJV)

Joy in the Fellowship of God

A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O God, You are my God;

Early will I seek You;

My soul thirsts for You;

My flesh longs for You

In a dry and thirsty land

Where there is no water.

 

So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,

To see Your power and Your glory.

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,

My lips shall praise You.