It's Random and I Make Up Words

Get ready for the random vomiting of info you didn't know you needed to know and really don't need to know.

Ready?

1.  Little Man was up surprisingly late last night just talking to himself and anyone who'd listen in his bed.  Spence and I were watching season six of How I Met Your Mother on dvd when the phone rang at about 8:50, and we immediately hear LM call out in his most cheerful and helpfullest voice, "Phone ringing!!", which of course caused us to laugh our butts off for a good 10 minutes.  

Fast forward to this morning and he's just not quite himself.  By mid morning he was crying and telling me in his most saddest and desperatest voice, "My ear hurts!"  I gave him a dose of Tylanol and but it didn't help, he was in too much pain for the meds we had on hand and it would be a while before one of us could get him to the clinic.  After a few hours Spence was able to get home and got him checked out... double ear infection.

Between emotional pain and physical pain, I have to say one of the hardest parts about being a parent is when you can't take the pain away.  But hopefully by morning, once he's had a few doses of antibiotics, he'll be feeling better.

2.  I feel like I might possibly be falling apart.  Between recurring back pain, a weird puffy-eyed allergy thing, and my achy knees, one of which is worse than the other, I may be falling apart.  I've had on and off knee problems since I fell in the garage almost a year ago, and right now it's behaving strangely.  It doesn't hurt to squat or bend down, it doesn't hurt to kneel, it mostly just hurts to lift my knee up in front of me.

I'm pretty sure that it all does NOT mean that I need to, oh I don't know... exercise more or something.  What I'm pretty sure it DOES mean is that I need to take naps and eat more cookies.  Which is fabulous timing since it is almost cookie season Christmas time.  

3.  This year for Thanksgiving we split it up so that we celebrated with Spencer's family a couple weekends before and with my family on Thanksgiving day.  It was fantastic only having one place to go that day!  It's just so much easier to enjoy family time when you're not watching a clock so you don't show up at the next place too late.  It. Was. Wonderful.  I wish Christmas could be the same way, but we have a lot more people to try to see during that holiday so I can't even imagine a time in the nearish future where we only have one place to go to on each day (Christmas eve and Christmas day). 

4.  We're pretty hooked on How I Met Your Mother and have been waiting a long time to watch season 6 on dvd because during the actual season 6 we were watching seasons 1-5 on dvd.  We like to try to figure out who of our friends are each character on the show.  I wonder if every group of friends can think of someone who kinda sorta closely resembles each of those characters.  

5.  If this random post is extra random and the run-on sentences drove you nuts, I apologize.  I typed it all while watching Parenthood (the nbc tv show) which is pretty much an awesome show.  The only thing that really bugs me is that all the characters seem to have the same "voice".  Not sure if that's an acting issue or a writing issue, but I still love the show.

Now if you'll excuse me, we need to go finish the last disc of HIMYM Season 6.  And it will most certainly be Legon....wait for it.... Dary!

Pregnancy: After Effects

Pregnancy lasts 9 months, or 10 months depending on how you count it, but after the baby is born and your body ceases to be a vessel for growing tiny humans - you'll find things are never quite the same again.

After effects of pregnancy, in my case:

Stretch marks, though they fade, they never go away.

When I buckle my seatbelt I still automatically place it as low on my abdomen as possible, under the imaginary baby bump.

My surgeon was AMAZING and my c-section scar is barely noticable, and it's only been two years.  But it does remain.

Throughout many collective months of "morning" sickness and gagging everytime I brushed my back teeth, I still have trouble with that.  When I brush right away in the morning I have to be careful where my tongue is or I gag, later in the morning or day I'm fine. Apparently morning sickness can remain long after babies are born?

After months of eating healthier, minimizing caffeine, not so much as a drop of alcohol touching my lips, once my babies were born and nursing allowed, I said goodbye to vitamins, and hello to my daily pot of coffee and my occasional beer/wine.  I probably eat the worst after I have my babies than I do at other times, because after months of my body belonging to the baby, I wanted it back!

That little mommy-pouch below the bellybutton, unless you are one of those tiny hundred-pound mommas, are incredibly difficult to get rid of... though I persevere.

I have at times been so convinced that intestinal rumblings were little baby kicks that I once took a pregnancy test to make sure.  Many gas bubbles feel like early-on baby kicks.

And then there's the whole - "there's a child in my house" part. 

As far as I'm concerned I'm done with the having babies thing, so maybe these things will go away eventually? (Except the whole "child in my house" thing... that takes at least 18 years).

I know there's more to add to this list, so what have you got?!

It's been 11 days since I started feeling sick...

Oh my goodness I've been sick!  It started 2 thursdays ago.  That Thursday I felt a heaviness in my chest and figured I was finally catching the cough that several kids in my life have had, and I had been pretty tired in the evening.  Thursday afternoon I could feel myself ready to pass out and Spence was ready to take over kid-duty after I finished daycare so I could go crash.  That night my temp had started to rise but lingered in the 99 degree range so I figured I'd sleep it off and feel better in the morning. 

That night, in the middle of the night, I woke up with horrible chills and a fever.  After managing an email to my daycare parents telling them I'd be closed that day, I reset my alarm to wake up in time to either confirm that they got those emails or call them before they got completely ready to come. 

Friday was a struggle, I had all three kids at home and Spence had to work.  I don't remember much other than having Sweet Pea feed everyone cereal for breakfast and lunch, and opening a bag of pretzels for snacks.  During the next several days there would be a lot of cereal/toast/pretzels consumed.  My son was neglected, the house was ignored, I just prayed no one was getting hurt because I couldn't leave the couch.  Just getting up to pee took more work than it seemed it was worth.

Saturday the girls started a "vacation" at Nana's that had thankfully already been planned, which allowed me to get a lot more rest than I otherwise would have had.  I remember giving Little Man the bag of pretzels a couple times because I couldn't muster up the energy to get up and give him a bowl.  He sprinkled more than a few pretzels around the room, but our dog took care of those for him.  When Spence was home he took care of the kids and I hid downstairs trying to sleep it off, which was difficult because by Saturday I had started coughing pretty bad.  Saturday afternoon, even though I had now lost my voice, I was starting to feel like I might just live so Spence and I went to a friend's house for a party that we had been looking forward to.  I felt ok but was more than ready to fall asleep by the time we got home, I was so looking forward to crawling into bed!  I got ready for bed and laid down, but started coughing, so I got up and found some cough medicine.  After taking a dose of that I sat back down on the bed and WUMP, the bed broke.

The corners of our bed have pretty weak joints and it's broken on us before, but tonight was NOT the night to be dealing with a broken bed.  I had been very sick, was then feeling ok and had made it out, but now was ready to collapse and we had a bed with the bottom right corner on the floor.

Spence tried to fix it for a while before I had just had it and we took it apart at all 4 corners so we could set the frame on the ground.  I laid down and was amazed at how much more comfortable our mattresses were when they weren't connected to the head and foot boards!  It was the most comfortable that bed had felt since we tried it out in the store!  This was looking like it would be a blissful night of sleep, except that I couldn't go more than 2 seconds without coughing... and I'm not exaggerating! 

Desperate to get to sleep I hauled my pillows out to the living room to join my blankets and sleep upright on the couch.

Things weren't going well, and that was just 2 days into it.  There's more to fill you in but I need to get to sleep so I can work tomorrow for the first time in 11 days! 

Fill you in more later!  And thank you for being patient and not totally forgetting about me while I've been recovering!

The Spike Diet - It's Already Working!

Before I got pregnant with Sweet Pea I weighed a certain amount.  Pretty quickly after she was born I lost the weight and was back down to that certain amount.  I stayed there until we started having trouble having another baby, and gradually put on 30 pounds.  I've lost weight before but my body keeps settling in at the 25 lb weight gain point. 

While doing The Sound of Music last summer I got to know Russ Branjord.  He has developed a diet called The Spike Diet, which allowed him to lose 50 lb in about 6 months, and go on to lose over 100 lb!  Check out his blog here.  A while back he had a giveaway on his blog and I won a copy of The Spike Diet book.

Winning that book was the push I needed to get motivated to lose these pesky 25 pounds.  The very basic idea of it is 6 days of specific to your weight/height/age calorie restriction, followed by 1 day of calorie surplus - or your spike day.  You watch what you eat for 6 days, and then so that your metabolism doesn't tank, you eat whatever you want on the 7th day.  The details of the diet are best found on his websites, along with testimonials, but it's about burning fat and boosting your metabolism.

I've been doing it for 2 weeks now, and I think this could really work for me.  It helps that Spencer is doing it too, though he actually goes and works out, I'm just dieting at this point - hopefully the workouts will start soon.  In two weeks I've already lost 5 pounds, and am wearing jeans that I haven't been able to button up for years!  And my belt is too big!

It's easiest for me to count calories at this point by eating prepackaged protein/fiber snacks and shakes, and eating dinner based on how many calories I have left at that point (always leaving room for a snack in the evening!).  Once I get used to counting calories I'll start branching out with my snacks and meals.

The best part? SPIKE DAY!!  Throughout the week I'm surrounded by a lot of bad food choices - foods that would ordinarily cause me to throw my hands up in the air and say, "It's not worth it to give up all these foods I love!  It's too hard!"  But now I see them and just tell myself I can have as much as I want of it on Saturday.  Saturday's are my spike day (at least until Thanksgiving and Christmas) and this past Saturday I ate the following:

candy
pb and j sandwich
piece of cheese pizza
little bag of Fritos
handful of fruit
little cheese and meat
handful of Combos
can of pop
more candy
2 enchiladas
small white pumpkin mocha
and more:o)

Doesn't look like dieting food does it?  If my weight loss keeps going like it is, I'll be down to my goal weight in just 10 weeks!  By Christmas!

The Spike Diet blog was helpful in getting to know the concepts of the diet, but the book has been great for getting a more in depth understanding of the diet, and lots of yummy, and easy snack and meal ideas.

My favorite part, other than the losing weight part? Spike day!

Spencer's favorite part?  Center cut bacon is encouraged throughout the week!

Now that you've read my blog post, check Russ's out with the link above!  I'll keep you updated on my progress!

When I was a (dumb) curious kid

The temp is dropping here in the icy state of Minnesota, this morning it was well below freezing.  The mid-sized kids just went outside and the compact-sized kids have to stay in this morning.  While I was sending the mid-sized kids out, I warned them not to lick anything or their tongues would stick to it and it would hurt really bad. 

Why do I know this?  Because I was warned as a child not to lick metal in the winter or my tongue would stick. 

Did I listen? Not really.

Generally speaking I was an obedient child, but I also have a curious nature - and you know what they say about curiosity. 

Curiosity led me to learn about lots of different and wonderful things throughout my life, but it wasn't so helpful one cold day when I was little.

I'm not sure how old I was, I was no older than eight though because it was at my "old" house.  My neighbor friend and her 74 big brothers were over in our yard sledding down the hill, through the open gate, and onto the frozen creek. 

After sledding for a while, I looked at the metal chain-link fence that I'm pretty sure I had just ridden my sled into and wondered, does your tongue really stick to frozen metal, or is that just something grown ups say to you so you don't lick stuff?

And so I nonchalantly stood up to the fence, and put my tongue on it. 

And I was stuck.

Not wanting to panic or ask for help (I've never been good at asking for help) I thought I could pull my tongue off. 

So I put my lips on the bar for leverage.

And they got stuck too.

I don't know how many seconds or minutes I stood like that, not sure what to do, but I would have been mortified if my neighbor friend and her 74 brothers knew what had happened.  The fear of being laughed at was too great.  In fact my friend saw me and asked if I was ok.

I responded with , "lm lhm" in a very "yep, I'm just hanging out by the fence" kind of way.

It was time to free myself, so I did the only thing I could think of to do...

I braced myself, and yanked my face back away from the fence pole.

holy frankfurters did that hurt!!

I looked at the fence in front of me and there, staring at me, was the outer layer of skin from my tongue and lips!

I don't remember sledding anymore that day, but I do remember trying to figure out how to explain my mangled appearance to my parents without looking like a total idiot.  I thought I had told them that I was sledding and crashed into the fence in such a way that my mouth got stuck to the top bar on the fence, but my parents tell me I fessed up at dinner when they asked what was wrong with my mouth.

So now, every year, I warn the kids not to put their mouths on anything outside or they'll get stuck, and it will hurt, and that I know this because I did it when I was a kid.

And then I shake my head at myself for being such a dumb curious kid.

Rotting Apples and Snow Men

This past week's theme was about keeping our bodies healthy, part of which was about dental health.  We talked about how when we eat sugary foods, and don't brush our teeth well enough, we can get cavities.  After talking a little bit about cavities and tooth decay, I brought out an apple for a science experiment.  We each poked a hole in the apple with a pencil to represent the little holes that our teeth can get if we don't take care of them.  Then I told them we'd look at the apple every day and see what is happening to it now that it has a hole in it. 

Day 1

Day 2

I'm not going to bore you with pictures of a rotting apple every day, I'll update when it starts looking gross!

On a completely different note, look what Sweet Pea made today!