Run Pics

OK...just to toot my horn...and because I cannot believe there is a picture like this of me!!! Don't I look like I am working REALLY hard! HAAAAA!!

Whew...

So, I did it. I just completed my two mile run for the Relay for Life (Cancer Society). Our company every year holds a fundraiser. We all create teams, have fund raisers, and compete in a 2 mile run/walk. Then the CEO matches up to $4K of what we raise...since we have had many cuts in our staff, the groups were less and the fundraising was a little less...but the fact that our company holds this, to raise money in support of the Cancer Society...I am proud to be part of it.

So this year a group of us girls decided to run. Five of us, and two were regular runners, one just started the WW and exercise thing in February and has lost 50lbs so she was cooking, and then the other two of us were just so so runners. I used to run for a few miles at a time, but haven't gotten back up to par yet since having JW. So I took the challenge and have been "training" the past month. I sure thought 2miles would be a breeze, come on, it isn't like 26.2 miles or anything...measly 2 miles! I can do that. I was also mixing in some P90X cardio training, and some weight training. Overall, I think I overdid it. Too much too quick, and I have been hurting. All over. Joints, muscles. Ugh.

So now I can take a break...I did it...I finished the 2miles...though in last place...I finished! It was, however, 96 degrees outside though...so I can use that as a bit of an excuse...not much...but nonetheless.

So, yeah, I have been training hard for a month now...and no weight change. What the heck? I have even been eating a LOT better, not WW better, but not binging as much as I was a month ago. I will admit my clothes fit a little better, but I am trying to get into that size 10 that I have an abundance of summer clothes for. Size 12's, some are too big, but the size 10's are too tight. I hate the in between. So 5-10 lbs and I would be golden. I wouldn't even try to push myself to get into those size 8's that I have a container of upstairs in the attic. I would be satisfied with size 10. Who knows...keep it up and I will get there, I know.

I think I might do a month of WW and try to kick it into gear. I know it works...I just have to find the time and patience and commitment for it. I think I am getting there, and a months worth of membership may do me good. I just hate to throw money away if I am not going to follow through...we will see.

On another note, DH still has his job. I think he gets all worried when the end of the month comes around and numbers aren't where they should be. But so far so good. So thank you for your support to my last email, and your prayers!!

Kids are good...I just love them to death. Here are some new pics that I got taken for JW's 8month pics!! Have a great weekend.

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I laugh...this will be a good picture to pull out when Miss J gets married or something. Haa...the family portrait!

This was the start of our playset project...doesn't look like a lot of wood, does it?

Our little helper! She loves power tools.

Not really the "finished" product, but close to it. I have to upload the finished product still. This is the fort and the slide. There is also a 4-position swing beam and a huge canopy top.

Look, Mr. and Mrs. P

Miss J loves to lay her "kids" down to sleep. I think it looks like a crime scene some times becuase sometimes they have blankets over their heads...too funny.

Let YOUR will be done...

I just have to do a quick post, because it is on my mind.

Let YOUR will be done...I find a lot of peace in these words for some reason.

My hubby just called and said he "had that feeling" about work again. That feeling of he might be getting let go/fired. Lately that feeling has not been true, as he has had that feeling for the past 6-months...but he is also pretty aware of that feeling because he has had more than his share of layoffs being in the auto industry he is in. Whatever the case...he dropped this on me at lunch time...and it just puts that weight in my gut that gets my mind wandering and worrying and wondering.

Then a bit later, I just had this peace come over me and I heard a whisper..."Let my will be done."

What is going to happen is going to happen. And if it is God's will to allow that to happen, then He has bigger plans for us, whatever they may be...He knows, not us.

Have a great weekend if I don't blog again soon!

You know your a mom when...

You open your purse to find:

*anti bacterial hand sanitizer...three bottles just in case
*one of your kids socks...just one
*a pile of receipts from one or all of the following - walmart, target, gymboree, carters, menards...and dunkin donuts for that morning coffee!!
*coupons scattered about even though you have a handy dandy coupon organizer
*two random pieces of gum, one unwrapped and stuck to the inside
*a fishy cracker
*a hair scrunchy and two hair clips - versatile for you or your daughter
*two tubes of hand lotion, one empty because it is all over the inside of your purse
*at least two chapsticks, one for you and one for your daughter
*a pile of loose change at the bottom because your change purse opened up some time last week
*an invitation to a wedding shower you forgot to RSVP to
*a few bills you forgot to pay last week
*a broken pair of sunglasses that you continue to wear because you can't find another pair that fit you this good
*keys, somewhere

What do you have in your purse!!

If you build it

So we got it up...finally, after two weekends (one being a 3-day weekend). With two kids, don't EVER try to do anything that you expect to only take a weekend or less. It just doesn't work. If one isn't trying to "help" by banging the hammer on the soft pine wood that you are trying to put up, the other one is fussing because he wants to be held...no wait...he wants to be put down...no wait...he wants to be held but squirm all over...oh, now it is time to eat again...now it is time to nap (but only for 1/2 hour which is just enough time to get rolling on the thing and then need to stop)...ugh...that was my memorial day weekend.

I will confess, the day we got the most done is the day my hubbys friend and fiance came over to help. It was amazing how much two guys can get hammered out...with direction of course!

So we finished it up this past weekend. We didn't get to the swingset part, it rained on Monday, but we got it up and the swings up on Sunday this past weekend!! We have a borrowed childs swing that we set up and put JW in it...he dozed right off!! Hmmm, this will be good. We got the slide up Memorial day weekend and was able to have Miss J slide down...too fun! We don't have the sandbox done (we have a turtle sandbox that we might put under the fort for now...sandbox covers are NOT cheap!!) and we still have to find a tarp for the roof. I really wanted to wood shingle it, but DH talked me out of it worried the weight of it wouldn't hold on the "bracing" we had up to make it a mega roof, so then we priced tarps for the mega roof...yeah, again, not cheap. So we are going back and forth if we just make it a smaller normal size with a tarp or shingles (probably same price either way), or leave the extra bracing up there for the mega tarp and drop some extra $$ on the mega tarp. Ugh...

So the cost of this has gotten above what we budgeted!! Isn't that how projects go? Not that much, I mean we still saved a butt load compared to what we would have paid for a comparable size and quality one through a big box store. Probably half as much...if not more. But we worked, hard!! Not for the light headed, not for the novice. The plans were long and strung out, very detailed, but long. You had to read every detail otherwise you might miss the fact that you were supposed to turn the 4x4 to the left to drill the next holes when the visual drawings showed "front view" and "left view" making you think it was the side to the left of the front, not that you had to turn it to the left which would make it the right side of the front...see what I mean. So we did have a few scrap pieces where we didn't read the ALL the directions and when we went to put it together wondered why the pieces didn't fit!! Ahhh, that will be a lesson to you!

But it is up, durable, pretty, and I am glad it is over with!! I do have pictures...but because our home computer has been down for a few weeks, I can't download my pics off my camera...so bear with me and I will post the final product once we get them downloaded!

Other than that...I need a good night sleep. I mean, it is better than when JW was a few months old, but he still wakes up a couple times a night because he rolls over and loses his binky and then can't get back over. Not like he needs to eat or anything, I get up, roll him over, often flip him back the the top of the bed, and put his binky back in...then I am back to sleep. But still, that is disrupted sleep. And I am such a light sleeper anyway, so even the blustery winds we had Sunday night woke me up. Then, if it isn't the weather or JW, it is Miss J, getting up at 4am and coming into our room. It is funny because I hear her crack her door, then close it behind her (not sure why she does this, but she always closes the door behind her...I will like that when she is older), so I know she is on her way to our room, then she wants to come into bed. I tell her she has to go back to her bed and she whines just enough for me to give in...at 4am I am not in any mood to fight especially when I have already been up 3-times with JW. But then in the next half hour I usually lug her back to her bed...so I am up again.

Girl...I need to get a full night sleep!!! It doesn't help with my eating habits, it doesn't help with my energy to exercise, it doesn't help when I get home at night to not want to just sit/lay down on the couch at 8pm and fall asleep!!

So why don't I let JW cry it out...I forget. I am so custom to getting up and putting his bink back in that by the time I open his door and remember it it too late. Or, I am afraid he will wake up Miss J, or that he will get so worked up that he will then be wide awake and not fall back to sleep for anything...when I know that it is probably the best thing for me to do because it will only take a few nights and he will lull himself back to sleep when he wakes up! We did it with Miss J, I just have to be diligent enough to do it with him.

Other than that...kids are healthy (Amen!!), family for the most part are healthy (Amen!) - DH's grandma was just diagnosed with lung cancer, but hopefully it is very treatable - we have our playset up now I am trying to set up a playdate for my mommy friends to let the kids play while mommys have some afternoon sangrias!! Can't wait.

Update from the crypt

So I have a few moments of downtime...not really, just don't want to do the work I am supposed to be doing...you know how that goes.

So my illness is gone (along with losing 5lbs) and Miss J's illness is gone. Now it is JW's turn. Really, he isn't that sick, except he has that phlegmy rattlebox stuff in his thoat. It isn't in his chest (which is a good thing, no wheezing), but just a horrible cough with this gung in his throat that he can't get out. Doc wanted him on the breathing treatments again, which is NO joy with a 7 month old who doesn't want to sit still, let alone keep this mask on his face for 2-treaments (20 minutes at least). Yea...not much fun to try to do twice a day. And the thing that stinks, it has been a week and I don't see ANY improvement. It isn't worse, but not better. So is it worth the hassle with the treatments, I don't know...guess I will wait for the doc to call back.

And around the same time he started having this gunk in his throat with a cough, I stopped sending breast milk to school for him (because my production tanked, also due to the illness I had), so we were doing formula full time. I decided on the generic Walmart version to save money...and he seemed to be taking it OK when there was BM for a couple of bottles too...but when we switched to all formula...the intake dropped, and in some cases, he refused bottles throughout the day. He went from drinking 3-6oz BM bottles at school a day, to MAYBE taking 6 oz TOTAL of formula a day. What the heck happened. So the teacher at school mentioned that maybe he didn't like the formula brand and that maybe we needed a fast flow nipple. So that night we went out and got a small container of similac and fast flow nipples. The next day, he drank a little better, but that is when this gunk in the throat really started.

So I thought maybe he was having a reaction to milk based formula (he after all had not so good reactions when I drank too much milk or ate too much cheese), so we bought a soy based similac...drank a little more, but through the next week, still was only drinking about 6oz a day at school and refusing bottles.

I was still able to nurse morning/night with him (my milk came right back after I was done being sick...I sure thought that illness of not eating/drinking for 3-days would have ended it). So he nurses pretty OK with me, but doesn't like the formula thing at all. Then I thought maybe it was a similac thing, so I tried enfamil milk based...refused it. Back to soy similac, seemed to take it a bit better.

WE have been trying to work in more formula by mixing it with his cereal (which by the way he eats cereal and homade puree like it is going out of style. I think he would eat 8oz of food in a sitting if I let him...he is actually eating like 3-4 times a day!!) So he doesn't seem to mind it mixed with cereal, and he is getting a little better with his bottles, but he is still only at ~8 oz of bottles a day...which is so weird.

I don't know if it is him being sick, if it is formula in general, if it is a milk based thing, if it is a brand thing, if it is him teething (he has two little teethers coming in). Ugh...I don't know. But I am tired of buying different brands and types of formula only to have him turn it down. I am hoping it is something simple that he will work out of and eventually not care what kind of formula he is getting and eventually be able to use up the extras I got (within a month or so of course...you know how that formula "goes bad" or so they say...it is just a ploy to get you to buy more and use more...drives me nuts you can't reheat a bottle of formula and have to use it within an hour of making...come on people. That is why I liked mommys milk better, you can let it sit out or reheat it with not too many worries...sorry, I digress).

I definatly don't want to have to go to that allergen free stuff that is the price of gold!! Don't want ot go there...I had a dream last night that we did and I was NOT happy. Starting off with the cheap stuff because I didn't think it mattered with him (Miss J had weird allergies so I didn't even bother trying the cheaper stuff)...and then after all of this having to go to the most expensive stuff. Really, it better not go that route!! JW is supposed to be an easy baby!!

So this weekend we have a plan. A plan for a 3-day weekend to build a wooden playset. And the key word is build...us...me and hubby...together...alone...with only a set of plans and some wood and screws. Yes, we found plans online, and have ordered the wood and bolts/nuts/materials and are having them delivered tomorrow. We just bought the slide at Home Depot, I ordered the swings and monkey bars online...yes, we are really doing this from scratch. No big box pre cut wood or anything. Scratch. What was I thinking???

Well, we were thinking of saving over $600+ and getting the playset that we really want. Durable, strong, big deck size, expandable if needed. Not one of those skimpy ones that a grown up can't even swing on because the weight limit is like 60lbs!! This one we could proabably have 6 adults swing on and play on and it won't budge.

This is a pic of what we are building!!

We really wanted to get a playset for Miss J this summer, and when we started looking all the ones we liked were over $1800. Uh, yeah, way outside our budget. We even looked on craigslist and places like that and couldn't find one that was under $1200 or if it was, it was 12+ years old and worn out. So we went the do it yourself way. I will let you know how much progress we actually make this weekend with two kids and only two of us trying to build it!! We do have grandmas and aunties coming out to help with the kids, but it won't be like we have 10 hours straight each day to work work work. I will still have to assist, I am sure, with the kids now and then. We shall see...maybe it will be better than I think! Pray it will be!!

And lastly, our computer is bombed. I am so pe-oed. We can't even get it booted up, we keep getting an error and I am in no mood to pay $200 right now to have someone fix it. I am trying to figure it out on my own, but aside from buying a backup hardrive ($100) and figuring out how to load our stuff from one computer to the backup, then reformatting the entire computer...I don't know what to do. I can't even start it in safe mode to fix it...it sucks. So I can't download any of the new pics we have. Oh well, something will happen.

Hope all is well, let me see if there are any new pics I have that I haven't shared with y'all...

JW and mom on mommy's day!!

Monday

Hey, quick update...

Miss J is better, she was able to go back to school on Thursday, after a doctors note and after 24hrs of no illness. Then, lo and behold, mommy got it Thursday afternoon. Ugh...just the intestinal part, no vomiting. But I did have a low grade fever. Needless to say, I was sick until late yesterday...feeling a bit better today. Great diet...lost 5lbs over the weekend!! Wasn't my plan, really wanted to use exercise and eating healthy...but I guess this kick started it!

So hopefully the P's are done with this stuff now. No fun being sick and taking time off of work and school and doc appts and drugs...

Awhile back someone asked me what homemade baby food cookbook I am using. Honestly, the one I used with Miss J I borrowed from a coworker and had to give it back. So I thought I had found its replacement at a resale place awhile back and since I have been using it I know it is not the same...don't like it so much. So, I found the one I borrowed and used with Miss J on Amazon for like 2$ and 4$ shipping...so I will post it because it is awesome and so easy and gives small portion sizes (rather than boiling up an entire bag of potatoes) plus gives microwave tips...which is how I did everything.

Mommy Made and Daddy Too! (Revised): Home Cooking for a Healthy Baby & Toddler

I make medium sized batches, then put them into ice cube trays (1oz servings) freeze them, and put the cubes into zip lock bags and freeze...then take out the cubes as I need them and nuke them or whatever...E-Z

My tip for the day...have a great Monday.