Purple pillow

Today I was able to go for a run with Little Miss Sunshine. The gorgeous weather has been holding out, making it perfect weather to be outside.

I went to the hardware store and got the hardware I need to make my version of the travelmate. I'll work on that tomorrow, and hopefully get it all taken care of.

I did manage to practice my flute tonight, and last night I typed my notes for my book. I still need to proofread and re-write, but at least I've got everything typed up now.

Here's the pictures from the headrest I made for LMS's car seat. The first picture is one I found on ebay. I looked at it and decided I could make one for way cheaper than they were charging ($17.45, including shipping). I had all the materials, so the only cost was the time it took to sew it. It's a headrest that loops around the top of the car seat and supports the head while the child sleeps, with velcro for quick removal. The middle picture is one where LMS isn't sleeping (and is telling me not to take a picture!), and the right picture is where she is sleeping, but had managed to move the headrest around and was just using it to cover her face. I wasn't sitting next to her, so I couldn't rearrange it. We'll see if she actually uses it how it should be. I thought it might be nice for the plane trips. She calls it her purple pillow.

My grandpa passed away

My grandfather died this morning. He's been fighting lymphoma for about a year and a half, and today he decided he was done. We had already planned on driving to see him (dad had the day off work), so we still went to see him and my grandmother. It's kind of weird seeing dead people, especially those you know. There's something about how still they are. He's been so sick that he didn't look like my mental picture of my grandfather, though my grandmother still looks the same to me. At least he's not suffering anymore, and he died before any really nasty infections could set in.

My dad's youngest sister has lived close to my grandparents for the last 15-odd years, so they carried the brunt of the worry and care. None of the other siblings live close (my dad is the next closest). My aunt and her family will make sure grandma is taken care of, and that she doesn't make any major decisions for at least a year (I've heard that before- after the death of a spouse, you shouldn't make any major decisions for a year, to make sure you're ok emotionally and not making decisions you'll later regret).

I think today was the first time I've seen my dad cry.

We've never been particularly close to most of our relatives, mostly because we lived so far away when we were younger. My mom's parents died when I was in high school. She was the only one to go to the funerals, since we lived too far away to drive and it was too expensive to fly.

Things like this do make you consider your relationships. What could I have done differently? Could I have written/called/visited more? Did I take them for granted? Do I want my children to be closer to their grandparents than I was, and if so, what can I do to make sure that happens? (especially if we move out of state) I guess that's why I make an effort to make sure Little Miss Sunshine spends time with both sets of grandparents and all her aunts and uncles and cousins. I want her to know her relatives better than I know mine.

"Pippies"

I practiced my flute last night, then stayed up later than I wanted waiting for a load of laundry to finish so I could switch it to the dryer and start another load (I forgot about it till it was late, but it desperately needed to be done). While I was waiting, I worked on some hair clippies for Little Miss Sunshine. She calls them 'pippies'. They're another project I've been meaning to get done but just haven't gotten around to. First picture is the ones I made last night. Second picture is the ones I made tonight.

I had a massive headache all day that didn't let up till this evening, so I think it was an atmospheric headache. I haven't had one this bad in a really long time. It made it hard to get everything done (I didn't exercise or practice my oboe, like I had planned), but I did still manage to get a lot done.

I went through a stack of old mail, tried to deal with a billing issue with our storage container (they're saying I didn't pay, even though my credit card statement clearly has a charge from them), finished the head rest for Little Miss Sunshine's car seat (picture tomorrow), sorted laundry, filled out my ballot, painted LMS's nails purple, made hair clippies, and typed a list of our dvds (every time I go past the $5 bin, I ask myself 'do we have that movie?' I can never remember, so I need a list of what we do have). Oh yes, I also transferred a new book to my ipod. Overall, a pretty productive day.

I voted...

did you?

It took awhile to read through the booklet talking about each amendment and such, but I think I made fairly well-informed decisions regarding who/what I voted for. I'm glad I had a mail-in ballot so I could sit down and read and look up stuff and take my time about it. Whenever I go to the polling station to vote, I always forget what everything is really about and who stands for what.

Finally finished the last quilt!

I got a new calling this weekend: primary chorister. I'm no longer assistant nursery leader. I knew it was coming- in January the 4 boys move up to sunbeams, leaving the 3 little girls. We don't have any more kids moving up to nursery for more than a year, and 3 adults are not necessary to watch 3 kids. As a child, I remember sitting in primary, thinking I didn't want to be primary chorister- I can't sing, and getting up in front of people to sing is not my idea of fun. So this and ward choir director are the callings lowest on my list. Which is why I got it :) It'll be a good learning experience, though. At least I know how to lead- I was YW chorister when I was in YW. I haven't been in primary for almost 2o years, though, so there's a lot I don't remember about how things go, plus the primary hymnbook is new since I left primary. I know some of the songs, but there's a lot I don't.

My 730 pictures came today: all 5 pounds of them! I won't start scrapbooking just yet though. I have some other projects to finish first. I did finally finish the last quilt. It turned out pretty good for being done on a regular sewing machine. It would have been a lot smoother if I'd hand quilted it, using my quilt stand, or used a quilting machine. However, I don't have the time or space to hand quilt on my stand (not to mention it's stored in several different boxes in storage), and I don't have a quilting machine and I'm not willing to pay someone to do it. Next up is a head rest for Little Miss Sunshine's car seat, then my version of the travelmate. After that, I need to type my notes for my book. My Army Guy wants to read what I've written, but I haven't done much on it lately. I need to re-write the beginning, in addition to typing notes I wrote awhile ago.

This morning I got my hair cut. I've been growing it out for the last year, and it's finally long enough to shape and make it look decent. Just in time for our trip to Hawaii to see my Army Guy (just 2 1/2 more weeks!).

I've started using the new nursery manual for family home evening lessons. The Church just came out with it, and it's great. The manual we used to use was for sunbeams, too, and most of the activities and stories were way over the nursery kids' heads. This manual is geared for the nursery kids, and for use by families. So on Monday we talk about the same lesson that was given on Sunday. I figure a little repetition is a good thing.

Trick or Treat!

This morning I rode my bike for an hour. The weather was nice enough I could have gone running again, but my shins are a bit sore so I decided to let them rest abit.

After lunch we went to our town's harvest festival. They had booths and a bounce house and horse rides, and the kids could go trick or treating at all the local businesses. Little Miss Sunshine got to play in a bounce house for the first time. She thought it was fun, just like a trampoline. Once she got the hang of it all, she decided trick or treating was great- you say 'trick or treat' and people give you candy! What could be better than that? She lasted about an hour (there was some walking involved, not all the businesses are real close together), then we went home and she conked out right away.

This evening was our ward's trunk or treat and chili cook-off. She got even more candy! So fun! Her costume was a fluffy chicken costume we bought at Old Navy last year after Halloween. We knew my Army Guy would be gone, and we wanted him to have a part in it, so we picked it out together. Everybody commented on how cute she was, though there was some confusion on whether she was a duck or chicken. It could go either way if you didn't see the red comb on top of the hood. Anyway, she had a great time.









Last night I finally got started on my final quilt. I've been putting it off because I want to do a good job on it, but am afraid I'm going to screw it up. However, I've got other projects that need to get done, so no more procrastinating.

Painting pumpkins

Yesterday I rode my bike indoors for an hour. After lunch, I had a checkup with my nutritionist. Mostly it was to make sure I was making the changes to my diet and adding in weight training. We talked about cravings (I always get them before my period), and she gave me some stuff that's supposed to help counteract cravings. It helps with hormone levels and all that. We'll see if it works.

On the way home I bought some gift tags, so I was finally able to wrap the Christmas presents I bought a week ago.

Little Miss Sunshine painted a pumpkin, and had a blast. Obviously we need to be doing more painting. She was very intent about it all, even though there wasn't any defined pictures/features. She ended up mixed all the colors together and then painted the whole pumpkin.

I finished The Warrior Heir/The Wizard Heir/The Dragon Heir trilogy (second time through), so I'm almost done with all my library books. I have a Scott Westerfeld trilogy I still need to read, but I've been waiting for the first book to become available (can't read them out of order). I can pick it up today, but in the meantime I started 'The Schwarzbein Principle: The Program', by Diana Schwarzbein. It was recommended by my nutritionist, and it's been sitting in my book pile for the past 3 weeks. I've been putting it off because I didn't think it would be very interesting. However, I'm not very far into it, and I think it is quite interesting. It'll be interesting to see what her program involves.

This morning I painted a face on LMS's pumpkin. I was going to have her paint one side and then I'd paint the other side, but since she ended up painting the whole pumpkin, I painted the top. Nothing too elaborate, but it'll work. My mom's is next to ours: she put a lot more work into hers.











I actually practiced my flute today! The ward choir director asked me to play a piece for the Christmas cantata, so I decided to get practicing now. Gotta get my tone up to snuff. She wanted me to do the piece on my oboe, but the range was all wrong. I need to work out a schedule for practicing- every other day for each, I think.

While LMS napped, I went for a run. It was quite nice to be able to run without pushing a jogging stroller. It felt really good. I did 4 miles in about 45 minutes, which is a good pace for where I'm at right now. My next race is going to be in the middle of January. I'll be doing a half marathon down south (so the weather should be decent). If anyone wants to do it with me, it would be fun to get a group together. If you don't want to do a half marathon, they have a 5K that day, too. Email me for more info.

This evening I moved my Japanese audio files to my ipod, so now I can listen while sitting on the couch or my bed while reading the talks/lessons. Makes it much more likely that I'll actually do it.

Ipod fun

Cold and windy today. If it had just been cold, it wouldn't have been too bad, but add in the wind and it wasn't too fun. I wanted to go running, but I hate running in the wind, especially cold wind. It sucks! The snow from last night did stick around, but it barely covered the ground.


The replacement screen for our video ipod arrived today. My Army Guy sent it to us so Little Miss Sunshine could watch movies on the flight to and from Hawaii, but the screen got damaged, so I ordered a replacement. I used a tutorial I found online, and it wasn't too hard, except I got it all put together and it wouldn't turn on. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting all the little cable things, and it still wouldn't work. So I enlisted my brother to help, and he twiddled with it and got it working. He doesn't know what he did, but whatever it was, it worked. He has the touch, I don't. It's not the first time he's been able to fix things without knowing quite what he did to fix it. I'm just happy I didn't have to send it somewhere and pay more money to get it fixed.


Since I got the ipod usable again, I decided to get the movies loaded on it so I don't have to worry about it later. It took all afternoon and most of the evening, but I got it taken care of.

Snow!

Today I rode my bike indoors for 60 minutes. I sweated a lot, and it felt good. I also downloaded the Japanese audio versions of the Joseph Smith manual and April General Conference. I can now listen as I read along. I need to get the November Japanese Liahona, then I'll download October conference as well. I really wish they had the Japanese audio for the Book of Mormon, but I guess they haven't gotten that far yet.

While Little Miss Sunshine napped this afternoon, I was tempted to just read, but I edited photos instead. I need to print photos for Nursery class, so I decided to go ahead and compile and sort photos from the last 15 months (that's how long it's been since I last printed photos!). I came up with a total of 950 photos! I did manage to narrow it down to 730, but they'll still keep me busy scrapbooking for quite awhile. It's a big chunk of money to spend on photos at one time, but when you consider it's for all our photos for more than the last year, it's not too bad. It is nice to be able to sort through the photos before printing. Way fewer are thrown away (and wasted) when I get around to scrapbooking. It ended up taking me all afternoon to sort and all evening to upload photos and place my order (I'm trying to place my order as I'm typing this), because the Wal-Mart website kept freezing up.

The weather was a lot cooler today, and this evening it snowed. It's been snowing off and on for the last 3 or 4 hours. I'm curious to see how much we actually receive, and how long it sticks around.

This weekend I did manage to finish the cushion for LMS's stroller. I could buy one, but it wouldn't have been purple (her favorite color) and I had the fabric, so why spend more money? This is the only stroller we've had (I detest those massive plastic things- even folded up they take up a lot of space), and I love it. It's a BOB stroller, and they're the best! They are expensive, but so worth the money. I found ours on craigslist, so I didn't pay full price for it. It was only a few months old then (they had received two as gifts (who has that kind of money???)), and we've had it for more than two years now, and I use it all the time. I love how far the sun shade comes down; most brands of jogging strollers do not have screens that cover so much. The only thing I don't like is the less-than-effective hand brake, but in the more recent models that has been fixed with a rear axle brake (much more effective and safe). They've got tons of features (check the link above), and several different models. They're awesome!

A reason for the blahs

This morning I woke up with cramps, and realized why I've been feeling 'blah' and 'off' the last few days. It's a few days earlier than I was expecting it, so I didn't think of that as a cause. My cycle seems to be regulating itself more and more each month. One benefit is that my PMS is getting better (no irrational mood swings this time around, like I've had in the past), but it is opening a new round of worries. Depending on when my Army Guy gets to Hawaii, I could potentially get pregnant next month. I do want to get pregnant, but I'm still trying to lose weight, and I'm really concerned about another miscarriage. And if I do manage to get pregnant, I'll be worried the whole time, feeling like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Not much I can do about it all right now, but it's there, in the back of my mind.

Saturday I went for another nice run, enjoying the beautiful warm weather. I ran about 3.5 miles and walked another .5 to 1 miles (not sure on the exact length- need to measure it still). It felt good and was motivating. Of course, this morning was cold and foggy and nasty. I'd actually planned on going for a swim today, so I never planned on biking or running, but the swim didn't happen either. The cramps aren't as bad as I've had in the past (they seem to be getting better, as well), but they're still enough to make me not want to do anything. Overall, I didn't get much done the last few days. I should be able to get more done tomorrow though.

Lovely weather for a run

This past weekend was pretty nasty and cold, so I wasn't sure if we'd have any more nice weather. However, this morning was gorgeous. We went for a really nice run: ran 2.5 miles, walked 1.5 miles. It felt really good to run, not too many twinges or too much pain. I could have gone further except the last quarter mile of the first two miles was uphill, and pushing Little Miss Sunshine in the stroller took it out of me. I walked a half mile after that (had to catch my breath), then ran another half mile, which felt good, though there was a stiff breeze that slowed me down a bit. There was another hill at that point, so I walked the last mile home. 55 minutes altogether, just shy of the 60 I was aiming for.

After I got home I ran through my stretches and exercises (45 minutes worth) which felt good, but reminded me why I never liked weightlifting: it's too stinking boring. I can tell it's going to take some work to make it a habit. I really need to be doing it before I go running, but I took so long to get going this morning that if I'd done my stretches first I wouldn't have made it out on my run. Another thing to work on: not taking so long to get out the door in the morning.

When my dad got home from work this afternoon, he brought another load of gravel for the driveway, so I got to help shovel that. As if I hadn't already gotten enough exercise today...

This afternoon I worked on a pad for LMS's jogging stroller (why buy one when I can make one), but I managed to break the last of my needles, and now I have to buy some more before I can finish the cushion. I have a smaller pad, a Kiddopotamus Snuzzler, that I found on craigslist soon after I found the stroller on craigslist. At the time, LMS looked so tiny in the cushion. It's been a great cushion, but now she's way too big for it. So I'm making a bigger cushion for her. She spends enough time in her stroller that she might as well be as comfortable as possible.

I didn't get around to wrapping all the presents yet, but it's still on my list. I did get my closet cleaned out: I kept a few things in there that I thought I'd use soon, but it'll still be awhile before I get to them, so no point in them taking up space inside. I really like de-cluttering! Now if I could just figure out how to keep my desk clear. There's always paper stacking up on it, that needs to be filed or tossed. It's a never ending battle.

Getting started on my Christmas shopping

This morning we got a running start on our Christmas shopping. Several stores are having sales, and I was able to get most of the grandkids (there's 16 or so) taken care of, as well as some of the other people on the list. The only way we can afford to get presents for all the grandkids is to hit the sales. Not sure how much longer we'll be able to keep getting presents for them- the older they get, the more expensive it is, even hitting the sales. Plus there's more grandkids every year. In any case, I've made a good start, and plan on getting as many of the rest taken care of as quickly as possible.

While we were out and about, I also stopped by the local bike shop and tried on bike shoes and learned about pedals and cleats. I'm putting them on my list, but needed to get details first. They're more efficient than regular pedals and shoes, and I'm looking forward to using them.

Tomorrow I need to get all the presents wrapped and then I'll put them out in the storage to wait for Christmas. And then I really need to focus on getting caught up on stuff like finishing my last quilt.

I've been reading too many books again

Blech! So it's been a few days since I last posted. I've been busy reading (gotta read the books so I can get them back to the library), and I always get a bit fuzzy and out of it when I read too much. And I haven't been eating as well as I should: not enough protein and too many refined carbs, which always throws my body for a loop and doesn't help my mental functioning.

I read The Dragon Heir by Cinda Williams Chima (sequel to The Warrior Heir and The Wizard Heir). It was good, but it's been awhile since I read the first two, so I had a hard time remembering who everyone was. Once I'm done with my stash of Scott Westerfeld books I'm going to read the first two again, then re-read The Dragon Heir.

After I read The Dragon Heir, I read: Pretties, then Specials, and then Extras (all by Scott Westerfeld), which are sequels to Uglies. I thought they were all good, but Extras had me worried for a bit: it seemed he was channeling Planet of the Apes for a little bit. He wasn't, but that was the feeling I was getting. I'm currently working on The Last Days (also by Scott Westerfeld), which is a sequel to Peeps. I'm not very far into it, so it's not too freaky yet. I'm sure it will get that way soon, though.

I am a fast reader, but it's still taking a lot of my time to read this many books. I should know by now not to request so many books from the library all at the same time. I feel obligated to read them as quickly as possible (I can't leave un-read books lying around- that's just not right!), and I can't always renew them, so if I don't get them read before they're due I have to request them all over again. That's just not a good use of my time.

In any case, once I've finished this round of books, I'm going to have to take a break from reading for awhile. Or at least find a boring book that I won't want to speed through as quickly as possible.

Lara bars

A couple months ago I read in a magazine about Lara bars, so I decided to try them out. They're made of all-natural ingredients, no preservatives or anything. The apple pie one has raisins, dates, apples, almonds, and cinnamon. That's it! I'm not a big fan of raisins or dates, but you can't taste them: they're the base for the bar and everything else gets mixed in with them.

I found a couple different varieties in the local grocery store and tried them and liked them for the most part, and then told my sister about them. The next time we talked, she started going on about the Lara bars and this flavor and that flavor: all ones I'd never heard of. I asked her about it, and she said 'oh yeah, there's tons of flavors'. So I got online, and sure enough, there is quite a few flavors. I had to go to the health food store to find a wider variety, and I proceeded to try them to see which were best.

The results in order of preference:
Good:
apple pie (tastes like apple pie)
lemon bar (has a nice zing to it)
banana cookie (tastes kind of like banana bread)
key lime (tastes similar to the lemon bar)
cinnamon bun (very similar to apple pie, I thought)
OK: (they're good, but not as good as the good ones)
cherry pie
pecan pie
Yuck:
Jocolat chocolate mint (I love anything chocolate and mint, but this was just too weird: the chocolate and mint with the raisins and dates just didn't do it for me. Not as yuck as the chocolate coconut, though.)
chocolate coconut (even LMS didn't like it, and she likes anything sweet. I like chocolate and coconut, so again, I think it was the combination with the raisins and dates.)

There's way more flavors, but these are the only ones I've gotten around to trying. They're a good alternative to all the bars out there that have all sorts of unpronounceable ingredients in them.

More fun with Little Miss Sunshine

Ok, so Little Miss Sunshine can be quite amusing. The other day we were talking to daddy on skype, and she decided we were done, because she wanted to do something else. So she picked up the mic and and said "All done daddy call. Right there." and put the mic down on the desk. There's a girl who knows what she wants!

She frequently reads books (I set a good example!), and the other day I caught her reading a book out loud. She was looking at the pictures and reading along. It was very cute.

The other day I was reading a book, and she decided she wanted me to do something with her, so she closed my book and said "All done book".

We went to the grocery store and I wouldn't get one of the car shopping carts (I carried her instead because it was just a quick trip) so she started crying. We stopped to get cookies for daddy (no time to make them) and she said "Thank you mommy cookies" and patted me on the back. She thought they were for her!

She has quite the vocabulary, though she doesn't pronounce everything very clearly. Remember the Friends episode where Joey has to learn French for an audition, and Phoebe tries to help him? He's able to pronounce everything clearly one syllable at a time, but when they put it all together, it comes out all garbled. That's Little Miss Sunshine! She insists on calling yogurt 'hey yo' (I have no idea where she got that from). I had her say it one syllable at a time (yo gurt), and she did it without problems, but when I had her say it all together, it was right back at 'hey yo'.

Some other funny pronunciations:
yanny= candy
nammies= jammies; not to be confused with:
nanny= lambie
meat and cheese= meat and cheese sandwich
butter jelly= peanut butter and jelly sandwich
bee yow= strawberry
wrap wrap= blanket (though she has an unspellable way of saying blanket, she likes to call them wrap wraps)
lella= cinderella
emo= nemo
bear book= Berenstein Bear books
bee bo book= Sandra Boynton books (the Belly Button book= bee bo)
ded= red
geen= green
boo= blue
puh-ple= purple (her favorite color)
puh-ple mail= purple nails (she loves having her nails painted purple)
moomie= movie
ood= food

Yesterday I was sitting at the computer, and I had to laugh. I realized I'd said the words 'where are your underpants?' 6 times in a two minute time period. hmmmm. I guess we should work on modesty....

An autumn ride up a canyon

This morning we took a bike ride with some friends up a canyon near one of the reservoirs in the area. The weather was great- cool, but not too cold or too hot, the sky was blue-er than I've seen it in awhile, the leaves were changing colors, leaving splashes of color up and down the hillsides. We even saw some mountain goats and/or bighorn sheep. (is there a difference between the two?) The ride up and back was about 12 and a half miles, and while it wasn't real steep, it wasn't super easy, either. There is definitely a difference between riding on the indoor trainer and riding outdoors, pulling a trailer with a toddler. It was a good ride, though and we had a lot of fun.

On the way home, we stopped by REI to get Little Miss Sunshine's coat for the coming winter. REI members get 20% off a regular priced item this week, and since I didn't want to wait till December or January for coats to go on sale (she might get a bit cold between now and then), I went ahead and got it today.

When we got home, I finally finished the third quilt. I used buttons at the corners of each square. The last one I'm working on (the one I started first) has strips of fabric between each square, but I ran out of patience after that one and just sewed all the squares directly together, which kind of makes for a busy quilt, but that's the way it goes.



I really like the star buttons I used on this one.






I used plain blue buttons on this one.







The fabric on this one's kind of drab, and while it does have blue in the plaid, it's hard to see, so the blue binding doesn't quite go with it. Oh well. I do like the wood buttons I used, though.




In the process of making these quilts, I also made 2 doll quilts and 3 doll pillows for LMS.















Here's nanny (LMS's lambie) with her pillows and one of her blankets in the doll cradle my dad made me when I was little.






The other day my Army Guy got an email from the college he's going to. They changed the way they calculate credits, and he now has more credits from some of the upper level classes he took at another school. As a result, he now has enough credits to graduate with his bachelor's degree. Yay! Unfortunately, he has to finish the class he's currently taking and one other in order to hit the minimum credits necessary to avoid a hefty fee at graduation and to finish the certificate program that will hopefully help him get a good job.

In other news, I managed to get my Army Guy hooked on the Twilight series! He had a little bit of time in between classes, so I sent him the first book, and he couldn't put it down. He called me one day to ask me to send him the rest of the books. He made it through them all, and we're now looking forward to watching the movie when it comes out in November (when we're in Hawaii!). This isn't the first time I got him hooked on a series. He didn't read a lot when he was a kid, so it was a bit of a struggle to get him reading on a regular basis. I've managed to get him hooked on the Harry Potter books, the Tennis Shoes books, Dan Brown's books, and Christopher Paolini's books. I have to say, I'm quite proud of myself.

Conquering my inner OCD

This morning I stretched, then walked for an hour. During that time I jogged for 3 or 4 minutes, just to get a feel for how my body was doing, and it wasn't too bad. Though it's definitely easier to run when not pushing a toddler in a jogging stroller. It was a beautiful day for a walk: warm, sunny, and just the slightest hint of a breeze. I enjoyed it while I could, since there's rumors of snow coming on Saturday.

After lunch we ran some errands, then I started reading 'Uglies' by Scott Westerfeld, and got into the book instead of working on my quilts. It was pretty good, and I requested the rest of his books from the library. I read 'Peeps' awhile ago, that one was kinda freaky; this one was an interesting look at what society considers 'normal' and 'beautiful'.

This evening I finished binding two of the quilts. My inner OCD really wanted to stay up and finish the third one, but I need to get to bed on time, and if I stay up to finish the quilt that won't be happening. So I'm writing my post and then heading to bed, firmly squashing my inner OCD tendencies.

While I'm talking about books, I should mention 'Brisingr' by Christopher Paolini. It's the third book in a planned trilogy, but as I was reading it, I was 60 pages from the finish, and there was no way it could come to a good end in that time. So I flipped to the end, and after the last page was a note saying the story would conclude in the next book. So much for a 'trilogy'. The unfortunate thing is that it took several years for him to write this one, so who knows when the fourth one will come out. It was good, but some of the scenes were unnecessarily long and detailed, I thought.

Ezekiel bread and agave nectar

Today I rode my bike for an hour, which felt good. I worked on my quilts some more, and the three smallest just need their edges bound now. The largest is the first one I started, and will take a bit longer to finish. The three smaller ones I tied, but the larger one I need to sew. I put a lot more work into that one, so I'll need to take my time sewing the top and bottom together so it looks nice.

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day. I did pretty good on my food again. Instead of sourdough bread (which I really like) for my sandwich at lunch I used Ezekiel bread, which actually isn't too bad (I did toast it, so I don't know how much that changes the taste). Even Little Miss Sunshine ate it, which I wasn't certain she would. Ezekiel bread is a sprouted grain bread that has a lower glycemic index count than other breads, including 'whole grain' varieties. I also tried sweetening plain yogurt with a bit of agave nectar, also with good results. Agave nectar also has a lower glycemic index count, and doesn't have a nasty aftertaste like a lot of sweeteners. I added some raspberries and sliced almonds, and it was quite yummy. I've tried eating plain yogurt sweetened with berries before, but even then it's on the bitter side. Sweetened yogurts tend to be too sweet for me, so it was nice to have yogurt that tasted good and wasn't too sweet.

I did have to buy the bread and the agave nectar at the health food store, but the bread is kept in the freezer and will last for awhile (and I can buy several loaves at a time to reduce extra trips to the store) and the agave nectar will last quite awhile before I need more. Everything else I'm eating came from the regular grocery store. When I was on Atkins, there was all sorts of things I was having to go to the health food store to try (half the time unsuccessfully) to find.

Hawaii here we come...

in just over a month. I finally bought our tickets to Hawaii! Come the middle of November, my Army Guy has his R&R, and we're meeting at his aunt and uncle's in Hawaii. He'll get two weeks there, and we'll get three! We have to plan for him being late, so Little Miss Sunshine and I will arrive before and leave after when he's supposed to be there. Key word: supposed. Unless he's super late getting out of there, we shouldn't have to change our tickets. It's nice that he's got family there, otherwise there's no way we could spend that much time there. It'll be a lot of fun, and we're all looking forward to it.

Well, I didn't succeed in exercising this morning: I was up super late trying to talk to my Army Guy, and then of course had a hard time waking up. Once I was up, we only had time to get up and ready for the day, then we went to my SIL's. I had said I'd help sort through all the baby clothes. We pass around bags of clothes between the cousins, but not all of them are actually wearable. We finally got rid of the ugly, nasty, no-way-would-I-ever-put-my-daughter-in-that clothes, which reduces the size of the bags (those giant zip lock bags are great!) and will be less hassle to haul around. I thought it would only take an hour, but it ended up being about three hours before we finished, which threw off my plans for the day. I did manage to get some more work done on my quilts- I'm getting closer to being done with them. I also managed to do pretty good with my eating. Still some progress to be made in making sure I'm not eating too much sugar, but overall, not too bad.

Exercise goals

I was going to get up and exercise this morning, but was feeling too tired, despite going to bed early. It'll take more than one full night of sleep to catch up on all the sleep I've missed. I did still get a workout, though. My dad hauled a couple trailer loads of gravel home and we shoveled it off the trailer and onto the driveway, which really needed it. We've been growing muddy potholes in it for awhile now. All told, we ended up moving 5 tons of gravel, so I think I'm good for the day- I got some good weight lifting in.

I will be re-starting my exercise program on Monday. I need to write it down so I stick to it and stop wussing out (the hazards of exercising by oneself: no accountability to an exercise buddy). So, my schedule will be as follows:
Monday: weight train and walk/run for at least 60 minutes
Tuesday: bike ride for at least 60 minutes
Wednesday: weight train and walk/run for at least 60 minutes
Thursday: bike ride for at least 60 minutes
Friday: weight train and swim laps for at least 60 minutes
Saturday: bike or walk for at least 60 minutes

The key to this will be to get up early enough so Little Miss Sunshine can eat breakfast (she's a slow eater), I can do my exercising, shower, and still have time to do something else before lunch. If I don't have time for anything else before lunch, I have a hard time feeling like I've been truly productive, despite the fact that exercise is, of course, productive. Getting to bed on time every night will make it a lot easier for me to get up and moving in the morning.

Monday I will also start making more of an effort to watch what I eat: I will no longer be eating high glycemic index foods. I'll be following the guidelines the nutritionist gave me, and I'm really hoping that between the diet and exercise I'll finally be able to lose weight. My goal is to lose at least 35 pounds or fit into my size 6 jeans (and have them be loose) that I haven't been able to wear since our first year of marriage.

Small town Homecoming parade

Today we took my husband's absentee ballot request to the courthouse so he can vote in this year's election (very important for everyone to do), then went to our local high school's homecoming parade.

When I was in high school, in another state, we didn't have a homecoming parade, other than a procession of the king and queen and attendants around the football field at half time. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Little Miss Sunshine and I both had a good time, though, and the parade was actually a pretty good one. Such a small town thing: the kids were let out of school early (the parade was at 1:00), the elementary kids were bussed over, and they sat on the edge of the sidewalk, all wearing their red shirts, waving and grabbing the candy as it was thrown. People of all ages, many wearing red shirts to show team spirit, gathered. Some brought chairs to sit in, some sat on the curb, and everyone chatted while we waited for the parade to reach us. There were fire engines, the marching band, the cheerleaders, the classic cars, the horse groups, the homecoming king and queen candidates, the kids from the local gymnastics and dance studios, and each of the sports teams from the high school and middle school had a float, as did some of the clubs. LMS stood and waved and looked really cute, which ensured that lots of candy was thrown in her direction. She figured out pretty quick which groups were throwing candy, and as they approached us she would ask me 'throw yanny?' (yanny=candy). She thought it was pretty nifty for people to be throwing candy at her. After the parade was over, I asked her if she had fun, and she said 'throw yanny. throw yanny'. It really made an impression on her.

Last night I succumbed to my OCD and stayed up way later than I should have to finish one of my quilts. So tonight I am going to bed at 10, and I think in the future I will try to be in bed by 10:30 every night. I've been staying up too late lately, and I'm starting to feel the effects of not enough sleep. It's just so much easier to stay up rather than go to bed by myself. It's mostly something I do subconsciously, not on purpose, but it happens more frequently than it should.

Results from my physical

Yesterday afternoon I finally had my doctor appointment where we went over the results from all the tests we did awhile ago.

1. weight and body fat: yes, I am overweight, which I knew. One of the machines that was used to check my bone density also measured my body composition, which was really interesting. Based on my lean body mass, it was able to recommend an ideal weight range that is much more realistic than what the stupid height/weight charts say. The lower range is actually right at my target weight, which I found interesting- I've been right all along in thinking that's where I should be. Despite being as short as I am, I just don't have the bone structure to be a petite 100 pounds (unfortunately).
2. resting blood pressure: good.
3. blood pressure while one hand is in a bucket of ice water: good.
4. blood pressure while trying to count backwards from 999, by 9s: good.
5. blood pressure while playing a video game (Ms. PacMan): good.
6. lung capacity: good.
7. EKG: good.
8. strength tests for arms and legs (lifting weights): my legs were stronger than expected, but my arms were way weaker than expected. I used to be really strong. I guess I've been neglecting my arms too much lately.
9. bone scan: fine
10. chest x-ray: fine
11. vision and hearing: fine

My bloodwork all came back fine and normal, including my hormones (which I suspected was the case, since I actually ovulated this month, which means they've been evening out) and thyroid. My insulin is borderline resistant, but better than the last time I was tested. This is particularly frustrating, since it means there's no reason for why I can't lose weight. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Today I met with a nutritionist, which was actually quite motivating. She and the doctor want me to do a low glycemic index diet, start weight lifting twice a week, and keep exercising. The low glycemic index diet is basically a modified Atkins thing: High protein, but with more fiber than is allowed with Atkins. We talked about a lot of stuff, most of which I already knew, but it was a good reminder. It was encouraging since I don't actually need to make major changes, mostly it's just smaller things that need to change, so it shouldn't be too hard to do. I mentioned that I have a real hard time with cravings for sugars, and she suggested that rather than completely deny myself, I should allow myself two squares of Ghirardelli dark chocolate a day, and when I'm having cravings, to eat one with some cheese or nuts. The low glycemic index diet keeps the blood sugar stable and helps regulate insulin, which in turn helps keep the hormones balanced. Insulin resistance leads to hormone imbalances, which leads to worse insulin resistance, which leads to worse hormone imbalances, and so on. Not a good cycle to get into, and getting my insulin in check should help with balancing my hormones and losing weight.

In other news, I finished sewing the fourth quilt top the other day and started putting them all together last night. Yesterday morning I finished organizing the storage container. Now I can find things, though I do need to order some more boxes so I can repack some stuff that was being used earlier.