Fun with gingerbread houses

Yesterday we finally finished our gingerbread houses. We started them Saturday, but didn't have time to finish them till yesterday. Little Miss Sunshine and I worked on ours. Well, I decorated while she ate candy, lots of it. 'That yanny, yeyyow yanny, more yanny!'

The finished product. LMS ate so much candy that she only ate a little bit of dinner, and afterwards had an unfortunate ... explosion. Mount LMS erupted all over my sister's Roman temple model. Rather fitting, we all thought.

Updated goal list/Progress on my goals

Now that the holiday season is just about over, I need to evaluate where I am on my goals, and decide on more to add to the list.

Current goals
*Haven't been eating as well as I should be, need to be more careful, eat less junk food and not buy chocolate when I go to the store (my big weakness). Need to make sure I'm running or walking M, W, and S, whether it's inside or out. Need to ride my bike T, TH. I got clips and shoes for my bike for Christmas, so I can be more efficient when riding my bike. I need to swim and lift weights on F (haven't been swimming for a couple months now), and need to be doing my pilates videos at least 3 times a week.
*Making steady progress on the outline and background of my book, need some quiet time to spend typing it all up.
*Continuing to pay down more debt every month
*Have not been listening to the audio files I have in Japanese, though I did at least download them to my computer and ipod. Need to concentrate on them, though, so not something I can listen to while doing something else. No multi-tasking allowed on this one.
*I've been practicing my flute since returning from Hawaii, but need to add in the oboe and piano. Practicing right after LMS goes to bed seems to work well. I thought the noise would bother her, but she likes it.
*I've typed an index of the books in the house, but now need to start bringing boxes of books in from storage, one at a time

Ongoing goals
*I'm doing good on most of them, except flossing and reading the Relief Society lesson every week. Need to work on those, as well as using my time more efficiently.

New goals
*Run at least one race a month this year.
*Complete at least 2 or 3 triathlons this year (sprint distance)
*Make cover for LMS's car seat
*Get caught up on our scrapbooks by the end of January (middle of Feb at the latest...) actually on my future goals list, moving to my current list

I know there's more things I want to work on, but I can't think of them right off, so I'll have to add them as I remember them.

Catching up...

We've had a busy few days. Christmas morning was spent at my parents', the afternoon at my in-laws'. I took lots and lots of pictures of Little Miss Sunshine opening her presents (for her daddy), which she didn't really appreciate. Consequently, I only have two pictures of her smiling, the rest she's not looking at me, or she's scowling. In one of the pictures, she has a great big smile on her face, but she's also got a finger up her nose. To post it or not to post it..... I guess I'm not that mean. You can tell from her expression that she thinks she's being hilarious. So we're left with this picture, of her with one of the dolls she received.

She's really enjoying carting it around like a baby, feeding it, giving it a pacifier, laying it down for a nap, etc. She got lots of toys and is having lots of fun with them.

Yesterday we hit a couple after Christmas sales, but only bought a few things, then showed my in-laws how to play Settlers of Catan: Knights and Cities. We've played Settlers of Catan with them before, and my MIL received Knights and Cities (from us!) for Christmas, but while my Army Guy and I have played it, the rest of the family hasn't. My Army Guy would have been much better at teaching them, but since he's not here, it was up to me. We muddled through ok, I think.

My sister and her family arrived late last night, and our daughters are having a blast playing together. They're only a few months apart in age, and are best buds. They're so cute together. We all started working on our gingerbread houses, but lost track of time and had to get the kids to bed before they could decorate them, so we'll be finishing them tomorrow after church.

Merry Christmas!

The other night sure was fun. Little Miss Sunshine ended up projectile vomiting three different times, after which she'd emptied her poor little tummy and had four bouts of dry heaves where all that came up was the water she'd drunk after vomiting. After that (around 2:30 am) she seemed to have gotten it all out of her system and slept till 7:30, when she was ready to go. No sleeping in for her. I felt nauseous at that point, and it continued through the day, but by dinner I was feeling better, and I never threw up. So I caught a little bit of it, but not the worst. I did go to bed at 9:30 last night, and didn't wake up till 8, which was awesome! I haven't slept that long in one stretch in a really long time, and I really needed it.

We ran a few last minute errands today, including taking one of my brothers to finish up his Christmas shopping. After LMS's nap we went to the in-laws and did some caroling with them.

LMS is now in bed and everyone is putting last minute touches on presents: wrapping, etc. Tomorrow will be busy. We'll spend the morning with my family and the afternoon with the in-laws. LMS will be the only grandchild at my parents', so despite most of my siblings being here, there will be minimal mayhem. At my in-laws' though, it will be massive mayhem. Most of the siblings and spouses, and all the grandkids (10 ranging in age from 9 months to 13 years) will be there. Always a zoo when all the grandkids are there.

I need to finish up a few things, then I think I will try to go to bed early again tonight.

I'm in for a long night

I've been a bit remiss with posting lately. I'm finding it a bit difficult to get back in the groove of posting every night. I have been busy though: doing research

ok, that was gross. I heard Little Miss Sunshine wake up and cry, which was followed by projectile vomiting on a massive scale. The victims: LMS, her pjs, her bed (sheets, blankets, and pillows), the carpet, the wall, the dresser, and myself. I rushed her into the bathroom and had her stand in the shower. I got her cleaned up (she dislikes her hair being washed on a good day, she was not happy about it tonight. but it was very necessary) and wrapped in a blanket, then I cleaned up her room. YUCK! I really dislike the smell of vomit. I had just finished cleaning her room when she puked again- on the towel and blankets she was wrapped in, and -the real tragedy- on nanny. Another round in the shower, more bedding added to the now quite large pile of laundry I will have to face tomorrow, and more clean up. I wrapped her up again and sat down, just in time for another round- thankfully not so bad, though another towel and blanket and her pink bunny rabbit joined the monstrous pile of laundry. Another shower, and this time I got smart and asked my mom to find a bucket. We've managed to go a little while now with just some dry heaves (her poor tummy is completely empty now) that she used the bucket for. Another shower was not needed, thank goodness. Now she's sitting on my lap while I type one-handed and we wait to see if she's done. It's going to be a long night....

The thing is, I don't remember her ever throwing up before. Poor kiddo has no idea what's going on. I can't think of anything she ate that would do this, and while I do know of a couple kids who've been puking, I didn't think she'd been in close enough contact to any of them to get whatever bug they have. Hope no one else in the family gets it, especially with Christmas just a couple days away.

Back to my original thought: I've been doing some research for my book, which has triggered more good plot ideas. Need to look up a few more things, then I think I'll be ready to start re-writing what I already wrote, and then I can move forward into the story.

I did spend 50 minutes on the treadmill today. I ran and walked 3 miles, which felt good- no problems with my throat and lungs since I was inside. I need to stop being a wuss and get back outside, but I think I'll give my lungs a little more time to acclimate first.

I played my flute in church yesterday. I did a song that was part of the cantata sung by the choir. My mom's the pianist, so it made practicing really easy. I was nervous since it's been quite awhile since I performed in public, but I thought I played well. It was also good incentive to get me practicing again. And LMS likes me to practice after I've put her to bed and she's falling asleep.

Some sore muscles from pilates

This morning I rode my bike for half an hour while Little Miss Sunshine watched 'Veggie Tales' dvds. I've been feeling quite out of shape and ... fluffy... lately, probably from not exercising enough and not eating right while we were in Hawaii. That and seeing a photo of myself in a swimsuit wasn't exactly the thing to make me feel good about myself. So I got out my pilates dvds and did one of the workouts. I thought it was only a half hour one, but it turned out to be a 50 minute workout, which was good, but tough. I've used the dvds in the past, but I usually only manage to last a week before giving up on them (I really don't like using dvds, just like I really don't like doing weight training). I have to stay motivated and not slack off this time. Hopefully if I add the pilates onto my running and biking I'll be able to get in better shape and actually lose some weight, and get more flexible, to boot.

I spent the afternoon going through a stack of old 'Runner's World' and 'Women's Health' magazines. I have a habit of marking pages, intending to go back and do something about them, but never actually do. So I went through and pulled out the pages I wanted, and tossed the rest into the recycle bin.


The other day I bought a Fisher Price Nativity for LMS, and she is LOVING it. Especially the button on top that you push to start 'Away in a Manger' and turn the light in the star turn on. She also likes making sure Baby Jesus is in his 'house', safely sleeping.

Asthma problems

Running in the cold yesterday hit me harder than I expected. I did expect the cough that I got: that always happens after running in the cold; residual asthma effects from when I was younger. When I was practicing my flute last night though, I found myself having to breathe after every measure, which is very uncharacteristic. I also couldn't take a deep breath, no matter how hard I tried. This isn't good, because that means my asthma was acting up. I haven't had problems for more than 10 years, so I really hope this is just temporary. I don't want to have to take asthma meds again. This morning my lungs felt better, but my throat was feeling worse and I felt crummy. I've had a scratchy throat off and on for the past few days, but yesterday I felt fine. Today, not so much. So I didn't go running today in hopes that I'll be feeling better tomorrow.

Today my brother got the ok to go back on his mission. While he was in the MTC he messed up his knee and had surgery, but it never healed and he was having problems walking, so when the rest of his group went to Korea, he came home. He had physical therapy once he got home, but at that point it had been almost 2 months since the surgery, so it was too little too late. He ended up having another surgery and this time started PT 3 days later. He can now walk without any problems. He had to be able to walk 5 miles without pain before they'd let him go back out, and he was finally able to do that. He's been home almost a year, but he's been able to get some other medical problems taken care of, so that was good. He doesn't have to go back to the MTC, he'll be heading straight to Korea the first week of January. He's very excited because he didn't think he'd be able to go to Korea, he was afraid they'd send him somewhere else.

Running in Hawaii versus here

It was super cold Sunday morning- my car thermometer read zero degrees on the way to church. Yikes! It also read zero on the way to the in-laws for dinner, but their thermometer said 10 below, so I wonder if my car thermometer can't do negatives...

I didn't go running yesterday like I had planned, but I did go today. I went in the afternoon while Little Miss Sunshine was napping. I figured it would be warmer then, which it was, but it was also windier. As I was running I was thinking about how much running I've done lately. It was a bit of a shock to realize it's been a month since I was running consistently. I did go running once in Hawaii, but there just wasn't a good route that was clear of obstacles and not super close to traffic. I try to err on the side of safety when I have LMS in the stroller with me, so I didn't go on any more runs after that. It was a nice run, physically, though. I wore my compression sleeves, and my shins didn't hurt at all. My calves got fatigued pretty quickly, but that should help strengthen them, which should in turn strengthen the muscles in my shins, right? I'm sure hoping that's the case. Anyway, my lungs didn't bother me at all- no problems breathing- of course, we were at sea level, so about as much oxygen as you can get. The two miles I did today showed me that 3 1/2 weeks at sea level followed by a return to higher altitude takes longer than a week to re-acclimate. I took a week off, hoping that would be enough, but I was gasping for air by the time I hit the 1.5 mile marker. Add fatigued calf muscles (compression sleeves again), and it was a tough run. It felt good to get out there again, but I'm going to have to really stay motivated to get past the altitude issues and the fatigued calf muscles. Hopefully it doesn't take too long.

I had planned to do a 10k race this Saturday, but for some reason it hadn't clicked that it was so soon. I need to run the 10k race as prep for the half marathon I'm doing in January, but I'm tempted to do just the 5k. After how cold it was on Sunday, though, I may not be running it at all. I really need to see how my lungs react to really cold, higher altitude air. Today was in the 30's, so warmer than it may be on Saturday. We'll have to see how cold the next couple days are.



Still haven't decided if I'm doing the race on Saturday, but if I do, I'm pretty sure it'll only be the 5K. I'm just not ready for a 10K at this point, which is unfortunate. Sure hope I'm ready for the half in January.

Upcoming Races

I had wanted to run a turkey trot while in Hawaii, but the only race I could find was 6 am on Thanksgiving, and it was a 10 miler. I only wanted a 5K... Plus, I wasn't ready for a 10 miler. So no race in November. My December race is this weekend, but I still have to see if I'm re-acclimated. January is my next half marathon. February is a 5 miler or a 10 miler (we'll see how I feel after the half). There's another half I can do towards the beginning of March, but it might interfere with some other stuff going on, so we'll have to see on that one. If we haven't moved cross-country, I have another half I can run in April. I'm not going to start looking for races past that point, since we don't know where we'll be.

Progress on goals, plus a couple new ones

While we were in Hawaii I was able to make a lot of progress on my book. I was able to think out my story line a lot further than I previously had been able to, and figure out a lot of background details. I have a lot of typing to do now, but it probably won't happen till after Christmas.

Since getting home I've been busy practicing my flute every day. I'm supposed to do a number with the ward choir this Sunday for the Christmas cantata.

I need to make a cover for Little Miss Sunshine's car seat. I got the pink and black one because it was girly, which I like, but the pink gets dirty so easy, which I don't like. I made a cover for her old car seat (which was blah brown) out of fabric that I LOVE. Unfortunately, I can't find more of it anywhere (and I have looked). I looked in Hawaii, and I've been searching online using every key word I can think of, but no luck. I found a scrap leftover from the original project, but it doesn't have a manufacturer's name on the edge. I bought the fabric on ebay, but there's no more available. I did find some fleece in a similar pattern and color, so I'll probably end up using that. I liked the other fabric because it was a canvas-weight, and a nice dark color, so it wouldn't show dirt very well, and it could stand up to some abuse.

After Christmas I need to get caught up on our scrapbooks, and I need to organize the storage area in the basement to make room for my food storage (though at this point, I'm not sure if I should bother- my Army Guy should be home in just a couple more months).

More things we did in Hawaii

While we were in Hawaii, my Army Guy and I got to go on a date- our first one in 10 months! We went to dinner, and then watched Twilight. We both enjoyed all the books and were anxious to see how the movie turned out. I was rather apprehensive going into it (the girl who plays Bella always looks like she's about to whine about something and the movie posters all look goofy- like they're trying too hard), but overall I thought they did a good job. I've watched quite a few movies based on books, and some are pretty good (The Princess Bride, the Harry Potter movies), and some are pretty awful (Eragon). I know it's difficult to condense everything in the book into a movie, so I expect stuff to get cut out. When characters are changed completely though (like in Eragon), I have issues. While stuff did get cut out of Twilight, I thought they did a decent job of it. Jasper kind of bugged me though. He's supposed to be in pain, but he came off as freaky. And though Bella looked kind of petulant, there wasn't any whining, so I was happy. We really enjoyed it and are looking forward to seeing it again. And the next book is also going to be made into a movie: hopefully they do a good job on that one as well.

We also went snorkeling, which I enjoyed, but I did manage to get a bit seasick. If I do it again, I want to have prescription goggles so I can see everything better. I'm just a bit too blind without my glasses. I'm pretty sure I saw several fish that are in 'Finding Nemo', as well as lots of others. I just missed seeing a turtle on several occasions, but my Army Guy saw it. No photos because I forgot to buy an disposable underwater camera. It would have come in very handy if I'd remembered to buy one.

Hawaii Photos!

Here's a quick photo recap of our trip to Hawaii. There were some spectacular sunsets, and we stayed very close to the beach and were able to just sit and watch them. Saw some surfers, and some decent size waves. The days the really big ones (20+ ft) were supposed to be on the North Shore, we weren't on that side of the island, so we didn't get to see the really big ones. The morning of the day Little Miss Sunshine and I left, we got up early and went looking for shells. When we stepped outside, there was a full double rainbow. As we drove, we passed where the end of the rainbow hit the water. I've never seen the end of a rainbow before. Pretty cool!

On one of our trips to the other side of the island , we stopped by Matsumoto's grocery store for shave ice. They have the BEST shave ice on the island. Yummy!

We also went to the Pearl Harbor/USS Arizona Memorial. Very sobering to visit. LMS and I were still in Hawaii during the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. A shot of the flag from inside the memorial.

Memorial at Punch Bowl Cematary. A lot of those killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor are buried there. It was a very peaceful place. Other than the wind: it was very windy.

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and had a great time. LMS loved the dancers, and wanted to get up and join them.

My Army Guy's aunt and uncle's ward (how's that for confusing?) had a temple night while we were there, and we were able to do a session. It was really good to be able to go to the temple together- it's been a long time since we've been able to go together. And our timing was just right, too. At the end of December the temple will be closing for a year and a half for a complete remodel/expansion project.

We went to Pali lookout, which is on top of a ridge, looking from one side of the island to the other. It's on the old route that went through (rather than around) the island, which was a twisty, curvy, dangerous route. There's now a wider, straighter, safer route close by.

Up on the ridge was VERY windy. Check out our hair! LMS had a death grip on me because she was afraid of getting blown away, which it was almost windy enough to do. She didn't enjoy it too much.

LMS had fun figuring out how to use chopsticks. She managed to get the positioning right, but couldn't actually pick up any food with them. The adults were all doing it though, so she wanted to also.

We all enjoyed the beach, but I think it's safe to say that LMS had the time of her life. The first day we went to the beach, we hadn't planned on going into the water. LMS had other ideas, though and had a blast. Her face says it all: She loved running in and out of the water, and it was so funny to watch her. She always seemed to be sticking her tongue out to one side or the other, like ballast. We also noticed that she can't walk or run in a straight line, which is also funny to watch. This was at Waikiki. We hadn't planned on going in (we were told the beach is dirty and overcrowded), but once again LMS insisted on going in. We stripped her down and she had a great time. Luckily the beach wasn't too crowded or too dirty. Though we did see an older, overweight woman walking down the beach wearing a nude colored bra and granny panties. That was scary! As we walked back to the car, we found some pretty plumeria blossoms on the ground, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of LMS with one.

We went to Costco (the place to go to buy big bags of macadamia nut Hershey's Kisses), and I made the mistake of stopping in the candy aisle to dig in my purse for something. LMS was walking beside me and noticed the boxes full of bags of M&Ms. She managed to wrestle a bag out, and was so pleased with herself about it! I decided to let her keep it (snack time later on!), and caught her hugging the bag while sitting in the cart. I couldn't resist whipping out the camera.

We had an awesome time with my Army Guy and all had a lot of fun. I hoped to avoid making LMS's separation anxiety worse again by meeting my Army Guy in Hawaii instead of having him come home, and it seems to have worked! She loved spending time with her daddy, but she didn't have too many problems when he left. I think it really helped that we were in an unfamiliar environment. Can't wait for him to come back for good...

We're back home

We had an awesome time in Hawaii! It was great to see my Army Guy, and Little Miss Sunshine was so happy to see her daddy again. We got back Tuesday morning and have been (unsuccessfully) trying to get back on schedule and change our sleeping patterns (several hours time difference for 3 1/2 weeks can be hard to change). I'll be posting pictures soon, but there's lots of them. Between my camera and my Army Guy's camera we had more than 900 photos! Some are of the same thing, so I have to go through and sort out the best, delete the ones LMS insisted on taking (she prefers shots of the ceiling, wall, stomachs, etc), and get them down to a manageable, yet representative, number. Stay tuned...