Little Miss Sunshine is getting so big

Thursday I increased my biking to 45 minutes, which felt good, and I got nice and sweaty. I also finally got my Army Guy's stuff scrapbooked. Added to what I've already done, I now have a 7 inch stack of pages to put captions and dates on. Actually, I have a lot more than that, but the other pages are already in sheet protectors in binders, so they will be done after the sheets that never made it into sheet protectors. One thing at a time .....

Friday was a blah day, nothing special: sorted through my stack of papers that's been piling up for the last month or so, paid bills, and cleaned the church (my turn to help this week).

The picture on the right side is the taping I do with the kinesio tape. I took a picture of a page from the Runner's World article. I'm still not completely sure about it's effectiveness, but like I said before, it can't hurt to try.

Today was beautiful, so Little Miss Sunshine and I went for a 3 mile walk/run. It felt really good, only a few twinges from my shins, I'll have to wait till tomorrow to see how they feel. We haven't used the jogging stroller since our trip to Hawaii, and when I put LMS in it, I noticed how big she's gotten. The first one is when she was about 3 and a half months old, the second at about a year and a half, and the third is now. Check out the progression in height: (first) eye level even with the exposed hinges and legs straight (can't see it, but they were), (second) eye level above the hinges and knees bent and feet dangling, and (third) her head is touching the folded back canopy, and her feet are firmly on the foot rest. When did this happen???

I spent a good part of the afternoon and evening working on visiting teaching and primary stuff, getting stuff ready for Sunday. I procrastinated all week, and had to make up for it today.

Experiments with kinesio tape

The kinesio tape I ordered arrived a couple days ago. This morning I found the video that shows how to tape for shinsplints and watched it a few times before attempting it on myself. I taped both shins, then spent an hour on the treadmill. I alternated walking and running, and only had a few twinges. We'll see how they feel tomorrow, though. If they're going to hurt, it's usually the next day that it shows up.

Yesterday I rode my bike for half an hour (still getting used to the new bike clips) and did a 20 minute pilates video. Little Miss Sunshine wanted to 'stretch' too, so she laid down beside me, and lifted one leg, then another, sat up, laid down, etc. It was very cute. Today I went online and requested some kids yoga dvds from the library. If she wants to 'stretch', I have no problem encouraging it!

Jack Frost visited us

When we woke up yesterday morning, frost was covering everything. Before we left for church, I grabbed my camera and took some pictures. I thought these turned out the best. It looks like it's almost dark outside, but it was just really gray and gloomy.

The frost reminded me of the ice storms we used to get growing up. Ice would coat everything: trees, bushes, grass, the streets, the driveway. We learned how to ice skate on our iced over driveway and the huge frozen puddles (the size of small ponds) in the soybean fields next to our house.

Saturday night I ran out of photo stickers with just two and a half pages left to finish off our Hawaii trip. Very disgusting. I had to wait till today to buy more. So I will be finishing those off finally, then getting started on my Army Guy's stuff.

Heavy duty biking

Yesterday morning I finally got my clips on my bike and the cleats on my bike shoes. What a difference they make! As soon as I started pedaling I could feel different muscle groups than I usually use being used. I biked for 30 minutes and worked up more of a sweat than when I biked for an hour without the clips.

I've been working on my scrapbooking, and have gotten Halloween, Christmas, and about half of Hawaii done. Have to finish Hawaii, and then do my Army Guy's trips to Nicaragua, Korea, and Belgium. Can't wait to get them all done.

I also sorted Little Miss Sunshine's clothes. I pulled out the too-small clothes and added them to the bag of clothes to give to my SIL for her little girl. We're hopefully moving soon, and we don't need to be bringing a big bag of clothes with us that don't fit.

Yesss mommy

About a week ago, Little Miss Sunshine woke up and said 'yesss' when I asked her a question. This is great progress, since she's been saying 'yesh' for the longest time. Now she goes around saying 'yesss mommy' when I ask her to do things. It's so nice to hear 'yes' instead of 'no' all the time.
I'm continuing to make progress with getting up earlier and going to bed earlier, though still not as early as I would like on either. I haven't run or ridden my bike today, but I did spend three hours lifting and moving boxes.

Last time I was out in the storage container I noticed some moisture seeping up through the wood floor. No puddles or anything, but since we've got a bunch of cardboard boxes, I thought I should put some plastic under them just to make sure our stuff doesn't get ruined. In the process of moving everything around, I also consolidated some boxes. I've been taking stuff out there in random boxes I find in the house, and adding the random boxes to my neat piles of (all-the-same) boxes. I managed to get rid of all but two of the random boxes, which makes my OCD feel better. It is helpful to have all the same boxes, because they stack neater, so it's not completely an OCD thing (ok, it is, but it makes sense, too). I am going to have to order some more boxes, though. I don't have any empty boxes to pack up all the stuff we have in the house. Not sure how that happened, but apparently our stuff has been multiplying all by itself. Either that or I've managed to buy more things than I thought I had....

While out there, I dug out some things that we'll be needing in the next month or so. We're starting to get ready for my Army Guy to come home, so I need to make sure we know where his stuff is.

I also found the tools I need so I can finish putting my new clips on my bike. Once I get the clips on, I can use my new bike shoes!

The last round of photos I sent to be printed arrived today, so I will be spending tonight working on my scrapbook. I need to hurry and get it done so I can move on to other projects. Once I clear off my desk, I need to haul out my sewing machine. I need to hem up a new pair of jeans and make the cover for LMS's car seat. The fabric is fleece, not the canvas I wanted, but I'll put a backing on it and it should last ok (I hope). The pattern and color are pretty close to the canvas I used on her old car seat cover.After I'm caught up on my sewing I have some stuff to list on ebay. They've been sitting in my closet, taking up space, so I either have to get them sold, or put them in a box and take them to the storage container. Actually, now that I'm thinking of it, that might be a better idea. I know once we move I'm going to go through everything as I unpack and get rid of a lot of stuff. So if I wait, I can get it all done at once.

Books I've read recently

In between my various projects, I've been doing some reading. One was 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard', by JK Rowling. It's supposedly a translation done by Hermione Granger, with commentary written by Albus Dumbledore, before he died. I enjoyed the book, and the proceeds from sales go to a good cause. Books that claim to written, translated, or abridged by someone else are always interesting. I think the best example is 'The Princess Bride'. The author claims that he's abridging someone else's story, and has lots to say about it: he's got his comments all over.



Another book I read is 'Silks' by Dick Francis and his son Felix. He writes mysteries that usually center around British horse racing (he was a jockey when he was younger), and has written quite a few books in the last 30 or so years that he's been writing. He's slowing down some (it's been quite a while since his last book came out) as he gets older, but I thought it was a good book.







I'm currently reading 'The Happiest Toddler on the Block' by Dr. Harvey Karp. I read his first book, 'The Happiest Baby on the Block', back when I was pregnant with Little Miss Sunshine, and found it very helpful. I bought this one a while ago, but never got around to reading it. LMS has been whining a lot lately and not communicating as well as she could be. I haven't finished it yet, so I'm not sure if he talks about whining so much as temper tantrums and how to deal with them. He does have really good advice on that aspect.

Kinesio tape: just what I've been looking for?

So it's been a few days since I last posted, but I have been fairly productive in that time. I finally sorted and organized the 12" stack of papers I got when I was called to be primary music person. Most of them were visual aids for learning songs, but I had to sort them and figure out what songs they were for. I also bought an expanding file to store the old ones in, one to store this year's songs in, and a binder for the miscellaneous copied music and papers that I need to keep organized (my OCD kicking in).

I spent an hour on the bike and 20 minutes doing pilates yesterday, and hauled some boxes around on Monday. Thought about going running today, but never quite got around to it. The thought of my shins and/or calves giving me problems just is not doing it for me. The most recent issue of Runner's World had an article on kinesio tape (remember that volleyball player with the black tape on her shoulder at the Olympics?), and showed how to tape four different injuries, one of them being shinsplints. So I ordered a roll of it, and am anxious to see if it's effective. I'm willing to give anything a chance at this point, especially if it doesn't cause the calf fatigue the compression sleeves are causing. I've also been making more of an effort to get to bed earlier and get up earlier, so I can be more productive. It's a process, but I am making progress (which also means I need to finish this and get to bed!).

Scrapbooking and reading

Well, this week I really slacked off in the exercise department. I did manage to get caught up on my scrapbooking though. I got all the photos onto pages, and now I need to type captions for them. I also sorted and sent photos from Halloween, Hawaii, and Christmas to be printed (another 380 photos- half the number I just did, but still a lot). Once they're printed, I can get completely caught up. Although, I guess I'm not completely caught up yet, anyway. I need to get the photos from my Army Guy's trips to Nicaragua, Belgium, and Korea taken care of. I've been putting them off (they're from several years ago), but now's the time to get them taken care of.

I also cleared out a bunch of old useless files from my computer, which opened up a good chunk of memory. I let my inner OCD take over, and organized my remaining files too. I need to do some more sorting, but the worst of it is over.

I've also been doing some reading. One book was 'Dead Cat Bounce' by Sarah Graves. She's got a whole series out, but I hadn't read the first and second books. I finally found this one, which is the second one, and now I need to find the first one.... I can't find it at a library anywhere, and I've looked in three different states. Guess I'll have to break down and buy it.

Another book was 'Plum Spooky' by Janet Evanovich. It's a between-the-numbers book, which I think there's 3 or 4 of now. This was the best one so far. I like these ones because there's some fantasy involved, and the author can be more creative than usual with things. The numbers books are good too, but not much fantasy involved in those.

In between everything I've been pondering some details for my book. I've got most of the ones I've been thinking about worked out now, so once I finish the scrapbooking I'm going to get going on actual writing.

Tax time is coming

I'm just not feeling motivated to exercise the last few days. It's too cold to exercise outside, and I really detest the treadmill. I've gotta get over it and get exercise anyway.

I started working on our taxes this afternoon. The good news is that we'll get enough back to almost finish paying off our credit card debt. Woohoo! The end is in sight!

More progress last night on my scrapbooking, and I'll be spending tonight doing more of the same. Hopefully I can finish tomorrow, then I need to get the photos from our trip to Hawaii printed out so I can get completely caught up. Once the photos are all on the pages, I'll start typing up captions for each page (my handwriting isn't that great). I'm thinking that is going to be the real time consumer.

No snowshoeing today

Unfortunately, the snow didn't last so I didn't get to try out my snowshoes. I swear I'm jinxed or something. Everytime I'm here in the winter, there's no snow. A few years ago we weren't able to make it home for Christmas, and they got more than 3 feet of snow! The next year, when we were here, not so much. Hmmmmm. I was going to ride my bike for awhile but ended up snuggling with Little Miss Sunshine instead. She needed some quality mommy time.

This afternoon I went to the doctor. I've been feeling nauseous almost constantly for the past couple months (and no, I'm not pregnant), so I figured I should get it checked out. He's not sure what's going on (I don't have the classic symptoms), so we have two 'easy' things we'll look for first, then move on to the 'harder' things if those don't show anything. I'll be getting an ultrasound to check out my gall bladder and I'm taking Nexium for a week to see if it's an acid problem. The next steps will be to consider gastroporesis and a gluten allergy, but there's a lot of testing with those, so we'll wait and see if the first two show anything.

Last night I got a good amount of scrapbooking done, but there is still lots to do, so I will be spending more time on it tonight.

Lots of lovely snow

This morning it snowed a lot, making a 50 minute drive to the dealership a two hour and 15 minute drive. Lots of fun. No sliding or anything, just lots of cars all going really slow. I wouldn't have been out in it except I had finally got around to making an appointment for an over-due maintenance check and oil change, and I wasn't going to reschedule. So that's finally done.

Last night we (my Army Guy and I) filled out and sent in one job application and started another. The second is incredibly detailed and it was late, so we took note of what information they were looking for and called it a night. Need to get it finished soon, and find an application for another job that he's interested in, and hopefully one of those will pan out.

I'm now going to spend the rest of the evening scrapbooking, trying to get as much done as I can. I really need to get caught up and then work on it once a month so I don't get so behind (a year and a half at this point) again.

If the snow sticks around I'm going to try out my snowshoes tomorrow!

FamilySearch Indexing

Yesterday I didn't eat as good as I should have, but it was a bit of crazy day. I decided to take Little Miss Sunshine to the doctor to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or bronchitis lurking in her little body. She just hasn't been her usual self lately. I called for an appointment, and they had one available an hour later, so I rushed around and got us ready and out the door and to her appointment. Turns out everything's ok, she's just taking awhile to get completely over the bug she got at Christmas. Better safe than sorry though, since the two ear infections she has had were found when I brought her in for something else- there was no sign of them.

I also read 'Shadow Kiss', the third book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. I'm conflicted about it. It was good, but it didn't have a happy ending. Now, I realize that in a series (the next book is due out in August I think) each book doesn't have to have a perfect ending, and bad things do happen to your favorite characters. I think once I see what happens in the next book I'll be more ok with how this one turned out (I hope).

I was supposed to run a 5k today, but when I checked the website last night to get directions, it had been canceled due to poor trail conditions. The weather was cold and windy up here, so I'm guessing they got some snow further south of us. It was too bad, since today actually wasn't that bad: cold, but not frigid, and not too windy.

Today I sat down and wrote out character bios and started a more in-depth outline for my book. Once I finish deciding the main events, I can work on the details. I kept trying to do it earlier, but I hadn't picked out names for everyone, and it just wasn't working out. Now that the main characters have names and personalities, it should be easier going.

Today I finally signed up for FamilySearch Indexing and indexed my first batch. I've read about it several times over the last few months, and each time I've thought what a good idea it would be to get involved. It takes about an hour and a half to flip through the tutorials, but after that it's much quicker. You download a batch, which is an image (or images) of a record (birth, death, census, etc), and then fill out the fields with names, dates, etc. There is a bit of deciphering that has to be done, but they give you hints about how to do it accurately. I did a page from a census and it took me less than half an hour to do the 50 names that were listed. You have a week to do each batch, and you can stop and save it if you don't have time to finish. An easy way to get involved with genealogy, and an important step towards making these records available for everyone to use.

Scrapbooking has commenced

I've managed to eat pretty healthy the last couple days, and I spent an hour on the treadmill yesterday followed by 20 minutes of pilates (luckily I've got 4 different ones so I don't have to do the same one over and over) and another hour on my bike this morning.

I spent today labeling photos from our trip to Hawaii. There's 836 of them right now, so I need to weed them out a bit still, then I can send them to be printed. I've also started working on my scrapbooking, which is very necessary since I now have twice as many photos to take care of.

I need to get all caught up on my scrapbooking so I can move on to other projects. The scrapbooking is similar to the quilts I had to finish: time consuming and long over due.

Time management

So I had a good start with everything yesterday, but I didn't do quite so good today. I kind of did that on purpose, though: don't want to get burned out by doing too much all at once. We ran some errands this morning and I had thought about riding my bike while Little Miss Sunshine was napping, but couldn't bring myself to change, get sweaty, shower, and change again. A bit lazy, but that's the way it goes.

I really have to figure out how to get stuff done. If I exercise in the morning, by the time I'm done with everything it's almost lunch time. After lunch it's time for LMS's nap. Invariably on the days I want to run errands after her nap she takes her time going to sleep and doesn't wake up till almost dinner time, not leaving time to go into town. After dinner it's time to start getting ready for bed. LMS is a champion procrastinator and can make things take two or three times as long as they should, which doesn't help matters any. Plus I hate messing with her sleep schedule too much: she gets very cranky when she doesn't get enough sleep.

If I run errands in the morning, the motivation to exercise when we get back is almost nonexistent. The real answer is to get up earlier, but that would mean I have to get to bed earlier too. I need to work on that...

I did eat good though, which I'm happy about. I also worked on things for my callings: visiting teaching stuff and Primary music stuff. I'm planning out the schedule for the coming year for what songs to teach when. Realistically I won't be here for more than a couple more months, but my OCD is kicking in and I want to be organized and leave things organized for the next person.

Buckling down and getting stuff done

Ok, so the holidays are finally over, various family members are back at their homes, at school, on their mission, etc. So I decided to get back on the bandwagon starting this morning. I ate healthy all day (even choosing yogurt over ice cream tonight!), ran/walked 3.5 miles on the treadmill, and did 20 minutes of pilates.

I started organizing our photos to scrapbook them, and Little Miss Sunshine and I wrote our thank yous for our Christmas gifts. Look at me being all on top of things!

I also have been doing some more reading for background info for my book. I'm just about to the point where I can start typing up all my background info.

Happy New Year!

Little Miss Sunshine and I started the year out with a race. When I was in high school my family participated in a 'Resolution Run' every year on New Year's Eve. The race started at a quarter to midnight and afterwards we sat around in the gym and won door prizes and such. It was a lot of fun. We haven't found a race like that here unfortunately. However, I did find a race that starts at 10 am on New Year's Day. An added bonus: they have kids' races of various lengths (25 yds, 200 yds, 1 mile) beforehand. So LMS ran the 25 yard race and had a great time. She was very excited to be running a race and she thought the finisher's ribbon was pretty cool. This is a blurry picture; my mom's camera has some better ones, I need to get them from her.Notice how she's already working on her form: arms bent and swinging, knees high, big smile. My mom came along to watch her while I ran. Luckily there was a good playground right there at the finish line, so LMS was able to have fun while waiting.

I had the option of running a 5K or a 10K, and you could actually change your mind a mile into it, when the 10K-ers went one way and the 5K-ers went another. I knew from the beginning I was only going to do the 5K though, since I really don't have my mileage up higher than that.

While running, I realized several things:

1. I really need to do some hill work. The first half of this race was all uphill, and it was tough! (It was an out-and-back course, so that also meant that the second half was downhill, but still...)

2. I am not ready to run a half marathon in two weeks. I had planned on doing so, but realized I really do not have enough mileage to be properly prepared. I could do it anyway, but I want to be able to run the whole thing, not have to stop and gasp for breath/rest my tired legs every little bit/have problems with my shins.

3. While increasing my mileage, I also need to strengthen my calves and shins more. I didn't wear my compression sleeves during the race and only had a small twinge in one shin, but it was also only a three mile race.

4. Luckily I have options. There's a half marathon the first weekend of February I can do, but it's rather hilly, so we'll see how my hill workouts go before I make a decision on that one. There's several 5K/10K and 5M/10M races this month and next, so I'll be able to prepare for the half marathon that I will be doing the first weekend of March. I can definitely be ready for that one.