What we eat: Christmas dinner

This is over a month late, but better late than never, right?

Turkey

Red, white, and blue jello salad (my mom's recipe)

Mashed potatoes and gravy

Brussels sprouts

Homemade applesauce

Olives

Gluten free cheddar chive biscuits (store bought)

Apple cider

Apple crisp

Vanilla ice cream (a variation of this)

The jello salad, mashed potatoes, and biscuits weren't on our list of ok foods, but since we fudged less than at Thanksgiving, there were fewer problems this time. Thankfully LMS is getting better at recognizing when she needs to run (not walk) to the bathroom. The accidents are getting fewer and farther between. Yay!

Wood Play Kitchen

LMS used to have a plastic Little Tikes play kitchen, but I sold it about a year and a half ago. It was too big and too much plastic. I promised LMS I'd build her another play kitchen, and I FINALLY got around to it, just in time for Christmas. Literally :) I put the finishing touches on it Saturday night so she would have it Christmas morning.

I wanted a one piece kitchen, so I drew up my own plans, combining this plan and this one from AnaWhite.com. I added a door to the sink cabinet- I liked that a lot more than the curtain or leaving it open.

The stove burners are wood circles I found at Michaels and the stove knobs are wood wheels I found Hobby Lobby. The polka dot cabinet knob is also from Hobby Lobby. The stove handle is a random handle (from a sliding glass door, I think) that I got at the Habitat ReStore for $1 and then spray painted pink. I also found the faucet at the Habitat ReStore, and the sink bowl is a doggy bowl from wally world. The hardware and plexiglass for the oven door came from Lowes.

I cut the flowers from pink vinyl with my Silhouette. I personally think there's a few too many flowers on the kitchen (I got a bit carried away), but LMS loves it, so I'll leave it as-is for now. Eventually I might start peeling a flower off here, a flower off there....

I think it turned out great, and LMS loves playing with it!

Conversations with LMS

LMS enjoying the ice covered skiff of snow we got Friday night

Driving home after going grocery shopping, I heard strange noises in the backseat.

A few seconds later, LMS announced "I'm trying to speak hummingbird".

I asked "How do you speak hummingbird?"

"Well, it's hard, that's why I'm practicing."

How do you think adopting a child will change your life?

Cool photo of a recent foggy am. No relation to the post :)


(full disclosure: possible TMI ahead)

We're getting closer to turning in all our paperwork for the adoption. We could do it in a couple different chunks, but we decided to just gather it all together and take care of it at one time. Yesterday I was working on the essay question portion that Mr M and I have to individually answer.

Question: how do you think adopting a child will change your life?

The questions are to help the agency get to know us and get us thinking about different things, but as the parents of a five year old I don't think we have any illusions (delusions?) of how parenthood will be :)

Anyway, I was reviewing the lists of paperwork that has to be mailed (some is mailed, some is submitted online) and came across an infertility report that needs to be filled out. We've done the physicals, but I hadn't realized I need another paper signed by my doctor.

I haven't been to a specialist here (kinda don't see the point), but I have to get my over-due annual exam done, so I'll take my stacks of medical files (from doctors I've seen in three different states) and hopefully she won't have a problem signing off on my paperwork.

Good timing all around, really, since I should have had my annual exam a long time ago and I've been meaning to go in so I can get checked for endometriosis. Hopefully I can kill all three birds with one stone. I really hate going to the gynecologist. Like REALLY hate- I've yet to have an exam that didn't hurt like the dickens, even when I've warned them about my tilted uterus and they've assurred me they'll be gentle. A friend recommended the nurse practioner I'll be seeing, and I'm hoping she lives up to the hype. There's a reason I put off my annual exams...

Disney World Pics

I forgot to add pics to yesterday's post about our Disney trip, so here's a few:

The Little Miss on the carousel

In front of Cinderella's Castle

Cinderella's Castle is very cool

Minnie Mouse

Mickey and Pluto

Goofy and Pluto

Cinderella's Castle at night- sooo pretty!

The four of us in front of the castle- the colors constantly change

LMS chasing the thunder guys on a speeder

Mr M's brother and LMS with their mouse ears

We didn't get any pictures with princesses this time. Disneyland has a specific place where you can meet three princesses at one time, but Disney World doesn't have anything like that yet- they're in the process of building it. In the meantime, it's kind of hit and miss to find the princesses in different locations (marked on the map at least) without long lines. We only hit a couple of the spots and they all had long lines, so we didn't wait around, much to LMS's dissapointment.

Our Gluten Free Disney World Experience

Last weekend was our first time at Disney World. We've been to Disney Land several times, so we knew basically what to expect, but as everyone warned, DW is huge!

The Parks

We ended up with one day for each of the DW parks, and for the most part, that was enough. A lot of the rides are similar (if not the same) as rides at DL, so we knew right off which ones we weren't going to do (the teacups, for one). We did some of the shows- some were good, some were beyond cheesy. We could have spent more time watching shows and riding rides that we've ridden at DL and standing in line to meet characters, but since we didn't have time to spare we skipped over those.

We took LMS on several roller coaster type rides, and she loved them all! We always kept a tight grip on her, but every time we looked over to make sure she was ok, she had a great big grin on her face.

The Hotels

Our days were pretty long, which is a pity, since we didn't get to enjoy our hotels. We weren't able to make our reservations as early as I would have liked because we had to resolve some schedule issues, so a lot of rooms were already filled. We wanted to stay at a resort hotel for at least Friday night so we could catch the shuttle directly to the start line. Other hotels also ran shuttles, but they weren't as close to the resort.

We ended up staying the last three nights of our stay at Shades of Green, which is for military personnel, and our first two nights at the Yacht Club, because SoG didn't have any openings the first two nights.

Both hotels were very nice, but our room at SoG was bigger than the one at the YC and was half the price. Oh well. If we do this again we'll make sure we make our reservations further in advance. We did get to try out the pool at SofG, which LMS loved, but missed the pools at the YC.

The Food

I was a bit nervous about eating without getting glutened, but we didn't have any problems. I had several pages saved on my iphone and I referred to them at mealtimes- which restaurants had gluten free offerings, as well as which specific gluten free foods could be found in which restaurants.

We ate breakfast in our hotel room (gluten free cereal and coconut milk), then had lunch and dinner at the park (or Chili's restaurant outside the park). We only worried about staying gluten free and didn't focus on all the food sensitivities. While we reacted to the foods we ate, it wasn't horrible.

We only ate at counter service restaurants. Apparently you have to make reservations for all the sit down places, but I wasn't willing to mess with that since I didn't know where we were going to be at any given day/time. We also skipped the buffets because I don't trust them. People use tongs to get food and then touch the tongs to the bun or whatever on their plate, then put the tongs back in the container of food. That's more than enough to cause me massive amounts of discomfort and pain.

We ended up eating hamburgers on gluten free buns (no lettuce because it was in a buffet line), french fries, chicken strips, a salad with chicken, and gluten free cheese pizza. Not a ton of variety, but our meals were prepared by the manager each time, and dedicated fryers were used for the fried items. We got enough to eat, and we didn't get glutened. Definitely a success!

We also stopped in Downtown Disney so we could go to the Babycakes NYC bakery. I was curious to see if their products were any good. We got a pumpkin cupcake, a lemon cupcake, a chocolate frosted donut, and a slice of pumpkin chocolate chip loaf. It was ridiculously expensive (seriously, even for gluten free baked goods, it was expensive), but tasted very good and had great texture. Like hard-to-believe-it's-gluten-free-and-vegan-good.

Unfortunately, while the products are vegan, they do use potato starch, corn starch, tapioca starch, and sorghum flour. I can handle the first three within reason, but sorghum flour does not agree with my body at all. Even so, it's a good thing we don't have one of these nearby, or I would be tempted to spend way more than I should getting gluten free treats :)

We had a lot of fun on our vacation!

Guest Room Nightstand

While I was painting this dresser, I decided to go ahead and finally paint this nightstand. I bought it at Goodwill a year and a half ago for $3, but then let it sit around looking ugly.

Since it was also destined for the guest room, I gave it a matching coat of chalk paint. I also switched out the outdated, not-retro-enough-to-be-cool drawer pulls-- unlike the ones on the dresser, which are retro enough to be cool :). I got the replacements at Hobby Lobby for half off, but they were a silver/pewter color so I spray painted them white to match the knobs on the dresser.

It really is amazing what a difference a coat of paint makes. It looks so much better!

I'm not embarassed to have people stay in the guest room anymore :)

And one of these days I'll get the board and batten up and paint the room and it'll look even better.

Guest Room Dresser

About a year ago I bought this dresser on craigslist, with the intent to paint it and make it look nicer. I finally got around to it just before Christmas. Here it is in all it's glory- I'd already taken the knobs off when I remembered I needed a before picture. The white paint on the top is from resting shelves I was painting on top of the dresser.

I sanded the white paint off the top, then mixed up some chalk paint. I'd heard good things about it, and decided to give it a try. I used blue paint leftover from painting the front door and added some white paint to tone the color down a bit. I spray painted the knobs white and then reattached them.

I love the result!

The dresser is in our guest room, but since I haven't done anything else in the guest room yet, there's nothing else to show.

LMS' first Disney race

Saturday morning after the half marathon, LMS ran a 200 meter kids race.

It was held on an actual track, but was very low key (parents could pace their kids, which I did), and she had a much better experience with this race than with the Turkey Trot half mile kids race in November.

The best part for her was getting her own race shirt (like mommy gets at her races) and her vinyl Mickey Mouse finishers medallion at the finish.

Half marathon recap (it's a long post)

Last Saturday I ran my third half marathon. Yay me!

We were up at 3 am in order to catch the 4 am shuttle to the start. It was colder than we were expecting, but the temp was great for running, though not great for walking 20 minutes to the start line and waiting another 30 minutes for my wave to start.

The first half of the race I felt good, strong even. My knees and shins didn't bother me. However, the lone 6 mile long run in my training showed when I hit the second half of the race. I was able to still keep my splits up (even with a potty break at the half way mark), but I had to work harder at it. The balls of my feet were pretty sore- the unfamiliar pounding? my plantar fasciatis not being happy? not sure what exactly the issue is, but I've had problems with it before, so I need to figure out the source of the problem. I'm hoping it was just having my shoes tied too tightly (a possibility, from what I can determine).

I got my knee taped Thursday before we left and I left it on till Tuesday night. There was no pain while the tape was on, but Wednesday my knee wasn't super happy. After the race my knees and thighs and hips were stiff and a bit sore, but I brought my foam roller and did some stretching and that helped a lot.

The course itself is a good one. It's pretty flat with a few moderate hills- not too long, and not too steep. Several marching bands, some djs, Disney music on loudspeakers, various Disney characters, and cheering crowds lined the way. The placement of a drill sergeant-esque toy soldier from Toy Story at the crest of the last hill (the longest one) at mile 11.something was particularly apropo. He was talented too- he managed to keep shouting encouragement at runners while posing for photo-ops. I didn't do any of the available photo-ops along the course because there was always a line and I wasn't about to screw up my pace.

I finally got a Garmin GPS-enabled watch not too long ago, but I've only used it a couple times, and I'm still not totally comfortable using it, so despite my best efforts while crossing the start line I couldn't get it to do what I wanted and it ended up being just a bulky watch. Even so, I was able to keep track of my mile splits fairly accurately, and knew I was keeping a pretty consistent 12 minute per mile pace, which was faster than I expected, given my training pace on the treadmill. When I checked my stats after the race I saw that I actually managed to run a bit faster than 12 minutes per mile.

Miles run ------- Time -----Average Pace

3.1                36:43     11.50 min/mile

6.2             1:12:50     11.44 min/mile

9.3             1:51:33     11.59 min/mile

13.1           2:37:27     12.01 min/mile

I ran the first 6 miles without stopping, then walked about 30-45 seconds of each 12 minute mile after that, except for the last mile. The last mile I did a lot of walking/running/walking/running because I was tired and losing steam fast.

I ate 2 shot blocks every couple of miles, for a total of 8, I think. I chased them with water and powerade from the water stations. They stayed down without any problems. In the past I've eaten a larabar before the race, but they don't sit well once I get running, and I knew I'd end up puking if I ate one that morning, so I ran the race on a banana and 8 shot blocks. Not what I had planned, but it worked.

I had two belt pockets- one with my iphone so Mr M could call and see when I'd be hitting the first viewing point and so we could reconnect at the end, the other with my shotblocks, chapstick, bodyglide, and wipes in case of intestinal problems. I didn't need the wipes or the bodyglide (I lubed up very well before leaving the hotel), but better safe than sorry. Mr M and LMS were waiting to cheer me as I came out of Cinderella's castle, and then again at the finish line. LMS was a real trooper- she got up at 3:30 am and kept going the whole day.

 LMS asking Daddy "when will mommy come by?" Note the less-than-thrilled-to-be-waiting-around frown on her face :)

After running through Cinderella's castle

 Oh yes, and since it was a Disney race, I dressed up. Nothing too fancy, just an understated Rapunzel costume. I used this tutorial for the tank top sleeves, and then sewed my own sparkly skirt. You can buy them, but I decided to make my own, which turned out longer than the ones you can buy, which I liked. However, I don't know that I'll make another one. The sparklies are glued to the fabric and sewing through them causes adhesive to gum up the needle, which then causes the thread to break. I had to keep wiping my needle down with a cleaning solution every couple inches to keep my thread from breaking. I also followed this tutorial for a Rapunzel wig, which turned out very nice, but the reality is that I have a very hard time wearing hats, headbands, and the like because they give me headaches within minutes of putting them on. Just putting it on to see how it fit gave me a headache, so I ditched my plans to wear it in the race and gave it to LMS to wear for dress up, which made her happy. A pity to not be able to use it myself, but that's the way it goes.

I was quite apprehensive about the food issue - I really started to regret the decision to fly and stay in a hotel instead of driving the trailer down, but it worked out for the most part. Thursday I got glutened at lunch by accident, so I wasn't feeling great, but I did my pasta carb loading Thursday night before we left. I hadn't found a source of gluten free pasta that looked reliable, and supposedly it's ok to carb load more than a day in advance. Friday morning we flew to Florida and had lunch at Chipotle after we arrived, where I got glutened again :(  Dinner was at Outback since they're fairly knowledgeable and aware of food allergies and are quite gluten free friendly. No issues there, thank goodness. 

Two days in a row of getting glutened had me very worried about how my intestines and stomach were going to do during the race. The nausea was bad enough that I almost puked while eating a banana for breakfast as I dressed. I managed to keep it down and empty my intestines before we left the hotel, so I counted myself fairly lucky. My intestines were still a bit painful, but not gotta-run-to-the-potty-painful, so it was manageable. I sipped some water before the race, which wasn't the smartest thing since I have a nervous bladder before races. Despite two potty stops on the way to the start line I had to go again by the time my wave started. I knew there would be porta potties along the way, but I didn't actually find some that didn't have long lines till the halfway point. I didn't want to spend time waiting in line since I was doing so good keeping a consistent pace.

 Mr M's brother and me- this was his first half marathon

Me and my cheering section. LMS is wearing the jacket I brought to wear before the race. Since it was so cold we put it on her when I took it off.

 My last half marathon, almost 3.5 years ago, was 2:29:46. It was a fast course, so I'm pretty happy about only being 7:41 minutes slower this time around, especially given my under-training, knee injury, and getting glutened the day before. And 2:37:27 is waaay faster than the 3 hours I was conservatively hoping for :) I'm encouraged to go and sign up for a few more half marathons this year.

The time on the clock is the clock time. Since I didn't start in the first wave, it's not my true finishing time.

 After the race, we spent time at the parks, thanks to discounted tickets for military personnel, and did lots of walking.

Saturday- 6.15 miles walked (after the half marathon!)
Sunday- 6.14 miles walked
Monday- 5.32 miles walked
Tuesday- 7.28 miles walked

Total mileage for the weekend:  24.89 miles walked plus 13.1 miles ran equals 37.99 miles, which is almost a marathon and a half! (that would be 39.3 miles)

My half marathons:

1st- Disneyland Half (Sept 2007)   2:59:18

2nd- Top of Utah Half (Aug 2008)  2:29:46

3rd- Disney World Half (Jan 2012)   2:37:27

Conversations with LMS

We went to Disney World last weekend so I could run a half marathon (more on that later), and the experience spawned several Little Miss Sunshine-isms.

When are we going to ride the roller poster? I want to ride the roller poster!

roller poster= roller coaster

And the one thunder guy said 'let's go this way' and the other thunder guy said 'let's not go this way' and....

thunder guy= stormtrooper

What was your favorite ride?

Water mountain!

water mountain= splash mountain

To Mr M's brother as we went through the lines to Tower of Terror:

Don't worry, it's just pretend.

we'd made sure to explain that the ride was just pretend, and she didn't need to be scared, and she wanted to reassure him (and herself) that it would be ok.

Discipline

I wrote this at the beginning of the month, but forgot to post it.

One of the blogs I read was talking about 'discipline' as a goal for the year. She talked about applying discipline to various parts of her life. I liked this and have been thinking about it for a few days now.

I'm pretty good about making goals and following up on them or altering them to fit my changing circumstances. However, there's always room to improve, and being more disciplined is a good way to start.

How am I going to apply discipline to my life this year?

1. I will be more disciplined in my sleep schedule (get to bed on time, wake up earlier)
2. I will be more disciplined in my workout schedule (more consistent)
3. I will be more disciplined in my eating habits (no more "fudging" and eating things I shouldn't)
4. I will be more disciplined in my daily schedule (scriptures, homeschooling, housework, etc each get the attention needed)

What are your goal(s) for this year?