Turkey Trot, 2013 edition

I was supposed to finish a post about my postpartum exercise program and get it up Wednesday, but I was too busy and it didn't happen. I'll get it finished next week. In the meantime, I'll just say that I have been doing some exercising and am working on getting back in shape.

TLM strapped to Mr M's chest, LMS (I have no idea why she pulled her hat down so far), and me

Yesterday we continued our tradition of running a 5k Thanksgiving morning. This was my 7th race of the year and 2nd since giving birth to TLM. It was also the 4th year in a row running our local 5k Turkey Trot. Mr M put TLM in the Boba carrier and he and LMS walked the race while I {mostly} ran the race. I've been easing into my running by gradually adding more running minutes to the time I spend walking on the treadmill, but I haven't had the time since starting up again to get my running mileage up to a full 5k.

Even though I wasn't fully ready, I wanted to run as much as I could. I've been confined to running on the treadmill in the basement for the last year or so and I've been missing running outside. Because of the lack of training, I didn't have any expectations or goals in this race, other than to finish and see where I'm at. And to have a good run :)

It was below freezing, so the race had a chilly start, but I warmed up by the first mile marker. I managed to run the first 1.6 miles before I had to stop and walk when the first hill got to be too much for me. In this course, the first half is flat with some downhill portions and around the halfway point the uphill portions start and continue through to the finish. This makes for a nice first half and a tough second half.

I felt pretty good overall and even with several walking breaks, I was able to finish in 35:36. Here's how I did the last three years:

2012 37:58 (pushing LMS in the jogger)
2011 32:44
2010 35:05 (pushing LMS in the jogger)

So I was faster than last year, but slower than the previous two years. I'm happy with the result, though, because I haven't run a race since the 4 Miler at the end of August (I walked the Halloween race with LMS, so that doesn't count) and am definitely not race-ready. It felt good to be running in a race again and it was good to see that I'm not as out of shape as I was afraid I might be.

I need to work on my endurance, but I expected that since I did not focus on endurance while pregnant.  My focus was just staying mobile :) I've slacked off on my hill work since the June 5k, so I need to re-incorporate that into my workouts so I'm better able to run the hills. Even though I had to stop and walk several times, I handled the hills better than I anticipated, so I'm happy.

not too far past the 1 mile marker (i.e., before the uphill portions!)

it's a beautiful course with lots of trees all around

Previous races this year:
New Years Day 5k
DisneyWorld Half Marathon
Mud Run 4 miler
June 5k
Women's 4 miler
Halloween 5k

What's a Thanksgiving tradition your family has?

Easy Twig Stars

For the last day of nature class, the kids were supposed to bring something nature-related to add to the trading blanket. The kids could then trade what they brought for things that others brought.

I helped LMS make some twig stars. These are pretty easy- the hardest part is finding sticks that are close to the same diameter.

Materials:
5 sticks roughly the same length and diameter, as straight as possible
some twine/jute/string

We tied each joint on the first star, but that turned out to be a bit much and I didn't like how it looked.

The next three stars were made by carefully latticing the sticks together and then tying the ends. 

I liked the final three a lot better than the first.

This was the only star made using green sticks, and it worked a lot better than the other stars that were made with dead fall sticks. The brittle sticks were difficult to lattice together.

LMS didn't have any leftover stars, but I'm thinking of making a few more and putting them on our Christmas tree when we get it. They'll give it a nice rustic touch.

Gluten Free Frog Eye Salad Recipe

My second-most popular post is the first one I did on gluten free frog eye salad. If you add the other two posts (second one, third one) I've written about it, gluten free frog eye salad is by far the most popular thing I've ever posted about. Who knew it'd be so in-demand?

In an effort to make it easier to find the actual recipe (the first two posts don't have the recipe- it's in the third post), I've decided to re-post the recipe here, just in time for Thanksgiving :)  Enjoy!

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This post originally appeared November 28, 2011

I've been meaning to post my gluten free frog eye salad for awhile, but with our added food restrictions I haven't seen the point in making it (we can't eat the marshmallows, cool whip, tapioca pearls, or eggs, and the oranges are on the iffy list) and I couldn't quite remember how I'd done it before- it's been a year and a half since I last made it. Mr M convinced me to fudge things a bit for Thanksgiving so I decided to go ahead and make some frog eye salad so I could finally post the recipe.

I've been able to eat small amounts of corn products without too many problems, so I was willing to fudge most of the ingredients, but I wasn't willing to eat eggs. I tried eating some last month and it was not pleasant. So I tried making the custard with a flax egg, and it actually turned out pretty good. While it's not as pretty as an egg custard, it tastes very similar to what I remember it tasting like, and Mr M agreed.

Gluten free, Egg free Frog Eye Salad

EF Custard

½ c sugar

1 tbl fine brown rice flour (I used Authentic Foods)

¼ tsp salt

1 cup pineapple juice drained from 20 oz can of pineapple that you use later

1 flax egg (1 tbl ground flax seed + 3 tbl boiling water, let sit for a few minutes to thicken) or use 1 egg if you're not egg free, beat the egg well

2 tsp lemon juice

Whisk together dry ingredients then whisk in pineapple juice and flax egg. Heat over medium heat , stirring occasionally. Bring to boil and continue to cook for a few more minutes till thickened. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Allow to cool, it will “gel” as it cools, so stir occasionally.

The custard as it cools and gels. The brown flecks are bits of ground flax. 

GF “acini de pepe”

1.5 c large tapioca pearls

Bring water to boil in a large saucepan/pot. Whisk in tapioca pearls.

Stir occasionally and cook till most of the pearls are translucent (about 17 min).

Turn off heat and let sit for another 5 minutes or so till the pearls have only small bits of white left in the centers. Carefully dump tapioca into a fine mesh sieve and gently rinse the gel from around the pearls (I had to do it in three batches because my sieve isn’t big enough to hold it all).

rinsing the tapioca pearls

Allow pearls to cool in bowl.

Bring it all together

1 20 oz can crushed pineapple (juice drained and used in custard)

2 11 oz cans mandarin oranges, drained (juice can be used in custard if needed to make 1 cup)

1.5 c mini marshmallows

8 oz tub cool whip

Once the custard and tapioca are cool, gently fold together.

Carefully add pineapple, oranges, marshmallows, coconut, and cool whip and mix together. Refrigerate overnight.

Enjoy!
My previous posts on gluten free frog eye salad are here and here.

If you make it, let me know how it turns out for you!

This recipe is gluten free, egg free, peanut free, nut free, coconut free, and is also free of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, sorghum, and shellfish. Always check labels before using to make sure the ingredients and/or manufacturing conditions haven't been changed.

Sunday Funny

I was changing the Little Mister's diaper, and LMS complained about it being stinky. She left the room for a few minutes and came back with one of her giant clothespins. 

I told her if she thought the diapers were stinky now, to just wait till he starts eating solids.

Fall Nature Class Review

I mentioned the beginning of fall nature class here, and since it ended last week, I thought I'd share my thoughts about it.

The Little Miss had a blast at her nature class. They learned to build fires, identify plants, animals, and animal tracks, use knives safely, build shelters, and so on. And they got to spend all day out in the woods :) What's not to enjoy?

she got warm so she took her long pants off and wrapped them around her neck. 

not sure how that kept her cool, but at least she didn't lose them.

whittling stick arrows at home.

notice that she's sitting with her legs spread apart and holding her knife carefully

we were a bit nervous at the thought of her learning to whittle- her knife is very sharp, after all, but watching her use proper safety techniques reassured us that she's not being irresponsible about it.

she's very careful about maintaining the "blood bubble" :)

making spice bush leaf "soup" while waiting to be picked up

with a stick, as usual

the stick, again

they used dirt (soot, maybe?) to paint their faces

They were supposed to have an end-of-class overnighter, but the forecast called for temps in the 20s that night. Needless to say, they didn't feel comfortable taking a bunch of 7-12 year olds out in the woods in below-freezing temps. The adjusted schedule had them staying till 8 pm, so they still got to do a campfire and cook dinner over it.

One of the activities was also a trade blanket, where they got to trade items they brought for things brought by others.

I helped her make some twig stars to bring, and she came back with a deer bone and some interesting rocks :)

We'll definitely do this class again next fall, but I'm still deciding about the spring session. It's in a different location that's quite a bit further away and I'm not sure I'm willing to do the drive.

Fun at the Drive In

waiting for the movie to start

Last weekend we went to the drive in theater, which we've done several times and always had fun. This visit was no exception. It was a bit chillier this time around, but it is November, after all. We've taken the CRV in the past, and it worked great for just LMS and I. Once Mr M joined us, though, things got a bit cramped :) This time we decided to take the truck, and it was much more comfortable. We laid the mattress from the trailer in the bed and borrowed the dinette cushions from the trailer for added comfort. We threw on some blankets and sleeping bags and we kept nice and warm.

remember the ultrasound pic with one eye open? we've caught him with just one eye open on several occasions since he was born. and I gotta laugh at that expression on his face too- I think he was asleep, but the eyeball makes it look like he was awake.

We have an Avalanche, which has a nifty feature where you can remove the rear glass and lay down the mid gate, extending the truck bed length. It also meant we could sit in the truck cab, mostly protected from the elements. It started to rain (it threatened to rain last time we went and did rain the time before, so we knew to plan for the possibility), but we put the truck bed cover panels back on and everything stayed dry. The only part that was open was the rear window. Nice and cozy and dry. We actually kicked some of the blankets off because we were too warm.

We all watched Free Birds, which was a bit odd, but fun. Then LMS laid down and went to sleep while Mr M and I watched the new Thor movie, which was good. TLM slept the whole time, except the very beginning, when I fed him. Another benefit of the set up we had: it was great for nursing and not feeling exposed.

Have you been to a drive in theater lately?

What Did You Notice First About Your Children?

It's been fun to see the similarities and differences between Little Miss Sunshine and The Little Mister.

The first thing I noticed about LMS when she was handed to me was her dimple.

The first thing I noticed about TLM when he was handed to me was his hair.

ok, so you can't see her dimple in this photo- it's hiding behind her dress- but I love her expression in this photo :) but you can tell she doesn't have any hair, which is why TLM's hair is so much fun

his hair seems to be growing a bit thicker in the center front section, just like Mr M's does

he's even got sideburns!

Mr M and I both had lighter hair that darkened as we got older. LMS' hair seems to be acting the same way, so it's interesting to see how dark TLM's hair is. Now we just have to wait and see how much of it falls out and if it stays dark. He's got some male-pattern baldness starting on the top of his head :( I don't want him to lose his cute baby hair {sob}

What were the first things you noticed about your kids?

Sunday Funny

 … almost… have… it...

Baby Blessing

look at that adorably chubby face!

Last weekend we had The Little Mister blessed (similar to a christening).

 Some of our family came to visit and be a part of this event.

The Little Mister in his blessing outfit

I bought the button-down onesie from Crazy8 (I removed the bow tie that came with it) and the stinkin' cute tiny tie at Seagull Book and I made the pants. For some reason it's impossible to find white pants for infant boys in October. I can't imagine why….

After church we took some photos, and early on the little guy decided he'd had enough. 

no more! aren't we done yet?

LMS, TLM, and me

the four of us with Mr M's parents, grandmother, and great aunt

the four of us with my sister

I scanned in a couple photos from when LMS was blessed. My mom made her blessing dress- she even did the smocking on it. Unfortunately, a smocked dress just wouldn't look right on a little boy :) I thought his outfit turned out nice, though.

LMS loved her pacifier from the beginning. TLM only likes his occasionally. I'm hoping that'll make it easier to take it away when the time comes.

we look so young :)

And here's a side-by-side comparison of the two. At this point we're thinking LMS takes more after my side and TLM takes more after Mr M's side. It'll be interesting to see if that holds true as TLM gets older. 

They're the same age in these photos, but TLM is definitely chubbier than LMS was.

Family Reunions, Part 2

Finally, the last post about our road trip this summer!

Mr M's siblings weren't able to attend the reunion this summer, so we stopped at Mr M's parents' house on our way to my family's reunion. While there, we were able to visit with Mr M's siblings and LMS got to play with her cousins.

LMS and Cousin P digging in the back yard

Mr M's reunion is an extended family reunion that has been getting smaller each year as the older generations have more and more health problems and/or pass away. A small contingent want to continue the reunions, though, so I think they may be a bit modified in the future.

My FIL and his siblings always arrive early for a mini-reunion, but it overlapped with my family reunion this year so we only made it up to Cascade, Idaho a day early. These reunions are mostly travel trailer based, so they're held at campgrounds. The spot we ended up with this year didn't have any hookups. This isn't a huge deal, but we realized our trailer battery was crap- it couldn't hold a charge overnight even. When we came back down we bought a new, larger battery that is much more capable of running things. If they weren't so expensive, it'd be nice to install some solar panels on the roof.

We've gone to a number of reunions in the Cascade area now, and it really is beautiful country up there. Too bad there's no jobs for Mr M.

These reunions are much less structured than the reunions for my family. It's nice to do things both ways- there's advantages to both. This year the guys made sure they did some golfing (the course is right next to the lake) while the girls sat and relaxed while talking back at the campground. Some of us tried to find some hot springs, but while the hike was pretty, the hot springs were disappointing. A few years ago we hiked to an alpine lake with much better results.

at the head of the stream, where the hot springs bubbled up

one of the hot springs 

When we came down from the mountains we also got to visit with Mr M's grandmother. It's always nice to spend time with her.

LMS with her great-grandma, Nanny, and grandma

Birth Story

I didn't really write down LMS' birth story when she was born, partly because the whole experience was quite hazy, partly because it was a bit traumatic for me. I had a completely different experience this time around, and thought I'd record it. 

I thought The Little Mister would come early, given all the contractions I had all summer.

nope.

I hoped he'd come on his due date.

nope.

I thought maybe he'd come during the day and a half between when Mr M's mom left and mine arrived. Murphy's Law and all that....

nope.

********

Friday (almost a week late)- I spent some time on the treadmill for the first time since the Four Mile race. My Ob/Gyn said walking wouldn't help, but I thought maybe running would. I jogged a total of 15 minutes during the 45 minutes I spent on the treadmill. The first half hour I felt a bit rusty and stiff, but everything loosened up and felt good after that. I was sore for the rest of the day but that wasn't unexpected since I was almost 41 weeks pregnant and hadn't run in a month.

I thought how I felt while on the treadmill boded well for being able to start running again after the baby's birth.

Unfortunately, I didn't go into labor.

Of course, I'd also been building furniture the last two months without bringing on labor, so I hadn't pinned my hopes on it happening after one stint on the treadmill.

Warning: 

Pregnancy-related TMI ahead. 

You may want to just skip to the picture :)

The next day (Saturday), I woke to crampy contractions. I felt these lower down than the Braxton Hicks contractions I'd been having, so the difference caught my attention. As the morning progressed, the contractions got closer and more regular, but I was still planning on going to LMS' soccer game with Mr M and my mom.

I thought that we might go to the hospital afterward the game, but one last stop in the bathroom (there's no facilities at the soccer field) changed that.

So my mom took LMS to soccer and Mr M and I headed for the hospital.

********

•   When we got to the hospital, I was dilated to a three.
•   They wanted me to walk for a bit before getting in the tub, so we walked the halls for about 20 minutes or so and the contractions got a lot more painful and frequent.
•   They checked me again and I was dilated to a five. I was given the choice of getting an epidural or spending time in the tub- there wasn't time for both.
•   Even though I'd really been looking forward to using the tub, I chose the epidural. I don't need a drug-free labor and delivery to consider myself a "real" woman, and I've been scarred by very painful periods and various procedures (done in the name of figuring out what's wrong with me) that were even more incredibly painful. So give me the drugs- I don't want to feel what's going on.
•   A little later they checked me and I was dilated to an 8, but the baby hadn't dropped yet. They had me lay on my side for awhile to see if he'd start descending.
•   While I was laying on my side, my water broke. Or, more accurately, it exploded. The  monitors picked up the noise, so Mr M and I heard it, and the force was enough to make the leg on top lift up. The fluid had some trajectory, too, and made quite a mess. Icky, but funny at the same time :) I'm really glad I wasn't at church or in a store when that happened. No sedate trickles of fluid (like they try to reassure you is all you have to worry about) for me.
•   At that point, the baby was facing up, so they changed my position so I was half on my side, half on my stomach to encourage him to roll over.
•   We waited a bit (I think I even read a magazine), and then I was fully dilated and ready. I started pushing and after about 45 minutes he was out. I think it took 10 or 11 pushes. One thing I was aware enough to realize was that the pushing is not constant and is just done with contractions. In fact, I was the one saying "OK, I'm ready to push again." With LMS, I really don't think that was the case- I was just too out of it then. 
•   The Little Mister had flipped over like we hoped he would, so he came out face down, though the cord was wrapped around his neck once.
•   They unwrapped the cord, wiped him up a bit, and laid him on my chest while the doctor stitched me up because I'd torn along the epesiotomy scar leftover from LMS' delivery.

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The doctor kept saying "it was a good epidural, well placed." Between the post-birth haze and his Russian accent, it took me till the next day to realize he meant the epidural had worked just as it should since no other anesthesia was needed while he was stitching me up. I'd explained about the last one wearing off and my concerns about a repeat, so I think he was being encouraging :)

On a side note, while we were in the early stages of getting settled in the room, the doctor was making small talk and asked Mr M what he did. When Mr M mentioned where he worked, the doctor said "don't tell me any more, I don't want to know". I don't know how long he's been in the US, but apparently it hasn't been long enough to be forget how things were done in Russia. Not that Mr M does anything super secret or scary or anything, but we did think his reaction was amusing.

********

There were only two bad-ish parts. One was that not long after the epidural was started my blood pressure dropped and the nausea hit pretty hard. They had me lay flat on my back for a bit and I felt better.  The other was that towards the end of pushing I started getting shaky and had to be given some oxygen. Neither was that bad to deal with and didn't leave lasting problems.

********

This labor and delivery (and the pregnancy, for that matter) were a much better experience than LMS' pregnancy, labor, and delivery. The two experiences were like night and day.

•   No induction this time.
•   The epidural worked and didn't wear off early.
•   The baby's head didn't get stuck and cause damage to me.
•   No vacuum was needed to assist the baby out.
•   No unwanted epesiotomy- I'm still bitter about that one.
•   No torn/pulled groin muscle that made it painful to walk for quite awhile afterwards and had a long healing time
•   I was actually present and aware of what was going on.

********

So why the difference?

Two words: Activity Level.  I was (and had been for several years prior) very sedentary when I got pregnant with LMS because of work, school, and low energy levels caused by undiagnosed and untreated celiac.  That was definitely not the case this time around: I've been running consistently for a number of years now and completed four races, one of which was a half marathon, while pregnant. I also built quite a few pieces of furniture and ran LMS all over the place to all her activities.  And I've been gluten free for four and a half years now. I still had nausea, but I rarely got heartburn this time,  my energy levels were a lot higher, and most of the time I wasn't super uncomfortable physically. In fact, despite going past my due date, I never reached the "just-get-this-kid-out-of-me-now" point, though I definitely reached it with LMS. I did get a little antsy the last week because I wanted to know how much time I had left to work on my projects :) and because I was starting to worry about having to be induced.

We don't  know if I'll be able to get pregnant again and I think this really contributed to my desire to have a better experience this time. And I'll freely admit that as the due date approached we were really praying that the L & D would go well and be a better experience. Our prayers were answered, and if I don't get pregnant again, I have the more recent and more positive memories of this pregnancy to overshadow the more negative memories of the previous pregnancies (LMS and the miscarriages). Definitely a blessing.

our second miracle baby

Family Reunions, Part 1

I finally finished posting about our road trip stops, but I still haven't gotten around to posting about the family reunions we attended.

We hit my family reunion first, which was again held at Bear Lake, Utah. This reunion is just my parents, my siblings, and their spouses and kids, and we try to do it every other year. Last time we rented a large cabin, but it wasn't super close to the water, so we opted for a couple condos right on the water this time. Despite the terrible pullout couch beds some of us slept on, it was nice being so close to the water. The extra kitchen came in handy, too.

Some of the activities included the traditional turns-out-to-be-longer-than-we-thought hike. Seriously, this somehow happens at every single reunion. I, along with a couple other family members who weren't feeling up to a longer hike had opted for a much shorter hike, so at least some of us were spared the unanticipated pain and suffering. We should know better and should have anticipated this, but we are forever optimistic that "this year will be different".

LMS with one of my trekking poles, pretending to be an old lady

LMS left the poles with me (I didn't want to risk losing my balance and falling), and went on the longer hike with her daddy.

The shorter hike was around a very picturesque lake, and it was a gorgeous day for it.

We also held a white elephant gift exchange, played board games, took a shorter hike, played mini golf, and spent time at the lake. At the lake we rented the giant water pillow (the yellow thing in the second photo down), a speedboat and ---, and some stand up paddle boards. Lots of fun for everyone!

Cousin C giving LMS a ride on a paddle board

Cousin S giving LMS another ride

Cousin S loading up the younger kids

fun in the sand with Cousin G

discussing the shot with Cousin A

LMS with Cousins N and A

We're spread out across the country, so it's fun to see everyone and have a good time together, even if it's not very often.