Just a couple more days!

Little Miss Sunshine and I will be leaving tomorrow to go meet my Army Guy. He's flying in Friday morning! Woo hoo! We're so excited! We don't know how long everything will take (they haven't been really good at nailing down when things will be), but at least we'll be able to spend time together.

LMS doesn't really understand the concept of time yet, so a couple weeks ago we made a paper countdown chain. I told her that every night we'd take one off, and when there was none left, we'd be leaving to go get daddy. On several different occasions, I caught her trying to take extra links off. If they're all gone, we get to leave sooner, right? So funny to see how her mind works.

Leading music in Primary on Sunday wasn't actually as bad as I was afraid it would be. My arms were a lot less sore and my voice wasn't too bad, though I did get rather hoarse from trying to sing. However, I did get some funky streaks on my right shoulder. It was really weird, and the streaks were painful, too. They were mostly gone by Monday, and today there's just some residual stiffness in my upper arms. I don't think I'll be getting another pneumonia vaccine anytime in the future.

The perils of vaccines

Yesterday I received two vaccinations, the first ones in who knows how long. I know I got a tetanus shot when I was about 10 and accidentally stabbed my foot with a garden fork while working in the garden. I think I got another one when I broke my elbow when I was 20. I know I've done my Hep B series, and I think I was about 19 or 20 at the time. I can't think of any other shots I've gotten in the last 10 or 15 years, other than the 4 or 5 RhoGam shots I've gotten in the last 4 or 5 years.

My point being, it's been a while since I've gotten any vaccinations. I got a tetanus booster in my left arm and a pneumonia vaccine in my right arm, and man, do my arms hurt! Last night they were sore to the touch and it hurt to lift them. Today, still sore to the touch, still hurts to lift or move my arms in any way, and the lymph nodes in my armpits hurt. What is up with this? I don't remember being in pain with any other vaccines I've gotten (you'd think you'd remember this kind of pain), and while the RhoGam shots are never pleasant, there's enough other trauma (miscarriage, birth, etc) going on that it's not as noticeable.

Tomorrow will be fun. My voice is starting to get back to normal, and my throat doesn't hurt nearly as much as it used to, but I don't think I'll be doing much singing, and my right arm hurts the worst, so leading the music in Primary is going to be an experience.

I'm finally feeling a bit better

I haven't gotten much accomplished this week: I've felt like crap the last few days, but am finally feeling better (though not 100% yet). I did get my 6 month teeth cleaning done (no cavities!) and went to the doctor for a followup on the nausea (gone, thanks to the Nexium), and got my lungs checked out at the same time. No bronchitis or pneumonia, though my doctor does think I triggered my asthma pretty badly. I'm not completely sure that's the case here, though I do know that my asthma has been acting up since moving back here, so I didn't argue the point. I haven't used an inhaler in about 10 years, and it's been a couple years longer than that since I was using one on a regular basis. I'm curious to see if the inhaler makes a difference.

To illustrate how sick I've been: Wednesday morning after breakfast, I came upstairs and laid down. I ended up falling asleep, and when I woke up, the night shirt Little Miss Sunshine had been wearing was laying on the floor next to my bed, and she was nowhere to be seen. My first thought was 'Hmm, looks like LMS is running around naked.' Turns out she'd been trying to wake me up, and my mom and little brother heard her and came up to see what she was talking about. They helped her get dressed, and she went downstairs to play. On the rare occasions that I've fallen asleep during the day, I'm usually not deeply asleep- I wake up pretty easily. Not this time. I didn't hear her at all!

Thankfully, I'm feeling almost human now, and will finally be able to get some stuff done tomorrow. Good thing we didn't end up having to head out this week to go pick up my Army Guy: I haven't managed to pack yet (on the list for tomorrow), and driving while feeling that bad? That would not have been fun at all. He is in the States, though we still don't know when exactly we can go pick him up. We should find out soon, though.

I may have jumped the gun just a little bit...

I talked to my Army Guy yesterday, and he says instead of just a couple days, they have to spend a week doing debriefing stuff. So it looks like he'll be coming home close to when we originally thought. Of course, this could all change once he gets to the States and they are told the 'official' timeline for things. So until then, I'm not making plans either way. Though when you get right down to it, after being gone for 13 months, a few days one way or the other don't really make that much of a difference. We're just glad he's almost home.

Little Miss Sunshine and I have both managed to get sick (fevers, gunk in the lungs, etc) and I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out who we've been around that was sick. I couldn't come up with anybody, then I remembered that my dad's been mudding and sanding the walls in the bathroom. The last two times we were around the dust from drywall mud, we both got really sick. I think that's the case here. It really is amazing how sick we manage to get: our bodies must be incredibly allergic to something in the dust. An unfortunate side effect is that it rather limits our ability to do a lot of renovation on any house that we might buy. Drywall work could be done, but LMS and I would have to be out of the house and the house would have to air out really good before we could return. There goes my career as a do-it-yourself home fixer-upper. Too bad...

Not too much longer till my Army Guy is back!

My Army Guy might be home sooner than we thought! He's supposed to arrive back in the States on the 18th, and he thought he only had a couple days of debriefing stuff, which would put him back here sooner than we had heard (the 28th is what's been circulating). I had planned on driving out to get him on the 25th, but if he's going to be flying in sooner, we'll be leaving sooner too. Throws things off a bit, especially since we won't know the real schedule till he actually gets here. Not good for my gotta-plan-things-out OCD side.

So yesterday and today I ran errands, trying to make sure everything is ready to go, dug out our suitcases, and made a list of things to pack. Some of the packing can be done ahead of time, but some will have to wait till we know when we're leaving. I also have to make sure I have the Primary music stuff (which songs to work on, a substitute, etc) ready to go- for the three Sundays that I might or might not be gone. I only anticipate being gone for one, possibly two Sundays, but which one(s) won't be determined till my Army Guy actually arrives. So I need to be ready for all eventualities.

Yesterday I finished the second removable piece for Little Miss Sunshine's car seat cover. Yay!

Today I edited my Army Guy's midterm and read through some articles so I can proof his paper intelligently once he gets it written. It's going to be tight, but he's trying really hard to get everything written and turned in before the deadline (3 days from now), all while packing up and traveling from the base he's been on to a larger one, in preparation to coming home. And he's not sure he'll have an internet connection throughout this...

The car seat cover is finally finished!

I finally finished Little Miss Sunshine's car seat cover. The first picture is her old car seat, with the cover I made for it. I loved that fabric, too bad I couldn't find more...

The second photo is her current car seat. I really like it, and I like the pink, but unfortunately it gets dirty very easily. Especially since LMS has a habit of stepping on it as she climbs into it, and her shoes aren't always very clean. So my OCD takes over and I find myself making covers for her car seats.

The third and fourth photos show her car seat with the new cover. The darker purple line across the back, near where the seat joins the back, is where the removable piece attaches. I made one (and will make another as soon as I buy more bias tape; I barely had enough for the first one) removable piece that covers where she sits and where her feet rest. Those are the places that get the dirtiest.

The main seat cover is two pieces: one that covers the seat, foot rest, side pieces and goes up and around the top; the other covers the head rest and the back rest. The removable piece sits on top of the main piece and attaches to the back rest. Now I can just unhook it, toss it in the wash, and put the spare in place, without having to take the entire cover off. Which can be a massive pain. I know a lot of people don't worry about keeping car seats clean, but my OCD won't let me let it go.

Next up: making a slip cover for a chair. I've been gathering various pieces of furniture so I can furnish the room LMS and I share for my parents when we move out. I've found some great deals on craigslist, but in the instance of the chair, the cushions are red, which completely clashes with the color scheme. The price was too good to pass up, though, and I don't mind a bit of sewing. I also got a killer deal on a log bed, but will have to strip the crappy stain job (I kinda think that's why they were selling it: they got tired of looking at it) to make it look decent.

Fun with cousins

Yesterday wasn't the most effective day I've had, though I did get some errands taken care of. In the evening my brother and his family arrived just as Little Miss Sunshine was getting into bed. So she got a reprieve and got to stay up way past her bedtime, playing with her cousins that she hasn't seen since our family reunion in July.

This morning I rode my bike for half an hour. I think I'm ready to start increasing my time, as well as focus more on keeping my speed up. As I was riding today I got to thinking about my speedometer/odometer computer thingy. It's hooked up to my front tire, which of course is stationary when I'm on the indoor trainer. So my thought was perhaps I can switch it to my back tire. This would enable me to track my mileage and my speed. I know my speed is much better than it used to be, but I don't have any idea how fast that actually is. I need to look into it some more to find out.

LMS had fun playing with her cousins, but was very disappointed that they wouldn't play as long as she wanted to. They kept wandering off to do other things, which frustrated her no end, and she'd stand at the top of the stairs, hollering their names, trying to get them to come back up and play.

mom!

For the last few weeks now, when Little Miss Sunshine wakes up she whispers 'mom!'. She then whispers louder 'Mom!', then whispers louder still, 'MOM!' She keeps this up till I respond, at which point she says '(her name) wake up. (her name) sleep good!'

It's always a whisper, she never uses a normal tone of voice. Not sure why...

I finally went swimming again

I finally went swimming yesterday- the first time in about 6 months, and I could definitely tell it had been that long. I haven't finished the car seat cover yet, but I did finally get some stuff finished for Primary. Now that those things are done, I can get back to the car seat cover.

This morning there was a Stake enrichment meeting, and my mom had said she wasn't going to go and would watch Little Miss Sunshine for me. I decided to go to the temple, instead, though. When I told LMS that I was going to the temple, she said she wanted to go. We've had this discussion before: she really wants to go to the temple, and isn't thrilled when I tell her she has to wait till she's older. I think it's really neat that she's so set on going to the temple. It was a good session and I'm glad I was able to go.

Busy, busy

Today and Tuesday I rode my bike for half an hour. I think I've said it before, but I am amazed at what a huge difference the clips and bike shoes make. I can maintain a consistently faster spin, I can feel more muscles in my legs being used, and I work up quite a sweat from the extra effort, even though I don't actually feel like I'm using that much more energy.

My shins have been sore from the run on Saturday, so I didn't run or walk on Monday, though I did go for a four mile walk yesterday. The weather was really nice, so I took Little Miss Sunshine out with me. While I really like seasons, and winter, I am enjoying the unseasonably warm weather we've had off and on. It means I can get outside and exercise without freezing my tookus off. We do have days where it's really cold, but since we haven't had enough snow to do anything (like skiing or snowshoeing), this winter has been a bit of a bust.

I've been busy working on the cover for LMS's car seat, but haven't managed to finish it yet. Last night I managed to overload my bobbin, causing it to lose its shape and consequently not work properly in my sewing machine. I spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out what was going on before giving up and going to bed (at about 1 :30 am). This morning I looked at the problem again, and compared the bobbin to some others and figured out what had happened. Put a new one in, and voila! No more problems. Now if I could have just figured that out before I wasted all that time last night....

Thoughts on adversity

Today in fast and testimony meeting, one of the bishopric was talking about adversity, and how we all face it, and what we do about it, and so on. Later on, I was talking to a friend who's facing some recurring health problems that could have some unpleasant long term effects. She mentioned that she'd been watching a show that had several people who are experiencing even worse problems than she is. As she watched it, she thought "What am I complaining about? There's people out there who have it way worse than I do." So, despite the fact that she is facing some pretty major stuff, she's choosing not to let it get her down.

Interestingly, I had a similar epiphany this week. I've been very frustrated about the shinsplints I keep getting (fairly consistently for the past 7 or 8 years, despite doing everything that's supposed to minimize their occurrence) and how it limits my training and mileage. I read an article in this month's Runner's World about a man who got smooshed by a bus. He was a firefighter who had done a couple triathlons and a marathon and was biking to work when a bus made an illegal turn on top of him. He got stuck underneath, tangled in his bike. He had massive internal trauma and lots of broken bones. 40 operations later, one leg is two inches shorter than the other, and he has a titanium rod in the longer one. He had to re-learn how to walk, and made it a goal to run the NYC marathon. He did, and though it took more than twice the time it took the first time he ran it before his accident, and he was in a lot of pain, he finished it. How can shinsplints compare with that? If he can go through everything he did, I really can't complain.

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.