27 April 2014

It was an amazing week!  Ok, lets start at the beginning of the week.  I had my health screening at work and it was probably the first and only time I've not been embarrassed to step on a scale in front of somebody.  All my blood work and tests came back healthy and positive.  Drum roll please....my BMI (body mass index) is in the normal range!  YAY!  When I started it was in the Morbidly Obese range and now it's Normal.  This is a huge accomplishment (and a lot of work)!  I also had the unique experience of trying on several outfits this morning and not finding anything that fit right because its all too big.  I don't know if other people do this, but as I gained weight I held on to some of my favorite clothes reasoning that I would wear them again soon.  Well I didn't and by the time I got to my heaviest, I had clothes that I could wear, and then stacks of clothes, by size, that I wanted to wear again.  As I've lost weight, I've gotten rid of the bigger clothes (never wanting to wear them again) and pulling out a new stack in a new size.  A few weeks ago, I pulled out the last stack.  It included skirts and pants that were a size 12 and shirts that were large/medium clothes that I wore my first year of college, and yes, a few I wore in high school.  That pile has now all but been donated, and I'm going to be ready to buy all new clothes in the coming few weeks.  I'm so excited!  Sometimes I don't know how to feel about the change.  I ran into someone I knew in the store and started up a conversation, it was only when she saw the kids that she realized who I was, she didn't recognize me.  Sometimes I still see myself in my mind's eye as the heavy person, sometimes I forget how far I've come and still think too much about the little things that are still not quite right.  Its a work in progress.

On Wednesday I got half way to work and then got a call that Arlo was sick, so I turned around and went home to pick him up.  I ended up staying home with him for the rest of the week.  I worked from home the first two days, and then admitted defeat and just took time off on Friday.  Wednesday afternoon I picked Felicity up from school and we went to the pediatrician for her 8 year well-patient check up.  She is doing well and growing appropriately and steady. Her doctor and I both marveled together at how she could be 8, it seemed like yesterday to both of us she was a new baby.  By the way, if you're looking for a good pediatrician, I happily drive all the way to Tucson to see Dr. Jessica Shultz at Children's Medical Center, she's fabulous and has been all of the kids' doctor since they were born.

Arlo is still working on adjusting to his bed, although he spent more time in it this week than last.  I still ended up with him in my bed 5 out of 7 mornings when I woke up (evidently he was in Felicity's bed the other two mornings).  He's doing great on the potty, I'm so proud of him.

So one of the big highlights for the week was Felicity's birthday party.  I allow the kids to have a party with their friends every-other year, starting when they are six.  I wanted to really make a big deal out of Felicity's 8th birthday since its the age when she can choose to be baptized.  She picked a Frozen theme this year.  I made a cake of her choosing, Olaf with sugar ice shards and snow flakes.  It was a lot of fun to make.  We had a jumping castle, snow cones, and a lot of other Frozen related treats.  They dropped the jumping castle off at 8:30 in the morning, long before the party started, so the kids got to enjoy it literally all day.  The girls had a ball, Arlo refused to get on it!

 Felicity had 11 guests that came and I think all the girls had a fun time.  They certainly filled their yearly quota for snow cones, I think each of them had three or four.  The jumping castle meant that I didn't have to entertain them for the whole time, although it was windy and a bit cold, so I had to coax them outside.  We played pin the nose of the Olaf and had cake and opened gifts.  Felicity got a lot of really nice things and I think she was satisfactorily spoiled.  She's been having problems with allergies, and the wind made her pretty miserable on Saturday, which is why her eyes are all puffy and red in all the pictures.

 

I attended a singles fireside on Saturday night, and had a nice and uplifting time.  Sunday morning I took Felicity for her baptismal interview with the Bishop.  He asked her several questions about baptism, how she felt about it, and if she understood what she was committing to.  She just blew me away with her sweet, sincere, and insightful answers.  I'm so lucky to be her mom.  Our home teachers came by after that.  Our meetings went well, it was probably the quietest and most peaceful my children have been in Sacrament Meeting in a long time; that's because the girls slept through it.  I tried to keep them awake, but finally gave up after the Sacrament was passed and just embraced the quiet.  I think that a day of sugar and jumping combined with staying up late meant that they were a little worn out come 1PM today.

 

We went to my parent's for dinner following church and had a nice time.  We had dinner and snacks and the kids got to play.  I think Sunday is such a great day for visiting family.

 

 In the coming week, I need to finish sewing a dress for Felicity and get everything squared away for her baptism and luncheon.  Call me crazy, but I'll be making one more cake for that too.  I'm really trying to make this as special as I can for Felicity.  A few weeks ago when I asked her if she was excited about it, she said "not really".  I asked why and she told me through tears that she wanted her daddy to baptize her.  I can give her so many things, but I can't give her everything.  So if I've seemed excessive and over the top, just know I'm trying to show a little girl that her choice is important and special and she can be a good example.  Again, I'm so honored that I was entrusted with the care and nurturing, training and teaching, of such a special little girl; someone who is by far my superior in patience and love and Christ-like nature.

20 April 2014: Easter

Happy Easter everyone!   Let me start by saying that I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the atonement, and that because He was resurrected I will be too one day.  To be honest, I was not as focused as I should have been this week on the Easter holiday, it seems I've had a lot occupying my time and attention.  I did however, really enjoy Sacrament meeting today and feeling the sweet Spirit that was there.

Felicity got to sing If the Savior Stood Beside Me with the rest of the senior primary and it was beautiful.  It really helped me to reflect upon myself and consider if all the things I do and say make the Savior proud of me...I think there's some room for improvement there!  My Primary lesson was once again really good this week.  We talked about justice and mercy and the atonement and resurrection.  I love teaching older kids because you really can dig a little deeper and help them to understand difficult, but important concepts.  There are times when that room seems sacred and I know that testimonies are being developed and strengthened.  I'm grateful to be able to teach.

After church we went to Nana's house for some Easter egg hunting and dinner.  I hid some cascarones around the back yard, and they had a fun time finding them and breaking them over oneanother's heads, although they were a little tough to break.  I think I still have confetti in my hair.  After that, they went inside and hunted for eggs that Nana had hidden and found ALOT of candy!  We had a nice dinner and it was time to go far too soon.  My brother and his family were there too and it was nice for the cousins to play together, it was cute to watch Arlo and Jaidyn interact.

Well that was the Sunday rundown, so what else happened this week?  Felicity turned 8 on Monday.  She got roller skates, pads, and a few other things from Helen, Arlo, and I.  She got to take cupcakes to class.  In the evening her dad came and picked her up and took her to dinner, she enjoyed that.  On Thursday night, she got to go out with Nana for dinner and to go shopping.  She picked out a toy and an outfit and a new pair of shoes.  She was really spoiled this week!  Turning eight is a big deal, so she has a lot of great things still in store for her in the coming weeks.  She's having a Frozen birthday party this Saturday, and in a couple more weeks she'll be baptized.  I mailed her announcements this week as well and am tickled with how they turned out!

Work is going well.  I've taken to working a few extra hours in the evening so that I can get a 30 minute run in the middle of the day.  It's almost getting too hot to do this, but I've really enjoyed it.  I ran over 25 miles this week alone and 53.9 for the month of April.  This is all driven by my challenge, that just finished up its fourth week.  I lost 1.2 pounds this week, exercised 1319 minutes, and took 160,793 steps.  Man was I tired!  I'm really pleased with how well I'm doing, and I've gotten a nice tan in the process.  I'm looking forward to marking off one of my "Now That I'm No Longer a Fat Girl" goals: wearing the dress from my senior pictures.  I can actually fit into the dress I wore in my Senior pictures (from 15 years ago).  I hung onto the dress all these years because I loved it so much, and am really excited to wear it again.  I'm hoping to wear it to Felicity's baptism on the 3rd (so don't judge me if it's really out of style!).

On Friday Arlo and I hung out and went grocery shopping, to WalMart, and to the Post Office because it was my day off.  Friday evening I cleaned, made lunches, and finished up the laundry.  On Saturday, I slept in and then took the truck for an oil change while I walked laps around mall and did some window shopping.  I did pop into Old Navy and try on a handful of cute things, but walked away empty handed.  After that I went to Ventana Canyon to meet up with a friend from high school and catch up.  We had a nice time visiting and had lunch.  There were a lot of things I hadn't thought of for years and it was fun to remember!  In the evening I was going to go to the movies, but the one I wanted to see was only being shown in Spanish, so I stayed in and watched a movie and went to bed early.

I watched this video, entitled Because of Him, several times this week (please take less than three minutes to see it).  It is so powerful.  Felicity and I watched it again today and both of us had tears streaming.  I can't begin to list the things I have because of Him, but for each of them I am grateful.  I cannot, and probably never will, fully fathom the atonement and how it was wrought on my behalf.  I have hope that my family will be together forever, that I will be compensated for all that I've endured, that I can start over and over and over again when I make a mistake, that I can improve and become more like Him. Because of Him I don't fear an end, because I know that one won't come.  I look forward with great anticipation for all that life has for me, because of Him.  Happy Easter!

13 April 2014

What an amazing, fun-filled week!  Let’s see, we continued to try our new freezer meals; we had Zuppa Toscana soup on Monday night and it was a huge fail.  I think I put too much spinach in it and the kids were completely and utterly turned off by it.  Felicity said “Mom, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I really don’t want to eat this.  The pulled pork sandwiches on Tuesday were better. 

We had a Family Home Evening lesson on media, specifically on what to do if they kids encounter something inappropriate on TV, on the computer, or on a phone/personal electronic device.  I read a statistic that reported that 90% of children have been exposed to pornography by the age of eleven.  I think that age-appropriate education and having an open dialog about tough subjects gives the kids the confidence to respond appropriately, and giving them that knowledge  before they’re ever  in a situation where they may need to use it is important.  Pornography addiction is something that breeds in secrecy and shame and often starts innocently enough when images are viewed accidently and curiosity turns to habit.  It’s something that destroys families and distorts reality and I’m not afraid to breech the topic with my kids.

Arlo is doing fabulously.  He continues to be really interested in potty training, he goes every time I put him on the potty and the other day he told me “poopy”, so I took him in and he went.  I also love that anytime he catches me in the bathroom he cheers for me and congratulates me on doing such a great job.  It’s a real morale booster!  He also mastered climbing out of bed this week.  His mattress is as low as it will go, so I gave in and took the side railing off and now he has a “Big Boy bed”.  This has also meant that around midnight every night since, I’ve woken up to him climbing into my bed.

Felicity had standardized testing this week and felt she did very well.  She really enjoyed not having homework, and I did too, because it meant we had time for extra family time in the evenings.  We went for walks, bike rides, “hikes” behind the house, and played Just Dance after dinner and scriptures every night.

I had to stay home with Arlo on Thursday, and we had a great time.  We went shopping for Felicity’s birthday gifts, went for a run, played trains, swung in the backyard, picked roses, and watched Meet the Robinsons.  In the afternoon I baked cookies for the girls, so they had warm cookies for snack when they got off the bus.  I also worked from home, mostly in the evening after the kids went to bed.  I also finished Felicity’s baptism dress!  A few weeks ago I found a dress online and showed it to her, and bless her heart; she said “Mom, that’s nice, but I really want a Mom-made dress”.  How could I not?  So I bought a couple of patterns, one very simple dress that I’m going to make for her to actually go in the water in, and another pattern for a jumper that had a bodice that I liked.  So using the photo of the dress I found online and using two patterns and making some of it up along the way (all Mormon girls should know how to add sleeves to anything) I finished and it really turned out darling. 

Friday evening after pizza for dinner we went to meet my friend Kalli to take pictures of Felicity in her dress to use for the invitations/announcements for her baptism.  She was so excited to be the center of attention and did really well.  We stopped and had ice cream on the way home and then the kids watched a movie while I spent the evening cleaning.  Nothing hurts quite as much as the kids saying things like “we always clean on Saturday” or “why do all of our dinners come out of the crock pot?”  I can’t explain to them that I’m just doing my best.  I can’t explain to them how inadequate I feel some days, but I can spend a few hours on a Friday night cleaning so that we can have a fun weekend.

Saturday morning we drove into Tucson to get family pictures taken at the mall.  I had until the 30^th to use my last rewards benefit on our Picture People membership.  It entitled me to a free framed and matted print and five sheets of any of the poses.  The kids really did well and we got some adorable family photos.  I ended up getting a 16” x 20” picture in a cherry frame and I loved that I could get prints of all the cute shots they got.  I also had gotten an email a few months ago that my membership was renewed, so I asked and sure enough, they had renewed my membership (for free!), here’s to another year of adorable photos!

After photos, we had lunch at Chipotle, yum!  We drove home and the girls and I made cookies and then we took a meal to a friend who had had surgery.  We had to make a quick stop at the grocery store for some essentials and I didn’t get too much push back.  We drove into town again in the evening, and wandered Target for awhile, and then headed over to the movie theatre to see “Muppets Most Wanted”.  I bought the kids popcorn, an Icee, and fruit snacks and that’s what they had for dinner.  They were in heaven.  The movie was so-so and Arlo was not very interested in it, but we had fun.  I got the kids off to bed when we got home and folded laundry while watching a movie (isn’t my life riveting?!).

Our Sunday meetings were nice; I had an especially good Primary lesson.  Our word of the week was lanugo, yeah; I give really great primary lessons!  I was suppose to have a stake meeting, but I also had an open invite for dinner at my parents and nobody to watch the kids, so we headed over to Nana and Papa’s after church and had dinner.  Mom and I went for a walk to get in some extra steps and minutes of exercise.  The health challenge is going great.  I lost 1 lb this week, took 114,434 steps, and exercised 1221 minutes.  I’m leading the pack in percentage of weight lost and am not too far behind first in number of steps, but it’s going to be hard to make up the nearly 30 hours of exercise I’m behind!  I’m going to give it my best shot though!

I’m so grateful for a body.  My body is such a blessing to me.  It allows me to physically express the things I think and desires I have.  I spent many, many years abusing it with food and a sedentary lifestyle and then one day I told it I wanted to run, and it ran.  I told it I wanted it to lose weight, and it obliged.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a lot of hard work!  But it feels so good to be almost at my goal.  It is an amazing feeling to have photos taken of me and not cringe when I see them, to like what I see staring back at me in the mirror.  I spent my 20s fat, frumpy, and feeling stuck and miserable.  Here’s to my 30s, fit, fabulous, and happy!

06 April 2014

What a week!  Is it just me or has the beginning of the year just flown by?  We were pretty busy this week, Felicity was preparing for standardized testing next week and I had to get a lot done before my weekend trip to Montana.  We really enjoyed eating our freezer meals this week.  I pulled out the meal to defrost the night before and then just set it in the crock pot before I left for work.  It was a joy to come home to a ready-made meal.  Monday night we had ravioli in a meat sauce.   All I had to do was pull out a bagged salad and bake some Pillsbury crescent rolls.  Helen loved it, I thought it was pretty fabulous, Arlo and Felicity were less enthusiastic, but finished anyway.  There was so much left over, I ended up taking the left-overs for lunch Tuesday-Thursday.  On Tuesday night, we tried an herb chicken with potatoes.  It was also very good and we had leftovers on Wednesday and Thursday.  I would say the freezer meals were a huge success!

Felicity was feeling a little anxious over her tests so we spent some extra time on her homework, helping her feel ready.  She wanted to do some extra pages out of her workbooks too.  I love that she takes school so seriously, although I don’t like the level of anxiety she causes herself.

Our little healthy living challenge is going great.  I really stepped it up this week and got in lots of extra steps and exercise.  I ended up losing 4.8 this week, logged a little over 14 hours of exercise and took 128,040 steps.  I’m headed in the right direction again, right toward my goal.  When I started on this journey, in August of 2012, I set a reasonable goal and planned to achieve it by the end of May 2014 (we were going to go on a cruise for Jeff’s graduation), now I’m almost there and May is around the corner.  I hope I hit the mark, I know participating in this challenge and the competition that it’s brought has got me fired up again.

I put the girls on the bus Friday morning and Arlo and I went for a run, then I got ready to leave and take Arlo to his babysitter’s.  I was early to the airport and everything went very smoothly.  I flew from Tucson to Salt Lake City (it took no time at all).  I had something to eat in between flights and got into Billings, Montana around 5pm.  Jeremy picked me up from the airport and then we went to the Billings temple.  Yay!  Temple number 13 marked off my list of US temples to serve in.  Afterward we had a very nice dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, which was an adventure.  My hotel was very nice and had a waterfall and trees in the lobby.  I was excited that it had a 24 hour gym and heated indoor pool!  Saturday morning we went out for breakfast and then watched the first session of General Conference.  Later in the afternoon we drove up to the little town of Red Lodge and visited a wildlife rescue and did some walking and browsing through the little shops.

We wandered into a bookstore in Red Lodge and my attention was immediately caught by a children’s book called Who Pooped in Yellowstone Park.  I excitedly exclaimed how great it was and eagerly flipped through the pages.  The man at the counter behind me said “If you buy a copy, I’ll be happy to sign it for you”.  The bookstore owner happened to be the author and best yet, he had written one entitled Who Pooped in the Sonoran Desert.  I excitedly bought it as a souvenir for the kids and was delighted to get it signed for them.  We had a very nice dinner that evening and then went and saw the new Captain America movie that night.

The weather was very nice, in the 50s.  It was a little snowy in Red Lodge and we drove up the mountain a little further and it was snowing pretty well.  I loved seeing deer and other wildlife, Montana was quite beautiful.  Sunday morning we watched the last two sessions of conference, had a homemade lunch, and went for a walk around the neighborhood.  I had a nice time and was grateful to be able to take a little trip, but I was also excited to get home to see the kids and sleep in my own bed.  My flights were good; the one from Billings to Salt Lake was pretty bumpy, I think the seat belt light stayed lit the whole time.  I did a couple of laps around the Salt Lake airport waiting for my last flight home and bought the girls a little something in the gift shop.  I ended up getting into Tucson about 20 minutes early and I was able to go pick up the kids from their dad's.

I have a lot to do in the coming weeks.  I need to get invitations out for Felicity’s birthday party, start collecting the things I’ll need for it.  I need to finish sewing Felicity’s baptism dresses, and get everything all lined up for her after-baptism luncheon.  I’m going to get some photos taken of her to make invitations for her baptismal announcements.  In the mean time, we would love to have everyone and anyone that would like to attend to be with us for her special day.  It will be Saturday morning, May 3^rd with lunch and cake to follow at our house (look for the invitations soon).  I love the spring weather and all the happiness and excitement surrounding our family these days.  We are just so blessed and so grateful.