If a tree falls in the forest....

So Sunday night it was REALLY windy. Like crazy windy. Insane. And instead of blowing towards the front of the house, which is the normal direction, it was blowing through the woods and against the back of the house. Alann and I went to bed kind of late and were just starting to fall asleep when suddenly there was this crescendo of noise. I can't even describe the exact noise. It just was building. I was actually starting to wonder if that was what a tornado sounded like, and if we were under a warning I didn't know about. Then there was a crunch/crack/thump. And then, silence. It was kind of weird. Alann said "I think a tree fell." I said "On the house?" And thus began an investigation. We couldn't see anything from our bedroom windows, so we went downstairs. As soon as we opened the sliding door to the back porch, a HUGE gust of wind came in at us. It almost knocked me backwards. We went out on the porch and sure enough, a tree had hit the back of the house. We didn't see any immediate damage, so we went to bed. Upon later inspection, I saw that the entire root ball had disintegrated  There is a huge hole where the bottom of the tree used to be. I thought the trunk had cracked. Nope.

Here's the amazing thing. As the noise was building, I said a prayer, as I usually do during storms, that we and our house would be safe during the storm. The tree that fell hit the back of the house right underneath our bedroom window. The second floor is smaller than the first, so there is an overhang underneath our window. You can see the smashed rain gutter from our bedroom. If the tree had been any taller, it would have come through our window. The tree was also pretty rotten on top. The various branches broke away as it hit the house, so instead of smashing through the house, it just ripped siding off. I have never had a prayer answered so swiftly and immediately and clearly. There was so much potential for this to be bad. But we were protected and kept safe. And I am grateful. I don't want to ever forget the immense gratitude that I felt and expressed as soon as we discovered how close the tree came. Not only the gratitude that I felt, but the confirming spirit that this had indeed been an answer to that prayer. I tend to think sometimes that "my prayers are never answered". You always hear those stories about how Johnny lost his ring and said a prayer and found it right away. That's never happened to me before. Now it has. And it's awesome. And thank goodness for home owner's insurance!

It's hard to capture the entire thing in one picture. It goes all the way to the house, other than where Alann has already cut it away to fix the dog fence. 

New zoo

I wrote this post twice on my tablet, and it ate it twice. So I've been mad at it. Maybe my laptop will work better.

On our first Saturday in AZ, we went to a new zoo. Okay, it was new to the kids. I went there when I was a kid. I kind of expected the worst, because it was a post-lunch trip, which can and often does lead to melt-downs. But the kids dealt with everything pretty well. We played in the petting zoo while we waited for Nana and Jim to join us. There were signs everywhere to "beware the goats". We didn't have any problems with goats. We did have a deer try to eat Alex's hat and shirt though. We fed the animals and petted a llama or alpaca. Not sure which. It was very soft though. Then we had lunch at the bbq restaurant. It was right next to the aquarium, so one wall was a wall of glass with fish and sharks swimming around. That was pretty cool.

Since it was rather warm out, we decided to hit the aquarium part first. We went through all the fish buildings and the kids really liked it. Even Elizabeth was enthralled. My favorite were the little otters. They were tiny- like the size of squirrels. And they chirped. And they were very cute. 

We walked over to the giraffes and I took a break to feed and put to sleep a very tired cranky baby. The kids went up and fed the giraffes. Claire later told me that one was nice and one was mean. I'm not sure what she meant by that. We walked around and saw lots of the other animals. I didn't realize until we left but we totally missed the big cats- the lions and tigers. They have several tigers and at least one lion, and because it is a smaller zoo, they are closer. It is always the big attraction at this specific zoo. But kids were very tired and cranky, so we left.

We got to spend a lot of time with my sisters this trip. Teene took some time off work and we spent a day at our house and a day at her house. We went to a fun park. Amy works evenings so we saw her most mornings and hung out together when we could. Nana was working but we got to enjoy some time with her as well.

On Thursday evening, I took dinner over to the Woods' house. It was just Angelique and Veda, but it was really nice. I hadn't been able to get a hold of Veda, but we just took a chance and went over. It was a fun evening. We also got to spend most of sunday with them, but that wasn't nearly as much fun, just because Veda was getting ready to go out of town and there were other people around. But I did enjoy the time I had with her. 

Other fun happenings while we were gone: Elizabeth started to crawl. She's a regular mover now. She is still pretty choppy, so it's funny to watch her. She will look at where she wants to go, then look down and crawl, then look up and correct her course. 

Overall, we had a really fun trip. Towards the end, we were definitely ready to come home. I think this may have been the last really long trip. Alex was very homesick. Claire didn't really care, but Alex was a mess. Every time I said "let's go home" from somewhere, he would said "Our home? I want to go to our home." It was hard to explain that it was kind of my home because I lived there when I was younger. I enjoyed the time I had to spend with every body. It's hard to believe we haven't even been home a week yet. I feel like we've been home forever, but I do still have suitcases that are not unpacked and cleaning to catch up on. Surprisingly, the dogs don't stop making messes just because I am not home to clean them up. Amazing I know. Short hair is definitely on the list for our next dog. 

Life with 3

I can't believe that Elizabeth is already 7 weeks old. Time has just flown by. So many changes have already come around in her. Her stomach is MUCH improved. She is still fussy and gassy. She gets 2-4 doses of gas medicine a day, and that usually makes her happy. On really bad days, she also gets Catnip and Fennel, which is an herbal remedy for digestion. I think she is really starting to like it because it calms her down very quickly. She doesn't complain about taking it. It tastes VERY strongly like black licorice. Specifically, those little black licorice log things that have that hard outer shell and are softer inside. I don't know what they are called. They come in red or black, and possibly more colors. I want to say good and plenty, but I'm pretty sure that's wrong. I HATE the black ones. I always avoided them like the plague. Luckily, my mom liked them, so we always gave them to her. The first few times I gave the Catnip and Fennel to Elizabeth, she balked. But now she licks it off and seems to enjoy it. Or at least she has to work for the next few minutes to get the taste out of her mouth, so she is quiet. I know that I can eat any kind of product containing milk, I can eat cheese, I can probably eat yogurt. I can drink small quantities of milk. I can eat some chocolate. I'm starting to think that I need to avoid caffeine. It seems the days that I have caffeine are the nights that she has problems. That makes sense. I usually have soda at lunch. I don't drink it later than that because then I can't sleep. I also know it takes roughly 12 hours to metabolize, and it's usually her 3am-ish feedings that go awry when I have soda. But nothing else seems to bother her now. I think her earlier problems must have been a combination of smaller things that avoiding dairy for a month really helped improve. I think I mentioned it in her birth story, but she swallowed a lot of fluid during birth and had to have her stomach suctioned twice. That may have injured her stomach valve. I know it has a name. I know I know it's name. I cannot think of it's name. The valve that keeps her tummy closed. Anyway, that injury, plus the dairy that obviously affects her despite the pediatrician assuring me that it makes no difference, plus caffeine, plus her obvious gas issues (as evidenced by her seriously explosive poops), all combined to make a cranky baby. (I swear, I clean more poop off this kid's stomach than I do her bum.) But we turned a corner at about a month. I reintroduced dairy and learned to limit my liquid milk consumption. I've learned to avoid the caffeine, which isn't really difficult since we are not keeping soda in the house and I only have it when we go out to eat, if then. I've learned to keep up with her gas medicine. She gets it first thing in the morning, usually at lunch and at dinner. And sometimes in between those feedings. Her stomach has also grown and matured and she spits less. She still spits more than the other two ever did, but it is noticeably less than before.
At her one month check up, she weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds, which puts her in the 100%. I just wish that for every pound she gained, I lost a pound. Or two. I think that would be fair. I'm tired of people (doctors, nurses, random strangers, magazines) telling me that breastfeeding would help me lose baby weight. Hasn't worked yet, doubt it will work this time. Alann and I are trying to eat better though. We need to get in shape for the zombie apocalypse. (Our 5k trail run we are doing in October.) She is a good eater and is becoming more tolerant of the other two constantly being in her face. She also has started not napping, which I know is actually a place problem, not a sleep problem. I've been putting her down for naps in the living room, which worked during her sleepy newborn phase when she would sleep through everything. But ever since she started "waking up" to the world around her, she will fall asleep for a nap and here comes one of the other two and they shake her bed or yell in her face and wake her up. They always seems so proud of themselves too. Like "mom, the baby was sleeping, but now she's awake! Aren't I helpful?" Yeah, not so much kids. So I need to find a new place for her. I can move her into the guest room, but then I would need a monitor, so I might as well just take her upstairs, where the monitor already is set up. I'm just worried that if she is upstairs during nap/quiet time, and Claire and Alex are upstairs, that they will go in and wake her up anyway. How can my house be so big and I still don't have a good place to nap a baby??
On her 5th Saturday with us, Ella definitely "woke up". She started noticing things. She started cooing. She started smiling. She definitely smiles now, specifically at people. Today we were eating dinner and she would coo, so I would look at her, and she would smile at me. It was pretty cute. She even smiles at her siblings, at least until they start shaking her swing or yelling at her. Then she cries. Or gets that horrified baby look on her face. That "are you going to eat me?" look. She's following things with her eyes now. I love this. Having a newborn is nice and all, especially since they sleep so much, but I much prefer the slightly older baby that actually interacts. At least until they turn 2 and start pulling all the books and toys off the shelves. Or 3 and start back-talking and telling their younger brother to do things that they will get in trouble for, or walking by and randomly hitting. Not that I have any of those problems. I guess my favorite age is about a month old to about 2 years old. That's when my kids usually start talking and getting demanding.
We are in a very difficult stage with Claire and Alex. Alex listens to Claire more than he listens to me. Claire listens to nobody but herself. They have lost almost all of their toys, I've moved their bedtime earlier, I've started taking away cups if they leave their bedroom after being tucked in. They have gone days without watching TV. Claire is specifically disregarding my rules. She really does walk by me and hit me when she is mad or she doesn't get her way. Alex just throws a major fit- screaming, crying, yelling, stomping. I'm really hoping this is just a phase. I knew it would get worse when Grandma left. I just didn't realize it would be so bad. There are days that I feel so utterly discouraged. I know part of that is postpartum hormones. I worry that I have postpartum depression. I wonder if the rhetoric is true- if you ask yourself if you are crazy, you aren't, because only sane people ask that. Is it the same with depression? I feel a lot like I felt the January after we moved here. Discouraged, upset, irritated a lot, tired all the time. Running seems to help. But I don't know if it's the physical punishment or the fact that I have 30 minutes ALONE- utterly alone. No one to bother me, except people walking dogs or driving by in cars. No incessant "mom, mom mom mom mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom". No one tugging at me or yelling at me or crying at me. I get to do what I want without interruption. I do feel a lot worse when I don't get that. I've even been tempted to up my running to daily instead of every other. But I don't know. We will just have to wait and see how it goes. We are settling into a schedule. Things will get better, especially once bible study and storytime start up again. Right now, we have no where to go and no one to see. We get bored with each other I think. Anyway, off to bed I go. Can't lose too much time when the baby timer is already ticking.

Worst June ever

Not going to lie- I will be glad when this month is OVER! It has been just one thing after another it seems. On top of being 9 months pregnant, which I of course expected and anticipated, it's been ridiculously hot and humid. That makes it so much harder to do anything.
The month started with a bang. Or more like a slow leak. The bang came later. On the way out to St Louis one day, the "tire pressure warning light" thingie came on. Basically it tells me my tires aren't even. My tires are relatively new, and filled with nitrogen. Since I was going past the tire shop anyway, I thought I would stop and get them filled/checked. Well, it was Saturday and they weren't open.  I tried to stop at a gas station and fill them, but they didn't have an air compressor. Why don't gas stations have those anymore? So I kind of forgot and went on my merry way. We got home and all seemed well. Sunday, we start to leave for church, and hear this weird noise. The tire is utterly flat. We didn't even get to the end of the street and then back to the house, but by the time we got back, the damage was done. The tire was destroyed. That one was my fault. After a lot of drama, including ordering a tire from the east coast and trying to find a substitute, we got a new tire on Tuesday.
After that, I have just been rather irritable. Claire has been playing tee-ball, which she liked, but it was slightly tough on me. Just another random scheduled thing to throw in the mix. And it's been hot. Did I mention that I don't do heat well on a regular basis, let alone when pregnant? Claire has been exceedingly trying lately as well. She has just been pushing the boundaries often. And usually dragging Alex along with her.
And then last Friday, driving on the freeway, we hit some random junk and blew yet another tire! (That was the bang.) I just sat there and cried while Alann changed the tire to the spare. Again. At least we had some practice in the driveway from a few weeks ago. Then I called and they were able to get a new tire relatively quickly this time for some reason. I took the car in Monday to get the new tire and the poor guy was so confused. He kept looking for the tire and asking for some verification that I had called. Apparently, in the confusion of calling form the car on the side of the freeway, I had called the other shop, not the one I had used the first time. It wasn't too big of a deal, I just drove down to the other shop, and they changed my tire. And checked out the car. The power steering is leaking, probably from the belts blowing up a few months ago. Yay. Another repair. Ugh. So frustrating.
My OB appointments have been going well. She made it sound like she would induce me this last week- on the 18th. So we talked to Grandma and got her to come out a bit earlier so we would be covered. And then, I went in, and she had changed her mind. I was so distraught. Tuesday the 19th I had contractions starting at 3pm until about 10am the next day. And then they stopped. And haven't started again. Baby will likely be born on the 27th, when I go in for induction, or at the latest on the 28th when they give me a c-section. I'm okay with that, because I REFUSE to have a July baby. Nothing against July babies. I just refuse to still be pregnant come July.
And then there is Alex. My poor boy. I always thought Claire would be my emergency medicine kid. Nope. The score is currently Alex:3, Claire: 1. Thursday evening, Alex and Claire were jumping on the trampoline with Grandma and the neighbor girl. Grandma was sitting and the kids were running around and the neighbor girl got a little overly excited. She is 15, but often makes me think she is 5. She bounced very high and Alex got caught in the rebound. He flew about 2' in the air, landed on his feet and immediately fell onto his stomach. When he got up, he was crying and I thought he had bonked his nose. But he kept saying his leg hurt, his knee hurt. So I held him and got him some ice and figured he would be fine. But he refused to walk on it and just wanted me to hold him for about an hour. Then he started using it a little bit, but was still favoring it. This morning (Friday), he got up and was still not using it. I called the doctor and described the problem and she wanted us to come in. We made the trek out to the doctor. She said it was probably a toddler's fracture and referred us to an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in kids. Only problem: appointment was at 3pm, about 15 minutes away from where we were, and it was only 11am. So we came home and ate lunch and headed out yet again. It was a lot of driving! Alex did pretty well at the appointment. At the pediatrician's, he wanted me to hold his hand and wouldn't let me leave him. But at the orthopedist's, he let me leave the room while they did the x-ray. He was pretty interested in what the guy was doing anyway. After the x-ray, we talked to the nurse and then the doctor. He laid still and let them look at his leg. They couldn't see a fracture on the x-ray, but the bones are pretty soft so they tend to break and then line back up so you can't see them until they start healing. He recommended a cast, because these kinds of fractures are common in kids. So we let them put him in a cast. He will be in a cast for 3 weeks. The doc said that if it is a fracture, than just having the cast should make him feel better because it won't hurt anymore. And after the cast was put on, he did seem a bit happier. He's been understandably cranky today. He even came down the stairs without help (or asking, because he had already been put to bed). On the way home, we stopped for dinner since it was such a LONG day. We had Chick Fil-A and they played in the play place a bit. He is being really really needy too. He wants me to carry him and help him with everything. It's only the first day, but I am encouraging him to do things for himself. Sometimes, I have to just set him down and give him a toy and walk away. If he wants something else, he finds a way to get it. As far as his cast goes, we got the waterproof cast, so he can bathe and get wet. He will have it for 3 weeks, then they will x-ray again and take it off. We will know then if he had a fracture or just a sprain. The healing bone will show on the x-ray where the new fracture didn't. Alann is teasing me that I won't get to hold Elizabeth for the first few weeks of her life, because I will constantly be holding Alex. It's probably true. I'm trying not to be upset about the whole situation. Honestly, this week has not gone the way I planned. I wanted to have a baby, not a toddler in a full leg cast. It's been nice having Grandma around, but I always feel guilty about having her around without having the baby. Why can't my babies cooperate, just once in their lives?
Anyway, it's been a long day. I'm going to go to bed, and hope and pray that the baby will come soon.

Just blah

I feel like I've been complaining too much lately (at least on Facebook). But I've really been having a hard time, and this is my place to complain. Part of it is the weather- hot, cold, hot, cold, windy, rainy. Some days are really nice and then the next it's either humid and hot or cold and rainy. It's messing with my head for sure. Plus my allergies have been acting up and nothing works, so I can't taste anything or smell anything and sometimes can't even hear. On top of that is the feeling like I'm about to pop and knowing I have 7 more weeks of torture. Then feeling guilty because I really don't like being pregnant even though I really wanted to be pregnant and I have relatively easy pregnancies and have nothing to really even complain about. As far as symptoms go, my feet are sore and puffy. I have heartburn or upset stomach most nights. Oh, and I feel ginormous. And the baby has had hiccups a LOT lately, which is annoying. But otherwise, can't complain.
But today was just rough. I didn't sleep last night. Just as I started to drift off at 2am, a storm rolled through and I listened to the thunder for an hour and then the rain for an hour. I finally fell asleep around 4am only to be awakened at 6:30 by Alex. Who was wet, and insistent. He is VERY demanding lately. He wanted out of his room, out of his wet clothes, didn't want to lay in bed with me. He wanted to go downstairs. So we came downstairs and I slept on the couch while he watched TV. I only got another hour or so of on and off sleep before Claire got up. Then the kids were just crazy all morning- fighting over everything, picking on each other, generally annoying me. And it was still pouring rain and cloudy, so we couldn't even go outside.
The day just wore on with lots of work, lots of laundry, lots of fighting. I caught a short nap while Alex napped and Claire watched Dora. Or Super Why. Or something. I don't really know. And then Claire was supposed to have her first tee ball practice today, but thanks to that storm, the fields were closed so it's being rescheduled to who knows when. I hadn't told her that she had practice, especially when the storm rolled in yesterday morning. I knew there was a chance it would get rained out, so I didn't want her to be too disappointed. We went outside after dinner and jumped in puddles instead.
The worst part of my day was finding out that the man I would call Dad and depend on more than my real dad was activated and sent to Afghanistan. I am not a military kid. I am not cut out to be a military person in any way, shape, or form. I'm lucky that my husband is the same way and considers military duty to be an absolute last option. I support those who can do that life, but I just can't. So I've had a hard time processing this. I don't know how long he has known. I'm out of the loop for sure. Comes with living out of state. But it's still distressing to me, to think about Veda and Angelique and what they are going through and the other kids who are grown and out for the most part. I'm also a little shocked just because I didn't realize he was still a reservist, or that they would still want guys that age. He isn't elderly by any means, but he isn't a spry young guy either.
And then, to top it all off, I was working on Alex's rag quilt. I've realized yet again that I hate quilting and why do I make myself do it? But I finally got it all sewn together last night and tonight I was cutting the seams to make it fray. And my scissors broke. The two handles just came apart in my hand. Basically the screw holding them together stripped out. I tried to put it back in, but it won't hold. I'm very sad. These were my good scissors too. They weren't cheap. They were my favorite. And now they are broken. Alann will fix them if he can. Until then...I don't know. So I'm just going to go to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Otherwise, the kids have been doing well. Alex is starting to string words together into half-sentences. Claire is starting to really explode in her vocab. She picks up EVERYTHING you say lately. She tells some pretty awesome stories. And she loves to sing. She started singing "Child of God" this week. She's a good kid, just active. She tires me out. I really hope her sister is like Alex and not like her. So far, this pregnancy has been very similar to Claire's. I just hope the outcome isn't the same. I don't know that I can handle two mile-a-minute kids.

Another ultrasound and car failure

So yesterday was an interesting day. It started out fairly normally. I had my 28 week doctor's appointment. the doctor ordered another ultrasound after the first one because the technician was rather rushed and didn't get a good picture of the ductal arch (artery where it comes up and over the heart). I was actually rather frustrated with the first ultrasound. The tech really was rushed. A nurse came in and told her in the middle of our ultrasound that she had another person waiting and you could just tell she was pretty stressed. It was definitely different than any of the other ultrasounds I've had. The other techs I've had with the other kids were really talkative and would describe everything we were looking at. This tech was just quiet and just kept printing pictures and didn't even try to really explain or talk to us. She also didn't try to do any of the 3D stuff, which I've never actually had with the other kids. I was excited to see that, but it didn't happen. So that was the first ultrasound. After all that, she missed the heart picture so the doctor ordered a second ultrasound. This time it was just me and the tech. Alann stayed home and watched the kids. She was still pretty quiet, but was a little more talkative. She didn't really tell me what was going on, but we talked a little bit. She did say a few things which I thought were funny. "Oh, she's an active little thing isn't she?" "Were your other babies big too?" (She's measuring almost 2 weeks bigger than she "should".) And most importantly "Did I say girl last time? Still a girl." She did try to get a 3D picture of her face, but Ella was being uncooperative and kept her hand in front of her face the whole time. We did get a somewhat decent picture of half of her face. Alex LOVED the picture so much I had to make him a copy because he wouldn't give it up and Claire wanted one. It was getting all wrinkled. If he gave me the picture or set it down, within minutes he would come back saying "baby? Baby?" So we have several baby face pictures now floating around.
The tech also told me that the baby has hair. I'm not surprised. I just want to know what color. Alann and I think it would be really funny if baby had red hair and green eyes. We might just need to stop having kids after that, because I wouldn't want to ruin the utter mismatched nature of our kids. Claire is brown hair brown eyes. Alex is blond hair blue eyes. If Ella has red hair and green eyes, that would just be hilarious. I can just imagine as they grow up people wondering- obviously Alex is ours. He looks so much like Daddy. But what about the girls? Are they adopted? I wish I could pop forward in time 20 years and see what they all look like.
Anyway, so the ultrasound went fine. Everything still looks good. Afterward, I got to drink the glucose drink for the diabetes test. Am I strange that the drink doesn't really bother me? All the nurses and other pregnant women I've talked to about it always are sympathetic about how gross it is. But it really doesn't bother me at all. I met with the doctor and it was a really quick visit. I really don't have any complaints. My ankles/feet swell on and off. Ella's starting to get so big that she hurts me when she kicks. It's funny how similar this pregnancy is to Claire's. I haven't had as much heartburn or bloating as I did with Alex. But I do get an upset stomach a lot. She seems to be way high and kicking my ribs a lot. Like I said, my feet are swelling a lot more than they did with Alex. But she does seem to have gotten a LOT bigger lately. I feel huge. I'm a little scared since I still have 11 weeks to go.  I've been trying to explain to Claire lately that I can't do things I've always done with her lately. She wanted me to sit on the floor with her this morning, but she was back in the cave formed between the two recliners in the living room. They like it because it's pretty small. Anyway, she wanted me to sit on the floor with her in the cave. I tried to tell her I couldn't because I wouldn't have enough space to get back up. She really didn't understand and wanted me to sit. She kept telling me she would show me how to stand back up. I also can't really carry her too much anymore. She's 35 pounds. I definitely can't carry Alex and Claire together anymore. They are almost 70 pounds together.
 Then I waited a few minutes and had my blood drawn. I went over and pre-registered at the hospital. The doctor told me that if I mailed in the form, it probably wouldn't get put into the system in time. So I just headed over and gave them the form while I was there. Then I headed home.

While we were eating lunch, Alann told us he had to go to St. Louis but didn't have anything to do that we couldn't go with him. So we loaded up the car and started to head out. That's when things got interesting. The air conditioner wasn't cooling off at all. And Alann says "the battery light is on". Then the rest of the engine lights started flashing on and off. We hadn't even made it to town. Since it was 85 degrees, and the kids were already flushed, I told him to turn around. There was no way I was going to make them stay in the hot car all afternoon. So we came home and the kids were very upset. Claire was especially vocal about not going with Daddy. She didn't really understand that the car wasn't working right. They both had major breakdowns when I put them down for nap / quiet time. Alex laid on the floor and cried "no no no" for a good long time and Claire threw a fit. Then Alex finally fell asleep and Claire actually took a nap too. (Big mistake. She didn't got to bed until almost 1030.) I called the mechanic and he said it was probably an electrical issue of some sort. After naps, we went outside to water the garden and I checked on the car. It started fine, but the battery light was still on and the ac was still not working. After dinner, I did some more research on the car. All signs pointed to battery or alternator. After talking to Alann, I decided to take the kids with me and go to AutoZone in town. As we were turning onto the road with the AutoZone on it, the car almost died. But we made it to the parking lot. The AutoZone guy came out and tested the battery and alternator. He had to jump it, but it started right away. He said together they were putting out 8 volts, but the car shouldn't be running with that low of volts. But the battery seemed to be working right. So we decided to take the car and drop it at the mechanic's. I called my visiting teacher to come get us since we don't fit in the truck. She called her companion and Sherry was kind enough to come pick us all up. As we tried to move the car to the mechanic's, I barely made it two parking spaces and barely pulled back into the spot. I went in to get a tow truck number from the AutoZone guy and he came back out. He ended up changing out the battery for us and that worked. He said that probably meant the alternator was bad. With a lot of dread, we headed over to the mechanic's. After switching the kids to Sherry's van, we left our van and came home.
This morning, I talked to the mechanic. Thankfully, it was NOT the alternator. The mechanic said and I quote "the belts blew apart". So they just replaced the power steering belt and the alternator belt (and changed the oil since it was there anyway) and voila, all is working just fine. I have to say, I am so grateful. I know, it's easy to say "why me, why did the car have to break? why couldn't it just keep working." But I know it could have been much much worse. We've put new alternators in Alann's truck. It's not cheap. This was relatively cheap. Funnily, I pulled out $150 when we went to AutoZone Monday night and our bill at the mechanic this morning was $149.83. So I am totally thankful and recognize the blessings of the Lord in this situation. I just kept praying that whatever it was would be cheap and easy to fix and it was. Definite answer. So this afternoon, Alann went to get the van and left the truck at the mechanic's. We went back all together and when we started the van to leave, there was no squeaking! The air conditioner has squeaked when starting the car for...ever. It was getting worse lately. It would squeal for a lot longer. And the heater even started doing it towards the end of winter. I thought it was the air compressor. (That's what the mechanic told me last year when the overheating issue erupted.) But now, no more squeaking! Apparently, the a/c is powered by the alternator, so when the belt went out, the air went out too. New belt, no squeaking. I am in heaven. That squeal honestly was annoying, but it was also embarrassing. It always made me feel like a bad car mom, like I was neglecting some sort of maintenance issue that it had. But the mechanic had said before that he didn't know what was causing it. He had tried adjusting the S-belt last year but that didn't fix it. So I just lived with it. But no more. It is a great weight off my shoulders. Like I said before, I am so grateful that this didn't turn out any worse than it did. It could have. But thanks to wonderful people who will leave their homes and families and come rescue me, and a simple fix, we are back to business as usual.

Craft show and the never ending cold

The craft show is over thankfully. I've learned a few things. I actually was ready the Friday before the show, thanks to Alann watching the kids for me a few days in the two weeks I had to prepare. I also think it was partly because I told myself that I wouldn't work on Sundays, and I didn't work on either Sunday before the show. It was hard resisting the temptation to just do a little bit, but I had made that deal and wanted to stick with it. I also didn't need to work the Saturday before the show, which was good since Alann ended up going somewhere for Provident and I was feeling cruddy.
I didn't end up taking any pictures,  even though I brought my camera. Silly me, I know. But my 8 foot table ended up being full. I had 89 burp cloths (that I made over the course of that two weeks, I'll have you know), 30 blankets (most of those were already made), some soap and shampoo, body lotion, hand lotion, lip balms, and a few foot scrubs and random other things.
I got there and brought all my stuff in and started setting up. The lady to my right was some fancy foot ingredient consultant (like avon for Vanilla extract) and the lady to my left hadn't set up yet. So I set up my table and I kept hearing the lady on the left talking to people and saying she was waiting for her helper who had the tablecloth. She finally showed up and they started setting up. And I realized that they were selling heavily scented hand and foot lotions and scrubs. (Beauti-control is the company. Think Pampered Chef meets Bath and Body Works.) Suddenly, I wasn't so sure about myself. It seemed a little unfair that my natural lotions were right next to their stuff. I felt like surely they would end up with more customers than me. But it actually worked out in my favor at one point. They had a few ladies who were looking at their stuff and decided it was too expensive and came over to my table. They saw my handmade foot scrub and each bought a jar immediately. Our tables weren't really spaced apart, so I could hear their conversation with the other ladies and each other. That sale made me laugh.
I did learn a few things about craft fairs, at least in our area. For one, I sold more soap to men than women. I was surprised. I really thought women would be more inclined to buy it, but I heard more than once "oh I like my stuff to smell". I can understand. I like smelly stuff too sometimes. But so much of the smelly stuff overwhelms me these days. I walked down the candle aisle in Target the other day and started sneezing. These kindly older gentlemen that bought my soap all asked "is this lye soap?" And then we would have a conversation about how their moms used to make it when they were growing up and it's so much better than the commercial stuff.
Secondly, I learned that if there is one item that bugs you and you think you want to make it, you should probably make it. I ran low on supplies while making my lotions and decided to nix the foot lotion I was planning on making. I could have made it, but it would have meant reformulating and I didn't think I had the time or the energy to reformulate and test it. And sure enough, someone came by and asked about it. That was annoying.
Third, don't put all the inventory out. Its overwhelming. If things are all the same, just put a few out.
Fourth, if at all possible, get a spotter and or bring a book. I was SO bored. I sat there for 7 hours with just one break when Alann and the kids came by after church. For the most part, there were always people there, but there were a few hour-long stretches when it was almost entirely dead.
Fifth- make the deal right then. I could have made a $40 deal and instead I held out for $45 and lost it.
Sixth- the thing you think will sell the best probably won't. I figured that the lip balms would sell the best. Everyone loves lip balms. They are easy to buy and were pretty cheap. I sold like 3. I was pretty disappointed.
All in all, I did pretty well. I wanted to earn my $20 table fee back, which I did, and I wanted to make 12 sales. I made 18. I chose 12 as my goal because that was 1% of the sales to the dinner last year. I figured that was realistic and it was. I made about $100 and that makes me happy. It will pay my Cap one card for a few months anyway. I would love to toss the whole amount on there at once, but I probably shouldn't. Now comes the hard part- listing everything on Etsy that didn't sell so I can sell it. Or finding another craft show to do.

As for the never-ending cold. It's never ending! I had a sore throat and slightly runny nose for about 2 weeks. I was doing the nasal rinses once or twice a day and thought I had the thing licked. Then last Wednesday morning I woke up coughing. Since then, it's just gotten worse. My voice comes and goes. My breathing comes and goes. The coughing and the coughing stuff up comes and goes. I just feel like crap in general- on and off headaches and just feeling exhausted. I can't tell if I am getting better or worse. I had a doctor's appointment on Monday and she said my lungs sounded fine. I'm supposed to go back next week if it isn't better. I feel like my coughing fits are more violent but less frequent, and definitely drier, but I don't know if that's a good sign or not. My chest hurts and my throat hurts from all the coughing. I'm really just ready to be done with it. It's impeding my grand plans to get my craft show wrapped up and the in-laws bedroom cleaned up which became my impromptu craft studio since I could shut out the children.

I'm bored

I decided whenever I am bored and start aimlessly searching the internet, I should post something on my blog instead. That would be more creative and useful. Now I just need to think of something to write about. I guess I'll start with the hard stuff. I started going to a Bible Study group at another church in town. Two ladies from our ward go, and invited me to attend to. I'm actually really glad they did. For one, it's two hours of FREE child care. I can't argue with that. We are reading "Power of a Praying Woman" and the book is pretty good. But we hit a hard topic- for me anyway. Forgiveness. Starting Wednesday during class and into Weds night, I was feeling pretty beaten up about some unforgiveness and bitterness I've been harboring. I want to share the story, but it involves family members, so I'm not sure it's appropriate. I guess it's something to write somewhere in a journal no one but my great great great grandkids will ever read. Anyway, I was already dealing with that emotional rollar coaster and didn't sleep well Weds night. Then Thursday at playgroup, one of the two friends that I really have here told me she is probably moving. Most likely moving. Okay, they are really going to move. I'm having a hard time accepting this. See, the other of my two friends is moving at the end of this month. And now this one is moving probably in October sometime. So then I will have no one. And what hurts even more than knowing I will be alone, is knowing that poor Claire will be alone. These ladies happen to be the moms of Claire's favorite friends. Some days, sometimes several times a day, she asks if she can play with these two friends. We see them twice a week already with church and then playgroup. But she still asks. So my heart hurts knowing that she will be sad. One of the benefits of the kids getting older is that they can communicate more clearly. And Claire definitely knows when to use "sad" as a feeling description. She will be the oldest in the Nursery class. I was planning on asking the Primary to move her up after her birthday, so she would be with her two friends who will age out to sunbeams, instead of be in the nursery class for a whole second year as the oldest and only oldest, but now there is no reason to. She doesn't know anyone else in the sunbeam class. I don't even know if there is a sunbeam class actually. So Thursday was pretty hard. I'll admit, I've been very upset. I was just starting to get into the groove of things. We've been going to storytime on Tuesdays and Bible study on Weds and playgroup on Thurs. But now there will be no more playgroup because we are the only ones. Yet another reason I wish I had kept Grant around. At least he would be one more playmate. So finding a preschool is top of my list for her. She needs the socialization more than the academics. She just loves kids and being around people. I'm afraid I can't supply all that she needs in that respect.
But, something did bring me joy today, even in the midst of my heartache. We were in the car driving home and I turned on our Sesame Street DVD. The clip with "Elmo's song" came on and the kids immediately started singing. Alex was singing the "la la la" parts and Claire was singing the words and some of the la las. It was so cute and so funny. I don't know where they get their musical talent. Must be from Daddy's side. They also LOVE to dance. Alex has learned how to turn on my clock radio and he runs over first thing when he gets up and turns it on to start dancing. It's great.
Another new thing- Alex is starting to babble with new sounds. He started "reading" to himself too. He sits and turns the pages of the book and babbles the whole time. The funny thing is that his "Reading" voice is different than his talking voice. It is much softer and sing-songy, almost like he is imitating the way I read to him. Which I'm sure he is.
Claire has discovered her imagination. She has started really getting into pretending. The other day at dinner we were sitting there and she suddenly leaned over and started petting Alann's arm. Alann asked what she was doing and she said "Daddy Kitty. Nice Daddy". Alann said "I'm a kitty?" She said "Yes" and petted his arm a few times and then went back to eating. Alann looked at me and said "when did she start pretending?" Alex chimed in with blada blada blada in his new babble noises and I said "Oh, about two weeks ago when he started doing that."

At the Children's Museum in Indy.

Riding the "train" at the Children's Museum with her new BFF Shannon- Alann's cousin.

Being a transformer.

The water table.

Alex's FAVORITE spot. He loves water.

He really liked this box for some reason.

At Beth's Wedding

Me and the pretty bride.

Happy kids

"helping" make brownies

Funny face

I feel like not much has been going on, but a lot has happened lately.

After our trip to Indiana, things calmed down a bit. The next weekend my best friend from college got married, so we headed out to Columbia for that. That was a fun little date for us. We got a sitter. It was nice to have some time to ourselves. We always drive around Columbia when we are there, but so much has changed that it isn’t the same town anymore.

As far as job prospects go, I was working for Leapforce, and was quite happy. I enjoyed the work, I made some awesome Swagbucks (because I had lots of search terms and I could watch SBTV in the background, something I always forget to do when I am just surfing the web), and then my contract got terminated out of the blue.  They just sent me an email one day saying that my quality was too low and I wasn’t performing as they expected. This was a bit of a shock to me. I started in the beginning of June and got terminated in the beginning of August. I did 18 hours in June (my first month) and only about 9 in July because there was never any work. August was looking awesome, I was getting an hour a day, and then bam, terminated. I still don’t really understand why. Every way I had to measure my quality was good. My tasks per hour were fine. I didn’t have a lot of revisions, which meant that I agreed with the other raters as well. So I don’t really know. I sent them two emails asking for proof or records that show any secret tests they ran on me, and I haven’t even gotten a response. So, so much for that. If I recommended it to you, forget it. Not worth the time or possible sudden termination if it something you are counting on for income. I have to say, I was a bit adrift for a bit there. I’ve now been fired twice in my life. And I’ve only had 4 real jobs (jobs that didn’t end based on seasonality anyway). The first time it was a company layoff, and I was WELL paid for a receptionist. This time really hurt, especially because they haven’t responded at all. Plus I felt good doing something to help our family finances (other than manage the outflow of course). My etsy shop is more for fun than profit.

Now I have a new job. Alann hired me to be his Online Marketing Director. Basically, I’m in charge of keeping his online presence up for his company. I only get paid when Provident finishes a project, but that’s okay. It’s something. And if it brings in business for the Management side of it, than it’s good for us anyway.

As far as Alex goes, he had his 15 month checkup. He is 25 lbs, I don’t remember height but the nurse remarked he was tall. He is a lot like Claire. He doesn’t talk much, but he understands a lot. He says ow and loud and milk. He gives lots of kisses, and is in a biting phase which is not fun. He’s a very sensitive boy, and if he thinks he is in trouble, he starts crying. So I have to be careful in discipline with him. A sharp tone usually just makes him cry. He follows Claire everywhere, but is blissfully content to play by himself too. On the rare occasion that he is awake and she isn’t, he will happily play with toys by himself. He moves from toy to toy. He loves the kitchen set and loves to cook there or in the kitchen with my pots and pans. I’m glad my cast iron pans are nice and seasoned because my other non-sticks are getting a little scratched from being played with. I would buy some cheap thrift store pots for him to play with, but I don’t think he would go for it. He also loves cars and says “vroom!” I’ve got an awesome Christmas present in mind for him involving cars. I bought a set of hair clippers so I can cut Alex’s (and maybe Alann’s) hair. He hates the scissors, and won’t really sit still for it. But he did a good job with the clippers. Now I just need to perfect my method and lengths. I cut off all his curls and most of his summer blond. It made me a little sad, but I know it is still there. His hair has already lightened up a lot with the little we’ve been out this week. And the curls are getting going again too.

foos. It’s funny to hear her talk to the dogs. She calls them Nee and Ta-er. She tries to tell them to get off the stairs if we are going down to the basement. They don’t listen. She loves to open the door and let them in or out. She also loves to feed them. Alex is starting to get in on feeding animals too. I can see when they start getting regular chores, feeding the animals will be on there. She is starting to be a really good helper too. She helps me unload the dishwasher (not a problem since most of what we use is plastic these days). I usually remove the utensil drawer and anything heavy or breakable and then she pulls the rest of the dishes out and brings them to me. She helps set the table for meals and is working on clearing the table.  She of course still LOVES to help cook. Her favorite phrase is “by self!” meaning she wants to do something all by herself. Drives me insane sometimes, but that’s a two-year old for you. She often picks out her own clothes and dresses herself. She did a really good job sitting for her most recent hair cut and I was able to cut about an inch off. It looks like I cut a lot more, because it is lighter now and curls a lot more. Just like her mama. It curls like crazy when it is shorter. Or humid. She is currently in LOVE with princesses and My Little Ponies. I can’t decide which  she likes better. She has some princess posters in her room now. Today while we were at Sears she saw a Princess bed set on one of the little beds. She had to get in it and pretend to sleep with the princesses. But Alann started her watching My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic series and she LOVES it. Pinkie Pie is her favorite. It’s an amusing enough show, and it doesn’t bother me any so I let her watch it. She already loved horses, and now it’s even more. She has started playing with the bucket of ponies that we have (most from when I was little). She has also started playing more imaginatively lately. She makes up stories for her games now. She was playing the other day with her princess castle and her princesses and some cars. I don’t know what the story was, but I did hear her talking, than I saw one of the cars kiss one of the princesses. When she plays ponies, she has a mommy pony and a daddy pony and a baby pony. I also taught her Red Rover at playdate last week, and she plays that with her animals now. She doesn’t really understand the rules, but has fun playing.

So that’s about it. As always I have 500 sewing projects and no time to do them. Someday the kids will be in school and I can sew to my hearts’ content, right? Yeah right. By then I’ll have other things to do I’m sure.

Wow, over a month

I should be prepping my lesson for YW tomorrow, so I will try to make this brief.
Claire- potty training- we gave up. She gets it, she pees on the potty, but she doesn't tell me when she has to pee. So we went back to diapers (actually pull ups because I got them for the same price as I would have spent on diapers and I like that they are like underwear and she can do it herself and they are a little trimmer so they fit under her clothes better) for about a week or so. Then I very matter-of-factly stated "you sit on the potty when you wake up and before you go to bed". And she accepted that, so we do that. Most days, she pees right before bed and right when she wakes up. Naps she is usually okay with too. But other than that, I am the one being trained, not her. If I get her to the potty consistently on a schedule, she can keep a dry diaper most of the day. If I am lazy, than we have many wet pull-ups. So that's where we are at right now. I do know that her muscles are getting stronger, because she can pee when I put her on the potty, and she is able to go longer between potty breaks. She is unfortunately a very flexible girl when it comes to life. Change doesn't faze her too much, so it doesn't make much of a difference to her if I ask her to use the potty or let her pee in her diaper. She is getting better about telling me though. The other day I was laying on the bed and she was straddling my arm and talking to me. Suddenly she stopped, looked off, half-smiled, and then said very proudly "I peed!" Thank you Claire for peeing on my arm (in a pull up of course). My fault for not putting her on the potty right after her nap. We have definitely not bee successful with pooping though. She refuses to use the potty for that, even though she has successfully done it before. Today she tried to empty her poopy pull-up herself. It was not pretty. I know we will get there one day, hopefully soon. Seeing her friends use the potty always seems to spur her on a bit.
In other bathroom related items, I've given up on cloth diapers, at least for the summer. We're on a break, to quote a popular TV show from my era. I am having so many issues with them. I've even got diaper soap and washing them three days a week and Alex is breaking out in a rash every time I use them on him, even when he wears it for less than two hours. Obviously, I don't know when in that two hours he pees, but I try to change him as soon as I know he is wet. I tried to make some cloth pull ups for Claire, but that girl is a heavy wetter. I never understood the definition of heavy wetter until I had Alex and realized the difference. Alex is a normal wetter- he could probably wear cloth overnight and not wake up soaking wet. Claire wakes up wet even when she pees on the potty before bed and wears an overnight diaper. So the cloth pull-ups, (pattern designed for normal children) merely slows the flow, it does not contain it well enough. Like I said, some days we do really well and she stays dry all day, and others she goes through a bunch of pull-ups, so I would love to switch to cloth so that it is reusable. But it just isn't feasible at this time. And since my poor sensitive son is having so many issues with the cloth diapers, we are going to back off for a while. Also, some of my prefolds are starting to come apart, which doesn't help the situation. Sometimes I wish we had just gone with all-in-ones. I like to think that would be easier, but I know it wouldn't. So since Alann doesn't care one way or the other, we are indefinitely off cloth. We are still using cloth wipes and I use the smaller prefolds as poopy diaper changing table protectors, but we are in disposable diapers. I guess I better get on Amazon Mom and figure out the best diaper price. It's hard to admit that I failed at this. I wonder what I could have done differently, but I've done everything I can think of and everything that has been suggested that I can find- special soap (which actually was the only thing that got that wet towel FUNK out of my towels. Alann actually suggested buying new towels until I used this soap on them), soaks with baking soda, soaks with vinegar, soaks with hydrogen peroxide, stripping (no soap, no nothing, just lots of water), sun drying. Nothing is cutting the problem. Maybe we will just buy new prefolds and start over? I dunno. I'm at a loss.
As for myself, I've been doing good about exercising. I think this may be the longest I've gone with regular exercise. We are hitting almost two months now I think. (I started around alex's
We are also doing P90X. Alann wanted to, so I agreed to do some of it with him. I am keeping my running, but I am also doing workouts with him alternating days. I'm also in charge of the menu (of course). Which is why I started this whole blog post. We are in the first phase of p90X, and the diet that goes with it is LOW carb. One carb a day (roughly 200 calories or 2 slices of bread). This is a big change for us. We used to eat carbs all day long. I tried to vary the carbs- toast for breakfast, tortilla for lunch, rice for dinner- but we usually had a carb at two of three meals. So it was rough. The first week I put in a pasta dinner, counting it as the carb for the day. That whole day I was looking forward to my pasta dinner. We hadn't eaten pasta in weeks. But it was all I could think about. Since then, we've made some definite improvements in our meal planning ways- trying to spread the calories out throughout the day, lowering some of Alann's requirements because he feels like he is eating WAY too much, and making sure to have carbs at dinner the night before my runs, instead of earlier in the day (this makes a HUGE difference in the way my runs go. I definitely have more energy if I've had the carb at dinner). I've got a spreadsheet that does all the math for me. It's actually kind of nice to have something that tells me what to eat when. It's a lot of work, but it's getting easier as I understand and memorize more of the diet plan. And I can sub stuff in if I know we have leftovers of something. We also decided that Saturday would be a free-day. I just can't deal with a diet plan that tells me to eat "non-fat fruit sorbet" instead of ice cream. So we built in a little freedom, mostly so that I can continue our tradition of weekly homemade pizza. Which brings me to the reason I wanted to blog. Today we had potatoes at breakfast (a carb), Taco Bell for lunch (Claire request- mostly carbs), and then made pizza rolls (basically egg rolls filled with pizza toppings) for dinner with the missionaries. At Taco Bell, I ordered a normal order for me- the nacho supreme and a taco or small burrito. Today was a small burrito. Usually, that fills me up, but isn't too much. Today, I only ate the nachos and about half the burrito (which was good because alex decided he wanted the rest) and I felt like I was going to explode. Like my stomach didn't know what to do with all that carbohydrate- chips and beans (yep- carb according to P90X) and tortilla and rice. Then we had the pizza rolls and I had maybe 3 or 4,  I don't remember, and again, I felt like I was going to explode. Alann said he felt the same way. Then we had brownies for dessert. And after the kids' bath, I felt like I was going to throw up. It was awful nausea for about an hour. Now it has passed, but I can't help but wonder if it was from all the carbs hitting my bloodstream. I can also say that while I do feel full on P90X (and I'm on the lowest calorie level of the diet plan), I never feel like I am SO full like you feel on thanksgiving, that bordering nausea why did I eat all that feeling. It's definitely been an interesting ride so far. It's kind of fun, kind of hard. I really like the P90X yoga routine. I did about 3/4 of it yesterday. It's 90 minutes long. I'm glad I stopped because between that and my run this morning, everything from my belly button to my knees are SHOT. Do not ask them to go up the stairs more than once in an hour. I signed on to P90X for the first phase (or 4 weeks) and then told Alann that we would see. Oh, and I have lost some weight. Not as much as I want to yet, but we are getting there.
So now that I've written for a half hour, I should really get going on my lesson. And I feel better now too, so hopefully I can concentrate.

Stuff about me!

I haven't really mentioned it too much but most of you know that I've been watching a baby the last few months. He was about 2 months when he started coming to me and was almost 5 months on our last day. His parents are both teachers, so are home in the summer. I'm looking forward to having just my two kids again this summer.  It was pretty crazy at times. There were times that I had crying in "surround sound" as Debbie called it- all three crying at once. We got into a good rhythm after a while though.  Grant was fun to have around, and taught Alex and Claire a lot about having a baby around, but it is certainly easier to go out with just the two of them. Claire is too much of a helpy helper and Alex is jealous at times. I'm still considering whether or not I will watch Grant next school year. His mama is pregnant again, so it would be until about Jan/Feb, than she would be on maternity leave for a while, than I guess it would pick back up again with both of them. I'm really not sure about that. Having a 3 year old, an almost 2 year old, a 1 year old, and a newborn. I would definitely never leave during the day, except for maybe playgroup. That just makes things difficult. 

I also have a new job. I'm working for a place called Leapforce. It's basically a "search engine improvement" company. It contracts for a very large search engine company that you have all heard of and that has become a noun recently. I look at search terms and the results that came up and decide if it was a helpful result or not. It's actually pretty great. The pay is nice ($13.5 an hour), and I can work whenever I want for as long as I want. I just log in and take on "tasks". Sometimes, there aren't any (supposedly, but I haven't encountered that yet). I am excited because I can replace my Grant income by working about an hour every day of the week. (actually I would make more if I worked an hour or so a day. So far, I have ended up working longer than an hour a day. I take on a number of tasks and go until they are complete- usually they are 15-20 minute blocks of tasks.) (I was not watching Grant to get rich, mostly to help out a fellow mommy.) So far, I am doing good at it. I've only worked two days, but I've already learned another rating program (other than the first one I had to learn to pass the test and get hired) and now I can do two kinds of tasks instead of just one. They only pay once a month and it's by paper check in the mail. That's the only downside. You would think that the way they operate, using direct deposit would be easier, but whatever. (All independent contractors- no taxes, no employees, no benefits, just straight up work and get paid.) They suggest that you create your invoice (using their software) as you go, and it totals up how much your invoice is worth, so it is pretty motivating to see exactly how much you are going to make. I've always known how much I make an hour, but this makes it very clear and very concrete. There is a definite connection between work and money with this. I'm hoping I can stick with it and be good enough that they don't fire me. They can if my work isn't up to par. So far though, I am rating okay.

I'm also trying to get myself into shape and get healthy. I've started the Couch to 5k running program. I'm on week 2. I think I'm going to try week 3 this week. I seem to prefer the treadmill. I can watch TV on my laptop and it keeps me a little more honest. I push the button to up the speed and have to keep up or fall off. Outside is so muggy now too. Some mornings are okay, but some are just like a sauna. Not okay with that. So the treadmill in the air conditioned basement with a fan on it is quite a bit more appealing. I'm hoping to lose the rest of the baby weight before my friend's wedding in July. It's just an easy goal to keep in mind. I've got about 10-15 pounds to go. I'm running and watching what I eat. Alann wants to do P90X, so we might do some of that together. I'm really focusing more on the "getting fit" part of my goal than the "losing weight". Would I be happy to lose the weight? Obviously. It doesn't bother me too much. But what really bothers me is that I can't go up the staircase without getting winded. It's gotten better than when we first moved in (and since I've lost about 10 pounds) but I still end up not out of breath but definitely breathing harder. And when I end up going up and down several times in a row thanks to children or laundry or whatever, it's difficult. So that's my focus. Getting healthy, being able to go from basement to top floor at a good pace without breathing hard, and hopefully losing the rest of the baby weight.