2019 goals- check-in

Let's check in on my 2019 goals!

1. Eat at least one vegetarian dinner every week. 

Not doing well with this. I have less control as CP is the person to make all of our meals and we certainly eat less red meat than we did a few years ago, but we are not doing vegetarian meals as I had envisioned.

2. Lose 25 pounds this year. 

Ha ha. Dammit. Losing weight is not happening. I've got 6 months to make this happen.

3. Work out for at least 30 minutes at least three times a week. 

This has gone pretty well so far this year. Having to train for the races has kept me at least 

running three times a week but since the half marathon in early June. Starting to travel for 

work has screwed up my consistency but hopefully I can get back into it soon.

4. Continue monthly dates with CP.

We probably have gotten out once a month without the kids. 

5. Get our credit card balance to $0 this year.

Getting my vacation payout from my old job was amazing and it allowed us to pay off our 

credit card debt this month. Woo hoo!

6. Get a new job. 

Done! I love my new job!

7. Continue to be politically active whether it is writing postcards to voters, contacting my

elected officials about things that are important to me, or participating in marches.

8. Run in at least three races this year including the Soldier Field 10 miler.

Done! This spring I did a 10k, Soldier Field 10 miler, and a half marathon.

9. Run one race with Izzy this year.

Still need to find a race to do with Izzy.

Six more months to finish the rest of these!

2019 goals

Since it's almost March, it's probably time to write down my goals for the year. LOL.

1. Eat at least one vegetarian dinner every week. 
While we certainly have been eating less red meat with Weight Watchers, we are eating a lot of chicken. I would like to lessen my environmental impact this year.

2. Lose 25 pounds this year. 

I'm happy with the 25 that I lost last year and would like to lose 25 more to get down to my 

wedding weight.

3. Work out for at least 30 minutes at least three times a week. 

I have started strong so far this year, mostly with 21 Day Fix workouts. I am looking forward 

to Shaun T's new program when it comes out in March and when the weather gets nicer I 

will be spending time running outside.

4. Continue monthly dates with CP.

5. Get our credit card balance to $0 this year.

Recent news stories have me worried about whether we are going to owe taxes this year 

instead of getting a refund....that will certainly hinder our ability to meet this goal but I 

hate throwing money away each month.

6. Get a new job. 

I spent a lot of last year doing informational interviews and working on crafting a good 

resume. I have also spent a lot of time figuring out what exactly I would like to do and what

I have a passion for outside my current job. I have two paths that I am pursing and I would 

like to make 2019 my year to make the jump.

7. Continue to be politically active whether it is writing postcards to voters, contacting my

elected officials about things that are important to me, or participating in marches.

8. Run in at least three races this year including the Soldier Field 10 miler.

I have always wanted to do the Soldier Field 10 miler and I have some other friends on 

board to run this race with me. It's in May so I have some time to prepare.

9. Run one race with Izzy this year.

I need to find a 1 mile race to do with Izzy this year. I think that she would love it!

There we go! Now I have 10.5 months to get these done!

Friday news dump

Ugh! There is simply no time for blogging these days. I also need to catch up on my Feedly reader. That being said, here is what is going on in our lives these days:

-Izzy did great on her first two weeks at her new school. Her good friend at her old school was scheduled to move to a new daycare that hasn't opened yet but I was able to convince her parents to move her kid into the new school instead. Izzy is super excited for her friend to start on Monday! 

-I was supposed to be on a work trip this week to Missouri but it got cancelled. It has now been rescheduled for the very end of November which is fine except I will miss Izzy's birthday. :-( My MIL came into town to help CP out while I was going to be gone, but instead it has just turned into a regular visit. 

My MIL took Izzy for her first manicure

We also all went to the Brookfield Zoo

90+ degrees + no nap= this face

We also went apple picking and Wes got attacked by mosquitoes.....again.

We offered to have her join us on our trip to Cancun next February and she agreed which means we will get at least one night for a dinner to ourselves AND maybe even get to go scuba diving together!

-CP and I will celebrate 9 years of marriage on October 3rd a little early this weekend since we have a built-in babysitter (MIL). I got tickets to see the musical Avenue Q and then we are going out to dinner. Should be nice to have a kid-free night on Saturday.

-Izzy has started up ice skating lessons and tennis lessons for the fall. Poor Wes is in nothing until we will put both kids in swimming for the winter (likely around November).

-No work changes on the horizon any time soon. I continue to try to speak to people and have an in-person informational interview next Thursday. The area that I want to move into doesn't have a ton of positions so I may not go anywhere any time soon. :-( But I am working on my resume with someone to make sure it is ready.

-I'm super excited that although I was wait listed for the Michelle Obama presale tickets, I was able to get tickets for her Chicago event in November! I also got a ticket for my sister and my mom and figured they could be Xmas presents. :-)

-Friends of ours started a Healthy Kids Running Series group in our town and last weekend was the first event (the series runs for 5 weeks). Izzy easily won her 4-5 year old division (they only ran 75 meters and she was taller than any of the other kids). I volunteered to help on the race course for the older kid races and was so sad to see a mother berating her child during the last race (1 mile). Her daughter was in third to last place and the mother (who may have been athletic at one time but was not now) was upset that she was walking (it was 85+ degrees out and sunny). She told her daughter "alright, if you aren't going to try then we are just going home right now. Let's go." The daughter picked up her pace and finished, but I was heartbroken for the kid. These races are supposed to be FUN. I debated saying something to the mother but in the end decided not to. I'm still questioning whether I should have. Thoughts?

-Speaking of running, Izzy has been wanting to do a real race with me so while we were in MI my mom and I took her out for a run. She kept wanted to actually RUN instead of jog and we did some walking, but she ran a mile in less than 14 minutes. We were planning on dropping her off at the house and continuing to run, but then she wanted to run more with us. She ended up running another .5 of a mile, then tripping and falling and walking back home with my mom. I'm pretty proud of that 1.5 miles for her though!

-I ran my first race of the year last Thursday. I went out too fast and ran a 10:15 first mile which is unheard of for me. I ended up running the whole race with an 11:15 average so I slowed down towards the end but for a race at the end of a workday when I also was battling a cold I was okay with the time. 

My favorite tshirt of the night. Paul Manafort joke anyone?

But then this past Wednesday I got home and had 30 minutes to myself while Izzy, CP, and Wes were at ice skating so I laced up my shoes for a run. I was feeling good, but when it started to pour right after the first .5 mile I decided that I was just going to try to run fast since I should probably get inside due to lighting. Needless to say I only got to run 1.5 miles but it was at a 10:30 pace so maybe I need to start pushing myself to go faster? My next (and maybe final race) of the year is at the end of the month.

-This week I got the fantastic news that a college friend of mine (who turned 40 earlier this year) is pregnant! She just turned 40 and I had some in depth conversations with her about IVF, the drugs, etc. so I'm so happy that it worked (her first retrieval didn't go well)! She is due in February and I'm tempted to give her a onesie that says "I love science." :-)

Catching up

I feel like I have no time to blog anymore! This will have to be a short one, mostly with updates.

*I had to push back my neck surgery from June to July because my doctor doesn’t want me traveling for at least two weeks after the surgery. We are scheduled to go camping in Door County, WI for a week less than two weeks after the surgery, so now the surgery will be July 20. 

*CP decided to join Weight Watchers! I was surprised that he was interested but he lost about 15 pounds after he started running a few times a week last year and has since stayed steady. He was getting frustrated that he wasn’t losing any more so this week he joined. He hung out with a work friend on Tuesday night and was shocked to blow through most of his points for the week after three beers, a Reuben sandwich, and fries.  I suspect he will also have an awakening after he starts to seriously track his food intake.

*I was selected to be part of a prestigious leadership program that would have had a few weeks of travel over the next year. A few days before I was scheduled to go, my division’s participation was cancelled by higher ups (no reason given but my boss seems to think it was money-related). To say that I was frustrated would be an understatement. It underscored how unhappy I am at my current job and how, although I have said this before and obviously not followed through, I think that it is time to leave after 10 years here.

*Leaving is not super easy though because I want to leave my industry and move to a new one. So I reached out to friends and contacted two different career counselors to see how they can help and how much money it would cost. I don't just want to jump to any job but I would like to plan out my career a little more. Fingers crossed I can do that with one of these counselors and that it is within our budget.

*Speaking of lots of money, our new patio goes in next week while I am out of town for work. I'm excited to have not only a nice patio but new patio furniture as well! It's actually been warm enough recently where we could eat outside if we had a patio so hopefully we can do that soon.

*Getting older sucks. I have been having trouble with my contacts for a while- blurry vision, dry eyes by the end of the day, etc. so my doctor prescribed some eyelid wipes and a different contact solution. Neither worked so my next step is daily contacts which are more expensive.....and of course the only ones that my eyes will tolerate are the most expensive ones. I also updated my glasses as it has been about 10 years but I wore them all day today and like usual, my nose hurts from not being used to glasses. :-( I should seriously look into LASIK so that I don't have to deal with this anymore.

*My plantar fasciitis has not gone away despite wearing my oh-so-sexy night splint and orthodics every day. This week I made it worse by playing softball with colleagues- running to first base after a hit was painful! The day after was spent working from home, alternating icing my foot and stretching. My next step is to start physical therapy at the end of the month. I've got races to run later this year and I need to start running!

*CP and I were going to spend the weekend mulching but now it is supposed to be cold and rainy all weekend. Then on Mother’s Day I have to drive down to St Louis for a work meeting that starts Monday morning. Booooo. At least I will be out of the office for most of next week.

What is new with you?

2017 Results

Last year I posted my 2017 goals. How did I do? Well, it was a mixed bag.

1. Dress up more on the weekends and when I am at home. It's so easy to throw on a sweatshirt and yoga pants to do anything and everything on the weekends. I have really been trying to make an effort to dress up for dinners out with the family and to look a bit nicer in general when I go out in public. I have continued my goal of doing my hair and putting on makeup more often so the next step is my clothes. :-)

RESULT: I did a pretty good job. I have upgraded my wardrobe more and don't wear yoga pants EVERY day on the weekends. :-)

2. Continue to send paper cards to friends for their birthdays. This has been a goal for the past couple of years and I have kept it up. I know how much I love receiving mail and think that my friends would too (I do get thank yous from friends every year. They are also amazed that I remember- well, generally I don't but I use a free website called birthday-reminders.com. I input birthdays and I get an email 7 days beforehand which gives me time to buy a card and send it! (If I was smart I would buy all the cards for a year ahead of time but I like to personalize the card for each friend.)

RESULT: Success! I think that I only missed one card this year and I took Lacey's suggestion of stocking up on cards ahead of time so that I didn't have to run out for a card every time I had a birthday coming up.

3. The usual lose weight goal. I'm back at 208 but really want to be at 190 by the end of the year. I've got to do better about eating healthy- especially while I am still BF so that I can burn the extra calories!

RESULT: Big fat fail. I'm now more like 220 so now I have even more weight to lose this year. :-(

4. Part of that weight goal will include working on being more active. Right now during the week I am going from 5am to about 8:30pm (depending on when the kids get to bed). I'm not sure I have it in me to wake up before 5am to exercise. I do take Buster on walks three days a week (Sat, Sun, and my telework day), but my body is itching for MORE and HARDER exercise. This goal will get easier once I am no longer breastfeeding as I will get that time back. For now, I would like my goal to be to work out 4 days a week.

RESULT: Mixed. Starting in May I would wake up at 5am to work out a few times a week. I was doing great with running until I left for TX in November and have since fallen off the wagon. So for about half the year I was getting up early to exercise.

5. Spend more quality time with CP. I would love if we could take a trip, or even just stay overnight in downtown Chicago, just the two of us later this year. We try hard to have one date night every month- thank goodness my mom is willing and able to babysit!

RESULT: Success! CP and I got away for a weekend around his birthday to eat meals without the kids and to see Hamilton. It was really nice!

6. Breastfeed Wes *at least* as long as I breastfed Izzy. I don't think that this one will be too hard. Wes is now 6 months old and I made it 7.5 months before Izzy decided she no longer wanted to nurse....so I don't have that long to go. Best case scenario I breastfeed until the end of winter. I would be okay with mostly formula feeding and then maybe nursing in the morning and at night as he gets closer to the age of 1. 

RESULT: Success! I was able to breastfeed Wes longer than I breastfed Izzy although my body stopped producing milk before I was ready to stop. 

7. Run in at least two races this year. I don't care the distance, but participating in races makes me more accountable with my running!

RESULT: Success! I ran in 4 races this year- three 5Ks and one 15K. I ran a total of 171.24 miles this year in 9 out of the 12 months of the year. My biggest month was October when I ran 37.68 miles (also the month that I ran the 15K).

I'm still mulling over my 2018 goals. What is your #1 2018 goal?

Pre-Christmas Bullets

Let's post about something other than a birthday, shall we? But because Christmas is only in a few days, I only have time for bullets.

• While TX was a fantastic experience and I'm really glad that I went, it totally screwed up my workout routine. I had been running 3 times a week and the weekend before I left ran 9.3 miles. I only had the opportunity to run twice while in TX and when I got back, I felt out of shape. I have run a couple of times, but have started up T25, a Beachbody workout that I forgot I bought the DVDs secondhand about a year ago. So far so good as the workouts are only 25 minutes long so I can do it in the morning, but with the dark mornings it sure is hard to get up. Plus....I have been having heel pain in my left foot for the past couple of months. I pushed through it but I definitely hobble when I get up in the morning, so I finally went to see a doctor about it. No break, but I likely have a deep tissue contusion, probably from the pounding from running (which has not been helped by the jumping/ high impact workouts from T25), so I have been ordered by the doctor to do low impact stuff for the next few weeks and wear heel cups to lessen the impact of walking. Fingers crossed my heel gets better soon!

• In the meantime, CP got some scary results of some bloodwork (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.) so he has been running three times a week on the treadmill at night after the kids are asleep. I am PSYCHED about this because he is doing great. He watches Narcos on tv and works out for 45 minutes. Hopefully this will help get his body in better shape.

• We also have changed our diet to eat more vegetarian meals. Here is what we put together:

1. Goals
   1. Eat healthy
   2. Lower food bills
   3. Faster prep during week
   4. Lose weight
2. Weekly Dinner Structure
   1. 3 day x vegetarian
   2. 1 day x egg or fish as protein
   3. 1 day x pasta
   4. 1 day x  eat out
   5. 1 day x no-rules day
3. Rules of the House
   1. Dinner should include:
      1.        Main
      2.        Veggie Side
      3.         Grain/ carb
      4.      Fruit dessert during the week
   2. No sugary sweets to be purchased
   3. No ice-cream purchased at grocery store
   4. Reduce cheese to < 8 oz/ week for house
   5. Use whole grains where practical
   6. Use  lean meats where practical

• So far I think that it is going well. I don't miss meat and usually end up having it on the day that we eat out and on Saturday, which is usually our "no rules" day. During the week for breakfast I have something with eggs and for lunch, I have been bringing veggies with usually some kind of soup from our freezer. CP has lost some weight between running and our new diet, I haven't seen a change so far...which leads me to the next bullet....

• I'm contemplating getting rid of my IUD. Sure it's nice to not have a period as often, but I have little to no interest in being with CP throughout most of the month and I have gained weight. Plus I keep seeing reports on birth control causing cancer. Why is it always on the woman to prevent pregnancy? After the New Year I am seriously considering sitting down CP and having a talk that he needs to get a vasectomy done. We know we don't want anymore kids and I want to feel normal again. I am not going through any more surgery, so it's time for him to step up. I don't think that the talk is going to go well, so wish me luck!

• Finally, with Christmas upon us I think that I am a little bit depressed to be in a dog-less home. We have ornaments on the tree with pictures of both Buster and Koda, a magnet of both dogs up in the house, and a picture we bring out every Christmas of the two dogs and my sister's first dog (still alive, but it is an amazing picture of all three dogs in front of the Christmas tree). I see dogs in our neighborhood, on tv, etc. and they just make me sad. Buster's death, most likely because he was so young, feels so....unfinished. :-(

• I think that I have said this before, but I do think that it is important to have a pet around when kids are young because they learn valuable skills like taking care of something other than themselves and for infants, learning "gentle" is key. CP and I have discussed possibly getting a cat because although I am not a huge fan of them (maybe I could be?), they are easier and less expensive to take care of (meaning they don't eat $100 worth of food a month and need to go to doggie daycare while we are at work). We'll see. I think that I am more ready to have another pet in our lives than CP right now because our house feels so empty. Maybe sometime this spring we can visit a shelter to see if there is a cat to bring into our family.

• Next week CP and I took off the week to work on some projects around the house while the kids are at daycare. Hopefully we are able to get a lot done!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate it). This can often be a hard time of year for people, but hopefully it is full of fun, laughter, and great memories with people that you love. 

Deployment

Last week I was asked to deploy down to TX for Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts through work. They originally asked for me to go down for the entire month of November, but that wasn't feasible either for my work here or in my personal life. They still want me for the time that I am able to spend down there so I will be going for 18 days starting on November 1st. I then cleared it with both my boss and CP.

The next day while I was at work I got the following email from CP:

Can you give some thought to what you typically do, that I don’t do around the house-

·         Laundry

·         Clean bathrooms

Also, since I will be less mobile with the kids, can you think of any shopping items that we should stock up so that I don’t get caught with kids in bed and needing to run out to stores for stuff:

·         Dog food

·         Diapers

·         Wipes

This email made me laugh because CP can only come up with two things that I do around the house that he doesn't do and they are laundry and clean bathrooms?? I mean, sure, laundry is a big one but really? How about cleaning basically the entire house (he will clean the kitchen but that is mostly filling/emptying the dishwasher and wiping down counters)? Remembering what the kids need to wear or bring to school almost every day? Etc. I'm happy that he is thinking ahead, but it just made me laugh because I have sent him a few articles on the mental workload of a mother and he has basically poo-pooed them.

I never had to email him before he left for any of his one or two week work trips asking him what needs to get purchased or what I need to think about while he was gone...because I just did it! The one thing that CP usually did before he would leave for a long trip that helped was to cook a big meal so that I had food for a few days while he was gone. I mean honestly.

I'm not sure if CP ended up reaching out to his mom or if she happened to call him, but on Sunday she booked a trip to come out here for two weeks while I am gone so he won't have to worry about most of this stuff anyway. Not that I would expect her to come out to help me while he was away on a work trip, but where was the support for me when he was traveling to Thailand for half the month for 9 months in a row when Izzy was an infant? 

On one hand I was wanting CP to do the 18 days by himself to see what it is really like to be the sole person to drop off and pick up at daycare, to hustle around during the kids' waking hours as the only adult in the house, and to be organized and on top of things. I wanted him to know how hard it has been when he was traveling a lot. Does that make me a terrible person? I guess it would just be nice to get some recognition that parenting while the other person travels is difficult. On the other hand, I'm happy that he is going to get some help.

*Sigh* Men.

8 years

Today is our 8 year wedding anniversary! It's funny, looking back over the years of this blog, I haven't always remembered to post about it and it hasn't always been a good time of the year.

2016- CP was traveling for work and I was home on one of my last maternity leave days with Wes. 

2015- We were in the depths of IVF #2 drugs and about to get my cycle transferred to an IUI. I made a quick note of going out for our anniversary, but that's it. 

2014- CP was in Thailand, I had a horrible day at work, and then had to take Buster to the emergency vet that night. 

2013- CP was traveling for work, my job was affected by the government shutdown, and I was heavily pregnant with Izzy. 

2012- I found out that I had another fibroid despite having surgery the year before to remove some.

2011- Dealing with the upcoming fibroid (and endo!) surgery. 

2010- Only a year into our wedding and a few months into trying to get pregnant. Still fairly hopeful. 

My how things change in 8 years! And frankly, I now hope that with family building behind us, our anniversaries will be a little better. This weekend my mom will be watching the kids while CP and I go out to dinner and catch a comedy show.

This year the world may be going to sh*t with islands in the Caribbean totally destroyed from the hurricanes, the massacre in Las Vegas, and a racist dictator as our President, but CP is not traveling and personally things are going okay for our little family unit. Our house renovation is basically complete, CP and I are in stable jobs (as far as we know), and we have our health (white privilege at its best).

What will next year bring?

Wednesday Bullets

*Memorial Day Weekend we headed up to MI to my parent's place. We had a fun weekend, but I think that going to a local carnival was Izzy's favorite. She got to ride on her first "rollercoaster", ferris wheel, and other toddler rides. She had a BLAST. She keeps telling us that she is going to eat lots of fruits and vegetables this year so that next year she can go on the ride that goes upside down (LOL).

Izzy enjoying her first "rollercoaster"

Add caption

*This weekend we took Wes to the pool for the first time. He has always liked to splash in the bathtub and doesn't mind when water runs in his face, but we still had no idea how he would react. It took him a few minutes, but he had a blast splashing at the pool while in our arms. CP even dunked him once to see his reaction and it didn't phase him at all!

Splashing in our homemade water table

*CP was offered the position for the job with less travel and a shorter commute! He is currently in negotiations with the company about the signing bonus because we stand to lose some money if he jumps over and takes their current offer (b/c of his current bonus structure with his company). We'll see!

*I'm just so proud of Izzy. She brought this home the other day- she was trying to spell her name. Sure she missed the B and the S is sideways but she spelled and wrote it all by herself!

*CP spent a lot of this past weekend painting Wes' room. It is one of the rooms that is not getting touched in the renovation, but ever since we painted it before Izzy was born, I sort of hated it. It was great for a baby's room, but it was time to re-think the room now that Wes will be a toddler soon (AHH!). We picked Benjamin Moore's Labrador Blue for the walls and BM's Patriotic White for the ceiling. It looks 10 million times better. Now I might try to find some dinosaur decals to put on the walls!

*Running is going well. Because CP spent a bunch of time painting this past weekend the first chance that I got to go running was not until Sunday afternoon- when it was 92 and disgusting out. I ran anyway....only going two miles, but I was proud that I went out there and did it anyway. I currently have a cold (along with Izzy and Wes) so waking up this week to workout has been a struggle, but I was able to push myself to run this morning. 

*Related to running, one of my motivators to run is seeing how many steps I get after even a short run. I have been doing a lot of challenges with Amber through the Fitbit app and they are so motivating!! Amber is the only person I know of the people participating but who cares? I want to beat everyone!! :-) When I don't have lunchtime meetings I have been stepping out of my office to go for a 15-30 minute walk at work as well.

*I thought that the Seasonale pill was going to be the answer to my birth control, but instead I'm halfway through the second month of pills and have had a light period for more than a week. Ugh. With all of this talk about dropping the requirement that birth control is covered from this administration, I finally made an appointment to get an IUD (Mirena) put it at the end of the month. That way I will be covered for five years and hopefully my period will go away completely. Fingers crossed!

*At the end of the month Wes has to see an ENT for the ear infection that he just can't clear. He may have to get tubes. :-(

*Thanks for all of your coffee suggestions the other day. My coworker suggested that I try the $.99 Iced Mocha Coffee from Dunkin Donuts so I went for it this afternoon. It is TERRIBLE. I even dumped some more sugar in it after getting back to the office. I am going to need a lot of gum after I muddle my way through this to get the taste out of my mouth. I think this is going to be harder than I thought....

YUCK!

Work stuff

Last night I got home from a quick work trip to DC and I was happy to be home. I did enjoy getting away from the kids for two nights, but was sad that I got home too late to see them before they went to bed. I only Facetimed with them once while I was gone so I was hard core missing them. I gave out a lot of kisses and hugs this morning after everyone woke up. :-)

While I was gone, CP had a phone call with the HR person at the company that reached out to him. While he doesn't have enough managerial experience on his resume for the job they originally touched base about (mainly because his current company made him a supervisor almost a year ago and has yet to place any employees under him), there is a new job that is opening that may be an even better fit. It would only be 10-15% travel (his current job is supposed to be 25-30% but it is much more) and more money. Also, the person that could be his manager is new to the position so when CP talks to him tomorrow on the phone, he can give suggestions on what the job could look like. (How cool would that be- to be able to craft your job!)

So now my fingers are crossed that this is going to be a good fit for CP. His commute would get shorter, he would get paid more, and he would travel less. Our lives could be more consistent and both the kids and I would be happier if CP was traveling less. CP also wants to be around more so hopefully this is a win-win for everyone!

2017 Goals

Seeing that it is almost February, it's probably time to write down my 2017 goals, right? LOL.

1. Dress up more on the weekends and when I am at home. It's so easy to throw on a sweatshirt and yoga pants to do anything and everything on the weekends. I have really been trying to make an effort to dress up for dinners out with the family and to look a bit nicer in general when I go out in public. I have continued my goal of doing my hair and putting on makeup more often so the next step is my clothes. :-)

2. Continue to send paper cards to friends for their birthdays. This has been a goal for the past couple of years and I have kept it up. I know how much I love receiving mail and think that my friends would too (I do get thank yous from friends every year. They are also amazed that I remember- well, generally I don't but I use a free website called birthday-reminders.com. I input birthdays and I get an email 7 days beforehand which gives me time to buy a card and send it! (If I was smart I would buy all the cards for a year ahead of time but I like to personalize the card for each friend.)

3. The usual lose weight goal. I'm back at 208 but really want to be at 190 by the end of the year. I've got to do better about eating healthy- especially while I am still BF so that I can burn the extra calories!

4. Part of that weight goal will include working on being more active. Right now during the week I am going from 5am to about 8:30pm (depending on when the kids get to bed). I'm not sure I have it in me to wake up before 5am to exercise. I do take Buster on walks three days a week (Sat, Sun, and my telework day), but my body is itching for MORE and HARDER exercise. This goal will get easier once I am no longer breastfeeding as I will get that time back. For now, I would like my goal to be to work out 4 days a week.

5. Spend more quality time with CP. I would love if we could take a trip, or even just stay overnight in downtown Chicago, just the two of us later this year. We try hard to have one date night every month- thank goodness my mom is willing and able to babysit!

6. Breastfeed Wes *at least* as long as I breastfed Izzy. I don't think that this one will be too hard. Wes is now 6 months old and I made it 7.5 months before Izzy decided she no longer wanted to nurse....so I don't have that long to go. Best case scenario I breastfeed until the end of winter. I would be okay with mostly formula feeding and then maybe nursing in the morning and at night as he gets closer to the age of 1. 

7. Run in at least two races this year. I don't care the distance, but participating in races makes me more accountable with my running!

Microblog Mondays: snoring

I seriously need to get CP into a sleep study or maybe into a doctor that can prescribe a treatment for snoring. He just laughs and says that I should be able to sleep through his snoring, but most of the time he falls asleep first and his snoring is so loud that I can't fall asleep. A perfect example was last night- we both went to bed at the same time. He fell right asleep (how can men do that?) and started heavily snoring. Sometimes my go-to trick to stop him from snoring is to have him roll on his side but he was already there. I lay in bed getting angrier and angrier because I was so tired (which of course doesn't help me fall asleep)....so after a few minutes I headed downstairs to sleep on the couch. Wes woke me up at 1am (grrr) and I tried to go back into bed at 1:30 but once again, CP was snoring so I went back downstairs. It certainly didn't help that Wes woke me up AGAIN at 4am to eat (grrrr); I was able to get into bed around 4:20 and juuuuust fall asleep before my alarm woke me up at 5am.

This is not ideal. We have a comfortable couch but it is certainly not as comfortable as a bed. Not to mention that it would be nice to, you know, sleep next to my husband when he is actually here. Anyone know how you get your partner into a sleep study? Or have you worked with a doctor on a treatment such as a mouthguard that made a difference? I know that his snoring would lessen if he lost some weight but trying to figure out how to broach that subject without hurting any feelings would be tough.

Signed,

Someone who is seriously cranky from lack of sleep

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Insanity of life

In the first two weeks of Wes' life we had lots of other things going on in addition to a newborn.

*Two days after we got home from the hospital with Wes, he had a breathing episode. I had to call 911 and he and I had an ambulance ride to the hospital while CP rushed from work. We aren't quite sure what happened as by the time we got to the hospital he was doing better, but it was quite a scare. Thankfully he has yet to give us another scare since then.

*Izzy got a stomach bug which included blood in her stool and loose stool for TWO weeks. Thankfully Wes didn't get it but I had to collect her poop three different days for testing and that was....interesting. 

*CP got a sty on the lower eyelid on his left eye. It is actually still there (slowly going away) which is making CP very self concious because he has been traveling the past three weeks.

*About a week after getting out of the hospital I got hit in the uterus by one of Izzy's toddler friends- basically running into me to give me a big hug. I had stopped bleeding but that impact made me bleed for a few days. I also had some pain inbetween my ribs which picking up Izzy, sneezing, or coughing. During my 6 week follow up appointment with my OB, she said that my upper abs haven't completely come back together so if I am not careful I could get a hernia that comes through the fascia. Let's just say that I haven't been doing any ab workouts recently...

*I know that I have referenced the fact that we are expanding our house next year. Well in order to do so, we needed to refinance our mortgage. We had the "closing" only a week after Wes was born- thankfully they came to our house for the signing.

*We also bought a new car only a few days after the refinance signing. We ended up going with the Mazda CX5 and so far CP loves it. I was really sad to see the Prius go but now CP can have both kids AND Buster in the car which is necessary for pickups after work once I am done with maternity leave.

*Eight days after Wes was born we had a photographer come to our house to take newborn photos. I shared those with you last week.

*To top it off, CP noticed that the sump pump in our basement kept working despite no rain. He realized that there was mud in the water which meant that we likely had a broken pipe outside. CP had to dig out two of the large plants in our front yard so that the plumber could come the next day to figure out what was going on. The plumber ended up replacing a few feet of pipe from the house towards the street which was expensive. (About a month later we suddenly had a water leak from our only full bathroom upstairs onto the stairs on the first floor (the only room in the house that we didn't fully update). The plumber also had to come out for that and replace some pipes....so now we have two large holes in our ceiling in our entry way that will just stay open until next spring when we start to renovate. Awesome.)

*My MIL ended up staying for two weeks which was nice, but way too long of a stay when you are homebound due to a c-section surgery. However, she did help me make black out curtains for Izzy's room which was awesome (and gave us something to do). 


FYI: I'm slowly getting through posts that should have been written and posted a while ago but I'm just getting to them. Things will get a little more regular around here when I am back at work in a little more than two weeks. (gulp!)

Current mood: annoyed

At 35 1/2 weeks pregnant, I would say that my current mood about almost everything is annoyed.

-Last week CP traveled to New Orleans. This week he is in Puerto Rico. Next week he is in North Carolina. I keep trying to tell myself that it is probably best that he is traveling while I am still pregnant and hopefully it cuts down on the travel that he has after the baby is born (at least in the beginning), but there is no guarantee. 

-For over a week now I have been limping around. I have some unexplained pain on the top of my left foot. It's not red or swollen so after emailing my OB, she wasn't concerned about it being pregnancy-related, but despite me icing it every day, sometimes multiple times a day, the pain is still there. Google searching hasn't come up with anything specific so maybe I will try to get to my primary care physician tomorrow to see if it is anything important? I'm sure the extra weight of being pregnant is not helping matters, but I am wearing sneakers every day at work (switching to appropriate shoes when I have an important meeting) and walking slowly from the train to my office. I also often have an extra 35 pounds on me as Izzy is asking to be picked up so much these days....

-This past weekend we had a crawfish boil party, mainly to celebrate CP's 40th birthday two weeks before. It was 93 degrees out so I basically sweat the entire day. While we were getting ready for the party I was outside squatting down to pick something up (quite a chore these days) and heard a "riiiiiiiiippp." Sure enough I split my maternity capri pants. That was quite the ego booster.

-After today is over I only have 11 days left of work. I hate to say it but between my problem employee (who is quite a problem these days), and things not going so well (but out of my control) on a project, I am looking forward to the three months away. 

-Izzy has hit the "why" stage in that every.single.question. out of her mouth is "why?" I know that it is a specific stage of development and that it is good that she is so curious but I run out of answers pretty quickly.

-I feel terrible that during the week, my interaction with Izzy is more rushed and trying to hurry her- whether it is to get dressed, to go to the bathroom, to get in the car, to sit down to dinner, to brush her teeth, etc. I wish that there was more time in general to relax with her during the week- I just feel like we are not having any "fun" during the week (especially with CP gone). I know that I should be savoring these last few weeks with her as only one kid but solo parenting makes it 10 times more difficult and I have less patience these days.

Mostly I just feel rushed and not ready to have two kids yet. On the other hand, I am ready to not be pregnant anymore. July 15th is going to come very quickly....

Almost 34 week doctor appointment

It's been three weeks since my last appointment with my doctor and thankfully nothing exciting has been happening so it was a semi-boring visit (I'm just fine with it staying that way). Baby boy has been performing some big movements recently which surprised me because I guess I thought he didn't have a lot of room in there. Today it looks like he is breech because a strong heartbeat could be found for the first time towards the top of my belly. Breech doesn't cause an issue with a scheduled c-section but it does mean that a pediatrician will be in the delivery room if he stays that way (hospital policy).

Otherwise, I am feeling better than I was last time at 34 weeks. Biff and Harry the hemorrhoids are still hanging around, but aren't causing any issues so that's helpful. I am sleeping better- I remember getting up to pee every hour and needing to change positions every hour last time- again, still having to pee once or twice a night, but it's not an every hour sort of thing (not yet at least). Baby boy doesn't feel like he is pushing up on my lungs and making it hard to breathe (doctor attributed that to the fact that my ligaments have already stretched so baby is sitting a little lower this time around). I'm not taking Tums three or four times a day, so I'm guessing that this baby is not coming out with a lot of hair (if the old wives tale is true)? And while I would love a nap most days, I am not struggling without one- although I am likely drinking more caffeine than I did with Izzy (I tried not to drink any with her). No caffeine this time around would NOT be possible.

That being said, I am super emotional. The last two nights I have been crying. The first night was towards the end of CP's 40th birthday and I felt bad that I didn't make it more special (it was a Tuesday night)...but I was exhausted and sometime exhaustion makes me cry. I went to bed over an hour earlier than usual which was very necessary. Yesterday I had a rough day at work where my problem employee was causing me lots of stress, then I came home to a manical Izzy who was overtired and upset about everything (example: she was mad that I wouldn't give her a popsicle before dinner). She was hitting and kicking me and generally melting down while CP was asking me to bring plates and stuff outside for dinner, then CP made a snarky comment about not helping and I just dissolved into tears because I was doing my best to handle Izzy and couldn't do two things at once. He apologized, but I just felt like I couldn't do anything right. Argh.

But back to the doctor appointment- I did talk to her about tying my tubes during my c-section. She said that recovery is a bit tougher, but that it wouldn't affect my hormones at all. I would still get the same period as usual and the procedure would lengthen the amount of time I am in surgery (of course). If I had a lot of scar tissue then they wouldn't make a huge effort to tie the tubes. I then asked whether birth control would be a the better option for me because of my previous history of endo and my ongoing issue with fibroids. She did say that birth control or the Mirena IUD could be good options because they could keep some hormones in check and could slow/stop the growth of both conditions. Many women go on birth control between ages 45-50 anyway as odd issues with periods like heavy flows, sporadic bleeding and hot flashes tend to happen. I have to talk to CP, but I really am leaning towards the birth control or possibly the IUD. I really don't want a longer recovery than need be. I'm already going through a major surgery- why complicate things even more? And while I am adamant that this is my last baby, what if something happened to my kids? Would I want to have another one? I hate to shut the door just in case.

Needless to say, Baby boy is growing well and had a strong heartbeat. My next appointment is in two weeks where I will finally get another ultrasound to see how he is doing.

Microblog Mondays: Supervisor

Well, I was going to post about how potty training went this weekend, but will save that for tomorrow because this morning I received a tentative offer for the Supervisor position at work! YAY! I was getting worried because I hadn't heard anything, but should have known that HQ needed a few days to get everything together to make an offer. Once I pass the background check (which shouldn't be difficult considering I already work here) I will be good to go!

Not only will this be a nice raise for me, but today CP got word of his annual raise and bonus at work so this is a good day for the NSC household!


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Microblog Mondays: Great father

Whoa jet lag (and/or pregnancy insomnia?). I got a whopping 4.5 hours of sleep last night so today is going to be a rough day of work.

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Today I wanted to salute my husband CP. Izzy is on a bit of a "daddy is my favorite" kick right now which while it made me a little sad, was also sort of nice and made our trip to Hawaii a bit more relaxing (for me at least). I have been her favorite for the past two years so it's nice that he is getting a turn. We decided that since we never use the stroller at home we wouldn't bring one to Hawaii and instead would bring the hiking backpack for hikes through the National Park. Usually I like to wear on the backpack because I get a workout carrying around Izzy's 30+ pound frame but because the straps would hit me right on my baby belly, CP took over as Izzy's personal Hodor for the week (sorry non-GOT fans- you may not get that reference). I carried Izzy a little on my hip but CP did most of the carrying if Izzy got tired from walking around too much. He never complained and Izzy had a blast.

Izzy on CP's shoulders while hiking Pu'u Huluhulu (Hairy Hill) 

I also love how we trade off on getting up with Izzy if she wakes up during the night. I know some wives complain about their husbands' sleeping through crying at night and CP certainly did that sometimes when Izzy was an infant. But really, as soon as I went back to work and Izzy started sleeping through the night we would take turns getting up when she cried. Last night I couldn't sleep so when Izzy cried out in her sleep at 11:30, CP sat up with a start and was ready to go into her room. Luckily she put herself back to sleep within 20 seconds but around 3am she started crying for us. I took the first shift, then when she woke up later, he took the next shift. Teamwork at its best.

I know that CP won't see this blog post but I made sure to thank him this week and this morning for being so awesome.

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