picture update

Blogger has gone beserk. Sorry for the poor formatting, the underlining and also the lack of captions. This sorry looking post has taken me hours spread over the course of multiple days...I am seriously considering starting a new blog that's not a Blogger blog. Anyway, the following pictures are of the following:

1) Clark at the Miners' birthday bash. With one exception, this was the first time we'd celebrated his birthday since before middle school. He looks pretty happy. (My mom, Clark and I each got our own cake!!! It was rather amazing.)

2) Lydia found her foot!

3) Lydia and I enjoy a cuddle after our morning hike in Arches National Park. One of the perks of Abe's new job is that one of his accounts is a mine near Moab, so if Lydia and I go with him we can have fun at Arches!

4) Grams with Lydia. Lydia is in her party dress. Whenever we put it on her, she wiggles and grins in delight.

5) Abe, Lydia and I posing for a picture in front of an Arch. We didn't realize the hike was going to get slightly tricky...as you can see, I am wearing a skirt and flip flops!

6) This past Saturday we celebrated Jere's birthday by driving to Cascade Springs and taking a little hike. It was so fun and pretty! David was there, but he's not in the picture because he's busy taking it. =)

rewards and a question for you moms

So I am starting a weight loss program, inspired by a friend's program she blogged about recently. I am soooooooooo tired of my mommy belly! And I want to get pregnant again. I know, I know...I spent nine months whining about how much I hated being pregnant, and I really don't enjoy pregnancy. But I do want to have other babies in my lifetime, and so I'm willing to undergo the accompanying yuck that precedes the baby. Lydia needs siblings. But the only problem is that I am still carrying way too much extra weight, and I don't think that would be a healthy starting point for pregnancy, so here I go!

1) No sugary treats. Period. (Aggghhhh!! This is SO hard for me, but I think it will be worth it...please tell me it will be worth it!!)
2) Exercise minimum five days a week. Make a weekly exercise program and follow that.
3) Eat only three meals and one snack a day.

Goals: Get down to 155 lbs by the end of September and, if I don't get pregnant before, get down to 135 lbs by December.

Abe and I came up with a google doc that tracks my points for adhering to these goalsrewards program yesterday, but I already want to revise it. I couldn't think of anything I really want besides more time with Abe, and he can't really control that factor, so I just said that I wanted an iPad if I earn 275 points (there's a max earning of 280 points according to our plan). But when I was exercising this morning, the iPad had zero motivating power. So now I am thinking of switching that to a really nice camera so that I can take pictures of Lydia. It would be nice if she could look back and feel loved. Right now my camera is missing in action, so she will probably think we forgot about her during the move to Utah.

Oh, and I want a picture of my aura taken. I think I get that after 100 points, but I'll have to check the document. Apparently, they can map your aura in colors after taking a special photo! Isn't that cool?

This will be a struggle, though. I have already eaten two meals and one snack, and it's only 4:45!! I wonder if I can revise the rules so I can have an extra fruit snack. Since I am still nursing, it feels hard to make such long stretches between meals.

From the Lydia front: she rolled from her back to her stomach for the first time today! It was so cute. Too bad my camera is missing--otherwise I could post a cute picture!

She also has been on a very weird schedule lately. Every other day she barely takes any naps (no matter how much effort is put into getting her to go down), and then the day after a no-nap day, she'll sleep almost all day. Today is a sleep-all-day day, so I have already worked out, taken her on our stroll to the grocery store, done two loads of laundry, and cooked dinner. I tremble when I think of how unproductive tomorrow (a no-nap day) will be...

I want to put her on a schedule, but I am going to wait until we are settled to do that. Right now we are still at Tom and Suzanne's, and since we're moving in a week or two, it doesn't make sense to put her on a schedule only to get that all jostled in a move. Also, I suspect putting her on a schedule involves a bit of cry it out...and it would be better if that weren't inflicted on the ears of anyone but me (and occasionally Abe). I really need to read up on this, but I don't have a library card yet. Have any of you put your babies on a schedule? How do you do it?  I would LOVE your input!!!

Ever since Abe got home from his trip yesterday, life has been great. I didn't expect him until yesterday evening, but he got up at 4am and surprised me by showing up at 11am. It was sooooooo nice! I know this sounds morbid, but we walked to the city cemetery (just a couple blocks away) and found the spots his dad and stepmom bought a while back. They got eight spots together in this amazing part of the cemetery close to some of the prophets and really close to Porter Rockwell (Joseph Smith's body guard).

I love spending time in cemeteries, and it felt so peaceful to visit such a nice spot with Abe, Lydia, and his dad. We also got a nice laugh out of one of the graves on our way back. Some guy thinks he is Hyrum Smith reincarnated, and so he bought himself a grave near the Hyrum Smith monument. For his full story, the tombstone refers you to his website! I probably shouldn't laugh because I am sure this person feels sure that he is actually Hyrum Smith, and his paradigm deserves respect...but I wasn't good enough to suppress my laughter when I read his tombstone.

And then today we drove up to Park City to watch the movie Forks Over Knives. It was awesome. Here's a link to the trailer:http://www.forksoverknives.com/ Of course, I am biased because I read The China Study and came away totally convinced that we need to be eating plant based diets. The movie is basically The China Study in cinematic form, but it was still motivating.

Lydia was a star during the movie. Normally I don't let her watch any type of TV or film, but I thought that this could be an exception. She was totally taken with the movie and stared mesmerized until she got excited and started vocalizing back to the people on the screen. At that point, I took her out of the theater, but she was in a really happy mood for the whole hour and a half. I didn't need to do anything except walk around with her, and she just looked at everything around her. She is totally enthralled by life. I love my sweet baby.

Yay! Abe is home! He was out for a late night inspection, so I started blogging to pass the time. And now the time is successfully passed!

We moved!

Warning: I am tired. I just reread this blog and noticed many instances of poor syntax. I am really too tired to fix these parts, but I am too embarrassed to do nothing. So this is something. You are warned!

It is time for a blog update. We now live in Utah. Surprise! It has been a craaaazy couple weeks, but for those who do not yet know the story, here it is:

About a month or so ago, Abe and I wrote down our life dream. It included, among other things, living in Salt Lake. We didn't know how that would happen, but we thought that maybe, if we were lucky, Abe could get a job transfer in a couple of years.

Fast forward to Thursday, June 23 of this year. I was cooking in the kitchen loving my little Chicago home. In the middle of my peaceful thoughts, I got a call from Abe. He told me he'd been trying to call me all day (I am very bad about answering my phone), and that he hoped it was okay with me that he had pretty much accepted a position in Salt Lake and was flying out to NYC immediately to interview with his company CEO to make everything formal.

I asked him when we were supposed to move and found out that Abe's new position started on July 1st. We had one week to pack up, get our condo ready to sell, and move.

It was a little stressful.

Thank goodness for Abe's family! They just happened to be in town that week, so I had help. I really don't think I could have done it alone, especially with Lydia. But there were so many heroes who came to our rescue. Abe's brothers, my brother, Abe's stepmom, uncle and cousin all pitched in when they were in town. Huge thank yous to all of them! And then the day before our flight to Utah, Abe and I worked from 3am to 1pm to finish everything up.

It was hard to say goodbye to friends in Chicago/Evanston, and I don't know if we'll go back anytime soon. I grew up there, and so it felt very odd thinking that by the time I get back there, things might have really changed. But who knows? Maybe we'll visit sooner than we think. My grandma lives in Springfield, and we really want to visit her, so we'll just have to see how everything plays out.

And now we are in Utah living happily ever after. No, really, it is wonderful to have so many friends and family members everywhere. And I love having so many babysitters!! Before I told Abe we weren't ever going to do anything without Lydia because I am super scared of leaving Lydia with anyone besides family. Since we didn't really have any family in Chicago (except when Clark was in town), we never ever left Lydia. Now we can theoretically go on dates again, assuming Abe is ever home.

He travels 1500 miles a week in his new job. I don't think I'm exaggerating, but I wouldn't know because I can't actually ask Abe if I'm exaggerating since  he is on a work trip. Ugh. That is the only part of this that I don't really like. I hate being apart so much! But, thankfully, I have lovely people around to distract me. For example, today I took a beautiful walk in City Creek Canyon with my mom and Lydia. I can see my mom all the time now! It is rather heavenly.

We are currently living with his dad and stepmom until we move into a house Abe's mom is renting to us. I am grateful to his mom for being so sweet, moving out and giving us such an amazing deal on her house, but I can't lie--I love not having to be alone during Abe's trips right about now. His dad and stepmom have been so fun, and I love visiting with them and watching them interact with Lydia. I keep wanting to throw myself pity parties about how much Abe has to be away, but it is hard to do that when I get to hang out with Tom and Suzanne. Suzanne calls Tom the "baby whisperer" because Lydia adores him. When we are at our wits' end trying to calm her down, all Tom has to do is pick her up, and she's a calm happy baby again. It's amazing! I don't know what I'll do when I have to calm her down all by myself again.

Oh, and that brings me to my next subject: Lydia. She is a trooper for holding up under all this change, but lately she's had a couple very out of character meltdowns. I think it is all the change and the fact that I started supplementing with formula during all the craziness of the move. There was just no way I could keep up with pure breastfeeding. I know that formula is fine for some babies, but it isn't really good for Lydia. She gets really constipated, gassy and fussy on it, and so starting yesterday I completely stopped supplementing. So now instead of going to bed like I am dying to do, I will pump a ton first. The fun never ends! More next time...