Running through the Summer

Did I mention that Andrew and I have become runners? It is pretty crazy.

Andrew runs with a friend about three times per week. I think they go pretty fast. He is getting better at recovery, which I can tell because he complains less in the evenings when he gets home. His hip is pretty sore, so if you are a runner and have a tip in that department, let us know. His friend is also training for a half marathon and Andrew is still doing all the runs with him. He doesn't want to do the actual half marathon though.

This is good because

I am doing the same half marathon. Which is crazy. I never thought I would say that I am training for a race longer than a 5k (3.2 miles). A half marathon is 13.1 miles. To date, my longest run has been 8.5 miles and I have a little over a month until the race. I feel pretty comfortable running 4 to 6 miles, not that it is easy, but it doesn't kill me. So I'm feeling pretty good about my training and my ability to complete the race. I am pretty slow at 11:30 min/mile and am not planning on being a competitive runner. But I can run and that is great! The race is a trail run and last week I did my first-ever trail run and it was a blast! I think I may need to invest in some trail running shoes in a few months.

Rachel is getting much better at being happy about being in the jogging stroller. She better be, as her longest run has been 6 miles in it. I generally do not do my long runs with Rachel, just my weekday runs. Rachel also likes standing and walking with assistance. Still no crawling. She seems to be getting closer to wanting to move.

Besides the health benefits of running, I am glad that I am training for the HM because it is really good to work towards a goal. I haven't really had a goal since I finished school (except having a baby, I guess) so I really feel like I am accomplishing something. Doing hard things can amaze you at what you are capable of doing!

We Are Not Dead

We are very much alive. We are moved in and have been living here for almost a month--crazy! I have a lot of pictures of Rachel and our adventures since then, but we only have the laptop at our house and I don't want to go through the hassle of uploading pictures here and on our desktop later. So. We are living in two places, which is cool and inconvenient but less expensive than breaking our contract early.

Are you ready for some happy news? I am wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans and they are tight but they are better than my other jeans which fell off constantly. This is good news. I have also been doing much better with running. Once I run consistently, I begin to enjoy it. I am enjoying it more and more each run. Pushing Rachel in our new jogging stroller is tough. One of the great things about our house is that I just have to put the stroller in the garage when I am done running. I don't have to drag it up to the third floor. YAY! I am also doing hot yoga for the month and I haven't decided if I like it because it is yoga or because it is hot yoga. I'm thinking that I like it because I like yoga. It is so freaking hot. But that is cool because I am already quite flexible and I become even more flexible. So the point is, I can wear my old pants.

Are you ready for some sad news? My leopard gecko Grendel died this week. I was waiting for him to die for a few months because he stopped eating. I was sad about that. But when me, Andrew, and Elise had his funeral, we all said nice things, and I remembered that he was a cool pet and I think he is probably happy in lizard heaven. I made a little bed in a macaroni and cheese box and slid it into a fruit snack box. I think it was one of the nicest coffins I have ever made.

I have so many books. It is ridiculous. We only have three bookshelves. And that is ridiculous for the amount of books we have. I think it wouldn't be so bad if we could fit them all on bookshelves. Right now, all the books for my master's thesis are on the floor of our room. Andrew said in a few years we might build some shelves under the window in our room. Until then, I have to figure our where to put all the books. I also went through and pulled out the books that I will probably never look at again. I collaborated with Amazon and divided them between books that would be worth my time to sell and books that are going to Goodwill. I will be getting rid of 25ish books. And that hardly even made a dent.

Rachel grabs her toes. It is super cute. I cannot put into words her cuteness. She is also a pill sometimes. She was yesterday. And today she is kind of a stinker, but not too bad. She is getting better at not freaking out in the jogging stroller.

Anyway, I hope to post again soon!

Pobrecita

So, having a baby is exhausting. And I mean to blog a lot more than I do.

Even more exhausting than having a baby is having a sick baby. No fun.


Crying on one of the earliest of her sick days. She says, "I need my grandpa!!"

Pobrecita.

For about a week, little Rachel got more and more fussy and unhappy. This was both an individual day thing (she'd be happy in the morning and crying constantly in the evening) and over time (each day was worse than the day before). It was pretty bad.

We just thought she had gas--because she sure had a lot of it.

Finally, after a day where she only slept for a half hour at a time, I told Andrew we had to call the doctor.

I was bracing myself to stop drinking milk. If you know me, you know that is one of the biggest sacrifices for me. I LOVE LOVE LOVE milk. But I guess I could live with soy milk... if Rachel were back to her happy self.

The day I called the pediatrician was horrible. The nurse wasn't in yet, so I didn't make an appointment. Two hours later, Rachel was screaming the worst, painful scream I had heard. I called the doctor and got an appointment an hour later. And she snuggled and whimpered for that hour. It was so so sad. I would have gladly taken her pain on myself (FYI--being a mother is super insightful into the love of Christ and Heavenly Father for all of us).

Pobrecita.

They weighed her and measured her (7 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 inches woot woot! What a chunker.). And then they needed to take her temperature. The nurses thought it was an ear infection. And I thought, "Duh, why didn't I think of that?" So the temperature. Rachel is too small for an ear thermometer, so the lucky girl got to have her temperature taken rectally. As I said before, pobrecita. But she is tough and didn't mind it too much and didn't even poop all over everything.

A few minutes later she started screaming and I couldn't console her so I fed her. And she was happy.

Then the doctor came in and looked in her ears. Perfect ears.

He then looked in her mouth. "Ah ha," he said in his Hoboken, New Jersey, accent, "It's thrush."

Thrush is a yeast infection in the mouth. There was white stuff all over her mouth. It can be quite painful.

So then I went to get an antibiotic for her. She has to have 1 mL in the morning and 1 mL at night. (Sidenote: Andrew has a cold and he took 30 mL of the cold medicine. Not only are parents like 20 times the size of their babies, they also take 30 times the amount of medicine.)

And now Rachel is so happy. The night I first gave her the antibiotic, I could notice a different. Maybe that is the placebo effect, but I think it dulled her pain or something. She's even smiling.


Ahh, drugs. This is after her first dose. So peaceful.


Loving the Sunday nap. Now she can actually nap again.


Tummy time on mom is super boring. Now she will do tummy time and not freak out like I'm killing her.


Mom, that flash on your phone is absurdly bright.


Did you ever see such a cute baby? No. You have not and never will. See, now she smiles!

And that is the story of my pobrecita. I have since sanitized all her binkies, bottle nipples, and medicine syringes. I may even have melted a few.

The moral of the story is that a not sick baby is a happy baby and means a happy mom who actually likes being a mom.

Spirit Daughter

Yesterday in my Institute class, we read parts from a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It was really powerful to me, and although he targeted his remarks to teenage women, I felt some of the parts really spoke to me. I thought I would share them with you.

"First of all, I want you to be proud you are a woman. I want you to feel the reality of what that means, to know who you truly are. You are literally a spirit daughter of heavenly parents with a divine nature and an eternal destiny. ¹ That surpassing truth should be fixed deep in your soul and be fundamental to every decision you make as you grow into mature womanhood. There could never be a greater authentication of your dignity, your worth, your privileges, and your promise. Your Father in Heaven knows your name and knows your circumstance. He hears your prayers. He knows your hopes and dreams, including your fears and frustrations. And He knows what you can become through faith in Him. Because of this divine heritage you, along with all of your spiritual sisters and brothers, have full equality in His sight and are empowered through obedience to become a rightful heir in His eternal kingdom, an “[heir] of God, and joint-[heir] with Christ.” ² Seek to comprehend the significance of these doctrines. Everything Christ taught He taught to women as well as men. Indeed, in the restored light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a woman, including a young woman, occupies a majesty all her own in the divine design of the Creator. You are, as Elder James E. Talmage once phrased it, “a sanctified investiture which none shall dare profane.” ³ "

"I plead with you young women to please be more accepting of yourselves, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing to look like someone else. We are all different. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are round, and some are thin. And almost everyone at some time or other wants to be something they are not! But as one adviser to teenage girls said: “You can’t live your life worrying that the world is staring at you. When you let people’s opinions make you self-conscious you give away your power. … The key to feeling [confident] is to always listen to your inner self—[the real you.]” ⁸ And in the kingdom of God, the real you is “more precious than rubies.” ⁹ Every young woman is a child of destiny and every adult woman a powerful force for good. I mention adult women because, sisters, you are our greatest examples and resource for these young women. And if you are obsessing over being a size 2, you won’t be very surprised when your daughter or the Mia Maid in your class does the same and makes herself physically ill trying to accomplish it. We should all be as fit as we can be—that’s good Word of Wisdom doctrine. That means eating right and exercising and helping our bodies function at their optimum strength. We could probably all do better in that regard. But I speak here of optimum health; there is no universal optimum size."

 ---Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "To Young Women," Ensign, November 2005.

I have been working hard to be more healthy and to lose weight this semester. It has been hard, and I don't know how much progress I have made--but I feel better. I know that our bodies are precious gifts from our Heavenly Father, and I am very grateful for my body. By taking care of my body through exercise, eating healthy foods, and having good hygiene, I am showing appreciation for my body. We need our bodies to gain eternal life, which is possible through Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father loves his daughters in a very special way. Sometimes people say that women in the Church aren't respected or that the Church is stifling to women. It is not so. If people would read the words of the modern-day prophets and apostles, they would see how much Church leaders love and care for the women of the Church. And their love and concern is only a sampling of the love of our Heavenly Father. I have felt Heavenly Father's love for me, and I know that I am truly His spirit daughter---and that is amazing! He loves me and wants to give me so many blessings. He loves all His children, and wants them to be happy and to have eternal life with Him.

I am proud and grateful to be a woman in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

Remember that Dress?

I'm really really hard on jeans. I go through them like tissues. I think, on average, I buy about 3 pairs a year--every year--cuz the ones I bought last year died. I just wear through them really really fast, mostly in between my thighs they just wear through. It is sad. I also really hate buying jeans cuz I have such a hard time finding ones that aren't too long, fit my thighs, and don't fall off my butt. Usually these shopping trips include tears and frustrated grunts in the dressing room.

Anyway, when people are trying to lose weight, they hold their high school jeans as their goal. That won't work for me. They fell apart years ago. As did the ones from all through college. So jeans aren't a realistic way for me to measure weight loss.'

I have to use dresses. I have a bunch of dresses (15 full dresses and 21 skirts--not including formals or the wedding gown) and should probably get rid of some, but I can't. I fluctuate so much in size, that I wear different ones all the time.

Anyway, this last year I have not been happy with my weight and size.


Unflattering Easter picture. Not happy about this.

More flattering Easter picture--but still...

So instead, I have to measure my size by which dress I fit into.

I made this super super cute dress as a freshman. It fit on-and-off well and sometimes snug over the years. I haven't been able to wear it since 2009.

Today, I tried it on. And it fit! Snug, yes, but it fit. I even think I could have zipped it up all the way, but I had no one to zip the top up for me (the sleeves were tight, I need to tone my arms). YAY! I was really really really excited and happy.

Other dresses to fit into in the future include:

My wedding luncheon dress (and corresponding underskirt so it is modest).


And this beautiful girl--which I fit into at the most athletic and toned part of my life ever.

You may think, wow Sarah, you aren't even that skinny. I do not care. I don't believe that skinniness determines health. I know plenty of 100-pound women who cannot lift anything, swim a mile, run a 5k. What matters to me is muscle and tone, which actually weighs more than fat, so if I weigh 150 pounds because of muscle, that would be awesome.

And if it doesn't happen, that is OK. But I felt so good and healthy when I wore those dresses, why wouldn't I want to aim for that state of health again?