Dash Point Half Marathon

The half marathon is over and done. It was exhausting, grueling, and not really very fun. I mean, as I've been running more, I've enjoyed it, but this was an experience for which I was not prepared. I got the miles in, I should have been able to do it. I just wasn't ready for a trail run that had some really steep parts.

Sarah and I at Dash Point State Park before the race. Ready to ROCK IT!!!

My loves and cheering section.

Lining up in the slow wave.

At the beginning of the race--don't I look fresh and happy to be running?


Running in the forest is fun! Oh actually it isn't because I just ran up a cliff! I'm a good faker.


Daniel running the race (he's Andrew's running buddy).


My friends Sarah and Melissa running. Looking good!


At the aid station--HALFWAY DONE!!!


Now I'm kind of running--don't judge, I'm super pooped.


This is at about mile 8 and I was dying.

By the end of the race, I was ready to cry.

But I persevered and FINISHED.


None of us (me, Sarah, or Daniel) did as well as we had expected to had it been a road race. Daniel was expecting 1:45 and ran it in 2:45, I'm not sure what Sarah expected but she finished in 3:15, and I expected 2:45 and finished at 3:30.

Daniel's wisdom about the race: "Your first trail run should not be a half marathon, and your first half marathon shouldn't be a trail run."

Although I had ran on trails a few times, none of my long runs were on the trails. Moral of the story: train in the race's conditions.

Even though I was dying, I feel like I paced myself really well. My snail pace was consistent and I finished. And, I can say that I ran a half marathon.

Now, to find a good Redemption Race.

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.

Bear (Mace) Attack!

Most of our hikes take place in bear country. We like it that way. There are less people, which means more solitude.

We have really meant to buy some bear mace all summer. We really don't want to be eaten by a bear.

Washington has mostly black bears, but there are also some grizzly bears.

Grizzly bears live here:


From Wikipedia

And black bears live here:


From Wikipedia

So we hike often in bear ranges.

Finally, we bought some bear mace. I would recommend getting some if you are going to hike in areas with bears. This one was developed by someone who survived a grizzly bear attack and his companion had human pepper spray. Bear mace is a whole lot more potent than pepper spray. Andrew was really excited about our bear spray because it came in handy camo holsters. Classy classy. But also very useful.

From the pamphlet about the bear spray, we learned that the bear mace will dilate the bear's eyes to cause temporary blindness; will make the bear cough, choke, and feel nauseous; and will cause the mucus membranes to swell so the bear can only breathe to sustain life---basically he will pass out. It is powerful stuff.

Andrew enjoyed reading the reviews of the bear spray product. People wondered how strong it was and sprayed it in their homes and had to fumigate the place, or got it in their eyes, or (as the pamphlet told us not to) sprayed their tent or children as a bear repellent. We laughed. What idiots.

But then one day, a grizzly bear wandered into our apartment. We sprayed it. The end.


Source

Just kidding.

Andrew and I were showing his mom our new bear mace over Skype on Sunday. She was very worried about us encountering a bear, so we calmed her fears. Andrew then decided to practice taking off the safety cap.

And he dropped it.

And it sprayed on our carpet.

"It works," he said.

I would have said something quite different. Starting with "sh" and rhyming with "split".

But, Andrew is a good boy and generally doesn't sin on the Sabbath. I, however, am a different story. My roommates can testify that Sundays are the days when I said most of my inappropriate comments.

Back to the story.

We had sprayed bear mace in our apartment. I ran and opened all the windows (it was about 40F outside) and got a fan going. We started coughing like crazy. We needed to leave our apartment, but we were baking a delicious treat and couldn't leave it in the oven!

So we did what any sensible couple would do.



We wrapped our faces in scarves and Skyped my parents until our delicious treat got out of the oven.


Andrew tried his best to scrub the bear spray out of the carpet.

And then we went on a walk for an hour and half. When we got back, our apartment wasn't full of airborne bear mace. Thank goodness. Also, thank goodness there wasn't really a bear in our apartment, because then we would have bigger problems than a burned dessert. And thank goodness that the baby wasn't here yet because that would be horrible for the poor little thing.

Unfortunately, I did not go into labor from coughing and coughing.

Bear mace works. Do not try it at home.

Hospital Again

A month ago, I decided to burn my hand off with hot wax.

I was going to wax my eyebrow (it was getting to the point of being just one eyebrow). I followed the directions. Put it in the center of the microwave and heat for 30 seconds. Too bad my microwave sucks. It was hard on top, so I tried to stir it a bit. However, there was a boiling pit of magma wax in the center that sprayed out like a volcano across my left hand. We found wax on our kitchen table and the carpet about three feet away from where it happened. I am glad it didn't get my face.

After watching most of Men in Black with my hand in ice water and it still killing, we decided to go to the hospital. I had about seven blisters across the knuckles of my left hand. It hurt unless it was in the ice water. Also, my eyebrows were still hairy.

By the way, how stupid is it to "rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10"? Yes, this hurts, but there are things that hurt WAY more and in different ways.

Back to the story.

They bandaged me up and sent me home with a prescription for Vicadin. Too bad that the next day while trying to change my bandage, the wax that was still stuck to my skin pulled my skin off. So we went bad to the hospital and they soaked it in a saline solution and tried to get some more of the wax off.

On Monday I moped around and slept. On Tuesday we went to a burn center in Seattle. There, they purposefully cut my skin off, put tiny bandaging on, gave me some physical therapy exercises to maintain mobility in my hand, and wished me luck.

At home, I had to change it once a day and scrub all dead skin and scabbing off. I am may have sworn. Once. Or twice. After a few days it seemed pretty healed and I only took the Vicadin for four or five days.

Andrew refused to take any pictures because it was so disgusting. But here is my almost-healed hand.



You can see that it was all the way across my knuckles and up my finger joints.

And here is Andrew being a good nurse:



And here is the bandaging:



I went to the burn center a week ago and the nurse and doctor told me that my hand was healed! It shouldn't scar, and if it does, it should be minimal. I need to continue the stretches and do things like play the cello and piano. I need to treat it like baby skin for a year.

So it has worked out pretty well. I'm glad it healed well and wasn't too painful over the long term. I'm also grateful that I didn't have to take care of an infant with one hand.

I waxed my eyebrows this weekend. Waxing is like riding a bike--you just have to get back on and not follow the directions on the wax.

Hospital Time!

Not for me--for Andrew! Andrew thought I would like some delicious finger with my char siu (Chinese barbecue pork) on Saturday. Well, I didn't, but I did want to eat some food before we went to the ER for stitches and a tetnis shot, since I know how long it can take to go to the ER. Yes, I am a compassionate wife.


Andrew getting his temperature, pulse, and blood pressure taken. It is his first personal visit to the Emergency Room!


All checked in, complete with wristband.


Pouting cuz he has to wait so long. I told the staff that we could be at the bottom of the emergency priority list, since we were mainly there for the tetnis shot. At least we got to watch the Olympics.


The doctor gluing Andrew and his "left digit laceration" back together. That glue stuff is great! You can wash your hands and it doesn't go away. Super cool!


It was very traumatic for him.

As you can see, we had an exciting Saturday night. We hung out for about two hours before we went home.

It seems like we have gone to the hospital a lot lately. Probably cuz my doctor appointments are all there. I think we should see if there is a clinic closer to us that is open in the evenings on weekends, but it was still only 20 minutes away, so not bad. Andrew also teases me about how I always hurt myself. This is true. I am always stubbing my toe and slicing it open, but it is never bad enough to need stitches or a shot. Last time I went to the ER for my own injuries was in Hong Kong when I had a "corneal abrasion". Andrew went in December for his kidney ultrasound (but not to the ER). I think we can therefore conclude that Andrew goes to the hospital for treatment more than I do, since he's been twice in the last year. Now that I've said that, I will probably go to the hospital for treatment soon. Hopefully that will be in three months! (aka, when the baby is due)

Backpacking Fail #1: Barclay Lake

At the beginning of June, we decided to head up into the Skykomish ranger district and go backpacking! It  would be amazing! We got our food ready, packed everything up, and were ready for a good time in the mountains. Since it was my first time backpacking, we picked a short, level trail. It was about 2 miles in to the lake. And, to make things even better, it fell on free fishing day! Score!


The bridge on the way to Barclay Lake


Me on the bridge. I look so cool with my backpack on. Also, keep in mind how awesome and kick-butt I am! I'm like 19 weeks along on this trip.


A lovely stream


Me at the camp spot. Our tent is incredibly attractive, right? It fits two people who like to be cozy. Don't I look soggy? That's because it is June in Washington!


Barclay Lake--it was really quite beautiful.

By this point, we have successfully packed in to the lake. So far, so good. No backpacking fail yet!


Andrew pumping the water. He was SO excited to use his new pump.


"I'm pumping the water and it is raining! Yay!"


Andrew trying to light wet wood on fire. This was a backpacking fail. We never got it to light.


Andrew looking epic at Barclay Mountain.


Throwing our rope for the bear bag. I was terrified we would meet a bear. But at least the bag was far away from our camp, so if it came to eat our food, it shouldn't eat us, too.


Time for hot chocolate because we are freezing to death!


Fishing for free. Andrew is so happy to be fishing. Backpacking fail: neither of us caught a fish.


Me fishing, but mostly doing casting practice. Whenever I've caught a fish, it has been on accident.

We were wet and cold and had nothing to do after we fished. We brought cards but our tent was too small to sit up in, so no go on the playing together agenda. And so we went to bed.

I remember trying to stretch out my leg but feeling some cold at the bottom of my sleeping bag, so I curled up into a ball.

At about 2:00 a.m., Andrew sighed and said, "My feet are wet. Are yours?"

"A little," I say. "I really have to pee." I'm pregnant and myself. I pee twice every night.

"Me too." It must have been the hot chocolate. Andrew never pees in the night.

"I have to pee bad enough to face the wild animals, but if I go outside, all this water will fall on us," I said.

"Yeah," Andrew said. "And we would be soaked."

"And my hips hurt. I have tried to not move so I don't get wet." If you touched the side of the tent, you got wet.

"This isn't a very good tent," said Andrew.

And we just laid there in our sleeping bags for about an hour. Then we talked to each other for about an hour. We were both in pain from our bladders and my hips really really hurt. We were also both cold and very wet. Then we laid there for another hour.



Andrew being miserable in the morning.


Our wet, cold toes in our sleeping bags. Tent, you were somewhat useless. Can you see the water droplets on the inside of our tent!?!?

Finally, it was 5:00 a.m. Andrew said we could get up in 15 minutes. So we did. And I peed a great pee. Andrew peed a great pee. And my hips felt so much better.



We are tired! It is 5 a.m.! Do you like Andrew's hipster hair?


Best part of the morning: our bear bag survived. We have breakfast!


You suck. We are buying a new one.

And we ate food and packed up our soaking wet gear and were out of there by 7:30 and to our car by 8:30. And since we weren't thinking clearly and it was free fishing day, we drove to Fish Lake (like two hours away) but couldn't find a place to access the lake. So then we drove for another 45 minutes to Leavenworth and bought a pretzel and bienenstisch. And then we drove forever home. We were super tired. That night was officially the worst of my life.

I couldn't believe myself when I told Andrew that I was willing to go camping again--if we had a different tent.

Backpacking fail.

Sad and Steamy

Yesterday after my swim, I decided to sit in the steam room for a few minutes. I walked in and it was all steamy. I was excited. I like to sit in saunas and steam rooms. I actually really like sweating. And I like breathing that air.

But I didn't sweat. I didn't even feel hot.

I was confused--isn't this place full of steam? Shouldn't it be hotter?

And then I realized something:

Hong Kong was hotter and more humid than that steam room.

And I was sad. Visible steam does not equal hot steam.

Next time I need to sweat and sweat and sweat by just sitting on a park bench, I will have to go back to Hong Kong and sit on a park bench, fan myself like crazy, and drink like five bottles of water in a day.

The condensation on the camera lens when I opened it up to take a picture. HUMID.

The hottest day of my entire life. This was before we discovered the power of fans.

The second hottest day of my entire life. Thank heaven for the amazing invention called fans.

Sweating it up on Lion's Rock. Oh yeah.

The coolest day temperature-wise we had in Hong Kong. Even though it was relatively "cool", we still NEEDED to keep cooler-ish by this point--enter the umbrellas and fans. Finally, I understood Chinese culture to a greater extent. Before they were beautiful and art pieces, they were practical so people wouldn't die.

So go to your local sauna/steam room and tell me what you think. Or even better, go to Hong Kong and take me and Andrew with you.