FASTER

I have been training for a 10k on Halloween. It's been going really well the last month. I have posted all these photos on Instagram but I know some readers on the blog don't have IG so I will post them here now. 

I thought that as I increased my distance the average pace would get slower but the opposite has been true. I don't know how but I am proud of it! And I think I am faster not on the treadmill so I think I'm going to kill my goal time. I also looked up my 10k time from last year that I don't really count because I know I wasn't ready for it but that time was 1 hr 26 min. It was painful, hot (beginning of sept), and I have had issues with plantar fasciitis ever since. 

I have been walking for 5 minutes, stretching, then starting out slow and gradually speeding up. 

It's going well and I feel good.

Allergy recovery

After 3 days and the swelling swallowing my whole upper arm and a little past my elbow, the swelling is down but it's still intensely itchy at times.

On Friday we drove out of town after GoodLooking got off work. We stopped by the outlets to get me new running shoes.

I now wear a 10.5. I do buy my running shoes a LITTLE big so my toes don't touch at all but when I got married I wore a size 8.5 or 9.  

We also stopped by Oshkosh for some kid clothes. I set a budget before we walked in and it's a good thing! $15 per kid. Little brother got overalls and Honey got 2 shirts and a pair of jeans. She's really been wanting some sparkly princess shoes but even with the sale they were having they were $17.  For the kids' clothes I've always bought a garbage sack for say $25 from someone off of FB classifieds or something to that extent but I really wanted something NOT previously worn for both of them. 

Then we went to Tyler to spend the night in a FREE hotel room. 

Saturday we went to Canton, Tx for the largest swap meet ever. It was huge but also really hot and humid and the previous night Little Brother fell off the bed so everyone was tired and cranky so we only walked around for 2 hours. We went to a grocery store for lunch which was actually really good and got frozen slices of pie for dessert (from the freezer section) then headed home to watch BYU win in s Hail Mary and finish the night with Harry Potter.

Allergy Update

Last Wednesday I experienced what is called RUSH immunology. I received 4 of 7 shots of a serum containing essence of what I'm allergic to (grasses, trees, cat, horse). After the fourth shot and a short waiting period the doctor said to stop because the injection site had swollen slightly and I was getting flushed in the face and congested. I thought "I feel fine let's keep going" but they insisted and good thing too because that night after scratching desperately at my head, hands, and stomach I had the call that doctors cell phone and he told me to take a Zyrtec and doxepin. The next morning, my ears and hands were swollen and red. Fast forward to right now and I feel fine.

Oh and my eyes were swollen.

Here's what they normally look like

And my swollen hand

And here's one for reference

Whoa! Good thing we stopped and got me a shot of epinephrine.

Like A New Day

" your job is... Important" how true.

Also " no other success can compensate for failure in the home" 

Some days are hard. Like.. Close the door hard. Sometimes WEEKS are hard. Sometimes it's really hard and then it gets harder but without hard we would not know how NOT hard it CAN be. 

I'm a mom. Two kids sometimes contemplating a 3rd but feeling like I need to get a grip on things first. 

Another one "what's it like having 3 kids?... Imagine you're drowning, and someone hands you a baby" 

It's how I feel sometimes.  A short time ago I was under water... Drowning. We were doing the back and forth to the new location and home and sometimes being apart and it was just too much after a while. My kids and I weren't getting along and I was resentful. Mad. Cranky. Whatever we call it, it was not good. 

Things gradually got better and I know why now. People were praying for me. Lots of people. Like, LOTS. Things are great but today was a MOMENT and all those ugly feelings rushed back to me. THANKS FOR THE REMINDER. 

Nap time is now almost over as I write this and I'm making the choice to move on. Like a new day. 

Cabellas

We went on a trip today to Cabellas!

Betty by her FAVORITE animal

Me by my favorite animal;)

It was fun. 

My First Full Triathlon

I did it! I finished the YMCA member incentive triathlon. A month long triathlon and I signed up for full distances (popularly known as an ironman distance). 

And to top that off, I made the top ten list!

As I walked in the gym today it was right there on the desk for EVERYONE to see. After my workout I snapped a picture and when I was posting it to my Instagram I noticed another familiar name! (He did Olympic distance).

We are awersome.. And just so yall know, I think it IS in a particular order.

BTW

GoodLooking and I have been working on going to bed by 10 pm and waking up at 6. Why? Because an apostle of the lord says we should. So far it's been almost 2 weeks and we are getting close. I got in bed on time and woke up at 6:02 this morning. We read scriptures prayed and I read my scriptures. I was planning to run after all that but all that took too long so I got the kids up and cuddled them for 15 minutes before taking jack to work and going to the gym for spin class. 

I am seeing small benefits from heeding the words but more on that later as we fine tune the heeding.

Last Week

WOW last week was crazy! I think this will be a good time to review what a normal week is and include last weeks craziness. 

MONDAY normally get up, take jack to work about 8 am. Come home, breakfast, change clothes, gym. I normally do "piloxing" at 10 but I needed some bike miles for the member incentive which was a triathlon (I chose to do the full distance and needed some catchup) So I did RPM (spinning) at 8:30. Then home and kids play, lunch, naps. Play, get dad, dinner, kids FHE, adult FHE. Bed. 

TUESDAY I don't have a car so we chill at home all day. Last week we had a friend come over in the morning and that is great because it gives the kids people to play with other than me... I just can't play ALL day. GoodLooking comes home at 6 and we eat then he goes to play basketball. I put kids to bed between 7 and 7:30. 

WEDNESDAY normally take GoodLooking to work then eat, change, gym for cardio power which is an awesome class with the step and weights. Then home lunch naps. Last week I had a doctors appointment at 9:15 but I stressed it and accidentally showed up at 8:15. Luckily they took me in at 8:45. Then we changed and went to the gym. As part of the triathlon (GoodLooking says it "the Y tri") I am doing the rowing machine (because I have a tube in my ear I choose not to swim) and it is awesome, if you want a full body workout, just row for 10 minutes. After naps, play, clean, get dad, dinner, play, bed. 

THURSDAY oh Thursday was fun. Normally dad to work around 8. Home, eat, change, gym, play, lunch, naps. I had an appointment at 7:30 for the allergist (because I'm allergic and have been to the clinic, ENT, and regular doctor for sinus pressure and infection and upper respiratory infection and general fatigue and not feeling good). I got the initial test done. It feels like a stiff bristled brush getting pushed into your skin. Uncomfortable. 

The pricks look like this

Two things with 10 groups of needles. 

(No food allergies)

Those ones closer to the camera are local trees and grass (spring, summer, fall, winter on the left as he explained it... On the right is grass and more trees. The test was 15 minutes) then..

That one closer to my wrist that swelled is cats.

She measured and took a picture.

It was obviously determined that I'm very allergic to the area and we talked options like avoidance which would be staying inside year round in a house with NO cats... EVER. Medication which I'm already doing (3 medications: Zyrtec, decongestant, and dymista which is a nasal spray that makes me want to throw up)). These are expensive, around $50 a MONTH. So we talked immunotherapy. This is like a flu shot in that they inject me with what I'm allergic to and my body builds " immunity" to it. Shots are once a week for about 2 years. I knew I was interested so the lady comes in with 70 more pricks. 

Those ones on the upper inner arm were more than uncomfortable.

This last one is later in the day once it had swelled into one large itchy warm red mess.

A few hours later we went to the gym, lunch, then naps. Then we got to pick up dad early.

FRIDAY was an off day for GoodLooking so we all went to the gym, home to change, then we went to Costco for stuff and lunch. Home for naps and play. 

Basically everyday we take GoodLooking to work, home for breakfast and change then we go to the gym. Home for lunch, play, and naps. Then play and get dad. 

P.s. My arms still itch occasionally but are no longer red and only slightly swollen. 

Oh and we did this Wednesday evening before getting dad.

My Hutch

A few years ago and while we were living in Lufkin, my parents brought me a China hutch. It belonged to my dads parents and I'm sure he grew up with it and has fond memories with it. It had long been used as school room storage and had many bumps and other marks of family use and age. We had it in our dining room in Lufkin as dish, tablecloth, card game and random papers storage. 

When we bought our current home we knew exactly where to put it. 

We don't have a dining room like we did in Lufkin which is just fine since that square footage is put to better use in this house. We put the hutch in that open walkway as you enter the house. I knew I wanted my Fiestaware to go in it but I needed it to be more exciting and fresh.

So we painted it! 

Only the parts that sanding is obviously done, it hadn't been touched. You can see how best up and in need of love it was. 

Once all the sanding was done, I wanted to keep some natural wood so we stained the main flat part very dark... Black. 

I though coral would be a good color at first so the Fiestaware would stand out but it was too light and too pink. We're going for a statement piece here so we took an orange fiesta plate to Home Depot and color matched it. 

In the beginning we were discussing what to do about hardware and ideas like new hardware, spray painting the original gold, and sanding down the original till it was shiny brass came up but it was never finalized. When it came down to it, the original without doing anything to it was best. 

My parents just left yesterday after being here for a week and I think they liked it... As much as a person could like something that they love be finished in a way they don't love by someone they do love. 

I think the thing that matters is that I love it. It's in my house and I'm using it and I love it. It's beautiful and I put a lot of work into it. 

In other news, Little Brother is close to walking... But not walking.

Honey jumped in the pool without holding anyone's hand.

GoodLooking has a beard.

I have a tube in my ear and am doing allergy testing on Thursday. 

Honey's Room

We finally finished Honeys room and the quilt I made finally came to me. 

Here is the semi-before photo. The wall has a coat of white on it in this photo. 

How I figured out the tape

It was fun to do and makes me happy when I walk in there.

And finished. It took a week to paint casually as I had time and happy kids. 

I made the quilt and it took six months.

The animal had is paper mâché from hobby lobby spray painted.

Frames from goodwill spray painted the same color as the head.

Rug from ikea. 

Our House

We signed and closed on our house on April 30th. That night we slept on air mattresses in the house. It was actually great. The next morning all our stuff came! 

That's not even all of it. After they unloaded these crates they had to drive 2 hours, pick up 2 more crates, drive the 2 hours again and spend another hour unloading them. 

Then my new washer and dryer were coming so we worked and worked into the night to turn this

Into this

It's such a pretty room and my new machines are so awesome! My old machines we SMALL. They worked great for 2 people but with 4 people not so great. I was doing like 10 loads a week and the dryer took at least an hour to dry. These machines enable me to only do 3 or 4 loads a week and the dryer only takes about 35 minutes. 

I LOVE them!

Mountain Stole My Shoe

We are in the new house and a bunch of new houses are going up so there is a lot of construction and materials in the yards. We went for a sabbath walk around the block and there was a mini mountain of sand. It's been raining so it looked really cool with erosion lines and light mud around it. I thought it was solid so I went to step on the side and watch it crumble a little but instead...

My foot and ankle sunk in and my shoe got stuck. I had to go back in and get it. 

** I wrote this post a few weeks ago but never posted it

Little Brother Turns One

We started off the morning with French toast. 

He loves to eat just about anything but jarred baby food so we started off great.

I went to the gym and GoodLooking took Honey and Little Brother grocery shopping. After that we went to pick up some fruit that we ordered.

For lunch we had pizza! 

He must have been tired because it was not greatly enjoyed. He started rubbing it all over his eyes, hair, and face.

I cleaned him up and we gave him the present that dad and Honey got for him. 

It's a stuffed dog from build a bear workshop. Dad also got Honey a shirt for her bear that had Olaf on it.

Naps were had and we had more pizza for dinner. Allen had peanut butter and jelly though. 

After dinner we had CAKE! With ice cream. 

It was a good day! 

HAPPY ONE YEAR BROTHER. 

In other news:: our house is still not fully unpacked. Brother is close to walking. I go to the gym 6 days a week. Honey loves our new house and can buckle herself into her car seat. GoodLooking starts school in August and plays basketball every Friday night.