Merry Christmas ... bla bla bla...

Yeah, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays... soon to be Happy New Year. Holy crap it's already 2009! Holy crap a whole year has gone by. I can't remember if I scratched my butt in the past year it's been that crazy. Being pregnant, having Sadie, playing with Sadie. Finishing my certificate as a half-masters type of deal. Thomas finishing his masters. Buying a new motorcycle. Wait... I digress. That list of stuff is for a post in a few days.

As for Christmas, it was great. It was our first Christmas together as a family and Sadie was a little over 4 months old. Can you believe it! Four months! And she's growing like a weed, and learning so fast. She can hold her bottle, reach for toys, she'll tell you a whole story (or quietly scream it, really). It's nuts. We got pictures with real Santa and then some with Santa Cow at Chick-Fil-A. Of course, we couldn't resist the cow costume from Halloween. She got so many cool toys and outfits. Spoiled already, I tell ya. And I wouldn't change it for the world.

It sucks we didn't get to go to Florida as previously planned, but maybe it was for the best. I'm not particularly fond of not seeing my family but once a year, if that. If it's more frequently, it's only one member at a time. Luckily, we did get to see my brother a week ago, even if it was for only 20 minutes. We should be seeing both him and my mom in February when he is done with boot camp, before he starts tech school. That will be a nice visit, granted Thomas and I aren't swamped at work. We'll see.

Overall, great Christmas. A few parties with friends, plenty of family gatherings for meals, board games, and movies. Now it's time to get back into the swing of things with work and daycare and what not. Especially with working out. I've sort of slacked off a bit in the past week or so. My excuse that is acceptable for some of that - I was sick. So was Thomas. So was Sadie. We all had crud stopped up in our heads. But now we are all clear, minus the occasional cough or so. Not too much to worry about though. As for exercise, I'm really trying to stick with it... but I don't know if I'll make my goal of 150 by January 1. I'll be really fricking close... but not quite. I'm planning to set small obtainable goals for the upcoming months to make it something not too unreasonable. For example, trying to go the gym everyday is great, but I get a bit burnt out, then stop going for a week. Now my approach is try to go 4 days a week. Whether it's a class (which I have found these easiest to commit to because they are scheduled at particular times) or just good old regular cardio somehow, or trying to get Thomas to join me to lift weights, something's gotta give in getting this going. Maybe once a routine gets going I can better stick with it. I'll be sure to comment more on this as the weeks go by.

For now, that's all I got. But more later in terms of a New Year's post/2008 recap. There's plenty to add to that post, so I'll be sure to add tons of info there. As if the internet really cares, but it's good to get it out there. For me at least, if not for anyone else.

A mix-mash of events.... and Santa Cow

Lots of things have happened in the past week. Lots of unexpected things. Let me start my list....

1 - My brother Sean started Air Force boot camp in San Antonio on Wednesday. The Air Force flew him out on Tuesday. He didn't know until he was handed his plane tickets that he was having a short layover in DFW. He gave me a call and we arranged to pick him up from one flight to see him before he left for his next one down to San Antonio. Thomas, Sadie, and I drove out to the airport to chauffeur Sean from one terminal to the other. It was good to see him, even if it was for only 20 minutes. And he got to see his niece again. Aww. Sadie loves her Uncle Sean.


2 - Secret Santa party number 1. I am going to whine for a moment - doing a Secret Santa/White Elephant type of party requires GENDER NEUTRAL gifts. It irks me that somehow lotions and body sprays become familiar items. Buy a fricking gift card! Let's just say dudes with purses at the end of the night is a little bit scary. I wasn't too thrilled with my reed diffuser in sparkly gold vase for it. Thomas left with a t-shirt from some lawyer firm. I told him he now has a good workout shirt. Translation - it will never get worn.

3 - Secret Santa party number 2. Speaking of that sparkly gold vase reed diffuser... yes, I admit, I am a regifter. It saved my from buying some other gift. And, oddly enough, Thomas ended up with the gift card that we had brought. I went home with a Starbucks card. We all need those sometimes.

4 - Thomas was driving by a local Chick-Fil-A and read their sign - "Pictures with Santa Cow Dec 20 11 -2". Awesome. Funny, really, because Sadie was a cow for Halloween. So, as cheesey as we are, we dressed her up in her cow costume and got a picture or two of her with Santa Cow. We then undressed her to her regular clothes and got a "regular" picture with Santa Cow, although I'm not sure how "regular" Santa Cow is, but hey what the heck.


5 - Sadie got pictures with the "real" Santa. Well, at least the hick version. We went to Cabela's (think like Bass Pro Shop). So Santa had his big chair/sofa set up for pictures with a tree next to him ... with all the dead stuffed taxidermy deer and elk behind him. Kind of gross. Kind of creepy. But luckily you can't see them too much in the pictures. She didn't seem too afraid of Santa, but I think she's too young to be afraid of anything right now. She didn't fuss too much and we actually got her playing with Santa's jacket fuzzy cuffs in one of the pictures.


That's enough for now, although I am sure that I could continue on with a bazillion other things. I will spare your reading eyes. Just for now. Next time you might not be so lucky.

A special day has passed

Or at least it was a special day to me. December 9th, 2007. Yes, last year, I know. The day that I decided to take a pregnancy test after having a miscarriage the first attempt. I was nervous to say the least because I hadn't had a period since the miscarriage, although the doctors said that it might take some time for my body to recooperate. I admit we were still trying because it was something that both Thomas and I wanted. Well.... it came back positive. I was estatic. We decided not to tell anyone for a while for fear of having a repeat experience of the month or so earlier. The first people we told were my parents when we saw them for Christmas. We told them on Christmas Eve. They were happy for us. When we got back home, we told Thomas' family. They were happy too.

Fast forward a year... I have a sweet four month old Sadie MoPie. She makes me laugh at the smallest things and her biggest achievements as each day passes. She's already grabbing toys, being very alert, and talking up a storm when you play with her. She is such a happy baby. I write these blogs and take pictures for her Flickr page so I never forget these moments. But I will never forget the moment I found out I was pregnant with her over a year ago.

Side note - Yes, I did say four month old Sadie MoPie. She's now four months old! It's crazy. I can hardly remember if I slept in the past month - especially between working out a lot and hosting Thanksgiving, to playing with Sadie and starting a new job. Her first Christmas is around the corner and it's going to be a blast. She has no idea what's about to happen, although she did enjoy the lights on everybody's houses as we went on a walk earlier tonight.

Hey, parenthood! Slap me in the face, why don't ya!

The day had come and thankfully had passed. That day when it hits you harder that you could ever understand that you are a parent. That day was Thursday this past week. Not quite the best way to have parenthood smack you in the face, but it happened.

Preamble: Sadie's been a little under the weather since Monday or so with a tiny tiny cough and a little stuffy nose/runny nose (depending on the time). Then her cough got a bit deeper and more coarse. So Thomas and I cranked her humidifier to high during the night and that seemed to help a little bit. We put her to bed Wednesday night with a small cough but she didn't seem to mind because she went right to sleep.

Thursday was a different story. I wake up, shower, get Sadie to feed her and then get her ready for the day. She wasn't too interested in eating, but she ate a bit. Her nose wasn't too stuffed up. She seemed happy and playful as I changed her diaper and her clothes for the day. Thomas takes her to daycare in the morning, so I left and went to work. That was around 7:30 a.m. Around 9:30 a.m., I get a call from the daycare.

Daycare lady: "We wanted to let you know that Sadie is fairly sick. She's thrown up three times this morning, is full of mucus, coughing, and having trouble breathing. Her fingers are turning purple."

My thoughts: SHIT!

My response: "I need to talk with my boss to see if I can leave. If not, I'll call Thomas and see if he can get Sadie."

My continuing thoughts: SHIT! Poor Sadie! Be strong Sadie! Don't die!!!

Yes, I realize a little overkill, but if it's your first child and only her second week at daycare, what would you think? So, yes, parenthood hit me hard. Luckily, my boss was very understanding and said I could work from home the rest of the day. I picked up Sadie and went to the doctors with her. Thomas met us there. Little punk hardly coughed since I had picked her up. The doctor checked her out, said it was just a common cold, and to watch her. No more turning colors, which was good. Sadie threw up because she was swallowing all of the mucus that she was coughing up. Having trouble breathing was because she couldn't quite cough it up in one go. But she's good now. No issues. Small cough, but even smaller than what she had earlier this week. Woohoo!

All in all, Sadie is doing much better and eating everything in sight (or at least trying to, including my bicep as I write this post). It just sucks that parenthood had to hit so hard, especially that way. Yuck. Oh well. Makes us stronger. Luckily I'm not a worry wort so I never got into the mind set that something may have been wrong with her internally. She's too good for that.

On a quick side note, I called my mom to let her know what was going on with Sadie. It's a little hard when she's five states away to stay in the loop with everything, but we do make the effort to talk at least once a week. I told her that "MoPie was sick". Her response, other than the obvious, was interesting. She asked where I got the nickname of MoPie from. Mo = Moore, Pie = from cutie pie, etc. So MoPie. She laughed and said she either brainwashed me or influenced me subconciously. I asked why. She said her nickname for me when I was little was JenniPie. Like mother, like daughter - even without knowing.

Perseverance and unexpected support

First point: perseverance. Setting out to do something and really sticking to it. That's what I've been doing. Minus 3 days around Thanksgiving and three other miscellaneous days in there, I have worked out everyday since the beginning of November. I've done step classes, dance (salsa, zumba, etc) classes, body works classes (dumbbells and body resistance moves set to music), yoga, and mat pilates. I've walked really fast on steep hills on treadmills, even jogged a few times for 5 -10 minutes. I know that that's not much, but it's a start. I honestly can't remember the last time I truly ran. Seriously, it's been at least five years... I didn't even run for warmup when I was on tour for Summer 2004 with DCI corps Kiwanis Kavaliers. It's all been because of my feet. They crack, they stretch, they ache, they pinch in unnatural ways. They still do to a good extent, but no where near what they used to. I think being pregnant and having all that extra weight on them for a few months helped. Or maybe I'm smoking something. Either way I can jog now. (Assuming I really want to, rather than just doing it.)

I have set forth a goal for myself by the end of the year. When pregnant with Sadie, at my peak I was 192. I'm not ashamed of that. I admit that that's the most I had ever weighed in my life. But all for a good reason. My goal is forty two pounds less than that by the end of 2008, and I'm almost there (within two to three pounds, to be precise). The hardest thing is really trying to stick with it, especially because I just started a new job this past Monday. So working, then picking up Sadie, going to the gym, making dinner, etc etc etc., is a lot for a day's work. But I've gone every day this week except Wednesday. A little break every now and again is good. I go every Saturday and Sunday because I really don't have an excuse not to. So far I have found that classes are the easiest motivators for me... you can look like a fool and no one cares, plus seeing each class starts at a set time, there's no putting it off to go later. You either show up or you don't. Oh, did I also mention that I take my lunch everyday to work with snacks throughout the day... fruits, crackers, a healthy lunch, juice, water.... much better than scrambling about for fast food just so you can eat. I've noticed that when I think about the food I'm putting in me, the more I appreciate it, and the more I conciously decide to eat healthier items. Ok, enough on that... for now.

Second point: unexpected support. I guess I am just fearful of the day when I'll run into that one person that thinks pumping breastmilk is disgusting, unnatural, and awfully offensive. I've decided that those people can kiss my ass. My getting skinnier ass, I might add. Thursday this week I went up to Oklahoma City for a meeting for work. We (my boss and I) left at 7 am to drive up there. We got home at 5:30 pm, so it wasn't too long of a day. The hardest part was I had to bring my pump with me. No comfort of my office with a door and blinds that I can close to have some privacy while I pumped. I had to find public restrooms that had wall plugs so I could plug in the pump to use it. My pump does come with a battery pack, but it requires 10 or 12 AA batteries, and I just didn't even think to fill it before I left.

But what suprised me the most was the verbal support I received from the few women that enterred the restrooms while I was pumping, standing awkwardly at the sinks. I'm trying to cover myself up in order to not flash the world, but none of them commented on that aspect at all. One lady asked how old my little one was and was proud of me for pumping while away from my baby. Another lady told me a quick story about how her daughter did the same thing for her baby. The most awkward spot to pump though was at a gas station bathroom. It was at least big enough to have a few stalls, but the only plug was next to the sinks. Two older ladies walked in to use the restroom and I was only setting up. I starting pumping while they were in the stalls and one lady started laughing. I was like "what the hell? I hope she's not laughing at me." She came out of the stall to wash her hands and said she was laughing because the pump noise startled her, but after she listened to it for a minute she knew exactly what that noise was. Both of the ladies said it was great that there was the option to pump electrically now. They said they both had trouble manually pumping back in the day. (They were both in their 60's at least). It was nice to have the support in such an awkward situation. But I did miss my office. It's good to know that people are too weirded out by pumping, especially when the "trend" of this generation is breastmilk and not formula. Hooray for boobies!