Aunika Stats

Height: 32 inches (99th percentile)

Weight: 20 pounds (25th percentile)

Conversation overheard in the hall: "are you sure she's that tall, because that's really tall."

"Go in and look at her.  She's really long."

"I'll remeasure and see."

remeasuring takes place

"Hmm...I guess you were right."

Apparently, no one in the doctor's office had seen a baby that big before.  It was like she was some sort of anomoly.  Of course, no one asked me what I thought, because it was quite apparent when I stuffed her in 18 month pants and a 24 month shirt, that this was not the average size of a one year old.

General Disposition: Aunika is still one of the easiest babies I have ever seen, as long as she's not required to sit still for any amount of time.  Like church.  She's a garbage disposal that eats pretty much everything I feed her.  Including olives (yuck), mushrooms (double yuck), and green peppers (yum!). 

She still sounds like a stuffed piggy when you're not feeding her fast enough or she sees you eating something that she wants, but most of the time, she's just content with wherever she is.  She is really happy and laughs at everything, including the guy sitting behind us in Sunday School with the swollen eye.

In short, she's a delight to have around.  Even if she's always on the move.  And makes me tired.

Cuteness Factor:  Off the charts!

Book Review Friday 11/27/09

Book: The Goose Girl
Author: Shannon Hale
Pages: 400

This is a retelling of the fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm.  To be honest, I had never heard of the story before, though at the book club this was discussed at, some of the older ladies had.

Princess Ani is sent to a neighboring land to be married, but comes upon a plot for her righteous place in the kingdom.  She is then forced into hiding and must get the King to see that she is who everyone says she isn't. 

All in all, the plot was pretty predictable, though there were a few windy turns here and there.  I wasn't surprised at anything that happened.  However, a few ladies at the bookclub were taken by surprise.  My theory is that I've read so many books, that there really isn't much left to surprise me anymore.  Or I'm pretty good at sniffing out the twists.  Who knows?

This book took me about 1/3 of the way to get really into it.  In fact, I hadn't even read it all before I showed up at book club because I just couldn't bring myself to sit down and read it.  However, after hearing what they had to say about it at book club, I finished and I'm glad I did.

The story is written for a younger crowd and princesses aren't really my thing, so I have a bias going into it, but I thought Shannon Hale did an excellent job of crafting the story to fit into the young adult genre.  There's definitely a strong female presence in the book and it's nice to see the females empowered instead of oppressed.

By the end of the book, I was intrigued enough to maybe pick up the next book in the series, so that says something.  I didn't devour the book, but I enjoyed it for what it's worth.

Happy Birthday Little Turkey!

I can't believe that Aunika is one today.  Crazy!!!  It seems like just yesterday I was upchucking everything that hit my stomach and scratching my belly like mad and not falling asleep until 4 am because of insomnia, but wishing that I could just stay in bed all day because I was SO tired, and crying because everything hurt so bad.

Hmmm...looks like I'm not quite ready for another one, doesn't it?

But it's been a full year.  And sadly, her birthday kind of got overshadowed by Thanksgiving.  So much so that she actually fell asleep during her "party" up  at my brother's house last night.  But next year, we'll figure something else out, because you should have a special day all to yourself for your birthday and not just be an afterthought. 

For the first birthday, oh well.  You won't remember it.

Her doctor appointment is on Monday, so I'll wait until then to update her stats, but I'm expecting something like "she's the size of a two year old" or "she's in the 120th percentile (doesn't exist.  I know.  I have a degree in math.  No need to make some smart remark in the comments section.  It's a joke.)  Perhaps the doctor will mention that she's a genius as well.  That'd be nice.

Until then, Happy Birthday my little turkey butt. 

Thanksgiving in Pictures

There's a story behind all these pictures.  And maybe I'll share them with you later, but tonight, you can just make the stories up in your head. 

Because they'll probably be more interesting that way. 

 

 

 .)

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving and The Day After Thanksgiving and BYU/Utah Day and Sunday.

(And I know how horribly misshapened my pies were, but the point is I MADE THEM.  BY MYSELF.  With help from the internet.  And they were GOOD.  DANG GOOD.  And maybe, I'm not so undomestically geeky afterall.  Except for look at their shape. And maybe it was more of a peach soup than a peach pie.  But regardless, I'm on a roll this year with my new found baking skills and I'm fairly certain that in dire circumstances, my family would not starve.)

Thanksgiving Gratitude List

The Thanksgiving season is a time for us all to gather and reminisce about the things we're grateful for before we start to indulge in the overgratification that the Christmas holiday brings us.  Only to repent in time for the New Year.

And today is no different.  So, in no particular order, here is my 2009 gratitude list:

• SO happy I'm not pregnant this year.
• The Discovery Channel
• Our FINISHED basement
• My health
• My two beautiful and energetic kids
• My Ipod
• My Headlamp
• Two friends that indulge my wild running ideas, and can still beat me in a race.
• Friends that don't run, but still come out to cheer me on
• An incredible husband who works hard and is two semesters away from receiving his Master's.
• A house that is slowly becoming a home
• A car that drives nicely in the snow.  With heated seats.
• My degree
• Warm clothes
• My skinny jeans
• My brothers and their wives and all my neices.
• My in-laws.  All of them. 
• Two feet that have shaved 3 minutes off  PER MILE since Februrary.
• Hair that is finally long enough to throw in a knot.
• My bike
• The projector that makes it somewhat bearable to bike 20 miles indoors.
• My LMF's who make it easy just to be.
• New friendships with people who live mere houses away
• Old friendships with people who anticipate what I need and rush to fulfill it, even if I didn't know I needed it at the time.
• A clean pantry
• Time with my dad every week
• Tuesdays with Mom.
• Books
• My quest for knowledge
• The library
• The internet and the many sites that show you how to make pies
• College football
• Shoes.  Lots and lots of shoes.
• The ability to read in the car.
• Facebook and a quirky sense of humor.
• New friendships I've made this year with people I wouldn't have otherwise associated with
• Leaving my shell behind
• Maturity
• Boston
• My Garmin GPS watch
• Thanksgiving dinner, especially the mashed potatoes
• A second Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, especially the mashed potatoes
• Pie
• Cake
• Diet Coke
• Friends that keep Diet Coke in their fridge for me, so that I only drink it in extreme emergencies.
• Bread
• A big enough mouth to accomodate my foot.
• Long enough legs to kick myself in the butt
• An inabilty to hold any rhythm so every dance on So You Think I Can Dance looks equally incredible and impossible.
• Ditto with American Idol
• Ability to foresee the future.  Well, sorta.
• Faith in God, the inherent goodness of mankind, and just retribution

Research

We're voracious researchers.  It's a habit that Wade has instilled in me from day one, and I'm finally catching on. 

We don't make a major purchase without first researching it.  Ever.  We research it to great lengths.  Sometimes to the point that I want to tie someone up to the chair and put duct tape over his mouth just buy the stupid thing and get it over and done with.

However, it has come to our attention that people may think that we do all this research and then buy the cheapest thing.

Which would defeat the purpose of the research, now wouldn't it? 

But, to those not into researching or who do their researching incorrectly, the cheapest ($$$) thing isn't necessarily the cheapest thing.

Allow me to explain.

Take for example the road bike Wade gave me for our anniversary. 

It's cheap ($$$).  I knew that it was when I picked it out.  But here's the thing.  I don't have the time to invest right now into heavy duty biking.  I wanted a road bike to do two or three triathlons on a year.  It fits me better than Wade's brother's old mountain bike and it fits my needs.  I live in a climate where outdoor biking is not feasible six months out of the year.

In short, I'm not going to shell out $$$ for something I don't anticipate using all that often right now in my life.

I did, however, look at A LOT of reviews for A LOT of bikes roughly in this price range.  And this is the one I chose based on what I saw and what I read.  Was it the cheapest ($$$)?  No.  Was it the cheapest?  No.  Is it my dream bike?  No.  Will I be riding it on the Tour de France?  No.  But it gets me from Point A to Point B on the triathlon course and that's all that matters right now.

Now there is the argument that if you're going to pay $200 for something that later on you're going to upgrade to a better model by paying $1000, wouldn't it be better to just fork over the $1000 now and not waste the $200.

And there's some merit to that argument.  However, if I would've gone with a $1000 model now and then decided that riding wasn't really for me, I'm out $1000 and not $200.  Also, it's hard to justify $1000 for two or three triathlons a year when you have a basement you're paying for and car payments.

Because we're also responsible adults too.  And we can't always go out and get the best thing because it's not in our best interest.

Sidenote: Did you know that 60% of millionaires use coupons?  Hello, they're not rich because of some luck of the draw.

So, in short, there's a formula (we're geeks.  Would you expect anything less?) we employ when making a major purchase, by which I mean, something that is pretty expensive and you wouldn't buy on impulse.

We weigh how much we're going to use said item versus how much it costs.  We NEVER buy top of the line. You're just throwing your money away if you do.  We buy mid-line.  If it's an item that isn't going to (realistically) be used a lot (our tent, for example), we buy lower on the scale.  If it's something that we plan on using a lot, (our projector) we'll buy higher on the scale.

And then we wait.

Which is the hardest part for a lot of people.  And may be why we give off the impression that we're buying the cheapest stuff.  Because, in some people's eyes, there's no difference between cheap ($$$) and cheap.  But I can tell you that there is a lot of cheap stuff out there that cost $$$.  So don't get caught in the trap that a price tag indicates how good something is.  A $185 pair of jeans still has two legs, a zipper and a snap.  Just like my $7 jeans.

But we wait until we find said item at a price that we can live with.  Occasionally, we will see it for a better price later on, but rarely do we ever feel guilty because we bought it at a price that fit our budget. 

The final thing is that once we've done our research, picked our item, waited for the good price, and bought it, we STOP researching it.  Or we do, theoretically.  Because I've seen Wade researching things after we've bought them.  You will ALWAYS find something better or cheaper if you keep looking.

Be happy with what you choose.  That is unless you didn't do your research and just went with what the price tag said.  In which case, you're a sucker.

 

End of the Year Thoughts

I know it's not quite the end of the year, but I've been thinking about it.  Like how my little girl is going to be A YEAR next week.  Where did the last year go?  Granted, I spent the first six months in a haze (a story for later down the road, when it's not still so fresh), but still I can't believe that only a year ago I was SO miserable I would've given my left leg to not be pregnant anymore.

There was a lot I wanted to do with my blog before I got sucked into a time warp of home improvement projects, entertaining children and napping .  Lots and lots of naps because who knew that two children would make you SO tired. 

And now that the basement is done, I feel like a HUGE burden has been lifted off my shoulders.  There's a lot to be done to getting the house in order, but at least now we have the space to do it with. If I could just find the energy to get started.

Baby steps.  Baby steps.

So, starting in January, prepare to be AMAZED with my ramblings.  Because not only will they be even more rambly, there will be more of them.  And other cool stuff because I'm not just a pretty face filled with witty words.  My kids are HILARIOUS.  And I'm anticipating the return of my spouse, who has been MIA since February, so that should make for good blog fodder.

In 2010, I will aim to be your cup of coffee in the morning--like a cup of Joe, only it will be a cup of Sandra or a thimble of Sandra, whatever works--to start off your day. Or end your day.  Whenever I get around to posting.  Don't get all excited that I'm going to become all organized and actually deliver all my promises. 

Because I'm not like that.

I can, apparently, teach myself to wake up at 5:15 in the morning, but I cannot become organized no matter how many rewards I give myself.

Sorry.

For now though, I'll keep posting randomly just to keep you on your toes.

First Room

Here's a picture of the first room in the basement that is 100% officially done. 

The bathroom. 

Roughly a year ago:

Behold, greatness!

I know.  It's nothing spectacular.  It's a basement bathroom.  But it's done.  And we learned a lot.  Like make sure the floor is level.  And there are a 1000 toilets to choose from.  And vanities are expensive.  As are mirrors.  Especially since they break so easily. 

Final inspection for the entire basement is tomorrow and you'd think there'd be more pictures after that, but we have to set up the rooms, so it will probably be a while.  However, Wade's new computer screens(!) came today, so the office should be set up fairly quickly.  Which is good news since that means our bedroom will cease operating as a bedroom/office/entertainment hub and return to just a bedroom.  And our closet will no longer be a storage shed. 

And then maybe I can breathe again.

2009's Humbling Experience #4

Yes, more running humbleness.  Yes, I realize maybe this is a sign I'm in the wrong sport.  No, I'm not giving up.

Saturday, I ran a 5k with my training buddy, H, her 8 year old son, and a friend of his, who is also 8.  H. and her son stayed together, but the other 8 year old was like a bat out of hell.  He took off from the first.  Eventually, I caught up to him at about a mile and passed him.

Then at about 2.75 miles, he passed me back.  We were going uphill so I was waiting for him to tire out and start walking.

But he never did.

He kept on running, even when the group we were in made a wrong turn and ended up running back up the HUGE hill we had run down at the beginning of the race. 

And that's when I lost my visual on him.

But I'm pretty sure he got me by about a minute.

An eight year old, who has not been getting up at 5:00 in the morning to go running 4 days a week, beat me.

Signs I'm Maturing

• I wake up, by myself, at 5:15 four days a week, despite Wade's near daily insistence that I should skip my run and stay in bed.
• I wear the ugliest fleece pants almost every day and don't really care.  I don't go out in public in them, however. 
• I was the ONLY one to dress up for Toastmasters for Halloween.  To add insult to injury, my costume fell apart mere moments into the meeting and so I just looked deranged.  However, instead of cowering in shame, I stood proud.
• For years, I've been preaching that I don't really care what others think about me, but finally I really don't care what they think.
• I say what I want to say, unless it's not worth my breath to say it.  Then I just let it go.
• I haven't thought about the dream house in a long time.  I'm content where I'm at.
• I'm fully planning on cleaning out the kitchen today.  Probably.
• Someone said something less than flattering on their blog about me.  And instead of flying off the handle, and saying something I'd just regret later, I took some time to really think it out.  And apologized for the comment I made to set them off.  Which garnered a public apology.  Behold the power of words.
• One of my closest friends is 65 in body and 30 in spirit.  I want to be like her when I grow up.
• I have an actual friendship with my mom.  Not just a typical mother/daughter relationship.  She's also one of my closest friends.
• I'm gaining a less awkward relationship with my father. 
• I'm loving Toastmasters.
• There are times I don't want to get out of bed, but I do.
• I have found a passion.  With goals.
• I have an amazing twin brother with more strength then I ever thought humanly possible.  He's an inspiration to everyone who meets him.  I'm just sad it's taken me this long to figure it out.
• I have an older brother who is incredible and funny and smart as well.  15 years ago, it would've killed me to think it, let alone say it out loud.
• I have an incredible and amazing husband with a brain too large to be contained in his body.  One day, he's going to make millions.  And instead of daydreaming of the possibilities it will open up in the way of materialistic goods, I'm thinking of the good it will do to help those less fortunate.
• I have pretty much everything that I could need or want.  Except for a monkey.  But, I'm thinking I don't want one of those for fear it would try to eat me.  And not succeed. 
• I've learned that there are worse things than dying.  And I'm praying I never have to experience that.
• After last weekend's triathlon, I was more excited to see how my training buddy did than I was to see how I did.
• I have two AMAZING training buddies who let me rant and rave and still follow my insane self-penned training regimens. 
• I still dream of going on Oprah, but it's with less regularity now.
• I know the ins and outs of health care plans and how to choose the least crappiest one.  I'm still not on board the Obama Health Train, but I'm making my way to the station for perhaps another train that's on it's way.
• I have a slew of LMFs and not so many HMFs anymore.  It's kind of nice.
• I read books about events that I've never heard of.
• I read books about events I have heard of.
• I am not above going back to work if it meant that we stayed off the street.  
• I married someone who is not above delivering pizzas if he had to.
• I am gaining a new appreciation for how creative and energetic my four year old is.  Even if he never quits talking.
• My little girl is the most easy going person I've ever met, obviously not from my DNA code.  I hope she stays that way.
• I've learned to let some things go and to stand up for other things and to be happy with whatever the outcome is.  Unless it's pink walls. 
• I love myself and my life more now than I ever have.

Book Review Friday 11/13/09

Book: The Gardner Heist
Pages: 226
Author: Ulrich Boser

I was more than pleasantly surprised by this book.  I had grabbed it off the shelf at the library because I was in a hurry and it was the nearest book. 

It took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I couldn't put it down.  The book is a written account of the investigation in to the world's largest art theft, the Gardner Art Museum, in 1990.  I wish I still had the book in my possession to spit out the facts, but something like 14 paintings were stolen, worth more than $500 million, in an 88 minute time span.  As of today, none of it has been recovered. 

The book detailed a world that I didn't know even existed in real life; the Boston Underworld of mafias and hit men.  I assumed that the viciousness of it was Hollywoodize, but if what the book protrays is true, then it's straight from the movies. 

The cast of characters woven into the account are intriguing, though I wouldn't want to ever meet them.  I loved the descriptions the author used to accurately portray the main players in the investigation. 

I would definitely recommend this book to most anyone, art lover or not.  I'm not familiar with a lot of art but I found the book to be beyond fascinating for the understory it told.

This book proves that some of the best stories aren't made up. 

Catching Up Part 1

So many great stories, so little time.  But, we'll start the week with the triathlon I did Saturday. 

For the record, I haven't really been on my bike since the triathlon I did mid-August.  And I've been swimming, but not so diligently.  But my running has been doing great, so I thought this would be a walk in the park.

And walk it was.  As in walking my bike up the hill.  During the race.  And walking to the swimming pool instead of running because I was exhausted.

And yet...so awesome. 

After my triathloning in August, I took some time off from the swimming and biking to work on my 5k time.  And because it was two less days I had to get up at 5 am.  Besides it's hard to bike in the cold.  But a training buddy, H., and I signed up to do the Turkey Tri in Orem.  We had heard good things about it and I needed to justify my demands for the road bike that Wade graciously granted me for our anniversary.   And, triathlons are AWESOME.  I can't wait until I have more time to devote to actually training correctly for one.

Anyways, we arrived to mass chaos on Saturday morning.  There were 400+ people entered in the race, which is roughly 300 more than any triathlon I've done.  We didn't anticipate so many people and it was all a little nuts and stressful to get to the starting line on time, but we made it.

The format of a triathlon is usually a swim, followed by biking and then capped off with a run.  However, because it's November and we were swimming in a pool, they reversed the order and we began with the run.  My strategy was to go all out for the run, recover on the bike, and swim as fast as I could.  And I all but managed to do just that.

The run was fairly benign.  There were some tough parts, but I finished in 27:51.  I held back a little bit because I knew that I still had two more events, so I'm pleased with that.

The biking was a total other story.  The course was two loops of 5 miles each.  There was a nice downhill section through UVU campus and I was really enjoying myself despite being passed by everything from really fast people to people on mountain bikes with big, ole, fat tires.  That was until I turned the corner and saw the two hills looming before me.  I made it (barely) up the first hill and then I started up the second hill.

As a side note: up until now, all my training--in both running and biking--has centered around avoiding going uphill.

When riding a bike, there is a minimum speed that you MUST attain to stay upright.  Up the second hill, I was slightly on the right side of this minimum speed.  I wasn't moving very fast, but (a) I was still moving and (b) I was still on my bike, which was more than I could say about some people.

For the record, I'd like to point out that this next part was NOT my fault.  I was merely trying to get to the top of the hill.

On my left hand side was a lady who, until a certain, albeit important, moment in time, was ahead of me.  That was until she slowed down to just BELOW the minimum speed in which you must be going to remain upright on your bike.  As a consequence, she started to teeter and weave towards me.  I started teetering in response and it looked to be like it was going to be a crash.  However, she overcorrected to the other side and since I was barely moving, I was able to get my feet out of my pedals and put them down before I fell over.  The other lady was not so lucky.  She then overcorrected again, bounced off my bike and landed on her side.

I offered my assistance, but she was mad at me and yelling at me for being on her right side or something.  Anyways, it wasn't my fault.  She was the one who was going to crash into me.  I'm just lucky she didn't take me out with her.

Yeah, she's fine.  I made sure that she got up and everything.

I'm nice like that.

But, I lost all my momentum for the hill and had to walk my bike up to the top.  Which, since I wasn't the only one doing it, wasn't as humiliating as it could've been.  And it wasn't my fault.

The second time around, I was able to ride my bike to the top of the hill, but it wasn't pretty.  I was pretty certain I was going to pass out before I crested, which would've caused a host of problems.  But I made it.

By the time I hit the transition area for the swimming, I was beat.  I crawled my way to the pool and stepped in.  As I began swimming, I formulated some thoughts in my head.  I can't remember all of them but one of them was this:

Triathlons-by the very definition of the word--are a three event race.  There are three events.  Therefore, you should be able to at least do all three events.  Like swimming.  If you can't swim, then maybe a triathlon is not the sport for you.  Running along the pool until you can't touch the bottom and then doggie paddling to the wall is not swimming.  Nor is holding on to the rope and pulling yourself along that way.  If you want to complete a triathlon, you should learn to swim first.

I'm just saying.

I had other deep and profound thoughts as well, but I don't remember them as clearly.

I finished in a respectable 1:25:46.  Not too bad considering my lack of training.  And for the first time EVER, I left feeling like I could not have done anything better.  I gave everything I had.

In April, they do the EXACT same race (obviously not called the Turkey Tri) that I think I'm going to do after (theoretically) spending the winter on my bike indoors (fun!).  We'll see how that all pans out.

I finished and I had a blast.  And really, that's all that matters.  Except for maybe taking down that biking time.

A Home for the Holidays

The holidays are quickly approaching and I've been thinking a lot about what I want.  Which isn't a lot.  I have pretty much everything I want.  But there is one BIG thing that's been lurking in my mind now for a little while...

I have a confession.  I hate my house.  Why?  It's big, it's spacious.  It has a few nice things in it.  But it's UGLY.  Like government-issued ugly.  Dorm-style ugly.  A house, not a home.

Except for the basement.  That's GORGEOUS.  Speaking of which, I need to still post pictures.  Later...

Anyways, when we built it, we were college students and we were looking for cheap.  Which we got.  We didn't upgrade the paint, just went with the standard issued white.  We hung 2 inch blinds because my parents helped us out with them.  Otherwise we would've gone with the cheapo mini blinds.  But beyond that, we really haven't done much.  Wade painted the nursery before we had Josh and I painted the master bath last year in a misguided attempt to liven up the place.

Now that the basement is nearing completion, I've been looking around at the state of our upstairs and it's made me depressed.  The walls are chipped.  The paint is peeling.  The window ledges cracking.  Essentially, it's a house that's been lived in for 7 years with next to zero upkeep. 

Apparently, it's hard to maintain a strict six month deep cleaning schedule when you have school/work/kids. 

And essentially don't care.  But that's for another day.

So today, as I was perusing my usual blogs, I came across an entry by my friend Juliana.  She wrote about beginning a program that was made up by another one of her friends that's called "A Home for the Holidays".  Basically, she's breaking up the OVERWHELMING task of decluttering your house--and life--into little manageable tasks that take about an hour a day. 

An hour?  I can devote an hour to the project, can't I? 

Oh, and I will.  Because that's what I want for the Holidays.  A home.  Someplace where I'm not embarassed to invite people in or have parties at or just to be at.  It will take me longer than the next 50 days because I want to repaint and all that fun stuff, but if I can get rid of some of this junk, I'm sure by the beginning of the year, I'll be ready to tackle the hard stuff.

And who knows?  By doing it now, we can be ready to move at a moment's notice if the chance comes up. 

Not to be Outdone

In my quest for the perfect Halloween costume for Josh, I all be neglected Aunika.  So, I searched the house for Josh's old costumes but didn't find them.  At the store on Saturday, I picked up an instant bunny costume to relieve me of some of the guilt I was feeling:

This last picture pretty much sums up the entire Halloween experience for my poor little girl.

Because we then left for the ER at about 9:30 because she woke up with a fever, gasping for air and wheezing. 5 hours later, we returned home with an ambiguous diagnosis of croup and/or piggy flu--call back in 24 hours for the results. But she sounded a lot better and we all slept until 11 am.