eat. run. love.

I've never been a runner. I cringed since 6th grade at the thought of running. I got out of PE by befriending all my teachers. Then I weighed 220lbs. WOW. (cannot believe I just wrote that!) Okay I didn't really weight 220 - Will weighed 10lbs. of that. & by the time I left the hospital I was 190. & I stayed there until September. I've been doing Crossfit at DAC since April & LOVE IT. But the scale wasn't showing me the love. I knew it was my eating. I still had the mentality that I could eat anything I wanted whenever I wanted (& let me tell you that will NOT be my mantra for my next pregnancies)Show I started Weight Watchers. I lost 8lbs. That was a start. But do I really need middle-aged ladies pointing a finger at me when I gained .4 of a pound? Its definitly un-motivational. Not to mention dropping $40 to step on a scale for 3 seconds 1x/week? I decided to try on my own & have been pretty successful since quitting Weight Watchers. I started at 190, I'm now at 176. I was 172lb. when I got pregnant. We are makin' progress folks. K, now back to running. I still suck at it. But I really enjoy it. Crossfit helps with my running & running helps with my Crossfit. I ran the farthest I've ever run last week: 4.5 miles. My goal is a 10K on Thanksgiving morning & then a leg of the CIM Marathon which will be about 7 miles. Next year I want to run the Nike Women's Half Marathon in SF. Its fun to meet & surpass these goals & I love seeing the results on my body.

pumpkin patch.

Let me give you a little background on our luck. We re-scheduled our engagement pictures twice because of the rain & then it ended up raining on the day we picked, but we stuck it out. 2 days before our wedding we had the worst thunder & lightning storm N.California as seen in years. The morning of our wedding it was cloudy but somehow by 4pm the sun we peaking through. We decided to take our nephew to the Rivercats game & it POURED - in the middle of September, don't think its rained since. & most recently: we decided to head to the Pumpkin patch on Sunday. You guessed it: it rained = )

It was a lot of fun though. We met up (for about 4 minutes!) with Laryssa & baby Jack. This was not the way I had envisioned this post to go, but I had to as I came across these pictures! Laryssa & I have a bond that is so awesome from sharing our first pregnancy together. It was amazing to share the entire journey of starting to wear maternity jeans, to first kicks, to eating 4 pieces of chocolate cake at a wedding, to waddling around downtown Davis about to pop!




The pumpkin patch never seems to fail me, even if its raining. I think a make-up day is in order so we can stay a little longer!

& this coming weekend we have Will's first birthday pictures. outside. & its supposed to rain.

milk(shake) drunk.

I don't get a whole lot of "me" time. I kind of threw the towel in the day we got home from the hospital. We are constantly on the go. School, gym, MOPS, playdates, Grammys. The days cosume me & before you know it, its 7:15pm. I love our hectic life because it reminds me how we are constantly surronded by friends & family. The list of to-do's is constant around here: cleaning, laundry, picking up, dishes. I really enjoy my role as a stay at home mom, because I have some sick form of OCD where everything has to be perfect before I go to bed. But last night, I didn't do a thing. I sat. Completly mindless. Watched House. I knew Will wouldn't make a peep. Eric even went to In-N-Out for me & got a chocolate milkshake (I had two fillings & my mouth hurt!) & maybe some french fries.....
It was so nice letting go, leaving the house a disaster, taking a moment (or 2 hours) for myself. Just what I needed.

Now off to clean our entire house = )

doula.

I like these one-named posts.

Okay so I didn't want to jinx myself & write about this last week. But I'm ECSTATIC to say I can write about it now! This is ALMOST as cool as getting accepted into a RN program.

The hospital here in town has a top-notch Birthing Center. After Will was born, I have not gone a day I don't think about my birth story. & of course the hospital plays a HUGE role it that. I started volunteering there once a week: pretty simple stuff - filing, making charts, tearing down charts, delivering food trays, running specimens to the lab, etc. I loved it, but my heart was behind those closed doors where you can hear the vague screams of laboring moms. My sympathy for their pain, my joy for what their lives' were about to come. The unit secretary had told me I should look into the volunteer doula program if I wanted to be behind those doors. Coincidentally enough, American River was offering a 4 day intensive workshop through DONA (Doulas of N. America). So back in June I went to the workshop & loved every minute of it. I loved hearing that your birth can have a profound impact on your life forever & that I really wasn't crazy because I thought about November 2 every day since. A doula is a person who recognizes & respects everything about birth and recognize that this is going to be a key experience in a mother's life.

So the hospital here has a volunteer program like I said. I e-mailed the coordinators thinking, "shoot who wants to be a doula, it can't be that popular." Well apparently close to 100 people were interested in 20 spots. So when the application came this is a tiny bit of what I wrote:

I want to be a doula because I believe that every women should have a strong support system behind her during labor. Whether I am the key labor support person for a laboring mom or I am a warm body in the room to provide encouragement & reassurance to Dad, as a doula, I can make a women's labor a positive experience. I feel as though I was extrememly mis-informed on what a doula was when I was pregnant. I envisioned a 60 -something Jewish women chanting to me while I screamed for an epidural. I'm often told I have an old soul, but being 23, I feel as though there is a younger group of women who need to be informed about the support a doula can provide. I know I cannot pick & choose the moms I work with, but I think I bring a breath of fresh air & can provide excellent physical, mental, & informational support for the parents-to-be.

Well apparently they liked my shout-out to the 60 year old Jewish women because I just learned today that I was one of the 20 picked!!!!!

More to come...I have a sleepy head waking up = )

bar.

I swear this is not a fair represenatation of our life.

Last Friday I went out with Kaeley & the sissy Rosalind. It was a much needed girls night. We went to PF Changs for dinner & decided to go to a few bars in downtown Sac in hope of finding Kaeley a husband. We wander into Streets of London where I show the bouncer my Visa card instead of my ID & then we head down the street to Hamburger Patties.
I'm not quite sure why this is my luck, but we begin to look around while sitting at the bar in Hamburger Patties and realize that the guys all look gay. The bartenders are practically ignoring us...so weird. So I whip out the iPhone...google "Hamburger Patties," & sure enough I get a review on Yelp about it being one of "Sac's hottest gay bars." Sorry Kaeley.

Ok so fast forward to Saturday morning. Eric, Will & I are sitting on the couch & I begin to tell Eric about out night: "Well we walked into this bar, " & before I can go any farther with the story, Will looks up with his big blue eyes and says, "BAR." Clear as day. Mind you besides babbling constantly & saying Mama when he is tired/needy, this is the first real word. Go figure. I tell my sister in law & in between her laughter, her response is, "You guys are so NOT bar people!!"

So.not.fair. but it sure makes an excellent story = )

kelle.

I want to share with everyone a blog that I adore beyond words. Kelle Hampton writes "Enjoying the Small Things," she is an incredible photographer & always writes the such inspirational blogs. From her daughter Lainey's birthday party to lounging in PJ's all weekend to the birth of her daughter Nella who was born with Down Syndrome & they didn't know, she has such a way with words. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE start here and read this:
Nella's Birth Story.
I don't know whats wrong with if you your not crying tears of happiness afer that = )
After that you can check her daily updated blog at kellehampton(dot)com.

I love reading her blog every night after Will goes to bed. Its become a routine. It brings me back to the important things in life & really makes me cherish every single moment of every single day.

Just thought I'd share with ya'll.

word.

I suck at this blog thing. Its like a I have baby or something. I lay in bed every single night with a flood of ideas to write about & then I sit down at my computer & stare at a blank screen. I finally started putting notes in my handy dandy iPhone 4 so I have a few topics lined up! I suppose to we will start with the inevitable attention whore-ish update of my incredible handsome son. & then we can move on to ME.

Will is 10 months. 10 FREAKING MONTHS OLD. 2 more months & he will no longer be a baby. We will have a toddler on our hands. His toothless smile is no more. I begged him to stay all gums & I would buy him dentures around the age of 3 but he didn't listen. Every morning I walk into his room & stare at piercing blue eyes has he jumps up & down in his crib & realize my little baby is growing into this handsome little boy! He is still as sweet as can be with quite a voice. He loves screaming at the top of his lungs just because he can. He sqawks "mamamamamamamamamama" whenever he wants something & his favorite food is bananas. Did I mention he crawls? Everywhere? He is a crawling machine. He really only likes to play with things that are not his toys like the cabinents, vaacum cleaner, the outlets, the bookcase, the TV clickers - the norm. My life literally changed in a matter of 2 hours when he figuredo out to move those legs. Its so fun wathcing him conquer new things...this is probably my favorite stage so far. Its so fun to watch how proud he is of himself.

As for myself, I currently have a sore throat & nasty dry cough because the newly graduated high school seniors in my beginning Algebra class (graduation requirement, FML) egged on the highly austistic kid (bless his heart) to blow the chalk off the overhead & slam the erasers together during our 5 minute break. & guess who sits in the front row?
I applied to two RN programs last week & have to wait until November to find out if I was one of the lucky 30 students out of 2000. I sat on my couch & hugged my applications for about 10 minutes while I had a long talk with God. I then proceeded to kiss them before heading to the post office where I begged the postmaster to put an extra stamp on for goodluck (he told me I needed to trust his scale) Anyways cross any body part you can & pray I don't have to wait 3 years to get accepted!

I have a new current obession: running tights. Yeah I know I'm fat but it feels like you are running naked. & I LOVE it. I'm trying to get this running thing under control. Will & I go about 3x/ week. I'm hoping to run a 10K on Thanksgiving morning: next will be a half-marathon (ya right).

I promise to be a better blogger. More to come this week. xoxoxo.