Funny girls

I was taking pictures tonight of the girls and this one just totally cracked me up. Check out Adelynn on the left. And the other two look startled! Funny, funny.

South Beach

Ok, so I gave in...I am turning my eating habits upside down. I had lost about 3 total pounds doing nothing but running, pilates and arm workouts. I was happy the scale had started to move, but man it was slow. Those were three hard-earned pounds. However I do have to say that I was still motivated to continue doing what I was doing based on my pictures. I had Josh take a couple pics of me "before" and then like 3 weeks later. The scale hadn't moved much but I did see quite a big difference and all along Josh has been telling me that every part of me is changing. But still the actual weight loss was not as significant as I hoped. So I did some research and decided that I should add the South Beach diet to my exersize program. I bought the book from ebay and had to wait a long time for it to come in the mail. Anyway, I finally got the book last Friday and started the diet on Saturday. Sunday morning, I got on the scale..I lost 1 lb. Monday morning, I got on the scale again. I lost another 1.5 lbs. 2.5 lbs in 2 days! What more can you ask for? Another thing I noticed that was very exciting to me was that a week and a half ago I bought a new pair of pants to wear to my grandpa's funeral. I won't tell you what size they were, but I knew that a few weeks previous I wouldn't have been able to fit in to them. I barely could button them and had to wear one of those super-sucker-inner things to keep from hanging over the top. Anyway, I wore those pants to church yesterday... they were almost too lose. And I didn't have to wear anything under them. That was very exciting. Those things aren't comfortable. 26 pounds to go! (Or maybe 29, we'll see how it goes.)

I get it

Okay, I get it. Now I understand how people can get addicted to this sport called running. I am now almost into my 5th week of my training schedule to do a 5k in 8 weeks and I am finding myself LOOKING FORWARD to my runs. I would like to say that again. I look forward to my runs. Never in my life have I looked forward to exercising. (Well, except for once when I had a crush on a personal trainer..but that's a story for another day.) There are several things that I like about it, I can't decide which is the best yet, so I'll list them all. I like that I am starting to fit better in my clothes. I like that I am doing things that a month ago were out of my reach. I like that the scale has finally started to move. I like that I was at wal-mart yesterday and tried on a pair of running pants and the size medium was too big. I love the solitude of just me, the road, my God and my music. I love when I am feeling like I'm at the end of what I can do and then a motivational song comes on and I get a burst of energy and can finish my set. I love that every time I have a new goal for the week that I think is going to be extremely difficult, it's not as hard as I thought... and I can do it. I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with doing something that I didn't think I could do. I love to say things like "I just got back from running" or "I'm going running". I also like the fact that I can now look at myself from behind and think "whoa, that looks good!" Can I say that on TV? Anyway, I am now well on my way to being able to run a 5k. That sounds so foreign to me. I will wait until I can do something significant to call myself a runner..but I do run.

Bryce in the snow

 

Jayden in the snow

 

Snow day!

Today was such a fun day! I awoke at about 6am and got up to go running. I left the house at about 6:30am and there was nothing on the ground. Almost immediately I started feeling some spitting from the sky and by the time I got home about 25 min later, there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. It was actually a lot of fun running in the early morning in the snow. Despite the fact I kept choking on snowflakes. Bryce got to stay home from school today due to the "Winter Storm Blast of '07" (I just made that up.) At first I regretted this since he was home from school yesterday for MLK day and it wasn't the most fun day of my life. But after feeding the babies in the am I promised that I would teach the boys how to build a snowman. First I should say that I decided that our snow day tradition should be making homemade donuts and having hot chocolate. So I started the donuts in the breadmaker and fed the babies..by the time the babies were done eating it was time to cut out the donuts and start the hot chocolate. We then proceeded to go outside to make a snowman. Unfortunately, what I didn't know was that the snow was very dry and did not hold into a ball so this didn't really work out. But we played a little snow soccer and threw handfuls of snow at each other and made snow angels. Then we got a surprise and Josh came home from work at a little after 11 and said he was home for the day. (Yea!) After lunch he took the boys to the park with the sled and a bit later he is taking them again to another school with more hills to sled down. Anyway, the day is not over, but what a nice break from every day reality!

There's a website called tripletconnection.org and I go there every now and again and read posts and such and sometimes ask questions of other triplet moms. Anyway, someone posted these and I thought they were really funny. Theres one for those friends of mine who don't have kids yet and another for those of us who do. Have a good day!

Are You Ready for Children?

Mess Test: Smear peanut butter on the sofa and curtains. Now rub your hands in the wet flowerbed and rub on the walls. Cover the stains with crayons. Place a fish stick behind the couch and leave it there all summer.

Toy Test: Obtain a 55-gallon box of Lego's. (If Lego's are not available, you may substitute roofing tacks or broken bottles.) Have a friend spread them all over the house. Put on a blindfold. Try to walk to the bathroom or kitchen. Do not scream. (This could wake a child at night.)

Grocery Store Test: Borrow one or two small animals (goats are best) and take them with you as you shop at the grocery store. Always keep them in sight and pay for anything they eat or damage.

Dressing Test: Obtain one large, unhappy, live octopus. Stuff into a small net bag making sure that all arms stay inside.

Feeding Test: Obtain a large plastic milk jug. Fill halfway with water. Suspend from the ceiling with a stout cord. Start the jug swinging. Try to insert spoonfuls of soggy cereal (such as Fruit Loops or Cheerios) into the mouth of the jug, while pretending to be an airplane. Now dump the contents of the jug on the floor.

Night Test: Prepare by obtaining a small cloth bag and fill it with 8 - 12 pounds of sand. Soak it thoroughly in water. At 8:00 PM begin to waltz and hum with the bag until 9:00 PM. Lay down your bag and set your alarm for 10:00 PM. Get up, pick up your bag, and sing every song you have ever heard. Make up about a dozen more and sing these too until 4:00 AM. Set alarm for 5:00 AM. Get up and make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.

Physical Test (Women): Obtain a large beanbag chair and attach it to the front of your clothes. Leave it there for 9 months. Now remove 10 of the beans.

Physical Test (Men): Go to the nearest drug store. Set your wallet on the counter. Ask the clerk to help himself. Now proceed to the nearest food store. Go to the head office and arrange for your paycheck to be directly deposited to the store. Purchase a newspaper. Go home and read it quietly for the last time.

Final Assignment: Find a couple who already has a small child. Lecture them on how they can improve their discipline, patience, tolerance, toilet training, and child's table manners. Suggest many ways they can improve. Emphasize to them that they should never allow their children to run riot. Enjoy this experience. It will be the last time you will have all the answers


The Evolution of Mom

Yes, parenthood changes everything. But parenthood also changes with each baby. Here, some of the ways having a second and third child differs from having your first:

Your Clothes - 1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy. 2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible. 3rd baby: Your maternity clothes are your regular clothes.

The Baby's Name - 1st baby: You pore over baby-name books and practice pronouncing and writing combinations of all your favorites. 2nd baby: Someone has to name their kid after your great-aunt Mavis, right? It might as well be you. 3rd baby: You open a name book, close your eyes, and see where your finger falls. Bimaldo? Perfect!

Preparing for the Birth - 1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously. 2nd baby: You don't bother practicing because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing. 3rd baby:
You ask for an epidural in your 8th month.

The Layette - 1st baby: You prewash your newborn's clothes, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau. 2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains. 3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?

Worries - 1st baby: At the first sign of distress - a whimper, a frown - you pick up the baby. 2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn. 3rd baby: You teach your 3-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.

Activities - 1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing, and Baby Story Hour. 2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics. 3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.

Going Out - 1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home 5 times. 2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached. 3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.

At Home - 1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby. 2nd baby: You spend a bit of every day watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby. 3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.

Evasive weight loss, first cereal, scorched pots and other random thoughts

So, it's 11:30pm and I am still wide awake thanks to the half a dr.pepper I had with dinner. So after an hour of laying in bed with thoughts running through my head I decided to blog and be "productive" with my time.

First off, I'm asking for suggestions. Maybe I'm just not patient enough, but I've been working out regularly now for going on 4 weeks and the scale has not budged a bit. What's up with this? Here's the bottom line. I had triplets 4+ months ago. After being on bedrest for 4 weeks previous to this, it was difficult to walk period after they were born. However I've recovered from this and lost about 55 of the 75 pregnancy pounds I put on. This was all without work. I am currently 20 pounds from my pregnancy start weight and 30-35 pounds from where I would like to be. I have been working out regularly 4x per week (cardio) for like I said almost 4 weeks now. This week, I just started to add in pilates on my off days. I refuse to change my entire eating plan..I have done small things like cut down on white flour, eat more whole grains and protein, etc. But I refuse to completely change everything. It makes me grumpy and besides that, it's expensive to go buy all new food. I just read an article about how drinking enough water is essential for weight loss and I am going to start doing that tomorrow, which I should be doing anyway. Anyone else have any more suggestions? Am I missing something?

I started the girls on their first cereal this morning. Well, Kynden and Ellyanna anyway, Adelynn doesn't seem to be needing it quite yet. They did great. They of course need some practice with the spoon and tongue movement in relation to the spoon, but they smiled through the whole thing and seemed to enjoy it. They're growing faster than the weeds in our front yard in summer!

Since last Sunday (three days ago) I have managed to scorch the bottoms of three pots. What's up with that? That never happens to me! Today I put in some bean with bacon soup and put it on medium on the stove, then I got distracted on the computer (probably reading blogs) and I came in like an hour later and the whole house was stinky and filled with smoke. I ran to the stove and pulled off the scorched pan and took it outside. Then I opened the windows and used a fan to pull out the smoke. It still smells in our house. Anyone know a good way to get scorched beans out of a pan?

It's a good thing however that our massive "cold front" hadn't moved in yet when I had to have all the windows open to get the smoke out. We would have frozen our butts off in the house. Every time there is even the smallest chance of snow in our part of northwest Oregon, it is like the biggest news story of the century. It is absolutely hilarious to see the poor news people out in different parts of the community peering up at the streetlamp to see the 5 snowflakes fall. And holy cow, you better stock up on all your essential supplies and get out the snow suits and shovels because we might get up to an inch of snow! And don't forget the all-important rules such as drive slower and don't expose infants to the elements. Come on people! Seriously, Josh and I have friends who live in Alaska and we are thinking about taping a newscast and sending it to them to laugh at.

The last thing I was thinking about as I lay in bed wide awake is: "why are people so mean and nit-picky to other Christian brothers and sisters whom we are supposed to show Christ's love to?" This applies to many, many..many examples that I can think of, but I was specifically thinking about my brother in law Jay. He is a worship pastor/leader of a significantly sized church who will remain nameless. (Not that it is probably any different from any other church.)I'm not married to him and don't really even see him that often, so I know I don't even know the half of it. But I know that almost on a daily basis (weekly at least) people are criticizing just about everything he does. Wether it be what he's wearing (I'm guessing on that) to what he does during his time off, and most "importantly" what songs he picks to sing at church that weekend. Why is it that we do that? Jay is one of the godliest men that I have the privilage to know. He has integrity, a good heart, loves his wife and daughter to the ends of the earth. But he is under attack every single day because he picked a song that someone didn't like to sing. Come on! I'm just using this as an example. In my own family I know that my two younger sisters were all but turned out on their ear at our former church because our parents got a divorce. They lost their "friends" because of that and it has changed the course of their lives forever! My youngest sister now wants nothing to do with Christians and I can't say that I blame her a bit. We are probably the most judgemental and unforgiving and self righteous group of people there is out there and I'm including myself in that statement. The God I know is greived to the depths of His being because of this. Our number one job is to show His love to the world. They are supposed to know us by our love. It's right in the bible! And we are failing miserably. The $64,000 question is how are we going to change that? I suggest getting down on our knees or face every single day and asking God to change our hearts. The world does not know us by our love. It knows us by our judgemental attitude and wants nothing to do with it.

Boy, that paragraph took on a life of it's own! I wasn't expecting that to all come out. I was just going to tell people to be nice! Well, maybe now I'll be able to sleep.

Where are we Runnin?

About 4 weeks ago now I committed to learning to run. This is significant for me for several reasons. #1. I have always despised running. #2. Despite my feelings for it, I have always wanted to be able to do it. #3. I have made many, many false attemps at learning.

So why is this time different wonder the three of you that read my blog? Answer: I have no idea. But it is. I went online and found a training outline for how to learn to run. It made me so excited because it didn't seem that difficult. I have been following the program now for almost 3 weeks and do you know what I've learned? Running feels like death. Don't laugh..anyone who has ever attempted running probably will agree with me. But you know what the beauty of it is? Being pregnant with triplets also at times felt like death. It was painful, it was discouraging at times and sometimes it made me throw up. But I did it. And the rewards were HUGE! I am hoping it might be the same with running. Only very, very different of course. So I press on. Even through leg cramps and not being able to breathe. My rule is that I may not buy any more clothing for myself until I lose at least 5 pounds. My ultimate reward is that at the end..when I reach my goal weight or at least my goal size I should say, I am going to buy myself an expensive pair of jeans. Never in my life have I ever spent more than $30 on a pair of jeans. But when I get to my goal, I will go jean shopping and try on hundreds of pairs of jeans if that's what it takes and buy which ever ones look the best. No matter what the price.

I would love it if anyone who reads my blog would ask me on occassion how running is going. It will help keep me accountable. Being pregnant with triplets wasn't something I could back out of, but unfortunately this I can. So any further accountablility would be great. Well, my mother in law is here and it's time for me to go run. Wish me luck.