Getting Started Blogging

Two years ago I was almost 7 months pregnant and I had just returned from Seattle, where my husband had done his internship. We were getting ready for a new quarter at school - not to mention a new quarter of our lives! I'd spent many weeks at my Uncles watering plants, cooking meals, watching A Baby Story and Food Network - not really enjoying Seattle due to my lack of funds. I was however spending plenty of time reading up on everything baby, especially at Parents.com, which I hadn't chosen for any reason accept it was the site for the only parenting magazines I currently received.

A few weeks into our return home, however, I found myself spending the weekend in the hospital trying to make sure that our baby did not arrive early. She didn't arrive that weekend and I got sent home on medication on bed rest. To say the least, I had a LOT of time on my hands. Even more then I had in Seattle - and nothing I could do with it. I could sit in my recliner, read, watch shows, walk to the bathroom, get some food, sit back down. Thinking back on it..yuck!

That is when I started blogging. At the time I was spending a good few minutes each day on My Space. I didn't have much else to do, so I started blogging there. But really I got the idea from the blogs I read on Parents.com. After Miriam was born I decided to start a blogspot so that I could share with more people. And now, I've been blogging for almost two years.

I bring this up because Parents.com is doing an overhaul of their community section of the website. The two gals I've spent the last two years reading from, who inspired me to write down what we were going through - one who I even wrote a post for when she was a few days postpartum, are now in their last few days of blogging at Parents.com.

I'll still get to follow them on their personal blogs. It just is a little sad not to have my inspiration give me my weekly (or tri-weekly) dose of blogging goodness. Thanks ladies, for helping me discover my inner writer.

*Keep in mind that the links will only be good through Monday!

House part deux

Our loan was approved today! Wait. Is this happy, or scary, or something else?
We're just waiting on a few repairs still. I have some pictures from a higher resolution camera so, here they are!

The 5K I never thought I could run

Do I look like I just jogged 3.1 miles?
Trust me, I felt that way. I felt flushed and wet and out of breath. Shortly after I had noodle legs. But I felt really good. Like, really good. Like, this whole "healthy living" thing might be totally worth it, good.

I've never been a runner. Never. Not even as a gymnast (although I was probably in fabulous shape then). But I was able to jog most of the 5K. The last mile was hard. I probably walked 1/4-1/2 mile. I kept starting and stopping at landmarks. Until the last time when I saw my finish-line person 1/4 mile away and I was able to focus on them instead of my burning legs.

I wish I could point you to some good couch-5K running program. But I didn't start from the couch and it's not like I've been out practicing 3+ times a week. I've been walking 3 miles on Saturdys for the last month, which was all I could do. Last week was the first time I ran AT ALL. And it was a mile, broken into two segments.

I'm not sure I would have even done it at all if the ladies from my ward hadn't started the race off jogging. I wasn't in the mindset of "hey, I'm going to go run this whole thing" But we started off jogging and I felt dang good and suddenly I realized "It's been a mile! Okay so I'll push through to the turn around point! (At approximately 1.5miles) Yeah, I can do that." But then I just kept jogging and had gone over 2 miles before I hit the wall (you know, I think I am going to um...throw up or faint) and had to break it up with some walking.

Final time: 33min. 12seconds.

I'm fairly pleased. 8th out of 30 people.

And look at what Weight Watchers gave me:



The number tags were kinda neat too.

And I might actually do this again!

I've only posted twice in August and the second time I used a picture I've already used

But this is not a picture I've used:
That is the layout of our house. After a couple hours of Bill and Jeff (our realtor) measuring EVERYWHERE. Because of needing to decide on flooring. I was thinking - you know - fridge and curtain measurements. But oh yes, flooring. But look at what my husband did with all that information!
More house updates soon!

Miriam is a fish!!

These pictures are in the kiddie pool at our friends house. Miriam had a good time with little Alex playing in the water. But it doesn't quite capture what a little fish she has become in the big pool! That kid doesn't have any fear! And she is starting to get impatient with having to stay with us. And she doesn't like those floating rings you can sit in "designed for kids her age." I guess the next step is some water wings!

Goodbye July

I've never caught up with all the things that happened on our Washington trip. Remember: pulled over in Grandmas car? Well turned out we got pulled over because my Grandparents hadn't registered their car that year. It was 6 months overdue. Luckily the police officer was nice and just said "Make sure they know it's a 250 dollar fine." The sad part was, they didn't realize they hadn't registered the car that year. After much looking and digging through old mail, a failed emissions test and a trip to the repair shop, the car is now registered.

So, right, I haven't even talked about my trip much, let alone posted about JULY which is now over. We had our friend Jeff come visit from some training he was doing in Southern Georgia. It was so fabulous to have a friend come here! We had brats and watched fireworks from my Realtors back porch for the fourth. We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary (by seeing HP6, looking at paint colors, and driving 45 minutes to the nearest Red Robin. So worth it!) on the 18th. (Love you honey!).

But rather than dwell on this too much we're going to move ahead into August. We'll have my birthday, Miriam's first hair cut (maybe), and possibly a new house? But here are a couple pictures from July:

Mom's shoes

Eeek, fireworks!

Loving on kitty

Helping Mommy water plants

Swimming with friends

Miriam and Alex

Sebastian squirting me!