My decade in review - 2004. Also, my Weight Watchers story

I keep forgetting things! I guess that is what happens. This was 6 years ago. (Ack!)


To begin 2004 I have to give you some back story.

I was one of those college freshmen who discovered a whole new way of eating when I got to the dorms. All of a sudden there was JUICE (we drank a lot of water at home) and doughnuts and tater-tots and pizza EVERY day. I had a rather warped idea about exercise (a 1990's entry) and decided not to exercise at all (besides walking to and from class). So I gained 30 pounds those first few years.

In August of 2003 I was busy unpacking while Bill was at his 2 weeks. We had moved without any physical injury. One day I bent over to pick up my purse and - yanked my lower back muscles. This isn't something new. This has been happening to me since I was 14. I've even competed at a regional (high school) gymnastics competition on beam and vault with a pulled muscle - just loaded up on Ibuprophen, but this is also part of the 1990's so....moving forward. Pulled another back muscle. After 8 weeks of trying to recover I went into the doctor to get it checked out - since I'd never had the healing process take quite so long. There was nothing "wrong" (other then the fact I had a pulled muscle) but she did say "I don't know where you put it, but you can't carry that kind of weight around." Needless to say I became one of the only 20 somethings on campus with the absolute necessity to have a roller backpack. By the end of 2003 - the pain had gone away, but not the problem.

At the beginning of 2004 I decided to take the aerobics class on campus. I went every day for a month and did step-aerobics, kickboxing, cardio dance - whatever aerobic stuff they had. After a few weeks I started developing shin splints (another gymnastics problem) I was being so hard on my legs. So I had to start doing yoga or pilates a couple times a week to balance all the pounding. Interestingly enough, that was when I began to lose weight. I did not lose very fast (Those Biggest Loser people don't know what they are talking about when they think they haven't lost fast) 5 pounds in 3 months.

I had a class with my friend Alison - who I hadn't seen for a few months -she looked fabulous! She had lost weight with weight watchers so I decided to give it a try. Carolyn and Karen and Toni took excellent care of me. I lost 5 pounds those first 2 WEEKS.

So 2004 was a mixture of Weight Watchers, school, and being newly married. My step-sister graduated high school! Bill went to his 2 weeks - where we learned a 2005 deployment was likely.

The fall of 2004 I reached my goal weight and become a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. Bill's unit trained like mad-men (every weekend for like 2 months) to prepare for upcoming deployment. I was a bridesmaid in Jessica's wedding. In December I graduated from college!

Wow - looking back - that was a HUGE end-of-year....

Once there was a Snowman....

Many days ago we had snow. Lots of snow. Snow the you could pack and make snowballs and snowmen. We had the best time outside. And lots of crying when we had to come inside.

I felt very at home with a good snowfall.

Becoming a yarn junkie

Do you ever pick up old hobbies out of nowhere? Recently I decided to pick up knitting again. I learned how to do a basic knit stitch when I was 8 or 9 from my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother. I never got very far, but every 5 or 10 years I'd pick it up and knit away until I had a washcloth. But I couldn't remember how to bind off and apparently wasn't interested enough to take a lesson. About 5 years ago I picked up the Knifty Knitters after an enrichment lesson making hats and scarves.

So it's been about 5 years and, true to form, I'm picking it up again. I must say I am farther than I have ever been. I finished a scarf and a hat with my knifty knitters. I got a Knitting in Motion DVD from the library and learned several different stitches. I got Crocheting in Motion from the library and learned some basic Crochet stitches. (After reading Karin's blog around Valentines day I've decided I must learn enough to make these.) I've found which friends can teach me and (hopefully) keep me going with my new hobby. One friend just brought over a couple bags of yarn. I am so thrilled.

Yeap - it's the washcloth again. This time...I can finish it!!

And Miriam loves her new hat!

Making bread

Ha!

A few hours before I had to leave to drop my kiddo at a friends house before work I thought I might actually start up some rolls to have with dinner. I ended up discovering a spill that I thought I had all cleaned up instead. An old spill.

That got under my utensil tray.

And molded.

Yuck! You are right. No pictures here. As you may imagine I have washed all of our utensils now. And the tray. And the drawer itself. And the drawer nextdoor. With bleach water. And then rooted around the other shelves to make sure I didn't miss anything else.

My kitchen is clean now.

My decade in review - 2003

2003

Kevin's birthday cake - great job Jenna!

Countdown Calendar

You don't mind that I can't think of much else to blog about in between right?

So right...2003. I was moved from teaching Gospel Essentials to Gospel Doctrine. Bill and I start dating hot and heavy ;) and get engaged at the end of March. I think Jenna was ready to kill me. She said she was cursed. Bill and I went to my mom's in Phoenix over spring break so she could meet him. We went back and forth and all around trying to pick a wedding date our family would be around for. I had a root canal in the spring. After a day or so of almost continual pain I discovered Ibuprofen was the only thing that would work and finally got into my dentist. Root canal went fine, but I ended up getting a bacterial infection and my face swelled up. It looked awful..why didn't we take picture??
I graduated from institute with my first advanced certificate (Oh bummer I forgot to put that in my 2002. IN 2002 I got my first institute certificate. In case I didn't mention I loved it before...I finished a four year program in 2 years)

Jenna gave me an awesome bridal shower (shower queen). We moved all of my stuff out of my apartment and spent the first couple weeks in July moving into our "new" apartment (go subsidized housing!). Bill and I got married on July 18th in the Columbia River temple. We had a ring ceremony/reception thing the next day. We went on a great cruise for our honeymoon.



A couple weeks after we got married he ran off for his two week training with the Marines. Afterwards - our summer was rather uneventful.

School started in the fall. I started taking upper division Anatomy and Physiology - which was by far my favorite (although the hardest) of my classes at EWU. I'd do the whole thing again. I might actually PAY to do it again :)

We had our first Thanksgiving (with my family) and Christmas with Bill's family. We went to his Grandparents. It ended up being his Grandfathers last Christmas. I'm glad we had the desire to be with them.
(Still have more pictures for this post, just trouble loading!)

One of those stinking days

Have you ever had one of those days where you think you might explode? One of those days where you DO actually explode a few times. After the diaper mysteriously ended up in one leg of the sleeper and you are cleaning potty off the floor, followed by someone pulling my knitting down (from pretty high up mind) and taking it off the needles and chasing the cat around with the needles. Where you walk into another room (not occupied by your toddler) and proceed to stamp your feet while muttering under your breath (or not under your breath however) and basically act like your 2 year old? And as much as you are trying to hide it from them - you know that this must be part of where they are getting it from?

I tried to get over it - a trip to McDonalds to munch on empty calories followed by at least an hour in the playplace (during which I actually played after all the other kids were gone, talk about burning some calories) and a 20 minute turn around the store to pick up diapers with child safely strapped into stroller where I proceeded to occupy her and then just let her be while I looked around...except for when her nose started running so much she was choking and crying...then I promise I was paying attention.

As much as I tried to get over it - AS SOON as we were home, the wanting the car track set up but then not using it because we can't find the yellow car (which is only missing because of the last time SHE got frustrated and threw them), the pushing the step stool to the kitchen light switches and smiling very sweetly at mom - but very clearly trying to wind up instead of go to bed - all this brought it all back to the surface.

I have no idea who cut my fuse off but I have NO tolerance today. Really great for a day when your child apparently is getting sick too (remember the insane stuffy nose?) I mean poor thing probably just can't even breathe and is having a hard time going to sleep. Does anybody read Emily? I think I'm missing the same empathy gene she is.

My decade in review - 2002

I think I might have to pull out my journal for this one. I'm not the best journal keeper ever, but it still may help me remember a few things...

The first half of 2002 was stressful for me in terms of college. I was planning on doing a biochemistry/biotechnology degree and my advisor had me taking 17+ credits a quarter of mostly science and math. I had a "breakdown" the last quarter of my sophomore year and took a bunch of random classes instead. Personal Finance, Sign Language, History of East Asia and Career Deveolpment. No Physics, no Organic Chemistry, no Math. The only science class I took was Geology which was pretty fun for me because (I forgot to mention in my previous review of 2000 and 2001) I worked in the Geology Department for the first 1 1/2 years at EWU. I knew the professor and I knew my way around the rocks and the department.

I stressed like nothing else about what I was going to do for the summer. I HAD to make some money for the next year because I wasn't getting as much financial aid anymore. Kirsten encouraged me to try for the summer position she was doing. I had also applied for a forestry technician position in Moscow, ID.

In the end (probably for the extra money) I took the forestry position. I was gone during the week, camping and hiking around Montana and Idaho. Doing 10 hour days hiking off trail was hard on my very out of shape, slightly overweight body. I HATED the way my legs burned. It was HARD on me and I really disliked it at the time. I'm trying to be honest about the way I felt at the time because I can think back on it now more positively. I learned how to use a compass, a clinometer, a "laser tree finder", and to read topography maps. I could identify the evergreen trees just by looking at their bark, and the tiny saplings by looking at their needles/patterns. I got to carry a large can of pepper spray for bears/other large animals (alright that was something that still freaks me out). I was outdoors everyday. I got travel and food allowences. We took an extra day to go to Glacier National Park, something I have wanted to do again ever since (pictures). I ate S'mores and laid in my tent reading Harry Potter at night (that was when I first started reading those). But honestly? I HATED IT. I like to think I might have a better attitude about it today but...who knows?

In the fall I had new roommates Amber and Jen. After only a couple months Jen moved out and my newest friend Jenna moved in! She was only at EWU for one year but I couldn't be more grateful for the time I had to be with Jenna. It was during this time that I had a class on campus with Bill. I recognized him from Institute and said hello when we were hanging around after class those first couple days (he says before class but guess what? MY BLOG). He says everything was over after that and I suppose he is right. Truth? There were times in that class he drove me CRAZY. I'm feeling some Pride and Prejudice right now...