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When Your Husband Travels for Work

11 Mar

Like Murphy’s Law, it seems that the Law of Your Husband Traveling is that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Back in February, Emma and I were playing in the basement on the second night of Travis’ 4-day work trip. She went around the corner where the stairs are. Being pregnant-lazy, I didn’t follow. Thirty seconds later, I hear her tumbling down the stairs. I race over to her and luckily she’s ok, just scared. Momma is not ok however. That quick movement made my pelvis and hips hate me. If I was moving at a turtle pace before, I was now moving at the speed of a beached whale. Luckily, the pain went away after a few days. Later that night, Emma slipped in the bathtub and bit her tongue, but thankfully it wasn’t bad enough to need medical attention.

Last week, right after our babymoon, Travis went out of town for a work trip. 5 nights, 6 days. Sunday night, I ate a couple of Tums before bed (which I do a lot these days) and hit the sack. A few minutes later, I felt like I was going to explode on both ends. Thankfully, that lasted for only about 10 minutes, I did some business and felt better enough to go back to bed instead of sit in the bathroom. But I couldn’t lay down without feeling awful so I watched an episode of Parenthood and then I could at least recline enough to sleep.

Monday, I still felt off but good enough to venture out to MOPS. (Whenever sickness prevents me and Emma from going to our normally scheduled activities, the week DRAGS by.) I felt mostly fine all day until nighttime came.  I was so miserable that night, I literally got up and drank a cup of coffee at 12:30 to see if it would get things moving, then took a shower and watched a couple episodes of Parenthood. When I finally did get to sleep, it was propped up against the wall in bed.

Tuesday, I had my prenatal appt and my doctor said it didn’t sound like anything to ‘fix’. Since Emma was at daycare and I felt awful, I spent the whole day on the couch. Then Tuesday night happened, which I will elaborate on shortly.

Wednesday, after talking with my mom, I started to think my problem might be acid reflux and not constipation. So I started avoiding trigger foods (citrus, tomatoes, caffeine) and by the end of the day, I was feeling significantly better. Thursday, I felt fine. Acid reflux is a nasty thing!

So Tuesday night. Ugh. I had just fed Emma dinner and was going to give her a bath right after I took the dogs out to go to the bathroom. But somehow, I
got locked out of the house — with Emma locked inside. After unsuccessfully trying to coach Emma to unlock the door (it’s a latch on the knob) and checking for a key in the garage and front door area, I started sobbing and decided my only option was to run to the neighbors’ house to use their phone, even though it meant leaving Emma, who I could hear was crying on the other side of the door. Of course it had to also be the day that we got 6 inches of snow and I was only wearing loafers. Luckily Travis had left a jacket in the garage or I wouldn’t have had one of those either!

Imagine a woman 35 weeks pregnant waddle-running in 10 degrees through snowy, icy roads and down 2 driveways that haven’t been plowed. That was me.

Luckily, my neighbor was home. I called Travis first to ask if we had any spare keys hidden. Nope. They were all in the house. He suggested calling 911 and having the fire dept come out. So that’s what I did. I didn’t want to spend time researching locksmiths. My wonderful neighbor loaded up her 8-month pregnant self and 3-year-old son to drive me back to my house.

When we got back, I went to the front door where we have a window and pounded on it to get Emma to at least come where I could see her. But she wouldn’t. I could hear her screaming hysterically and that made me cry even harder. I decided to head back to the door between the kitchen and garage (where Emma was). I took one step down the front stairs and ended up on my tailbone. I just kneeled in the snow for a few minutes, bawling and thinking,  “Could this night get ANY worse? Please let the baby be ok. OMG, this is so painful. And I’m cold. Travis is never traveling EVER AGAIN!”

The fire dept showed up around 5 minutes later but it felt like an eternity. They tried picking the lock but ended up using an axe between the door and jamb to open the door. Little Emma was fine — shaken up but not hurt. It seemed like she got over the trauma as soon as I picked her up.

Wednesday, I went to the hospital to be monitored just to make sure baby was ok. I wasn’t concerned since I had felt the baby move plenty since my fall but better to be on the safe side. Everything checked out.

Thankfully, the rest of the week was uneventful. I was so happy when Travis finally got home!

He traveled again this past Monday just for a (19 hour) day. Emma had developed a cold over the weekend and had very labored breathing so I took her to the doctor. They prescribed an albuterol nebulizer 3x a day, antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection, and steroids for inflammation. Poor girl! I swear, every time I’ve taken Emma to the doctor for being sick, Travis has been out of town.

Now you can see why I’m scared to have a newborn to take care of too, right? Travis is done traveling for the next couple of months though. It’ll be nice to have him at home.

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Babymoon #2

2 Mar

This past weekend, my mother-in-law watched Emma so that Travis and I could have a night away. The plan had been to go to a Minnesota Gopher hockey game but we didn’t realize until after we had reserved a non-refundable hotel room that instead of playing Friday/Saturday like they do 99% of the time, they were instead playing Thursday/Friday. What are the odds? We had even chosen a hotel right on campus so that we could walk to the game. Ugh.

The week before our trip, we also realized that Travis had to fly out for a work trip on Sunday afternoon. That meant we had to drive down to the Cities separately and spend time parking Travis’ truck in airport parking. Double ugh.

Nevertheless, we had fun — though I joked to Travis that with our time away from Emma, we ended up doing kid stuff anyway (like going to the Mall of America and the Como Zoo & Conservatory).

We left our house around 10 am on Saturday morning and stopped at Cabela’s (quite possibly Travis’ favorite store) on our way through Rogers. We dropped Travis’ truck off at airport parking when we got to the Cities and then headed to the MOA for a movie. We walked through Nickelodeon Universe a bit, did some shopping and then saw American Sniper. It was really good, but very sobering. Then we went out to eat at Digby’s in Roseville, where I had a delicious burger and Travis had a buffalo chicken pizza. After that, we checked into our hotel, attempted to watch the Avs vs. Wild game and zonked out.

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Sunday morning as I was getting ready, I started having some crazy Braxton Hicks contractions — like one every 3 minutes. I drank some water and laid back down on the bed, and after 20 minutes or so, they slowed to every 5 minutes. If I had been in Brainerd, I probably would’ve called and talked to a nurse, but since I was down in the Cities, I thought I’d just wait it out. So we checked out of our hotel and went to Panera for breakfast. By the time we got to Bethlehem Baptist for church at 11, the contractions were only coming every 10-15 minutes and irregularly. So weird. (I have my next prenatal appointment tomorrow and will ask about that.)

After church, we drove around our old stomping grounds a bit and then ate lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Mmmm… spumoni ice cream. We had about an hour and a half to kill before I had to drive Travis to the airport so we checked out the Como Zoo and Conservatory for a bit. Gotta live it up in the city while we can!

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I dropped Travis off at the airport around 4 pm and then headed back up to Brainerd. I got home around 6:30 to a very happy Bisky. Even though it was only one night, I missed her. But the downtime was very nice.

Babymoon #2 in the books!

If I’m still pregnant the last Saturday of March, we are planning on going down to the Cities again (sans Emma) for the wedding of one my good friends. I can’t decide though if I want to just drive back afterward or risk being down in the Cities when labor starts. I guess I’m risking that if I go down regardless if I stay overnight or not. Hmmm….

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Cleaning Up Our {Eating} Act

18 Feb

After the holidays, Travis and I felt like we needed something to motivate us to get back to eating healthier. Even though we were no longer consuming cookies and treats like they were going out of style, our eating habits had declined. In Travis’ case, he was drinking too many beers (on average 1-3 a night) and eating too many snacks during the day, instead of actual meals. In my case, I had been eating too many refined, ‘easy’ carbs like Ramen noodles, Kraft macaroni & cheese, quesadillas on white tortillas, bagels, and cereal.

Since I’m pregnant, I knew I couldn’t go crazy — after all, I’m still growing a little human inside of me! The goal of this ‘challenge’ was just to be healthier anyway, not detox or lose a bunch of weight (though Travis was hoping to drop a few pounds).

So here were our ground rules:

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The first week of the challenge was tough. We both realized how many of the snacks we ate during the day were refined carbs or sweets, or at least contained chocolate (like trail mix and granola bars). We didn’t enjoy our morning coffee as much without the added sugar, and Travis missed the relaxation aspect of having a few beers at night while watching TV.

The second week was better. Travis made eggs and bacon for breakfast fairly often, until I told him we couldn’t afford for him to eat 3 strips of bacon every morning. I ate oatmeal, whole wheat bagels, and smoothies for breakfast. We started snacking on more fruit and nuts, like clementines, apples + peanut butter, mixed nuts, and granola bars without chocolate. For dinner, we made our pizza dough with whole wheat flour and used whole wheat noodles in our pasta.

The third week, I was visiting my parents and Travis was on a work trip and visiting friends, so we didn’t follow our plan exactly. Still, we made different choices than we would’ve otherwise. For example, I ate a taco salad one night instead of using a white tortilla (though I SO wanted one!), and declined ice cream when my dad offered. But other days, I ate some pretzels and drank some cranberry juice (pregnancy craving!). Similarly, when eating out, Travis opted for salad instead of french fries, and ordered a leaner cut of steak, but drank some beers with his buddy when it wasn’t a cheat day.

The last 10 days or so, we mostly stuck to the rules, but also cheated some. I ate some of Emma’s fruit snacks (for some reason, pregnancy makes me crave them!) and a few pieces of chocolate. Travis had a friend/co-worker visiting so he drank some beers/cocktails on non-cheat days.

Regardless, we feel like the challenge accomplished our desired purpose. Travis lost a few pounds, but mostly, we were motivated to eat healthier snacks, reacquaint ourselves with whole wheat products (we used to eat them more, but got out of the habit for one reason or another), and relax at night with air-popped popcorn and water instead of beer and/or sweets. I also totally kicked putting sugar in my coffee — though I still use liquid coffee creamer. I know it’s not very healthy, but it makes me enjoy coffee, and coffee keeps me sane. So there.

I will say, though, that this challenge has reinforced my belief in Intuitive Eating. The idea of IE is that no food is off-limits or labeled ‘bad’. There are only 2 rules: You eat when you’re hungry, and you stop when you’re full. IE got me out of the rut of obsessing about food and calories. By giving myself the freedom to eat whatever I wanted, and focusing on listening to my body’s hunger signals, food stopped having power over me. Knowing that I could have more ice cream whenever I wanted (instead of telling myself “I really shouldn’t have any, but I guess just this once…”), I didn’t feel the out-of-control impulse to eat an entire pint in one sitting. With this challenge (and being pregnant!), I started once again salivating over treats. I do best when I can have a little bit of chocolate everyday.

That is why, barring medical necessity, I will never follow any of the more extreme diets like paleo, vegan, gluten-free, etc or declare any foods off-limits. I don’t do well with restriction. It might make me physically healthier, but at the cost of my mental and emotional health. I’d rather focus on eating mostly healthy and enjoying sweets in moderation. That said, even though chocolate is back in my life, I’m hoping to stick with the healthier alternatives to my beloved refined carbs. 😉

Valentine’s Day Weekend 2015

17 Feb

Our Valentine’s Day weekend didn’t really pan out as we had planned, but it was a nice weekend anyway.

On Friday night, some friends were going to watch Emma while Travis and I ate a Papa Murphy’s pizza at home, played Scrabble, drank beer/sparkling cider, and chilled. But our friends ended up being sick, so Emma stayed home with us. We still ate pizza but we played with Emma and watched hockey on TV instead.

Saturday, I made Overnight Blueberry French Toast Casserole for breakfast. I had had it for the first time at MOPS and it was amazing. Sadly, my version did not measure up completely. Considering how much work it is (I hate prepping things the night before), I probably won’t make it again.

For most of the day, we just hung out at home, playing and picking up after Emma. After lunch, Travis headed into town to run some errands and worked a bit. I honestly don’t remember what I did while Emma napped, but I’m guessing it was some version of tidying up, reading and napping myself. After Emma woke up, we went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. We figured that was a safe bet on Valentine’s Day, since it’s always a madhouse in there anyway.

Sunday, we went to church in the morning. During Emma’s nap, Travis put the pulls on our kitchen cabinets (only 8 months after moving in):

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I read a bit and fell asleep. About 1.5 hours after Emma had gone down, she woke up and I held her while she slept for another 1.5 hours. I used to get frustrated when that happened, but when I plan on taking a nap myself anyway, I really don’t mind. I don’t sleep that well holding her, but it’s better than chasing her around!

Emma finally woke up around 5 pm and we got all our gear together for checking out one of the local indoor waterparks (there are 3 in town, plus the YMCA). Unfortunately, we totally spaced that it was President’s Day weekend and all of the waterparks were closed to the public. Whomp whomp. So instead of swimming, we went to Target and let Emma run around (this is what you do with a toddler when it is 10 below outside). We thought of several things we “needed” and ended up spending $120 before we got out of there. #targetvortex

So the weekend wasn’t very ‘romantic’ you could say, but Travis and I are getting away for a night at the end of this month, so we weren’t too bummed.

On a side note, I have never really gotten into decorating or doing stuff for Valentine’s Day beyond getting Travis a card and eating lots of chocolate. But now that Emma is old enough to kinda/sorta notice as well as participate in crafts, I had her make Valentine’s Day cards for her grandparents, her 3-year-old cousin, and Travis. Here was her Valentine for daddy:

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I used the scraps and extra hearts to decorate our kitchen:

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I also took a blank canvas, wrote the word LOVE on it with masking tape, and let Emma go to town with paint. It took some coercion to get her to paint the whole thing, instead of just paint and repaint the same 6-inch square, but I think it turned out well. Kid-made Valentine’s Day decorations!

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The last thing I did was check out a few books from the library about love and Valentine’s Day, and I bought Emma a new book called How Do I Love You? Even sappy holidays are more fun with kids! Now on to Lent and Easter…

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2014 Recap + 2015 Outlook

20 Jan

I better get on my year-end / year-beginning post before January is over, huh?

So, 2014. Another year of big changes. Here were my “areas of focus”:

1) Spend time with God daily.

I didn’t spend time with God every day, but it was close. God gave me a renewed desire this year to spend time soaking up truth through His word and prayer. And now that Emma is going through a tough phase of toddlerhood, I need to be refreshed and grounded in God every day to have a good attitude and patience. But let’s be honest – there’s no season of life when I don’t need that.

2) Eat healthy foods.

It took me a long while after Emma was born to get back into healthy eating habits, but I did finally! And with this pregnancy, I haven’t been having many cravings, so I’ve been able to stick to our normal meal plan for the most part. So I’d say this was achieved.

3) Exercise.

Finding the time and motivation for exercise is still a challenge, but nothing motivates me more than signing up for a race. Training for and running the Hot Chocolate 15K in April got me running again, and so did finding a friend who enjoyed running and lived close to me (thanks Brenda!). I wasn’t as consistent as I’d like to be, but it was an improvement.

4) Stick to a budget.

We nailed this! Honestly, starting to use YNAB (You Need a Budget) changed our budgeting lives. I love the software and cannot speak more highly of it (I am not getting paid to say this). While it took a little getting used to at first, once we got the hang of it, it has helped us track where our money is going, save up for biannual and annual expenses, and make decisions about purchases based on whether or not we actually have the money for it (which we can check on the go on our smart phones). One of the YNAB ‘rules’ is to live off last month’s income, and it seriously takes the stress out of paying bills or having paychecks arrive late. And Travis has been getting a lot of overtime pay, so we can budget based on the actual amount of money he earned instead of a hypothetical number. It has been an adjustment to actually forego or postpone purchases until the next month (and the next infusion of money) at times, but it is teaching us delayed gratification and helping us be better stewards of our money. Now if I could only figure out how to spend less money on groceries…

And now on to 2015.

I know they say that goals are supposed to be specific, measurable, timely and whatever else. Well, this year I have a lot of intangible, nonspecific goals. Though I do have 2 specific, measurable goals:

1) Give birth.

2) Start and finish the Northwoods Triathlon on August 8.

My other goals are things like:

  • Don’t let newborn sleep deprivation turn me into a raging b!t@h. (Trust God to provide sleep.)
  • Pray for and see my mom be healed.
  • Spend more time playing with Emma instead of getting stuff done.
  • Support my husband more sacrificially and selflessly.
  • Read more books and watch less TV.
  • Go on bike rides in the summer.
  • Be more intentional about inviting people over, or getting together.
  • Finish my book and either self-publish, or seek publication!

I find that life is a constant balance between being realistic and being lazy. I want to live intentionally but I also don’t want to beat myself up over not achieving arbitrary goals that I chose in an over-zealous mood one January day. The way I balance those two things is by reminding myself of this (my memory verse for Jan/Feb/Mar):

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” (John 17:4)

If Jesus glorified the Father by accomplishing the work that He was given, that’s also how I glorify the Father. And the work God has given me to do is revealed every day through my roles and circumstances. I am called to be a wife and mother. Some days I am called to use naptime for holding Emma instead of accomplishing my to-do list. Most days I get up early to read the Bible, but some mornings (after particularly hard nights), it just doesn’t happen. I adapt, and continue walking with God through whatever that day brings.

The past month, I have been learning and relearning how to LET GO. No matter how many times I learn that embracing God’s will for me is the path to joy, it is still SO HARD to do — even with little things! Because often His will involves hard or unappealing circumstances. But I am learning. I am learning to let go of my goals, dreams, plans — not in a defeatist mentality, but in faith that “God…fulfills His purpose for me.” (Psalm 57:2) I can trust all of me to the One who knows me, and created me for a specific purpose. He is shaping my life, this life, into something beautiful. (On a related note, read this blog post about The Invisible Mother that a MOPS mom shared yesterday. SO GOOD.)

I wrote this in my journal back at the end of November and I think it ends this post nicely:

“It is a constant battle to surrender my will, my expectations, my standards, my desires, my longings [to God]. To lay my whole self down at the foot of the cross and to say with full sincerity that I will follow the Lord anywhere — even into the day of mediocrity and petty frustrations and klutzy moves and stupid mistakes and minor inconveniences. But I will only find joy in accepting what God has for me.”

That’s what I want for 2015.

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A Psalm for Moms

19 Jan

God is my refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Therefore, I will not fear though all order breaks loose,

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Though everything I do immediately gets undone,

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Though I am overwhelmed and underequipped,

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Though my sanity is upheld by the tiniest thread.IMG_6046 IMG_6047

“God is our refuge and strength, 

a very present help in trouble. 

Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way,

Though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

Though its waters roar and foam,

Though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”

(Psalm 46:1-3)

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New Year’s 2015

8 Jan

We were planning to host my whole immediate family for 4-5 days around New Year’s (giving everyone a chance to see our new place) but the day my family was supposed to make the trek from Rochester to Brainerd, my mom ended up going to the ER for some health issues (which I won’t go into here). She ended up staying there the whole day, so even though Travis and I were a little disappointed, we decided that it would be better to pack up our stuff and head to Rochester instead of having our family come up to us. It was a little tricky fitting everything in our car, since we had bought a ton of food at Costco the day before! We made it work – but only after jumpstarting our car for the 2nd time in a week (apparently we might need a new battery.)

We left Brainerd around 9 am on New Year’s Day and made it Rochester a little before 1 pm. Emma had lots of fun playing with her cousin Jensen.

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We had our big family celebration that day, since it was the only day we would all be together (stupid work schedules). Before dinner, we took group photos. Usually, we put it off and then totally forget about it!

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My SIL Jen is due March 7 – almost exactly a month before me!20150101_IMG_0234

After dinner, we opened presents. The past 4-5 years or so, we have drawn names and then when we’re opening the presents, we guess who the present is from. This year, people guessed about 80% accurately! Travis got YakTrax and I got a serving dish from Crate&Barrel, dish towels and a book. Emma got an easel/desk and shopping cart from G&G, a cute sweatshirt from Brian and Jill, an awesome lumberjack hat from Chris and Meg, and a Melissa & Doug doll and book from Jeremy and Jen. She is spoiled for sure!

We bought my nephew Jensen some cap guns complete with sheriff badge and holster for Christmas. I’m not sure who enjoyed them more – Jensen or Travis and Jeremy!

The next day (Friday), it was just us, my parents and Jeremy, Jen and Jensen so we decided to do something fun for the kiddos. We checked out the Children’s Museum of Rochester for the first time and were very pleasantly surprised! Jensen and Emma had a great time. The whole place was Clifford-themed, but apparently they switch out the exhibits every 4 months. We will definitely be back!

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Unfortunately, that night we discovered that Emma was running a pretty high fever. Looking back on it now, I can tell that she had probably started feeling out of sorts Thursday night because even Friday morning, she wasn’t herself. She woke up a couple of times that night, and since we didn’t want to make anyone else sick, Travis and I decided to drive back up to Brainerd a day early.

So late Saturday afternoon, we hit the road again. Even though it was a bummer to leave early and miss out on Jensen’s 3rd birthday party the next day, I’m ultimately glad we did because that night was a doozy! Emma developed a really bad cough and (now we know) an ear infection (her first!), so she was pretty miserable. It was nice having our big, comfy recliner to rock her in, since we were doing that for many hours that night. Now almost a week later, Emma is finally getting back to her normal self. We’re pretty sure she got the flu (influenza) because she has been tired and clingy for days, which is very unlike her.

All in all, our New Year’s plans didn’t quite turn out how we had planned but it was nice seeing everyone for the time we could anyway.

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Christmas 2014

6 Jan

{I accidentally published this post prematurely, with no photos. Here’s the revised version!}

This was the first Christmas that we were able to spend with family, without traveling 1,000 miles! It was nice.

On Christmas Eve, Travis worked until around 2:30 and then we got the car loaded up so that we could head up to Nevis right after the church service at 4. The service was nice, but crowded! We sat in the overflow area and watched the service on a TV. But we still got to light candles while we sang Silent Night.

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We made it up to Nevis by about 7 and ate dinner. Travis’ sister Carolyn and nephew Drew were there when we arrived, and his brother Matthew and his brother’s girlfriend Diana arrived later that night after we had gone to bed.

We haven’t completely decided on what we’re doing for gifts each year for Emma (and future siblings) but this year, we did the “Something to Wear, Something to Read, and Something to Play With” approach. So we bought Emma some fleece pajamas, three of the Bear Snores On books (it was a pack through Scholastic), and a tent/tunnel. Since my family always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, but Travis’ did Christmas morning, we’re thinking about doing one gift (the Something to Wear) on Christmas Eve, and the rest Christmas morning. So that’s what we did this year. Emma opened her pajamas Christmas Eve, and the rest Christmas morning. Though she got so many presents from Travis’ family that she totally lost interest in opening them!

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On Christmas morning, Emma actually slept in until 8, which I think she has done 3 or 4 times in her entire life. That was very nice. After we all got up, we ate breakfast (monkey bread!) and then it was gift opening time. We went around in a circle opening one gift at a time so it took a while – maybe another reason Emma lost interest. But we got some great gifts. I received some maternity yoga pants, a couple serving bowls and a platter, dish towels and a couple of candles. Travis got a buck call, winter hat, and a couple flannel shirts. And Emma’s haul was play food and dishes for her kitchen, a Sit & Spin, a couple books, 4-5 pairs of fleece PJs, some new clothes, 3 new puzzles, a memory/matching game, and a few other toys (plus the tent we bought her).

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Emma’s haulIMG_6093 (Large) IMG_6100 (Large)

The rest of that day was pretty relaxed. We played some Pictionary on the Wii (seriously, so fun), Trivia Crack on our phones, and ate a ton.

The next day, we went to see Penguins of Madagascar at the Hackensack theater. We actually didn’t take Emma (G&G stayed back with her) – we saw that movie because the other options were meh (and I personally love animated movies). It was really cute and fun! Even Travis said that it was better than he expected it to be.

That night, Travis, his dad Al, Matthew and Drew set their old tree fort on fire. The trees it was built on were all dead, and the fort itself was falling apart, so they wanted to get rid of it. And what better way than burning it? They cut down 4-5 other dead trees and stacked them underneath the fort. It was quite the bonfire. Emma liked watching the sparks fly off into the night sky.

We stayed up in Nevis until Emma’s naptime on Sunday, and spent our time just hanging out. Emma took a very short ride on the snowmobile – she didn’t mind it during, but when we put her back on the snowmobile to take a picture, she freaked out:

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Emma also took several wagon rides up and down the driveway, swang in her swing and went down the slide of G&G’s swing set. It was nice that it wasn’t crazy cold outside. After Emma went to bed, we played Apples to Apples, Scattergories, and Nerts (a version of Solitaire). Emma slept really well while we were up there – almost every day, she took a 2-2.5 hour nap and only woke up once at most at night. It’s such a relief when we don’t have to fight her for sleep away from home! (Now if only we didn’t have to fight her for sleep while AT home.)

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And that was Christmas this year! (We saw my family for New Years, which I will recap separately, soon.)

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So this happened.

4 Jan

race reg

I signed up for my first sprint triathlon since 2011! I have been toying with the idea of getting back into multisport for a while, and what better way than to do the race hosted in Nevis, MN, my husband’s hometown? It’s on August 8, which is exactly 4 months after my due date. I will definitely not be the fastest I’ve ever been but I’m sure I will be able to finish! Even though running is out for the remainder of my pregnancy, I plan to join the local Y and start swimming and biking again. I haven’t consistently swam and biked since 2011, so I’m sure it’ll be a learning curve once again. I’m going to try to set up my tri bike on my trainer too in our basement, but I think that the belly will be too much in the way to ride it. We’ll see.

Regardless, I’m excited!!

I’ll be back in the next couple days with our Christmas and New Year’s recaps, plus a look back at 2014. Hope your holidays were great!

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Merry Christmas 2014!

25 Dec

Merry Christmas from my family to yours. Hope you’re enjoying some wonderful time with family and friends, and reflecting on how amazing it is that our Lord and Savior would come to earth as a baby boy.

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