Thank Heaven for Little Girls

Particularly this one:

And she is growing bigger every day. I love my little girl so much!

How sweet it is to watch her grow!

I love that when things aren't going just right kids can be so beautifully oblivious at times, and at times so lovingly aware. --Not that Lily is perfectly behaved all the time, but there have been so many little moments in the past few days that have made me feel so grateful for this sweet little girl! She has lightened my mood, and promised to take care of me when I was feeling sick with worry. I made her a deal - that we would take care of each other :) I love her tight hugs, her cute giggles, and these glimpses of the kind of caring person she is turning out to be.

I was looking through some old photos and just loved these few from last Spring: Thank Heaven for little girls!

 I sure am lucky to be your mom, Miss Lily!

Lemons

Not sure how to make lemonade out of this situation. I am feeling so - UGH - I don't know if I can even write about it...but here I am typing into my blog. Guess I just need to get it out. Let's just say this was not a good weekend. I could really use some good news or to win the lottery..if only I gambled. The emergency room is not cheap, and even if they hardly do anything to help you apparently they can charge you thousands of dollars for it. I just want to share with you all this lesson I have learned: In this day and age; even as relatively healthy, relatively young people -- it pays to have insurance! As overpriced as insurance is and as much of a gamble as it seems if you are a healthy individual with only so much money to spend - not having it is more of a gamble. I am embarrassed to admit to being such an idiot as I feel myself to be right now, but maybe someone reading this will pass it on and someone will learn from my mistakes! That is just the way our system is, so please don't be naive. I am grateful for modern medicine and for pain relief, and am grateful that Mike is OK. It could have been worse (...but then this still isn't over and the final tally still isn't in.) That's my best job at sweetening it up. Sorry it still tastes sour! Feeling discouraged.

Are You Prepared?

With all that is going on in Japan right now it is a good reminder for us to be as prepared as we can be, especially here in Southern CA where earthquakes are not uncommon. I wanted to share a link to a good Earthquake safety checklist. Check it out and do what you can to better prepare your family in the event of an earthquake.

http://www.earthquakecountry.info/roots/seven_steps.html#secure

There are a lot of things in here I hadn't thought about or done! Some scientists have predicted an earthquake in lower California sometime in the next week. Whether this happens or not it never hurts to be ready! "...if ye are prepared ye shall not fear." Doctrine and Covenants 38:30

Little Character

Some pictures of Lily I took last week. She was cutting the circulation off of her hand trying to wear hair-doodgies (my mom's word) as bracelets - so I went digging in my drawer for an old friendship bracelet for her. I found an old beaded necklace I'd made, too. It's so fun sharing old jewelry I used to wear with my little girl! Makes me sentimental. Of course she started out with her classic silly face! What a character...

I found this pair of my mom's old glasses that I sometimes used to wear minus the lenses. Check out the intellectual:

I love the little star shaped screws!

 ... but I love Lily's smile even more! :)

Really Random

I really don't understand the supposed benefit to daylight savings. The only argument I've heard for it that makes sense to me is that it's lighter for kids at the bus stop. Is it really that much lighter? It sure is lame for people who work in an office all day and rarely see the sun. Here you are working so hard to pay for this house and you rarely get a chance to see the sunlight coming through it's windows. I vote we opt out.

When some food item seems like it is too expensive at the grocery store -- I just don't buy it, and then I wish I had some, but even if it's that same expensive price everywhere I go I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on it when I know it used to be so much cheaper before!

How can tomato sauce makers think I'll be willing to pay just as much for a can of tomato sauce as I do for a can of soup when the soup is an entire meal and a can of sauce is just one ingredient in a recipe? Sometimes it seems like it's coming to that.

Our church makes the best instant mashed potatoes! Almost as good as the real thing, and such a good deal. You should buy some for food storage. Another good thing about being Mormon.

I've heard that the US is planning on banning incandescent light bulbs in favor of fluorescent and that makes me want to stock up. Fluorescent lighting is so depressing, I'd rather use candles. Blech - the ugly flicker! It messes with my eyes.

Taking Control

I joined a free calorie counting website called myfitnesspal.com and I love it so I thought I'd share the goodness. I have been doing it for about 3 weeks with a goal to lose a pound a week, and I've lost 3 pounds!

Yeah, I know 3 pounds doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm stoked about it! For the past couple of months I have just felt like my weight has just been slowly but steadily increasing out of my control, so to see it in the reverse and actually be making a habit of exercise! (ME!) is pretty exciting stuff. Trust me. I think I could actually become addicted to it, and I have never been a fan of physical exercise. Not the 'I'm doing this just to get exercise' kind anyway. Now I am more open to that - better than doing nothing!

I set a goal for myself to exercise every weekday for at least a half hour. I've been riding my mom's recumbent bike which hasn't been a problem for my knee, and which shows you how long you've been going, how many miles, and how many calories you are burning. This has been great for me because you can enter than info into my fitness pal, and as I've been tracking myself I quickly became motivated to go longer than a half an hour to burn more and more calories. I like how my fitness pal tells me 'You've earned x amount of calories from exercise.'

Tracking what I eat has been really good for me. I like good food, but am not much of a snacker, and don't indulge in all the candy and junk I used to when I was a kid. After having Lily I lost all the pregnancy weight I'd gained. Then I found out I had graves disease. Hyperthyroid and breastfeeding are probably what helped me lose that weight, because I didn't even try. When I was going forward with the thyroid treatment the doctors kept telling me I would gain some weight. I thought if I was careful to watch what I ate that wouldn't happen to me. After stopping breastfeeding, having radiation treatment and taking thyroid supplement to raise my thyroid to normal levels my weight has increased. So I honestly kind of felt like my recent weight gain was largely the result of my thyroid condition and therefore somewhat out of my control.  So rather than just blame my weight gain on all that - it's been so good for me to see just how many calories are in the different foods and drinks I was eating and see that I can take more control over this part of my life than I was trying to before. So far I haven't made too many changes to what I eat, but I don't eat out as much, I cut out a lot of juice, am more aware of portion sizes, and am making more effort to balance what I eat each day to stay under my calorie goal. And I'm motivated to exercise so I can either lose weight faster or eat more delicious things - depending on the day.

It is nice to think of how the choices I make one day at a time will help turn me into the person I want to be. It makes me feel like a day without exercise is a day wasted towards reaching that goal. I'm glad I am exercising in addition to watching what I eat, because I want to feel stronger and have more energy and endurance not just weigh less.

I just want to remind myself of a few things I've been experiencing with this lifestyle change that I may tend to forget, and that might help motivate myself and others who are trying to do the same thing:

Exercise actually feels really good once I get going. When I exercise I often get more energy!

Taking charge of my weight makes me feel more in control and more positive in other aspects of my life. (It's not just 3 weeks and 3 pounds it's been an unexpected boost to my self-esteem.)

I'd rather be fit and feel good about myself than indulge in delicious food right now that isn't even good for my body.

My choices will have an effect on Lily and the choices she makes to shape her life.

Fluffy Soft Sand

Today was such a gorgeous day we decided to head to the beach. It seems like most of the time every spare minute when Mike is not working is spent shopping. Probably typical for most families with one car. Well, we really needed to just get out and not do shopping, and it was so so nice. We headed out to Carlsbad and had a picnic lunch on the beach and then played in the sand. There was a cool breeze blowing that made it so comfortable to enjoy basking in the sun, but too cold to really get in the water. Mike and Lily still did a little bit. Mike can't bear going to the beach without getting in, and so far Lily is the same. I forgot to grab my camera when we headed out so no pictures from today, but it was worth recording the memory. 

I always love to watch Lily and Mike playing together in the waves and building sand castles. Today they built drip castles and walked all over the place putting rocks and seashells in a little pink bucket. I was doing my favorite beach activity, reading and relaxing, but mostly watching my husband and daughter because I'd already read the book I'd brought. It takes a new book to keep me interested at the beach. Today some new sand had recently been trucked in so I was doing it in my very own fluffy sand chair. It so reminded me of this time when as a teenager I went out to the beach with my friends and the fresh sand was piled so high and then crusted - it was like little sand cliffs. We spent hours running and jumping on the edge of them so the edges would break off and we would fall onto the soft fluffy piles of sand they made at the bottom. And building houses and playing with the bamboo sticks that had piled up in one place on the shore. That was an awesome day too. Today when we were done at the beach we decided to go to Ruby's on the pier - Lily's favorite. By coincidence I ran into Derek who I had jumped off the sand cliffs with so long ago. I hardly ever run into any one I know so it was funny that I had just been remembering him and my old friends. Since I didn't have any pictures from today I thought I'd dig up some old ones of my friends Brandon, Derek and Chris jumping off the sand cliffs. Good memories.