Personal Trainer

Hi Moms--

I had to add a follow-up on this posting by Fernanda. She and I have been training with Ian for 3 months and I have lost 2 inches around the middle, bottom, and thighs in that time. I felt so good about my success, I finally went bathing suit shopping this weekend! This summer will be the first in 3 that I will not be wearing my maternity suit! Yippee!

If you think you might want to try a personal trainer, I highly recommend Ian Hernlund certified personal trainer 408 476 8828.

Lynda

Hi Moms,

A LM Mom recommended Ian, her husband went to High school with him. For a couple of months now, another mom and I have been working with Ian on a whole-body routine. He's a great trainer, very professional, on time and reasonable prices. The best part is he comes to my home to train us while the kids nap, or play.> > I asked him for a flier to attach to this email, give him a call, and if you have questions you can always ask me. > Note: You pay almost half the price if you do it with another person.> > Fernanda (and Lynda)

"HOLY HELL!!"

Most of my family and friends know that I am truly blessed that my children are generally calm and pleasant. I know we all think Jayden can be exhuberant and Eliana is tenacious. But, in general, my kids don't cry unless they are truly hurt or waking up from sleep.

So, Jayden managed to get a tiny little splinter in his finger. Unfortunately, fingers don't like to become homes to foreign objects. Hence, the area near the splinter is a little red and swollen. The finger is saying, "Get this thing outta me before I get really mad!" Well, I am not sure what sparked the terror in him, but when I try to get near Jayden with tweezers, needles, or medicine, he SCREAMS HOLY HELL! I have not heard him scream like that since we had to put Lidocaine on his mouth when he got herpes! He was SO LOUD I thought for sure the neighbors were going to call CPS on me.

I thought for sure that he would calm down later in the day and we could try again after dinner. OH NO!! I was seriously mistaken! I thought perhaps picking out the bandaids (he chose Batman) would help. NOPE! Not that either! Right now he is playing with his new toy boats in warm water in the kitchen sink so he can soak his finger. Maybe it will loosen it so I can pull out the splinter while he is sleeping.

Uh oh! I pee-peed!

Not a terrible thing to hear from your toddler during the potty-training period, but not great if your hear it right after you change the diaper and ask specifically if he has to go. He said no. I knew he was lying, but I let it go for just one minute. Silly me! He peed while I was cleaning up from diaper changes and missed the diaper. I am not sure exactly how that happened. He was still wearing it, but leaked only on the left side. Strange.

But, not funny. Here is funny. Last week I was changing Eliana's diaper. She had another little poop-nugget. So, I picked her up by her feet to get the dirty diaper out from under her. As it sometimes does, the poop was stuck to her butt. But it seemed to be just barely hanging on. So, I shook her a little to make the poop fall off....to my surprise, it bounced a little off her bottom but held fast. Clearly it was going to need a more aggressive approach to removal. I took a wipe and proceeded to pull the butt-nugget away. This is where it got really funny.....it was attached to her butt by a piece of hair. I assume it was mine, but I pulled and pulled and pulled...it seemed to go on for over a foot before it finally broke off and the poop was separated from my daughter's behind! HAHA!!

Ok...so I am still laughing about it...it gave a whole new meaning to "Hanging by a thread" to me. I couldn't help but giggle every time I thought about it...including now! hehhehhehehe

Oh well...who can resist a post all about the eliminations produced by my little loved ones!?!

Allergy season...

I have the sniffles and the snorts and the marathon-running-nose from hell! Allergies hit me hard this year. I don't usually suffer too bad except when I am pregnant and can't take anything, but this year I have been sneezing non-stop for DAYS! I have already gone through several boxes of tissue and am considering the use of handkerchiefs so as to lessen the landfill. Luckily for me, I am not allergic to the dog; but unluckily for me, I AM allergic to about 100 different pollens and plants!

It seems that the kids may have gotten a few of my numerous allergies as well. They have both been running their noses non-stop for quite some time now also. It's always clear and worsens over night. Those are the signs for allergies, so.....

I hope that our house will be more insulated against allergens than before. We will have foam insulation and double-paned windows and sheer-siding under the stucco. Maybe that will be enough to help keep out the sneezes. In any case, the progress is going fast. The second story is up and the roof is on. We are waiting on windows at this time. Then comes the shingles and stucco. The rest is up to us. Dave is actually going over there tomorrow to meet his cousin. Travis knows his way around the plumbing and has graciously offered to help Dave out. So, for Mother's Day, I get the peace of mind to know that my house will be plumbed and have electricity (that's what Dave is doing tomorrow). Then I get to spend the day running around visiting. Dave's cousin Casey is home from the Marine Corp Basic Training. We are heading out there to visit him. Then, we will be going to see Dave's mom for a bit. At some point, we need to get over to Color Me Mine and pick up the special ART that Jayden and Ellie created (with Jeff's and my help) for their grandmothers. Yep...we did the traditional hand/foot prints on a ceramic object. Dave's mom gets a heart shaped plate and my mom gets a tissue box cover.

I hear The Princess Bride playing in the other room. I haven't seen that in a while. I am off to see how many lines I remember! :)

I'm back in the saddle again....

Ok...so it's not a saddle, but my computer broke down and Dave just fixed it. How sweet he is!

So I have some cute pics...let's see if they come through.


And here is the story with these pictures:

It was the 4th time I chose to take the kids in for pictures since Eliana was born. I had yet to get a good picture of her. I told them that on the phone when I called them for the appointment. Jayden was a bit cranky that day although I wasn't sure why. He was whining in the car on the way to the restaurant we were going to have lunch at. Aunt Judy and Tammy were joining us for lunch and pictures. Finally, Jayden fell asleep in the car (I didn't think he needed a nap, but better that than the whining!) When I pulled into the parking lot for lunch, he woke up with more crying and whining...then.....He threw up all over the place! AND THEN HE DID IT AGAIN!

Poor baby! He must have eaten something that upset his stomach, because he was fine after he got it out of him. But, he got his shirt and pants covered in puke. NOT TO MENTION MY CAR...it stank for DAYS after that!

Anyway, so I cleaned up the mess as best I could, we went to TGIF and had lunch, then off to Penney's for pictures. I bought Jayden those pants right before we went into the studio and I happened to have the shirt in the car. I can't blame him for the wild hair. He did just vomit all over the place...luckily it didn't still stink too bad! We went in and got the best pictures of Ellie I have ever gotten...and the ones of Jayden aren't too bad either. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good one of them together.

Oh well....there is always next time!

Phew! Thank you....

...to all my supporters that came to my choir concert. Especially, Judy--who had to rush out and go to work after--and Fernanda who came both nights to get to see the whole performance AND came out on her birthday! And, at last, the concert is over. It went well albeit there were many mistakes made on my part. Nonetheless, it was a ton of fun and I am glad to be done with it. Our next season of music starts in just a couple of weeks. This summer we will be singing '50's music. I am expecting to know quite a few more of the songs to begin with than I did the folk songs we sang this time around. Although, we did have a couple of sing-along portions of the show. Those songs I knew well. It was a lot of fun to see Jayden out in the audience singing along with "She'll be coming Round the Mountain" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad". He did the "O" in banjo the same way we always do in the car....like a wolf howling at the moon...and I couldn't help but do it too! SO MUCH FUN! I think he really liked the concert too. Ellie was there, but she did a lot of fussing during the show. She was just too young to appreciate it. Dave was too. :) And my dad said he might be interested in joining the choir, too! That would be lots of fun!

If I get some pictures, I will post them, but there really wasn't much to see. Maybe I will hunt up pictures of our house or the kids instead! :)

High Anxiety!

My choir is performing our Annual Spring Concert this weekend. I am pretty anxious about it. I don't mind participating as part of the choir, but I am standing near the front and (here is the big part) I have a "solo" that another woman and I are singing together. I really don't know why I decided to audition for it ( ok...it was probably just to see if I could get it--and obviously I did), but I don't like to stand out or be noticed (probably for fear of screwing up). I am just a bit out of sorts about this solo business. Oh well...it's not like I profess to be some great singer. I am just an average tune-carrier trying to have a creative outlet in a place where I can go without my children! :D

Jayden is refusing naps these days. We are trying "quiet time" but I think I am done with that. We will be pushing naps from now on! But, yesterday while he was wandering around, he found a magazine. He flipped through it, found a toy that he wanted, took the magazine to Dave and said, "That be fun!". When Dave said that we didn't have that toy, Jayden prompted, "We got to store and buy it?" Such a cutie!