New Rules

Coming into the world of pregnancy has been a happy occasion, but man, does it come with some new strict eating rules.  I knew starting out that morning sickness would be bad.  I had a sister's experience (who I've taken after in all womanly ways) to prep me for that. But I still don't think I expected it to be this bad. Here's just a few of the new rules I've come to accept as being part of my life now.

1- You will throw up every morning, whether there is something in your stomach or not. Eating something before getting up will not help. Staying in bed for 15 minutes while waking up will not help. It's going to happen no matter what you do.

2- you must eat something ever two hours, or your stomach will start to hurt (a lot!) and you might throw up more if you don't eat.  This is just from hunger.

3- The time to go see the doctor about nausea and vomiting is before you can't keep anything down.  The time to go is before 5pm, when you can no longer keep jello down.

4-  There's some amazing(!) medication out there to help your stomach accept more food, and not get rid of everything you eat or drink. It's called Zofran.  You should take it every morning, so you can eat throughout the rest of the day, no matter how you might feel when you wake up. even if you throw up the liquid you take it with, the pill will stay down, and you'll be happier in the long run. Don't try to tough it out.

5- most of the time, you will be eating like someone who has the flu. As much as you want to eat something that is  more exciting than Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast or a myriad of liquids (jello, broth, ginger ale  apple juice, Gatorade, and of course water. ), think hard before eating it. you could easily end up regretting that decision later. 

Month of thankfulness challenge

This month, I decided to participate in the Facebook November challenge of posting something I am thankful for each day.  I set myself some rules before starting too.  I couldn't use the (in my opinion) cop-out of "I'm thankful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"  I guess it isn't really a cop-out, but it felt like it, so I couldn't use it.  And I couldn't skip a day and then post two or three things the next time I posted.  I had to post something each day.  With those two self-inflicted rules, I set about the challenge.

It certainly wasn't always easy, but then, I expected that.  Sometimes I would post something sort of sarcastically, and then try and convince myself that it was true through the day.  And sometimes, it actually worked.  However, sometimes it didn't.

Overall, I'm glad I did it.  It made me really sit there and think about what I could be thankful for that day.  It made me see more about the little things in life.  Focus more on the good.  Which is what we should be doing more often, than just one month out of 12.

Presidential Debate Parties

This is the first year I've actually really been interested in the Presidential debates.  I'm not going to spend this time talking about what I think about it, I'm not that passionate about it. But I had this great idea tonight while in the shower, waiting for enough people to stop watching it online so I could take my turn (without having to wait for too much buffering). Why not have Presidential Debate parties... it will help teach our future kids the importance of these things, and generally make them more fun. Have popcorn and snacks, people over (with some strict rules in place that no one may make comments about how one candidate is right/wrong, how a candidate makes a stupid remark etc.). Why doesn't this happen more often?

Floor Project

 Just starting to take the floor up

 Hurrah!  All the floor is up!

We had been using hand sanders, but were able to borrow a belt sander.  It made the work go so much quicker. 

 Halfway through sanding the floor.  Sorry downstairs neighbours for all the noise!

 Starting to stain, at last

Mostly done... we had to do it in sections so we would actually get it done. 

Finished staining!  just to let it cure and put on the clear coat

The finished product.  Yay!!

A Wife and Mother's Role

In the Family Proclamation, it talks about a mother's role.  A mother is primarily responsible for the nurture of her children.  Loosely speaking a wife and mother is primarily responsible to make sure things in the household run smoothly, and that household needs are taken care of first.  Does this mean that she cannot take care of things outside the home and spend time outside the home?  Not at all.  It just means that is her primary responsibility, and that is what she should be spending time and energy focusing on.
Recently, I've had the "opportunity" to spend quite a bit of time working (8 hours a day for about a week straight), doing lots of hard labor at this job.  It hasn't been my ideal job.  Something that hit me while I've been doing all this working is, I miss the time I could be spending at home taking care of our needs there.  I come home after work so exhausted that I have no energy to take care of our needs at home.
Today is the first day I've had in a long time that I can take care of some much needed business at home, and attending to our needs here.  And it feels amazing.  I like the feeling I have when I can take time and take care of our needs here.  To be that wife that God intends and would like me to become.  It feels good to have the energy to make a fairly nutritious dinner for us, not just throw something together because it sounds easy, or to leave it to Drew to make, because I hurt too much.
As much as I do enjoy working, and enjoy feeling like I can contribute in that way to our lives right now, I also enjoy knowing that when we have children, and I need to stay at home to take care of them, I will be able to enjoy that as well.  It is an AMAZING feeling!

When growing up watching "This old House" isn't a good thing

Somehow, we got it in our heads to take up the linoleum in our kitchen and restore what looks like beautiful hardwood floors underneath.  And all was going well, except for one thing...we're having the hardest time getting all the linoleum up.  We got most of it off, but where the epoxy or whatever it was went down to hold the linoleum down, it has been absolutely horrible.  Well, We'll just use a stripper to get it all off.  That's what they do in the home fix it shows.  It should work, right?  And it does..... almost.  We put it down, but just barely had enough, so it didn't go as far as anticipated.  We should have gotten more (this was at like 1 in the morning, so no where is open to get more).  Well... we'll make it work.  The next day, scraping it up (high on fumes from the stripper), it works great where the stripper was started.  But at the end?  Mmmm... we might get more stripper to help us out.  So where does "This old House" and other fix it up shows come in to play?  I don't think we would have actually done more than just talk about restoring the hardwood floors if we didn't both grow up watching those shows and have a good idea of what we were doing.  We probably wouldn't have even considered more than just talking about it.  Did it help us to know what we were doing?  Yes.  Did it tell us how much work would be involved?  No.  I don't think we expected it to be this much work.  They do make it look so easy on the shows.  But then, they are professionals, and have a whole team working on it... not just two people.  Would I consider doing this project again in the future?  Probably.  Despite how hard it is, the finished product should look good. however, I wouldn't do this in another apartment.  I wouldn't consider doing it until I know i'm in the place we're going to live for the next 10-15+ years.  So those who have grown up watching home fix it shows, beware the strong desires to make improvements to your house.  It probably isn't as easy as it seems.  

Too much is Too much

This semester, I'm taking a lot of classes that require a lot of reading.  I'm realizing that although I enjoy reading, and sometimes even enjoy reading my textbooks, when it's every single class that has only reading homework (okay, except for one class) it gets to be a lot.  As a kid (maybe teen/young adult is a better description), I used to spend hours at a time, reading.  Now, I find that I have other things that I would love to be doing (or that I wouldn't rather do, but that I know need to be done... like dishes)... rather than spending all my time reading.  So when is too much of something too much?  we are told to have moderation in all things.  I'm learning that that comes with learning how to balance out reading for classes too... which is definately a hard thing.  For example, just today, I spent a good 6 or 7 hours doing homework... all of it reading homework for various classes.  I almost miss the days when it was big projects and things that I could divide up and cut into small increments.  when you have whole books to read for one class and another two chapters for another, plus smaller reading assignments for another, its a lot harder to cut it up into pieces and get some variety.  maybe this week has been harder than others, but it seems like that's all i am able to do with my free time any more.  if i'm not seen or heard from for the rest of the semester, don't worry.  i'm probably just buried up to my ears in books and other reading.  i can't wait to be done with the semester to have a little variety

Coming out of the Fall Slump

Every fall, after I get home from school, I fall into a slump, where I don't do much except for go to work.  I do some stuff around the house, but I don't really get out and do much.  I read some, I watch movies (or old TV series) but... life doesn't have much from day to day. I think that since I got married, I had expected that to change.  Sad part is, it didn't.

At work recently, we did a survey about the quality of life for people in a certain area.  One of the questions was a list of reasons that people didn't live a healthy lifestyle.  One of the reasons was "lack of motivation". Out of the whole list, of maybe 10-15 reasons people didn't live a healthy lifestyle, that was one that was picked most often.  I think that most everyone picked it, actually.  Eventually, I started to ask myself some of the same questions that I was asking them, about the quality of my life.  And I came to the same conclusion.  Lack of motivation.

During the school year, I have great motivation.  I'm out doing things, walking around, exploring, exercising both body (generally speaking) and mind.  I enjoy life.

It isn't that I don't enjoy life when I'm not in school.  And this fall, especially being married, hasn't changed that much.  I enjoyed life more this Fall than I did most Falls.  but I realized I fall into the same habits, and I'm not nearly as happy as I am the rest of the year (though cold and snow and no sun doesn't help the matter).

I am so excited for it to be a new year, for the chance to go back to school once again, to get out of the house on a regular basis, and have a reason, and therefore a motivation to go.  If I don't have motivation (besides being stir-crazy) I don't.  I can't wait for it to change. Its an exciting and exhilarating feeling.