Living in the Age of the Blogger

So I'm in the kids' room, tonight, with all 4 children, getting ready for bed. The older 3 have all been fed, bathed, pajama-ed, even had their finger- and toe-nails trimmed. They're all being a little bit silly and between the 4 of us, we manage to get Juliana laughing pretty hard. Now she giggles a little here and there and has recently begun screaming in delight (which is cute, but gets old real fast), but she doesn't get to laughing real hard a whole lot. So we're all enjoying her laugh and laughing with her, which of course makes her laugh harder.

All of the sudden Abby says, "Mom, we have to put this on your blog!"
And Isaac says, "Yeah, on your blog."

PS - Though Cameron wasn't there in the moment, we did a fairly decent reenactment for him shortly after the incident, but of course Juliana wouldn't laugh for us.... sigh. Oh well.

Round and Round we go and the downside to losing weight

Can you all tell that I have a research paper due? It seems that when I have school assignments that need to get done, I also tend to blog a lot - I think it's called procrastination. At least it helps me to catch up on my entries.

So round and round we go - as some of you know, I've been taking a jogging class here at BYU Hawaii. Actually I've taken it a number of times. This summer is my 5th time taking it. Last spring, when I took it for the first time, I wasn't really excited about it - you see the class in 4 days a week, Mon thru Thurs, at 6am! Yep, you heard right. And to add to all that - it's only worth one stinkin' credit! And while I wasn't too excited to be running, I was excited to have time to exercise that I couldn't put off. I had to show up for class.

And I was still trying to reach my weight loss goal of losing 20 pounds from Jan 2007 to June 2007 - one new year's resolution I was determined to make. And I did it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had reach the unbelievable weight of 187 lbs - that's where I was in Jan 2007. I'm not sure how that happened, and some of you will say, but you're tall, you didn't look like you weighed that much, but the truth is that I did. And I didn't like it - I really didn't like to see pictures of myself. So I decided to try to do better. By June I had done it - I was at 170 lbs and lovin' how my clothes were fitting me much better, but I still wanted to lose more - wanting to get down to pre-children weight would be fabulous.

So I signed up to take that jogging class again in the summer that year. Unfortunately I didn't lose anymore weight, but it wasn't because I wasn't exercising, it was because I found out I was pregnant! When I was about 14 weeks along, I finally realized that while I didn't really miss my little monthly friend, she hadn't come a-knockin' for a few months! Oops! While I wasn't losing anymore weight, I wasn't gaining either - a nice little equilibrium, the baby could gain and I could lose. This was my "skinniest" pregnancy yet and I love every minute of it.

Of course, towards the end of the pregnancy I did start gaining weight, it was inevitable - and when I hit Jan 2008, guess where my weight was? Yep, right back where I started - actually about 192. While I was happy that both the baby and I were very healthy, it was a little bit of a bummer to be right back where I had started last year. But I tried not to let it bother me (well, too much) and just concentrated on having a healthy baby.

And so I did have a healthy baby - and I even let myself heal (something I'm not so well known for doing) and when I hit the 8 week, post birth, mark I started up jogging class again. And by the time Juliana was 12 weeks old, I was back to 170! Even with Abby I don't think I lost the weight that fast. And I feel good. I've been hovering right at 165 for now, but I can tell that the running is still doing me good. I think I've just reach that point where the good muscle development and the bad fat being lost are equaling out for the moment. While it's a little disheartening to not see the scale dropping like it has been, I have reached a few milestones that have been keeping me motivated lately:

1. For the first time in as long as I can clearly remember - my thighs do not rub together when I walk - or run as the case may be. True, I am usually clothed with I'm doing these activities, but when I'm wear BYU issue shorts it's easy to tell what is and what is not rubbing together any longer.

2. I can now run 1.5 mile in under 15 minutes. This was my goal for this spring/summer in my jogging class. I've been right about 16 minutes, so I wanted to bring it down. 3 weeks ago I ran it in 14 min 51 sec, but that was by my watch time, so I wasn't totally convinced that it was accurate. But just this week in class we ran it and I did it in 14 min 14 sec! So there's no doubt about it - I've finally reached my goal there and can work on getting even faster.

3. And now for the only downside I've found to losing the weight - my clothes DO NOT fit me! Now, I know that sounds funny, it's a great thing that my clothes are all getting to be too big for me, but I don't have anything to wear! I could even go out and buy a few new things, but I don't want to invest in a new (albeit small) wardrobe just to have it not fit again in a few months. But wouldn't that be nice! So I'm going to wear my too big pants - and invest in a belt - until I can't stand it any longer and then maybe I'll buy a few things.

Maybe if you're lucky I'll post some before and after pics - I haven't taken any afters yet, I need too. And I'm not sure I really want to share the before pics. So we'll see. But it's been a fun, and very cyclical, adventure over the last year and a half - I'm just hoping the cycle part of it is over.

A Woman's got the have her Chocolate....

I'm am one of the luckiest gals on earth. I know you all think that at some point (well, hopefully not any guys reading this), and it's a good day when that happens. Actually one of my most recent good days was a month ago now - see I'm so behind on posting. My friend Lorelei (the one with the cookbook - see this post) had told me that she was sending me a birthday present (way back in June when it actually was my birthday) and that she was sure I was going to love it. It made me wonder what she was sending, because while we're pretty good friends, we really haven't known each other too long and haven't even met (in real life, we have through a web cam) - she lives in Canadia (hehe). Anyway, so I anxiously waited for my present and FINALLY found out that it had arrived and was sitting in the office here at our apartment complex for about a week. Anyway - it was Stephen's Hot Chocolate, the cinnamon kind that I love! She sent me a 6 pack - I'm set for a while now. It was such a pleasnt surprise and I've been thoroughly been enjoying it so far.

And then, the very next day I got a mystery package from my mother. Everytime she's in the states she sends a package of whatever misc. stuff she's picked up for me or Cameron or the kids. I never know when it's coming or what's in it, so it's always a fun thing to find in the mail. Anyway - I open this package and what do I find 5 big containers of Strawberry-Kiwi Crystal Light! Yeah baby! Now I'm really set. She also sent along some other great things - I book I really enjoyed by Catherine Coulter (I'm currently reading another of hers), some things for the kids, and the world's great ponytail holders! I'm not joking, they are the best. She sent me 3 of them and I'm still using the first one. Now that may should a little silly to you, but I go through your regular goody ponytail holder at a rate of about 1 per week. I constantly have my hair up, otherwise my neck get all sweaty (I know, nice image), and I'm re-doing my ponytail about 5 times a day, and it's up during the night, too. Probably not the healthiest thing for my hair, but that's how it goes. So you can see that I'm pretty tough on my elastics. I usually use one until it's too streched out or breaks and then I toss it, in about a week. But I've been using this ONE for over 3 weeks! Amazing and it's still going strong. I don't even know the brand, or where they can be bought, or even if you can buy them in the states (I think she got them in China), but they rock.

OK, I'll quit rambling on and on about my ponytail adventures. Mostly I just wanted to say a big

THANK YOU

to my mom and Lorilei for thinking of me and my beverage cravings - my tummy thanks you , too:)

Just a Heads Up...

My usual email account has been taken out of service - with no warning, mind you - so if you're getting emails bounced back to you, that's why. For the time being, if you want to get a hold of me you can email me at:

cnlpeterson@gmail.com

I'll let you know if/when I get a new email up and running.

Fourth of July and the Toothfairy flies

I haven't been on top of my blogging lately, but man, have we got things going on. The biggest of which was moving day - or days, as the case may be - it only took 6! We made the trek all the way to the building behind us (about 50ft behind us) and are still settling into a bigger apartment. While it is nice that we didn't have to rent a U-Haul (or pack up a shipping crate), ultimately I think this move took much longer and was much more painful because of the short, short distance. Cameron did set up a cool pulley system between the windows of the old and new units that got lots of use - and the kids all loved it. Mostly I'm just glad that it's over and done with - well the actual moving part - now it's just as if all our belongs imploded all over the house. And it can take days to find something specific in the chaotic storage space that is our new loft.

I can't believe that I haven't even gotten up a Fourth of July picture! It seems so long ago. We didn't do a whole lot, but we did go see some fireworks at Turtle Bay Resort. I meant to get a family picture, but somehow that elluded me, but heres a cute one of the kids:



Oh and how could I forget the biggest news of all?



This was taken the morning after, when he was showing off his spoils from the Toothfairy. It's amazing how excited a 5 yr old can get over 2 quartes in an envelope!

And since I've totally been neglecting my blogging duties (Well, I do have a research paper to write!) I'm going to leave you with two special treats. First an all new installment of totally useless trivia. And second, because I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for my next post I'll also leave you with a list of possible future topics of discussion.


Totally Useless Trivia about Lisa:
I'm positive that me breaking my right arm 4 years ago was just part of the Lord's way to prepare me for my life today. Because of my job at the time (working the reservation desk at Inn on the Creek in Midway, Utah) I became very adept at typing with only one hand and my left one at that - the right one was in a cast FOREVER (ok, really only like 5 weeks, but it felt like forever). But the point is that I can still do it rather well, and rather quickly, to this day. See, just preparation for typing research papers while trying to sooth a teething baby! And who says Heavenly Father doesn't have a sense of Humor?

And Posts that soon may come to be:
A woman's got to have her Chocolate - and Strawberry Kiwi, too!
Round and Round we go and the down side to losing weight
Living in a Distopic Society
Back to School Already
Quiet and Peace

I know you all just can't wait to hear all the details so I promise to try and post real soon - and my research paper is due next week, so I won't have that excuse any more :)

Movin' On Up

I've determined that there is nothing worse than a house in a continual state of complete chaos - oh wait! Yes, there is! It's TWO houses in continual states of complete choas!

Today is the first of 4 days that we have to move into our new place and clean and check out of the old. And it's been loads of fun - let me tell you! Pick up a load of stuff, down the stairs, walk 75 feet, up the stairs, and then depending on where the stuff goes, up the stairs again. A tedious process that is about 1/4 complete, but we weren't working at full speed or capacity today, so hoepfully we'll get most of the big stuff done tomorrow, finish up with the little stuff Sunday (after church, of course) and then clean the old place on Monday. I didn't have anything else I needed to do this weekend, right?

I will take pictures soon - maybe tomorrow if I remember. The floor plan is so much better, the 2 main bedrooms are smaller, but much more space - and the 3rd bedroom, which is really a loft, is a nice big, though strangley configured space. We're planning to use that as an office/craft/storage room for now. I would like to use that as the master bedroom, but it is open to the living room below and so the AC wouldn't work out too well. We'll see. We've heard that it stays nice and cool at night up there, so maybe we'll move up later.

Well, I'm dog tired and have a lot to do again tomorrow. I've started another post with pics from the 4th of July and other family newsy stuff. I'll try to get it up soon.

A Little Baby Bling

I had planned on making my friend Alesha a baby blanket for her new bundle of joy (who shares my birthday, by the way), but I started the project and it wasn't working out and then I just ended up frustrated and with a big mess of fluffy fibers on my living room floor. I don't know what my problem was, but I decided it wasn't worth the frustration and threw the project in a bag for later so I didn't have to look at it for a while. But then I still needed something to send off to Alesha, so I made these instead:


They are so tiny, it was hard to get a good picture of them!

Here's Juliana modeling one for you:

And here's Juliana and Danielle modeling some bling I made for them, because I can't resist puppy-dog eyes and a cute little, "can you make one for me, mommy?"

On a side note, little Juliana is blowing raspberry storms and is finally starting to laugh and giggle. But can I get either of those things on video? Of course not. Even when she doesn't see the camera she somehow knows when to stop. But I'm determined - I'll catch her one of these days.