(Whispering): Is She cRaZY?

Why yes...yes I am, and thank you for asking!

Some days I really do feel like I am about half nuts. Today it's the "oh my...what have you gotten yourself into..." nuts, not the "I'm seriously going crazy!" nuts... I suppose the first is better than the latter, but still...crazy's crazy!

Curious yet?

Last year we did a mini triathlon at SUU. We trained for 5 weeks and I actually survived. It ended up being a lot of fun and Joe and I had big plans to do more afterwards. We were ready and had a great start on training plans! Well, the next week Joey got the worst case of food poisoning I have EVER seen (either that or he was being super dramatic! ;). Regardless, the training came to a screeching halt. Then a few weeks later we found out I was pregnant and we just never quite got the energy to start the running/swimming/biking again. But we kept talking about it. We had it all mapped out for this year to do one a month starting with a warm-up Duathlon in February or March. That went by, and the next one in April went by.

Joey finally decided he had enough and signed us up for the Utah Summer Games. That is right folks, in less than three weeks we will be doing the Sprint Triathlon at the USG. We actually signed up a few weeks ago so had 6 or 7 weeks notice instead of 5. However now I'm down to 3 weeks and I am sure I will probably drown.

I can probably get through the biking and running alright. I probably won't even be last! But swimming is another story. Swimming is by FAR my weakest area. I can keep from drowning usually, but am really slow. And this is in open water. And it's the first leg of things. In some ways this is good. I will be "fresh" and ready to go, but I'm going to be SO far behind everyone else to start out with. Don't get me wrong, I have no high hopes of winning or even being in the first half of people, but would really like not to be last...

How I WISH that healthy choices weren't such a battle for me. They truly are. I feel like it's a constant struggle. If I can get into the groove I actually start to crave healthier foods and enjoy exercising. I do feel strong when I can get conditioned a little and am not huffing and puffing in the first five minutes. After the tri last year I felt really great about what I had done and was so excited to keep making progress!

But most of the time I want my Oatmeal Cookies, peanut butter M & Ms, cheese, any dessert with chocolate really, McDonald's French Fries...EVERY DAY. (Yes, I linked you to that cookie recipe....) It makes me really MAD that I can't have them (unless I want to be overweight and make my baby throw up...).

I feel kind of silly telling people we are doing this because they act all impressed, when really, we, well at least I am just crazy to be trying it. Oh well...wish me luck anyway!

You know you live in a digital age when...

Your children are playing "Stolen Identity".

Your 4 year old calls a certain Gold Droid from Star Wars MP3PO.

Your 4 year old son can play XBox and all the games on the iPod Touch better than you.

A 10 year old girl doesn't recognize this toy as a phone:

All true stories...seen it myself!

I {heart} adorable shoes!

Especially heels....



I was going to write more, but I think they speak for themselves :)

Is it just me or is this just wrong!??!

So many of you read about Maren's issues with milk. It's been getting worse. Now not only does she throw up, but it makes her nose run whenever I cheat. This weekend I went up north by myself with the kids for a wedding. So I got Peanut Butter M & Ms for a 'pick me up' snack....ok, so I got like three packages because they were only 50 cents at Maverick. And then on Saturday I had Fettucine Alfredo for lunch because I figured I'd already cheated...I'm like that. If I eat three cookies, I'm going to eat eight...it's bad...I know.

Back to the subject at hand. So, this weekend was bad. Oh and let us not forget Sunday where I had not one, but TWO Utah mint truffles so kindly provided by the ward for Mother's Day. Well between Sunday and Monday Maren threw up 6 times. It was a lot worse than normal. Monday she also had a really bad snotty nose, a cough and a fever of 101 by the end of the night. She slept all day as well. So I think she might be teething, but I had a sneaking hunch most of the problem was directly connected to my "weekend-o-fun". My sister was passing through Cedar on Tuesday so I called my mom and asked her to send some soy formula with her for Maren. I wanted to just try it and see if we could get her back on track with that. (My mom works at a doctor's office and can get me samples...) Well she sent the formula, but instead of Soy sent Nutramigen Lipil. It's a formula for "babies with colic caused by an allergy to milk protein". Most normal formulas are made with Whey protein (I think). I was curious as to what they put in this that wasn't milk or soy so I turned it around and looked at the ingredients. Any guesses?????

Bet you will never guess....

#1 ingredient is:

CORN SYRUP SOLIDS

#2 ingredient:

VEGETABLE OIL

It then goes on to include a modified milk protein and I'm not sure what else. I couldn't get past those first two ingredients. They make up like 75% of the formula.

Does that totally disgust anyone else???? Seriously, who puts corn syrup and vegetable oil in infant formula? Well needless to say I didn't give it to her. Luckily she's been much better yesterday and today. I suppose I will just have to be more careful and when I cheat, not go so crazy. It still just blows my mind.

You know what else is a little crazy to me? I have been through at least three pediatricians with three kids and not one of them has ever suggested that I stop drinking milk to help with their "reflux". I think it was a chiropractor that said something to me about it. I did some reading on my own and tried it and found the answer myself.

My friend had some problem with milk too and brought the issue up with her pediatrician and he told her "seriously do you want to do that to yourself?" when she asked about cutting out dairy. I mean really people, come on! Doctors are putting kids on corn syrup and oil instead. OK, so I know there's probably more to it than that and I don't understand everyone's individual situation, but this is just one more really clear example to me of how important it is to be INFORMED and take charge of your own health. Because even with all that school, I am more and more convinced that sometimes doctors may not really have or be giving you the best information.

No, I am not anti-doctor. Yes, I really appreciate my pediatrician and have been very grateful for their help in many situations. Yes, we will continue to go back and no I'm not going "all natural". But this is still just eating at me. I don't know why it's bugging me so bad. But if anything is learned it will be that I need to be vigilant as a mother about my kids health and what is best for them.

Corn syrup and oil....come on! Am I missing something here?????

Artichokes

The other night Kelley wanted an artichoke. It was late and we had to get up early for something the next morning. And these are the kind you have to cook for a half an hour. So I told her we could have one the next day, she just needed to remind me so I didn't forget. After she went to bed I found this on the whiteboard in our kitchen. It took me a minute to decipher....

The Birds and The Bees

This is my Ty Ty in his beloved T-Bird hat. He loves this hat and wants to wear it everywhere. He thought he was pretty cool that he had his sunglasses on his hat, just like dad. What a funny kiddo :)


Last weekend we went to a Bees game with the kids. SUU Alumni was doing a thing with potential students. They fed us dinner and we all got SUU Baseball shirts. We have always liked taking the kids to the games. We went a lot when we lived there. The bummer this time was Joey had to work the whole game. He didn't even get to watch much of the game. Therefore I had to watch all the kids the whole game. It probably would have been fine, except the kids had to go to the bathroom about 6 times during the game.

Maren and I in all our SUU gear. GO T-Birds! and GO Bees!
Kelley loves the T-Bird. Tyler on the other hand, runs away, or buries his head in my lap. Today was my sister's graduation and it was at the SUU Centrum. As we were walking in, Tyler nervously asked "will the T-Bird be here mom?" I told him "no" but threatened that he might show up if he didn't behave himself ;)
Favorite part of the show! Fireworks afterward. Joey loves to sit on the grass and feel the perfection of it! The kids just like to watch the explosions.
Even Maren enjoyed the fireworks. She normally startles at loud noises, but she wasn't startled or upset at all. She just sat and watch the whole thing with intent interest.