Alli LOVES her trip to the haircutters to get all fancied up with ribbons and glitter. She claims she needs a haircut about every other day now ...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Mama's Coming Home!
Well, tomorrow's my last day here at Camp LaJolla. Really needed the break from mommy-hood to regain control over my body, mind, and spirit, but am now SO ready to come home to my loving family!
Here are a few pictures of Alli enjoying life without mommy, cooking, playing, eating milk-and-cookies ... she's had a great time with her grandmas and her Aunt DeeDee, but it's Mommy's turn to play!
Stroller walks with 'Baby' and Charlie
Who's DeeDee's big helper?!
Making Paper Mache bumble bee and butterfly with DeeDee
Making Eggs and eating cookies!
(see video of her making the cookies in column to the right!)
Charlie's been enjoying the good life too while Mommy's been gone:
Charlie loves feeding himself. His finger-food menu has now expanded beyond Gerber Veggie Puffs to Ritz Crackers and Cheerios. Mmmmm... That's a happy baby!
Charlie has this one curl right in the middle of his forhead. When DeeDee is being silly, she likes to put gel in it and give him a mohawk! That boy's ready for the skatepark!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
My First Triathlon: Mission Accomplished!
Okay, I can now breathe a HUGE sigh of relief, sit back and relax, and catch up on the blog now that this huge thing is over. I don't even know where to start. It was just such an incredible, difficult, emotional, amazing day, I have 1000 thoughts running through my head, and am way too tired to put them in any sort of order! My roommate Erin went along on the camp "cheering" bus, and got some great photos for me, I appreciate that so much, because now I have something to post! 
Listening to pre-race instructions, and looking calmly at the ocean before the big waves came in ...
The most noteworthy thing of the day was the tsunami-scale waves that decided to pound the shore just as the guy blew the start whistle. Seriously. 15 feet high. No joke. As he was briefing us for the race, we were watching the waves, and they were 'normal' ... we had a chance to get in the water and get wet so our bodies were accustomed to the temperature. Then we all lined up on the beach ready to go. I automatically went to the back of the pack because that's what the slower swimmers do so you're not getting trampled on by all the fast swimmers trying to pass you. As the race starts and we all run into the water, it's normal to have to push through and withstand a few breaking waves until you get past the surf into the open water. What we went through was NOT normal. Suddenly we were getting POUNDED by wave after wave, one 15-foot wall after another.
That's me on the far left of the picture in the white swim cap thinking to myself: Holy fill-in-the-blank! What have we gotten ourselves into?!
One of the people watching from shore said it reminded her of the titanic in the movie when the ship is tipped up verticle and bodies are just free-falling through the air down to the water ... our bodies were getting picked up by these waves and we were just falling off of them, if not getting pulled through them! I would try to push through it, but it was so big and so powerful, it would pull you under, slam you on the bottom of the ocean, then push you back onto shore, cancelling all the effort you had used to get 1/2-way into the ocean. I withstood this about 4-5 times, and threw my hands up in the air, asking God how I'm supposed to get through this? Then I heard the voice of a guy on shore saying "There's one more big one, then you guys are good to go" ... well, actually there were 2 more big ones, but hearing him say that reassured me that there was an end to this hell, and that I could do this. But with all of my fear of swimming and the ocean, once I got past those walls-of-terror, swimming seemed like such an easy task! Went out 200 yards, circled the gigantic bouey and swam back... faced a similar but not as drastic pounding when coming into shore, but since it was "coming home" there was light at the end of the tunnel that pulled me through. Ran in, put my shorts/socks/shoes on, and ran the mile on the beach. uneventful. easy (on the packed sand). Then had to run what was really another 1/4-mile through the deep soft sand to get to the street and hop on the bikes. That was the next-most difficult part, getting through that deep sand when your legs and your lungs are screaming that they have nothing more to give.
Running ... Now that the swimming was over, I've never been so happy to be running in all my life!!
Once I made it to my bike, threw on my team t-shirt and helmet and I was off. It was such a relief to be at that point, I wasn't in much of a hurry. The bike route took us onto the Navy base, and on a frontage road that was bordered on one side by the ocean and the other side by the end of the runway. Right as I was passing by the end of the runway, a huge C-141 took off right over my head. Seemed like I could reach out and touch it. It was quite an emotional moment for me. This was a beautiful area, so I told myself to take time to take it all in.
All Done! I can smile again! :)
We had such a huge support group that came from the camp, it was so much fun to cross the finish line to all the cheers and the high-5's. The divisions are split up by age, so being the "old" one of my team, I was competing in the 30-40 group. All of the rest of my team was competing in the 20-30 group.
Anyway, fancy that, I got 3rd place for my age group and won a bronze medal!! I can put that with all of Dan's wrestling medals! :P We all got a participation medal too, so I was walking around jingly all morning with my medals.
Listening to pre-race instructions, and looking calmly at the ocean before the big waves came in ...
The most noteworthy thing of the day was the tsunami-scale waves that decided to pound the shore just as the guy blew the start whistle. Seriously. 15 feet high. No joke. As he was briefing us for the race, we were watching the waves, and they were 'normal' ... we had a chance to get in the water and get wet so our bodies were accustomed to the temperature. Then we all lined up on the beach ready to go. I automatically went to the back of the pack because that's what the slower swimmers do so you're not getting trampled on by all the fast swimmers trying to pass you. As the race starts and we all run into the water, it's normal to have to push through and withstand a few breaking waves until you get past the surf into the open water. What we went through was NOT normal. Suddenly we were getting POUNDED by wave after wave, one 15-foot wall after another.
That's me on the far left of the picture in the white swim cap thinking to myself: Holy fill-in-the-blank! What have we gotten ourselves into?!
One of the people watching from shore said it reminded her of the titanic in the movie when the ship is tipped up verticle and bodies are just free-falling through the air down to the water ... our bodies were getting picked up by these waves and we were just falling off of them, if not getting pulled through them! I would try to push through it, but it was so big and so powerful, it would pull you under, slam you on the bottom of the ocean, then push you back onto shore, cancelling all the effort you had used to get 1/2-way into the ocean. I withstood this about 4-5 times, and threw my hands up in the air, asking God how I'm supposed to get through this? Then I heard the voice of a guy on shore saying "There's one more big one, then you guys are good to go" ... well, actually there were 2 more big ones, but hearing him say that reassured me that there was an end to this hell, and that I could do this. But with all of my fear of swimming and the ocean, once I got past those walls-of-terror, swimming seemed like such an easy task! Went out 200 yards, circled the gigantic bouey and swam back... faced a similar but not as drastic pounding when coming into shore, but since it was "coming home" there was light at the end of the tunnel that pulled me through. Ran in, put my shorts/socks/shoes on, and ran the mile on the beach. uneventful. easy (on the packed sand). Then had to run what was really another 1/4-mile through the deep soft sand to get to the street and hop on the bikes. That was the next-most difficult part, getting through that deep sand when your legs and your lungs are screaming that they have nothing more to give.
Running ... Now that the swimming was over, I've never been so happy to be running in all my life!!
Once I made it to my bike, threw on my team t-shirt and helmet and I was off. It was such a relief to be at that point, I wasn't in much of a hurry. The bike route took us onto the Navy base, and on a frontage road that was bordered on one side by the ocean and the other side by the end of the runway. Right as I was passing by the end of the runway, a huge C-141 took off right over my head. Seemed like I could reach out and touch it. It was quite an emotional moment for me. This was a beautiful area, so I told myself to take time to take it all in.
All Done! I can smile again! :)We had such a huge support group that came from the camp, it was so much fun to cross the finish line to all the cheers and the high-5's. The divisions are split up by age, so being the "old" one of my team, I was competing in the 30-40 group. All of the rest of my team was competing in the 20-30 group.
Anyway, fancy that, I got 3rd place for my age group and won a bronze medal!! I can put that with all of Dan's wrestling medals! :P We all got a participation medal too, so I was walking around jingly all morning with my medals.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
A Day at the Park
So today the kids had so many visitors, they were in hog heaven with all the attention. Daddy, Auntie Deb, Uncle Tom, and Pilar (and their two doggies) were all on-hand for a fun-filled day at the park in Pleasanton that has the cool climbing wall, water features, etc., etc.
Alli trying to show Charlie
how to wash his hair in the water fountian ...
...then doing it for him ... what a helpful big sister! (poor Charlie!)
Alli helping to walk Uncle Tom and Pilar's doggies ...
Thank you to all my supportive friends and family!
Thank you so much to all my friends and family who have been sending me cards/flowers/pictures to support and encourage me during what has been a really tough 4 weeks for me. 2/3 of the way done feels good, and I never could have done it without the encouraging words you send to inspire me. I get such joy at mail call, it really pulls me through the tough days. I have the best friends and family of anyone! I love you guys!
THANK YOU!
4 Weeks Down, 2 To Go, wa-hoo!
Well, another week over which means I'm one week closer to coming home! Can you tell I'm finally getting really homesick?! Dan and the kids are doing so many fun things that I'm missing out on! And of course Charlie is changing by the minute. Sounds like we need to install more cabinet locks for our little explorer!
Anyway, the coming week will be filled with more intense training for this dang mini-triathlon thing I somehow got myself roped into. My fear of swimming has me at a point where I've never loved running so much! I'm still facing panic attacks every time we practice our swimming either in the pool or in the ocean. (My sister is convinced this must be due to some deeply buried childhood trauma). My goal is just to survive the swimming portion, and the rest will be so easy. We'll have ocean swims in the mornings this week at 6, and our regular triathlon training practice from 2:30-5 every afternoon. In between we'll get to do all our other normal classes.
This is my last week of high anxiety. By this time next week, the race will be over, and I will have spent the afternoon shopping, and all will be right with the world again! I'm really looking forward to being able to ENJOY my last week here, and not dread the rigorous training schedule we have been facing. The good thing about it though, it sure whips your butt into shape!
Anyway, the coming week will be filled with more intense training for this dang mini-triathlon thing I somehow got myself roped into. My fear of swimming has me at a point where I've never loved running so much! I'm still facing panic attacks every time we practice our swimming either in the pool or in the ocean. (My sister is convinced this must be due to some deeply buried childhood trauma). My goal is just to survive the swimming portion, and the rest will be so easy. We'll have ocean swims in the mornings this week at 6, and our regular triathlon training practice from 2:30-5 every afternoon. In between we'll get to do all our other normal classes.
This is my last week of high anxiety. By this time next week, the race will be over, and I will have spent the afternoon shopping, and all will be right with the world again! I'm really looking forward to being able to ENJOY my last week here, and not dread the rigorous training schedule we have been facing. The good thing about it though, it sure whips your butt into shape!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Calorie Counting
Okay, so the general rule of thumb when dieting for counting calories is 1200-1500 calories a day, broken down somewhat like this:
Breakfast: 300-400 calories
Lunch: 400-500 calories
Dinner: 500-600 calories
The hardest part about counting calories is getting "outside the box" of convenient frozen meals that give you all the nutritional info you need right on the handy-dandy packaging, and getting into making healthy, tasty, meals and including a little bit of variety in your life.
I learned of an awesome website today called www.CalorieKing.com
Here you can type in a food (either brand name, general food, or restaurant name) and it will bring you back the nutritional breakdown for that food by calories, fat, sugars, carbs, protein, etc., every little bit of info. you would want to know ... so you can figure out how each of the ingredients in your meal will contribute to your daily caloric intake.
To take it one step further, it even gives you an example of what amount of exercise you would have to do to work that meal/ingredient off (i.e. 50 minutes of walking vs. 20 minutes of jogging vs. 15 minutes of swimming vs. 27 minutes of biking).
Another fun thing to do is compare the unhealthy foods that we are used to with their healthy alternatives. Take "Soy Beef" vs. "Ground Beef 80% lean" ...
Per 3 oz. serving:
Calories: 118 vs. 231
Fat grams: 1.8 vs. 14.8
Cholesteral: 0 vs. 76 grams
Really, I know you love to tease me, but with stats like that, you gotta give it a shot!
I hope you find this as useful as I did! :) -Karen.
Breakfast: 300-400 calories
Lunch: 400-500 calories
Dinner: 500-600 calories
The hardest part about counting calories is getting "outside the box" of convenient frozen meals that give you all the nutritional info you need right on the handy-dandy packaging, and getting into making healthy, tasty, meals and including a little bit of variety in your life.
I learned of an awesome website today called www.CalorieKing.com
Here you can type in a food (either brand name, general food, or restaurant name) and it will bring you back the nutritional breakdown for that food by calories, fat, sugars, carbs, protein, etc., every little bit of info. you would want to know ... so you can figure out how each of the ingredients in your meal will contribute to your daily caloric intake.
To take it one step further, it even gives you an example of what amount of exercise you would have to do to work that meal/ingredient off (i.e. 50 minutes of walking vs. 20 minutes of jogging vs. 15 minutes of swimming vs. 27 minutes of biking).
Another fun thing to do is compare the unhealthy foods that we are used to with their healthy alternatives. Take "Soy Beef" vs. "Ground Beef 80% lean" ...
Per 3 oz. serving:
Calories: 118 vs. 231
Fat grams: 1.8 vs. 14.8
Cholesteral: 0 vs. 76 grams
Really, I know you love to tease me, but with stats like that, you gotta give it a shot!
I hope you find this as useful as I did! :) -Karen.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Mini Triathlon
So I am training for an event that will take place in Coronado on the last weekend I am here, on Sunday, July 27th at 7:30am. It is a "Mini-Triathlon", sometimes called a "Sprint-Triathlon" where you do swimming, running, and biking, just like a real triathlon, but with shorter distances.
The idea of doing this freaks me out but they do like to push us beyond our comfort zones, and they certainly are accomlishing that with me. It will be a 400 meter ocean swim, 4 mile bike ride, and 1 mile run. The ocean swim is what is making me most nervous. If I can survive that, the bike ride and run will be a cake walk! (mmmmmm.... caaaaaake ...)
We train every afternoon here with the swimming/biking/running. I haven't swam -- I mean real swimming like lap swimming with a real stroke) since I was about 8 years old taking swim lessons at little ol' Eatonville High School from the 'big kids' there. When I first got in the pool this week to do that, I had a total panic attack... something about putting my face down in the water wasn't something my mind could get past. Luckily there are phenominal coaches here, and she broke it down to the basics for me... down to the point where I was blowing bubbles in the water -- Alli and I have a lot in common this summer with our swim lesson stories! By the end of the hour I was swimming the crawl stroke as if I had been doing it my whole life, it just took getting over that stupid mental block.
Swimming is still something I don't have much endrance for yet, so I will have to work hard to build that up over the next 2 weeks. Soon we will start doing swim training in the ocean instead of the pool, so we can get used to that too.
Looking online, Lake Del Valle and Shadow Cliffs have several Mini-Tri type of events throughout the year, so it gives me a good goal of something to continue in the future (plus, the lake swimming will be so easy compared with swimming in the ocean (with the seaweed and the sharks!) here).
Pray for me!
The idea of doing this freaks me out but they do like to push us beyond our comfort zones, and they certainly are accomlishing that with me. It will be a 400 meter ocean swim, 4 mile bike ride, and 1 mile run. The ocean swim is what is making me most nervous. If I can survive that, the bike ride and run will be a cake walk! (mmmmmm.... caaaaaake ...)
We train every afternoon here with the swimming/biking/running. I haven't swam -- I mean real swimming like lap swimming with a real stroke) since I was about 8 years old taking swim lessons at little ol' Eatonville High School from the 'big kids' there. When I first got in the pool this week to do that, I had a total panic attack... something about putting my face down in the water wasn't something my mind could get past. Luckily there are phenominal coaches here, and she broke it down to the basics for me... down to the point where I was blowing bubbles in the water -- Alli and I have a lot in common this summer with our swim lesson stories! By the end of the hour I was swimming the crawl stroke as if I had been doing it my whole life, it just took getting over that stupid mental block.
Swimming is still something I don't have much endrance for yet, so I will have to work hard to build that up over the next 2 weeks. Soon we will start doing swim training in the ocean instead of the pool, so we can get used to that too.
Looking online, Lake Del Valle and Shadow Cliffs have several Mini-Tri type of events throughout the year, so it gives me a good goal of something to continue in the future (plus, the lake swimming will be so easy compared with swimming in the ocean (with the seaweed and the sharks!) here).
Pray for me!
3 Down, 3 To Go!
PHEW, what a week it has been. I definately needed this weekend to recouperate.
I'm so excited to hit the half-way mark of my time here. Several people went home on Friday after the 3 week mark (you can come to camp for 1, 3, 6, 9, or 10 weeks) and it made me a bit sad that I don't yet get to go home to my family. While I've been handling the homesickness well up to this point, it has put me in a bit of a funk this weekend.
I've been told to stay busy to keep my mind occupied, so though I'm giving my feet a rest to recover from some terrible blisters this past week, I'm doing some mild non-foot-needing workouts so I'm not in my room sulking! :-
Activities I took the past week include: Kickboxing, Body Burn, Zumba, Pilates, Yoga, Boot Camp Fitness, 5K Training, Step Aerobics, Core Stability, Butts and Gutts, Mini Triathlon Training (more on that in another post), and the 8.5 mile camp hike.
I'm really getting pushed to the limits now ... hurting never felt so good. (ugh)
I'm so excited to hit the half-way mark of my time here. Several people went home on Friday after the 3 week mark (you can come to camp for 1, 3, 6, 9, or 10 weeks) and it made me a bit sad that I don't yet get to go home to my family. While I've been handling the homesickness well up to this point, it has put me in a bit of a funk this weekend.
I've been told to stay busy to keep my mind occupied, so though I'm giving my feet a rest to recover from some terrible blisters this past week, I'm doing some mild non-foot-needing workouts so I'm not in my room sulking! :-
Activities I took the past week include: Kickboxing, Body Burn, Zumba, Pilates, Yoga, Boot Camp Fitness, 5K Training, Step Aerobics, Core Stability, Butts and Gutts, Mini Triathlon Training (more on that in another post), and the 8.5 mile camp hike.
I'm really getting pushed to the limits now ... hurting never felt so good. (ugh)
Doctor Checkups
Dan had a DELIGHTFUL (!) time taking both kids to their doctor checkups this week all by himself! I'm so proud of him, taking both children out without backup support is a daunting task, and he handled it like a champ! They both tested his survival skills of course, but he conquered all challenges that were presented to him.
Anyway, here are how the kids measured up:
Alli (3-year check-up):
WEIGHT: 29 lbs 1.6oz (31st percentile)
HEIGHT: 3' 0.5" (29th percentile)
Woo-hoo, finally broke 3 feet tall! She can finally get on rides without having to stretch!
Charlie (9-month check-up):
WEIGHT: 21 lbs 6.6oz (67th percentile down from 80th % at 6 month check-up!)
HEIGHT: (54th percentile)
Anyway, here are how the kids measured up:
Alli (3-year check-up):
WEIGHT: 29 lbs 1.6oz (31st percentile)
HEIGHT: 3' 0.5" (29th percentile)
Woo-hoo, finally broke 3 feet tall! She can finally get on rides without having to stretch!
Charlie (9-month check-up):
WEIGHT: 21 lbs 6.6oz (67th percentile down from 80th % at 6 month check-up!)
HEIGHT: (54th percentile)
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Hope Y'all had a great Independence Day!
Here are some pics of Alli and Charlie enjoying 4th of July festivities!
"mmmm... popsicles ... " ... Charlie's not so sure!
Parades Are Fun!!
Party-ing Is Hard Work!!
Friday, July 4, 2008
My first 5K!
Happy Independence Day!!!
I ran my first 5K this morning on Coronado Beach, down by the beautiful Hotel del Coronado. 3.1 miles doesn't sound like that far, but I despise running with a passion, and running this thing without stopping to walk was my goal, and I actually did it, and that was a major accomplishment for me! I got goosebumps as we crossed the finish line (I ran with one of the counselors from camp and another girl from my team).Here's a pic from my cell phone ... not great quality, but had to leave the digital camera with Dan so he could send me pics of the kids every day! It was foggy the whole time we ran, the sun started peeking out just for the last 1/2-mile, or so.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Get a FREE Skin Cancer Check!
The Olay Skin Cancer Takes Friends program is offering free skin cancer screenings nationwide, now through the end of July. Log on to skincancertakesfriends.org to find a participating dermatologist in your area.
For all my friends up in the East Bay area, the closest one I could find is in Danville, but it's worth the outing to make sure you know where your skin health is. There was an interesting article in the Jund Redbook magazine about skin damage that was quite awakening.
So make an appointment and go with a buddy this month while it's free!!
For all my friends up in the East Bay area, the closest one I could find is in Danville, but it's worth the outing to make sure you know where your skin health is. There was an interesting article in the Jund Redbook magazine about skin damage that was quite awakening.
So make an appointment and go with a buddy this month while it's free!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
