Baking!!!

I suddenly found myself in an extreme baking mood just a few days ago. I found 12 frozen bananas in my freezer (I later realized that I missed 3 that were hiding in the back. Oh well... that'll be the next batch) and made a quadruple batch of banana bread. I do not have a normal sized loaf pan, so I made a bunch of mini loaves, some normal muffins, and some muffins shaped like hearts (thank you again Anna for the muffin pan--the heart shaped ones are the most fun). It took a few hours, but here are the delicious results.

But that was not the end of my baking night. Raspberries were on sale at Hy-Vee, and of course, I couldn't pass them up. So I got three little packages and made a raspberry rhubarb pie. I admit, I cheated a bit and bought the store made pie crust instead of making my own, but hey, I was hot and tired by that point. Anyway, it leaked a little around the edges, but I'm sure that won't be a problem when it comes to eating it. :) Yummy!

the Motorcycle

Sadly, not a whole lot of riding the motorcycle has been happening for me this summer. I've really missed it. But at least some people have been able to ride. :)

Hannah, being the oldest got the first ride.

Emily

Abigail

And thanks Uncle Tim for the rides! They really enjoyed themselves.

Some baby pictures

So it's been about 6 months since I've written anything on my blog (there are a number of reasons behind that, but I won't get into those). But it is now time to start up again! I had an OB visit this morning--I am at 24 weeks and the baby is looking really good. The last few times I've been there, the ladies doing the ultrasounds have told me that the baby is measuring pretty big. So I'm either due a little earlier than my due date or I'm just going to have a ginormous baby. :) Anyway, here are some pictures of the little one.

Here is the classic profile. Has a little hand in there too.

And here's a close-up of the baby's face. He's got a fist up by his mouth and his toes are almost touching his nose. Obviously showing off his amazing flexibility. :)

And perhaps the coolest of all, the 3-D pictures. Looks like an actual baby! I think he's got Tim's nose. ;)

Breathing problems...

This morning I had yet another breathing episode. Tim skipped all his classes and braved the roads to come pick me up in Ankeny and bring me to the allergy doctor in Des Moines. My blood oxygen level was 99--completely normal and healthy. He listened to my lungs and followed the wheezing noise up to my throat. He diagnosed me with Vocal Chord Dysfunction which means that instead of opening up further when I'm trying to breathe, my vocal chords contract so that I wheeze and have trouble catching my breath.

There are a lot of things that can trigger VCD--respiratory infections, odors, singing, emotional upset, post-nasal drips, allergies, and exercise. Who knows what triggers mine. It might be the allergies. It might just be some added stress in life, though most of the times I've had problems, I have not been stressed at all. We may never know for sure what my triggers are.

To try to treat it, I will first try to control it on my own. To do that I can practice lamas breathing and relaxation tricks to try to get my throat muscles to relax and start working correctly again. If that doesn't work and I still have attacks, I may have to go to speech/breathing therapy to teach my muscles in my neck, throat, chest, and abdomen to work like they are supposed to.

The hard part will be that I have no idea what triggers it for sure, so can't do things to try to prevent an attack. And once I do have an attack, there's no magic medicine to stop it--no medicine that helps at all actually. The good part is that its not just allergy attacks getting worse and worse! I won't have to cut all cat-owners out of my life! ;) And with practice, it can even go away completely someday. I'm praying that it does soon.

Weekend in Minnesota

On Saturday we traveled to Minneapolis first to visit my/our friends Kara and Kiel Johnson. They just bought a house and were having a housewarming party! We got to stay for 3 or 4 hours before I had a breathing problem, and Tim worked his magic and got us a great deal on an awesome hotel room. (More about my breathing problems later.)

We met up with Gabe, Naomi, Caleb, and Laura for church and lunch at Olive Garden, then headed to the Mall of America to visit the aquarium for Caleb's birthday. All in all it was a great weekend! We got to spend a lot of great time with our friends!

Jack wants to be a sled dog!

We got a documentary about the Iditarod, the dog sled race over 1000 miles in Alaska. We watched the first part of it Friday night. Gus and Maggie lifted their heads up a couple times at the beginning of the movie to listen to the barking dogs, but Jack was enthralled the whole movie. I've never seen a dog watch tv as closely as he did. We are now convinced that Jack's deepest longing is to become a sled dog in Alaska. I wonder if we can rig up a harness... :)

Working out

A little before Christmas I got a membership to the gym at DMACC in Ankeny. They offer classes over lunch and have a small gym with weights and a few treadmills/elipticals. And the best part--only $30 a year. Amazing. So I have been taking a half hour class every lunch time with my friend Lacy who works with me at Pioneer. It's been so great to work out with someone! We're at the same fitness level and have the same goals. We've been going four weeks strong now. Woo hoo!

And when I feel extra ambitious in the evenings or on the weekends, I've been doing the workout videos I have at home. The dogs never know quite what to think, but they definitely enjoy licking the sweat off of me while I'm trying to do push ups or something. So annoying and gross!

I've even started to eat better. Tons of fruit and vegetables, very few carbs (you know...the good stuff), low fat yogurt... I'm not perfect, but much better than I was.

Now with all this, you would think I'd have lost like 10 pounds by now. Sadly, that is not the case. I'm seeing some of the results when I look in the mirror and some of my clothes are fitting me better, but I have lost no weight! Maybe it's just offsetting each other--muscle does weigh more than fat. So as I lose fat, I'm gaining just enough muscle to offset each other, right? Who knows. It's starting to get frustrating, but I'm going to stick with it. Losing weight is such an undertaking, especially the older I get! But hopefully I'll start to really see some more results, and get even more motivated than I am now.

The best thing about all of this though--the thing that really keeps me going--is how much my husband loves me no matter how I look. At least that's what he tells me. ;) And if all else fails, I know now that I can run 2 miles without stopping. So the next time some bad guy wants to kill me or something, he'll have to be in good enough shape to run two miles to catch me. Then again, I'm kinda a slow runner... I'll have to hope that I have a really good head start. :)

Finally another entry...

So after a long hiatus, I have decided it's about time for another update on life. :)

Monday morning I called into work with an impromptu PTO day, and we celebrated Tim's birthday since Friday is going to be very busy for us. We started the morning by opening presents (off course). I glazed a bowl for him to keep his spare change in and got him speakers--another step closer to his dream of having a nice surround sound system.

Then we had a yummy breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee and set about our day.

For supper I made roast in the crock pot, homemade crescent rolls, homemade gravy, and steamed asparagus. Very yummy. And you can't forget the dirt cake for dessert :)

We ran errands, did some stuff around the house, ate good food, and watched 24. Not a bad day!

Happy Birthday Tim!