Activities

Today was day #2 of my spur of the moment decision to join one of my instagram buds in a 30 Day Get Fit Challenge. 

It. Has. Been. Rough.

haha Buuuut, I guess "getting fit" shouldn't be easy, right?

I will say, though, that trying to "get fit" when you have a fussy 4 month old who got shots today and you babysit your VERY active niece and nephew for a few hours is not the best plan. I basically felt like every move I made was going to make my legs fall off my body! Squats and lunges make your legs BURN the next day! Which, in turn, makes it hard to chase kids around and standing-bounce your sad little baby after her doctor's appointment. 

I'm hoping it gets better. haha

For my own record, I'm going to list out each day's challenge activities. If you'd like to join in, feel free!

Day #1:

30 jumping jacks

30 crunches

10 sit ups

1 minute wall sit

10 lunges, each leg

47 squats

10 push-ups

25 knee highs

30 butt kicks

Day #2: (BY FAR an easier workout than day one... go figure)

10 jumping jacks

10 deep lunges, each leg

45 squats

20 sit ups

15 crunches

2 mile speed walk (*I substituted with a 30 minute walk around my neighborhood pushing Aurora in the stroller)

In addition to getting my body fit, I've decided to do a little work on strengthening my testimony and knowledge of the gospel. I take 20 minutes a day to myself (usually when Aurora is napping and Dan is working) to study The Book of Mormon and utilize the Preach My Gospel manual and then I read a little bit about the teachings of the prophet, Joseph Smith, in the Teachings of Presidents of the Church book. How awesome it has been to be reminded of the principles of the restoration of the gospel on this earth and to learn things and see things that I may have overlooked in the past. I'm glad we have prophets on the earth today to lead us and guide us in what the Lord would have us do. It's definitely uplifting to be reminded of the basic things of the gospel.

In other news, my sweet Dan did a little clean up on the fallen trees outside our house today. He cut down two huge trees and then trimmed up a few others AND cleared the rest of the ones that fell in the way of the driveway (ours and the neighbor's). Luckily, Jeremy was off work to help him because at one point they had to attach a rope to the car and to the tree so that they could use the car to make sure the huge tree fell the way they wanted. Yeah. I usually just watch and keep my fingers crossed that Dan doesn't have anything horrid happen to him. He loves running the chainsaw, though! Boys! haha

While they did that, Kaela and I took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood. It was crazy to see how many trees were down. The city is in need of a major spring cleaning! 

Oh! Guess what?? Guess what?? The doctor said that my baby is ready to add RICE CEREAL to her diet! And then in a few weeks we can add orange veggies!! I was excited but at the same time I'm over here thinking, "Where did the time go? My baby is getting so big!" I'm glad Dan was off work today because we both got a chance to try feeding the cereal to her. She seemed to like it, but at first her face was hilarious! It was like, "What is this stuff?" haha We'll keep trying.

Tonight we watched The Walking Dead and I snapped a few pictures of my unsuspecting hubby. Isn't he good looking? Yup. I kinda like him. Oh, and my beautiful napper! I like her, too! ♥♥♥

Cabin Clean Up & Tornado Snow Storms

This weekend, my Grandma Barclay wanted us all to come up for a little cabin spring cleaning in Midway. She had a whole list of stuff to be done and my whole family was going up to join the rest of the Barclay crew in cleaning and fixing stuff up. Well, Dan had to work on Friday and Saturday nights and couldn't get it off, so he suggested that I take Aurora and go up on Friday and come home Saturday (actually, he first suggested that I leave Aurora here with him and I said, "Woah, no! If I go up there without her, I'll never hear the end of it! Too many people need to see her!" haha)

So, on Friday morning, I got my stuff together and before leaving, my mom and I went to say goodbye to my dear friend, Laura and her cute little boy, Kaden. They moved on Saturday to her parents' house in Layton and we are SO sad they had to go! We will miss those two immensely! Guess, we'll have to plan trips to visit and just keep in touch.

After the visit, Erin and I came home to get packed up in the car to go and the ants were at it again! ALL over my kitchen! ALL over my dishes! GAHHHHH!! So after quickly washing all the dishes and spraying the kitchen down with ant killer, we were finally on the road.

It was so fun to have Erin ride up there with me. We jammed out to the radio and to Disney songs on CD all while Aurora slept in the backseat AND we made funny faces at mom and dad as we passed each other back and forth on the freeway. haha Then we stopped to visit the Henrie's in Spanish Fork.

That was going great untilllllll.... Aurora barfed all over my Aunt Lisa! haha That poor lady took it like only a seasoned mother and loving aunt could.

But then it was back to good and all smiles as we chatted and my cousins, Nick and Alex, sang pirate songs to Aurora. We will be so sad to have them move to Elko! We have loved our spur of the moment visitings to Spanish Fork but will try to head that direction whenever possible!

We then left Spanish and headed up the Provo Canyon to meet up with Steph, Becca, and Alex and Mom, Dad, and Collette for a little pizza and movies at the cabin before the early wake up call for the cleaning to begin.

Poor Aurora continued her barfing at the cabin for most of the night and I was worried we'd have to head home in the morning because she just didn't feel good. Luckily, I had MY mom there to take care of THIS stressed and frustrated mom, and my dad there to tell me that it'd all be ok, because we made it through the night and even were able to stay for the clean up!

Aurora got to meet a few of my cousins and we got a lot done while having a good time catching up. It even got a little adventurous when my cousin, Courtney, lost her wedding ring down the sewer pipe while ripping up linoleum in the bathroom... but don't worry! She got it out! haha I can't wait to stay at the cabin this summer with Dan!

I left on Saturday night and I got home just before the most horrible snow storm hit! This morning it was a beast outside! About 10 inches of heavy, wet snow and TONS of mutilated trees. The poor things just couldn't handle the weight of their new leaves and the snow. Cedar looks like a tornado ran through it! We even made the news!

Oh! And P.S. I almost forgot! Dan found a dog in the car when he went to come home after work on Saturday night! I'm guessing it jumped in the window when it started to get rainy and snowy.

We put it in the kitchen with the baby gate up and gave it food and water. It was the best dog! No barking at all AND it even laid down on this little bed we made it on the floor to sleep! We were going to keep it and try to find it's owners through Facebook but it ran away when Dan let it out to go potty. Oh, well. Hopefully it made it home!

Moon Walk

Photo Credit: Melissa Henrie

First things first. The lunar eclipse last night was freaking awesome! One of those times when I'm feeling lucky to be in the "right place at the right time" aka on Facebook bouncing my baby to sleep and seeing KSL's post reminding people of the 'blood moon' at 1am. So Aurora fell asleep in my arms, I kissed her goodnight, put her in her crib, and ran out on my porch to see if I could see the moon... aaaaannd I could! Super clear, too! Yay! What an amazing thing to witness! It was so pretty!

I tried taking multiple pics but they did it NO justice so I had a small debate in my head over whether or not to wake Dan. I then decided that I would wake him but he was dead to the world and mumbled something like "Thad's nice. Take pigdures. Lub you." and turned over instead. Haha. After that, I ran back out to the porch, realizing I'd never get a good pic but that everyone needed to see it so... I posted to Facebook and text my dad. See, whenever I'm up late or can't sleep, I can always count on my dad to be awake too. Yeah. Not that night. haha the ONE night he's asleep at a good time. Bummer.

Anyway, it was really beautiful and I feel happy to have witnessed it. AND even happier that my amazing cousin, Melissa snapped a photo cause I totally stole it. Thanks Melis!

Oh! So this afternoon, I decided to go on a walk. Then I decided "Why not kill two three birds with one stone and go walking to pay rent and pay Brandon for working with Dan?" Well, I then ventured out to do just that thinking it was not as far as it actually was. Uphill. So after an hour, I paid Brandon via Krystel (who happened to drive past me in her car. Booya!) and then called Dan to pick me up/drive us up the hill to pay rent. Plus side is that I found a new part of the canyon trail called The East Bench Trail, which happens to run right past the entrance/exit to the C Trail AND I had a beautiful view of all of Cedar City and the mountains. Aurora slept most of the way but she woke up toward the end and just enjoyed the new sights. She's so cute! I love her as my walking buddy.

After Dan picked us up, we went by my parents' house to visit for a bit and then we came home to do a barbecue and watch Jimmy Fallon with Jeremy, Kaela, and Tasha + kids. Yummy food and fun night all around.

Before Jimmy Fallon came on, we put in The Princess Bride. It took me back to one of my first dates with Dan when we watched that movie at our cabin in Midway. Oh the memories! I loved having Dan by me on the couch to snuggle me like he did when we first watched it together. And after 3 years and a new baby, I'm 100% more in love with him. I'm so happy he's my forever. ♥

Indoor Recess

So this little girl in class (of whom we call 'Q') said the funniest thing today in 2nd grade. I just have to share haha

Woah! Pause! First!
Background info: The wind and cold were outrageous today so we had indoor recess and one of the options was these really pattern-y and detailed coloring pages for them to color.

And... Play!
Me: "Q, did you already start coloring a design or are you getting a new one?"
Q: "Yeah, I started coloring this one (pointing to one with lots of tiny, repeating geometric shapes) and I colored three of these in the corner but then I was like 'Holy Hell! That's just too much.' (As she shakes her head back and forth) So I'm getting one with less coloring areas."

hahahaha!

In other news, last night we took Dan's parents, Candace and Steve, to dinner at Winger's for Candace's birthday since Dan had to work tonight on her actual birthday. It was so yummy and fun to be able to chat with them! (Bonus: I got to eat Winger's sticky fingers again for lunch today!)

Soooo, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CANDACE! We love you ♥

And, STEVE, good luck with your surgery tomorrow! We love you and are praying for you ♥

For those unaware, Dan's dad, Steve, had a "questionable" mole on his leg and had it removed. The doctors found out that it was, indeed, Melanoma and it was 7cm down (which is NOT good) so they are doing more surgery tomorrow to see if it's spread. Please keep him in your prayers! We're all trying to stay really optimistic about it and prayers could really help him through this scary time.

A Scary Story

When you've been married a year and your hubby is only 23 years old, you never think that you will be sitting in the hospital after he has a mini stroke. BUT that's exactly what happened in our neck of the woods on Wednesday. 

I had been at work a half hour when I got a call from Dan saying that he was on his way to the hospital and I needed to meet him there. Apparently, what had happened was that Dan had gone to work at 9am and around 10:45am he started to get a migraine. This was nothing unusual because he has these all the time but a few things started to happen this time that weren't normal. He lost his vision for a few minutes and then it was just blurry. Then he started to have the whole left side of his body go numb and weak. So he took some aspirin and had Jeremy (his brother) drive him to the hospital from work. 

At the ER they ran a few tests which confirmed to them that he had had a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) or mini stroke and they were going to admit him to the hospital to do further testing and observe him for 24 hours. After we got to his room, my dad and Bryan came in and gave Dan a blessing which eased our stressed and nervous minds a bit. (I'm so grateful to have worthy men in my life who are able to do this for my husband!) And then shortly after that, Dan went in for an MRI, an MRA, and an echocardiogram. 

When he got back we just waited. Dan had TONS of visitors (we are so loved!!) and then it was just us for the night. Dr. Allen came in around 8pm to speak with us a bit about what they had found out. We learned from him that Dan had a PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale) or a hole in his heart. We suspected this because Dan's mom and his uncle, Travis, both had that exact same thing and had to get it closed up. We just weren't really sure what would happen from there and what the effects were. The doctor gave us good info on what it was BUT he didn't really seem like he knew much else. He told us that it wasn't genetic, so he didn't think it really mattered that his mom and uncle had it and he also told us that the migraines had nothing to do with why he had this. 

Around 11pm, the cardiologist, Dr. Menchenda, came in to discuss the PFO with us and we loved him! He was so personable and he explained things in a way that would help us better know what to do. He also gave us some really good informational articles on getting PFO's closed up that he thought would help us. We trusted his words a lot more than the first doctor because this is his special area and he told us pretty much the opposite of what Dr. Allen said; it IS genetic and migraines DO play a part in it. 

Once he left we talked about things a bit and started reading the articles but then we slept (kind of). I stayed up until I read every article Dr. Menchenda gave us and I felt a lot better about my knowledge on what Dan had. Sleeping on that tiny couch was the worst! I think I only got about 3 hours of sleep and Dan probably did too cause the nurses had to keep coming in to check on him every few hours. Needless to say it was a long night! 

The next morning they drew more blood from Dan for more tests (mostly to check to see if his blood is hypercoagulable, or prone to clotting easily) to see if it would be better for Dan to just go on blood thinners or if he needs to have it closed. We got to go home around 11am with a prescription for Dan to take a baby aspirin and a Plavix (another blood thinner) once a day and to check back in next week for the results of all the testing. I was so glad to be home yesterday, finally, but we were both so tired and stressed. Which is why I finally had a breakdown from it all. One day everything's fine and the next...ugh. It's all just so new and scary and now it's kind of a waiting game. 

So the rest of the afternoon yesterday, Dan and I just relaxed. Amber, Kayla, and Dan brought us dinner which helped alleviate some of the stress (we're so lucky to have such good friends!) and as soon as we finished eating both of us were out and we didn't really wake up, other than for a few hours, until this morning. Today Dan went to work but he's still got a headache and he's been pretty dizzy still but the hospital said they think it's from all the blood he had taken so we get to stock him up on the iron tonight! I'll give an update after next week! For now, I'm just glad to have my husband home and doing ok. I love him so much.

Desk Job Exercise!

Pretty much I spend at least 15 hours each week staring at a computer screen. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job but I just SIT at my computer every day. SO, I thought to myself, "Hey, self, what could I do to make me more active at work?" AND that's when I stumbled across a lovely little article titled, How to Exercise While Sitting at Your Computer. Naturally, I had to share.

GO CHECK IT OUT! ------> Click Me

Happy Day!

I have lost almost 8 pounds! I'm stoked!
How did I accomplish this? I started eating healthier.
Eating less. Not snacking. Eating healthier foods.
Whole wheat. More fruits and vegetables.
Drinking more water. Cutting out pop.
Swimming 3 nights a week.
I'm feeling so good!
Who needs a fancy diet when you simply live healthy?
:)