Our Experience Eating Out

Last night Kalyn and I were starving after going to the gym so we decided to go out to dinner.  It's been a long time since we've been on a date.  Although we were bringing our little guy with us, we still consider it a date.  This is the story of why you should get a babysitter when you want to go on a date.

We arrive at Applebee's and Rex is calm as can be.  I just fed him before we left, but we were silly to think he didn't know when his bedtime was (even after the daily fight to actually go to sleep at 8). We were seated and Rex began to fuss before we even got our appetizer.  I was starting to think we might not make it.  I took him to the restroom where I was relieved to find that after two days of not pooping (we just started him on solids) he finally had.

A diaper change only calmed him for about 3 seconds after I sat down.  I had to hold him while I ate.  He was momentarily distracted by the baby girl at the next table over.  This gave me time to get at least half my food down before I heard the noise that no parent wants to hear during a dinner out: a poop bomb exploding out of their child's bum.  It didn't stop there.  He kept going every 30 seconds or so for the next couple minutes.  A wet spot was appearing on his back.

Now we knew we had to get out of there, because he can't stand being wet for more than a minute.  We asked for some boxes for the rest of our food and the check.  While we were waiting Rex decided to yell to the whole restaurant about who-knows-what.  He has just discovered recently that he can use vocals and I think he likes hearing himself talk.  He was yelling the only word he knows: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa... aaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaa."

Putting him back in his car seat made him scream and that's when I felt like everyone around us was staring with that look of "control your child."  I have a feeling that he is going to embarrass me very often, but at the same time it will be one of the funniest things I've ever seen.  He'll make me laugh.  He sure is developing some personality.

Monsters in My Room Last Night

Last night Rex finally slept for more than 3 hours at a time.  Instead of waking up at midnight with that feeling that it was going to be another long night of frequent wake-ups I blessedly got to sleep until 2am.  This being said, I actually fell into a deep sleep for a while.  At 2:01am I woke in a pitch black room to the sound of sucking.  My first thought was, "Oh my gosh! There is a monster in my room and it is taking a taste of my baby!"  However, sense returned to me as I woke up a little more and realized that Rex was simply awake, sucking very enthusiastically on his fist.  Hoping he would roll over and go back to sleep, but knowing he probably would just wake me up pretty soon, I drifted back to sleep.

At 2:05am I was startled awake again by another frightening sound.  "Oh my heck! There is a pterodactyl in my room!" Oh wait... it was just the baby again.  When he is happy he makes this squealing noise that sounds an awful lot like a hungry dinosaur.  With heavy eyelids I again decided to fall asleep, even though I knew that noise meant the little guy was fully awake.  

Again, at 2:07am, I woke to a little baby whimper.  It was the quiet cry that is a warning before he decides I need a little more prompting to get out of bed and go get him.  The one before he yells.  Finally, I left my bed and walked over to Rex's crib.  In the dark I saw a wad of blankets and baby in the corner, but couldn't tell where his head was, so I felt around.  Somehow he had gone from the middle of the crib to the corner with his feet in the corner.  His butt was almost all the way into the corner as well, with his legs sticking up above him.  He was wiggling around, trying to escape.  Luckily I was there to rescue him, and with a feeding and some cuddles we both fell right back to sleep.

My Health Experiment

I mentioned in the post before this that I just experienced my second UTI in a row.  It also happens to be the second one I've ever had n my life.  So why would I suddenly get two back to back?  Well I would love to tell you, but I'm not a doctor and there are so many reasons that could happen and so many ways you can get one that there isn't really a way of knowing for sure.  However, after feeling a second one coming on I decided to do some research, because although a 7-day course of antibiotics seemed to zap the infection pretty quickly the first time, I wondered if it really went away entirely or if I had an altogether new infection.  I already knew the basics of how antibiotics work.  They kill bacteria causing the infection.  My research brought me to many opinions of people who believe that antibiotics aren't necessarily good for you, because while killing the "bad" bacteria in your body it also can kill the "good" bacteria.  Having lower amounts of bacteria your body depends on for a time after taking antibiotics can actually weaken your system's defenses against getting another infection.  

Of course there is research both for and against this theory, so who knows whether it's true or not.  Again, I am no doctor.  I did think that it was worth a try to take probiotics instead though. Probiotics do exactly the opposite of antibiotics (if you didn't already work that out for yourself).  They increase the amounts of "good" bacteria because they are made from live cultures that can help fight off an infection.  You can buy probiotics at most health stores.  I happen to work for a wellness company that sells probiotics.  Lucky me, because they can be kind of expensive.

I made a deal with myself that if the infection didn't clear out within a couple of days or got rapidly worse than I would go to the doctor.  The first infection I got had been so bad that I was peeing blood, so I knew this time it had some time to go before reaching that point.  After two days of taking the probiotics and drinking mass amounts of water I hadn't improved or gotten worse.  I thought about going to the doctor, but then realized that I had let my couple days go into the weekend.  My doctor's office was closed.  Oops!  Since it wasn't worse I decided to stick the weekend out.  But guess what! By Monday I was actually feeling better.  It took until today for me to feel like it was completely healed, but it worked out.  

So my conclusion to this little experiment is that antibiotics seem to work much faster, but the probiotics worked too.  Certainly if I got a bad infection I would go to a doctor, but there are ways to take care of ourselves from home too.  It's important to use good judgement.  I have often had the mindset that I can't afford going to the doctor much.  It's expensive sometimes!  However, I have also learned that no matter how much anxiety it causes me to go, there are times when it is important to see a professional.  For example if you are bleeding badly and need to get stitched up, break a bone, are so sick that you can't heal on your own, or in some cases when you have a feeling that something is very wrong.  Follow your instincts.  

My mom worked in a profession for several years that teaches people to have an awareness of their body.  Did you know that just by slowing down and paying close attention to how you feel on a regular basis you can heal yourself?  The reason for that being that you can feel when something you do feels better or worse.  Plus, you learn to use your body more efficiently.  This can keep you healthier and help you to know when something feels really different.  My challenge to you is to take just a little time each day to be aware of how you are feeling; physically and mentally.  The more you pay attention, the easier it will get to solve problems, because you won't spend as much time trying to figure out the source. 

My Health Goals

I am currently enjoying my second UTI (urinary tract infection) in a row. What a joy! It takes something as natural and ordinary as peeing and turns it into something you dread because it's painful.  On top of that, it makes you have to pee about twenty times more often than usual and much more difficult to hold it in.  Sorry if this is too much information, but just imagine going throughout your daily activities and having to take a break every half hour at a minimum to go pee.  Yeah... not the most efficient of time for me.  However I have to marvel a little at how the body knows how to heal itself.  My body senses the infection and turns my bladder into overdrive to get it out.  It's like getting a high fever to kill a virus or getting a scab to protect the new skin that is forming underneath it.  Our bodies are miracles!

This is why I am amazed that so many people (myself included at times) put take this gift from God and abuse it so horribly.  Some go as far as using drugs that research has proven can cause severe brain damage with a single use. My weakness is sugar-loading.  I have a sweet tooth that can be compared to the hulk.  One of my goals, as I mentioned in the post before this is to cut down on my sugar intake.  The difference between this time and other tries is that I actually told people that I was doing it.  That way my people-pleasing self kicks in when I am eyeing that dessert and want it so badly, and I can't take it because people would know I am failing at my diet already.

I am having some success so far though! My rules are that I can't have any dessert except for one a week only IF there is some sort of occasion such as a party, dinner with friends, etc.  If there are two occasions I can only have dessert at one.  No candy or anything related to it (like fruit snacks or things made of pure sugar) are allowed either.  My diet is going until Christmas.  By then the sugar cravings should have depleted severely and that is my goal for when to get back to almost my pre-pregnancy weight again.  After only a week and a half of cutting back junk food I have lost almost 3 pounds. Hooray!

Of course diet must come with exercise.  I have very low amount of physical endurance right now. I think less than I have ever had in my entire life, which frustrates me very much most of the time.  So most days I just go on a walk.  This week I hope to add some strength training into it too so that when I run it won't feel as horrible.

Seven more weeks of this to go! I know I can do it, but it sure isn't easy.  I have to lose almost two pounds a week and my goal will be met. I can't wait to fit into my pants and skirts again.

Reaching My Goals

One thing that really makes me sad is when mothers decide their life is over when they have children.  Granted, it sure does change your life, but it certainly doesn't end it.  I often hear people say, "I didn't like doing any of the things I did before anyways.  I'm glad to give it all up for my child," or something to that effect.  Please know that having a baby does not mean you have to give up the things you love! When Rex was first born I had to feed him at least once every hour, because (as the pediatrician told me) some kids are just eaters.  I had one of them.  I thought many times to myself that I would never be able to do anything if half of every hour out of the day was spent feeding this child.  He is just over three months old now and I am starting to feel much better about the situation.  Sometimes he takes three hour naps or just stays content on the floor watching my cook for a while.  He doesn't cry every time I put him in his car seat and he loves going on walks or runs in his stroller with me.  I'm discovering that I can still have a life!

My goals are to conquer my bad eating habits by learning self control, start my online business finally, exercise daily so that my body gets back into shape, and keep the house cleaner.  I've been able to work on all of this and although right now it's a little overwhelming and requires me to step out of my comfort zone in many ways, I am starting to feel better physically and emotionally.  I want to feel accomplished.  Being a mother can do that, but if I don't know how to do these things for myself how can I teach my children to do the same.

The best way to teach is by example.  I have always pictured my kids as healthy, active, and happy children.  If I want them to do that, I have to show them how.  This is what I plan on doing.

Me and Kalyn went to Utah this weekend to visit family.  My brother-in-law offered me a piece of candy and I told him no thanks, because I was on a low-sugar diet.  He thought I was kidding.  I have to admit, it sounds a little bit weird for me to be the type of person to go on a diet, but I want to be healthy and have the energy to chase Rex around when he starts crawling and walking.  I know I can reach my goals and am excited to finally set my mind to something and do it.

Does Nobody Read Anymore?

Let's face it. Everyone has pet peeves; those things that really irritate you.  Some people hate the sound of fingernails scratching a hard surface, or people who don't make eye contact, or elbows on the table, or people reading over their shoulder. Personally I think it's gross to leave the toilet seat up.  Particularly when both seats are up. Who wants to look at that anyways?

Today I want to discuss how irritating it is that nobody reads anymore.  This leads to more work for everyone.  Remember those people you hate working with because they always did a slop-job the first time they did anything so you or someone else had to redo it later? I've met some people like that lately simply because they don't read.  For example:

The other day I saw an ad my friend had posted on a Facebook group that is used as an online "garage sale."  It had a picture of a leather jacket with a caption that went something like, "large authentic leather jacket, $40."  The first comment on the photo read, "Size? price?" followed by another one that said, "ditto" to the person above.  Duh people! Did you not read the very clear caption above the picture?!

Just a couple days later I posted  on the school ride board saying that we were driving down to Provo and had one or two extra seats if anyone wanted to join.  They would just have to pay $20 in gas each way and we were leaving Friday after my husband got off of work.   The first response back to the post was a text with the questions, "is it $20 round trip?" and "Are you leaving Thursday evening?"  I wanted to respond to the person, "Dear human, You do have eyes right?  You must since you read my phone number off the ride board. So use them to read the ENTIRE THING!"

It's a waste of time for everyone when you have to repeat every piece of information just because people don't want to read your entire ad.  I really hope our generation has not really become that lazy or confused.  I hope that both of those people were up all  night studying or taking care of a baby and their vision has blurred from exhaustion and their brain is mixing up everything they see.  Otherwise they really just were too lazy to read one or two sentences of simple English, and that terrifies me for the sake of our country.

Image, and Why it's Important

I gave Kalyn a ride to class this morning and we had the conversation as follows (as I pulled around a car dropping off a student and a boy was walking in front of it):

Kalyn: "Watch out for that thing!"
Me: "That thing?!" 
Kalyn: "Yeah. No human could wear jeans that tight."

This was proceeded by a lot of laughter, but after I dropped him off I started paying attention to what people were wearing and I thought half the students looked like they were gangster-wannabes or punk rockers on the side.  I think image is an interesting topic these days.  There are the "people of Walmart" people who clearly don't care what they look like at all.  They claim that they are free because they do whatever they want and don't give a rip.  Then there are those people who you swear must take three hours getting ready every morning and carry around an image emergency kit everywhere, because they never even have a hair out of place.  Those are the ones who constantly check themselves out in mirrors and windows because they are so obsessed with how they look. They often go on outrageous diets and work out enough to be 2% body fat.

I think both those kinds of people are a bit out of control.  Especially if you are thinking of a career out in the world.  In the professional world, whether we like it or not, image matters.  If you had the choice between shopping for groceries at a store with greasy employees, who smelled like BO and clearly never brushed their teeth, OR a store where the employees were clean, had cute smiles, and looked put-together, which would you choose?  Now that's an extreme example, but I make my point.

It's my opinion that we should look like we take care of ourselves and value the body that God gave us.  He compares the body to a temple; one of the most clean and sacred things on Earth.  However, this brings me to another point.

We should never go overboard.  My belief is that God wants us to be confident in ourselves, and everyone has a different way of feeling that way.  We need to have balance though.  My way is by working out.  If I feel physically strong, meet my goals as far as improving my mile time or my distance, and keep myself clean by showering and doing my hair, then I feel good about myself.  When I feel good about myself I am more productive.  I am more useful to people around me.

I take pride in the fact that I am not ashamed when I go out in public without makeup or think I have to work out for three hours to look good.  However, I also take pride in taking care of myself the best I can so that I don't feel like a slob.  I value my body as if it is a gift from God.  I am not perfect.  Sometimes I eat too much junk food and feel crummy.  Sometimes I go far too long without exercise or miss a shower (especially now that I have a baby).  I do put in an effort though.

All I can say, is that there is value in taking care of yourself, and your outside image often reflects how you feel about yourself.