Frumpy

Frumpy

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Read post

So I recently started working out again. I had taken a break, which was partly by choice and partly because I have been so busy and/or lazy lately. It's hard for me to get motivated about it, even though I REALLY want to be and I know that I more importantly NEED to be.

Being pregnant for the short time I was I put on a few pounds. Some people wouldn't think anything of it, because that is "normal", but I had also put on a few pounds even before that as well. I haven't been feeling the greatest about my appearance lately and to put it simply I've been feeling "frumpy."

I know that with my surgery about a month ago I couldn't really get back into anything for a couple weeks, even though I was dying to get back in the gym again. Now I have no more excuses and need to get my butt going.

I know it's also not just a physical thing, I know I need to eat a lot better. I am also working on that. I had started months ago in preparation for pregnancy, but then once again used the excuse of the miscarriage and the surgery and just said to myself, "well we can't try for awhile anyways, I'll start up again in a month or so."

Well, that is exactly what is wrong with my mindset. I need to stop thinking of the just right now and think of the future of my health, body and mind. To me, it's all related. When they say that physical activity can help relieve stress, etc. they are right.

I've been struggling the past 3 weeks or so with headaches. I asked my Dr about it yesterday at my post-op appointment to see if they may be related in some way to hormone levels, etc. she said they may be tension headaches and stress related. I've never experienced headaches like these in my life. She also told me that if they continue to see my regular dr.
 
In conclusion, you will most likely be seeing more posts like this from me that involves working out, exercising, eating better, etc. as I continue on this never-ending journey of well-being.

Leah

Lemonhead Shower & Bachelorette Party

Lemonhead Shower & Bachelorette Party

Friday, August 20, 2010

Read post

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Two words...busy day. One of my best friends who I have mentioned on here several times...Jenny Lemons a/k/a Lemonhead is getting married on Saturday, September 4th. Her bridal shower was in the afternoon. Here a few fun pictures:

[All of Jenny's faves: turkey roll-ups, shrimp/cocktail sauce, guac/chips, queso/chips, etc.]

The turkey roll-ups had a cranberry cream cheese in them. So yummy! They were from Costco.

Can you tell what her wedding color is?

[Bride with her BM's]

[From left to right: Ann (MOH/SOB), Me, Jenny, and Ashley]

From there we transitioned into her bachelorette party. We started off with dinner at Chammps in Eden Prairie, headed over to Prairie Pub and had some cocktails, then went cosmic bowling at EP Bowl.

[Do you see anything funny with this glass?]



This was the nummy dessert that Chammps gave the bachelorette. Lucky for us, Jenny shared it. ;)



All of us girls at EP Bowl for bowling fun!

After bowling until midnight some people wanted to take Jenny to Deja Vu (a strip-club). The rest of us went along for shits and giggles.

We ended the night at Jenny's house at about 3am. We were greeted by these two adorable faces.

[Emma]



[Smush]

Overall it was a great night of celebration and bonding!

Thanks Jenny and everyone that made it such a great night.

Leah

SYTYCD {Seasons 5 & 7}

SYTYCD {Seasons 5 & 7}

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Read post

So I have been meaning to blog about this show while it was actually on tv, but now that Season 6 has wrapped I guess I will blog about it now. I love So You Think You Can Dance or for us veterans... SYTYCD. If you know of the show, great! If you don't, it's on FOX and it's like American Idol, but instead of a singing competition, it's a dancing competition.

Last week was the season 6 finale. Yes, 6 fabulous seasons of this great show. The top 10 dancers usually go on tour, just like Idol does. They came to MN in October 2009 and it was the first year I had gone to the tour show. It was season 5 that Jeanine Mason won.

I loved her from the beginning and had to see her. Me and Lemonhead went and were super excited!

This season (#7) they changed things up a bit. As far as judges go, Mary Murphy was not on this season (other than the finale) and instead they made Mia Michaels and Adam Shankman a permanent part of the show. I love them both and Mary can be so annoying at times, so I was all for it.

Also, instead of 20 new contestants, they only picked 10. The kicker was that 10 "All-Star" dancers from previous seasons were coming back. They were switching it up. Which is always nice. Basically, each week the contestants are paired with another contestant and/or an all-star and then each pair is given a different type of dance to master. It shows previews of them working with the choreographer and each other before they dance live. Love it, Love it, Love it.

My favorite guy all-star that they brought back this year was Season 4's Twitch. He is a Hip-Hopper and so fun. He also stars in Step Up 3D, which I have yet to see, but really, really want to.

My favorite girl all-star was Season 3's Lauren.
(She reminds me of Megan Fox).

This year, for Season 7, my favorite girl contestant right from the beginning was Lauren.

and my favorite guy was Kent.

If you do watch the show you know the background of this dance and what happened the week after Twitch and Alex n/k/a Twilex performed it.

  

Please click on the link and watch the video now before continuing to read this post.

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...   

Now if you don't watch the show you would not even be able to tell that Alex Wong is a ballet dancer and was with the Miami City Ballet before being on SYTYCD. Crazy huh? That is the beauty of this show. 

One of the sad aspects of this show is that sometimes in rehearsal a dancer will get hurt. That's what happened to Alex the week after this amazing routine. He ended up pulling his Achilles tendon and having to leave the competition early. I have no doubt that he would have went far on the show and possibly even won it. So for the finale, SYTYCD got creative and brought in a "professional" dancer to re-create that dance. Below is what occurred.

Don't you love it?! I am a big Ellen fan, but this behind the scenes footage is hilarious. It always goes to show you that it's not as easy as you think. Hopefully this has sparked your interest enough to watch next season. I personally can't wait!

Leah

Kate's 11th Birthday {2010}

Kate's 11th Birthday {2010}

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Read post

Friday, July 30, 2010

The family and I met at the mall to do some shopping and have dinner for Kate's birthday. I took her shopping at Aeropostale and bought her some clothes.

We enjoyed DQ (instead of a cake). We decided to do it this way so we don't have any leftovers that will get wasted and thrown away and also then we can all get what we want. :)

[Kate eating her cookie-dough blizzard]

[The family (minus Mom who was actually taking the picture, with addition Hannah (Ross' girlfriend) enjoying our desert/birthday treat]

Thanks Kate for having a birthday. I love you!

Leah

Roller Coaster of Emotion {Part 2}

Roller Coaster of Emotion {Part 2}

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Read post

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 (6 wks)

This was the first week that I had received one of these "you're 6 weeks pregnant" emails from The Bump and wasn’t expecting it and then to read that it is starting to sprout eyes, ears, etc. I immediately got teary eyed and had to call Wayne. I forwarded him the email to look at and I told him I got tears in my eyes. I said it was starting to hit me that I am growing this little person inside me. So then I went back to read all the details about the previous weeks.

It was a very pivotal and emotional moment for me and I am so happy and extremely lucky to be experiencing all this, especially with my best friend and Husband, Wayne.

Friday, July 9, 2010 (7 wks, 2 days)

Wayne's Mom had bought us a gift in celebration for our first "real" Dr's visit.  Real meaning an ultrasound hearing the heartbeat for the first time.

We are huge Twins fans, so it was so cute and thoughtful. (These will now be kept for a later date.)

There are a few other entries as from this point on. We told a few other family members such as Gramma Kleene (who was super excited to be a Great Grandma) and a few other close friends such as Wendy and Jenny Lemons aka Lemonhead (because I am a bridesmaid in her wedding on 9/4/2010 and thought she should know). We were basically counting down the days until our first OB visit.

Monday, July 19, 2010 (8 wks, 5 days)

After the excitement of telling our families and some of our close friends, we ended up finding out through an ultrasound at what was supposed to be our first OB appointment that we had a blighted ovum. Finding out this is actually quite common, eased the pain some, but it was still quite emotional because I didn't have any bleeding or cramping whatsoever. To me (and my body) I was till pregnant. My Husband was stunned and saddened and to my Dr this had been her 3rd one that week. She reassured us that there was nothing we could have done to prevent this and she truly was heartbroken about it as she knew how excited we were. 

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Instead of being 9 weeks pregnant, I was giving blood to determine if my hCG (hormone) level was going down.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

That morning we met with our Dr.  again for the second time that week and she confirmed that indeed my hormone level was going down. Not good. At that point my body still wouldn't let go, so we had to talk about options. I decided on a D&C for the following Wednesday morning. That meant more waiting.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

On what was supposed to be my 10 week mark, Wayne instead took the day off (bless his heart) and we arrived at the outpatient/surgery department of the hospital at 9:30 a.m. for my surgery that was scheduled to happen at 11:00 a.m. I was scared and nervous, but once again after talking with Dr. Emery, she assured me that everything would be fine. She also wanted to make sure that even though it was a physical process, I was doing OK emotionally. She had told me before, this is an emotional procedure, just as much as a physical procedure. I can't thank her enough for how supportive she was throughout the whole process and I can only look forward to her being my Dr in our future endeavors.

After getting pricked 4 different places by 3 different nurses for the IV and being told I had "old granny" veins it was time to go. I was wheeled in a recliner into the operating room and got onto the table. I didn't have a general anesthetic but I had a MAC anesthesia. Which meant that I wasn't completely put under, but I would still be out, and not remember anything. Which was totally true.  Once I was laying down, the nurse told me she was going to give me something that made me sleepy. From there I don't remember anything until I was back in the same chair being wheeled down the hall to recovery.

The process was no more than 30 minutes and even though I was awake afterwards I was still out of it. They went to get Wayne from the waiting room and when I saw him standing in the doorway I immediately started crying. The nurse gave us a few minutes and I finally calmed down as the two of us talked about what had just happened.

Both Wayne and I realize that things could have been a lot worse and there are so many other scenarios that would have been less desirable, but for us this has been the biggest thing to happen to us to date.

We also know that there are couples out there (some of them friends of ours) that can't even get pregnant or it took them months and months to get pregnant only to have a miscarriage and then for it to happen again a second time.

As this is our first miscarriage (and hopefully last) we are trying to look at the positive aspects in this whole thing: A) I can get pregnant. We know this much is true. There are a lot of women that don't even get this far; and B) It only took us a couple months to get there, which is another plus as hopefully that is a good sign for the future.

Another positive thing to come out of this situation that we realized is that it made our marriage even stronger than it already was. I believe that Wayne and I had a great relationship and could talk about anything and everything. We know each other inside out and he truly is my best friend. He said from the time we found out that he would support me in any decision I made as it was my body. I know I am truly blessed everyday to have such a special man in my life that is my rock and loves me unconditionally and it really put the words through thick and thin, for better or worse into new perspective.

For me now that the process is done, the thing that makes me the most sad is that we will never get those first times back. We will never have that first positive pregnancy test again. Wayne and I will never have that "Oh shit, what did we just do" moment again. We will never have the first time of telling our parents that they are going to be grandparents and the look on my sisters' faces will be different than the first time. There are so many things that will never be the same again.

But as the saying goes, "you gotta roll with the punches." That could never be more true.

Now that my surgery and 2 week recovery period is over and we are getting back to our normal routine, we still cannot start "trying" for a couple more months. More waiting.

Wayne's Aunt Dianne and I had a great conversation last week. I talked about this experience and she talked about adopting her daughters from Russia and how long it took for them. We agreed that more often than not the best things in life are truly worth waiting for. I know that this experience will contribute to us being the best parents we can be and we will be that much more grateful when it does happen to us.

Thank you to everyone for all the loving support. 

Leah