Is this week over yet?

I'm so stressed. I really just need to breathe but I can't. Sunday Glen reminded me that I am playing in his concert on Thursday and I haven't even looked at the music. I also realized that my house is no where near ready for people to come stay here. Our friend Theora is coming tomorrow to stay for a couple of nights and then we are leaving for Utah on Saturday and my little sister and her family will be staying in our house. So Sunday night was spent tidying up the kitchen (after Glen's Christmas treat extravaganza on Saturday which lasted until midnight and involved making two kinds of cookies, peanut brittle, chocolate dipped candy canes and peppermint bark) and practicing the cello for the concert. One of the songs is ridiculous.

Then on Monday I continued to clean the rest of the house and do six or so loads of laundry. Glen didn't come home from work because he had to help with the elementary Christmas concerts. I met him at the school to watch the performances since my nephews were singing. Luckily my mom was able to give me a ride and help with George at the concert.

Tuesday I continued laundry and got my bedroom (the worst room of all) ready to be vacuumed. I started vacuuming and then my vacuum broke. Meanwhile, I have been trying to squeeze in as much studying as possible, which isn't a lot. Then we went to the band concerts. Glen's band was awesome! My nephew's band was pretty good, too. It was not easy to keep George under control on my own. This morning I woke up at 2 am to go to the bathroom and couldn't go back to sleep. I was too busy thinking about getting the Relief Society Christmas party ready. I have to go to the store to buy all of the food for it and it is a lot of food.

So, after laying awake for four hours, I decided I would only work a half-day today and then go to the store and buy everything so I don't have to think about it any more. Then I will deliver it all to my magnificent helpers. Tonight I am taking my final exam for Abnormal Psychology. I am not ready for it but I have to take it before we leave for Utah and this is the only free night.

Tomorrow is the dreaded concert. I guess I will be free to practice tonight after my exam since I won't need to study. Also, Theora is flying in and I will need to go pick her up. Friday should be good. My little sister will be here and I can hash out the last minute details for the activity. This activity is going to be awesome. Glen is doing a presentation on Handel's Messiah and playing the organ and Theora will be singing. She is a vocal performance graduate from SUU. Then we will have an awesome lunch. Any way, I need to go to the store!

Second Time Around

So far this pregnancy has been very similar to the first one. The only difference is I now have a small child kicking, punching and jumping on my belly from the outside instead of just the inside. I swear he knows an annoying younger brother is in there and he's trying to get rid of him. I finally got George to say "baby" instead of "mama" when he sees a baby or small child. We're making progress!
He can also say about 80% of the letters of the alphabet. He doesn't know the song but he will point out the letters in his books, on street signs, in subtitles and anywhere else he sees them. He also knows how to say numbers 2-10. He has a hard time with 1. He also points out numbers where ever he sees them. It's crazy! He's getting too big way too fast. He gives excellent hugs (or "hums" as he calls them) and kisses. He loves to be read stories before bed and he won't start eating his food until it's blessed. He tries saying the prayer on his own but it's just humming with his mouth open. That must be what I sound like when I pray...I love this little boy more every day! I won't lie. There are days I want to give him up to a nice family. Sometimes he will just scream and cry for no reason and he won't stop for 15-20 minutes and I just want to scream. I'm learning patience, that is for sure!

Little Brother

Birthday Week!

My birthday week started on Sunday. My mom made the dinner of my choice (Navajo tacos) and Glen made the dessert of my choice (New York cheesecake). My mom had also made her famous cinnamon rolls and Glen made a two-layered carrot cake for good measure. It was all delicious and it was all a lot of food to digest. My mom also gave me some gifts that day since she would be in Utah for the actual day of my birth. She got me a giant bag of Hot Tamales, a real-live wok (which we used the next day for teriyaki chicken) and a rotating waffle-maker. It was an awesome day!
On my actual birthday, yesterday, Glen made me some from scratch waffles in my new waffle-maker and I ate them with the leftover strawberry sauce from the New York cheesecake. I received lots of lovely phone calls, texts and Facebook messages. They made me feel so special! Glen got home from work around four-thirty with flowers, a card and a few gifts. I got Epic Mickey and Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii and Dumbo on blu-ray! I'm so spoiled. Then told me he had a babysitter lined up and we had reservations for 6:00pm. I had just gotten out of the shower and the nearest place with reservations was at least 30 min away. So I hurriedly got ready and we dropped George at my wonderful brother and sister-in-law's house with my amazing nephews that are George's best friends. We had a lovely dinner at PF Chang's that was only interrupted a few times with more texts and a phone call from my other brother who was mad at Glen for not answering his text about our address so my flowers from him did not get here on time. I love brothers!But the birthday celebrations are not over! Unfortunately for my family, they continue! We will be going to Buca di Beppo on Saturday. If you have never been to this restaurant, I suggest you go and at least try the gnocchi. Mmmmmm...
In my defense, I was planning on simply celebrating my birthday on Saturday at Buca's and Glen added all of the fanfare on my actual birthday. It wasn't supposed to be a three-day celebration. Thanks Honey!!

New Pictures!

We got new family pictures yesterday in preparation for Christmas cards. I can't wait to see the rest!

No More Candy!

Halloween was so fun! We had our annual Allen Family Halloween party the Monday before and ate lots of food and candy. Then the ward Trunk-or-Treat was that Friday. George picked up on it right away. He didn't like it when people would put candy in his bucket, though. He just wanted to be handed the candy and then he would put it in his bucket. We figured he didn't know it was all candy but then someone gave him non-candy and he gave it to me. No thanks, Mom!

On the day of Halloween, George's cousins and Aunt Miken came over and picked George up to go to my brother's office for their trick-or-treating. He made a killing and was a hit with the co-workers. He even stole candy from some unsuspecting little girl who only had about two candies because she had just started. He's sneaky.

That night, we went trick-or-treating in a nearby neighborhood. Our neighborhood has a lot of kids but it seemed like last year we only had a handful come by so we went somewhere else with George. The old ladies loved his hair. He would go up to the houses by himself or with the other kids and take care of business himself. No need to wait for mom and dad. Besides, he didn't want mom and dad. If he was going to hold someone's hand it was Uncle Taylor. Which seemed odd since Taylor was dressed as a zombie. But George didn't care. He knew it was just good old Uncle T.T.My tongue is now sore from all the candy. I let George have a piece or two a day. He doesn't seem to mind. Hopefully it will be gone soon...

Happy Halloween!

Slow news day

I haven't really felt the need to update the blog in a while. We went up to Utah for a week last week and that was fun. We saw as many people as we could squeeze in to a week. It's not easy trying to see everyone you love in a place you lived for half your life (or your whole life, in Glen's case). But we did get to see our family which was the best part! We spent some time with my sister Caitie and my brother Dayton and his family. We also got to have dinner in Salt Lake with Glen's sisters, minus his littlest sister, Marianne. We went to The Spaghetti Factory and I shamelessly ate every bite of my garlic mizithra, which is just like their usual mizithra with spaghetti except it had garlic, bacon and mushrooms.... I want some right now.

Glen has officially applied to grad school! I am so excited! He still has to get accepted to ASU and then apply to the actual program but I know he will get in. He is so smart and has so much potential. Most importantly, he is most happy when he is in school learning about the subjects that most interest him. The 9 to 5 just isn't for him.

I am taking a mid-term this week for my abnormal psychology course. I'm not really prepared but I'm working on it. I just want to get these courses over with. I have decided that I don't care if I get a B. Bs are just fine. This means I can stop stressing so much about getting As. I started a horrible English course two months ago and I am not even one tenth of the way through it. I gave up about a month ago. There are so many freakin' papers for this course and I am pulling my hair out trying to understand what this professor wants. I have completed two assignments but I have to turn in the first three together and I haven't even started the third because the premise of the paper is so convoluted. I wrote a paper on my opinion of what the most important aspects of rhetoric are. Then I wrote a cover letter and resume. Now I have to write a paper on how my first two papers used my theory of rhetoric that I wrote about in my first paper on rhetoric and I have to use my theory of rhetoric while I write about it. If anyone would like to write this paper, let me know.

George and I have cold this week. He got it in Utah and gave it to me when we got home. This means I have not been able to jog all week. I want to go but then I wake up at 5 am to go and my throat hurts and my head feels foggy. I keep thinking I am better and then I wake up like that and realize I really shouldn't go jogging.

Anyway, life is great! I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful.

Disneyland

We had a great time!! George rode everything he was big enough for and loved every minute! He only cried when he had to wait his turn.

18 Months!

Can you still call an 18 month-old a baby? Well, he's my baby and he's hilarious. He does and says some funny things. I needed to go to the bathroom so I paused Sesame Street and took George with me. When we got back I couldn't find the remote so I said, "George, where is the remote?" He said, "Mo?" and started giggling. Then he pulled it out from behind my laptop where it was about a foot away from me and held it up and said, "Der it dis!" Like, "Mom, you are so dumb..." He takes after his momma in that department.
Tomorrow we will ride off into the sunset on our way to Disneyland. I watched a documentary on the park with George so he could see some of the rides and maybe recognize them when we get there. I also had him watch Nightmare Before Christmas to get ready for the Haunted Mansion. He put his hands over his ears when it first started and then he loved it! I really hope he likes to ride the rides and doesn't just cry the whole time...
I love this boy more than I thought I ever could. He's my best friend (after Glen, of course)!

Holy Crap, It's Happening!

My mom is going to Anaheim tomorrow for a convention and she will be in Disneyland in Thursday. This made me extremely jealous and I tried to work it out so that George and I could go with but it just didn't work. So then I got to work thinking about how I could get to Disneyland before the end of the year. Glen and I were going to go in October for Fall break but we decided to save money and go to Utah instead. Well, I really want to go to Disneyland. My little sister is coming to town next week and I thought, "Caitie loves Disneyland, maybe she will drive over with me while she is here." So, I ran this by my mom and she said, "I will go, too!" Well, I asked my boss if I could take a couple of days off in about two weeks and he said that was fine (usually it has to be approved a month in advance). I booked a hotel yesterday and just bought tickets online. Now we have to go. I am so frackin' excited! We are taking George and my six month-old niece Jeri so it will be low-key and I am totally okay with that. I just want to be in the atmosphere of the happiest place on earth!
Glen is not going because he refuses to take a day off. But now that mom is going, he wouldn't have fit in the car anyway. So, it's a girls' and babies' trip. Woot!

It will be Halloween time again!! But I hope to not be that chubby (granted I was pregnant but I just look chubby).

I'm Starving

Not eating that long list of foods is proving very difficult. One week after cutting those items out of my diet and I am still getting hives daily. A few more days of this and I am going to go insane. Do you know how hard it is to find foods without any of these ingredients? I refuse to go to a health food store and spend millions when I don't even know what is causing the hives. So, for now, I eat salad with special dressing, rice, meat, cheese, fruits and vegetables. Other than rice chex (no rice crispies, they have soy or something I can't remember) and fruits and veggies, there is nothing I can just snack on. I can't go down and make popcorn or grab a handful of pretzels. No fruit snacks or candy. And lets be honest, how often do you eat a banana and realize you are now more hungry than before? So, for my daily snacks I usually have to make a meal and just not eat a lot of it. I eat salad or cheese or a Greek yogurt. I have two boxes of Hot Tamales staring me in the face each day from their location on top of the tv. Oh, how I want to eat them. But I am not having any problems keeping the lost weight off, since I can't eat anything.
Last night we had a RS meeting I was in charge of and we had chicken salad sandwiches on croissants. I really wanted one. Even just a spoonful of chicken salad would have been enough. But that darn mayonnaise in the salad ruined everything. Anyway, I am not usually a negative person but you know how people on a strict diet are usually moody? Well, take that times ten. Being on a forced strict diet is the worst thing ever. Anyway, that is enough negativity for one post. As soon as I realize this isn't worth it, I will be eating everything in sight. Starting with sweet pork nachos with tomatillo ranch dressing from Costa Vida.

Hives Update

I am still getting hives. I had my blood tested for food allergies as well as other things. The good news is I do not have blood cancer and my liver is functioning properly so those are not the causes of the hives. The results for the food allergy test were interesting. I am not allergic to milk. The one thing I thought it was and had started changing my lifestyle for. They rate them on a scale from 1-3 which comes from how much of a reaction there was. Here they are in order of severity from least to most:
And the most severe reaction of them all came from:



So, I'm going to go eat my rice with nothing on it for lunch. What is everyone else having?

But seriously folks, the doctor suggested I stop eating all of these foods for two weeks and then start reintroducing them one by one to see which one is causing the hives. I am able to manage the hives with an antihistamine but she said the reaction could develop into anaphylactic shock and so on. That's alright, I hate french fries and ketchup. And I can't stand strawberries! Ick! Ugh. My life will never be the same without most of these foods. Hopefully it turns out to be one of them and that one is oats or something. Although, I love me some oatmeal cookies. The only one I wouldn't care about is shrimp but I know it's not that because I don't eat it. Are there any on this list you could not live without?

Compellation

I'm not sure that is a word but it's not underlined in Word so I'm going with it. It refers to the fact that I feel compelled to write something on the blog today but I don't know what about.
Glen started school a few weeks ago and things are going much more smoothly this year than last. He likes the new assistant principle and he is not as strained as last year. The administration is requiring all teachers to have a prep and a normal lunch time. He had neither for the first two weeks of this year.
My schedule at work was changed so I can't work half-days on Friday anymore. I am mostly okay with this as it will make it so that Monday is not so crazy. George is becoming increasingly difficult to have around while I am trying to work. He likes to climb on me and brush my hair and yell really loud. This doesn't work when I have someone on the phone. Luckily, every once in a while, Grandma comes to save the day. Yesterday she picked him up at noon and didn't bring him back until five. It was glorious. I even took a nap. I should have been cleaning the house but the couch was calling my name.George is growing. He is huge and so smart. He says all sorts of fun words like "papa (grandpa)" "mama (the obvious but also grandma)" "ball" "bumbob (spongebob)" "memo (elmo)" "cow" "wa-is-at (what is that)" "dow (very nasily 'no')" "teetee (Uncle Taylor)" "day (cousin Dade)" "tay-a (cousin Tayen)" "peepee" "bubu (bubbles)" "dita (diaper)" "cah (car)" and others. They are starting to actually sound like different words instead of just the same word with different emphasis.He likes to brush his own teeth. I brush them first and then hand over the toothbrush. He actually does really well reaching all of his teeth and he does not give it back very easily. He likes to say prayers and will fold his arms when we ask him to or when we say "amen" or when he sees someone else with their arms folded. He loves to color and eat crayons. We are a month from nursery! He has been before, as I have mentioned, and he loves it!He eats his vegetables first on his plate. He loves broccoli, cucumber and carrots the best.
Hope everyone is doing well out there!

At the Mall

In Arizona, you really have to search for free activities outside of the home during the summer months. On Saturday, we decided to head to the mall. Free air conditioning, a pet store and a play place could only be improved upon with a free sample from See's Candy.This dog was very concerned because there was a Yorkie running around in the back behind all of the cages.

The day is best summed up in George's words: "Weee, weee, weee!"

Hiatus

I have taken a break from losing weight. Well, my body has. I am still trying to lose weight but it's just not happening anymore. So I will stick with maintenance for now. I get up every weekday morning (I try to anyway.. sometimes not even my alarm can wake me up) and go jogging/walking. Then I usually have a healthy breakfast, snack and lunch. But then Glen comes home and makes a delicious dinner that is not always the best for me. I think that is my weakness and the reason I am not progressing. But I'm not gaining and I feel good so I'm okay with all of that. Forty-eight pounds is a lot to lose and a lot to ask of my body. It needs a break!

I leave you with a video of my baby doing my job:

Happy Birthday!

Today is Glen's birthday! He is now as old as me. But not for long! He spent the better part of the day in training in Maricopa. If you know anything about Arizona, you know that Maricopa is in the middle of no where. It is over an hour from our house. So he left here at 6:30 am and got home around 5:00 pm. Then we dropped the rotten off at Grandma's and went out to dinner. My family came over after and we had cake and ice cream. He requested "Better than Church Cake". This is more commonly known as "Better than Sex Cake" but Glen's a prude; at least in public.

Glen is a wonderful husband and adoring father. I watch Glen with George and I see everything I should be as a mom. They are best friends! When Glen left for work this morning, George would not let him put him down. He would just start screaming every time. But, he left anyway, with me holding a screaming baby. Luckily, George fell asleep shortly thereafter and slept for three hours. Then when Glen got home, George ran to his daddy and anytime I even looked at him, he got mad and waved me away. He is his daddy's boy.

He works really hard at his job, delaying his dream of a Master's and Doctorate while I finish my Bachelor's. He is the reason I am finishing it. I kept saying I didn't really need it and he kept saying I did. He knows how important it is to me even when I don't.

Thanks for everything honey! I love you! Happy Birthday!

Pictures!

Upstairs guest bathroom. This bathroom had THREE towel racks. Really?! So we took them all down, spackled and painted and then put one new one up. It was a beige color and we painted it the same green as the downstairs half-bath.


Downstairs Living Room. This room was four different colors... Not sure what the thought process was there. We went for two colors: one main color and an accent color in the kitchen that extended into this room.

Update Your Blog Day!

I declared it "update your blog" day so I guess I had better join in the festivities! We have been making several home improvements. I am finally satisfied with our living room and took pictures but I need my mom's magic cord to download them (I have learned I need only mention it on the blog and it appears at my house within 24 hours. Let's watch!). We had the entire downstairs (minus the front room/salon/parlor/piano room {that's all one room, I'm just not sure what to call it}) painted recently. We did the bathroom ourselves and have already posted pictures here but we hired our home teacher to do the kitchen/dining room/living room/entry/stairs area. The kitchen is not quite ready for its debut on the blog because we still need a curtain for the window over the sink, but when we get one, I will be sure to take a picture and then post it several days later after getting the cord from my mom. Oh, we have also redone the guest bathroom. We did it around the same time we did the half-bath downstairs we just didn't post pictures. Maybe I will just take pictures with my phone and post them later today....
We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II last night/this morning! It was awesome! We had readmit tickets from a previous purchase and we were told we could use them for any movie. Therefore, we paid the price of a regular ticket but were able to see Harry Potter in IMAX 3-D. It was fabulous! We got in line around 9:30 and waited until 12:05 for the movie to start. My sweet mother stayed the night at our house so that we could go. Isn't she awesome? While the movie was not inline with the book completely, I feel David Yates does a great job of making sure the most important aspects are still present.
Next time you see George, ask him what a chicken says. You are sure to smile!
PS. I thought I had already mentioned this but I guess not: I am now in the Relief Society Presidency. I never knew how much work goes into such a calling...

15 months!

Watching Elmo

My baby boy is now 15 months old. We went in for his 15-month check-up on Friday last week. He weighs 25 lbs and is 32 inches. He has grown 2 inches in three months. He is around the 50 percentile for weight and 70th for height and of course he is somewhere in the 80th percentile for head size. It doesn't help that both his mom and dad have giant noggins. He can kind of say a few words. He can identify several animals and he says, "chi-chi" for chicken and "dawdy" for doggy (sounds a lot like how he says daddy) or he'll just say, "woof woof". He says, "ooooo" for cows. He talks in his own language non-stop. He points to his various body parts on command. I think his favorite is to find his ear 'cause he can really grab on. He has decided to sleep more at night and only take one long nap during the day which is working well. He LOVES Sesame Street. He especially loves Elmo. He is an obstinate little stink and throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way. He also frequently employs a rather dramatic but quite silly psuedo-cry. It's pretty funny. But he is also a sweetheart that loves to give hugs and kisses and will walk in circles around the room with his lips puckered saying, "mmmmmmm" until everyone in the room has received a few kisses each. We love our little boy!

Die Hard

They are back this morning, with a vengeance. And, yes, I am aware that if my body were like it was a few years ago, there would be a boob in the picture.

Utah

Okay, so overall, Utah was awesome! The weather was absolutely perfect. It even rained a couple of times which was a nice change from home. We were able to visit our families and friends that we never get to see. George was able to play with his cousins on both sides and spend time with his Grandpa Wayne. His most favorite part was playing on the riding lawn mower. I have a lot of pictures but they are all in that black hole of a camera that I have. I will take it over to my mom's one day and download them. We went to Lagoon with Glen's little sister Marianne. It was the most awesome! George rode a couple of rides by himself but did better on rides we could be on together. On the haunted houses, he would bury his face in my side and whimper. I thought he was too young to even realize what was going on but he was definitely scared. It was kind of cute. About a week into the trip, I starting getting ichy,red bumps on my body. I thought it was just a bad reaction to some mosquito bites. I went to the doctor and was told it was an allergic reaction to something but not bites. Then I realized it was hives. I have no idea why. I had to take steroids and I am still on them to keep the hives away (I thought they would go away as soon as I got home but according to my mom, whatever it is will probably be in my system for a week). Oh well.
So remember this post? Well, I started the Bachelor of General Studies program in October of last year. It took some time getting through the first course because of some confusion with the final exam since I originally enrolled at BYU under Chelsea Allen and they still had me with that name... Anyway, I am currently working on my psychology of gender course. It is course number five of eleven. It's interesting trying to squeeze my courses into the rest of my life. Also, making sure we have the money for it. That part is probably the hardest. For this reason, I took a couple of months off. But I have started again. Just today in fact. Here's hoping I finish before George starts preschool!

Hives

That about sums up what I have been dealing with since I pulled into Utah 12 days ago. Sure, I've been having a great time. We've been to Park City and Lagoon and spent time with old friends and family. But I can't stop thinking about the hives all over me. More details will come after we get home next week.

Mexico!

So, I did it! I lost 46 pounds as of the day before we left. However, I gained a little weight while we were out... Not surprising by any means but we did still jog 4 out of 5 days and I didn't eat a lot of crap because I was not feeling well for three of the days. I thought for several hours I was pregnant because that is what the nausea I had felt like. But I took a pregnancy test and it was negative and as soon as I crossed the border back into the states I was feeling just fine. I have never had stomach issues in Mexico. I have a stomach of steel. But not this year...

The trip was a huge success! George absolutely loved the beach. He sat in the sand and played with shovels and buckets and he even braved the surf. When we went fishing and snorkeling, he wanted to get in the ocean with me so I let him. We had a wonderful time with family and can't wait for the next year! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

I hesitate to post this last one... but it's for posterity, right? Every kid is looking for a bikini shot of her great-grandma, right?