Boise!Boise!Boise!

That would be where my sis and her family lives...which includes the two cutest and bestest nephews EVER. I saw them at Christmas, but hey, it's been a few months...time for some auntie time!

Laughing at something...


It's a Carter!


Look at me Sissa! I'm going UP the slide!


Yeah, I am ridiculously cute and I can't say "Sissa" quite yet...it comes out either "Sis" or "Sissy" :)


John Michael's preschool class just finished studying space. Here he is with his teacher introducing "Sissa" :) to his classmates. I had a ball answering their questions and listening to their stories (For instance, one little girl asked "Can you have pets in space?", so I spent a few minutes talking about the animals/insects we have had in space. This was followed by at least 5 different hands being raised in the air...each to tell me about THEIR pet that they have at home :)


I was one of their "stations" in class that day. Here the kiddos are looking at space pictures.


Sorry for the rice cake smiles, but these guys needed a snack before taking me to the airport. Love these guys!

It's incredible, really....

Incredible how amazingly adaptable the brain is. Bear with me here...I'll get to the incredible part, but a little background first...

My workouts over the past two weeks have included 1.5-2 mile runs, over 500m swim workouts, a two-workouts-in-one-day morning swim/afternoon run, a brick workout (6.5 mile bike/1 mile run), and a spinning class.

Oh yeah, and I signed up for my comeback triathlon at the beginning of May, Mother's Day actually, - a super sprint distance of 200yd swim, 8 mile bike, and 2 mile run.

And I am doing a 5k next week, with the goal of running as much of it as possible.


I am feeling good. But it is a different type of good than I felt a year ago. My body has a new "good".

My back still hurts. It's usually just a small nagging ache and sometimes (rarely these days) a sharper-suck-in-your-breath-quick kind of pain.

This is where the brain is incredible...it's adjusted my pain tolerances. These days at work, I rarely am aware of my back (unless I have to stand for a long time or sit for awhile without my lumbar pillow). That's AMAZING. I could be constantly aware of my back, constantly aware of it not "feeling right"...I imagine that would make me very sad and not much fun to be around...(at first, because I've seen God's grace in my attitude the past 9 months and know that He would bring me around eventually :) ). I am SO grateful to God for designing our brains to adapt to uncomfortableness so that we can still enjoy life. I'm overwhelmed by the mercy in His design. And yes, there may be days ahead where I will have trouble remembering this mercy and be constantly aware of pain, but not today. Today I am going to marvel at the design of my God (and pray that on that day when I am hurting and having trouble remembering, that one of you will remind me of this post!):

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." Psalm 139:13-14

More than 3 months gluten free...

Crazy how fast three months goes by...

Yup, and still eating gluten free. I've decided to stick with it as much as possible. As much as possible meaning staying away from things that obviously have gluten (things with wheat flour) and not really paying attention to things with modified food starch, vinegar, "natural and artificial flavors." Although, it is hard to break the habit I started with reading food labels...I keep finding myself grabbing a product from the grocery store shelves and turning it over to read the ingredient list.

I like the gluten free diet because:

1) Some GI issues I had that I thought were related to my meds have completely disappeared
2) I've found some great new ways to eat more veggies
3) I feel better...healthier in my "insides". Weird description, I know, but hopefully it makes sense.
4) I can do it - it hasn't been a hardship for me to switch to gluten free. I thank God for the easy transition.

Do I miss bread? Every so often...but then I think, "but I feel better not eating it"...and then I don't miss it so much :)

Craigslist scores again!!!

Let me just say that I think craigslist is fantastic. To date, I have spent $745 dollars and have bought the following:

Mid-century couch - oak (it weighs like 4 bagillion pounds)
Mid-century dresser - solid wood body and dovetail joints in the drawers
Mid-century end table - teak
Oak dining set
West Elm parsons desk - not so much real wood as ORANGE :)

Isn't that awesome? That's a crazy amount of furniture for under $800...especially since I like the mid-century vintage look, which seems to be popular these days, carried at designer type stores, and WAY out of my budget (at least for the solid, real wood pieces that I prefer).

I have been searching for almost a year for a 42" round pedestal table for my breakfast nook. It has to be 42" because well, otherwise people would need to sit around it without chairs and that's just not very comfortable. And it had to be white. I looked at buying a new one, but 1) the legs were too skinny 2) the table tops were too thin and 3) all the reviews said they were more off-white than white, so I would still have to paint it.

I'd been emailing this gal for two weeks to try and pick up her table, but our schedules never aligned...and then voila! earlier this week I found a different one (thanks Lord!)...10 minutes away and for HALF the cost of the other one! And it only came with 3 chairs, which was good because I really just wanted the table...I'd already bought chairs like a year ago :)...which means less room to take up in the garage with 3 instead of 4 of them. Handy for emergency seating uses though...

So, $75 oak pedestal table + $15 of paint and some elbow grease instead of $219.00-$499 off-white table +$15 of paint and elbow grease...to use a YHL phrase, "Yes please!" :)

Here's the before...we'll see how motivated I am this weekend to sand it and paint it white...

A REAL table...I've been using a card table for the last year...I'm pretty sure my generous and gracious friend Lindsey has forgotten that it actually belongs to her and not me ;-).

Cricut 101

A year and a half ago, my friends Erin and Lisa and I waited at Walmart for 3 hours on Black Friday to score awesome deals on a Cricut machine.

Cricuts are basically personal die-cut machines- you buy software cartridges to cut out specific shapes- they are incredibly handy for scrapbooking, invitation making, decorations etc. They also have quirks/tips/inside scoops that none of us have quite figured out - what's the best way to make this design or do that? So our friend, Cassaundra, who is a Cricut/scrapbooking/card making extraordinaire, came over for a Cricut 101 lesson this morning.

Great info and a great time with these ladies- my head's already full of new ideas on how to use the Cricut for some home decorating projects... stay tuned!!!

Our "teacher", Cassaundra, Lisa, and Erin

Copycat

Apparently Pottery Barn had the same idea as me...just came across this today. Mine's better...it has 6 props... ;-)

GU is gluten free!!!!!

Random, I know, but I seriously did a happy dance in front of some coworkers when I discovered that GU is gluten free. I wasn't looking forward to making my own energy gels. Go GU!!!!