Still alive...

I don't have my camera cord, so, sorry, no pictures yet. We're beginning week #2 here in West Virginia with Jon's family. Christmas was a blast--not only did we get to meet baby Megan for the first time, but Mary ended up HAVING her baby on Christmas day. Hopefully we'll get to meet Rebekah sometime this summer.

Sorry for the lack of posts. Immediately after my last post I came down with a beastly cold and Jonny got the stomach virus I had just gotten over. Then he caught my cold, and I got pink eye (from where? no idea). Luckily Seth still hasn't gotten any of these lovely diseases--unless inability to sleep is a disease. Let's just say we see our lovely son an average of 5 times a night between the hours of 12am and 6am. Vacation has not been good to him (or us). But when he gets home, he is so busted. He's officially moving into his crib, and is quite possibly losing his pacifier (since he apparently can't put himself to sleep without it). Yes, I know this doesn't sound fun for anyone involved. But the kid is almost 6 months old, dang it! If his 2 month old cousin can sleep through the night, so can he! Grrr...

Lots of pictures coming soon.

Worst Diet Ever

This is (obviously) me & Jon on our wedding day. At this point in my life I weighed a whopping 103 pounds. I contribute this to two factors:

1--the college lifestyle, which includes not eating enough and then walking 3-5 miles every day to classes and work.
2--an appetite which completely disappears under stress, particularly during finals week.

Luckily, Jon & I both gained 20 pounds within two months of getting married so no one could accuse us of being anorexic anymore (Jon was a skinny guy himself). I felt pretty comfortable with my weight, although a 5 month stint as a cake decorator in a local bakery added a few extra pounds I didn't appreciate. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I never, ever wanted to be that skinny again. It's just not an entirely healthy state for a girl of my height.

So guess how much I weighed when I stepped on the scale yesterday? 103 pounds. I contribute this to two factors:

1--having a baby. Sounds counter intuitive, considering I gained 25 pounds while pregnant, but it's the post-delivery stage that's really gotten to me. As in the "nursing burns around 500 calories a day" stage. Combine that with the fact that I suddenly have a lot less time to prepare and eat meals, and ta-da! I'm back to being unhealthily skinny.
2--getting the flu. There's no better way to lose 7 pounds in 2 days than to not keep anything down (I'll spare you the details). I have never felt so rotten in my life.

So I guess I'm asking for advice. What do you eat that's substantial, healthy, and yummy when you don't really have time to eat? I'm getting pretty desperate--I can't even wear my skinny jeans without a belt now. There's a big difference between slim and wraith-like skinny (for lack of a better adjective).

Yes, I am feeling much better. Thank you, Jon, for staying home with me for two days. I have NO idea what I would have done without you. And, in case anyone is wondering, being sick while nursing is just rotten. Doesn't matter how awful you feel--your little monster still wants to eat every 3 hours. However, in what is nothing short of a miracle, Seth slept from 9 to 5:30 one night. Absolutely amazing. Now we're just praying that neither Jon nor Seth picks up the germ. And may the flu skip over all your homes, as well!

Jingle Bell Seth

Home for the Holidays (or, at least one of them)

We were blessed to be able to go home to see my family in Arizona for Thanksgiving this year. I've never enjoyed the plane flight across the entire country, but I was especially nervous to fly with Seth. We had a three hour flight from Baltimore to Houston, then another 3 hours from Houston to Phoenix. Luckily, I worried in vain--he was great. He fussed a little as he was falling asleep, but I didn't get a single dirty look (at least not that I saw, anyway). A few notes about flying:
1). Having kids may be worth it, solely because of preboarding
2). I have more faith in the goodness of people, especially those who swapped so I could have a window seat (for Seth-feeding purposes)
3). Mamma Mia! (our in-flight movie) could quite possibly be the worst movie I've ever seen

It was SO nice to be home. I especially appreciated having several other people who were more than willing to haul my little 18 pound chubster around. With grandparents, great-grandparents, three aunts, a great aunt, and an adopted uncle around, Seth practically never got put down. Oh, except when his father was ignoring him during Halo-fest (which was all day, every day at our house).

Seth even got to go visit my little sister Bethany at middle school. Technically Jon, Kenna, Marah, Seth & I went to visit, but Beth and friends only wanted to see Seth. It was a little unnerving, actually--I never anticipated bringing my own child to the middle school I attended. Beth, you'd better never doubt how much I love you. I don't think there's anyone else on the planet who could have gotten me to "Twilight." Luckily for me, it wasn't nearly as cheesy as I expected. Seth seemed to enjoy it--during the romantic final scene he stood at attention and held his own hand while staring at the screen.

We celebrated my Dad's birthday early and my Grandma's birthday late while we were all there together. We were especially excited for Dad's present--we all donated money toward a new camera. His really nice one got stolen out of his luggage at the Newark airport (along with his GPS and possibly something else that I'm forgetting). It's actually kind of a selfish gift--we buy him a camera and then make him take wedding pictures, family pictures, etc.

Awesome me didn't get any pictures of Seth's first Thanksgiving (Mom?). Everything was delicious. I'm actually kind of mad that we weren't there longer to eat leftovers. That banana cream pie was calling my name. I've decided half the fun of Thanksgiving is the insanity in the kitchen while the meal is being prepared--especially when your oven quits working the day before, right, Dad?

After Thanksgiving we had an early Christmas gift exchange. I loved watching my dad with Seth while he "opened" his gifts. Seth was so good--he didn't fuss at all even though it was really late in Seth time. I was glad we were able to open a few gifts with everyone there. It's hard to be away from home at Christmas, even though I love being with Jon's family, too. I also finally managed to finish Lori's gift from LAST YEAR. I'm so good. It turned out better than I anticipated, and she really liked it (she spent a semester in Israel when she was at BYU, thus the picture).

The morning before we left my Dad wanted to take Seth to pick out our Christmas tree (I need those pictures, Kenna Menna). Seth was tons of help--he was actually out cold when we picked out the tree, but woke up soon after to approve of our decision. Sadly, we had to leave before we could decorate it.

It's never been so hard to leave my family before. I felt like I was taking Seth away from them. I don't know if we'll see them again until he's practically walking and that breaks my heart. I really feel strongly that families aren't meant to be so far away from each other. At least Jon's family is fairly close, so we're not totally alone out here. I'm dedicating a chunk of my piano money to plane tickets so we can come visit before next Christmas.

Seth also survived the flight home, although his schedule is still slightly whacked since he wouldn't go to bed until 1 am. And guess what greeted us when we got back to Baltimore? Yep, someone smashed in our car window. We parked the car at a train station (saves us $50 or so in parking) and apparently some kids thought it would be fun to smash our window and those of three other cars. They didn't steal anything--possibly because there was nothing worth stealing. It cost $195 to fix, so Jon figures we're only $50 in the hole after the money we've saved by parking there twice. The drive home at midnight was especially nice with a broken window--it was a cool 30 degrees outside. Luckily Jon found one glove in the car, which just happened to be a left-handed glove. So we drove home with sweaters on and blasting the heat. Welcome home!

So now we're looking forward to heading to West Virginia in a couple of weeks! Yay for Christmas!

winter

If you're interested...

I've started a new blog to simplify my recipe sharing. The website is www.feedmyjonny.blogspot.com (there's a link on the sidebar under "Our Other Blog"). There's not much up yet--we're adding pictures and recipes as we eat dinner every night. Eventually I'll put up my 6 week dinner menu that some people have been asking about (yes, I am that O.C.--I HATE figuring out what to eat). And yes, I pretty much just mooched off of other people for the recipes (that means you, Kellie). Enjoy!