Our Married Life

I’ve been slowly stocking our freezer with home cooked meals. Albeit meals filled with carbs. Traditional Lasagna, butternut squash lasagna, and Mac n cheese. I’ll focus on more healthier options next week. It’s easier to freeze composed meals anyway. Not sure if there’s a point to freeze chicken that we can quickly grill.

Week 38 and I’m still experiencing this annoying numbness in my left thigh. The slightest touch feels really annoying. I’ve tried to stretch it out but that doesn’t help.

The contractions slowed down on Friday and Saturday but they are starting up again today. It makes me think this baby is in here for the long haul. I guess we will find out more tomorrow. We spent a good bit of time walking around the mall yesterday and I did some yoga today. I’m hoping the increase in activity will speed up this baby. I still haven’t felt the baby drop.

We finally washed some baby outfits so I can incorporate it in my hospital bag and we have the car seat base installed in both cars.

I also went out and bought the last thing on my list that I thought I needed which is the breastpump. After doing some research I decided to stick with the Medela. Hope it’s worth it…

I have two days of work left before I start my vacation and then maternity leave.

I feel like I’m about to go on a long sabbatical. My only goal for the next 3 months is to work on maintaining the last few credits I need to maintain my PMP certification. Yay for online courses.

I thought the little bit of adrenaline I got last week would last till the end. But finding that after running around and working around the house really exhausting. So glad it’s the weekend so I can take a nap during the day. Unfortunately it’s already 6 pm and I have to start on dinner at some point.

Speaking of food, I think I’ve gotten to the point where eating out is boring me. We can never decide on where to go and everything is meh. I miss experimenting in the kitchen. While I do try to cook throughout the week, most of it is quick fix meals. I went grocery shopping today so we can have homecooked meals all week. I just need to do a better job of planning the weekly menu a so that my produce doesn’t go to waste.

Tonight’s menu: Gnocchi and spinach with pesto sauce and grilled chicken.

Anyway, here’s what we spent today working on. I’m ready to be done with the nursery. Who knew hanging stuff and sticking decals on the wall could take so long. We still have to replace the ceiling fan and put the glider together.

I finished my 7 mile run on Saturday though, so I at least accomplished something. Of my training that is the biggest accomplishment. Although each run, be it 1 mile or 7 is a challenge. I struggled during the last mile, only because I was near the end of my route and had to run a second lap around a park to finish out the mileage. I was also VERY thirsty and my lips were starting to dry out. I can see now why people wear the water belts. I may need to get one of those for myself. By the time I got home, I had a hard time stretching because my entire body was so worn out. On top of my run, I had a busy day planned, so by the time I got into bed at 1am, my body was worn out. I watched TWO movies on Saturday, Blue Valentine and True Grit. We went to the late showing of True Grit, and I was sooo uncomfortable during the movie. My legs were still sore, and I just wanted to stretch out. I fell asleep within 5 minutes of the movie starting so I missed the first third of the movie. :-p

My diet was fine Saturday morning, but I blew my calories at Chuys during dinner with chips and queso and even twinkies (because it was Elvis’ birthday, we got free cake and twinkies). I think my dinner came out to be over 1300 calories which is pretty much my days worth. Thank goodness I ran. My net calories for Saturday came out to be 1306 which is below my target of 1400; however, I’m not sure that’s any good because of all the fat I consumed. In hindsight my ordering choice was fine. I ordered a cup of soup and one taco. It was the chips and queso and twinkies that did me in.

I woke up the next day feeling fine and my legs were no longer sore. Thank goodness for the short recovery!

I had no plans to do anything or go anywhere yesterday. But somehow being locked in the house because of the snow made me all grumpy.

I didn’t have much to cook with at home so I made pasta for dinner. Also, since I didn’t have anything to do, I made homemade cheese crackers with wheat and organic cheese. It was only a small batch, but it definitely met my snack cravings. Total net calories for Sunday was 1623…over my target… Before bed, I did a set of 30-40 pushups only because I felt the need to do something physical to end the day.

Let’s hope the rest of the week is better.

I have to run an 8 miler sometime this weekend. Yikes!

By the way, here’s the recipe for the cheese crackers. I substituted the white flour with whole wheat flour and added in 1 tbs of red pepper flakes.

Yesterday wasn’t too bad. I had a cereal bar for breakfast before I ran. Oatmeal and almond milk after my run. Then a Subway sandwich for lunch. Unfortunately for me, I still had my in-laws over so we went to dinner at Yao Fuzi. Soup dumplings, yum. Even though I didn’t do so well at dinner, my net calorie intake was 1108. Not too horrible I guess.

I’m looking forward to cooking tonight and may be starting the first series of P90X.

My joints finally recovered from yesterday’s run after a good night’s sleep.

Wow, sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been slow, so I had nothing to post about. My entire family is visiting us over the next two weeks so that should be interesting. I haven’t seen my brother’s family since our wedding day. We really ought to make a trip up to the northwest one of these days. It’s so beautiful up there. My sister and her family is also visiting. From the pictures I’ve seen, her girls have grown so much. Melody, the oldest is already 15, yikes!

Brian and I have been trying to get healthier. I know we talk about it all the time, but this time we’re pretty serious. He and I bought lost 12 lbs each. I’m doing the biggest loser competition at work and so far I’ve managed to get 3rd place. My coworker friend and I have been working out like crazy over the past 4 weeks. I can definitely tell my endurance is getting better since my heart rate isn’t as high when I’m doing plain cardio. I need to start mixing in more weights so that I can increase my metobolism. We’re also trying to eat cleaner and have the appropriate serving. The only challenge with eating is finding the time to cook the proper food since I don’t get home from the gym until after 7 and sometimes 8. I think once our weekends slow down, I can probably try to plan it better. I have been consuming lots of fruit since it’s in abundance. I told Brian that if I reach my ideal goal, I should get a new car. :-)

Speaking of car, my check engine light is on again. Grrr. Hopefully whatever they find tomorrow isn’t a big deal.

Leah and Reesey are doing well. Reesey spent 2 weeks with her grandparents. We went and picked her up over the weekend after visiting with Brian’s new nephew. Baby A is tiny by the way. Congrats to the new parents.
Speaking of kids, we still haven’t made plans yet, but we keep going back and forth with baby names. It seems our first choice has gotten too popular. My mom keeps pressuring me to start but we both still feel so young. Everyone should check back in a couple years to see where we are with that thought.

Work is still the same. Nothing new for either of us. I’m still very grateful that we’re both in a good position both financially and with our jobs.

In other news, we finally booked our big trip to Europe. 11 days in Rome and Paris in Sept. This is our anniversary gift to each other I suppose even though it’s a few weeks after. I’m super excited, but I guess it hasn’t sunk in yet since it’s still far out. Of course this is the first of many trips.

My next goal is either Japan or China. But I think we may have to make a trip to Cambodia and Thailand since that’s where I’m from and all.

I’ll be sure to blog our excursion while we in Europe.

Other than that, that’s all I’ve got. I’ll try to post more, and hopefully I’ll have interesting things to talk about.

I leave you with pictures of us at a Central Market cooking class enjoying a souffle we help make. I totally recommend their courses. Very entertaining and the hands on aspect is well worth it.

I’ve committed to doing 30 days of nonstop workouts using the 30 Day Shred video. The video is pretty tough and consists of 20 minutes of nonstop circuit workouts including weights and cardio. The hardest part is that there is no room for resting. Hopefully after a few days of doing this my endurance will go up. I definitely feel the impact compared to my usual cardio routine of treadmill or elliptical.

As for my other resolutions, I haven’t done a great job of those. I guess it’s more of a wish list than a resolution list ;-).

I am cooking more at home and eating in more often at work. It’s progress…

I’ve also start reading the new Malcolm Gladwell book – Outliers: The Story of Success. The first chapter was pretty interesting, but I haven’t had a chance to dive into the book since by the time I’m ready to read, I’m passed out asleep. Maybe I should commit an hour or two a week to do some quiet reading. I need some intellectual stimulation.

In other news the talk of the economy is everywhere these days. Every magazine we get has a headline of “Recession” this or that. And it seems like every day you hear an announcement about companies laying off thousands of jobs.

I have to say that we have a blessed life and we should never take our jobs for granted. I’m definitely thankful for that.

Even with our jobs being secure at this moment, we need to watch what we do and how we spend. It’s definitely not something that Brian and I have planned for. Now I’m not saying we should live like hermits, but I guess we’re going to have to rule out any big trips this year and take smaller ones, hold off on my furniture, and doing any major renovations. I think we can live without another sofa set in the house ;-)…except maybe the fence. It looks like the west side of the fence is about to fall. We’ll see what happens this spring when we get any wild storms.

I bought a bag of frozen tuna steaks from costco. I would have to say Mahi Mahi/Tuna is one of my favorite fish, namely because it’s meaty when cooked.  Salmon is just too darn fishy and I can only eat a small bit at a time.  Catfish is good, but only good fried.  Other than that, I haven’t experience much.  Fish can be pretty expensive, and you have to watch what you buy otherwise, it’s old and gross [...]

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I wanted to keep eating clean and fresh since I ate like crap yesterday. And since it was 100 degrees outside according to my car thermostat, I wanted something light. I decided on ceviche. I made ahi tuna and shrimp ceviche. It was great and even Brian liked it.

Read the full post at Delicious Accidents