I miss you two!

This picture was taken last week when I had two healthy kids. Oh, those were the days! Ainsley is healthy enough now, but her final molar popped through so she has been irritable today(me too). Oh, and we haven't left the house since we went to church on Sunday, so the kids are stir crazy!!! Couple that with a starving kid who doesn't want to swallow anything and we are just peachy. Enough sarcasm. Aubrey's fever broke during her nap so I am hoping to at least take the kids somewhere for a little bit tomorrow. Hopefully, someplace without other people so I don't have to feel guilty about possibly infecting anyone with a nasty fever and sore throat. Oh, and the TV has been on non-stop and it is getting to me. I'm cranky, there is no getting around it!

Not another one!

Here's a picture of Aubrey with a 104 degree temperature. That's what the thermometer read under her arm, so it may have been as high as 105. The doctor said her throat is very raw, the quick strep came back negative. but they are growing the other culture to see if it is strep. My household is disease filled this week! I'm tired!

I got me some gingivitis!

I know what you are thinking. I cannot believe Rachel just outed herself on the Internet? Why would she admit she has poor dental hygiene to all five of us reading this? She has no filter! Doesn't she know people don't talk about gum disease?

Well maybe we should! Did you know that 4 out of 5 adults over the age of 35 have some form of gum disease? That means YOU! That's right, you are going to have it too someday. Yeah, I outed four fifths of my readers at once. What are you going to do about it? No seriously, it's not that big of a deal, and treatable/reversible. You see, I brush twice a day, I use mouth wash most nights of the week, and I floss 1-2 times a month. Yup that's what did me in! Well the lack of flossing and the 3 years since I last got my teeth cleaned. I'm lazy and never found a dentist once we moved to Colorado. When we got dental insurance at the first on the year I said to myself, "I should schedule a cleaning." Then I pictured the dentist reaction when he saw my chart and promptly had a bowl of ice cream or some other sugar filled treat.

So why now? What gave me the courage to fess up to a dentist that I have neglected preventative care for three long years. PAIN! Holy cow! On Saturday, I noticed that my mouth was hurting. It wasn't localized and I thought it might have been from holding my jaw some weird way during the cycling class. It still hurt Sunday and I had a tingling sensation in my lip. I thought was getting a cold sore and took some Lysine. Then Monday rolled around and I could barely remember my name because my mouth hurt so badly. I noticed my gums were inflamed, so I flossed, brushed, used mouth wash, teething gel, and IBProfin. Nothing. I was in agony. So I called a dentist today and told them I needed an emergency appointment. I went in at 2:00 (loving hubby came home and worked from here so I could go, I got back before the kids woke up too). The Dentist was very forgiving to me. he didn't condemn me or anything. He just suggested that after we get this under control I might want to consider coming in every couple of years for a cleaning. Don't worry Dr. Bolten, I will see you twice a year!!! So he scrapped some tarter off the back of my front teeth, assured me that was causing the inflammation (hence the gingivitis diagnosis) and scheduled a full cleaning in a couple of weeks. I also got me some fancy pants mouth wash with an antibiotic to sooth my gums. Ahhh, better! Oh and it is generic and only $4!!!

So why am I fessing up to all this on my blog? To help all of you of course. I didn't purposely neglect my teeth, but I didn't actively advocate for them either. So if you haven't see a dentist in a while, do! It's a lot easier, and cheaper, to prevent gum disease than it is to treat it! Luckily for me, it isn't advanced so I can just change some habits and get fast results. At least that's what I am hoping! Happy brushing!

treating a fever

This picture was taken a year ago! I can hardly believe it!

So Ainsley has 102 temperature. Mike noticed she was warm when he got home from church yesterday but I dismissed it since she had just woken up from a two hour nap in an 80 plus degree room. She was ready for a nap an hour and a half later. That seemed silly, but if the girl wanted to sleep, I was all for it. She woke up from that 2 and a half hour nap cranky and on fire. Mike took her temperature and we were shocked to see it so high. She was ready for bed 2 hours later. We ended up giving her Tylenol twice in the night and she is in good spirits this morning, but still very hot. I know it is good for kids to have a fever to burn off whatever is attacking them, but it is tough to have a kid who feels like they have been hanging out in a volcano! So what do you guys do to treat a fever? Do you just let them burn up, or are you a vigilant medicine distributor? Do you prefer Motrin to Tylenol? I'm just wondering what other parents do. Right now I am just on the lookout for ear pulling or anything else that would send me to the doctor's office.

My First Full Week

I did it!!! I made it to the gym 5 out of the past 6 days and moved my butt for a minimum of 30 minutes each time. In total I was involved with a cardio workout for 4 hours. It doesn't sound like much, but it is 4 more hours then any other week in the last few months and I pushed it the whole time. I had to play around with my week a bit to compensate for overworked areas and it went well. I am actually looking forward to Monday's workout!!!

I did try a cycling class this morning at 7:15. All four of us got a great workout. It's pretty funny when you are one of four and by this point the teacher says, "It's Rachel, right? How did you like the Body Pump class on Wednesday?" In 7 whole visits, I have become a regular!!! Cycling wasn't as bad as I imagined it, my foot did slip off the petal once (which was hard to fix as my right leg didn't know how to stop) and I was too afraid to stretch while pedaling so I kept holding on with one hand. I managed to keep my legs going for the full hour, but I did have to take to take it easy on some of the interval work. Oh, and those seats are awful!!! The instructor said it takes about 6 visits before you are used to the bike seat.

All in all, it was a great week. I don't think I lost any weight, but I can already notice a difference in my mid-section, which is why I am going, so yea! I also had 7 Oreo cookies this week and 4 glasses of wine, but I don't think that is enough to sabotage weight loss.

this and that

my crazy climbing kiddo

each day starts with some princess fun

Ainsley is a monkey. Her fearless attitude scares me to death!

Ainsley has had three molars pop through in the last few weeks.

Our house has been about 82 degrees inside the last few days. We finally had some rain yesterday and after it passed I opened up. It cooled off 8 degrees in 10 minutes. It was awesome!

Aubrey has some GI infection and has nasty bowel movements currently. She has decided she would rather go in her diaper in the morning instead of on the potty. Clean up is a mess! Get it?
I'm going to wake her up at 6am tomorrow and have her sit on the potty. She has been waking me up at 6:15 each morning to change her diaper, I plan on beating her to the punch!

Ainsley will repeat anything. Yesterday it was "pizza, stinky, pew, and yucky!"

Aubrey is starting to speak in paragraphs!!! I am so excited for her. She will also repeat anything. Yesterday's top picks were "crescendo, hippopotamus, and zucchini."

Mike has been a rock start with me working out. It means he has to do a lot of bedtimes solo, and he isn't even complaining a little bit.

I try to be respectful and give him options. So tonight I am going when he gets back from worship practice after the kiddos are tucked in. 8pm wouldn't be my first choice, but I didn't want to saddle him with the morning on his own after be did bedtime last night.

Breaking Dawn, the last book in the Twilight Saga, comes out in 8 days. I am so excited!!!

It's hard to believe that in a few short months we will wake up one morning and it will be nearly 100 degrees cooler than it will be today!

So far...

Monday I took a kick boxing class that lasted 1 hour 15 minutes. We did 57 straight minutes of cardio. It was really fun and the teacher was great. Today I used the treadmill for 30 minutes and ran 1-2 minutes of every 5 minutes. It wasn't as fun, but I burned 200 calories and watched Celebrity Family Feud, so whatever, it was exercise. Tomorrow I will be rising with the sun so I can get back before Mike goes to work. I may just start sleeping there, I am loving the air conditioning!

Breaking out of our shell

Mike and I are NOT spontaneous. Not at all really. We are truly structured people and need to process something before making a decision about how to proceed. Last night was a total exception to this rule. Our sister-in-law is involved with a non-profit that raises funds for children with HIV in Ethiopia. She is spending the weekend at the Mile High Music Festival raising awareness and hopefully getting some new sponsors. After all, if people can pay $150 for admission and $11 for each beer they drink, they probably have an extra $30 a month to support a child. That wasn't meant to be judgemental, I promise! Mike and I have just been doing a lot of searching to see where we fit into all this. We have different passions, are friends and family are passionate about a lot of good causes too, so where do we fit in? Do we sit back and support nothing because there are too many things we would like to support? Do we put all our eggs in one basket or spread the love? I digress! Anyway, Kevin called us last night to see if we wanted to head down to the festival. Brianna had a few extra passes and Tom Petty was playing.

So it's 6pm, Mike is barbecuing in the rain, and we have two kids with a 7:30 bedtime. Mike shocked me and said, "Let's do it!" So I got on the phone and got a babysitter for 7pm. It was nearly 6:30 by this point! I ran upstairs and started making Aubrey's bedtime routine easier to follow, grabbed jammies for Ainsley, threw on some cleanish clothes, threw on some make-up and sprinted down the stairs. Mike cleaned up dinner and ran up stairs and changed . Our sitter showed up, we put Ainsley down for bed and we were out of here!

the evidence

We got to the concert, met up with the fam, and headed over for some great music, with amazing guitar work (which I totally appreciate now that my hubby is playing electric guitar about ten hours a week), with 30,000 of our closest friends! It was great, and we were so proud of ourselves for braving the chaos and being spontaneous. Thanks for thinking of us you guys!

Update

I woke up this morning and EVERYTHING is sore. I didn't even carry Ainsley downstairs. I just set her down outside of her crib and took her hand! The only part of me that is not aching are my forearms! They are sore too, just not throbbing! Now that is some fat burning exercise!!!

My butt is so sore right now!

Way back in January I decided to tackle that pesky baby weight and reclaim my figure. I did okay for about a month and a half and then I kinda gave up. You see, I had lost all the baby weight and was just left with MY weight. You know the ten pounds that never should have been there in the first place. Those ten pounds are more stubborn then the on again off again weight of pregnancy. So it got hard, and I stopped trying. The good news, I didn't gain anything back and maintained just fine! June was a hard month with Birthday celebrations, vacation, and family in town. I DID gain back a few pounds. So here we go again, more than half way through July, determined to bring sexy back! It feels really funny to type the word "sexy" it just isn't a word I would use to describe myself, EVER. So how about being determined to bring pre-marriage body back but with a few stretch marks (okay a lot of stretch marks) and probably a nice flap of extra belly. Seriously, where is the extra SKIN supposed to go?

The plan... this is always the hard part. I don't WANT to eat less, or more healthy for that matter. I don't WANT to exercise regularly either, at least not in the capacity that is needed to burn body fat. I want to sit on the couch eating something sweet and delicious while my kids are napping, not carrot sticks! So I tried the whole, "if I wake up early enough, I'll go for a jog before my kids are up." idea. Nope. So out of desperation, I went to the local rec center last night and bought a three month pass. I stayed and used the elliptical for twenty minutes. I got off and was heading for the treadmill but noticed I was pretty dizzy. I walked the track for a few minutes and headed for the car. I didn't want to end up in the ER or anything! This morning I went back at 7:15 to take a class.

Holy cow, it was called "Core Strength" and focused on all of the areas I hate. It sounded perfect for my needs. So this class was like palates on crack! It was crazy hard. I mean seriously people, I cannot do a plank for several minutes, let alone a plank while balancing my hands on a medicine ball and doing leg lifts for three minutes! About halfway through my body was not only looking like Jello, but feeling like Jello too. The instructor wanted us to get in a plank position, AGAIN, and put glider disks under our feet (like being on ice) and take turns swinging each leg out into a center splits position and back. Then we did obliques from the same position and who knows what else. I literally could not hold my body up any longer and dropped into a cat stretch. The instructor came over to see why I stopped. Um, I can't do it! She tried to encourage me and I told her, "Hey, I cannot do it. My arms are giving out and I can't stay up. She then asked me why my arms were so sore. Fighting back tears, I told her that I am not in good enough shape for this class and it is killing me. I explained that I've had two kids in the past 3 years and I don't have core abdominal strength anymore which is why I came to the class. She then had me flip over to my back and do an easier exercise. It was kinda humiliating. The other nine women were doing just fine. I'm not a big fan of being bad at things. I knew this class would be difficult, but I never thought I wouldn't be able to do it.

So I am going to go back next week, but I am going to tell the instructor at the beginning that I am new to this type of exercise and ask if she can give me modified moves here and there. I would rather do something easier, than not going back at all. So here I sit, totally humbled, and a little mortified, but determined. I've paid for a 90 day membership and I am going to be faithful to that. I am going to sweat and burn and possibly cry in the car on the way home, but I am going to lose this stupid weight, even if I look ridiculous doing it.

AJ & AG

Some things that came out of Aubrey's mouth today...
"Mommy, I am very upset with you right now."
(pointing at me) "My mommy. Rachel Lynn Heldt is my mommy."
"Daddy working, I can't see him."
"You buy me this present for going store with you!" (a toothbrush, which I was buying anyway. I assured her she was getting a toothbrush because they need to be replaced once and awhile, not for going to Target with me). I guess we don't need to be too concerned with her speech delay anymore. It sounds like she is doing just fine to me!

Ainsley is having a hard day. She clung to me like none other while I was putting her down for her morning nap. She has some strong leg muscles! At Target, she fought, fought, fought to stay out of the cart and in my arms. I had to pry her off me, force her into the cart and strap her in very tightly. She still managed to wriggle out of the strap and stand up in the cart. I carried her through much of the store and then decided to have her walk and hold my hand. When I tried to hold her hand she sat (fell) to the ground so I couldn't hold her hand. She did hold Aubrey's hand though so we made it to the checkout after some time. She fought pretty hard about getting in her crib this afternoon too. I'm trying to give her some extra love today, but it still doesn't seem to be enough. Hopefully she will wake up with a happier disposition.

All Together

The last time all of Mike's immediate family was together was 5 babies ago in December of 2004! That's crazy! Mike's parents and sister were out for the last half of June. They spent some time in Denver with Kevin and Brianna and kids, then it was off to the Springs to spend a few days with a dear friend of theirs from High School, and then they were finishing off their trip here in beautiful Castle Rock. We were able to get together for a family celebration on the Saturday of their visit. Jerry recently turned 60 so it was a nice excuse to get the gang together.

The CA wildfires made getting home nearly impossible for Mike's family so they stayed an extra week hoping things would change in Northern California. This allowed another weekend of fun and we were lucky enough to have Mike's cousin's from San Diego in town and hung out with them too. It was so great to see so much family at one time. Hopefully we can have many big family events in the years to come.

My Sweet Girls

Before Aubrey was born I was clear that I didn't want clothes screened with words like "princess" and "angel." It wasn't that I didn't want Aubrey to be those things, I just didn't want them displayed on her clothing. Now that she is older I tend to shy away from Dora and Sesame Street clothing. We reserve cartoon characters for pj's and possibly an accessory here and there. Last Christmas my mom got Aubrey a princess dress up kit. Well, dress up is it's own category and completely mom approved. Aubrey has four little princess outfits and she loves wearing them around the house. Ainsley hates being left out, so she brings me clothes too. So here are the little princess' of our home.

One of the best parts of vacation was...

Discovering a new series of books that I simply love! If you talk to me on the phone, I have already told you about these books, or possibly bought you a copy of the first one. My good friend Tara told me about these books back in April, but after the description I opted out, I had better things to read. Then a friend of mine from church told me about them and I gave her the same critical look. Well Tara's charm worked on Jenna and she finished the first book while we were on vacation together. After seeing how their faces lit up when they talked about this book I grabbed my glasses and retreated to the recliner. Needless to say I basically read around the clock only taking a few hours off to sleep at 3am! Jenna and I bought book 2 on the way back to Raleigh, and Jenna had bought book 3 by the time I got home (her flight was a day before mine) and I borrowered her book a few days later. Needless to say I've devoured these books. I've read the first one 3 times, the second one 1 and a third time, and the third one twice. The fourth and final book is being released August 2nd and I already have my order into Amazon (being delivered to Jenna's house since we put our order in together).

So here's the catch... they are young adult books, they are romance novels, and they involve vampires. I know! I thought the same thing, but seriously they are fabulous. So if you are brave and can handle people giving you strange looks as you go on and on about these books then give them a try. The first book is called Twilight and they are by Stephenie Meyer. Don't look around the Internet too much, there are A LOT of spoilers out there since these books are all over My Space and other teen centered sights. It is only $6.04 on Amazon too, so it's about as much as a trip to Starbucks. Enjoy!

Ainsley's Phrases

"Did it"
"Daddy go?"
"Bobrey go?"
"Mommy go?"
"Nana (banana) go?"
"Bite pease"
"More milp (milk)"
"Ready go."
And a whole bunch of other variations and words I am trying to make out. Oh, and does "MY, MY, MY(mine)!" while throwing a fit count as a phrase?

Silly Mikey

The funniest thing just happened in my house. AJ just got up from her nap and we were cuddling on the couch. I noticed she was wearing a swim diaper, you know the ones that hold poop in and NOT pee. I cracked up laughing. Apparently when Mikey was putting her down for her nap Aubrey convinced him she should wear a pull-up. Mikey just didn't know the difference between swim diapers and pull-ups. Luckily it was one of her dry naps, crisis averted!

Hanging out in the house

Having three young kids on vacation with us made for a lot of down time. We weren't complaining though, after all we had a great view of the ocean, multiple decks with rocking chairs, movies, games, and books. The girls were given carpet rides by Jay on this little rug too. I'm not sure Laina likes sharing her daddy, but my girls were happy to show Jay what a family of three would be like.
Ainsley regained her love of bananas while on vacation. She will only eat them in the peel though. Kids are weird!