...10 Years Later

  Huh, this is an interesting opportunity....

I created this blog 10 years ago. At the time, I had one baby girl and had just completed a degree in Exercise Wellness. Now, I have five kids, survived my husband going to med school, and now pushing through residency.

I remember wanting to help others stay or become health oriented as they raised their families, move on in their careers, and follow their dreams.  In other words, don’t forget to take care of your body and minds as life takes off! full blast, with the seat belt barely buckled!

That's how I feel the last 10 years of my life has been. I’m sure that’s how a lot of you feel, like you accidently sat in a roller coaster and now you’ve upside down and sideways. As we begin each new year, goals are much the same; lose weight, eat healthy, move more. And each year, life has escalated exponentially. The priority of fitting back into that dress has been replaced with other financial, family, and personal priorities. Which makes sense, we have big issues to deal with!

I love that movie, ‘The Princess Bride’. I love the romance and chivalry! It does make you think, when the man with six fingers on his hand says, “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.” How apparent that has been as I’ve gotten older, and as this pandemic has reared its ugly face. Before, I wanted to be healthy just for myself and to care for my family. Now I want to be healthy to survive whatever the four horseman of the apocalypse wants to throw this month!

So! If you happen to be reading this, just know that this are my own personal thoughts, just dropping out of my (likely biased) head. My paradigm is that we reap what we sow. But bad things still happen to good people, and we can work through it. We can do hard things! Take that! Corona!

   

  July 2010

   

July 2020

   

Surgery

I've mentioned 'recovery' some in other posts, I wasn't talking about baby recovery, but in a way, it is.

I was a good size with Kenzie...

Remember how big I got with Grant?

(and this was taken a month before he was born!)

I got even bigger with Aspen!!

So really, I just had a tummy tuck. :)

I had an umbilical hernia and one long vertical tear in my muscle just above my belly button. 

I've known for about 2 years now, and now is a good time to take care of it. The surgeon did a great job, everything went well and I'm doing fine now, just taking it easy. (it is SO hard! to 'take it easy', I could write a whole other post on this!!)

I wasn't going to write about having this surgery at all, but I feel it may be good to get it out of my head. 

I was very scared. I had surgery when I was seven, and all I remember hurting a lot. But my main concern was and still is if I'll be able to have more children. I was reassured that if I wait a little longer for the next baby, my abs would be able to stretch with me. 

My next concern was my milk supply and getting back to Aspen pronto.
Both of which are no longer concerns. 

I'm so grateful my parents-in-law are so quick to jump in and watch the kids!
It has set me at ease knowing they can come help.

I woke up in recovery in a lot of pain and unable to speak for a while, which meant I didn't get pain medicine until the anesthesiologist noticed the tears down my face. About 30 minutes later, I kept my eyes closed when Joshua came into my room. It was very painful to cry. And boy would I have liked to cry then!

I'll just say I have a new appreciation and sympathy for anyone who has had surgery and for their care takers. 

Joshua was wonderful, as usual, and loved taking care of me. I am a spoiled wife, no joke. He helped me so much he threw out his own back ten days later. So there we were, two oldies, broken and sore, taking care of the 4 and 2 year-old, and 7 week old. Luckily we picked the right time to be out of commission. We had his family taking care of us a lot, plus people from church and we are much better off with all their help!