...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!

Major Update, Holidays! Grant! Spring Break!

Hey! Long time, no blog!
In order to update the blog, and actually finish, here's the shortened version of the last 6 months. Here goes.
.................................................
Thanksgiving was wonderful! We went to Tasha Hale's Parent's house and Kenzie played with Ellie while Thomas, Tasha, Josh, and I played games after inhaling a most delicious dinner! Kudos to Tasha's parents!

...................................................
Our car (Chevy Tahoe) finally was registered in GA! It was a triumph for my pregnant body to be able to travel all over the north Atlanta area finding a good mechanic and going to the Emmissions countless times. It took $600 dollars and a lot of huff and puff to get it registered. Wow am I glad that's over! However, I WILL be posting more about this because no one (especially a woman 8 months pregnant with a toddler) should have to go through this but learn from my experience.
..................................................
The biggest event of the year was at the hospital when I got to hold my baby Grant Wayne seconds after he was born. He is the cutest things, well, since Kenzie I guess! But he has the biggest spirit and looking at him is like chocolate melting in your mouth! Grant is so adorable! He was 9lb. 3oz. 21in. I labored until a 9, then received an epidural. Four hours later, I "pushed" (breathed down) 10 minutes and he came. I loved walking around the hospital with him and really loved the photographer coming to the hospital room to capture the picture above. He was a still is a happy (BIG!) baby. My mom came a week early and stayed a while which helped a ton! McKenzie stayed entertained quite well with 'Waka waka' and 'Cotton eye joe' to help.








..........................................................
Christmas was a blast, it was strange to cook our own dinner but very rewarding. I loved the simplicity of the day and how my mom pretty much delivered all our presents as a favor to Santa. ;)










................................................................
Jamie and Sara came from Missouri for a week to see Grant. It was a lot of fun to have them and show off our chunky hunk. Sara made me an amazingly creamy birthday cake and they watched the kids while Josh and I went on a date. Joshua finished Kenzie's "Big Bed" while they were here too! He did such a good job, Kenzie loves it!
McKenzie's birthday was fun, she got to go to Nursery which beat out Chucky Cheese or anything else. It's her favorite! Her cake was the easiest thing I could think of and luckily her favorite book at the time. She loves to sing the ABCs and Twinkle little Star, but now, since Grant, her favorite is 'I Am a Child of God'. I love it when she sings it in the grocery store! People stop and listen and knod their heads and go.







My present for my birthday/Christmas/Anniversary/Valentines, and possibly birthday next year is a piano! A Casio PX 130 digital. I love it! It has made me so relieved and relaxed to have a piano again! And it's made my calling to play in Relief Society much easier. Thank you Josh!! Oh, and I carried it up our three flights of stairs all by myself! Fist pump!
............................................................
We just got back from an amazing Spring break vacation to Missouri! It really was like a vacation, it was so nice! It was wonderful to bless Grant with so much family around, all from so far away. Just being at my in-laws made it so most of Josh's family was there. My parents dead headed from Kansas City on their way to South Dakota for the day, Grandma and Grandpa Jackson had flown in for a visit, and Grandpa Foster was there too. It was quite a big circle with Cousin Gene included.
It was a beautiful blessing. Short and sweet with very specific blessings. After church, we did a picture marathon. Grant wore the same blessing outfit that Josh wore, I thought that was very special. I wanted to take a picture outside the Stake center in front of the same bush that Josh was posed in front of for his blessing and Missionary picture, but I was a year too late. It was mostly destroyed in the Joplin tornado last May. But the people inside survived! And they are rebuilding on the same property! If you want to learn more, they have a few Facebook pages about stories and relief.

We're Pregnant!

Here is our Baby #2!
I'm 13 weeks and due beginning of December. I haven't been sick very much which has been awesome.



We find out if it's a boy or girl soon! Actually, the day before we move...wow, that was close.

We're so excited! I think Kenzie is the most excited, she's taking care of all her dolls by wrapping them up in a blanket and sticking a bottle in their mouth.

Joshua Foster has been accepted to Harvard and we are moving to Venezuela!!

APRIL FOOLS!!! Just kidding, just kidding! The moving part is true though...

For those who have not heard, Joshua has decided he doesn't want to be a doctor but would rather be a Chemistry teacher and teach at a college while doing research. The way he realized it is a pretty funny story. He was walking to take a final for one of his pre-med classes last semester and this small thought slid to the front of his mind, "I don't like pre-med material or classes; what am I doing?" He tried to ignore it at first but knew it was true. After Christmas he told me all about it and to be honest, I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me, but I was also relieved. It makes perfect sense! Josh is meant to teach because he does it ALL THE TIME and he LOVES it. And if you are wondering if he really likes chemistry, rest assured. The latest and greatest of his sleep talking includes things like "phosphoralase.”

So you might be asking what next? Josh has done an excellent job at getting his schooling worked out. He will walk in April and graduate in June. He's applied for five graduate programs and has been accepted to two out of the three that have responded. Those two are Georgia Tech in Atlanta and The University of Utah. Josh visited GA Tech last weekend and really liked the professors, research, and campus. It's also a great school for biochemistry so it's likely we'll go there. We will hopefully know by the time Josh walks for graduation where we are going to graduate school! It won't be Harvard (phew!) but it will be the right career track for Josh.