Sydney says the Pledge

PJ DAY!

There are so many firsts in life! This is Sydney's first pajama day at preschool! I wanted to put her in those super adorable feet pjs but Syd is very hot natured and would be so hot in it :( . So we settled for MONKEY PANTS! It has been a bit since I posted last but things have been

C-R-A-Z-Y.

I will post again soon! We went to BOO at the ZOO today and I was amazing! OH, and Sydney's first school pictures were taken last week! I cannot wait to get those back! EEeek!

for now...goodnight! <3

"When I get older losing my hair, many years from now..."

Even though I am now at the ripe old age of twenty-four I feel like I am older, or at least my body feels older. "People say you are as you as you feel"- pfft. I feel like at 24 I should not have to worry about health problems but thanks to my awesome mixture of genetics I am. I have a certain doom of hypothyroidism, I was diagnosed with Vasovagal Syncope two years ago and now to add to my list my HDL level is at 20! If you do not know what that is, I will explain...

Each of us has good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. HDL is good and LDL is bad. A normal range of HDL is 50 for women...and as I said above mine is 20!! I receive all of this information via email after getting my thyroid tested[which is STILL in the normal range thank God!]. It being too late to call the doctor, I do some of my own research online... BAD. IDEA. I find a wealth of information that says low HDL levels cause heart attack, stroke and all kinds of horrible things! So, me being the type to be proactive about things' research into the night on what foods I should eat to get my HDL higher. Turns out that an vitamin B3 deficiency causes HDL to be low and the medicine to improve these levels is called "Slo Niacin" which I also looked up and it has all kinds of crazy side effects.

Anyway, I do all of this research. I Freak out thinking that I am going to have a heart attack and or stroke any second. Then when I get to the doctors office three days later he tells me that is not a big deal[right now anyway, when I am 40 is another story]! Apparently since my LDL is also very low [because I am awesome like that], I do not smoke and I do cardiovascular exercise regularly this problem is genetic... thank you genetics. So, I at 24 have begun the long road to getting older in having to take a pill everyday for eternity. I just hope that when I am 65 my list of pills stays under 4 or 5 a day. I feel like that is manageable.

So, overall this rant was about having to take a pill everyday which I am sure some of you had to begin doing way earlier than me but I am still going to pout about it. So, all you people out there it would make me feel much better about my aging self if you would tell me I am not the only one who is doomed at 24. I might as well go ahead and buy one of those "SMTWTFS" pill box things to keep all of my meds straight!

p.s. I am SO totally watching American Gladiators and proud of it!

p.s.s. The quote from my title is from the Beatles song "when I'm 65" ... I love it.

First time for Everything!

I have been Swamped at school and such so blogging got pushed to the back burner for a hot minute! Here is what has been going on lately for little squid and I. She recently started bitter sweet preschool... She was So excited to go to school as you can see in the below pictures! I on the other hand was sad. :( The morning of her first day was a "trial run" to make sure that when I actually had to go to school there would not be a major melt down causing me to have to miss school!

We wake up take a million pictures, pack the preprepared lunch in her DISNEY lunch box and start the drive to preschool. We get there take a million and one more pictures and finally walk in. I hang her stuff on the hook give her a BIG BIG hug...and hen another one... and maybe just one more AND then she says and I quote, "mommy go to school" !!! It was so cute but also gave me a glimpse of the future when hugs and kisses are no longer "allowed" in public. So, I gave her one more hug and kiss and went to the car and cried my eyes out. I so did not want to leave her!

She comes home from school each Monday, Wednesday and Friday it seems knowing so many new things! Singing new songs, bringing home art work!! They learned how to use SCISSORS last week! I would never have thought to give my two-year-old scissors! She knows so much already it blows my mind! Obviously she was given her mothers genius!!! ;)

Even now that we are a good six or seven? weeks into preschool I STILL get sad dropping her off. She loves it and goes in everyday without a hitch. She knows I am leaving her and gives me a hug and tells me she loves me which helps but still I want to cuddle and hold my little baby all day and NEVER EVER let her go! I think it will take me a while to get used to it...if I ever will.

My top five Sydney lines of the moment:

5) Grandpa: "Sydney, do you want to watch Glen Beck?"

Sydney, "NO PAPA!! NEVER EVER EVER EVER" [even though it sounds like "Neber ebber ebber ebber" lol

4) I will tell her sorry about something and she will say, "Don't be sorry mommy it will be okay"

3) I jokingly told my mom the other day that I was going to "kill" her and to that Sydney ran up to me so serious and said, "DON"T KILL GRANDMA" my mom and I DIED laughing!!!

2)When we say our prayers at night she mentions every person she has ever met that she remembers! It takes quite a few minutes!

1) my very top top top favorite thing she has said/says frequently now is

"mommy you are my best friend"

this one just makes my heart explode!!! I did not even teach her that!! She said it one day and I started to cry and then she said, "don't be sad mommy, I make it better" then she attacked me with kisses.

HOW does my heart contain so much love for someone? It feels as if it might burst sometimes!

I will stop blabbing now but that is our life currently and it consists of LOTs of school fo both of us! Except I do not get to bring home fun finger paint art and googly-eye monsters! I WISH we did that in college! How fun would that be!!!

anyway, those of you with kids I would love to hear your favorite moments list!! and if you don't have kid-ee-poos give me your favorite moment of the week! or as I plan on doing at the dinner table because I am super CHEESE-TASTIC the "high" and "low" conversation. [where each member of the dinner table shares a high and a low of there day...I love being cheesy]

There is a FIRST time for everything!!

On August 3rd Lk, Sydney and I began Syd's first Road Trip and her first BEACH trip! Sydney was packed in the middle of Lk's car with bags piled so high next to her we had to pull her out of the car through the front seats!! Bringing a child along adds SO much luggage! Diapers, toys, books, snacks, juice, jog stroller...

[Syd packed in and ready to go]

Once we got on the road Sydney did WONDERFUL! She barely cried at all the entire five hour car ride! She fell asleep the first two hours and Lk and I had a sing-a-long marathon! We also played "I'm going on a picnic and I am going to bring..." haha!

[first arriving at the beach]

We arrived at the beach around eight at night. Sydney wanted to stay on the beach all night long. If you look in the above pic the white house to the right is where we stayed! RIGHT ON THE FREAKING BEACH!! WOOT!


[Syd and John David wathcing Monster's Inc.]

Sydney LOVED loved LOVED the beach!

[Syd at the beach. Notice the sand ALL OVER HER FACE!]

[on the way home keeping entertained with dollar store toys]

MOM NUGGET ALERT: My mother gave me a great idea from her own experiences of going on road trips with not one but THREE kids! 18 months apart! If you are a mom ESPECIALLY if you have more than one child write this down. Go to the dollar store before the trip and get a little toy for each hour you will be in the car. We were in the car for around five hours so I spent ten dollars and got toys for the way down and the way back. Each hour or two give your child a new toy to play and you will have a happy child all the way there! (now my mom would wrap each present so we could open them like a real present but I thought that would end up in a lot of trash/mess). It worked like a charm for Sydney. VIP NOTE: if you have more than one child you want to make sure and make all of the kids presents EXACTLY the same or this plan could have WWIII potential and the entire car ride will be fighting over toys. DO. NOT . WANT.

[Syd tuckered out]

The beach was a blast!! I am SO proud of myself because I made a goal of getting up with Sydney each morning and running at least two miles! Mission completion! I got up each morning and did my time! I felt so good afterward eventhough it was so flipping humid I was breathing in buckets of water. Plus, it was B-E-A-utiful running at the beach while the sun was comming up.

Now we are back and I spent all day today cleaning and washing clothes! ugh! When I was little when someone would ask my mom what her hobby was she would always say laundry! hah!

Tommorow is Sydney's FIRST day of preschool! I know I am going to get in the car after dropping her off with tears streaming down my face. Today she told me that she was growing up!! AH! Too Soon! She is only two! I am sure I will get used to it after a few weeks but it will be sad to drop her off ALL day! I start school on Monday too. I am taking three classes and two labs! I will be living under a homework rock this semester. uggh.

To wrap up, August has been a month of firsts. So far so good! I have to go pack Sydney's lunch in her Disney Princess lunch box! I kind of wish that it was MY lunch box... :)

Lions, Tigers and BEARS, oh my!!

It is Monday afternoon and I could barely roll out of bed this morning. The aches and pains in muscles I never knew I had were making themselves known. This past weekend, I and a fabulous group of friends went backpacking through the north Georgia Mountains. We hiked approximately 14 miles in TWO days! It was a blast!

The trail was called Jack's Creek River Trail. On Saturday, we started out bright and early at 5am!! Started hiking around 10:30am after filling our bellies with some delicious Chick-fil-a biscuits. mmmmm. We hiked a bit and arrived at the falls around 2-ish. The falls were beautiful and so were we in our swim suits...not. We lived dangerously and jumped off some cliffs into the frothy water below. It took me around 20 minutes to work myself up to jumping off. I did it though with some coaxing from my cliff jumping coach Alexia. We are so brave!

[Aubrey doing a BACK FLIP off the cliff!!?!]

After sunning and chilling next to the falls we started to look for a campsite and[wildlife sighting number one] instead we found a BEAR! Yes, I said it a real live people eating, grunting, hairy, BEAR! In the woods! Of course our very bright hiking companions decided they wanted a picture with the bear [it was only a cub BUT STILL!]. I being the safety first type gal stood about 300 feet away while the boys messed with baby bear. I was concerned that mama bear was going to make a grand appearance so I wanted to be as far away from them as possible. Thankfully mama bear was occupied.

We found a decent campsite and set up camp for the night. Then we all took a nap! Hurray for group nap time! After nap time we woke up and fixed some din din and Joe the fire master built us a fire. Then we all drifted off into a peaceful sleep listening to the rushing water from the river. So soothing.

Sunday we woke up ate some B-fast and began to hike out. We crossed the river 20-something times in 6 miles!! Holy Moley! Most of the river crossings were thigh deep too! It was CHILLY water! Oh and wildlife sighting number two: We were crossing the river for what seemed like the millionth time and a snake slithered across a rock and into the water RIGHT in front of me! eeek!

[Nerd Alert: The Biology Major in me did some research. The snake I saw was most likely the Queen Snake. Common to Georgia and Nonvenomous! "The habitat requirements for the Queen snake are very specific, and this snake is never found in areas that lack clean running streams and watersheds with stony and rocky bottoms. The water temperature must be a minimum of 50°F (28°C) during the snake's active months. This is in a large part due to the snake's dietary requirements. They subsist almost entirely on fresh water crayfish" ] After hiking for what seemed like forever and a day. Wildlife sighting number 3: Aubrey, Lk and I were behind the rest of the group. Mainly because Lk and I are SHORT and have a harder time jumping rocks across the river! We were walking on a flat part of the trail where we could see a couple hundred yards ahead of us and we see a black blur slowly walk across the trail! [another BEAR!] oh and when we got closer to the spot of the sighting Lk stepped in Bear Poop! eeeeeewwwwwwwww!

We finally finished hiking around 3:30pm on Sunday! My calves hurt oh-so-badly and it looks like I have been beaten. Crossing the rivers I slipped and fell so many times I have cuts and bruises all over my legs! [also note to self: do NOT forget to bring bug spray next time!!]

Overall, it was a successful and great trip. Everyone made it out alive with all of their body parts! we win! If anyone is interested in joining us for the next go round give me a holler!

now, time to study for exams....ugh

Muddy Buddy 2009

The pictures are finally ready from the 5K race Mike and I ran on June 20th!!!

If I have not already told you about this race here is the down low.

It is called MUDDY BUDDY. The reason for that is because after you and your partner bike and run six-ish miles you both have to crawl through a MUD PIT! Wooo!

It works like this... I [the slower runner] ride the bike first for a mile to the first obstacle. Mike begins running about 6 minutes behind me. When I arrive at the first obstacle I drop the bike do an obstacle and begin running. When Mike gets to the first obstacle he does the obstacle picks up the bike and goes. The desired plan would be to leap frog each other until the end and then both crawl through the mud pit! wee!

[This was one of the obstacles]

[The infamous mud pit]

[Mike and I finishing! hurray!!]

This is our second year doing Muddy Buddy Atlanta. It is only the third year that Atlanta has hosted this event but it has been going on in other cities for ten years! This year we dressed up as Adam and Eve! Last year we dressed up as Raggedy Anne and Andy! I made the costumes both years! [If anyone has any good "couples" costumes for next years race let me know!]

[Before the race 2008]

[After in our Muddy Buddy goodness]

I recommend this race to any of you active people out there!! We LOVE it! It is a little pricey [$150/team] BUT it is a charity race. It helps Athletes that need prosthetic limbs.

***

Other than the new pictures. I only have TWO weeks left of summer semester! I am going backpacking this weekend [16 miles!!] and my 24th BIRTHDAY is comming up [August 10th ahem] !!!! I am SO old!

Sydney update: She will be starting Preschool [tears] on my Birthday! I will most likley cry everyday for a month when I drop her off. Today we went to Walmart and bought her a backpack and a lunch box! I almost cried right there in the store. ha. She is getting so old!

I know that this was a fairly lengthy blog so I will bid you farewell!

Love, Christina and Sydney