Catch up!

I ran two 5Ks in October and never posted about them! The first was on October 16 in Germantown. I ran with Kaylee, a buddy from our youth group. I was able to run the whole way! I finished in 35:30 which is... really slow... but hey, as long as I didn't stop to walk I'm happy! That's actually pretty close to my time from my first 5K.


The second race was the Raptor Run at the Creation Museum in Cincinnati. Allie and Rachel ran with me! Actually, Rachel smoked us, but Allie stuck with me :P I ended up having to walk a couple times which stunk, but I was actually wheezing/gasping for air so I'm glad I did! It seemed weird that I had just run the same distance the week before so much more easily... but this course was a lot more hilly and I think the baby is hogging my energy. Oh well!


I realized that I never really posted the "end results" and "after" pictures from my weight loss journey! I never reached my actual goal, but I'm very happy with where I ended up anyway. I'm 8 lbs less than I was before I was pregnant with Orion, so I call that a victory in itself!

Here are the stats:
Current weight: 120ish
Starting weight: 140
Goal weight: 115
Total weight lost: 20 lbs


Aaaand...drumroll please... the before and after pictures!!



Hurraaaay! :D

(let's just ignore the fact that I'm going to have to do it all again in less than a year... ;)

Help Haiti 5K

I DID IT! I ran my 5K race! On May 16, 2010, a cool rainy day (thank goodness it wasn't hot!), we drove down to Cincinnati in our matching tie-dye shirts to run the race. Allie, Rachel, and Stephen (Rachel's boyfriend) ran with me. We met our friend Michelle there too. It was CRAZY HILLY and thus incredibly hard, but I somehow pushed through it and didn't stop. I finished in 35:17. I can't believe I made it!

Go team!

About to cross the finish line!

My adoring fans

We did it for the food

I'm going to keep up with the running and see where it takes me... I think I'm going to set another goal so I don't quit. 10K perhaps?

Post on our vacation coming soon... stay tuned!

Keeping Busy!

We've had a lot going on so I have a lot to post about, making me regret not doing some of it sooner! Shame on me.


On May 1 Allie graduated Magna Cum Laude in Nursing from Indiana Wesleyan University! She worked really hard and it payed off: she's accepted a job offer in Pediatrics at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN and will be moving in July (along with a friend)! I didn't know how prestigious this was until I heard the crowd ooh and ahh at graduation. I'm so proud :) Above is Allie and her friends after the nursing pinning ceremony, below is her and Orion after graduation.

We had a very full, busy weekend getting the girls moved home from school, so when we got home we relaxed in the beautiful weather...



Yeah, we're rednecks... haha.


Last weekend was the Mother Daughter Tea at church, which was nice. I had the most beautiful tea ever (top)- it was bright red! We ate tons of strawberries and fruit dip, cheesecake, and other treats. We got to take home a lot of the leftovers (there were SOOO many strawberries left, which I spent over an hour cutting the tops off of so we could freeze them)- I finally made a smoothie today- yum :)

Sunday (Mother's Day) was the baby dedication at church, and Orion was one of only 3 babies dedicated... there are usually a ton, so I was surprised! Dedication is... ok, I'm going to steal this from Amanda whose son Benjamin was also dedicated: "The dedication is to give the child back to God... and to let everyone know that we know that it is God who gave the child to us, and for that reason we will keep them in church, raise them like God would want us to, and pray for them, love them, and understand that God already has a purpose for them." Thanks Amanda ;)

Besides that... I ran THREE MILES on Monday!!! I did it! I reached my goal! I'm pretty astounded. I'm going to do it again today too. Yaaay! 5K, here I come!

Orion is doing well. Some nights of sleep are good, some are bad. Still not consistent. He's getting better at sitting up. Learning new noises. Getting chubbier :)

We leave for our vacation to Gulf Shores, Alabama on Sunday night! Yes!

In weight loss news...
Here are the stats:
Current weight: 123.2
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 0.8
Total weight lost: 16.8
Pounds left 'til goal: 8.2

Truncated

I have pictures and such to post from Allie's graduation, etc, but my camera is upstairs and I don't feel like getting it so this is all you get.

In weight loss news...
Here are the stats:
Current weight: 124
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 2
Total weight lost: 16
Pounds left 'til goal: 9

Wow! How did that happen?? Yeah single digits! OK, this stat chart only counts what I've had to work to lose... I just realized that since Orion was born I've lost 40 pounds. Now that's mind-blowing.

I've run two miles twice this week and WILL do at least two and a quarter tomorrow. I can do this!

Many little things

Well, I figure it's about time to update even though I don't have a whole lot to say! I haven't even taken many pictures lately, so here's a recent one from my phone that I haven't posted yet... haha.

I planted the garden a few days ago, so hopefully we'll start growing something other than weeds soon! I think the manure we put in came with a lot of weeds... there's a TON of those pokey ones in the middle of the garden. I should probably get out there and pull them... :/ **update: weeds pulled! I'm already doing better than last year. Ha!**

Orion WAS sleeping pretty well at night, but the last two nights have been kind of rough. I think I need to do some more research into ways to get him to sleep better/longer. You'd think he'd be consistent by now.

He has been happier longer hanging out by himself in his jumper or under his play gym which is nice! He's doing better sitting up too, so I want to keep working with him so he'll be able to do it alone before long. I can't believe he's coming up on 6 months already!!

Some of you may remember that the bedding I originally picked for Orion was rocket ships but it was too expensive so we chose something else. Well look what Target just came out with:
Ugh! Of course! As soon as I don't need it anymore they get exactly what I wanted for the same price as what I ended up getting! Sigh. Not that I don't like what I have- I do- I'm just bummed they came out with my ideal bedding JUST too late. They do have it for a toddler bed though, so I guess if anyone wants to buy way way ahead they could get it for when Orion moves out of his crib... haha!

I finally finished my thank you cards from my big church baby shower! I got carpal tunnel right after the shower so it hurt to write, then had a newborn, then was just overwhelmed about writing 75 LATE thank you cards! I'm pretty embarrassed to be sending them so late, but hey, better late than never (I hope!). I know there are a few gifts I got a long time after the shower that didn't get written down and there were a few more that didn't come with cards so I don't know who they were from so unfortunately those poor people won't get cards :( Now I have to go buy lots and lots of stamps...

Allie graduates college on Saturday so we're going to IWU Friday night with the family for the Baccalaureate and then going to graduation and moving the girls home Saturday.

In weight loss news...
Here are the stats:
Current weight: 126
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 1.2
Total weight lost: 13.8
Pounds left 'til goal: 11

Hey! I actually lost a good amount this week! I really didn't expect to lose anything since I haven't been doing great at eating right, but I guess I have been running more. I'm going to be excited when I only have 10 pounds left :)

I'm a little bit behind on my running schedule because I ran a different place the last couple times and it threw me off with using a pedometer instead of the marked track. Hopefully I'll be able to do at least 2 1/4 miles tomorrow... wish me luck!

Sounds like O's waking up from his nap, so gotta go!

Good things!

I ran TWO MILES yesterday!! I can't believe it- that sounds so crazy to me! I'm really excited to be on- or a little ahead of- schedule for training for the 5K! I forgot to mention that I've kind of abandoned the Couch-to-5K schedule. At this point I think just increasing my distance little by little is the best way to go :)

In weight loss news...
Here are the stats:
Current weight: 127.2
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 0
Total weight lost: 12.6
Pounds left 'til goal: 12.2

No change at all this week... but that's ok :)

However, we just had Orion weighed again at another clinic and he weighed 13 lbs and charted in the 50th-75th percentile! What?! That's perfect! Well that makes me feel better!! They did say he was kind of short though... haha! No surprise there :P

I broke down and bought that Nike+ SportBand I've been obsessing over... haha! I got it for a pretty good price- $10 off the normal price and free shipping- and I had birthday money I hadn't spent yet. I'm excited to a very silly degree :P

5 Months

My baby is five months old today! We went to the doctor today to check his weight, and he weighed 12 lbs, 6.5 oz. That's more than a pound in the last month- the nurse seemed happy with that. The doc wasn't there to talk to me about the growth chart, but I looked it up and he seems to be back ON the chart... like just touching the bottom of the curve... which is better! Anyway, he's still very healthy and doing well developmentally. **Edit: the doc called and is going to refer us to a nutritionist and GI specialist to try to figure out why he's not gaining weight as he should be. Hopefully there's nothing wrong and we just need to give him even more formula.**

A few days ago he learned how to shake his rattle and he's been going crazy with it! Here's a video... he usually shakes it longer than this but it's still super cute :)




We got out his gumball machine toy tonight and it was so fun to watch him play with it... I was amazed that he actually figured out how to press the lever to get the gumballs out!! Here's another video... this is so awesome :)



This week in baby food is bananas. Of course he eats them right up. No surprise there! I think he just may be teething... I can feel the top ones under his gums. I really don't know though! he has been extra fussy (especially in his car seat... ugh) and tired. Hmm...


As for me, I ran 1.75 miles today! Doing well on my goals :)

Archapelago

This weekend we headed North to visit my parents and see my younger brother Andy's senior art show. The show was at his college in Adrian, Michigan on Sunday. It was great! He made a series of miniature islands that were displayed suspended from the ceiling. It was super cool.




The boy has talent. Hope he can figure a good way to keep going with it!


Of course we also had a nice visit with my parents. I always appreciate just being able to hang out with them. We also went shopping which was fun :)


The weather here has been beautiful and the world is in bloom. We have lots of flowering trees around the yard so it's gorgeous out there. We've been trying to spend quite a bit of time outside.


We've had fun showing Orion all the pretty flowers. Nathan even took him on a tour of all the trees nearby. It was very cute :)

Today we went out and got supplies for our garden!! I had to buy a new hoe because mine broke (although Nathan pretty much fixed it this afternoon), and a trowel because we didn't have one at all. We also got seed potatoes, red and yellow onion sets, and seeds: beans, peas, carrots, spinach, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, sweet corn, and mixed flowers. And two raspberry bushes! I think that's it. We're going to buy tomatoes, broccoli, and peppers in plant form. Hopefully we'll get the potatoes, onions, peas, and flowers (at least) planted within the next couple days.


In Couch-to-5K news...
Here are the stats:
Current weight: 127.2
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 1.2
Total weight lost: 12.6
Pounds left 'til goal: 12.2

Yes! Progress! I've gotten back into the swing of running and it's going really well. I ran 1 1/2 miles yesterday!! Sooo... I signed up for a 5K race!!! It's on May 16 in Cincinnati. It's sponsored by an organization that Urbancrest Church partners with an all the proceeds go to Haiti. So I'm pretty excited about it... and of course kind of nervous. But I can do it! And Allie is going to run it with me which is great :)

Speaking of, Allie and Rachel are running a half marathon on Saturday! We're going to go watch them. They're going to do great! I'm so proud!


I guess I should update you on how Orion's doing! He's definitely gaining weight... his thighs are downright chubby! I can't even get my fingers to touch around them any more! I'm anxious to see how he's doing on the growth charts.

Sleep-wise he's doing a bit better. He's only been getting up once recently, twice last night. Still not super consistent, but here's hoping. He's been napping fairly well too... he naps in his swing. Usually a couple naps in the morning and one later. Not a real solid schedule but that's ok... he just naps when he's tired enough.

Overall he's doing very well :) He loves to grab things and feel people's faces, and has started reaching toward people (at least me) to be picked up. He's eating vegetables now. He ate avocado last week and now he's eating summer squash (you have to start one new thing per week in case there's an allergic reaction so you can tell what it's from). I made the food myself! It's super easy. Just steam, puree, freeze. Hope it saves me money! I'm planning on using lots of the garden veggies for baby food.


Random other stuff... Nathan's going on a mission trip to Haiti in June. We're going on vacation to Gulf Shores in May. Nate's playing bass at Urbancrest next week. We started a Bible study class called The Prodigal God and I think it's going to be great. I've spent like six hours looking for sandals and I still haven't bought any.

Sorry for the infrequent but super long posts... haha!

Easter Weekend

We had such a great Easter weekend! I'm going to do my very best to remember everything we did, but we had such a full weekend that I'm struggling :P Robin and Allie were in Louisiana visiting Jon, Emiley, and Ellie, so it was just Grandma, Larry, Rachel, Stephen, Nathan, Orion, and I. OK, I guess that's still a bunch of people.


Friday... we went to the creek under the covered bridge in Germantown! Nathan likes to go tromp around in the creek in the summer, so we went with Rachel and Stephen.


I love this picture :)


They built a dam! That's what we Lambeses do with creeks... haha! The water was soooo coooold, but Nate and Rachel took a dip anyway. Because they're crazy.

That day we were outside pretty much all day- it was so pretty outside. I think that was the night we had a campfire too... with s'mores of course!

A really crazy thing happened while Rachel, Stephen, Nathan and I were sitting out by the fire. We were watching a skunk wander around the yard and talking, and all of a sudden we heard screeching tires, a crash, and saw a huge cloud of smoke. Stephen and Nathan saw something flip over on the road. Nathan sprinted down the road and the other two ran after him, and I followed and called 911. It turned out that a pickup truck hauling a boat swerved to miss a skunk (!) and the boat flipped over!! Everyone was fine and even the boat looked ok, but it was so scary and intense! We don't know if they were drunk or if they just did a crazy swerve to miss that skunk or what, but wow. What an adventure.


Saturday! I think we went shopping that day? Well we went shopping some day anyway :P Rachel and I got a few good deals and she, Stephen and I played with a puppy at the pet store. For dinner we had a pizza picnic! I made homemade alfredo pizza... yum. I thought it was funny that our picnic food was pizza...


Of course we had to color eggs! Stephen had never colored eggs before (poor guy) and we had a lot of fun playing with different "techniques." We only boiled six eggs... but it took us forever. Haha!

One evening we got the movie "New Moon" (yep, Twilight). It was... fun to make fun of. Just like the first one. Heh heh...


Sunday! Easter, of course! We went to church, had a delicious ham dinner, and had our annual Easter egg hunt! Yes, we still do an egg hunt- it's intense! Everyone is very competitive, running around the yard trying to get the most eggs. Shockingly enough, I won!! Nathan was behind me by one. Rachel almost always wins, so it was a big surprise. See, all that running is paying off ;P

That night the four of us went out to see "How to Train Your Dragon." It was SO. GOOD. We all loved it- what a cute movie.

Monday we went back to the creek because we wanted to race remote-controlled boats... haha! Yes, we are the coolest. I found a fishing line and hook stuck in a tree while we were there and... I actually caught a fish with it! Everybody was pretty shocked. I'm quite the fisherwoman ;)

I'm sure I forgot some things, but we had such a fun weekend. I wish Nathan's siblings could be around more often! Tomorrow we're headed up to see my family and go to my younger brother Andy's senior art show. Then next weekend we're going to watch Allie and Rachel run a half marathon. I need to keep up my running so we can run a 5K together!

I'm uploading more pictures of the weekend to Shutterfly, so check those out if you want to see the rest.

As for the weekly weight update:
Here are the stats:
Current weight: 128.6
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 0
Total weight lost: 11.4
Pounds left 'til goal: 13.6

...yep, that's exactly the same as last week. Eh. Since I'm getting back into the swing of running (after being sick for 3 weeks!) I'm hoping the numbers start dropping again. I'm looking forward to getting back under 120! I am happy to say that I can wear my old clothes again :) I don't think I posted here yet that I ran 1 1/4 miles yesterday! My goal for next time (possibly tomorrow, but if not maybe this weekend) is to run 1 1/2 miles, which would be half way to my goal! Wish me luck!

Oh! And we found out yesterday that our friends Geoff and Amy are having a baby girl in August :) Congrats again, guys!!

Swingin Pad

Yes! These are pictures of our newly painted living room. It's actually really hard to get a picture of the whole space because it's really long and there's a lot of furniture in it, but here you can get an idea of the colors. Three of the walls are a gold/yellow, and one is red. It looks AWESOME. We love it. It really makes our living room look more like a house and less like a basement... which is a very good thing.


And here's the reveal of our picture frame project that I mentioned way back when! We bought a bunch of frames at Goodwill and painted them all black, then hung them in an asymmetrical way. I think it looks great. There are still a few empty frames reserved for Orion's professional pics. Hope we can get those soon.


Nathan artfully arranged some of our cool souvenirs that people got us from far off lands. The little wooden sword is from Haiti, and everything else is from Africa. It looks really nice on the gold color.


In fitness/weight loss news...

Here are the stats:
Current weight: 131.2
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 0.4
Total weight lost: 8.8
Pounds left 'til goal: 16.2

Slowly but surely. I also ran outside for the first time this week- I went half a mile! I'll try for a whole mile next week :)

We have college friends visiting so I'm looking forward to more awesome weekendness! Hope yours is good too!

Holy fitness, Batman!

I just ran a mile!!! For the first time ever! I've seriously never run a mile without stopping/walking before in my whole life. I am so excited. It actually went great- I didn't feel bad and I was even able to talk some while I was running which is unusual for me. I'm proud :)

Oh, and while I was running I told Nathan I wanted a water bottle that I could squirt in my mouth while I was running... a pretty one... and told myself if I finished I could get one. Haha! Me and my crazy motivation tactics. Hey, if it works... and now I get a pretty new water bottle! Yaaay! :P

Favorite Weekend

This weekend/week was great. I got to spend it with Nathan, Allie, Rachel, and my college roommate, becca. It was so nice. becca was able to stay from Friday til Wednesday morning which was an awesomely longish visit. We went out shopping with Allie (and by ourselves the next day), ate out a couple times, and just spent a lot of time relaxing together. And Allie and I made buckeyes... yummm... Anyhow, it was such a nice time... I'm so thankful for my family and friends.

We got a new laptop computer! Our old one was making us nervous and things keep breaking on it, so we decided a new one would be a good investment. It's really nice... and really pretty! Haha. It's an HP which we've never had before, so I hope it works out well for us.

Orion has slept 9 hours at a time three times this week!! He's having trouble falling asleep tonight, but hopefully he'll have himself worn out enough that he'll sleep well. Keep it up little mister!

Couch-to-5K was on pause for almost a week, but I started up again today. I was going to do two sets of 8 minutes, but after the first set I almost threw up so obviously I quit! I had napped through lunch and I think running on an empty stomach didn't agree with me. Next on my training schedule is 20 minutes straight. Gulp.

Here are the stats:
Current weight: 131.8
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 1
Total weight lost: 8.2
Pounds left 'til goal: 16.8

Oh! I forgot to mention that I was finally able to put away my maternity jeans last week. Yaaay! :)

Our continuing mission

Nathan dug out a sweet snow cave in one of the piles of snow that was plowed out from the church parking lot. It's huge- we can both fit inside. He and Orion are going to have so much fun in the snow in a few years. Nathan's my polar bear :)

The Baby Wise schedule continues to be a challenge. Once in a while Orion goes right to sleep, but more times than not he does a lot of crying. He was tired all day today because the naps he took were short and didn't make up for the energy he lost crying. Poor little thing. Last night was ok... he fell asleep in the car seat when Nathan ran errands with him last night, so he slept in there until 2:30 am! After he woke up and I fed him he cried for an hour :( Thankfully he went to sleep when I comforted him. No exciting details... I just reeeeally hope this works. I hate leaving him to cry that long and seeing him so tired all day. I'm loving the new feeding schedule, but I prefer my happy, energetic baby. I have to say though, I'm pretty excited that he's sleeping in his crib at night, even if it's not straight through.

I haven't done any running for a couple days because I was getting a pain in my leg that I was paranoid about... I kept thinking it might be a stress fracture and I didn't want to aggravate it. After talking about my dad about his experience with a stress fracture I'm now thinking it's probably just shin splints. I hope so anyway! I did walk a couple miles tonight so at least I'm doing something. Next time I run I'm supposed to go two miles straight (or 20 minutes), and I'm extremely apprehensive about that!! I'm honestly going to be shocked if I make it... I'll be totally happy if I can do one mile!

Here are the stats:
Current weight: 132.8
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 0.4
Total weight lost: 7.2
Pounds left 'til goal: 17.8

I need to step it back up with my eating and exercise. I've been doing some form of exercise daily, but not as much as I should be doing. And eating well is just hard... haha. I'm getting there. And the good news is that losing weight at the rate I am instead of super fast increases my chances of keeping it off! Hurray!

Tomorrow both Allie and my roomie becca are coming to visit, so I'm very excited :) Wish me a restful night!

Roll over, boy!

Orion has discovered the joy of batting at objects! He hasn't really liked his bouncer seat lately, but Robin and Larry put him in it the other day and he was suddenly fascinated with hitting the hanging toys. It's fun.

He also rolled over both yesterday and today! From his tummy to his back. And he's holding his head way up high at a 90 degree angle when he's on his tummy. That's my big boy!


We went to visit the family I used to nanny for on Saturday and it was fun to see how the girls interacted with him. They even gave him his very first Valentine :) Awww.

Orion stayed in the nursery at church for the first time Sunday! They had to call me a couple times (they have those buzzers like you get at restaurants), but it was nice to not have to worry about him so I could pay attention myself. Then during the evening service he went the whole time without needing me! Yay!

I was going to get him weighed at the doctor today and see if he's on track with the growth charts, but it's snowing yet again! The roads are nasty, so we stayed home. He's still a skinny little thing, but he's definitely growing. Got a little bit of chub in his face and thighs... just a little. I'm not exactly worried because I know he's healthy and happy, but I don't want him to be too skinny! He's still getting formula a few times a week when I'm gone or napping or whatever. We'll see.

-----*-----*-----*-----

Couch-to-5K is going well. I just ran two sets of 8 minutes!! I was actually surprised- I didn't think I could do it... haha! It was very hard, but I did it! Next time I'm supposed to run two miles without stopping... gulp.

I also took my measurements tonight to compare with last month. I was shocked to find out that I've lost 3 inches from my waist and one from my hips! Also half an inch from my thigh and a quarter inch from my upper arm. Wow. I was not expecting that!! That's good motivation to keep going if anything is!

Orion is crying and needs some help going to sleep. Have a good night!

Our Adventurous Weekend

This weekend we decided to surprise my mom for her birthday and drive up to visit! She and Dad were surprised and excited to see us (but of course ;) and we all had a really nice weekend. We went out for lunch on Mom's birthday, but spent the rest of the time just relaxing together. Orion was in a really good mood most of the time which was a great bonus. As you can see he's determined to crawl by four months.

Very happy to see Nana! (we brought this sheep skin home from my parents' house. It's older than me! They used it when my brothers and I were babies. Charlie the cat is obsessed with it... ha!)

Just hangin' with Papa and Grandpa. I thought this was super cute.

On Monday we headed out and made a detour to Indiana Wesleyan University to visit Allie and Rachel. It was really fun hanging out. We ate in their very nice cafeteria, played games, and stayed to watch Chuck. Hopefully we can make it up a couple more times this year.

Little Man and his Aunt Allie bundled up for the cold

We must have worn Orion out this weekend because he seriously slept ALL DAY yesterday (which NEVER happens) and most of the day today. I hope he gets back to his happy self soon... not that he's been unhappy really, just very very tired! Poor little guy!

_____________________

I finished week four of Couch-to-5K last night! I didn't finish my running on Saturday so I had to repeat it, and I allowed myself extra long walking breaks, but hey, I did all the running I was supposed to so I'm OK with that!! Nathan said "you did more work than you needed to" since I walked so much. Haha- good way to look at it. Plus I found out I was running on an incline at the end, so I get bonus points.

Here are the stats:
Current weight: 133.2
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 0.6
Total weight lost: 6.8
Pounds left 'til goal: 18.2

So... I cheated and weighed myself a few times the last couple days, and the numbers were all over the place, so I picked the lowest one. HA! I never saw a number over 135 though, so that's good, right? :P It's hard when the time I've weighed myself all along is about 10pm on Wednesday night, and my class at church is at 7pm. It was canceled today (we have lots of snow!), but usually I just have to wait to report my weight loss until the next week because I don't weigh until after class. Bad planning on my part I guess!

I need to figure out a way to NOT sit around all day! I need to figure out something to do with myself. And maybe get out the Moby wrap so Orion can do it with me. I've got a headache from watching too much TV! I had to get out my glasses. So pathetic. What to do, what to do...