My strange symptoms

Okay so I had the stomach virus last weekend. Monday I felt better and then Monday night my stomach hurt again. I went to bed and then woke up with a sore throat. So I went to the urgent care since Mallory had strep throat and it felt similar to the strep throat I had last fall and I wanted to get on medication as soon as possible for our trip. Well I did not have strep throat and he gave me a prescription for antibiotics in case it gets worse. Well it felt the same as on Monday and he said to take the medicine if it got worse. On Wednesday night after the kids went to bed I started sneezing and getting a runny nose. It was within an hour where I was sneezing constantly and blowing my nose like a mad woman. I took some benedryl and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and my face was a little puffy but my runny nose and sneezing stopped. I still had my lingering mild sore throat but that was all. Then last night I went to bed at 11:00 and could not really sleep since I was anxious for our trip and D was out and I knew he would be coming home soon. So he got home at 12:30 ish and I went downstairs and my face was slightly swelled and my throat, not necessarily my tonsils, but my neck was swelled and I had swallowing difficulties. This morning I woke up and my throat felt really wired so I looked into it and my uvula was about three times the it's regular size and it was touching my tough. It was the weirdest feeling. My tonsils were not large just the uvula. I had a hard time swallowing and talking. My eyes were swelled up also. So I went about my day since I really had to and I was not really in any pain it just felt wired. I think the swelling in my uvula went down around lunch time and now right now my neck is swelled up and I have some mild eye pressure. My uvula is still a little swollen but it is alright. I took my temperature and it is 99 degrees. So I have no idea what is going on. I am unsure if it is a virus or an allergic reaction. The only thing I was doing that night was getting snack bags ready for the girls for their trips. I did open a bag of pistachio nuts and put them in the bag. I did also eat some of the pistachio's last night but I have had pistachio before and have not had this reaction ever. I also took my dust mite covers off of my pillows last weekend and put them on Nathan's pillow so I don't know if taking those off would make a difference. So I really have know idea what is going on. I don't know if I should fill my antibiotics prescription and just start taking in just in case or just see what happens. It is wired and I have never had this happen before. It will be interesting to see what happens tonight.

Bikram Yoga

So Saturday morning, before we all got sick, D's mom had the kids so I tried out this new yoga place that only offers Bikram Yoga, aka Hot Yoga. Bikram Yoga is "a twenty-six asana series designed to scientifically warm and stretch muscles, ligaments and tendons, in the order in which they should be stretched. Bikram Yoga's twenty-six posture exercises systematically move fresh, oxygenated blood to one hundred percent of your body, to each organ and fiber, restoring all systems to healthy working order, just as Nature intended. Proper weight, muscle tone, vibrant good health, and a sense of well-being will automatically follow."

So the class is 90 minutes long and like they said it is 26 poses which are preformed twice in a 105 degree room. I must say the the room was hot. I am a cold weather, fan in my face, fresh air kind of work out girl and this was nothing like that. The room kind of smelled like hot recycled sweaty air and as soon as I got in there I was sweating. After the first couple of moves my entire body was dripping with sweat like a pop container from a fast food restaurant "sweats". It bubbles and then the water runs down the cup. That is what my entire body was like. I looked around and there were others like me but most of the other people were not as bad. I have always been a big sweater but this was the kind of sweat that generates after being in a spinning room for 90 minutes. Anyway, I had to sit down several times because I felt like I was going to pass out. They warned us all about feeling this way and just said to sit down and relax. I had took two full sized towels with me and they were very wet, not damp but wet. So the moves were all right, it was a lot of standing poses and balancing poses but we did not do any flows or vinyeses. It was not really physically hard, like a challenging cardio workout, it was just kind of hard to tell since I sweated so much and I felt like I was going to pass out. I do know that my muscles were really stretched out and I felt pretty good afterward, despite still having a stomach ache. So I should probably try it again since I now know that I was just beginning to get the stomach virus and that could have something to do with my nauseated feeling and not liking how the room smelled or it really could have made me feel that way. So it was a great stretch, I don't really think they need to have the room be at 105 degree to get the same affect but I am not an expect so maybe it is more affective.

I am glad that I tried it. I will probably try it again and stand by the door this time since that was a cooler spot, I was right by the heater.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Nathan not having another ear infection
-sleeping in my comfortable bed
-watching Julianne interact with her friends at Daisy Scout meeting

Nathan's butt

Well last week I took some pictures of the kids while we did a paper mache project and I took some pictures of Nathan's naked butt. I love baby naked butt pictures. This will be the last time I will take his naked butt picture since he is getting older and his butt is cute but not as cute as a baby butt picture. I will have to find Julianne and Mallory's naked butt baby pictures and post them since they had dramatically different butts. Nathan's butt is more like Mallory's. He had fun posing and knew how to hid is privates very well with his leg or with a frog puppet Julianne made.




Here are some pictures of the girls doing their craft of the week. We have not finished them since we all got sick this weekend but hopefully when we come back from vacation. They are going to either be Easter eggs, fish or anything else the girls want them to be.



Over last weekend I made Nathan his own "boy" doll since I made the each one of the girls one. I think it turned out very cute. He is not too thrilled with it and pretty much ignores it but at least I know that I made one for him. Hopefully he will give it to one of his kids.



My new projects, I guess after our vacation, will be dresses for the girls. I saw these cute dresses at the fabric store when I went the other day and really had to try making them a dress. I have cut out the pattern and I plan on copying the pieces so that I can use them for both different sizes for the girls.


I am going to try this dress first since it does not have sleeves


Mallory loves this dress since it has ribbons. So I will try that second so that I can get used to sewing dresses.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Talking to a good friend from TN on the phone this morning (I wish we could talk more often:( )
-having neighborhood dog friends for the boys
-Not throwing up while I ran this morning (I kind of felt like I was going to but it went away after a while and it was actually a nice run after having not exercised for awhile)

We are all sick

The bad news is that we all got the stomach bug this weekend. The good news is that we hopefully will not be sick on our vacation. Mallory started throwing up on Saturday night and pretty much did it all night. I threw up Sunday morning, Julianne started throwing up late Sunday morning and Nathan threw up once in the afternoon. So I am feeling a ton better today and I hate having the stomach. I guess that no one really likes it but it just reminds me of when I was little and I would get it every year. Nathan is doing well today. I thought for sure he would throw up again but he did not. I put towels on his bed, took away his stuffed animals and did all the throw up proofing I could to his bed and sure enough he did not throw up. He does however, have terrible diarrhea. He poops like every hour and it is from his antibiotics. Julianne is feeling better today. She just told me an hour ago that she was feeling better and she wanted to go to school and not stay in this "boring house all day". So my neighbor took her to school. Mallory is not doing as well. She is struggling to eat and still looks ghostly white. She had a bite of soup this morning and maybe a bite of bagel but that is all.

I am glad that this is happening now since the last time we went on a family vacation was in December of 2005. We all got sick and it was an exhausting vacation. Two nights before we flew to Utah Julianne had the stomach bug and threw up the entire night. So we thought we were in the clear but the night that we flew into Utah Mallory threw up the entire night and then the next night I got it and then the next day D had it. It was the worst stomach bug I have had in a long time. I my entire system was all off kilter. D never threw up but had the other stomach issues and he fainted in the bathroom while he was at the sink. We also got my brother sick and I felt really bad. It was a fun time despite our sickness. We got to ski several days and the kids still enjoyed themselves. So I don't want to relive that so I am glad that we are getting now and the changes of us getting next week are very slim.

Things I a grateful/thankful for:
-how good you feel after not having the urge to throw up
-having a washer and dryer to clean dirty smelly thrown up on sheets, towels, etc.
-Liking food again

Mallory's sick

Mallory woke up on Friday morning (2:00 am ish) acting like she was going to throw up, she never did and then went back to sleep, got up acting like she had to throw up and then went back to sleep. So Friday regular morning, (7:30 ish) she was not feeling well at all. She sounded funny like her throat was swelled and she did not eat breakfast. Well anyway she ended up throwing up at least 5 times and then I decided to take her to the doctor because her throat was really red and I thought she may have strep throat. Well anyway, I took her in that afternoon and she did have strep throat and Nathan still has his ear infection. So they are both on antibiotics, his is a much stronger one. Mallory is feeling much better today and has been playing all day. I am kind of upset that Nathan still has an ear infection. This is our third antibiotic within two months so that kind of worries me that we may have to do something else. The girls never had ear infections that took longer than one antibiotic to get over. So we will see what happens.

Well earlier this week I tried again to take pictures of the kids and once again I did not have full cooperative behavior from my oldest child. She was not too into it and I did not get that one shot of all them having fun and in action. I will have to try to capture it in another manner.





Here are the kids still playing with our handmade silkies.



I took Nathan's diaper off and we had to go upstairs to get a new diaper and he kept walking and this is what happen. His pants are always so large at the waist and when he finally does wear underwear they will all fall off of him. Hopefully he fills in before that.


On Thursday night Julianne had her first grade open house at her school. It was great. The kids have been studying Asia and they have learned about Chinese, Indian and Japanese traditions. They sang lots of fun songs and most importantly they had a great time and worked really hard on all the songs and their classroom.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
- Running in warmer weather
- Listening to Nathan's increased vocobalary
-Seeing Julianne have fun on stage and her desire to want to show us all her school work

Pillars of Wisdom from the Yoga Sutra

So I mentioned in an earlier post that I am a yoga fanatic. I have been practicing for a little less than a year and I still love it. I am actually able to get into the poses pretty comfortably and breathe with each pose. I have noticed a big difference in my old limited flexibility to my new limber status. I am now running pain free, for the most part, and I no longer have lower back pain and I just feel more supple all over. I actually find myself more relaxed and able to deal with daily life better. I now find the downward dog position very relaxing. I am now searching for a yoga studio that offers more types of and harder classes than my current gym. I love the yoga classes at my gym but I am ready to move into more complicated positions and more strenuous vinyasas. I will probably not join a yoga center right now since I already have a gym membership and I have three kids that usually go with me but I may look into other classes once a month to supplement my current yoga practice. I have a tendency to get bored easily with exercise and I have a strong desire to keep pushing my physical limits and I think a specialized yoga center could offer me some other yoga alternatives.

I am also learning more about yoga's history and it's related teachings and scriptures. These teachings came from Patanjali who wrote a manual containing essential advice for daily living.

This Yoga Sutra is specifically designed to lead individuals to greater happiness and spiritual fulfillment. Many followers think of these as Yoga's Ten Commandments. The Ten Sutra's are divided into two categories called Yamas and Niyamas. Yamas are about restraining behaviors that are motivated by grasping, aversion, hatred, and delusion. Niyamas are designed to create well-being for ourselves and others. (Yoga Journal, "Path to Happiness", February 2009)

Most of the following information is directly cited or summarized from the the Yoga Journal article cited above. I do not write as well as they explain it so I will pretty much use their wording and add in my own thoughts. This is a great exercise for me since I read the article and loved it and I always take more away from things when I take notes, as in school, so this is a good exercise for me to learn more about these teachings.

Five Yamas

1. Ashimsa: nonharming- The opportunity to relinquish hostility and irritability, and instead make space within your consciousness for peace. This is basically about examining all your negative thoughts and stepping back from them and not feeding into them, thus minimizing their hold on you.

I don't really hold onto many negative thoughts regarding myself or others. I do tend to worry too much about possible events or things which can occur that are also negative and these sometimes do hold me back (for instance traveling far from my children).

2. Satya: truthfulness-Many interpretations promise that once you're fully vested in satya, everything you say will come to be realized (this is an interesting statement). Sometimes it is hard to separate your point of view from the truth. Additionally it requires you to consider both the spoken and unspoken aspects of your words. It basically means don't gossip even if the information you're giving or given is true. It also discusses an interesting aspect that spending time in silence helps an individual distinguish between opinions and reality. Slowing down your internal chatter can help ground you in satya.

I can see how silence would help decrease one's need to gossip and/or to speak only from one's point of view. I know of so many people that just constantly talk and never really know what they are saying and if they are making sense of what they are saying or believing or gossiping about. I would love to learn to meditate. This is one of my goals for the next few years.

3. Asteya: nonstealing-"Don't steal and all good things will come to you". This can relate also to someone's time, someone's energy, someone's happiness, ideas, etc. It also calls for a focus on how and what you consume. If you are taking something, are you giving back the appropriate amount? In other words, have fair trade be your mantra-Respect time and energy from others, give credit where credit is due, and see if you can help build up the world's kindness reserves by giving more than you take.

I actually like this one and try live it pretty much everyday. I do make sure I am respectful of others time, belongings and of the things that I am consuming. I do try to give back to my friends and family.

4. Brahmacharya: energy moderation-Preventing the dissipation of one's energy through a personal energy conservation program. Basically you are not letting the senses rule your behaviour; you are not urge driven.

I think I understand this one. Don't always give into your urges or desires because they could lead to overabundance or to "bad behavior". I am not a real risk taker nor do I have any extreme urges or desires that would get me into trouble.

5. Aparigraha: nongrasping-This is the decision to not hoard or accumulate goods through greed but rather to develop an attitude of stewardship toward the material world. Basically asking yourself before you buy it do you need this for my role in life? as a parent? as a spiritual seeker? Or am I just accumulating stuff out of my own fear or greed. This can also relate to non material ideas such as old beliefs about yourself or your relationships, or clinging to a career that no longer feeds you, etc.

I usually follow this lesson. I do not accumulate too much stuff or hold onto old beliefs. I am pretty aware of the material world and I hate how much or nation consumes and uses up resources.

6. Saucha: purity-This involves keeping your physical and mental self "clean". You want to keep your thoughts uncluttered so you can feel free from afflictive emotions; you keep your body and environment in order, to create a sense of calm.

I do have an abundant amount of cluttering thoughts in my head that I do not need and most of the time drive me crazy. Mostly these are my worries that sometimes rule my mind, especially at night. I think I could defiantly work on this one.

7. Santosha: contentment-Accepting life as is. It's not about creating perfections. Life will throw whatever it wants at you, and you ultimately have little control. Be welcoming of what you get.

I do well adjusting to change and whatever happens, however, I do worry about how I will adjust in the time leading up to the expected change but when it occurs I adapt easily. I think that also applies to having and raising kids. I am pretty relaxed when it comes to raising my children and try not to control too many of their behaviors or actions.

8. Tapas: right effort- The willingness to do the work, which means developing discipline, enthusiasm, and a burning desire to learn. This relates to learning something new, changing your diet, contentment, or non-judgement.

I love learning new skills, new ways of doing things and to push my physical limits. I defiantly try to do the best job that I can do when it comes to most aspects of my life either it be being a mom, a wife, a friend, a planner, a photographer, etc. My problem is that I might try too hard and have high expectations that are not always met and then there is disappointment which is not healthy either.

9. Svadhyaya: self-study-This is about looking within and asking the eternal question: Who am I? When you self observe, you begin to uncover and address the unconscious patterns governing your life.

This one is difficult to do on a daily basis. This reminds me of the New Earth book by Eckhart Tolle. It is about being present and really looking inside and your reactions to daily events. I can do this when I am aware of it but as life goes on it is hard to do this all the time in the moment.

10. Ishvara Pranidhana: Dedication to the Highest-The highest happiness comes only from a love of, communion with, and surrender to, God. God in this sense could be an anthropomorhpic representation of God or it could be offering oneself to the divine matrix or making an artistic offering to the greater good.

I do believe in serving the greater good and a higher power. I guess I would call it a God or more than one God but I do have an overwhelming sense that things happen for a reason and there is some sort of higher order to this universe.

So those are my thoughts on these Yoga Sutra's. I have heard and read about these before but I have never really sat down and studied them and reflected my thoughts on each one. I would love to practices these everyday but it is hard and it is nice to be reminded of them on a dialy basis. I may type these out and hang it it my room so that I can be remined of these lessons daily. Or I may not. I kind of have my own teachings in my head and these pretty much parallel what my idea doctrines would teach. Thanks for reading I hope it was not too boring.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-being able to read interesting and challenging articles/books/etc.
-having a stylish husband for dressing advice
-warmer weather (I know I just mentioned this in a very previous post but I am very thankful for this)
-Easter candy, specifically jellybeans, peeps, and chocolate eggs

Craft of the week and some fun outside

Well the weather warmed up a little bit last week and then it began to become quite cold again this weekend. However, we finally made it outside to play for awhile and we did a marble painting project this week. The kids enjoyed it and I would have actually liked to do it by myself and see what creations I could have made but I had to keep track of the kids and the food coloring. For this project we used oil and food coloring, mixed them together and then put it in a shallow pan of water. The food coloring and oil do not mix well nor does it mix with water. So when you put the food coloring and oil mixture in the water it stays in little balls. We put the paper on it and it soaked up the food coloring in fun shapes. The kids got tired of doing it that way and ended up just squirting the food coloring/oil mixture right on the card stock for their own creations. We will probably use these pieces of card stock for future handmade cards.




I have not taken pictures of all three kids for awhile so I asked them to sit in front of our door and play a little bit. Well you would have thought I asked Julianne to run around the block. She was not into it and kept giving me fake smiles and not really playing with the other kids. Nathan and Mallory loved it and keep kissing each other for some cute pictures.


Don't you love Julianne's face. She looks like a teenager.




Julianne perked up after she got to ride her bike and not sit anymore for pictures.

I took Nathan to the allergist today for his yearly allergy testing. Well he tested positive for peanuts again, dust mites and some of the tree pollens for the first time. She said that usually the dust mites show up this early since they have been exposed to these mites the longest. I showed her pictures of Nathan from last spring when he had eczema on his face and arms and his eyes were really red and she said that last spring was very high in some tree pollen and she said they had lots of kids with the red eyes like Nathan. She said he is probably allergic to some other seasonal allergies but they have just not shown up on the test yet. She suggested that if we do not need any other help for allergies this spring that we not have him tested again until he is 4. She did say to keep track of his asthma outbreaks to see if it is really from a cold or from a nasal allergy. So it was good to find out that he does not have any food allergy and that he probably just has seasonal allergies. It will be interesting to see how he reacts this spring and summer. He is doing well now. He had a little bit of eczema on the back of his legs that really itch him but the rest of his skin right now is soft and eczema free. So we will see if that changes in the spring.

This is a picture of him the night of his test. They pricked his entire back so there were dots on his entire back earlier in the day and these are the ones that remain. The dot on the lower left side is the dust mite. The dots on the right side are the tree pollens. I am not sure what the others ones are.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Having a great doctor visit with Nathan. We played ball together and colored
-seeing the girls do gymnastics
-having a good parenting day