Splendiferous Zeppelin Escapades

Both Adam and I have gotten sick and tired of me being sick and tired. So, we FINALLY did something about it.

A Little History:
For the last several months (I’d say since the beginning of the year or so), I’ve been getting sick to my stomach A LOT over weird little things; I’ve been getting headaches more frequently and have been exhausted after a normal day. There have been a few other things, but those are the major issues.

Wednesday:
We went to the doctor to see what’s going on. And he like the rest of the world we tell about this asks if I’m pregnant (which I’m NOT, so don’t ask). So, he decides to run a bunch of tests. And he covers just about every thing there is to cover in order to find a place to start. So, we have to go back the next day for the results.

Thursday:
We go back to the doctor. I was kind of nervous; I think I was afraid I was going to learn I had something serious (I don’t, but still) or that he had no idea what was wrong with me and all the “doing something” would stop there.

So while it wasn’t anything monumental, I learned that my good cholesterol is too low (apparently I wasn’t blessed with good genes that way) and that my Ferritin levels are CRAZY low. What is Ferritin you ask? Well, here:

Ferritin is a protein in the body that binds to iron; most of the iron stored in the body is bound to ferritin. Ferritin is found in the liver , spleen , skeletal muscles, and bone marrow. Only a small amount of ferritin is found in the blood. The amount of ferritin in the blood shows how much iron is stored in your body.

The Doctor said he likes to the see these levels at between 80 and 120 mg/L and mine are at 12. No wonder I’ve been tired all the time. This might even explain some of my headaches.

I’ve been “ordered” to take an iron supplement and take a 30 to 40 minute walk 4 days a week. We’re going back in 6 weeks to see if these make a difference in how I’m feeling. Let’s hope.

Jessica just left for California for her brother’s wedding, and I get to spend the weekend (a 3-day weekend!) with Spencer.  I’m quite happy about this.  I also get to spend the weekend with cloth diapers, or at least that’s what I thought.  This post is NOT void of vivid descriptions of baby poop, so be warned.  :)

I’ve changed his cloth diapers before, but I’ve never done the whole shabang by myself.  This involves using them throughout the day and having to deal with any poopies as well as washing/drying them at night and re-stuffing them.  I was all gung-ho about it.  I was on board.  In fact, I’ve never had any issues yet, and I’ve been behind Jessica 100% with this.  I still am, but I think my weekend of cloth diapering is over.  That’s right: after one diaper change I may be going disposable until Jessica gets back.  Here’s why.

The very first diaper I changed after we got back from the airport was a poopie.  It stank pretty bad, but I’m a veteran.  I don’t cringe in the face of duty.  I wisely removed the cover from the changing table, not knowing whether the wet in his pants was pee or poop (gross!).  I laid him down, pulled down the pants and diaper, and there it was, Lake Spencer.  Maybe Mud-Bog Spencer or Swamp Spencer would be more accurate.  It was definitely liquid, but with solid leanings.  Please understand, I’m not a noob when it comes to these things.  I have always done my fair share of diapers, poop and non-poop alike, but this one was massive and disgusting.  And the worst part?  I knew I couldn’t just wrap it up and throw it away.

I cleaned off Spencer’s bum while trying to keep his hands from investigating The Swamp and finally managed to get poop separated from baby.  I set him down, bottomless, and sent him to the bath tub.  I very carefully carried The Mud-Bog to the toilet and prepared to dump it out like I’ve been instructed.  Jessica’s told me that you just dump out what you can and then put the rest in the pail.  First of all, this was NOT going in the pail because I didn’t want to have to SCRUB sloshed over swamp-stuff from the pail.  That meant it was going straight to the washer, but I wasn’t going to throw all the “mud” in there.  My problems increased as I realized it was just in that “sweet” spot on the liquid/solid scale that it wouldn’t dump out of the diaper.  I balanced it in one hand while going to get water in a cup with the other hand and tried to rinse it off into the toilet.  That was fine for the first time, but then I realized I had to get more water, but now I had a dripping swamp-diaper that I had to balance just right so it wouldn’t come out while I got to the faucet.

I did this about 5 times and decided it was ready for the washer.  Unfortunately, on my way over there, the now mostly water/somewhat poop stuff on the surface of the diaper started to drip out, so I had to catch it with my hands.  This does take two hands to achieve such a feat, and I found myself at quite a loss for how to open our front-loader washer.  My feet soon sprang to action, and I really hope you can get the vivid picture of me juggling the swamp diaper while dancing on  one foot while the other is tangled up in the washer door handle.  It even makes me laugh…now.

So, it all turned out ok, but I just don’t think I’m going to do it the rest of this weekend.  Sure, Spencer likely won’t put me through that again, but I just don’t want to deal with it when the disposable works just fine.  Don’t get me wrong, I am totally behind moving to cloth diapers and think it’s a fantastic idea and will support Jessica a 100%.  But Jessica’s not here.  :)

P.S.  I really am behind you a 100% sweetie!  Just not for the next couple days!  I love you!

I’ve been feeling lately that I can be doing SO much better than I am in a lot of different areas of my life. Starting on Sunday (as in a couple days ago), I decided I was going to do something about it instead of just thinking it.

I’ve made a goal to be more consistent with my scripture study and that will help me be a better seminary teacher. To help me with that, I’ve actually started the Young Women’s Personal Progress program. Since I’d be through the program it has changed, and I thought what a good way to keep me moving forward and goal oriented. I didn’t want to start with Faith, experience 1, but it really has been a great place to start.

I’ve also made a goal to exercise 3 times a week. My exercise of choice is yoga. I love the calm of it. I am using an online community called MyYogaOnline to help me. They have all kinds of videos of routines for me to follow so I never get bored of doing the same one over and over again. I can always just pick a different one.

I am planning on starting a running program with Adam, but I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew to start. I want to stick with it, and starting to exercise 6 days a week (while good for me) is a sure fire way to make me stop. I’ll work up to it though.

I thought I would put these out there so others can see so that I might be held more accountable for what I’m doing. I need a little motivation to keep me on the path, so if you happen to remember I’m doing this, feel free to ask me about it.

My son is a busy body. He’s always going and always grabbing things. Especially things he shouldn’t have. So, today was no different than every other day, except that I walked away.

I’m in the process of reclaiming my room from the clutter than always seems to find it’s way into my room. I came out and sat down at the computer to check my email. That is Spencer’s cue that it is his turn to play on the computer, of course.

So, I get him playing on one of his favorite games at KneeBouncers.com, and then I walk back into my room to get something and come right back.

In the time it took me to go from my room back to the office, Spencer stood up on the car, found the ONLY Sharpie in my pencil cup, and proceeds to draw on his face (and probably taste the marker). I am just grateful that is was JUST his face, and not the desk, the computer, or his clothes. I did get a couple of WAY cute pictures before I set to cleaning his face.

We did manage to get the Sharpie off. I took some Cover Girl Eye and Lip make-up remover and a cotton ball to it. It came off REALLY easily. It was no big deal at all. So, if you’re kids draw on themselves, make-up remover does a great job.

First of all, Thank you, Maura! You’re suggestion was just what I needed!!

My friend suggested Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers since she uses them, and I got a Fuzzi Bunz One-size diaper and it is my favorite!! I love it because I have complete control over the fit. I can adjust the waist to fit just right and the legs to fit perfectly. Since Spencer is tall and skinny he doesn’t fit into certain diapers well, because they are made for chubby babies.

I’ve only had it for a couple of days and have only used it a couple of times. But Spencer REALLY put it through it’s paces. He completely soaked it from the front to back and the diaper didn’t leak at all!! I’m so happy. We’ve had issues with leaks, and I’m so happy that it didn’t leak.

Even if I go and get enough of these to last for a couple of days, I’m still glad I have the covers and the cloth diapers I started with. They will be helpful if Spencer gets a rash since I’m not supposed to use rash ointment with my Fuzzi Bunz.

I’ll get a picture of Spencer in it to post soon. (I took them this morning, but smart me didn’t have the memory in the camera to actually get the pictures).