Debt Reduction Goal

Karl and I have reached 33% of our debt reduction goal. Hopefully this will continue.

Long Hair

In high school I had some really great friends. Through those years I talked to those friends a lot and as a result I found out a lot about who I am and who I wanted to be.
One of those talks was about hair, and as a result I decided that "long hair" means hair to the middle of the back. Specifically to the point that you can reach behind your back and touch it without leaning your head back. I also decided that the hair needed to look healthy and either be straight across or have a nice gentle curve, but regardless it needed to be as thick at the bottom as it was higher up (to avoid the scraggly look).
While Karl has said he likes my hair however I want to have it, I decided to grow it out. And I now officially have "long hair".

Sugar

There was a period on my mission when my companion and I were trying to be more healthy. We were exercising (aka playing volleyball) for 2-4 hours every p-day, cutting down our portion sizes etc. Then, about a week before Easter Sisalee decided to go off sugar. It took me about 2 days to realize that if she was off, I might as well go off too. So I did. The first week was pretty rough, but then we got in the groove and did great. We asked the members we ate with to please not make desserts for us, so they made fruit bowls instead. We hid most of the candy we had in a box in the closet, and gave the rest away. In the following couple months I lost a bunch of weight, and felt great! After a few months Sisalee gave in and ate a piece of candy, and I did too, and that was the end. Though the weight did stay off for over a year (until I got pregnant with Kaleb).

A month ago I gave up soda. I had been drinking about 3 cans a day, at least one being a diet Coke. I actually didn't even enjoy it, I drank it because I wanted it. So when my chiropractor commented that I would have fewer headaches if I didn't drink soda it got me thinking. The next day I only had 1 soda and after that it was cold turkey. It was really tough. Awful headaches for a week and a half, and a constant craving for it. Since then it's been great. Occasionally I want a soda, but I drink some Crystal Light instead. I am way glad I stopped drinking it. Last night I accidentally drank a little and was amazed at how sweet it was. It was like drinking syrup.

I've been trying to cut down on my sugar intake, but that is going about as good as cutting down on ciggarettes for someone who smokes. (It might go good for a few days, but then it jumps up high again.) I decided I need to take serious action.

Now to my next goal, I'm going off sugar. I'm planning on doing this the same way I did on the mission, so I'll still eat a few things that some people would say count as sugar (like breath minths). I started this morning and so far it's been pretty hard. How sad is it that 1 day of no sugar is so hard to do? I figure if I write it down then I have to be more committed to it, especially by writing it where others will read it. I'm not sure how long this will be for, but I want to make it at least a month. At that point I'll evaluate and see how much longer I want to continue.
So- if I call you and ask you if I should eat something, the answer is no. Thanks.

Broken Glasses

Kaleb made it 3 1/2 months before he (and his brother) broke his glasses. That's good for a 5 year old, right?

Shopping

I've been having a lot of fun getting good deals at the grocery store lately. One of my friends does a great job and is helping me learn how to do it. She has a cool blog called joysdumbdeals.blogspot.com if you're interested in seeing how good she does.
On Saturday I bought $43.34 worth of stuff and spent 24.68. That's 44% off!!! Today I did even better.
I bought all this stuff:

The total was $65.14. I got 9.05 off in coupons which made it only $56.09. I thought I had done better than that so I was really bummed. On my way out of the store I realized I had forgotten to have the cashier scan my Fresh Values card. I figured it was too late, but I went to ask Customer Service if I could get my savings refunded. She said it was no problem, entered my receipt number and gave me back $25.02. That made my total $31.07. Which means I got 52% off.
I only spent about an hour figuring out the coupons and making my list and shopping, which made my time worth about $35/hour. Not too shabby.

Toothpicks

I really wish I had one of those salt shakers that has holes big enough to fit toothpicks. Maybe I'll settle for buying round toothpicks instead of square ones next time.

Research Study

***Gross out warning*****
This post contains information that you may find gross, read at your own risk.

This week I got to do something I've always wanted to do, I was in a research study. I was called and asked if I was interested about a month ago and I said I was. It started yesterday with about 30 minutes of instructions and an hour of testing on Eddie (they tested his motor skills and language skills). Then I got to wear a blood pressure cuff for 12 hours and each time it went off I had to answer about 10 questions. It went off every 15 minutes. I also got to collect my urine for 24 hours (fun huh?)

This morning was the interesting part. They wrapped electrode tape around my neck and ribcage and connected it to a machine that monitored my vital signs. They also put on a blood pressure cuff that went off about ever 2 minutes during each test. Then they monitored me doing different things; feeding Eddie, playing with him, ignoring him, talking about a stressful situation, being in a stressful situation (a bag of ice water pressed against my forehead (thanks Dad for teaching me about deep breathing when you're trying to stay calm)), resting by myself and feeding Eddie again. They also drew my blood at the beginning of the tests and at the end of the tests. After each situation I got to do another urine sample and a saliva sample, they also took a saliva sample from Eddie a few times.

While I was doing the situations that didn't include Eddie he was in another lab serving as a control group for another study. In that one they put sensors on babies heads and measured the energy coming off their heads (indicating they were thinking), while they were shown videos. They needed some readings of infants that weren't watching the videos for the control group, so they put the sensors on him for a few minutes. He didn't mind at all.

In a few weeks I'll get a check for participating in the study, but I found it so interesting I think I would have done it for free. In November I can do it again for another check if I'd like to.

My research methods class was one of my favorites so far, so this was really interesting to do. Here are some things that I learned, some I probably would have known if I'd thought about it, but they were cool anyway:
Eddie knows my voice and prefers it to a stranger's voice.
Eddie knows his name and responds to it. He ignores other names.
Eddie's receptive language skills are a month ahead, and his expressive language skills are about where they should be.
Eddie's fine motor skills are where they should be, and his gross motor skills are a month ahead. He was the only baby so far in the study that could roll to his side (he hasn't figured out how to get to his tummy yet).
If you're collecting urine for 24 hours you don't have to worry about it staying cold.
Blood pressure cuffs start to hurt after awhile, and can make blood vessels near the surface pop if they are on too tight.
My normal blood pressure is 118/80. My blood pressure doesn't go up very much in stressful situations (119/86), but goes WAY down in restful ones.
When I'm feeding Eddie my blood pressure is 100/61. I've never had it that low before.

Overall it was a fun experience, and the check will be nice too.

If you know anyone near Provo with a baby 3 months or under they need more participants.