I'm a Fat/Lazy Ass

In the last 18 months I've managed to pack on about 25 lbs.  Yes, 25 pounds people.  How did I manage that you ask.  The answer:  I quit working out, got super stressed (not the good kind that suppresses your appetite, the bad kind that causes crazy levels of cortisol to hold on to every morsel of food you throw down the hatch), got married, and didn't stick to a healthy eating plan.  I tipped the scale last Nov. at 160 lbs. Holy shit!  I can't believe I just shared that with you.  160 pounds on my (less than) 5'2" frame is not healthy and doesn't look or feel that great.  One of my amazing coworkers/friends, Brianna, didn't believe me, she thought I was around 140 (God bless her!).  I must admit that my body type hides it pretty well, too bad my clothes and the nasty body staring back at me every morning lets me know.  In April Wes and I got fed up with our chub and joined a local gym.  When we started I was 156, couldn't really lift more than 3lb dumbbells, and could hardly run for more than two minutes without feeling like my lungs were going to explode.  By the beginning of June I was fluctuating between 151 & 153 but felt much better, ran for ten minute intervals and got back to lifting 8-10 pound dumbbells at high reps.  Hell yeah!  Too bad I fell off the wagon right before our Mexico trip and haven't jumped back on.  Oops!  Once again, I've let myself down.  Fortunately I lost weight because I wasn't eating a bunch of crap, but I'm floating around 150 and feel flabby.  One of the bloggers I follow, http://www.mamalaughlin.com/, started a weight loss group on Facebook which I decided to join.  I'm awful about accountability so I hope this helps.  One of the gals in this group started a Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred group that started yesterday.  The ladies are posting before/after photos, their starting measurements, and encouraging one another.  Yesterday was day one but I didn't workout, I was running errands all day and just wasn't feeling it, so I did Day 1 today.  I felt great during and afterward so why don't I do this most days?  The answer lies in the title of this post: I'm a lazy ass.  

Until next time...

Some Serious Stress

I've been putting off this post for about a week now because I was debating whether or not I wanted to share/vent.  I'm going to pre-frame this by saying that this is my blog so I'm not going to stress too much about my language, especially when I'm emotional, or over sharing.  (Sorry grandparents)

Alright, so we've been trying (unsuccessfully) to get pregnant for about 6 months now.  My cycles have progressively gotten longer since stopping birth control last Sept.  When I say longer I mean I started at 34 days and have now surpassed my longest cycle of 42 days by fifteen days!  Holy shit!  After some concern at day 50 from my friend Brianna & her sister who's an RN in labor & delivery, I called my doctor's office to schedule an in-office pregnancy test and a blood test.  

Real quick rewind to the beginning of June.  I went in for a pre-conception checkup to make sure I was ovulating and to ease my nerves about my long cycles.  Well, they had me come in for a blood test between days 25 & 30 of my cycle to check hormone (progesterone & estrogen), thyroid levels, etc. The test came back with everything looking great.

Back to the shit storm that's ensued since then.  The in-office pregnancy test came back negative (as suspected) but I had to wait a day to find out what the blood work said.

The blood work came back negative as well but with some bad news: I'm not ovulating every month.  The nurse confirmed my fear of needing to start Clomid to ensure ovulation.  Awesome.  Do you know how shitty it feels to know your body has failed you when a bunch of couples your age are popping up pregnant left & right?  I can't say I'm not happy for them because that's a lie, I'm jealous & happy for them.  I hate feeling like that about such an incredible thing but I can't help myself.  

The fertility specialist at the office I go to is out of town through the end of next week so I couldn't get an appointment until July 27.  So now we wait.  I'm a natural worrier so the nurse's advice about "Not worrying or stressing out" is going to be ignored completely.  By the way, how the hell are you not supposed to worry when you find out you need a drug to help you get pregnant?  Thank goodness Wes is such a calm, supportive man otherwise I'd lose my mind.

Just to add another fun medical issue to this post: I was diagnosed with Lymphocytic Colitis in June so the stress has really wreaked havoc on my system.  You can read about Lymphocytic Colitis here.

Have you (or anyone you know) had to take Clomid or faced other infertility issues?  Any and all encouraging words are welcome but I swear if you tell me "it's going to be okay, just don't stress" I'll choke you.

Until next time...

OUR WEDDING

I just hit "Publish" and realized I forgot to post any pictures from our wedding.  Whoops!

Apparently this is the only picture I have saved on the computer.  More to come.

It's been a while

Wow!  Time flies when you're having fun!  Actually, I'm not sure we were having that much fun, it's more like we were being lazy about posting.  Oops! I'm going to attempt to catch you up on all the goings on since our last post and, as promised, I will post a picture of the awful stairs we made numerous trips up and down.  Ugh... I'm sweating just thinking about it.

 This is from the very bottom step looking straight up

Also from the bottom but further away. Ack!

We moved to Kent late last August so our commutes would be more even, Wes was driving 2+ hours one way depending on how awful traffic was and I had a 10 minute commute that had one stop light.  Now I'm only 30 minutes to work and about 40-45 home and Wes is about an hour depending on traffic conditions.  I had no idea that Kent was so centrally located.  We're only about 20 minutes from Sea-Tac Airport, 25-30 from Seattle, 30 from my parent's and 15 from Tacoma.

At the end of September we went to Madison, WI for my sister-in-law's much anticipated wedding.  Despite the stress of all the wedding prep, we had a great time.  It was a treat to see all the family twice in as many months since we usually have to wait until Christmas to catch up.

My sis-in-law, Heather, looked absolutely stunning and didn't seem to notice the amazing amount of wind coming off Lake Monona.  Heather and Dave made sure we all had a great time by providing what we like to call Boat Drinks (anything w/ rum), a photo booth, great music, and yummy Caribbean food.

 A view of The Capitol building from the ceremony

Grandmother & Granddad Mix dancing brought us to tears

When we got home from Madison, I adopted a 1 yr old cat named Adele.  She makes me happy but Wes could do without.

Adele admiring Dave's fish

As far as I can remember, nothing significant happened between Adele's arrivel and the beginning of January 2012 when we got our sweet Miniature Schnauzer that we named Maverick.

 Maverick after we left the breeder

 Maverick meeting his much older cousin, Mickey

Maverick chewing on Mickey's ear

A major snow/ice storm followed Maverick's arrival.  Due to the ice in our neighborhood we were unable to leave the house for 3 days.  The only reason we braved the roads was because we lost power and our house was getting incredibly cold.  A big thank you to Heather & Dave for allowing all four of us to crash at their place for a few nights.

In February we went to The Adrift Inn in Long Beach, WA for a weekend getaway.  It was incredibly windy the entire time we were there but we managed to get out and enjoy ourselves.  We drove to Astoria, OR to get liquor (at the time our liquor stores were state run w/ crazy high prices and poor selection), check out The Goonie House & the school from Kindergarten Cop, and visit the Coast Guard Museum. 

 The Goonie House

The school from Kindergarten Cop

We also hiked to The Cape Disappointment Light House.  We forgot to grab the Nikon so all pictures were taken with our point and shoot but turned out pretty well.

In May Maverick graduated from Puppy School.

What a handsome boy

In June we went to Cancun on a family vacation to celebrate my in-law's 40th wedding anniversary.  We had such a good time that my sis-in-law, Holly, already has her travel agent looking for deals for next year! We  didn't take many pictures because we were too busy relaxing drinking.  If I come across any that are post worthy, I'll make sure to get them up.  The day after we got back we hit the road to Gresham, OR to watch my youngest sister, Heather (I know it's confusing), graduate with her certificate in Funeral Services Education.  In other words, she's a funeral director.  She worked incredibly hard to make the Dean's List, Vice President's List, and Honor Roll all while working at a funeral home about an hour from her school.  We couldn't be more proud of her!

Wow!  This post is a little out of control.  I hope this isn't over kill and I'll do my best not to allow this to happen again.

Until next time....

4 Weeks Post Wedding

In true Lamberth fashion we just can't seem to slow down and relax.  About a week after the wedding we found a rental that we really liked (mostly because it's much closer to Wes's office) so naturally we signed rental papers and are moving this weekend.  I'm pretty sure we're going to keep going at this pace through the end of the year since we have 3 weddings to attend in the next month and a half and The Holidays are right around the corner.  Holy cow!  **deep breath**  We will send out either a mass e-mail with our new address, include the address in our Thank You cards (they'll be out very soon) or send a separate address update via snail mail.

For anyone interested in purchasing or downloading pictures from our wedding just click on the links below and enter the password: Lamberth2011.
http://kyliedanielson.smugmug.com/Weddings/Lamberth-Wedding/18491912_kZjJdC#1426984790_bhxH7WR
http://kyliedanielson.smugmug.com/Weddings/Lamberth-Beccas-Images/18605145_tWqk77#1437713039_JkTHwJZ
We're working on picking our pictures for our personal album and then the Parent's albums so we'll share our favorites here very soon.

I need to get packing since Wes is at work and the house is in shambles (I'll share the frightening pictures very soon).

TTFN

Lack of Sunshine

I've been resisting this post for a few weeks now, unfortunately it needs to happen. The weather is not cooperating so make sure you pack a pair of pants, long sleeve shirt, and light jacket for your trip to WA. The weather has been unacceptably wet and overcast. Somedays it's overcast, rainy and humid, others it's overcast and chilly with a slight breeze. I want all you out-of-towners to be prepared for whatever may happen. Ugh

And they're off...

By now I'm sure nearly everyone has a received their invites. The only ones left to send belong to anyone directly involved in the wedding, these will be in the mail tomorrow. Remember to send back your RSVP & Rehearsal Dinner cards so we can account for everyone and get meal selections in for the rehearsal dinner.

Now on to more exciting things. WE ONLY HAVE 64 DAYS LEFT!!! I (Candice) am totally freaking out! I'm losing sleep which is causing me to lose my mind and have far too many ditsy moments. Maybe meeting with our day-of-coordinator, Angela will help ease my mind. On that note, is it common for a bride-to-be to start "nesting"? That's the best term I could come up with because I don't really know what to call it. I've been pulling blinds down to super scrub them in the bathtub and can't wait for some drier weather so I can get out in the yard to make things organized.

Oh! I almost forgot to announce that Wes got a promotion! He started his new position as Northwestern WA Sales Manager on May 16th. He's waited nearly 3 years for this to happen and we couldn't be happier. He has quite the commute at the moment so his days have been very long but he seems to be getting the hang of things.

Okay, I need to get this last round of invitations ready to go so I will talk to you soon.

Hotels

Check out the TRAVEL AND HOTELS tab above for info on the first block of rooms we have reserved. We are planning on having blocks at a few local hotels so you can choose between them. But as a heads up, this one is giving us the best rate. Make your reservations soon.

God that was awful

Well, we survived that God awful climb. To keep our eyes on the prize we kept reminding ourselves that chemo and radiation are so much worse than climbing 1311 stairs. Holly, you're our hero, inspiration and motivation. (I know you rolled your eyes when you read that but it's true.)

Until next time

Climbing to fight Leukemia

We're @ the Columbia tower in downtown Seattle to do our part in helping find a cure for blood cancers. We're racing with very little training under our belt so pray for us.

FM3!!