Po' Sicky

Is there anything more pitiful than a sick baby?

Amelia has had a nasty cold all week, complete with boogy nose, cough, and lots of whinies. She has had a couple colds before, but this is the first time she's had the endless runny nose. How can that much snot come from such a little body? It's an absolute circus trying to clean her nose out with the booger sucker. She kicks and flails and screams and I have to hold both of her arms down and brace her head with my forearm so she can't jerk her head and get poked in the brain! Learning how to blow your nose has to be one of the top 5 most important skills a kid learns! We (the 3 girls) have been sleeping down in the living room for the last three nights because I can prop Amelia up in the corner of the couch so she can breathe while she's sleeping. I've also been on the couch and Lily has made a bed on the floor so she can be by us.

Lily is going through this major leechy phase right now. She's having anxiety about being alone and she freaks out anytime I'm out of her sight. I thought the babies were the ones that were supposed to have separation anxiety! It started a couple weeks ago when we drove down to my friend Cami's to drop off some wedding CD's. I left the girls in the driveway with the AC running and just ran in to give Cami the discs. She was on the phone so I had to wait a minute and when I went back outside Lily was screaming bloody murder. Totally understandable. However, she started doing it in our own driveway when I had them buckled up and had to run back in the house to get something. Then it progressed to Lily screaming and crying when I went to the basement or garage to get something. I've tried to talk to her about what she's scared of and she says she's worried about strangers. That makes sense in Cami's driveway, but not when we're in our own house! The girl is neurotic.

Needless to say, I am feeling very clostrophobic this week. I've only been able to do the minorest of tasks because Amelia needs to be held almost constantly and Lily is glued to my hip much of the day. On Wednesday we went to preview the house for our Cox family reunion in July. I have tons of pictures and bedroom assignments and other miscellaneous information to post on the blog, but I just haven't had time and I probably won't until Sunday. So stay tuned.

Calgon, Take Me Away...

Just a little braggin'

I did a photo shoot of two kids last week, 3 years old and 15 months. Their mom had seen me on Studio 5 on TV back in May and was so excited because she had finally talked her husband into letting her get a photo handbag for her birthday. I was looking forward to doing a kid shoot out on location so I could try to do more interactive/personality type photos rather than just portraits. I rented a 100mm 2.8 macro lens (the one I have been salivating over for months) and absolutely fell in love with it.

Must. Have. Now.

The lens was crisp and had great shallow depth of field (blurry backgrounds.) Imagine my delight when I pulled up the images on my computer and saw this photo:

I love the twirl, the flying pigtails, and the tongue sticking out in determined concentration. It's one of my all-time favorites. I'll be putting it on my new website (e.t.a. beginning of July, hopefully.) I only wish it was of my kid! Oh wait, I have a couple like this of my kid.

I'm sensing a pattern in my little-girl-in-a-dress photos! I still think I like the little girl in pink the best, though.

Here are some of my other favorites from the shoot.

This mom was the best sport. So many moms would have been like, "Don't get dirty! Get away from the water!" But no, she was all for it, helping them take their shoes off and watching with a smile as they walked across the creek and climbed the rocks.

This little piggy went to market...

We finished up at the playground and this was really where the smiles came out. The exploration and curiosity were replaced by just plain fun.

Oh to be a kid!

After seeing her proofs the mom sent me this awesome email saying "WOW- I'm sure you hear that all the time, but the pictures are incredible. Thank you, you're amazing! How am I going to narrow this down?" I love it when a client appreciates my vision.

I guess I'll stick with this photography thing!

Hello, Coolness

Well, I'm finally cool. Dan bought me an iPod shuffle and I have joined the modern music craze! Can you believe the size of this thing?

It holds up to 240 songs. We've sure come a long way since the walkman! My first download was some Indigo Girls and then Dan added a bunch of songs from his library: Johnny Cash, Blondie, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Tom Petty. I still need to go through and edit what I do and don't want, add some songs from my CD collection, and then venture to the iTunes store and download some songs off the internet. I feel so cool! Lily is fascinated with the iPod "Aww, it's so cute!" She's a big fan of the "Baby iPod".

I took the iPod with me while we were driving around doing errands yesterday. I put a kid CD on the car stereo for Lily and then I hooked myself up to the iPod and rocked out! Remember how we used to make mix tapes in the old days? Well, this is the ultimate mix right at your fingertips! I love the small size, cool color, and smooth surface. As I was driving I kept running my thumb around the smooth circle control panel in new electronic bliss (yes, Bin, I only had one hand on the wheel- shocking I know!)

Now I just have to start wearing my iPod around with the ear buds constantly attached and I'll be as cool as all the teenagers! Speaking of teenagers, I did a photo shoot of the Young Women in my old ward a couple weeks ago. I miss them so much! They have grown in number from 13 to 20! It's a gaggle of girls!

Where's Waldo?

I miss the energy and spunk of all the girls and the friendship of the leaders Kris, Jeanette, Ranae, and Kim. Leaving the YW was the hardest thing about moving.

Speaking of callings, I have a new one and it's proof that God has a sense of humor. You may recall my post from May 6th where I talked about the sheer joy I felt when substituting Lily's primary class at church. Well, I should have known not to say anything because I got called into the bishop's office a couple Sundays ago to ask if I would serve in a new calling. Yep, you guessed it, I am now the proud teacher of Lily's CTR 5B class. I've managed to weasel out of teaching the first two weeks (I was sick one week and the girls were sick the next week.) But I'm going to have to dive in and brave the chit-lins. I'll have to consult with my doctor about upping my Prozac dosage.

Here's a funny for the day. I've emailed it to some of you, but I thought it was worth putting on the blog as well.

We are Women, Hear us Roar!

My cousin Chris and I did the Little Red Riding Hood in Logan yesterday. It was an all women road ride with proceeds benefiting the Huntsman Cancer Institute. There were three distance options: 38 mile, 68 mile (the metric century), and 100 miles. I did the 38 mile ride by myself two years ago and it was pretty tough. But this year I had enlisted an accomplice, my friend Jenny, to ride with me. She tried to talk me into doing the 68 miler, but luckily Chris expressed an interest in doing the ride, and since Chris is a novice to road riding I felt an obligation to stick to the shorter distance (Phew! Thanks for being my scapegoat Chrissy-Poo!) After hearing that I had found another riding partner, Jenny bowed out in order to put her training money towards other events for the season. I was relieved to not come across as a total wimp to my riding partner!

Getting up at 4:45am and then driving an hour and 45 minutes is about the worst thing I can do. I'm a super sleepy driver and I must have nearly fallen asleep at the wheel about 10 times. I tried all the tricks: rolling down the windows, looking around constantly, snacking, slapping my cheeks, blaring the stereo and singing at the top of my lungs, but even Everclear and Tom Petty couldn't keep me perky! I was so glad when I finally rolled into Wellsville and could get out of the car and do something to wake myself up. Chris and her hubby Shad arrived just a couple minutes after me. It was so funny because as they drove past the registration area Shad was like, "Wow, there are a lot of women here." Chris was like, "Oh, didn't I mention that this was an all women ride?" Uh, no...Shad works at a bike shop, so he was adjusting Chris's bike when I went to meet them. After the bike adjustment, he fiddled with Chris's helmet, making sure it was nice and tight. He's super paranoid about road biking because most drivers just don't give a crap about watching out for bikers. He kept making Chris's helmet tighter despite her protests and she finally said, "Oh, just do whatever you want, I'm just going to loosen it as soon as you leave!"

I was decked out in Dan's new Fat Cyclist jersey. I've never worn a jersey before, I've always just worn a t-shirt or tank top. I used to use a Camelback for water so I just stored my extras (food, spare tube, phone, camera, etc.) in the backpack part. It's a fairly ideal system for mountain biking because you don't have to reach down for your water bottle while you're riding on tricky terrain. But for road riding it's pretty easy to use a water bottle, so you really don't need to carry the extra weight of a Camelbak. Can I just say that I am in love with jerseys? They have three deep pockets in the back for you to store stuff and that keeps your shoulders and back free from any additional burden. As we were riding I turned to Chris and said, "I'll bet the humor of my jersey is lost on a lot of these women." Chics generally don't appreciate fat jokes.

Nice can!

Here's the deal with the Fat Cyclist. When he started his blog, Elden was just an overweight guy who enjoyed biking. He chronicled his biking adventures as well as his weight loss progress. I think it has been three years now since he started the blog and he has hundreds of readers who love his humorous biking stories. Oh, and he's no longer fat. Dan started reading his blog about a year and a half ago and as I mentioned before, he makes lots of funny comments. When Elden moved from Washington to Utah, he posted a Top 10 Reasons I'm Looking Forward to Moving to Utah list and one of things was that he was looking forward to meeting Dan. Cool. They have become good friends and in addition to riding together, Dan's knowledge of molecular biology and cancer made him an excellent resource when Elden's wife recently found out that her breast cancer of two years ago had metastasized into her bones. She is undergoing treatment right now. Elden has talked about their situation on his blog and the guys who designed his Fat Cyclist jersey contacted him and offered to do a pink version of the jersey at no cost to show their support for Elden's wife Susan and for breast cancer research. The Pink Lemonade jerseys just became available for purchase and I'm certain they will sell out. Fatty has a huge online community of friends and everyone has been so eager to support he and his wife. In fact, Dan helped Elden secretly set up a PO Box where people could send cards for his wife. After a couple of weeks he surprised Susan with them. She has an awesome entry thanking everyone. Dan bought us both a pink jersey which boasts on the back "Team Fatty, Fighting for Susan." It's pretty cool. Dan posted a comment after he purchased the jerseys, "This is the most excited I’ve been about something I ordered on the internet since the Red Green costume my wife asked me to get to spice up the bedroom." See, I told you he was funny!

But I digress...As we went to get our registration worked out, Shad was visibly squirming from the overwhelming amount of estrogen in the air. He said, "Now I know how you wives feel when you come to our mountain bike races!" He took our "before" picture (Chris, the lucky dog with the bike store connections, scored a road bike for the day from the shop where Shad works.)

It was very cool to be around these hundreds of women with a common interest and goal. And of course, the Little Red Riding Hood wouldn't be complete without the Big Bad Wolf riding around!

I wanted to take a picture with him, but I could tell Chris was feeling that she had to draw the line somewhere!

The ride was beautiful! I didn't take any scenery pictures this year. Two years ago when I did the ride I was alone and I started late so there weren't many other riders around. I didn't feel like I was holding anyone up if I stopped and took photos. But this year we were right in the thick of it. Plus Chris and I were too busy blabbing to stop for silly photos! Here are a couple from last time so you can see what it looked like.

The course is almost completely flat and winds through cow and horse pastures with beautiful views of the mountains. I've been used to riding on hills and pulling 80+ pounds in the bike trailer so I was feeling light as a feather!

A long ride like this one is so much easier when you have a riding partner! It was so fun talking with Chris. We usually only see each other at family birthday parties and there just isn't individual one-on-one time to sit and really talk. I love my cousins! I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and she was telling me how her husband isn't that close with his extended family because he didn't grow up around them. I thought about my family and how we never lived near extended family because my Dad was in the Army, but somehow we managed to have a fairly close relationship among the cousins, and that has only increased over the past several years now that we all ended up in Utah.

The first stretch of the ride, about 23 miles, went pretty quickly. We averaged about 13.5 miles per hour and were pretty comfortable with each other's pace. After the ride Dan asked me how Chris did, if she wanted to go faster or if she seemed tired, and I said, "You know, I never thought to ask her. She just rode with me and didn't look winded and didn't try to pass me or anything, so I think we were pretty compatible." So Chris, if you were wishing you could go faster, just have pity on the girl on the mountain bike. Maybe by next time I'll have a road bike and we can go faster! At 23 miles we stopped at an aide station that had food and water. Dan has tried multiple types of nutrition for his endurance rides, from PowerBars to Shot Blocks to homemade energy drinks, and after all the experimenting he swears by peanut butter and honey sandwiches. I carried one in my jersey and ate it at the aide station.

That was the best freakin' PB&H I think I've ever had!

Here's Chris at the rest stop looking very yoga-ish (yes, that's a word!)

Before we remounted our bikes we had to take the token self-portrait.

Sookie! Lookin' hot!

The bike wasn't feeling so comfortable after that rest! My legs were fine and the balls of my feet (which got really sore from pedaling the last time I did this ride) were fine, but my butt was hating it! I found myself actually wishing for hills so I could get out of the saddle to pedal for a minute or two. I tried putting my bike in its highest gear to stand and pedal, but it wasn't very effective since mountain bikes aren't really geared high enough to get enough resistance doing that. As we approached mile 30, Chris and I both commented that our necks were getting sore and I just kept trying to pedal standing up to give my hiney a rest (did I just say hiney? Yep, sure did!) I was like, "Man, I'm glad we didn't try to do the 68 miler!" A couple weeks before the ride, Dan put his bike computer from his old mountain bike onto my bike. The computer shows your mileage, average speed, and ride time. He thought it might need a little calibrating since I was running narrow road tires and he had it set up for chubby mountain bike tires. Soon after the only climb (and a welcome one at that!) I checked the bike computer and we were at 34 miles. In about half a mile there was spray painted on the road "1 Mile to go- Party Time!" Oh, that was the pleasantest of surprises!

With renewed spunk we rode hard to the finish and were greeted with congratulations and glasses of champagne (Ok, Martinelli's, but it was the thought that counts!)

Our total ride time was 2 hours and 40 minutes. After changing out of our bike gear, we took our self-righteous fitness pride and pigged out at the lunch table. Chris had an interesting tidbit to share about watermelon; you'll have to ask her about it sometime!

We parted ways to head home. And wouldn't you know it, I hit a 45 minute bumper-to-bumper traffic jam from Ogden to Farmington. I was like, "You've gotta be kidding me! I'm too tired for this!" But it did keep me awake. When I finally got home, I plopped my butt on the couch and basically stayed there for the rest of the night, rotting my brain. It was good.

In Chris's blog entry about the ride, she said that she wasn't sore the next day. I really wasn't either and Dan said that is a definite sign that we should have done the 68. He was like, "You should be looking at those stairs and wondering if you can even make it up." We both did the 38 with relative ease, after little training, so I think we will challenge ourselves to do the 68 next year. Tonight while we were out on a little walk Dan said he wanted me to ride the ULCER, a 100 mile ride around Utah Lake, with him in August. I said, "You have a lot of fun with that!" My butt is going to need a lot more time in the saddle before I could even consider riding my bike for 8 or 10 hours!

The Little Red Riding Hood was a great experience. I feel a sense of accomplishment (even though I can climb the stairs with ease), like I did something for myself, and it motivates me to keep riding my bike.

Thanks, Chris, for being my partner. We are Women, Hear us Roar!

Hey, where ya been?

I had to take some time off from blogging to shoot and edit a bunch of photo stuff over the last couple of weeks. As Pooh says, "Oh bother!" The whole work thing really cuts into my personal time. I have missed writing on the blog. It's very therapeutic being able to just sit and do something for myself, to think about the things that are important to me, and to connect with everyone who reads. I've been a little cranky lately and I think it can be directly attributed to the lack of blogging. My problem is that I can't just write a little short entry- I'm way too long winded for that! Instead I have ideas and photos stacked up in my brain just waiting for me to sit and write them down. Right now I'm on a shooting break between the ceremony and reception of a wedding, so I'll write what I can for now and then do some more this weekend.

Here's what's new with everyone:

Dan

We just got our tax refund so Dan has ordered the study course for the Patent Bar exam. Passing the Patent Bar will make Dan a licensed patent agent which will open up more jobs to him and give him greater credibility at the firm he's drafting patents for. He just started looking for an office space to rent because trying to work from home and the library isn't that conducive to getting a lot of work done. Dan's enjoying the patent work but the firm hasn't been keeping him as busy as he would like to be (although all the extra riding time has been great!) He talked with them last week and they should be giving him more work. They will soon be adding another attorney to their team that does pharmaceutical patents and they want Dan to help with those. Yea, he'll actually get to put all that knowledge of molecular biology to good use!

Lily

Preschool finished last week and now Lily is patiently (or not so) waiting for me to get her signed up for swimming lessons and ballet class. She begs to have a friend over everyday, but I've started making her clean her room before she can invite anyone. Why is it so freakin' hard to get a little girl to clean her room? She can have as little as 6 or 7 little things on her floor and she fights, whines, and lolly-gags for half the day before I have to go in and instruct her one by one what to put away to make her room clean.

This, for example, was the state of her room last Saturday. A pretty small mess. Should be manageable to a five year old. I swore to myself that I wasn't going to help her because I was sick and tired of cleaning her room. "I'm not your slave" (do I sound like a parent or what?!) I resisted for about two hours until I got so sick of her pestering me because she was bored that I went in and told her exactly what to do. Man, that ticks me off when I lose the battle of wills with my five year old!

Amelia

Crawling is just days away! Amelia has been scooting herself backwards and rotating in circles for a couple of weeks now. A few days ago she started doing little push-ups on her hands and feet. Yesterday she started getting up on her hands and feet and then lurching forward. Now all she has to do is figure out how to bend her knees and she'll be in business!

She finally outgrew her bassinet and is now a huge wiggler when she sleeps, turning several times a night, so Dan got the port-a-crib out of the storage unit. While it is nice in concept and she does pretty well taking her naps in the crib, most nights she ends up in the bed with us. We think she just gets lonely. When Dan is out of town I love having her sleep next to me, hearing her breathe and reaching over to pat her occasionally.

But when it's all 3 of us in a queen size bed, Dan gets the short end of the stick because Amelia likes to turn sideways and kick him!

Me

That will have to wait until later as I have to rush off to shoot a wedding reception!

Too much time on my hands?

No, just having a little fun with my girls and the wide angle lens!

My husband is freakin' cool!

Dan has had this wicked rash for over a week.

He broke out last Friday in all the areas where he'd put sunscreen (arms, legs, ears, neck.) The funny thing is that he's been using that sunscreen all spring. But the rash was only where the sunscreen was, so it seemed that could be the only cause. After a weekend of overdosing on Benadryl and itching like crazy, he went to the doctor.

Let me digress a moment and say how utterly useless the University of Utah Student Health Clinic is. Because of our insurance, we are required to always go to the Student Clinic first and then get a referral to go anywhere else. 9 times out of 10, it ends up being a complete waste of time and the $10 copay because the nurse practitioner you see just isn't experienced enough. We learned with Lily and all of her health problems that it was worth it to pay the higher cost and take her straight to an experienced pediatrician. Now with Amelia, if she's sick, we just automatically take her to Dr. Schlichter even though it costs more. We've never been sorry.

Anyhoo, the trip to the Student Clinic was a waste as the lady would not give him a steroid shot or even prescribe oral steroids to fight off the rash. She gave him some random drug and when Dan got home he searched it on the internet only to find out that it was an anti-depressant and had no anti-inflammatory or steroidal properties at all. Nice. He wasn't going to take it, but he got so itchy at night that he took one in the desperate hope that it might help. All it did was cause an irregular heartbeat. So on Wednesday he went to see a dermatologist. This doc said that he thought it was more likely an auto-immune response to sun exposure rather than an allergic reaction to sunscreen. He prescribed some oral steroids, a topical steroid cream, and recommended some different sunscreen. He said that if it was the skin reacting to too much sun exposure, it would heal itself and in the process build up immunity so it shouldn't happen again. But if the rash persists, they'll do a biopsy in a couple of weeks to see if it is some kind of allergic response.

Why the lengthy description (other than to show off some gnarly photos?) The blasted rash has thwarted Dan's goal of riding the Kokopelli Trail, something he has wanted to do for 6 or 8 years. The Kokopelli Trail is a 142 mile mountain bike ride from Grand Junction, Colorado to Moab, Utah. Most people spread the ride out over a few days and it usually requires some sort of support vehicle to accompany you with food and water. After making several good biking friends last year, Dan finally had someone he could ride with. A bunch of the guys decided to do the Kokopelli Trail Ride, an unofficial one day, self-supported bike race. Yes, that means you carry all your own supplies, food, and water and you ride the full 142 miles in one stretch, about 18 hours of ride time. It's an epic ride, one for the books, and as far as I'm concerned, it's reserved for only those with some sort of mental impairment that makes them long for punishment.

All who know Dan realize that he falls firmly into that category (thus the 106 mile Ride Around White Rim in One Day on a single speed!) Unfortunately, the prednisone Dan is taking for his rash causes muscle fatigue and just a general case of "I feel lousy." Dan wisely decided that this wasn't the best time for an endurance ride. He did, however, still accompany his friends Elden (Fatty) and Kenny (of the Jack Mormon Militia fame) down to Grand Junction and volunteered to be the shuttle guy, driving the truck to Moab to pick them up at the end of the race. Dan called awhile ago and had just finished riding Slick Rock and despite his impaired physical state, he completed the ride in 1 1/2 hours on his single speed. That's his fastest time ever, and on a single speed no less!

What's my point? My husband is freakin' cool! And I've got the photos to prove it!

Mother's Day

Thanks so much for all the comments on the marriage post! I read it the day after I posted it and I was like, "Ooh, maybe that was a bit much." I told Dan that I should title my next post "Just call me Sanctimonious Sue" and he said, "At least you're saying something." If you haven't read the comments, check them out. And please add more, I would be really interested to hear from some of you that are divorced and get your perspective. Feel free to leave it anonymously if you don't want readers to know it's you (Liz, too late!) I had to giggle because after commenting on my blog, my cousin Chris started her own blog, saying "Well, Sue had one so I had to get one too. I was posting a comment on her page and realized that I couldn't shut up, so I decided to get my own." Perhaps I'm starting a trend in our family!

I hope all you mothers had a great day on Sunday! I was a naughty girl this year and really didn't give Dan a chance to get me a gift. My sister-in-law hosted a Modbe Clothing and Lia Sophia Jewelry party last month. It was the day before Dan's first paycheck and I splurged, buying a swimsuit & swim skirt, shirt, and some jewelry. Afterwards, feeling a little guilty for how much I had spent, I told Dan that the jewelry could be my Mother's Day gift. I got this necklace (not the bracelet)

I also got this set, but the necklace didn't look as cool in person as it did in the catalog, so I decided to only keep the earrings.

I am exchanging that necklace for this one which I LOVE!

Apparently this Lia Sophia jewelry is the latest and greatest rage in Utah, the modern version of the Tupperware Party, because I have gotten invitations to two other parties since Lora had hers in April! I've been eyeballing these earrings

and this set of earrings and a slide (I'll get a leather necklace to put it on.)

I've never worn much jewelry, mostly simple earrings and one ring on each hand. But as I get older, the crow's feet are growing and the eye bags are getting darker so I feel the need to snaz up my look and draw attention away from my sagging face!

In addition to jewelry, I am also lusting after a 100mm 2.8 macro lens for my camera and a road bike, both really expensive. I've decided to ride in an all women's bike ride up in Logan on June 2, the Little Red Riding Hood. I did the 30 mile ride 2 years ago on my mountain bike and it took me about 2.5 hrs to ride. I was hoping to do the 60 mile this year, but I don't know if I'll be able to hack 5 hours on the bike. (Can you say saddle sores?!) If I had a road bike, I'd be able to ride at least 20% faster, if not more, because road bikes are lighter and much more efficient on smooth terrain. Now, if I could just inherit a bunch of money... Are there any rich old aunts out there that I don't know about?

Speaking of aunts (not old or rich, but rather kookie) my Aunt Liz is so much fun! She gave me this card for Mother's Day.

Lily couldn't say her L's until she was almost 4, so she always called Liz Aunt Wiz. Oh, we loved that! Aunt Liz is such a crack-up and she always has a little something for everyone at all of our family parties. This time she gave out sourdough starter to make Amish friendship bread. I'm actually going to make it! The instructions say to split your batter into thirds at the end and give 2 sets away to keep the friendship concept going, but I think I'm going to be greedy and keep it all for myself. I am trying to lose weight, after all, and I heard homemade bread is really low in calories. :) For those not in the Cox clan, here is a picture of Aunt Wiz, all decked out for the Red Hat Ladies Tea. (Did I ever tell you that Barb, Dan's stepmom, is a Red Hat Lady too? Hey Barb, will you email me the picture of you and the Red Hats on the Harley?)

Lily has been waiting for me all day to take her to Walmart, so I'll close with these pictures of the girls on Mother's Day.

Incidentally, Dan did write me a nice letter of appreciation for Mother's Day (the thing I most like to get) but he did it begrudgingly, saying that I would save it and use it against him someday. I guess I can't tell you what he said...

Happy Day!