I Knew It!

Alternately titled My Self-fulfilling Prophecy

I knew my blogging would slow down in the summer.
I knew my crafting would slow down in the summer.

I KNEW once I stopped running outside I would lose some motivation and wouldn't do as much.

Arg.

I do have a few recipe posts in the works - hopefully they will be coming soon.
I also have a whole lot of canning posts I could do - although it is kind of late for that... but I might just do them anyways.

I stopped jogging outside because it is now dark the entire time I'm out there - and that will probably stay the same once we "fall back."  Don't even get me started on Daylight Savings...  Anyways, I've been jogging on the treadmil.  Which is ok - better than I thought it would since I'm now in much better shape than I was the last time I ran on it.  So I shouldn't complain.  There is just something motivating about jogging outside.

Our local festival is this weekend.  Looking forward to taking Ohlen to ride the rides, marching with the alumni band, attending my 10 year high school reunion (Seriously, 10 years already???), walking around and chatting with people, introducing Noah to fair fries, and just soaking in the festival atmosphere.  Notice I didn't mention the fair food for myself.  For some reason this year I really don't have much desire for it.  I'm probably just getting too cheap... :)

Then the next week we are heading to a Renaissance Festival in our state.  I think we are going to take Ohlen this year.  So that should be fun. :)

Stay posted for more frequent blogging.  At least that's the plan.

Management

Lately I have had two things weighing heavily on my mind (well more than 2, but these 2 are the ones I want to talk about). Time management and Weight management. Both have alluded me time and time again. They both take will power and discipline.

Weight management is something I have struggled with since I went off to a college that has basically the best food of most all colleges. (I'm not kidding.) There were tons of choices, and always a very well stocked Dessert corner. Plus, there was a well stocked vending machine in our dorm that housed my roommate's and my new favorite candy bar - Reeses Fast Break. And then add in the late night Taco Bell or Papa John's run and there in spells quite a lot of weight gain in two years. (The next two years I lived off campus since I was married.) There was less food consumption and more focus on exercise - so I actually did lose some weight then. I was on a fairly good path, although I was working at a factory with very well stocked vending machines, and a very large sweet tooth. Then I went and had a baby. Wonderful in most all ways, except for weight management. I didn't quite lose it all - ok not even close, when I had baby #2. Since then I've gotten more serious. I did a program for 90 days. I got down to pre baby #2 weight - which is good, but I need more work. The program I did is more of a muscle focused program - and most of the research I've done since suggests that women really should lose the extra weight before doing that program. Our bodies, because of lower testosterone levels, don't build muscle and burn fat at the same time very well. So I just started a new 6 week program that is focused on weight loss. Now I just have to make sure that I curb my eating habits to match up with the exercise. It's harder than I would have thought. It's so easy to grab a cookie or other not healthy food item when you are home all day. arg. But I'm trying very hard. I'll let you know how the 6 weeks go. Any suggestions or advice??

Then there's Time management. It is so easy to lose a day doing not much of anything. Ok well, other than making meals and bottles, which actually takes up more time than I would have thought. :) There are so many things that I would like to get done, but I don't. It's frustrating. I need some tips/ suggestions - how do you manage your time? Stay accountable with what you do during the day (or evening)? I have thought about keeping a tight schedule at least for a few days to see how it goes. It would have to have some flexibility of course, I do have 2 kids, and that in and of itself calls for being flexible. But just a nice guideline so I can be more productive. I am horribly behind on a project that should have been done over a month ago, I have Christmas projects I want to get done sooner rather than later. I did finish Ohlen's Halloween costume this morning, which was nice. I'm hoping to start fresh next week and try to get this time thing under control.

Oh and how do you like the new blog header? It isn't perfect, but I like it. :)

2008

Hello blog readers. I really should do a roll call and find out who all reads this. :) I know people do, I just don't who, since no one comments. And please feel free to comment! I love reading them.

So I was planning on posting up a narrative about our year, but it was beginning to get really entirely too long, so I have decided to condense it to a bulleted list by month. Not as in depth as I might have liked to make it, but alot of the things I was going to say, has already been said here anyways. :) So here is our year in review.

January
- Welcomed the New Year here at home with some great friends
- Took the Jr. Highers to great retreat at Camp Luz
- Nate left for Bolivia
- Became lost in Lost :)

February
- Sophie had an inner ear infection. It was really scary when we didn't know what was wrong

March
- Took the Jr. Highers iceskating.
- We found out we were pregnant and miscarried about 10 days later. I'm pretty sure it was a chemical pregnancy, which means the fertilized egg near attached to the uterine wall. Regardless of the medical terms behind it, it was still devastating. We had been trying for over a year, and it was so disappointing and hard. We discovered the loss on Easter Sunday.
- The next morning we discovered the greatest peace we have ever felt. God was/is so very good to us. We started the healing process.

April
- Nothing much happened apparently. Jonathan turned 26.

May
- We visited the Pittsburgh Zoo
- Jonathan bought a dirt bike
- I attempted too much too soon on said bike and ended up with a handle bar to the throat and some very nice scrapes on the leg..
- We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary
- I turned 26.

June
- Laura and I took the 8th graders to Cedar Point
- Vacationed in Florida. Wonderful, wonderful vacation.
- Nate and Aubyn were married!

July
- We prayed, thought, and fasted; and discerned that we were to move to Ireland. We thought right away.
- House was put on the market
- Went camping with great friends in Hocking Hills.

August
- Sold the truck and had a garage sale
- Moved to my parents

September
- Ohlen turned 2!
- Laura left for India
- Hurricane Ike left his mark with Nate and Aubyn and here as well.
- Found out we were pregnant again!!
- Went sailing on Lake Erie

October
- Had first OB appointment, got to see a tiny beating heart!
- Realized that we just may have had our time frame for Ireland wrong.
- Moved back in to our house.

November
- I visited Nate and Aubyn in Texas

December
- Had a great Christmas season
- Hosted a New Years party to welcome in 2009

2008 was such a great year. I think Jonathan and I really did alot of growing when it comes to our trust in God. We really tried to follow his lead this year. We still, obviously, have alot to learn, but I think we're moving in the right direction. We also did some really fun things this year, and I hope to continue them! I think I was afraid that after we had Ohlen we wouldn't get to do all the fun things anymore, or at least until he was older, but that isn't the case. :)

Here's to 2009 and to learning more and growing more. And to all the fun that this year is sure to hold! We already know of a couple babies and at least one wedding that will happen and that is exciting!

The Newest Troyer

Well, I think we have announced our news in person to quite a few people, so I thought I would spread it online. :) Jonathan and I are expecting! He or she should arrive around May 23rd, which makes me about 9 weeks along right now.

I've been feeling pretty nauseous and exhausted, but so far everything looks good. I'm so excited and somewhat nervous too. There are just so many things that can go wrong, that if you start to think about them, it can be really overwhelming. I'm trying to NOT think about all that stuff, and just enjoy being pregnant as much as I can. :)

Timing. What perfect timing. I just can't get over how all of this is really falling into place. I knew there might be a possibility that I would be pregnant when we moved. I really wasn't looking forward to having to change doctors, send over prescriptions, juggling insurances, and all that jazz. I know we would have gotten through it all fine, but it was pretty daunting to think about. The way it is, technically we could still move in the middle of this, but it is looking highly unlikely. My guess is that it will probably be at least summer of next year until something happens, although the economists are saying that the housing market will continue to go down until sometime late next year. We'll see if they are right.


Also, Ohlen has just been exploding with his vocabulary. It's been pretty fun around here. He is absorbing new words like a sponge. It cracks me up. It won't be long before he will be able to talk to us in sentences. Then I'm sure I'll plenty of hilarity to share. Tonight he was having fun just saying Up, down, up, down. He was grinning big the whole time, like he knows he's doing something new. :) What a goober.

Slowing Down

Well, finally we have some moving news. The past couple months I've been feeling like we are running a race. And we've been sprinting. Giving it our all, no looking back. And then a few weeks ago we hit the wall, we stumbled, crashed and burned. It just all seemed to be falling apart. We weren't sure what was going on. Surely if we were supposed to be doing this, it would be easier. Surely our faith, our giving it all, selling so much, would be rewarded with the house selling quickly, and for a good price. But we both just learned a lesson about God and about ourselves and about timing. Sometimes we have an idea, that matches God's idea/plan for us, but He has a different time frame than we do. To us a year would seem a long time to wait for something, But really what's a year to God?

So now we are jogging. :) We're still pressing toward the same goal. We're just approaching it differently. We were all set to auction the house at the end of the month. Jonathan talked to the auctioneer and they were kind of put off by the reserve we wanted to put on the place. So today Jonathan went to an auction with a relatively similar property. It didn't go so good. So as of next weekend, we are moving back in. We're going to keep the house on the market until our current contract runs out, then we'll gauge the market and go from there. Don't get me wrong, I love being here with mom and dad. And Ohlen loves it too. But it will be nice to be back in our own place again. Yay for windows!! :)

We are still going to Ireland, it just won't probably be for a while. Maybe in a year, maybe less, maybe longer. It isn't up to us, and that's fine. For the time being we're just glad we know how we are going to be approaching everything.

Thanks to everyone who's been praying for us and thinking about us through all of this. So this blog will probably morph more into just an update about our lives, as exciting as that is.... :) But eventually it will tell about our travels, just not quite yet.

What about the Wieners?

Before I answer the question about the dogs, another question that has come up alot has to do with the time frame for everything. We really have no idea. It all depends on when we sell the house. And then how soon Jonathan can find a job. So simply speaking, about a month after we sell the house, we will probably be off. It's really uncertain as far as specifics.

The dogs have been quite the topic of discussion between Jonathan and I. We are horribly attached to them and can't imagine being without them. On the other hand, it would be so much easier to move and live over there without them. We haven't come to a concrete decision yet. If we leave them, we would want to leave them with someone who wouldn't mind giving them back up when we are back. Also, we would want to keep them together, so that makes it even harder to find someone who would want BOTH wieners. So we have started the process to get them over there. There is a long list of things and lots of paper work that has to be done before they can go over. OR you can just take them, but then they have to be quarantined for 6 months, which would cost about 2,500 Euros per dog. So, probably about $7,000, plus 6 months separation. Not ideal in any sense of the word. So we are looking at OptionB.

The other options involves:
Getting them microchipped - check
Rabies vaccines - check
Blood test a month later to check for rabies antibodies
PAPERWORK
Wait 6 months
24-48 hours before lift off - tapeworm, tick, flea prevention

And there are many different regulations about what, when, where they can fly in. Crate size, Temperature of take off city. When they get over they have to go directly to a vet in Dublin to get checked out before they are finally released and then are happy Irish wieners.

Such a crazy set of stuff to go through. But Ireland - well all of the UK - have been rabies free for 100 years, and they aren't crazy about bringing it back. I just wish they would let you count the rabies vaccinations that they got before being microchipped, but that's not how it works. Oh well. This route should still be tons cheaper than the quarantine route.