LenaLoo Has Moved...

... to a new home at http://lenaloos.com/... I will be posting there from now on! Please come by and follow me on GFC!
Also come check out my posts at Goore's Insider.

LenaLooBlog

Monday, November 16, 2009

Seriously Slacking

In the blog department that is... I have been busy working on Cohen's room and making it as homey as possible... We got a rocking chair and the coveted CD player/iPod dock with remote! I covered the hand me down bassinet with cute fleece, and made a tree on the wall out of brown packing paper (that is still a work in progress)... I still need to iron the curtains and hem them with that iron on sticky hem stuff... I have a little stool that I need to put together and paint, but other than that most of the futzing is done... I keep finding little things to do though... Yesterday I realized that I had only washed half of his blankets, so I have a basket full ready to go in the wash... Yeah some serious nesting going on here... I also cooked and froze like 4 pounds of ground beef and 2 pounds of chicken (cooked more than that but made into chicken pot pie and yummy chicken tacos)... The bathroom has been redecorated in a froggy theme too...
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Friday, October 16, 2009

This Week on Facebook...

I figured I am allowed a lazy post... Pasting in some of my Status updates from this crazy week... Tuesday there was a big storm and my phone went dead (I panic when that happens and started having contractions, but they settled after my friend Katie got to my house and helped me pack a bag just in case)... Wednesday I went to Safeway with Vicki for like 10 minutes and started having contractions, when I called Labor and Delivery they told me I had to come in because I had more then 4 in an hour preterm... We took our time and ate something just in case I got stuck there and by the time we got there I was very calm and the contractions had pretty much stopped... Note to self, stop getting overly excited!!! Thursday was uneventful, just laid low and then took a short trip to the store to get some baby hangers in the evening with Ashley and Dani after we made Roast chicken and vegetables, Mashed potatoes, and Gravy for dinner... Thankful for my friends and my family for helping me stay calm :)
Tuesday 4:38pm LenaLoo is in early labor... 1 cm dialated and been having contractions since Saturday afternoon (thought they were just Braxton Hicks)... This child is as impatient as his mama lol, he could come anytime between now and his due date though... I am voting for Sunday night after the baby shower or later...

Tuesday 4:50pm Trying to (just rest, take it easy and let him "cook" a little longer)... the doctor didn't seem worried at all... i am 34 weeks 4 days and she said if i progress to active labor, they are not going to try to stop it, so I am fighting a serious urge to make a tree out of paper bags for the baby room and trying to stay in bed for the most part ( i have a wicked cold too)

Tuesday 4:59pm Due date is November 20th, but I have long suspected they were incorrect... My estimation was Nov 12th...

Tuesday 5:49pm I have been having real contractions off and on since saturday... so that seems to be what he is up to lol... hopefully he will wait until sunday night so i can attend my baby shower, otherwise ya'll may have to bring the shower to me :)

Tuesday 5:57pm I am in bed right now... staying here as much as possible...

Tuesday 11:55pm LenaLoo is going to bed... if the contractions get stronger and closer together, we've got our bags (mostly) packed...

Wednesday 10:20am LenaLoo
thinks labor may last a while... Thanks a lot Mom lol... Hopefully Cohen will stay put... Still having contractions but they are not strong enough or long enough to go in to Labor and Delivery... Sadly though, I think I have to give up my dream of seeing RENT onstage yet again... This time I even had tickets purchased!

Wednesday 10:26am
RENT is tomorrow... and I don't think I should go cuz of this nasty cold, not cuz of the contractions...

(had to talk certain family members - Mom and Tony - out of hopping a flight from LA or jumping in a car and saying "I'll drive you up now! I'll have you there in 6 hours!" after the trip to Labor and Delivery)

Wednesday 10:49pm You (Mom) said you were dilated with Drew for like 20+ days... :-P I have to blame someone for this lol... I kid I kid I yoke I yoke...

Wednesday 10:50 Lol Tony would say that, and no guys, it's not "time" yet... I will update my status right now...

Wednesday 10:55 LenaLoo is pretty sure that Cohen's karate kicks and chops have been some of my "contractions," they even confused the nurse! Pretty sure I have at least had some contractions but I was definitely not having them when I was hooked up to the monitor... Gotta lay low for a bit though, we don't want him to come preterm (he will be "full term" in 9 days though)...

Wednesday 11:44pm I kept telling him that he is gonna have to learn some patience from his dad, cuz I have none lol... Hopefully he will stay put for at least 9 days... I don't see why he wouldn't if I lay low like I need to... I gave up going to see RENT tomorrow :( I am super bummed, but it will be worth it if I can stave off Active labor till at least Sunday night :)

Wednesday 11:56pm Not nervous, just cautious... Laying low does not equal traipsing around San Fran all day and being woo'd by Anthony Rapp and Adam Pasqual's amazing voices unfortunately... I started having "pains" (since they were not proven to be contractions) after walking around Safeway for 10 minutes with Vicki... I just don't think anything is worth speeding up this labor when Cohen is not even full term yet, no, not even RENT :(

Friday 10:38 am
LenaLoo has not had contractions for two days now! Praise God! Hopefully this impatiant little boy listened to his Aunties, Uncles, and Grandmas and is going to stay put till he has at least reached term (another week to go!)

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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Break-fast, Beatles, Bloggers, and Boys

So every time I have something amazingly awesome to blog about, I seem to forget that I keep a digi cam in my behemoth big mama purse to snap some shots of said awesome blog fodder... So my words will have to do for now :)

Last night, my friends and I had a Break-fast party... We had been fasting from specific things for the entire month of September to focus on our launch service (which you can check out here). Toby fasted from video games, Becky fasted from watching anything involving sarcastic humor (ie: Jon Stewart, Arrested Development, The Office), and I gave up refined sugar (because I had slightly elevated glucose levels and decided to give up something a little more than soda or candy)... I didn't think mine would be as hard as it was, because I am not really a sugar hound, but I didn't think of all the small things like Soy Chai's, Carmel Apple Cider's, and fro-yo... It was much harder than I imagined... Because I couldn't have them, pastries started invading my dreams... Donuts, Fritters, Funnel Cake... It was sick...

But anyway, last night we indulged in the things we fasted from together... And ate Breakfast for Dinner (or Brinner, as Frank likes to call it), consisting of Pancakes, Applewood Smoked Bacon, and Scrambled Eggs... Being the almost 8 month pregnant woman that I am, I also served up a nice 7 layer bean dip because I was craving it... Vicki also made Veggie soup as an appetizer and a bowl of Candy Corn was passed around too :)... It was quite a random meal lol... When we were done stuffing our faces, we busted out our dusty Rockband set and played some Beatles Rockband for a good couple of hours :)... Vicki and Frank kept debating what grades they were in when certain albums came out and we all had a blast singing and rocking out together :)...

Tonight I got the opportunity to join the fantastic Margret of Nanny Goats in Panties, her niece, who is a fellow WoW player and Horde girl :), and Jane of MidLife Bloggers in screening Clive Owen's latest film, "The Boys Are Back" at Downtown Plaza (or DTP as we like to refer to it as)...

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It was awesome... They warned us it would be a tear jerker, but it didn't feel like your average tragic family drama... We all three agreed that we felt like we were simply observing life, not watching a movie... The chemistry between the 3 actors was phenomenal, and I haven't seen child acting that good since Dakota Fanning's outstanding performance in "I Am Sam"... There were also some great one liners, delivered so smoothly that you almost missed them... I encourage you all to go see it, even if it is just in limited release... Oh and remind me never to leave Toby alone with our son for any good length of time lol...


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Monday, October 5, 2009

"What's This Life About?" Midtown Friends Launch Service

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Yesterday we had church in the park and a "Grand Opening" style picnic... It was not warm by any means, but we managed :)...
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We had art to look at
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and stuff to make art laid out, a drum circle, and fair trade coffee and chocolate tastings :)...
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We BBQ'd for about 65-70 people and somehow, even though we used all our meat (and meat substitutes), everyone seemed to get fed...
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The music went well, and despite our worst fears, the generator stayed on through the whole service... The stories that were told really touched some hearts
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as did the reverb (Becky's sermon)...
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We may not see the fruit of this labor right away, but there were some real conversations had with real people seeking something to fill the void in their lives and Lord willing, they will find a home at Midtown with us :)...

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This was our "Communal" art piece that really came together well I think... I had a lot of fun working on it with Becky and it turned out pretty much how we envisioned it :) Thanks to everyone who prayed for us!


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Friday, October 2, 2009

Bento

A long long time ago (or so it seems to me now) I posted this little blurb and never followed up on it... So this is just a fun photo post showing off some of the bento I have made (after the first one, I decided to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) for the most part and not worry about making fancy, dyed to look like something foods and instead focusing on healthy, compact stuff (mostly lol)...
My first Bento:
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This is a picnic Bento I made for Toby and I:
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(I realized this last set may have already been published in this blog, but I can't rememebr where lol)

I am itching to do a Bento gear run soon and get Cohen his own set cuz right now all I have is a set for me and one I use for Toby (this blue one, manly no?) and the Black picnic sized boxes (originally purchased for Toby's lunch, but it was too big lol). I found my Bentos super useful to pack some dinner in last Monday when we had birthing class and I didn't want to take in fast food for dinner... I didn't take pics though, it was a quick Bento, nothing fancy :)


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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

What I Am Working On :)

Cultivating:

Life

Taking care of myself has never been numero uno on my priority list, but as this little life is growing inside of me, I have had to be more conscious of when and what food I put into my body... Even still, my blood sugar was elevated a consistent three points in both the 1 hr and 3 hr glucose tests :( So I have had to be even more careful by avoiding stuff with refined sugar (ie: no soda, candy, or other sweets) and spacing my intake of fructose (ie: fruit) which has been very difficult since I practically live on fruit, which is what probably got me into this mess in the first place... Too much of a good thing really can be bad :(... Toby and I have also been attending Birthing classes at Kaiser and I am signed up for pretty much every other class they offer (Breastfeeding, Newborn Care and CPR, etc.) I can't say we will ever be ready for this little one, but I think we are becoming more and more aware and prepared for him everyday...

Community

Toby and I have become part of the leadership team at a new church plant in our denomination (Evangelical Friends Church South West, aka Quakers) called Midtown Friends... We are small, but I really feel God working in our community... Many of the pics in the post below are from Midtown (mostly the "Making New Friends" part)... Our launch is coming up October 4th, so if you are the praying type, please pray that God will shine through us and show who we really are that day, an open community committed to living our lives as mission, walking as Jesus did, and being radically open and real with each other...

Forgiveness

If you click the link, it will take you to Steve Diehl's Forgiveness Ministries... Toby and I went through a seriously rough patch earlier this year, and we were able to pull through it because we focused on forgiving each other rather than rubbing our mistakes in each others faces... I am also working on some of my other relationships that have remained broken for far too long because of a lack of forgiveness and understanding... I could use some prayer for that as well...

Spirituality

I have never really fasted before this month (unless you count that 30 hour Famine we did as a youth group, which we were allowed to break early out of convenience and In N Out lol), but as we are coming up on our launch, our leadership team at Midtown decided to choose one thing to fast from while we prepare for everything God has for us... I chose to give up refined sugar (soda, candy, sweets, but not bread, because I need to eat that for baby)... I didn't feel particularly stressed about it for most of the month, but I realized I have also slipped up a few times without realizing it... I do feel however that I have become a target for spiritual attacks in other areas of my life that I have been working hard on and making progress on in these last few months... Toby gave up video games, and if you know my husband, that is huge... He has definitely struggled in this because they are his release... We have had to really rely on each other and God to get us through some times this month... We have also been reading through the book of John (another thing I have trouble with is opening up my Bible everyday)... I get behind and then get bogged down with the idea that I have to catch up... I need prayer to not get discouraged...

An Open and Real Life

Our culture is totally not used to being "Open and Real"... We hide our dirt from each other and live in our own dark squalor till there is nothing left of us... When I started hanging out in the Midtown Community, I was shocked at how real they were with each other... I was deeply depressed at the time, and became increasingly so after finding out I was pregnant with Cohen (the one thing I wished for and finally had and I was depressed about it, go figure...) I shut out the world and shut down, delving into a fantasy world where I could be what I wanted to be (yes, I'm talking about World of Warcraft)... I didn't come out of said depression until I called Becky and let her in on what had been happening, in me and in my marriage... I was open and real with her... And through that I was able to be open and real with myself and all the other people I had been shutting out... Soon after, Toby asked if we could go to Midtown for service on a Sunday night, which was followed by coffee with the gang another night, and so on... Living openly and real-ly in community... Wow... The difference was radical... Our hurt began to melt away as we became increasingly real, increasingly open... I am convinced that it is the only way to live... It's not without it's dangers, but what in life is? I feel like a renewed person, more of me than I have ever been able to be... Sure it may turn some people off, but the people who love me for me are still around... They may not "get me" right now, but it's okay because they have grace for me... And I have grace for them... I love you guys :)

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Things Keeping Me Busy:

-Being Pregnant
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-Eating for Two
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-Making Art
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-Making Friends
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-Enjoying Nature
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-Shopping
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-Seeing Coldplay
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-Spending time with Hubby
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-Spending time with Friends
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-Spending time with Family
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-Nesting!!!
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Button Button, Who's Got a Button?

What? I Got An Award???

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