Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome

I've been doing so well running 6 days a week for the last several weeks, but about a week ago, it started.  I was plagued with it when I played sports in high school, and it's only gotten worse now that I'm out of shape.  Ah yes, the villain responsible for 13% of all running injuries.  Stupid shin splints.

(Anyone up for some zucchini and squash tonight?)

Sad Tooth

For the last 2 years I've gotten this strange pain around my upper left 2 molars.  The pain usually last just a few days and it comes and goes without any rhyme or reason to.  For the last week and a half the pain has lasted though and last night as I was flossing I did something that caused excruciating pain to spread throughout the whole left side of my mouth.  It about knocked me out it was so bad.  So I did what any good kid does and I called my mom.  She's a pharmacist, but seems to be the smartest woman alive when it comes to ANYTHING health-related.  She thought it might be an abscess and made sure I set up a dentist appointment for the next day.

Well this morning was quite the adventure trying to not just get an appointment, but get APPROVED to go in somewhere.  When I got married, I was taken off of my parents insurance, but then at the beginning of this year, the policy changed so that I could be put back on.  Apparently, not all the t's were crossed, however because after I finally got an appointment and got the info to the dental office, they called me back later to tell me that I wasn't actually on the insurance so I had to pay everything right then and there if I wanted to be seen.

Dejected, I called my mom back and she came to the rescue, of course.  Moms are so good like that.  So I went in and found out that my two back molars are spread farther apart than normal so even though I floss regularly, small particles of food easily work their way up into the gums and start to irritate it, leading to a small infection.  I can't even begin to tell you how bad it hurt when the dentist was just poking around to find out what was going on.  They did a heavy-duty-deep cleaning to get EVERYTHING out that wasn't supposed to be there and inserted an antibiotic up under the gum that releases it's stuff over the course of a month.  They had to numb me twice for it all because it was so intense.

Interestingly, this was a rather humbling experience for me today.  When I got home from my mission, I tried so hard to be an independent adult.  I wouldn't accept my parents help on much of anything, though they were more than willing to give it.  I've learned a lot from that, but have learned things in a harder way than I needed to.  Then when I got married, I seriously stopped accepting things from them except for gifts for birthdays or Christmas.  Again, didn't really need to, I was just trying to prove to myself that I could do this whole adult thing.  This morning though, I think my hard head softened a little bit because I was forced to see that I couldn't do everything by myself.  Sure I'm an adult in many ways, but I'll always need my parents for different things.  I'm just so grateful to have parents who, even though I rejected what they were trying to offer me, are still willing to give to me lovingly.

So thanks Mom and Dad.  Y'all are pretty darn great.

Return of the Healthy

Recently, I've discovered a sickness of mine.  I've had this sickness my whole life, but only in the last 4 or 5 years has it become a problem as my metabolism changed.  My sickness?  I love food.  Too much.  I feel a strong connection to Hurley, from Lost.  Yes, I know, I'm obsessed with that show.

I've been trying to convince myself that it won't be a problem if I can just make myself start exercising regularly.  So, for the last couple of weeks I've actually been doing really well with running every night.  But in the back of my mind, I know that running alone won't get me back to the type of healthy I want to be.

Last night, Skylar and I were watching Lost, of course, when one of the characters said the words "Strawberry" and "Shortcake" within a few minutes of each other.  Naturally, this made the cravings begin and we decided that after our runs, we would make a quick trip to the store to get the fixin's for such a dessert as lovely as this:

The runs took place, and after showering I asked the husband if he was REALLY sure he still wanted this.  He said yes, I threw all self control out the window, and we were on our way to Smith's.

Once there, however, we elected to go with something ready made, but still as delicious.  We chose something similar to this:

With a bit of this on top:

Too many sweets can really make you feel sick though, so we decided to balance it out with some saltiness in the form of this piece of heaven:

Accompanied, of course, by these:

Upon our return home, we enjoyed our fabulous snacks, feeling only slightly (physically) disgusting afterwards.  The emotionally/mentally disgusting feelings for me came later that night.  I marched into our room where the husband was sitting and what started out as a begging of Skylar, turned into a threatening of Skylar not to let me do this anymore.  He crossed his heart and hoped to die.  He would help me kick this damaging habit.

Today, I got home from class and found myself faced with the overwhelming temptation of gorging some more on what was left from last night.  After informing the husband of my temptations and being told by both him and his brother that they wouldn't eat it all today, I was dejected.  But then, just a short while later, a miracle happened.  This stud took care of it all, nearly by himself:

Yup, I have a pretty dang good Bro-In-Law.  Even though he's trying to get back into shape too, he sacrificed his health today for me.  So here's a shout out to the stud of the house today.  Thanks Tristan!

I'm determined to do this.  A return to healthiness.

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

I love him for many reasons, but I'll just explain one for now.  Today, when I got home from campus, I didn't feel like having the usual.  I just wanted to run to Smith's (the grocery store down the road) and grab a salad or something.  But, of course, whenever we go to the store mid-week for something small, I always have to get my fix of this:

And Skylar, of course, has to get his fix of this (no matter what time of year):

So what's the point I'm trying to make about why I love him, you ask?  Because without fail, 20 minutes after we get home from the store I always find this:

Always.  Silly boy.

Ah, to be Young and in Love

Valentine Day

–noun

February 14, observed in honor of St. Valentine as a day for the exchange of valentines and other tokens of affection.
 

See also, Valentine's Day, Saint Valentine's Day.

Happy "lover's day" to everyone!  I've never cared much one way or the other for this day; always been kind of indifferent.  But, it's a good excuse to have a little fun, I guess.  Today's was pretty cool though because it was the first Valentine's day that Skylar and I actually got to spend together since 2005!  I was 17, he was 18.  He thought he had to do something spectacular since it was our first one, so he called around everywhere to get us a reservation at a nice restaurant.  We ended up going to Del Frisco's in Dallas and got to dress up a little.  My mom threatened Skylar with his life to have me back by midnight.  We almost didn't make it, but the life-preserving-gods were smiling upon us and we got back just in the nick of time.  Do I have pictures of this momentous night?  Of course not.  They're probably lost somewhere in the abyss that is my father's computer.

But this time around, since it was our first V-Day being married, we decided we needed to do something extra special.  So thought and we planned and we ended up doing what any good lovers do on Valentine's day.........................................................................................

We built a fort in our living room, of course!!!  Our night was fantastic!  I had to work tonight, but I got home around 8.  We were trying to figure out what to do for dinner since we didn't want to do the same old boring, healthy stuff, so we headed off to the grocery store and bought the NICE kind of frozen pizzas (Digiorno!  None of this Red Baron business), some wings, and some ice cream and headed home to get our special evening going.

While Skylar "cooked dinner", I got to work setting up this SWEET cave!  It was tons of fun, but a little more difficult than I had anticipated.  Turns out that Skylar and I are big people and needed a fort to fit us.  So I grabbed a couple of floor lamps and went to town.  Gotta give a shout out to Tristan, Skylar's brother, for hooking us up with a couple of handy blankets big enough for the job.

So, we ate our dinner in our fort while watching LOST!  I've never watched it, so I'm working my way through the first season.  I did see the very last episode of the series, which makes it so much more interesting to watch, since I know what's ACTUALLY going on. 

Skylar's a little special.  And we can't make a heart with our hands.  But it was fun.

 What's that?  You want more?  Well, fine.  I really do have the best Valentine EVER.  My husband truly does know how to romance me.  Seriously, after I tell y'all what he did for me today, you'll melt and wish he was yours.  But too bad, suckas!  He's all mine.  This is how much he loves me:

What?  Isn't this what every wife wants for Valentine's Day?  Maybe I'm a little more low maintenance than most women, but this is seriously all I've wanted for the last 2 months.  We live in a very old house that's very.....odd in a lot of ways.  A couple months ago, Skylar ripped one of the towel bars out of the wall as he was exerting his manly force in trying to pull his towel off.  We discovered that the bar wasn't anchored to anything but dry wall, basically.  For months now, I've wanted it fixed somehow so we didn't have to keep hanging towels over the curtain rod, but since it wasn't a priority for us, it always got bumped down on the list of things to do.  Finally, that charmer of mine did this for me today.  Isn't he a keeper?

 Before

After

What a Casanova.  And now I'm off to go snuggle with that stud of mine.

Where HAS the time gone?

So I just found my old blog and it's kind of entertaining.  When I googled it to see if I could find it (since I didn't even remember the URL for it), the post it pulled up was from February of 2008 and it was all about my crazy roommate from back in the day.  Seriously, read about it.  Here.  It's hilarious now looking back on it, but I swore at the time that girl was going to be the death of me.  Well, I realized as I was reading about that experience that it's been 3 years since that happened.  A lot can happen in 3 years and a lot has happened for me in these last 3 years.  I just felt like reflecting on my fabulous life, so here's a recap:

- I successfully moved out of that apartment and into a different one with 3 girls I had never met before.  The Spirit could be felt so easily in this new apartment that the difference astounded me.  In the old apartment, I went through a couple of good roommates, but fighting with the other few made it difficult for much good to be felt in our home.  It turned out to be a blessing that I had to move into this different place because that's where I received my answer to serve a mission for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I remember very well that sweet feeling of clarity as I realized that's what I needed to do.

- Skylar came home from his mission in Poland!  That was definitely a highlight.  I loved spending that very short week with him before I dashed off to El Salvador for a while.  Then the very short week before I did EFY.  And finally the very short week before I left for my mission.

- During the summer of 2008 I got to spend a couple of months in El Salvador with a non-profit organization called Help International.  I gained invaluable experiences there as I served those that I thought needed help.  I found out though that I needed plenty of help too.  I wish I had pictures on this laptop from those months.  Maybe one day I'll get them on here!

- That same summer I got to be an EFY (church youth camp) counselor for the first time and discovered that the youth in this church understand WAY more about Christ's gospel than I did at that age!  The youth today are so strong.  I'm constantly amazed.

- Finally, the time came in July of 2008 for me to serve that so-desired mission.  I was called to serve in Tacoma, WA and I can't think of a better place for the Lord to send me.  Of course the area was BEAUTIFUL (being on the west coast rain forest), but the people were incredible.  I've never met such wonderful, humble, spiritual people!
 

 

 - On July 1, 2009 my brother Joseph was in a fatal car accident.  It was a very hard period in our lives, but I found great comfort in knowing that the Lord was aware of all of us and had a plan.  I've never been so grateful to have a testimony of Christ's gospel and His plan of salvation in my life.  Interestingly, I've never felt so much love from my Father in Heaven as I did during that painful time.  I love my brother and miss him constantly, but I know that we'll be together as a family forever.

- I got home in February of 2010 with the idea that since Skylar and I were never going to date again (because I stopped talking to him for various silly reasons while I was on my mission), we were never going to be friends again either (that was always HIS thing - that if we couldn't be together, it probably wouldn't work for us to be just friends).  I was very wrong on both counts.  We quickly picked up where we left off and I knew VERY early on that we would be getting married that summer.  Skylar had known that all along.

- The summer before we got married, I got to do a few more weeks of being an EFY counselor.  Again, it was amazing.  But even more so this time around.

- On July 30, 2010 we were married for time and all eternity in the LDS Dallas, Texas Temple.  It was pretty awesome.  Then a couple weeks later we packed up and moved to Utah so I could finish out my degree at BYU.  We moved into a simply fabulous, ultra ghetto, 110 year old house that had been split up into several apartments.  We love it here.  And Skylar is working to get his roofing business going.  (Need a permanent roof that's pretty and very eco-friendly?  Marvelous.  Contact me.)

All in all, it's been a pretty sweet 3 years.  Of course there have been plenty of rough patches in there, but the sweet has far outweighed the bitter.  Life is good!

A Child's Prayer

Well, I've caved.  A couple years ago, before my mission, my avid-blogger sister decided to start a blog for me called "The Lameness of Leighann."  It's probably still out there somewhere.  For the first few months of my mission she kept it updated for me with my letters to home, but then it got cast aside.  (Thanks a lot, Veronica.  If only you had kept up my blog the ENTIRE time I was gone, I could have been a true blogger right off the bat when I got home.  It's not like you had ANYTHING else to do!)  Then after Skylar and I got married, we started up a silly blog to show others how truly, disgustingly united we were in our marriage.  It's pretty funny.  You should check it out here.

But alas, it seems the only way to show the world that you're a grown up is to become a blogger.  And since I don't want anyone to doubt my adulthood, I find myself here - in blog land.

So to start out my blogging adventures, I thought it would be a good idea to begin with something positive. (because I can pretty much guarantee that I will blog about negative things from time to time, since I recognize that life isn't all sunshine and unicorns).  Anyway, here's my positivity for the day:

At the beginning of the year, Skylar and I were asked to be Primary (Sunday school for the kids) Teachers for the 5 year olds at church.  We laughed at first because we realized that they pretty much only ask the newly married couples without any children to do this.  We aren't sure if they're trying to encourage us to have kids soon, or if they're using it as a form of birth control.  Either way, we LOVE our calling as teachers, and we have the funniest bunch of kids. We even like to coordinate outfits with them sometimes...

Anyway, I remember going to primary as a kid and feeling like it was the worst torture in the world to have to sit there and sing songs and listen to stories.  I don't know why, but I hated it.  However, as an adult I still remember all those songs we learned and one song in particular is kind of my safety net.  It's called A Child's Prayer and I still find myself singing it whenever I get scared (yes, I'm still afraid of the dark).

Now to my point of this positive post.  Things have been pretty tough lately.  I've been struggling really bad with school already this semester, Skylar's working hard to get his company going, but there's always unexpected strain with that, and I've been dealing with something very difficult emotionally for months now.  This morning, I woke up and just felt completely burnt out and miserable, with very little desire to go to church.  Of course we went anyway (mostly out of duty for me, though) and I am SO glad we did.  Sacrament meeting (the first hour where everyone in the congregation meets together) was good, but it was after we finished that meeting and went to Primary that I began to feel the most.  Today in Primary, we sang a bunch of songs as usual, but 2 stood out to me in particular and deepened my testimony that my Heavenly Father not only knows me individually, but loves me individually as well.  First, we sang my favorite, A Child's Prayer.  The lyrics are:

Heavenly Father, are you really there?
and do you hear and answer every child's prayer.
Some say that Heaven is far away,
but i feel it close around me as i pray.
Heavenly Father, i remember now,
something that Jesus told Disciples long ago.
Suffer the children to come to me,
Father in prayer i'm coming now to thee.

Pray, He is there.
Speak, He is listening.
You are his child,
his love now surrounds you.
He hears your prayer,
He loves the children,
of such is the Kingdom,
the Kingdom of Heav'n

How did God know I needed to hear this again?  I didn't even know I did.  True testimony that He knows us far better than we know ourselves.  Next, we sang  I Will Follow God's Plan:

My life is a gift; my life has a plan.
My life has a purpose; in heaven it began.
My choice was to come to this lovely home on earth
and seek for God's light to direct me from birth.
I will follow God's plan for me; holding fast to His word and His love.
I will work, and I will pray; I will always walk in His way.
Then I will be happy on earth and in my home above.

Bottom line, in the first song I was reminded that no matter what, He hears my prayers.  I may not always feel like it, but it's true.  There's nothing so trivial that He doesn't have time for it.  In the second song, I was reminded that I chose this life even before I came here.  I lived with God before and while I may not have known all the specifics about what would happen, I knew this life would be full of trials.  Some of our trials are brought on by outside circumstances and some are brought on by ourselves.  But no matter how difficult things get, if we will just follow the path that's been laid out for us by our Savior, we'll be happy here and happy forever.

Finally, the last thing that happened for me today was after church.  I had to meet with the Bishop (the head of the congregation) to get approval to stay at BYU next year (a routine endorsement we have to receive once a year).  While I was in there chatting with him, Heavenly Father reminded me once again how much He loved me and was aware of my situation.  Like I mentioned before, I've had some emotional struggles I've been dealing with for a while now and I've been praying for some sort of opportunity to come along that would help me get them worked out.  As I was visiting with the Bishop, that opportunity opened up, completely unexpectedly.  That may not seem like a huge deal, but it was to me.

I am so thankful to know that I'm truly a child of God.  I know that He doesn't JUST know my name, but He knows everything about me and cares about all the little struggles of my day to day life.  I'm especially thankful to be a member of His true church, where I'm taught to seek out that personal relationship with Him.