Sleep Disturbances

A couple of weeks ago Elizabeth woke up in the middle of the night screaming her head off and sweating buckets. Talk about a scary experience. I ran into her room to see what was wrong but after comforting her for a little bit she went back to sleep. It was an odd experience. I think she had a fever that night so I thought it was just part of being sick. The problem is she's been doing it every night since then.

It's always the same, it happens between 11:00 p.m. and midnight. She screams loudly and starts crying. Her pillow is always wet and she's soaked with sweat. To be honest, it's pretty routine now and I don't really get worked up anymore. "Alicia, our daughter is screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night, do you think she'll stop if we ignore her?" Anyway, one of us usually goes in and tells her to go back to sleep and gives her the blanket. It's getting very frustrating.

Finally last night I couldn't take it anymore. I was wondering what was going on. Is it a behavioral problem? Does she like the attention she's getting? Should we ignore her? Is there something to be done? After only a couple of minutes searching the Internet (how cool is that, by the way?) I found out about Night Terrors. Sounds spooky, doesn't it?

It seems like she has all of the symptoms. It was very reassuring to know that it's fairly common and that it didn't require discipline. It's a fascinating problem (except in the middle of the night when you're tired..."I'll give you something to be afraid of little kid"...joking, only joking). Turns out that the child is usually still asleep, even when crying and even when her eyes are open. It happens in the deep sleep stages of the night, usually earlier in the night. A few reassuring words and a favorite comfort item usually help, and the child doesn't remember it afterwords. Although I've read that they possibly remember the feeling of fear afterwords and that sometimes it's accompanied by hallucinations of snakes and spiders (yuk!). It can come in spurts of weeks at a time but it tends to go away for a while too, thank goodness. It's medically similar to sleep walking.

Which leads me to one of my sleep problems (kind of the opposite of sleep walking, actually): sleep paralysis. This is one freaky experience. Usually it happens to me in the morning, when I'm about to wake up. What happens is that I wake up, but I can't move anything at all. My mind is fully conscious, it's not a dream or anything like it, but I can't move a thing. When I really panic I try to scream at the top of my lungs. One time Alicia was already awake and I asked her afterwords if she heard anything and she said I let out a little groan. I can't move my arms, fingers, or legs. I can't even open my eyes! It is scary! But, usually within about 30 seconds I wake up. Again, it was good to find out that I'm not such a freak after all (save your comments), it's a pretty common occurrence. In fact, most people will experience it at least once in life. I guess every night the body goes in a state of paralysis when you dream, so that you don't act out your dreams (move your legs when you are dreaming of running, for instance). I guess sometimes my body just takes a while to go out of paralysis.

Sweet dreams!

John Bryan Backpacking Trip

With all this acquiring of new camping gear I had to try it out sometime. So I decided to take a short trip to a local state park, John Bryan. This park is about 20 minutes from our house, which is really nice. I envy my brother and father in law in California because they get to go to the mountains but the nice thing about living out here is that it's not a megatropolis and we can drive 10 minutes and literally be in the "countryside."

Anyway, I parked at the top of the river at an adjacent nature reserve, Clifton Gorge. From there I hiked about 3-4 miles down to the John Bryan campsite. Alicia and the kids came down a few minutes after I got camp set up and hung out for a little while. We also ran into some friends from the ward and they invited us over for smores. Elizabeth loved playing with their girls and going down the huge slide and playing in the teepees.

I don't have a scale, so I can't say how much my pack weighed, but it was light. I loved it. I made it to the site in about an hour, and the same back on the following morning. I thought I was going a lot faster than that, but I'm not sure about the distance.

Below you'll see my campsite. I have a Granite Gear White Lightnin' tarp. I like it, but I've noticed some of the thread coming loose on the ridgeline. I'll try sealing it and see if that helps. It's not catenary cut, and it's a bit heavy for a tarp, but I got it relatively cheap and it is durable and easy to use for a newbie like me.

 

There was a Boy Scout Troop camped right by me and this morning the Scoutmaster came over and asked if he could bring the boys over to show them my "minimalist" campsite. It was pretty cool. I also talked with another guy that was impressed with the tent, he said, "that's got to be the smallest, lightest tent here."

For bugs I have a 4 ounce mosquito net that I hung up inside the tarp. I never had any problems with bugs, but it got into the 50's over the course of the night. I am using my poncho as the ground cloth.

My guilty pleasure is a long InsulMat Max Thermo sleeping pad. It's heavier than a foam pad, but lighter than most self inflating pads. It packs up smaller than most self inflating pads too, and it is so much more comfortable that there is no comparison. It is 2.5 inches thick, with insulation for cooler weather. I love it.

Finally, I recently got a cheap sleeping bag, the Slumberjack Super Guide Long. It is rated to 30 degrees, weighs 2 pounds 6 ounces, and packs down pretty small. It uses Thermolite Extreme insulation, which is supposed to be the best as far as synthetics go (warmth to weight ratio). But I've read some bad reviews saying it doesn't get down to the supposed rating. We'll see. One tactic most ultralight hikers use is to wear all of their clothing to bed, since they already have it. That way they can get a lighter bag. It worked well for me last night, but it wasn't that cold last night either.

 

The above picture shows me making breakfast. I never knew what to do for food, but this week I figured it out. Freezerbag Cooking. This is great stuff, very simple. Basically, you gather some dry components in a freezer bag before leaving. Most of the recipes use a base of rice, couscous, or ramen. Then you just boil water in the field and pour the water in the freezer bag. Finally, you insulate the bag with a fleece cap or something else and let it sit for 10-20 minutes. Then you eat with a long handled spoon. Cleanup is merely rolling up the used bag and putting it with your trash. Couldn't be simpler. Last night I had instant rice and canned chicken, with some basil and chicken boullioun. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.

 
 

Here are some of the flowers I saw. I don't know what they were, but they were pretty.



A beaver (I think) that I scared into the water as I came clodhopping by.



Private property right off the trail and state park in the middle of nowhere. Wonder how he managed to keep that with the recent eminent domain battles.



Me with my pack on. The top of my head got cut off, but that's better anyway...you don't have to be shocked by the baldness. The pack is a GoLite Jam Large in Fire Red. Most people hate the color, I think it's kind of cool. It only holds up to 30 pounds, and holds about 3000 cubic inches. It is frameless, but it has a pad on the back. It doesn't have a lid (to save weight), but it does have a belt, a zipper pocket, and a sternum strap in the back. It's made of Cordura with gridstop Dyneema (some fiber that's stronger than steel). Obviously, it only works with light loads, but it weighs just 22 ounces! Think of it, just over a pound. My other pack weighs almost six pounds. By using this pack alone I've knocked almost 5 pounds off my base weight. Also, since it is so minimalist you can get it for really cheap. Small versions are selling for $50. There's no way you'd get a traditional pack for that much.

It worked well for me, as you can see it's not all the way full. I got a little sore around my left shoulder when I started again this morning but it faded quickly and was only a minor irritation. The shoulder straps don't have much padding, which is why I suspect I had the minor pain, but it worked fine. I think I can put my sleeping socks there if I really need some more padding. It is so freeing to be carrying a pack that weighs less than my daughter...my 10 month old daughter!



Shrooms anyone?



Lot's of cool rock walls at John Bryan. They have designated rock climbing areas (this is not one of them).



Neat spiderweb.



Here's the gorge.

My 5K race

Well, I finally did it, I signed up and ran a 5K, the Beavercreek Popcorn Festival 5K to be exact. I can't believe it's been so long since I've run one since it's my favorite race and training is easy. I saw, I ran, I conquered or whatever. Here are the official stats. Out of 304 runners, I came in 37th, 5th overall female, 3rd female in my age group (20-29) but I got a silver medal because first place female in my age group got an overall award. My time was 23:39, not as great as my college 5Ks but give me a break, I've had two kids.

Here are some pictures, I purposely omitted the ones Eric took of me actually running.

My cheering and training squad pumping me up at the starting line. It was a beautiful day for running, sunny and in the mid 60s.









My beautiful medal, Elizabeth is so proud of mommy for winning something.

An oldie but a goodie

Here is a five month old video of Elizabeth. Some of her cuteness definitely comes through in this one.

The Dangers of Bicycle Commuting

I've been commuting to work about 2-3 times a week (although some weeks not as much). The other day I had my first experience with rude drivers. In the morning I take some normally high traffic streets, mostly because the traffic isn't too bad early in the morning. At one point I make a left turn onto a street that becomes an overpass and has on and off ramps onto a major freeway. When I make that left turn there are three lanes going in my direction. The rightmost lane is a right turn only lane that goes to the freeway, the two other lanes go on the overpass. I was the first "vehicle" waiting at the red light. When the arrow turns green I try to spin up pretty fast so that I don't impede the traffic behind me too much. Anyway, I turned into the right side of the middle lane (exactly where I should have been). I was going along briefly when a white sports car passed me on the right. Right as he was beside me he swerved into my lane and yelled something out his rolled down window. I didn't quite make out what he said, but I think there are two possibilities. Possibility one:

"I think you are the coolest person ever. If I had half your physique, a quarter of your brains, and a tiny smidgeon of your charisma I would be the most contented person alive. Just so that you know, I am in no way, shape, or form making fun of you through sarcasm. If there is even a hint of sarcasm in this statement then may God strike me dead with a bolt of lightning, after giving me the most painful disease known to man for six months, and put a poxy on my house. I idolize you. I love your flourescent orange shirt and everything about you. If you would just grace me by acknowledging my presence then I could die with a feeling of having fulfilled my mission in life."

The other option is:

"@#$#@#$#@ YOU!!!!"

Personally I'm leaning towards the first one. At any rate, it's a real jerk who does that. First of all, it shows complete lack of understanding for the law. Bicycles have a legal right to the road and I was following all the rules of safe bicycling. Secondly, it's pretty dangerous. He nearly hit me, but also yelling something like that unexpectedly would make a person of lesser nervers swerve and maybe crash. Of course, it could just be that my reflexes are so slow that I didn't react until I realized that it wouldn't be wise to swerve. But I don't hold any hostility towards the guy, resentment only hurts me. That is, because you should never fire a gun when you are not in control of your emotions.

P.S. In case that last comment raises some red flags with the FBI's automatic terrorist threat text parser I thought I should let it be known that it was entirely a joke. There is absolutely no reason to use a gun when a spike strip will get the job done.

Alcohol Stove

In working with the Boy Scouts I've become more interested in camping and backpacking gear. The only problem is that we have no mountains out here and our boys aren't too interested in backpacking. Minor detail. At any rate, in order to reduce pack weight there are many tactics people take. One I'd like to mention is using homemade alcohol stoves.

These stoves run on either ethanol, methanol, or a combination. They are widely available in most stores for various other purposes (fuel line de-icer, paint remover, etc.). Most of the stoves are made of common household items, such as soda cans. So far I've made a few of these stoves. First of all, I made this simple stove using fiberglass insulation instead of the perlite. That stove didn't work too well, it was difficult to light. Then I tried the stove that is probably the most popular, the Pepsi-G stove (not using the Pepsi or alcohol cans, of course :-). I found that one defeated the purpose of being cheap, with all the supporting tools I had to buy. I might as well have bought a real backpacking stove. Then I found a pretty cool little item, the SuperCat stove (pdf instructions here). This stove is beautifully simple. You just drill some holes in a small 3 ounce can of potted meat or cat food. You pour the alcohol inside, light it, and wait a few seconds. Then put the pot right on top of the stove, it doubles as it's own pot stand. Here are some picutures:




I cooked up enough angel hair pasta for myself for a meal today using that stove and about 1 ounce of fuel. There are, of course, downsides to these stoves. First of all, usually they can't simmer. Secondly, they don't perform that well in cold weather. Third, they usually take longer to boil than canister stoves (althought the one I made above boils water pretty quickly). Lastly, the weight savings isn't significant for any trip over a few days (or there isn't one at all). This is because alcohol isn't as efficient a fuel as some of the commerical alternatives (isobutane, for instance...I think). But I like it because it's cheap (the can of potted meat was 29 cents), you can easily gauge how much fuel to bring, and the fuel container isn't as big and bulky. Someday I'll probably buy a real stove, but for now, this will do. I should mention that it mostly is great for boiling water. If you have dehydrated food that pretty much all you need to do, mix your food with hot water.

Chasing Bubbles

We needed to have some sort of video of Elizabeth while she was in her cast. It seems like she gets camera shy and stops doing the cutest things she does when we start recording, but you'll enjoy this anyway (posted by Eric).

P.S. I just noticed something about embedded YouTube videos. If you click on the big arrow in the middle of the video it will play in the current web page. If you click anywhere else in the video it will open up a new window. So CLICK ON THE ARROW AND STAY AT MY PAGE or I shall be forced to make my posts even more boring as time progresses.

The cutest little girls in the world

I just wanted to update everyone who diligently looks at our blog about the cute things our little girls do. Let's start with Elizabeth. Last week I took Rachel in for her nine-month checkup where she was in the 90th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight. You thought I was going to talk about Elizabeth, right? Well I am. The nurse gave us bubbles to play with while we waited for the doctor so I blew them and Elizabeth chased them around the room and squealed very loud. When it came time for the nurse to give Rachel her vaccination shots, she off course didn't like them and cried very loudly for awhile. Elizabeth got so upset that Rachel was crying and hurting that she almost started to cry herself. Now Elizabeth says, sometimes out of the blue, "Doctors, Rachel got shot; all better now." It's just the cutest thing isn't it? I guess our doctors visit was so traumatic for her she keeps reminding us of it. Elizabeth is still really attached to her blanket and whenever she's hurt or thinks she's hurt, she asks for it. She'll also say, "I love my blankie" with big emphasis on love. Elizabeth also loves The Wiggles and she'll dance and "play her guitar" like Murray. She's growing up so fast and soaking up everything including phrases from us like "Goodness" or "Oh, man." We better watch what we say around her :)

Elizabeth can also open all the doors in the house and she likes to go out the front door and come in the back door. I'm still nervous that she'll go out the front door and run down the street like she used to. I still say she's going to be a track star because she can take off and run down the street and I have to sprint to catch up to her. I guess this won't be a problem in winter. At least I know she has strong legs, I'll give you another example. Two weeks ago before dinner on a Sunday evening, Elizabeth decided she wanted to go to church since she had so much fun in nursery. She put her doll in the doll stroller and took Eric out for a walk to go to church. We didn't think she would actually go all the way to church, just around the block until she got tired, but Eric walked with her all the way to church which is about a mile. I went and picked them up but Elizabeth didn't seem all that tired as she was playing on the grass and having fun when I got there but she slept very well that night.

As for Rachel, she's found the enjoyment of swings and slides. Today I took the girls outside and played on the swingset and the two of them had a ball. Rachel is also our little doggy around the table as she'll pick up all our scraps, hopefully everything she puts in her mouth is edible. She's still crawling around like mad and I hope she learns to walk soon because her knees are so dirty by the end of the day--either I don't clean enough or she's into places she shouldn't be!

Here's Elizabeth pushing Rachel on the swing at home and Elizabeth "driving" at the playground.

Epiphany

I just had to write a quick entry about an epiphany I just had--I've become domesticated! Let me set the scene where this realization came about. I have a load of laundry in the washer and dryer, I have basil drying in my dehydrator, I have just finished washing dishes, I'm making baby food in my food processor with carrots from my garden, and while I'm doing all this I'm thinking about buying a canning set to start canning my own fruit. All this from someone not too long ago who was wrapped up in numbers and taxes and beating all the boys at soccer! And the really bad thing is I'm enjoying it! Call the psychologist right away!!

Hope this makes those who have known me the longest laugh and say, "I told you so."