Milliemama

Health and Wellness Group

Hello Sisters!

Thanks for your interest in the Health and Wellness group. First of all, I want you all to know that it has been a dream of mine to help people get in shape...literally, I have had dreams about it!. So, I'm taking that as a hint that I should follow.

With such a busy year, I haven't been able to keep up my normal exercise routine or even take the time to be grounded mentally, emotionally and even spiritually to the extent I would like to be, so I'm starting this total body wellness group where we can discuss our needs, set goals, and make them a reality.

If you are seriously interested, here are some suggestions to get you started...

Preparation:

Take a photo of yourself in a swimsuit for your own motivation and documentation. Go to this site where you can measure yourself and find your body mass index http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/923520512.html

You might also want to read this short explanation of this test.http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4489

1. If you are very serious about results, you can read the Body for Life for Women book or Bob Green’s Total Body Makeover. These are the two highly recommended methods for total lifestyle transformation, not diets. I'm also reading Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, which is supposedly a step up from Body for Life, so any of these books will do. I want you to read something because these books are highly motivational and will help jumpstart your way into a good routine.

2. For those of you who are interested in the rigorous training routine in Body for Life, I will be using the Body for Life training and meal log that’s available at http://www.bodyforlife.com/exercise/journals.asp

3. We are going to be exploring the techniques of relaxation and meditation (or pondering as we call it). I believe this can be instrumental in our quest to be mentally and spiritually in tune.

4. We are also going to tie our goals and fitness with gospel study, so be ready to make some goals for scripture study or whatever you feel like is a step up from where you are now spiritually.

5. During our monthly meetings we will also have discussions and presentations (which we will all be involved with) on many wellness topics ranging from gospel topics to current health research.

I am still in the process of fine tuning this program and in our first meeting, we can also discuss any ideas you have for our whole body wellness group. You are the creator of your own technique and you decide what you need to do for your transformation to be successful. We will all support each other in our goals and I know we can work miracles!

You can call me if you have any questions 412.318.4706 or email me at ameliainitalia@gmail.com

My address is 5014 Venice Road. It's a new road, so you won't be able to mapquest it. Use 615 Soose Road as your destination and you'll see our street right across the road from that address. If you're familiar with where the Ottison's live, we live one minute from their place. From Wible Run road, going south, keep driving and take a left onto Soose which is the next left after the Ottison's road, then take a left onto Venice road. Please email me or call for directions.

Our little boy- Henry Jackson

Henry Jackson Hohl was born on February 24th, 2006 and weighed 7 lbs 14 oz.  He was born while living in Harlem at St. Lukes Roosevelt hospital in the heart of Manhattan.  He was born after only 4 hours of labor.  He had a full head of bright red hair when he was born and was so alert and happy from the time he came out. He had a really small head, so it wasn't squished at all at birth.  He is good natured, sweet, happy and darling.   

After four weeks of life, we took him to Italy for 6 weeks where we explored the country with him strapped to me in the Ultimate Baby Wrap.  I don't think any baby has ever been happier.  It reminded me of how mothers in some cultures, like certain ones in Africa, keep their babies so close to them at all times that they hardly have time to cry before they are soothed by their mothers .  Henry almost never cried during his first three months of life because he was asleep in his pouch.  I say that if anyone is struggling with post partum depression, the prescription could be Italy.  There's no way you would feel bad living there right after your baby was born.  What a fun trip.  We were ready to go home after 6 weeks though. 

Henry likes the color yellow and he just started playing with his stuffed dragonfly.  He smiles non stop, blows bubbles and makes a variety of sounds, including the cutest giggle that ever existed.  He loves to stand or sit, and from the day he was born he could stand by stiffening his legs.  He is so strong now that he can stand and sit with a little help and there are muscles poking through his chubby little legs. He is a really good mixture of both Justin and me, with many of my features, but Justin's coloring. His baby hair has fallen out, but new hair has already begun to grow in and it's luckily the same cute red color. Henry seems to like books more than toys as he reaches out to touch every book, but hesitates with most toys dangled in front of his face. He is already a world traveler with trips to at least 10 cities in Italy, Block Island, NYC, Denver, Los Alamos, NM, and if you count while he was in the womb, Iowa, Costa Rica and the Brittish Virgin Islands. Haha! It's time to settle down if you ask me! He's been such a little trooper throug it all and is always a pleasure to be around. We love our little boy and we can't wait to watch him grow up.

Our House is a very very very fine house....

Okay, so basically, living in a real house rocks, even though we've discovered that the whole thing is pretty much made with plastic and cardboard. ha ha!  We live on Venice road (how fitting) in a new development which is just one street with a cul-de-sac with about 30 homes.  Not all are constructed and I have to get creative about where I nurse Henry and how I can get from my bathroom to my closet without all the Mexican/Amish workers spotting me exposing myself.  We really need some window treatments.  So, we basically had this place built with a pre-designed floor plan with some custom additions, but it is very light, open, and clean, which is exactly what I needed at this point in my life.  It has a kitchen/great room that's surrounded by windows that has a view out to a very downward sloped yard with a really nice wooded area out back that has tons of really tall trees - beautiful.  Quite a change from the brick wall we had to look at in New York.  Lol! Justin is building a deck and I've planted a garden out back and I can't wait until I have tomatoes and squash every night.  Yummmm.  Our yard isn't done and it's really annoying to not have any grass to hang out on.  Mud and dirt is also constantly being tracked into our place on our new wood floors that Justin and I painstakingly installed(and will never do again). I have a killer walk-in closet that Justin let me have (what a great husband).  There are four bedrooms which have become our room, the kids'(hopefully) room, a guest room and our office.  It's really nice to have the space to host guests.  We have an exercise space in the basement so Justin and I can keep in shape without having to go to a gym.  My kitchen is a haven for baking and cooking.  Even though it was created with the cheapest materials on the market, it's open, large and functional.  Anyway, we love it and we'll love it even more when all the construction is all done and we have a yard.

Where have I been for the last 6 months?

Okay, so I've been MIA for longer than I expected, and so many things have happened since I last wrote that I can't possible account for them all, so I'm just going to make a list...First and foremost, Henry Jackson Hohl was born on February 24th, 2006 - 7 lbs 14 oz.  He has red hair and a dimple and is the cutest thing that ever lived. Shortly after that, we went to Italy for a month and a half, then we came home and Justin graduated from Med school. We gathered our stuff up and made the drive out to Pittsburgh, PA where we moved into a new home which we built on Venice road.  Since then, I've planted a garden, we installed wood floors, Justin almost finished the deck, and started work.  Paige(Justin's sister) and Garrett Smith got married on June 24th, and Justin and I have spent a week in Block Island, NYC, and I'm currently in Denver for a week, then NM for another week until I go home - finally.  I feel like I haven't stopped traveling in years.  I just want to go home and take care of Justin, Henry and my garden.  So, I'm updating my photo albums and you can see everything we did in Italy and in the past 6 months. 

I have to admit that I'm super happy and I can't imagine being happier with life at this point.  What a blessing it is to be happy;)

Joseph Smith at Wall Street

I'm so proud to say that a really great statue of Joseph Smith was placed in the middle of a quaint little square smack in the center of the Wall Street area. The plaque on the statue called him "The Frontier Prophet" and he was just as handsome as ever.  I guess the statue is only supposed to stay there until June, but we're trying to get it to be permanent.  As Justin and I were setting up to take photos, a man walked up and told us that he knew all about Mormons.  He was obviously a little coo coo, because he was sure they all had multiple wives.  Then, we had him take a photo of us in front of the statue and he didn't even get the statue in the photo! haha! We looked at it after he took it and we were like "um, we want the statue in the background too" and he acted shocked.  Hello buddy! Why do you think we were standing in front of the statue to have you take the photo! Lol!  So, we finally got a couple good ones in.  It was pretty freezing that day, but I felt warm knowing that Brother Joseph was being so honored.  How cool is that!

Bodies Exibition

On Labor Day, Justin and I took a little trip down to South Street Seaport to see the Bodies Exhibit that has been on tour all around the country.  This demonstration was so very interesting and also disturbing at times.  They have about 23 full bodies that come from an unknown source in China that they have on display and have been expertly dissected so that every tiny nerve, muscle, tendon, and organ can be seen as the bodies are displayed in various athletic poses that illustrate how the body needs to work in order to perform certain movements.  Some of these bodies, however, aren't even bodies anymore.  Some are displayed as ONLY veins as their bodies have been eaten away by acid after their veins and arteries are injected with plastic to preserve them.  There was also an exhibit with dead fetuses, which I didn't find too disturbing, but I keep wondering how they got the body of a pregnant woman with a five month old baby still inside her body.  They conveniently sliced the front of her body off so that you could see the dead fetus inside.  Pretty disturbing if you ask me.  They sliced and diced the body in every which way so that you could see every
single part in every possible angle.  It was very enlightening to smokers who were looking at the difference between a smoker's lung, and a healthy lung.  I heard many of them uncomfortably joke about their smoking habits.  I hope they do quit.  You could see cancerous breasts, lungs, stomachs, colons, and even an enormous thumb caused by excess Growth Hormone.  All in all, it was worth the price of the ticket, and I was glad to have gone.  Justin even saw his anatomy professor there, who we talked to for a while.  You may ask how they preserved these corpses, well, it seemed that they were all covered in some sort of thin rubberized substance. They were out in the open, and you could reach out and touch them if you dared.  At the end, they let you touch a rubber coated muscle, a smokers lung and and a real lung.  Personally, I would have liked to play with the enormous thumb. haha!

I'm no sleeping beauty at the BVI's

So, basically, this is the most recent photo of my belly.  I'm also wearing sunglasses that hide my tired, drooping eyes.  Seriously, I didn't get a wink of sleep for an entire week on this sailing trip and it took me about four days to recover from the trip.  Even though I lacked sleep, I had a great time on the trip.  It was nice to get in the water and let my large belly and body float weightlessly as I explored pirate caves and caught various kinds of sea creatures.  This trip was different from any we've ever taken, because we basically did the same thing every day with almost no variation.  We sailed for a couple hours, stopped at a mooring spot, got out and snorkeled around, checked out islands and then went to sleep when it got dark. Justin might disagree, however in my zomboid state, that's all I remember doing.  Lol! Some dramatic moments were when Justin took me into a tide pool and I was almost pulled out to sea through large boulders.  I didn't die, but I scraped myself up pretty bad and got major bruises on my knees.   We had fun exploring the islands, in fact, we rented ATV's and rode them all around one of the islands.  I hope my little guy wasn't too shaken up.  I figure that I'm just training him for his future life with Justin and me.  It's going to be a roller coaster, my boy! The little baby goats on the islands were so cute and just reinforced my resolve to get goats some day.  We also ate at a floating island, Willy T's (or something like that), swam with a school of over a million fish, saw a shark, a jellyfish, ate the largest lobster I've ever had in my life, threw up over the side of the boat (the only time I've thrown up during this pregnancy), spent hours trying to find a comfortable place to sit on the boat,  partied all night on New Years with Foxy, and almost bought a $7 half gallon of milk.  I had a really fun time, but I think we all agree that we would rather stay in hotels on the islands, and have a speedboat to take us around to all the islands, so we could always come back to a nice, comfy bed at the end of the day.

All the other photos are in the photo gallery.  Enjoy!

Pregnant Body

I just have to say that some days I absolutely love living in New York while other days I am soooo ready to leave this place.  The days I love the city are like the day Justin and I saw a special on Dinosaur bones in the Mongolian dessert on TV and we just decided to go to the Museum of Natural History and see all the real stuff they uncovered there in person.  Who gets to do that? No one except for people who live here.  So, the other day, I got an email from Babycenter.com saying that they were holding auditions for a pregnant cover model for their magazine at the Liz Lange store.  So, I decided to go just for fun.  They were really great to us there, which is rare for New Yorkers, had cookies and water for us to snack on while we waited, and we got our photo taken by a professional, which they even gave us a copy of.  Then, I miraculously found some great work pants and a jacket, which I desperately needed. This would have been enough for me to be overjoyed at , but there was more! When I left the store, they handed me a gift bag that was decently heavy, but I didn't even get to see what was in there until I got home.  There were tons of pamphlets, tiny samples of baby soap, lotion, etc., vitamins, tums, a baby bowl, spoon, and bib,a large book on pregnancy that I think is better than "What to Expect when You're Expecting", a parenting book, which I probably need badly, and to top it off....an X box driving game! haha! They even threw in something for the fathers:) That was hilarious! They had over $100 worth of stuff in there. I couldn't believe it.  That was a great day.  So, I'm including the photo in this blog because I really haven't taken a photo of myself yet, which is sad, but we're just not "those" kinds of people that have cameras glued to their hands.  Well, I'm 6.5 months in this photo and about 25 lbs heavier than 6.5 months ago (you can tell by the rolls on my neck! haha!

Prego with a broken elbow

Well, I've been trying to pull my life back together for an entire month, and I think now I have things under control.  This time of year is so busy for me, and with being pregnant, moving from our apartment, breaking my arm, and working, I haven't had time to think about writing in my blog.  I'm not even going to try to update anyone on anything that's happened in the past month other than we moved out of our place the last weekend in November, Justin and I are living in CT for the month of December and we're going on our BVI sailing trip on Christmas Day to New Years Day.  I do, however want to document my fall and post some photos of my broken arm.  I didn't get really good copies of the x-rays, but these scans will have to do.  So, basically, I was rushing down the stairs, which is a bad habit I have - running up and down stairs - wearing pants with a cuff and thin stiletto boots and the heel of the boot got caught in the cuff of the pants and, what seemed to be slow motion) I fell from the third stair down to the ground.  My right arm was reaching for the railing, so my left was left to take the fall.  I also fell quite hard on my stomach, which worried me more than anything.  No one saw me, but being in our neighborhood that's right by the hospital, I was fortunate enough to be rescued by a nurse and some nice students.  Justin was home at the time, so she called him and 911 and within a little while the ambulance came and took me three blocks to the hospital. I must also mention the random guy that put his coat on the disgusting ground as a pillow for my head.  After Justin arrived and I had calmed down, I looked down at the unfamiliar corduroy coat that was under my head and I asked Justin whose it was.  He looked behind him and there was this nice guy with his hands in his pocket, whistling in the corner, patiently waiting until his coat was no longer needed.  That man will make it to heaven, I have no doubt.  Thanks man:) So, basically I was transported by some very careless emergency tech people who constantly hit my elbow.  I would have rather walked to the hospital. Ha! When I arrived, all of Justin's colleagues come over one by one to do their best job in keeping me comfortable and happy.  Justin was the one who made me the most angry because he wouldn't give me any water and hardly gave me any ice chips to suck on even though I was sooooo thirsty.

I was really angry with him, but he was just following the Doctor's orders.  So, to make a really long story short, I had a really fabulous surgeon, Dr. Levine, who loves Justin and wants him to stay here for residency perform the surgery.  Justin wasn't allowed to watch, but  he did a fabulous job reattaching the alecrenon process(bony knob on elbow) that broke off (see photo) with a titanium plate and four screws (click on the photos to see larger versions).  I was in the hospital for a couple days total and they gave me morphine and codeine for the pain (who knew they could give me that while pregnant.  Poor little guy!).  Justin stayed right by my side the whole time and I love him for that! He's the best husband ever! Lynn and Burnell, my parents-in-law came and brought me some really cool flowers and then my mom flew out to stay with me for an entire week.  That's a whole other story! haha! You know we painted the town red even though I was supposed to be recovering! Lol! The scar is four inches long, but isn't bad and I'm in physical therapy trying to get it moving again.  My work was really supportive, and they let me go to my many doctor's appointments without even thinking about it.  I truly am blessed.  I really feel like I was blessed with the best possible situation and outcome considering the circumstances.  I was taken care of by my husband, family, ward friends, neighbors and many others.  My patriarchal blessing talks about how I'll have physical challenges, but they'll be for my own good.  I think this falls in that category.  I was really humbled at the love and kindness I received through all of this and I felt the love of my family and the Lord, which blessed my life.  I know the Lord is looking out for me, but one thing's for sure - it's hard for him to protect me when I wear a deadly combination of cuffs and boots and I run down stairs.  haha!

Babyface

Well, these ultrasound photos came out a lot nicer than the skeleton I saw last Sunday.  Here are four consecutive photos of the baby moving his little arms and even sucking his thumb.  He was in a sitting position so the doctor couldn't see his heart or his spine as well as they needed to, so I have to go back, but so far, everything looked normal.  They said his legs and arms were really strong - like an athletes! haha! They said soccer star and I said tennis pro:)  I asked them if the head looked big or small, but they said it looks normal.  I'll have to wait and see if he gets Justin's gigantic head or my little head. Ha!