THE RICES: August 2010

I love love love being a mother. However i do not love the extra pounds i am not shedding from becoming a mother. I always told myself do not expect to just lose the pregnancy weight without having to try to lose it. But i guess i still expected it to against my better judgement. I have about 10 pounds left to lose of pregnancy weight and then another 10 to get down to wedding weight. My gyno told me the following at my 6 week check up "Only 10% of women ever get back down to their pre-pregnancy weight...ever" why on earth would he tell me that! Even if it is true, lie to me and tell me a more appealing statistic. I know it'll be tough but i've got to do it. So 20 pounds is my goal. Im not sure by what time i will achieve this for 2 reasons 1) I feel like breastfeeding is holding onto some fat, for what reason i do not know. I mean i literally feed daphne at least 8 times a day still and its not burning the calories up thats apparent and 2) i dont know when i will stop breast feeding so therefore i can not put a date on it. But im thinking 3 months from when i stop should be sufficient enough. I'll need people checking up on me and motivating me to lose this weight!

THE CULPRIT

NOW

HOPEFUL END PRODUCT

Foggy Bridge Picture.

Picture of the Bridge from the beach right below our apt.

Living in San Francisco will be like living in no other city. I've never felt so little in a city. Its so huge, fast paced, inconvenient, and expensive! I truly feel like im living in a foreign city. I've always thought that i lived in a big city, aka Vegas, even though i didnt live directly in the city. Now i see that i was wrong! In Vegas i didnt have to deal with driving in a mega downtown, a lot of one way streets, no left turns on certain streets during certain times of the day, no parking period in some areas on certain times and days, a million different colored meters indicating max minute parking intervals, street lights on the sides of the road, parking garages costing a minimum of $10 an hour and even up to $25, and driving like you are on a roller coaster. Its pretty crazy driving here. So i plan on just driving to the outskirts of the city and then just walk in or bus in. I feel like avoiding driving downtown completely will help me avoid an accident and losing my sanity. I like to escape up north, just over the Golden Gate Bridge. I love to see the bridge anyway and i dont have to deal with the parking issue of downtown. Plus you get the most beautiful view of the city when your driving back over the bridge. Another thing that i will not get used to is the fact that gas stations (1 pump station) and 7-11's are in high rise buildings where you cant just park and run inside!

But I do love the hustle and bustle feeling in a city.

It makes me feel like im living another persons life (im not sure if that makes sense). I need to be more brave and go into town and just experience everything. Luckily a lot of stuff is free and my ward and the school has a website dedicated to showing how much there is to do around the city and for free or really cheap. It would be nice to not do everything alone though. I actually was lucky to meet some really great girls already. In Taylor's class there are 5 married LDS families and 4 of us have kids. Its really nice to know other people who are in the same situation as we are. Only problem is 2 of them are literally having babies as we speak and so that puts them out of commission for a couple of months and one has a full time job! So i"ll have to be brave just the next couple of months and venture out.

The Presidio is really beautiful.

We live right up the hill from Baker beach from which you can see the Golden Gate Bridge. Its really crazy that i live that close to a beach and im pretty sure i will never live this close again! There are a million parks, museums, monuments, and old base buildings throughout the Presidio. Its so big and very easy to get lost. I just found out the other day that even George Lucas has his studio here in the Presidio! Taylor and I will definitely need to go and check that out! In the Presidio there is a wide range class of homes. From huge beautiful homes to ugly apartments like i live in. From the outside our place really looks terrible, but when you get inside its actually pretty nice. Old wood floors, nice spacious rooms, high ceilings and there are a lot of young couples that live within walking distance of us. Bad things include: thin walls, no carpet, one small bathroom, creaky floors (of course right by Daphne's bedroom) and a loud tidal wave siren drill that goes on every tuesday at 12. But all in all i really like it here. Here feels like home!