Diaper Stripping with a million links

Today is a very exciting day around this household! Diaper stripping day! (cue the sarcasm).

Since I exclusively use cloth diapers on Zoey, they get a lot of use.  We have about 25 diapers (I seriously can't understand how Clara over at young house love survives on 12 diapers! They must wash and wash and wash all day long!) and we wash them every 2-3 days. I used to use Claudia's Choices detergent, but I recently picked up some soap nuts and am trying that for now.  Soap nuts are much cheaper in the long run and are defintiely cloth diaper approved, so we'll see how they work.  I normally hang them to dry using this drying rack hung over either the nursery or master bedroom door, depending on the time of day and when Zoey will be going to bed thus needing to close her door.  Once they are mostly dry (or I've run out of diapers) I throw them in the dryer for 10-20 minutes to soften them up for her little bum.

Big cloth booty!

Every few months, it's important to strip cloth diapers, which essentially means soaking and rinsing them repeatedly to get any soap residues out of the cloth. This helps them not stink and be as absorbant as possible.  We have been dealing with some absorbency issues at night (we actually use bum genius pocket diapers with two liners at night) and if I don't drag my butt out of bed early enough in the morning to change Zoey, she normally pees through her sleeper.  Yesterday I got up around 5 and changed her, but when I woke up again at 7:30 she had already peed through her shirt again. I wondered how that was even possible, and then I realized it was probably time to strip her diapers.

There are many methods to stip diapers.  This blog has a video (and a lot of other funny videos) that describes their method.  I actually don't have either ingredient they use, and so I just am doing repeated hot wash/rinse cycles.  A top loading machine is ideal for this process, since it uses more water and you have the ability to let your diapers soak by lifting the lid and halting the cycle. My front loader doesn't have the option for a soak, and in fact it won't even do a hot rinse, so I have been choosing the "quick wash" cycle, with a pre wash on hot. I have done 3 so far (without soap, which is the key), and will probably continue to do them until this evening and then I'll dry them.  That means that all day she's been in disposables and I'm realizing why I like cloth diapers so much.  First of all, these are probably too small since I bought them back in March for our plane ride to Montreal.  I also have a hard time knowing how exactly to put them on her properly, so she's leaked a couple of times already. Finally, her pants are too big! Those cloth dipes take up a lot of room!

In other news, I'm busying myself with bridal shower plans and running.  The race is coming up quickly!

Also, our baby & me yoga class was featured on shaw tv, so if you'd like to take a peek here's the link!  I am narrowly out of every shot, but it's fun to see the class in action.  About half of the people there aren't regulars at our studio since our instructor teaches the class at three different ones around town, so I had actually never met the girl being interviewed. If you watch the link, you will know why I mentioned that!

Have a nice rainy week!

Update

I have been absent again!

I don't really have an excuse this time... I didn't get married again or go on another honeymoon.  Ooops.

I've been running a little more than I was before, I've been yogaing a little more too, which I'm enjoying.

I've been living with my husband AND his brother, which is interesting in a small condo.

I've been flying, sometimes to Maui, which is a great escape from the cold weather.

I also bought a new winter jacket, which I love.

What else?  I took Matt to Vancouver for his birthday, and we went to the Vancouver Aquarium.  We also ate some delicious sushi for a lot less money than Calgary's sushi.

Soon, it will be Christmas and Kristen and Jordan will be here!  Hurray!

Hot Hot Heat

Bonjour!

The time is ticking, and the wedding is getting closer!  Three weeks today at this time I will probably be drinking coffee on my deck with my husband to be before the madness of the day starts!  If it's too cold, maybe it will be coffee in bed. (which, coincidentally, is what we were doing when he proposed!)

So much has happened it's hard to even get it all out!  I had an amazing surprise shower thrown by the best besties in the world (a recap can be found here), and then I ran the canmore half marathon (which k did a great recap of as well).  Matt and I ran together, so there was no pressure and we didn't have any time goals.  We finished in about 2:15 and I was pretty sore.  Once I got past 16km, I could tell where my training lacked and my hips were toooight!  We had a good day, but next year, I think we'll drop back down to the 10km race.  It's a lot more fun to do with a group (Matt's cousin and her husband did it with us both years) and not quite as taxing... we can still have drinks the night before, not have to get up, eat and have a strict schedule. 

I've been doing hot yoga more since the race, trying to get a little more toned.  I still am doing some weights when I'm on the road, but in Calgary, I don't have a gym access so I'd rather pay to do yoga instead of pay to lift weights.  I've been going to hot yoga and I can definitely tell I'm working hard!  My arms today were shaking since I've been twice this week (when normally I go once a week MAX).  I'm enjoying the 60-90 minute sweat fest. 

Other than that, it's little wedding details and that's about it!  Time to relax and enjoy the time with all the visitors coming! 

Recovering

Life since the 70.3 has been great.  I am still in disbelief that I finished and that it's over, and it's strange to not have this HUGE ENORMOUS deadline looming over my head.

Oh wait, I guess there's our wedding that's in less than 2 months.  Most of the important things are done, but I'm still trying to get all all of the little details figured out.  Luckily there isn't anything so pressing that it doesn't seem manageable. 

I also signed up for a half marathon on September 12 in Canmore, so I still have to run and make sure I can finish that one well.  I know I can finish finish, but it would be nice to have a strong race.  I haven't been SUPER into running, though I just got a birthday present that should pep me up a bit!  Matt (and my parents) got me a Garmin 310XT!!  I took it out for the first time yesterday, and so far it's cool, but I just kept looking at it the whole time.  I can see how people rely so heavily on them, since they are just plain cool and it's interesting to see all sorts of stats, but I'll just let the "newness" of it wear off and hopefully just use it as a compliment to my training.

What else?  Matt and I have continued to go to hot yoga, which has been great, and I'm working on some strength training when I'm on the road (and have the use of free gyms) to tone up my upper body for the wedding.  I worked out with another flight attendant who does fitness competitions, and while that's definitely not something I'd ever want to do, it was fun to do a strength training routine with someone who knows what she's doing.  She is STRONG!  I've never been much into strength, aside for a few little weights here and there and some core stuff.  I definitely was out of my element.  One thing that she commented on was how determined I was, and how she didn't have to push me to finish a set or exercise.  I told her that even though weights were foreign to me, pushing myself and persevering is what my sport is all about!  Funny how two very different athletes have the same thing at their core.  Anyway, though I don't think I'll be sporting a spray tan, a string bikini and clear heels anytime soon, it was amazing to see her lifting 40 plus pounds doing tricep something-er-rathers (while I was lifting 8!)

And that's that.  How's everyone else doing?

It's Friday.

Not too much has been going lately... I've been working, running, and that's about it. Matt and I made a really great soup... That was pretty much the thrill of the week. That and seeing Kristen and Jordan, because that's always thrilling to me.

Today I went to Yoga for the first time in hmmmmm, 4 years? Is that right? Something like that. I have free yoga classes I can go to at Spa lady so I figured I should give them a shot. I enjoyed it quite a bit actually. I wasn't sure to expect since it's Spa lady, not a yoga studio, but I was pleasantly surprised. The teacher teaches at a couple of different yoga studios so it's not like she's a spa lady person throwing out a couple of yoga poses. Anyway it was good. I think I'm going to be VERY sore tomorrow though.

I'm going to Honolulu on Sunday, which is exciting, except it's part of a five day pairing, which is horrible. The longest we are ever away is five days, and this one starts at the crack of dawn on the first day and ends at midnight on the last day, so it's the longest possible longest pairing ever. If Hawaii was in the middle or closer to the end it would be better, and give me something to look forward to, but it's right at the beginning, so it's only downhill after. Oh well, who am I complaining about going to Hawaii.

What else is new? Oh right, nothing.