Last Day Of 2013

Here we are, we made it through another year.  Exactly one year ago today I was sitting here thinking 2013 was going to be such a great year.  Well, it wasn’t exactly.  By February it had turned into the worst time of my life.  If you are new here you can read about this awful time HERE. So today I sit here and wonder what 2014 will bring.  I hate to jinx it like I did last year so I’m not going to list anything great I expect to happen.

2013 didn’t turn out to be an entirely awful year, thank goodness.  As you all know we are expecting out little bundle of love this coming February, so going through 7 months of my pregnancy in ‘13 made that part pretty great.  We celebrated some good friend’s new life together and watched them walk down the aisle.  We made a million memories with the boys. Andy and are stronger than ever and have had so much fun just being with each other.  As horrible as February 2013 was we were lucky enough to turn the year around and make it a pretty great year overall.  But I’m not sad to say goodbye to it.

How are you all ringing in the new year?  I will be watching midnight come and go from the backs of my eyelids.  My plan is to take as long of a nap as possible in the afternoon so I can stay up as long as possible tonight.  I’d like to see the ball drop in Times Square, which happens at 11:00 our time.  After that good night!  We had an invitation to go to my sister’s house to hang out but with this pelvic bone pain I just can’t imagine dealing w/ that at someone else’s house right now.  I’m being a weenie and I don’t care.  I want to be comfortable.  So we are making homemade pizza (sausage, pineapple and anchovies for me, yummmm!!!) and boneless buffalo wings (thanks to my new Pioneer Woman cookbook!).  We’ll watch some Hawkeye basketball before we turn on New Years Rockin’ Eve. 

New Years Day I’ll wake up feeling rested (well, sort of) and plan on moving Brennan into Aiden’s room to make way for the baby.  Then it’s Bowl Time, Bay-bay!  Iowa plays at 1:00, can’t wait!  Go Hawks!

I wish you all a very happy, healthy, prosperous 2014.  I hope it’s your best year yet!

Erin

Some Of Our Weekend Fun

Legos are taking over our world! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t post a picture of my 32 week belly last week so here is one now.  Yes, I am huge.  No, my hair is not greasy, just wet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great week!

Erin

Christmas Recap 2013

Hey there! Happy Post Christmas!  We’re slowly getting the house back to normal.  All for one thing – this is the first year I didn’t take my decorations down the day after! Shocker!!!  But trust me, they are coming down today (even though they aren’t bothering me too much)!!! 

Yesterday we had fun playing with some new toys, then went to the big city to spend a couple of gift cards that were burning a hole in their owner’s pockets.  Andy had a shirt to exchange at Scheels, when we walked in the line was HUGE!  We thought by waiting till later afternoon we’d avoid that, but no.  The guy at the counter told us it was pretty dead at the return counter all morning, so next year if we need to return something there we’ll go first thing … or wait a few days.  But they were super speedy and got us through in no time at all.  Then Andy treated me to my favorite pizza for supper last night – Pagliai’s!  So good!  And I took advantage of the post-Christmas decoration discount and got a 40” greenery wreath to doctor up and hang up outside next year.  It’s huge and I love it!

As for Christmas, it was a great holiday for our family!  The boys were spoiled by all.  They both got Lego sets, which made them extremely happy.  Also DS games, Brennan got his Herky Pillow Pet (the Iowa mascot) and Aiden got the braided sports necklace thing that is all the rage here these days.

Our annual cousin group shots. (Can’t wait till next year when there’s a baby in these!)

And the pajama shot at my mom and dad’s house.

Andy spoiled me rotten, like always, and I got some really great gifts from him.  My favorite??  I really love my new Pioneer Woman Holiday cookbook! 

Here’s the only picture of me on Christmas:

A few odds and ends:

The aftermath:

This cute little guy:

My adorable dad who writes our Dynamite letters:

Speaking of Dynamite, he didn’t disappoint with his goodbye letter and gifts (a more detailed picture to come):.

And now the bitter part of Christmas – it’s all over until next year.  It just goes too fast.  We have all of our get-together’s within a 24 hour period so it’s all over so fast.  And I always hate how the boys are barraged with a ton of gifts in that time period so can’t remember what they got and from who and they don’t play with everything. 

So now we move on.  The next big thing for us to look forward to now is the baby’s arrival!  January is going to be a long, long month!  51 days to go!

Time to get back to building Lego sets, have a great weekend!

Erin

32 Week Bumpdate And Misc..

Hey there!  We had our 32 week appointment and our ultrasound this morning, thought I’d share with you all about that. 

First of all, the main reason for the US was to determine the approx. weight.  At 32 weeks a baby typically weighs about 4lbs.  Our little tiddler weighs approx. 5lbs!  Wowser!  It is in the 88th percentile, which is still considered in the normal range, but definitely a chubby baby.  According to the US I am about 3 weeks ahead of schedule size-wise, and when the dr. measured me after the US I was measuring 3 weeks ahead on that, too.  So a little better than 2 weeks ago but still big.

The really neat thing about this US was that is was so far along in my pregnancy, not something I’ve had before!  So we could see all kinds of cool things.  For instance, we could see the baby practicing breathing!  It’s little chest was going up and down, up and down! So neat.  When the tech (my cousin, Meliah!) took a look at it from the top of it’s head down it’s back we could see HAIR at the nape of it’s neck!  How crazy is that?!?  (Explains the heartburn, right? Ha!)  We could see that Little One has chubby cheeks (all the better to kiss him/her with!).  And we could see what looked like GINORMOUS feet!  Seriously, she measured the foot and it was about 7cm long already (2 3/4” long!).  We could see it try to put it’s hand in it’s mouth, so sweet.  It was just so exciting!  And no, we didn’t cave and find out the gender. Sorry!  Sounds like we’ll have one more US around 38 weeks to make sure a c-section isn’t in order.  So my job is to continue watching what I’m eating and to do a better job at the breakfast part (my levels have been in the 140’s for breakfast the last few days, supposed to be under 140). 

My 32 Week Stats.

Baby:  Roughly 16.5” long, and about 5lbs (according to US).  Baby moves quite a bit still, a lot more at night than in the morning and daytime.  Lots of feet pushing out, which in turn pushes the butt out the other side.  Always moves when Daddy starts to play with it, which is handy when I’m worried that I haven’t felt it move in awhile. I love that they have a connection already.

Symptoms:  Lots of weird aches and pains that I didn’t experience with the boys. My pelvic bone hurts quite a bit for a day or two after walking hard, like yesterday when we walked to the basketball game and were trying to go fast because it was so cold out.  I’m definitely tired a lot more these days and can barely stay up past 9 p.m.  I usually get up at least once in the night to use the bathroom, and in the past week that means not being able to fall back asleep for 1-2 hours.  I feel like I’m hungry a lot more in the last week or two, which could be because of the change in my diet with the Gestational Diabetes.  My hormones are getting stirred up again which means I’m breaking out on my shoulders again.  And I’m very irritable.

Weight Gain:  20lbs exactly.  Not super happy with that but obviously that number could be much higher.  According to my baby app I’m a pound too much, so it tells me I’m in the excessive range. Wow, thanks.

Highs:  Feeling the baby move.  Also, when the boys rush to grab my arm to ‘help’ me walk across the slippery parking lots.  So sweet. They are so excited for the baby to come, they have been so patient this whole time!

Cravings/Aversions: Let’s just say this one all together, shall we?  1, 2, 3: CARBS!!!!  Ok, I shouldn’t even say I crave them, I just want what I can’t have.  And I can’t have carbs so I want those.  But otherwise no real cravings. 

Excited for:  I’m excited to be able to wear real pants that don’t need pulling up every 5 steps.  But I will wait 8 more weeks for those just so Baby gets nice and strong and healthy in my tummy.  I’m always excited for the next kick or roll I feel.  And I always look forward to my appointments, especially now that they’re every 2 weeks.  I love talking to the dr.’s and hearing all about me and the baby.  They make me feel special.

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Now for the rest of my schpeel. 

My good friend, Erin, is in Labor and Delivery as we speak.  Today is the day her little bundle will be born.  I’m so excited for her!  Good luck, Erin!

We got a pile of snow Saturday night!  6”!!!  I loved seeing it Sunday morning! 

The boys had fun playing in it and helping Andy clear the driveway.  It didn’t hurt our plans for Sunday to go to the Iowa Men’s Basketball game so that was a bonus!

Andy had a great birthday (he tells me).  He was fed his favorite cinnamon rolls for breakfast, opened gifts of Hawkeye gear, we went out to lunch with friends before heading to the basketball game (where we kicked some booty), and came home to one of his favorite meals and his family came over to celebrate.  Oh, and I made him yet another dessert cake that involved cherries, his favorite.  Plus he got a nap in there!  A full, fun day!

Friday Brennie brought home a Christmas gift for me and Andy that he made at school.  He is just like me and couldn’t stand the thought of us having to wait until Christmas morning to open it, so he told us we were supposed to open it then.  Adorable.

It was a votive candle holder. Thanks, Brennie!

And a December post wouldn’t be complete without showing you where Dynamite hung out this weekend.

Can you spot him in this first picture?

Here he is!

Saturday morning he was found in Brennan’s room riding his dinosaur but I forgot to take a picture of that one.  And if you’re following on my calendar you can see I am way off course and not even using it anymore.  Burn out!  Plus I have started almost forgetting to move him so Andy has helped by just sticking him somewhere (thus the dinosaur and tractor riding).  But the boys are still having fun!  Tomorrow night, Christmas Eve, he will leave us until next December.  He will be leaving a goodbye note and a small treat or toy (yet to be determined) because they have been good boys this month like asked. 

Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day around here so I doubt you will hear from me but I should be back on Thursday with a Christmas update.  Until then, have a very Merry Christmas!

Erin

One Of My Best Ideas

Hey hey! It’s Friday!  We have a fun weekend ahead, Sunday is Andy’s birthday!!!  Yay! I love his birthday almost as much as I love my own!  The poor guy got jipped as a kid so I try to make his day as special as he is ever since we got married.  Unfortunately this year the storm of the century is threatening to ruin our plans.  Boo hoo!  I am so excited for this big snow storm but it comes on the worst day!  A day earlier would have been better.  But we can’t control Mother Nature so we’ll make the most of it here.  Our plans are still to go to Iowa City for the Hawkeye Men’s Basketball game.  We are meeting friends for that, too, so hopefully we can make it.  Supper that night is supposed to be with his family, but there’s not way we’re letting his folks drive clear over here (20 miles) in that kind of weather so that is officially cancelled, hopefully being rescheduled sometime.  If we have to stay home then the whole day will be full of everything Andy wants to do.  Watch football and movies maybe?  And of course open gifts!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the love of my life!  You only get better with age, Bud!

Now on to one of my best ideas I’ve ever had!

Before school started Brennan’s teacher came over and they made a chain with the same number of links left as there were days left until school started.  Every morning Brennan would remember on his own to take one link off, then he would count how many days were left.  It was such a great visual for him, otherwise he would have asked me every day, I’d tell him 5 and he would whine and cry and be mad because “that’s too long!!!!!”.  I thought it was a great tool but didn’t want to make a chain with 25 links. So, I tore off the December page of a calendar I wasn’t writing on and got Brennie some Christmas stickers. Then I grabbed some markers and pens and wrote down important to him dates for the month.  Every single day he remembers to put his sticker on the day, then he counts down how many days are left to our important dates.  It’s worked awesome!  And been so helpful for him to see where his big days are and how long till they are here.  This will be used again for sure!

It’s amazing how something so simple can be so helpful and easy! 

We are in the middle of getting some freezing rain and it looks like my internet might not be liking it too much so going to end this here and get this posted before it’s out completely.  Have a great weekend!  And if you aren’t reading blogs next week, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Erin

December 19, 2013

Hey there!  That bittersweet feeling has set in for the end of the year.  The Today Show started doing their year end video montages this week and it is all I can do to watch them!  This morning’s was the Year In Review, which includes the ‘In Memoriam’ segment.  Ugh, bawled like a baby!  That gets me every year!  Do any of you get sappy about those things?  And it always shocks me how many major news stories we lived through in a year.

Dynamite’s been having fun around here the last 3 nights.  Reading his favorite book to some friends, playing ‘Sorry’ with his buddies the 3 Wise Men (was that too irreverent?? I was worried about that when I set it up but Andy told me I wouldn’t go to Hell, we’ll see), and he saw the boys getting their Christmas haircuts last night so thought he needed one too.

Our plan today is to finish up the teacher’s Christmas gifts for tomorrow’s big gift exchange at school, and still waiting on the washing machine repair guy – he had to cancel yesterday so is coming SOMETIME today.  No time range because they are squeezing us in today since they had to cancel yesterday.  So, will it be morning? Afternoon? Who knows! 

Only 3 days till Andy’s birthday (and my dear friend, Shelli’s!!!)!!! I can hardly wait!  And after that only 2 more days till Christmas Eve!  So exciting!

Have a great day!

Erin

My Favorite Christmas Traditions

Christmas is such a special time of year, there is so much family time!  I look forward to our special traditions every year, they make the season for me.  I wanted to share some of our traditions with you, just for the fun of it.

Christmas Baking:  Every year my sister, mom and I get together one Saturday after Thanksgiving to make a whole bunch of goodies to snack on for the season.  We meet around 9 a.m. and dig right in melting, stirring, mixing, dropping by spoonful and baking.  These last few years the kiddos have been involved and get to help prep (i.e. smash Oreos, pretzels, etc.) and decorate sugar cookies.  At the end of the day we divide all of the goodies up and take them home to devour.

Christmas Shopping:  The Saturday after Tgiving my mom, sister and I go shopping together.  We meet nice and early and head up to the big city.  Our first stop is always Target, and it’s always our longest stop.  We may or may not do a lot of goofing off.  We always go out for lunch and my mom always pays (but says it’s Dad who’s paying, cracks us up).  We shop till we drop and till our feet feel like they’re falling off.  It’s always a hoot of a day, lots of laughs and lots of money spent.  And it seems we always end up doing a little shopping for ourselves along the way.

Watching Christmas Movies: Andy and I started this before having the boys.  Every weekend leading up to Christmas (after Tgiving) we watch at least one movie.  Our “top of the list” movies are ‘White Christmas’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’.  We also enjoy ‘Scrooged’, ‘A Christmas Carol’ (the Jim Carey animated version) and ‘Christmas Vacation’, to name a few.  Sprinkle in the cartoon shows – ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’, ‘Frosty the Snowman’, ‘Prep and Landing’, and my most favorite of all, ‘Garfield Christmas’. 

Wrapping Presents:  I (most years) love to wrap presents and make them look as pretty as possible.  And part of that tradition is handing them to the boys to put under the tree. They love helping with that.

Going to visit Santa:  Our Santa is so great, he always teases the boys! “What do you GIRLS want this year?”  They giggle every time! 

Tree Hopping:  My mom’s family’s annual tradition of going house to house seeing everyone’s trees and decorations and eating some good food.  It’s an awesome afternoon of just being together without presents.  Isn’t that what the holidays should be about?

Andy’s Gifts:  Every year – EVERY YEAR- I beg Andy to open just one of his presents.  I get so excited to give him his gifts that I can’t hardly stand the wait!!  And every year his will power wins out and he says no.  But we get a kick out of it anyway!

To and From:  Another tradition of Andy;s and mine is addressing each other’s gifts to names other than our own.  It all depends on what’s happened that year, who was famous, what TV shows we watched, what tickled our fancy.  It’s just as fun seeing how they are addressed as what is inside them.

These are just a few of our many traditions.  All of our traditions are super special to me, I hope they’ll be special to the boys as they get older, too.

Merry Christmas!

Erin

I Want My Washer Back!

Hey there!  Sorry for being MIA yesterday.  Our washing machine decided to die on us this weekend so made a run to the Laundromat to wash a load of sheets and towels.  Do you know how dang expensive it is to wash a load in a super capacity in BFE Iowa??  $5!!!! And a regular size machine is $3.50!!!  How do people afford that?  I didn’t even look at the dryers to see how much those were, I just brought my wet laundry home and dried them here.  Can you believe I have to wait until Wednesday for the repair man? We called them Saturday as soon as this happened and they can’t get here until Wednesday.  Ugh!  We know it’s not the belt that just slipped, Handy Andy checked that. So it’s the motor.  We’ll either be replacing the motor, they will be fixing the motor or we’ll be buying a whole new machine.  Not what I wanted for Christmas. Luckily my gifts are already wrapped and under the tree so he can’t take them back!  Of course the machine died right in the middle of a load, with a drum full of water.  We had to first bail out the sopping wet clothes, then bail out the water because it wouldn’t even drain.  Then to town we went and I borrowed my MIL’s machine to re-wash that load and 2 more.  What a pain.  If the machine can’t be fixed Wednesday I’ll be doing all of my laundry at my mom’s house Thursday.  Again, what a pain!  But it could be worse, I could have to use that darn Laundromat every week!

In other news, we went to visit Santa Saturday afternoon.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we have a great Santa here!  He had the boys cracking up.  I just wish he’d ask them if they wanted to sit on his lap for the whole thing.  Here are a few pics.

Dynamite has been making the rounds in the house.  But after a bunch of temper tantrums and crabbiness on Saturday I asked Dynamite to sit out in the living room Sunday to keep an eye on the boys.  They were aware of me telling him this, too.  And then Sunday night I went to bed and completely forgot about moving him! Whoops, parent fail!  Luckily Monday morning both boys came in to snuggle with me in bed and one of them said “I wonder where Dynamite is today.”  Shit!!  So I told them I had to go to the bathroom, to stay in bed and I’d be right back. So I just grabbed him and stuffed him somewhere else. Ha ha! Back to the calendar for the rest of the week! P.S.  The toilet being wrapped was a huge hit! The boys loved it!

Saturday, after visiting Santa, we took the boys to the free movie at the theater.  This weekend’s was Turbo.  Uh, not a fan.  What did you think of it?  I mean, it was fine but just didn’t impress me at all.  After we left Andy said to me “That is the first movie I’ve ever fallen asleep in.”  LOL, mine too!!  We both passed out about the same time!  I hope I wasn’t snoring (#pregnancyproblems)!!

I am officially 31 weeks 2 days along now!  I think instead of counting down weeks (9 to go) I’ll start counting down days (61 days to go!).  It sounds shorter to me that way.  It’s the little things.  My GD is going well, I think.  I’m finally getting over my pity party, am not craving my Mt Dew nearly as much and am doing great on my glucose levels except for my fasting level before breakfast.  For some reason I can’t break the under 95 thing!  I have a meeting with my dietician tomorrow, hopefully she can give me a few more tips on that.  Otherwise I think I have the hang of it. 

At my appointment last Monday my dr. gave me a scrip for Zantac for my heartburn.  I just realized Sunday that I didn’t have it anymore and how awesome it was!  What a relief.  This coming Monday is my ultrasound to see just how big Baby is.  I am so tempted to find out the gender! Think I’m nuts?  I won’t , especially since my rock is telling me absolutely not!  But I’m tempted.  The boys will be there with us, can’t wait for them to see the baby on the screen!  It’ll be a fun little Christmas present for us.

Celebrity Christmas Carol remakes, Chipmunk Carol remakes?

Neither.  Give me good old traditional versions of the classics.  That includes Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas”.  Ha ha!

Gift cards, gift baskets?

I’ve never been given a gift basket before but if it had something in it other than fruit I’d probably love it.  And you can never go wrong with a GC!  Give me one and I’ll spend it!

Naughty or Nice?

I try to be nice but am known to be naughty at times (hello hormones and bad temper outbursts!).  Um, when I walked out of church the other night I might have said loudly “I’m tired of his Cyclone bullshit”.  And yes, that was directed at our priest.  Whoops! I was fired up that night for some reason, ha ha!  Luckily only Andy and my parent’s heard.

Getting everything on your wish list, Giving someone everything on their wish list?

Definitely GIVING!  How fun is that to see someone’s eyes light up over the excitement of opening, I mean, UNWRAPPING, all of their gifts from you?!?

Presents on Christmas Eve, Presents on Christmas morning?

We do both.  Christmas Eve is at my folk’s house, Christmas morning is at our house w/ the boys (then Christmas dinner at my in-laws and Christmas supper at my Gma’s).  We have it all crammed into those 24 hours.  If we didn’t go to my folk’s on Eve we might open gifts to each other then, that way we’d reserve morning for Santa gifts.  That’s what we did when I was growing up.

Another fun This or That!  Thanks, girls!

Stop back tomorrow to read about my favorite Christmas traditions!

Erin

A Day Late And A Dollar Short

I totally missed the big ‘Finish The Sentence’ Link up with Holly yesterday.  Ugh, pregnancy brain!  Here are the q’s and my a’s.

1. My favorite Christmas was.... the first Christmas Andy and I celebrated together after we were married.  It was fairly simple but it was all ours, which made it so special! 

2. The worst Christmas I had... is the year my sister talked me into snooping for our Christmas presents.  We found almost all of them and that year was horrible! 

3. That one gift that made me scratch my head and say, "Hmmmm" was... the calculator my in-laws gave me.  I wanted a 10-key desk calculator (you know, the kind w/ the tape that spits out the top) and they SWORE they didn’t make those anymore so bought me a giant calculator with large buttons for the elderly.  Umm, guess what, even the Amish country store sells the desk calculators, just saw them there this year!

4. One year I.... think it would be neat to take the boys to a tropical island for their gift.

5. I think the worst gift to give is.... one in a gift bag.  Kidding!!!  Just had to rib all of my friends who don’t wrap!

6. At Christmastime I typically.... feel holly, jolly and full of Christmas spirit. And I cry at every sad, sappy, moving story I hear, read or see.

7. Typically, family Christmas.... is loud, busy, full of laughter, lots of food and an all around great time.

8. If I could change one thing about the Holiday season.... it would be that some families can’t afford gifts and food to celebrate.  I wish everyone could have the kind of Christmas they dreamed of.

9. It is so hard to buy for.... my in-laws. 

10. My favorite Christmas tradition is... going to church an hour before mass starts to get a full pew for my family of four, my sister’s family of four and my parents to all sit in together to celebrate the real reason for Christmas, then sitting there for that hour singing Christmas songs with the rest of the congregation and watching all the people come in, those that I’ve gone to church with since I was born.  There’s always someone coming with a new boyfriend or spouse or a new baby.  It’s always the “Oh my gosh, they’ve grown up!”  or “Wow, when did So and So get old?”  Then the rush afterwards to get back to my parent’s house for our Christmas celebration.

11. Santa, baby, bring me a .... Kindle.  And a bunch of new Hawkeye gear, mine’s getting old and worn out!

Have a great weekend!!!

Erin

Carbs! Carbs! Everywhere Are Carbs!

(Sung to the tune for Signs)

I met with the Diabetic Dietician yesterday.  All in all it’s not a hard ‘diet’ to follow, you have to limit your carbs and sugar intake.  The hard part for me is that I eat a lot of carbs!  I didn’t realize how many carbs I actually eat.  My goal is to get 3 carb choices (1 carb choice equals 15 grams) at each meal, and 1 carb choice at each snack.  Breakfast is going to be my hardest meal to adjust because all I eat for breakfast is carbs and sugar – toast, oatmeal, chocolate milk, cereal.  Don’t get me wrong, I eat carbs at lunch and supper, too, but those I can adjust a lot easier.  Going out to eat is going to be a challenge because again, it’s usually mostly carbs. 

In addition to watching my carb and sugar intake I also have to test my blood sugar levels 4 times a day.  I do finger pokes before I eat first thing in the morning and one hour after each meal.  After the meals I want my levels to be under 140, and for my ‘fasting’ level it needs to be between 60 and 95.  I failed my fasting level this morning but not sure why.  But my ‘after meal’ levels have been good so far. 

The good things about finding out about this:

• it’ll help keep the baby a little smaller (probably still not having a 7 lb. baby but maybe not a 10 lb.er either!)
• the new ‘diet’ will help me see how terrible of an eater I am and will help me post-baby to lose the baby weight (I hope)

So, what did I have for breakfast today?  Scrambled eggs (no toast, boo) and a glass of chocolate milk.  Was chocolate milk the best choice?  No, but it was within my 3 carb choice limit so I went with it. Baby steps!  I have to try to reach that 3 cc, can’t give up carbs altogether, so was fine using them up that way today.  And my sugar level was 126 an hour after eating, so my body was happy with that, too.  Did you know that 1/2 c. of orange juice is 1 cc?  When I first wake up I am always SUPER thirsty, 1/2 c. is NOT going to take care of that wicked thirst!  At least 1 c. of milk is 1 cc, so that’s a little better for quenching the thirst.

One thing that’s hard to wrap my head around is how fruit can be ‘bad’ for you with diabetes.  All of that darn, delicious, natural sugar!  We’ve always told the boys that fruit and veggies are freebies, they can eat as many of those as they want.  So I will use my 1 carb choice at snacks for my fruit (one medium orange is 1 cc).  I can still have all the veggies I want (which tends to be none).

Thanks for all of the encouragement about this. I’m not at all upset about having GD (weird for me), I’m just worried about changing my diet, especially at this time of year when you have no control over what’s being served at parties and gatherings.  I’ll just try to make the best choices I can and hope for the best.

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I am so excited, my Christmas/Easter/Bloom-Whenever-You-Want Cactus is blooming for Christmas this year!!!  Last year I figured out that these plants like a lot of sun prior to blooming so I moved it to the SE window in my living room and it started blooming within a few weeks of moving it there. That was just before Easter.  So this year I stuck it right in that same window when I brought it in from outside in October and it’s starting to bloom!!!  Yay!  These pics show just the bloom, it’s not opened up quite yet. 

Dynamite has been having some fun this week.

Today is a great day for me, Andy comes home from his 3 day conference.  It’s been a really tough few days without him.  The poor guy has such a big burden on his shoulders of always trying to keep me calm, relaxed and happy.  You all know I’m a crier as a rule, but when I was pregnant with the boys I didn’t cry very much at all.  I kind of thought something was wrong with me because I’d heard that pregnancy makes women super emotional, and here Miss Emotional wasn’t crying!  Well all of that has changed with this baby.  I cry ALL THE TIME!!!  Happy tears, sad tears, worried tears, no reason tears.  So, you can imagine all the tears over learning this GD stuff.  Poor Andy got a sloppy, mush-mouthed, can hardly understand me message yesterday while at the conference.  Poor guy.  He was about to run out of there and come home to take care of me, he was so worried about my emotional state.  I finally convinced him to stay, let me take a nap and see if that helped some.  So today he will be here!  I can’t wait to see him!

Brennan and I are making sugar cookies this morning to take to school for his class to frost tomorrow for their Polar Express day.  He is so excited about this he can’t stop asking me when we are making them.  Soon! Better get done with this and go check to see if the butter is softened up enough.

Have a great Thursday!

Erin