4-day weekend (day 3)

It's been pretty uneventful today. I never got back last night to update at the end of day 2, but it was bad for Jon. :( Poor guy seemed to have picked up a mild case of food poisoning on top of the cold that the family is sharing. His tummy was bothering him all day and he was beat-up exhausted. He threw up 3 bites into dinner, and that was after sleeping for about a 6 hour nap. That was the second time he vomited yesterday too. I'm trying to decide if my new meds are keeping me up or knocking me out. Just need to figure out when to take them. Liam was adorable all day yesterday and we enjoyed a super long, hot shower to try and break up our phlegm before he went to bed (I think that worked).

Today I sat my ass on the couch for the majority of the day. It was nice to sleep in until 7am (yeah, I know, but that's sleeping in for a teacher). I would love to say I'll make Jon get up tomorrow, but I do actually enjoy waking up at 5:30 on weekends now . . . it's the only me alone time I get and I usually catch up on my girly television shows like ANTM and Gossip Girl and 90210.

I started to think of some Christmas crafting ideas I'd like to do. But who am I kidding. We have NO $$$. Last night Mom and I talked for a little bit and I agreed to make green bean casserole and a sugar-free apple pie for Thanksgiving (which will be on Friday this year as my mom is working on Thursday). Then I got to thinking about the bedding set I really want for the new little one, but how it's damned expensive (my mom got Liam's bedding at a garage sale for $25!) and then I really want to decorate their room in castles and dragons and knights but there's nothing like that for kids right now - poo!

Liam was super chatty and rather cuddly today which leads me to believe that his cold is affecting him. He's never been sick-sick and we are so very thankful for that, especially since I work in a school and my students are ALWAYS full of snot and coughs and gross (they're 12). I made pot roast for dinner. It wasn't much work; I got one of those bag-n-season kits. Then I threw together a little roux and made a kick-ass gravy (because *horn toot* I'm awesome at gravy). Liam didn't eat much which is his modus operandi lately. But he drank a lot of juice and milk all day so he might have been full of liquid.

Now, Jon and I are hanging here while he gets some MAN TV time and watches a MMA fight. I played a little Puccini on the piano and finally figured out why I was having to read bass clef (it's my cello book for Puccini - did you know I used to play cello . . . and was a well-trained mezzo-soprano, and am self-taught on piano *toot toot*). We cranked on the pellet stove for the first time this season and now have learned that our cat Lily is completely fascinated by the stove. She has been sitting in front of it since I left the room and turned the light off. Although she did stop for a few moments because I think she was embarrassed that I got the camera out to catalog her looniness. So far, we're liking the thing and I hope it helps us keep cozy this winter (of course, we won't be using it until we get a cage to put around it or the toddler is in bed).

4-day weekend (day 2)

So far the day has been pretty uneventful. I got up and went into work (yeah that's right, my school did NOT have the day after a Thursday holiday off) just to set up for my substitute. Then I came back home. Hubster wasn't feeling too well which is sad because he'd been doing better than I for the last couple of days. He's been back in bed since I got home (around 2 1/2 hours now - note for long though because Liam just ran through the house yelling "daddy daddy dah dah dad" - look out Jon). So I've done a little laundry, updated my blog, played with my kid, facebooked a lot. Got hungry early since I didn't have my normal protein shake at breakfast so I ate around 10:30. Let me tell you it's hard to find something with enough protein when you can't afford the extra protein the new diet requires. Life would be so much easier if I weren't such a picky eater. Here's some adorable snaps of my 27 month old "helping" me with laundry.

He's totally into saying "cheese" now and trying to smile for the camera. So that leaves us with growly-faced smiles. These were totally not posed by the way. He parked his butt into my laundry to watch Elmo.

4-day weekend (day 1)

Warning LONG!

Today is Veterans Day so we have a crazy holiday in the middle of the week. Too bad students, you have to be back tomorrow. I originally scheduled a prenatal appointment with my nurse practitioner for tomorrow morning and then decided I would take ALL of Friday off instead of just a half-day. The original plan was to pawn the spawn off on someone else and take a little extended weekend with the Hubster. Well money's tight, that didn't work out. Then yesterday, I finally get around to checking my voicemail and find out my appointment on Friday has been canceled and I need to reschedule. Eek!!!

Well, guess what. The doc's office is open on Veterans Day and my actual Ob/Gyn had an opening. So I saw her today instead. Took some pics of my 20w belly to post up on Facebook for everyone (sorry about the blurry one with Liam, it was too cute though).

There was a new nurse taking my BP and checking my weight (oh yeah, still 1 lb under my first weight for this pregnancy - nothing like a carb-starvation diet!). She was awesome. While wrapping my arm with the BP cuff, she stops and exclaims "you have the most beautiful face!" Awwwww. Love her, she's my new favorite nurse!

The rest of the day . . . not so awesome. Turned into an emotional, blubbering mess with my doctor and all this just managed to triple the amount of snot coming out of my already rhinopharyngitis-y face (common cold). Gonna try going on some meds to help me manage life. It was either that or consider going on medical disability and ummmmm, that's not gonna pay the bills. Her first response was "can you quit your job?" Don't I wish. We'll give this about 6 weeks and see how I'm doing. Basically, the risks of medication to Baby "B" are far outweighed by the risks of momma being overwhelmed emotionally and financially strapped and stressed out. Yup. I'm a mess.

Then tried to go to JoAnn's to see if anything caught my eye (not that I could afford it). It was mobbed because, oh yeah, it was a holiday. I had a coughing fit in the middle of the store that was so bad I was gagging. I had no more tissues because I blew through them all in the doc's office. I had to race out to the car where, yet again, I had no tissues. I spent 5 minutes in the parking lot coughing and blowing my nose on a flyer for Woodland Community College. Let's just add to all this embarrassment the fact that I'm basically incontinent because I've had one child and never bothered to do kegel exercises last time or this.

WARNING IT GETS RANT-Y HERE!!!
I stopped at Target to get a few items we needed (like COFFEE FILTERS) and bought a box of tissues for the car. What should have been 5 minutes in-and-out turned into an ordeal as the gal in front of me turned out to be buying with an EBT card. Ugh, and her foodstamps card didn't swipe. So they checker had to ring her through like 3x before he finally got a manager. All the while, I'm miserable and just want to drive the 75 minutes home (or at least blow my nose again) and I notice that she's got a new Blackberry, a new purse, and basically appears like she's abusing the government assistance. This just serves to make me more mad about the fact that we can't get on WIC or foodstamps because I make too damned much money in gross but no one ever pays attention to the fact that my share of health insurance is 1/3 or my monthly check. We never make it through the month and haven't for 18 months now. I friggin' use birthday money to buy groceries or pay for electricity. And to top it all off . . . SHE WAS A HAIR TWIRLER! ugh >:(

Oh, I stopped by Chic-fil-a for the first time on the way home. It was decent, but I still like Carl's Jr. burgers better.

What color do you see?

What color do you see? What color is my pee?
Jon swears it's violet/darker purple. I swear it's more of a magenta. What do you think? And yes, this is important to me to know what color you think my pee is.

First day of school

2010-2011 has begun. I totally did not feel ready going into today. I don't feel like I had enough time to set up my classroom before they showed up at 1st period. By 3rd period prep, my throat was already sore. My classes are larger this year, but I really can't complain because QEIA allows us to still max out at 25:1. My lower back is sore because I sat on my stool to save my feet but then leaned over all day on the stool - how else was I supposed to impose my superior authority on 12 year old kids?

Then of course I had to go to the grocery store and get the mail before coming home. That extra 25 minutes seemed like forever, even though I did get into a super short line with no WIC shoppers ahead of me. Ran into one of our great subs in the parking lot. Got home and instead of just changing out of my work clothes, I took a quick shower. It was Hubster's idea . . . "come home and shower away the school day." I may keep it up. First, it's a chance to wash off the rapscallions and the stress and the irritation. Secondly, it takes care of needing to shower at night or in the morning. Win-win. While in the water, I realized I should probably wear a smattering of sunscreen on my nose. I have bus-duty in the afternoons for 2 weeks.

Oh yeah, I told the kids I've been wrestling walruses to explain my bruised arms.

3h glucose tolerance

Got my results overnight and of course, since today's Sunday, I probably won't get to hear about the results until Monday at the earliest. I wish someone who's gone through this before give me some insight. I failed and passed.

Yesterday, after 10 hours of fasting, my sugars were 1mg higher than the doc wants (fail). 1h after the glucose drink, they were 197 (fail), even higher than Wednesday's failed 1 hour. After 2h, they were 97 (win) and after 3h, they were 67 (kinda win because at this point I was just about shaking).

Then I made some major rookie mistake and skipped the banana I brought for right after the test. Why? So I could EAT MORE LUNCH!!! Stupid. My eyes were so much bigger than my stomach and I almost broke down into tears when the waitress at California Pizza Kitchen brought me my peach lemonade and all I could think of was why oh why did I not get an appetizer?! oh woe! I didn't need an appetizer, but I was just that hungry. I inhaled my lemonade and needed to ask for a water (I was dehydrated too - remember it was 14hours of fasting). Then I ate half a pizza by myself and although it had cheese and steak on it, I essentially had a lot of carbohydrates. I was shaking by the time I finished my lunch. But did I stop there? Nope. I went to Sees Candy while at the mall and ate 4 chocolates on the drive home. Needless to say, I had a dump (the sugar kind not the poop kind) and was almost passed out sleeping on the way home . . . 90 minutes drive.

So obviously I'm having trouble with my sugar regulation. I was more shocked that I failed the 1h and that my overnight fasting results were so high then dropped so low. Can this be something I fix with exercise? Or am I really gonna have to change my diet as I'm obviously pre-diabetic? Don't judge me by my lunch yesterday. I was not in my right mind. The brain needs glucose to function people!!!

Failed Glucose Test

Well, on to the 3-hour glucose screen. I wasn't even expecting to have the 1-hour test when I went in for my check-up yesterday. I've had concerns about being pre-diabetic for awhile, but my GD test when preggo with Liam was super low and they've never found sugar/proteins in my urine before. But the NP thought it a good idea since my mom used to be diabetic (hasn't since she had her gastric bypass and is like 1/2 the weight she used to be) and now I'm in the overweight bmi category.

Ugh, my sugars were 189! Last time they were 93 after an hour and they're supposed to be less than 97. So it's off to the lab super early Saturday where they'll stab me every hour (has to be Saturday since school starts back next Monday and I can't take the time off at the beginning of the year like that). So much for my only day off this week before school starts back up. (I swear the lab tech must have switched my results or something . . . I'm still in shock.)