A++++++++++++++

I passed my glucose test!! All four of my blood draws were way below the maximum level of 140. I am pretty relieved.

Did You Feel the Earthquake?

Last night, I turned over in bed. Next thing I know, Mike is sitting straight up, ready to bolt out of bed, yelling, "EARTHQUAKE!!!"

I assured him that it was not the Big One, only his big wife rolling over in bed. In a stupor, he said, "Are you SURE?" I reassured him and then began to giggle. He told me to "SHH!!" and that he was "glad that he could entertain me."

Of course, he didn't remember a thing this morning when I asked him about it.

F

I failed the glucose test. So now I get to go back for a three hour test on December 14th at 7:30AM. I get to drink the Orange Drink again and get my blood drawn 2 or 3 times during a 3 hour period. And I can't eat anything after midnight until the test is over.

The Orange Drink

The "Orange Drink" used to be me and my dad's favorite thing to have when we I was a kid and he would take me to McDonald's.

This "Orange Drink".....not so much. It did end up tasting a lot like the McDonald's version, except it was carbonated. I had to take it today to check to see if my glucose levels are normal/whether or not I have gestational diabetes. After watching KP during her pregnancy with H, I definitely am hoping I DO NOT have this.

Many pregnant buddies gave me all these tips on how to "pass" the test. Mike convinced me that I needed to just eat how I normally do, because--"Don't you want to know if you have it?" Yeah, yeah....he is right...so I just ate pretty normal--but tried to not down a ton of fruit or other sugary things 24 hours before....Hopefully I will pass with flying colors...Now back to the Pecan Pie leftovers in the fridge...

old friends, new friends

Old friends are great. B and I have been friends since 7th grade. We met in math class, 1st period. I asked to borrow her calculator and the rest was history. I never thought we would be pregnant at the same time. It is pretty fun to go through this experience with someone that you have known for so long. At the same time, I wish that we weren't so I could help her a lot more.

Tonight, B and her husband came over for dinner. It was fun to trade stories of what we had all been experiencing. And super comforting to know that someone else out there was going through the same thing.

She definitely has more food cravings than I do. I guess she wakes up at 2 am and wants to eat.

It was fun to talk about our kids becoming friends also. I am excited! (I know...shocking...me, showing excitement).

Evil Smooth Edge Can Opener and other thoughts

I know, I know....what a lame blogger I am. I haven't posted in quite some time. Not much to report other than to say that the 2nd trimester is going much better. In fact, it is almost coming to an end. I will have to post a recap of it later.

Tonight I am ranting about the Smooth Edge Can Opener from Pampered Chef. Let me preface this by stating that I love Pampered Chef and own many, many, many items. I have never been dissatisfied...until I bought their can opener. Apparently you need a PhD to use it. I have yet to open a single can--I have excelled at denting quite a few. Here is a picture of the culprit:




A few weeks ago, I was trying to make some chili. I forgot about the can opener and didn't realize my issue until I had to open 5 or 6 cans of stuff. I tried several times to use the thing, looked up information on the internet and I couldn't figure it out. I finally succumbed and asked my neighbor Barry for his can opener. He said that my request to borrow said kitchen utensil was the "strangest request" he had ever received. Duly noted.

I went back with Barry's can opener and happily opened my 5 or 6 cans. I rushed it back to him....only to realize I had missed a couple more cans! I was too proud to go back to ask for the can opener again, so I zipped over to Rite Aid and picked up a can opener for about $5. This one worked good enough.....oh well. Maybe you can only take the idea of being a Pampered Chef so far....

Barfing on the Carpet

I seem to recall a time when I was about 8 or 10 that I got really sick and barfed in my bedroom. I think I managed to sit up and nailed the blanket, but the rest of it went onto the carpet. I remember feeling really awful because I knew my mom would have to clean it up. Ah...memories....I was forced to recall that moment this week, except this time, I had to clean up the puke.

On Sunday night, we were getting ready for bed and I took my pre-natal vitamins as I normally do. Except this time, I was greeted with more of a gag reflex. WARNING...this gets a little graphic...Vomit began spewing out quite uncontrollably and went all over our bedspread. I went running for the toilet in our bathroom...but I am sad to say, I completely missed the toilet. Thank goodness the cabinet above the toilet was closed, otherwise all of our toiletries would have been clothed in my mess.

Anyway, puke went everywhere. It was 11pm, and I was already exhausted. Now I got to clean up my puke. I tried to reason with Mike that cleaning up my puke was part of the deal when we made our vows. He just grinned and said, "just make sure you don't miss anything."

I did a pretty good job....but I am thankful the cleaning lady is coming tomorrow.

I tried to have a good attitude while I was cleaning and decided that it was all preparation for the dirty diapers, puke, and other creations my little one will be bestowing on me at some point.....It was still gross though.

13 weeks: summarized

Alright, alright, I will update my blog. I know you have all been wondering if I really was going to write on this thing. Mental note: don't start a project like this right before you begin to grow a person inside you. In my defense, how was I supposed to know that my sudden inability to do simple things like play tennis or workout was a sign of pregnancy? I thought it was old age! All the books that I read say you are supposed to keep a pregnancy journal. This will have to do I suppose....so sorry, some of this is going to be repeat, but I need to have it written down somewhere......I didn't have the energy to write during the last 13 weeks, so this is just a summary of what went on.

June 24th: The plan was to babysit Baby Z from 1pm to ??? Before that I went to church by myself (Mike had to work) and then I made an emergency trip to Target, where I purchased a pregnancy test. Keeping in mind that my son may read this at some point, I will keep the feminine details limited--safe to say--I had reasons to purchase a pregnancy test. Pessimist that I am, I thought for certain that the test would be negative and that I could continue on with my day of babysitting.

Got home, took the test and was amazed to see that it was positive. Just to be safe, I took another one. Positive. In my own special way, I was pretty excited. Although you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at me. I delicately put the tests back into the box for safekeeping and then paced for a bit in the house. Then I just started to giggle, as I realized that I now had to go babysit a 7 month old for about 8 hours. God is pretty funny sometimes.

Thankfully, the babysitting went quite smoothly and Baby Z and I had a great time. And, I managed to not blurt out my news to John, Dara, or her mom.

I had spent the whole day babysitting, but also spent some time thinking of how to tell Mike the big news. I thought of all different kinds of options--but the easiest one was to drive over to where he proposed. I got home around 11:30, only to find him already in his pajamas and pulling the covers up. I freaked out a little because getting him to change out of that setup can sometimes be complex. I sweetly asked if he wanted to go do something sentimental and to not ask any questions. To my surprise, he said, "Sure." As he got ready, I quickly took another test---I didn't want to be wrong!

We finally arrived to the area along the cliffs where he had proposed 9 years earlier. It was really nice, the night was almost exactly how it was the night we got engaged. Anyway, I told him that I wanted to come out there because this is where we started our life together as a family and I wanted to tell him at this spot that we were about to add to the family. It was a very surreal experience, almost like getting engaged. He was really surprised and said that he thought I just wanted to drive out to this place to remember our engagement....

Here is a picture of us on our honeymoon.....



**

The day afterwards I was a mess. I called my lady parts doctor and her phone number was disconnected. I had to call our Pastor's wife to get a recommendation on who to use as an Ob/Gyn. She was quite helpful and I was soon on my way to making an appointment. I couldn't believe that they didn't need to seem until 8 more weeks. I found it so hard to believe that with something as big as this, they didn't want you to come in to make sure you peed on the stick right or something. And thus began my long journey of trying to trust in God to take care of my baby, and to not rely on myself. I still have not mastered that.

A few days later, and after taking 2 more pregnancy tests to make absolutely sure, I decided to tell my parents. This was a very fun experience. It was one of those moments that I had envisioned for a really long time. I couldn't believe that it was finally here! (Which you can totally tell by my behavior in the video below).

Telling our other close friends was also really fun. Since this was a "project" that had been 9 years in the making, I tried to tell each of my friends/family in a special way. There were some people like Heidi, Kristi, and Dara that I just couldn't wait to tell and just blurted it out. That was just as fun. But telling Karen was just as exciting as telling my parents. I remember fondly (that is a horrible cheesy word, but it is the only one I could think of) her telling me about each of her 3 pregnancies. Actually, she didn't do a very good job of hiding her "What to Expect When You are Expecting" when she was pregnant with Josh--I scoped it out in her bag within minutes of her arrival at our Westwood apartment and began an immediate inquisition. With Hannah, I was sitting at her computer at the Bland house and she proudly placed a positive pregnancy test in front of me. I remember Mike and I both hoping that she had cleaned it. :) I believe that Sophia's arrival was declared in a phone call, but I ended up being there for her birth--which was pretty amazing.
In any case, especially after the last 12 months, I was so thankful that she was actually here to give this news to! I decided to wait a couple of weeks (they ended up being very long, excruciating weeks of keeping a secret) until I saw her in person. We have a tradition of giving each other a small inexpensive gift everytime we see one another--I decided that one of my many pregnancy tests would be a suitable "shampoo present." It was very exciting and we both tried to not cry because that is not what we do.

It was also very fun to share the news with Mike's mom--definitely wished that Mike could have been there as well, but here is how that went:

***

After the process of telling everyone was over, it was now time to get busy being pregnant. Much of the first trimester involved me constantly worrying whether or not the baby was alive. All the books said this was "normal." But I think I took it to the next level. I remember feeling very relieved after the first doctor's appointment when we got to see the 22 millimeter image of our 1st baby!



I never got sick (well, I threw up once), I was just really, really, really tired for 14 weeks. I didn't feel like doing anything and many days I would have to excuse myself from the office and go lay down in the bedroom for a little bit. Many weekends were spent laying in bed in front of the TV. I actually got tired of watching television. Those who know me well will find that shocking! ** On August 22nd--right in the home stretch of my 1st trimester, I went to the doctor again. First I went to Dr. Fisher, my Ob/Gyn and I got to hear the heartbeat. That was such a relief. I was having horrible headaches for several days leading up to the appointment. I was so stressed and convinced that there was going to be a problem....mainly that there was going to be no heartbeat. After my appointment with Dr. Fisher, I went to see another doctor, who did an ultrasound. My mom came along to that appointment. It was really fun having her along. I realized we had not been to the doctor together since our last trip to the cardiologist when I was 18. I was suddenly flooded with all of these memories of driving to the cardiologist during the summer to get an EKG done and make sure everything was in order.

Anyway, it was really fun having her there, and she was super excited about everything. During the ultrasound, we managed to figure out that there is an 80% chance we are having a boy. It looked pretty clear to me....Too bad I don't have a clear picture of it here, but these are the images that we saw during the appointment:


I was cracking up, because the doctor said our baby was "very mellow" and looked very "relaxed." He kind of looked like he was sleeping; he just looked very comfortable. Often like his father does when he has fallen asleep. I am hoping that the mellow trend continues.


**

The day after the appointments we went to Seattle to visit our friends. It was really fun, somewhat tiring. And if I was not fed in appropriate increments, things went wrong pretty fast.

**

On September 2nd, I reached the 14 week point. I have already felt a marked difference and am looking forward to regaining more strength, energy, and the desire to cook. I really miss cooking.

In summary, I still can't believe that there is something growing inside me, or even more profound that it is going to grow into a human being. It really is a miracle. Today, I had to put something on my calendar for April 2008. It was strange to think that I will have a baby by then!.......

A Typical Day in the Life of

Today was another great day. It was pretty typical for a candy broker. Had a rough time waking up, and finally rolled out of bed around 7:30am. As I got ready, I heard a hissing noise in the bathroom....I thought it was the toilet, so I flushed it again. It still kept hissing............Great, the toilet is broken.

About 10 minutes later, I leaned down to use my hair straightener.....oops. I had put a bottle of hair stuff on top of the hair straightener--it was now beginning to melt and all the liquid was oozing out, on top of the iron--creating the hissing sound. Hopefully Mike doesn't notice how sticky it is on the floor of the bathroom!

Started to work and struggle with the blinds to insure an accurate amount of sunshine was floating through onto my desk. Then dealt with the oldest rep we have over the phone for about 30 minutes--it felt like an hour.

Took a break mid morning and started preparing tonight's dinner and lunch. Thanked God for how much I enjoy cooking. It is so relaxing. There is something about dumping all the ingredients together to make something that soothes me.

After lunch, I headed to my 1pm meeting. I bought a GPS system this week---which has become my new favorite device. It is so great, it is a huge stress reliever. In any case, my meeting was with www.candywarehouse.com. They are a long time customer, and one of my favorites because I exercised my feeble "selling abilities" with this account when I first joined my company years ago. One of the employees, who is my age, recently bought the company out. Having done this myself, I can really relate to him and thus enjoy visiting them. We had a great meeting and I found myself being pretty happy about my job.

I know it is just candy, but it is fun to be able to help people with what they need. Having been in the industry for a bit, I now have a pretty big knowledge of things--it is fun to be able to provide others with the depth of my nerdy knowledge of confections.

With my trusty GPS system at my side, I headed for home. Spent the evening with Jasmine watching movies. It was fun, and now Mike is home. He had to work late (again). Now he and Jasmine are discussing theology (surprise, surprise).

Anyways, I am thankful for a nice day. I have been trying hard to not get wrapped up in the business....God seems to be blessing me with discipline in that area...for now...

Post #1: Denial

Based upon Heidi's recommendations, I have started a blog. But in typical fashion, I am conducting it in a paranoid fashion. Only making it available for viewing by the 4 of you super lucky people...at least initially. In any case, I got a sweet address!! Hopefully we stay in Torrance for quite sometime, otherwise it will seem dated.

In any case...in an effort to keep the 4 of you informed on what is up with me, I have started this blog. Heidi claims that I have somewhat interesting musings, so why not share the wealth?

I can't promise that I will keep this thing updated. But at least I have it for when I will need to start posting pictures of my plants. Or my dogs, or whatever...:)

I already feel like this first posting has been a letdown and I am in denial that I have a blog.