That is it for now. :)
So...as all pregnant women do...I was tested for gestational diabetes. Guess what?!? I WIN! Yup...that is right, I have it! We did the one hour test, which consists of drinking 50g of a sugar/water mixure drink and waiting an hour for them to draw my blood. Usually, if you fail the one hour test, you have to go back in and do the 3 hour test (drinking more liquid and waiting for 3 hours). However, they spared me the 3 hour test because my numbers were so high. The normal numbers are between 65 and 139. Mine were 235!! Holy Cow!!!! They were all so surprised that I got it because I don't fit the profile in any way. I have always had trouble with my blood sugar levels, so honestly, I'm not completely surprised that I was the one out of all the sisters to get it! Anyway, I get to test my blood 4 times a day and eat a very strict diet. Strict in this situation doesn't necessarily mean the same thing over and over (I can be creative), but it does mean that I have to eat a certain amount of specific food groups. You would be surprised how much food I have to eat...I had a hard time eating everything I was supposed to today...and that is saying something for a prego!
It really isn't all bad. They will induce me early. The goal is July 7th. So, Mom might actually get to be here for the delivery. (I say MIGHT because that is only 3 days before she flys out to Zambia and I would not blame her one bit if she decided it was too much to try and make it!)
I don't get to go to camp in June anymore. :( That makes me very very very sad! My doctors said that they don't want me traveling that close to delivery especially with diabetes. So, I am staying home and Travis is going to camp (don't worry, my husband is not abandoning me...he asked me what I would want him to do). This actually gives me the opportunity to spend some more time with my big sister (the first one) Kari Ann. She still has to see if it will work, but I have invited her down to spend the week with me while everyone else in the family is off having fun at camp. I am excited about the chance to spend more time with her. It isn't very often I get my sisters by themselves (without the other sisters...haha...did you really think I mean without the kids around...you are crazy)!
Anyway, the statistics and "side effects" that go along with gestational diabetes (GD) are a mix of good and bad:
1) 90% of all women who have GD go back to normal within 6 weeks of delivery.
2) women who have had GD have a 65% chance of getting Type 2 diabetes within 10 years.
3) the baby has so much extra fat that they are bigger than normal (causing early delivery)
Those are just to name a few.
Well, that is it for now...keep us in your prayers! :)
As Travis wrote in the previous post, I was in Arlington all week watching my nephews while Juli Beth and David were at work. My mom usually watches them, but she went sailing with my dad and his brother Floyd. So, I was fortunate enough to go up to Arlington for the weekend to help take care of JB's boys. I loved it! We had so much fun! Lafe spent the night with me on Sunday night and Wade spent the night with me on Thursday night. Joseph never did, but of course, he is only 1 year old...his time will come! :) All three boys were so wonderful and they are such a joy to be around! I loved getting to spend soo much time with them. Before I headed up to Arlington, I stopped by Waco to visit Lara Jane and pick up the crib that she is letting me use for Jayden. I spent the night there Saturday night and got to spend most of Sunday with them. It was so much fun getting to play with all four of her kids and get to chat with my sister. I don't usually get to spend individual time with each family so this trip was very special!
While I was gone, Travis (as he wrote in the earlier post) was busy painting and tiling our bathroom. He worked sooo hard!! He put so many hours into this project and really did such an awesome job. The only thing he didn't finish in there was the grout, but even so, he got most of that done too! He ROCKS!! The pattern of tile is amazing and the paint turned out so pretty! It looks like it came out of a magazine!
Travis had some help. His parents came over on Saturday to help paint and they gave him a night a rest on Wednesday. They brought over dinner for him and helped him tile. It makes me feel so good to know they were here to keep him company and help him out. I felt bad leaving him here to do all the work! He did such an awesome job though! He let Judy go get some decorations for the bathroom too. He picked out some of the stuff too, so I have to give him props! :) It looks so great! I'm so excited to get to take a bath in our new bathroom! :)
BEFORE:
AFTER: 
Today we went and took a tour of the hospital maternity ward. After that, we met Travis' mom at Babies R Us. Travis' parents wanted to get us our crib bedding for our gift. So, we picked that up today and a changing table. We weren't going to get a changing table, but we finally found one that we both like and didn't cost too much. Yay! After some more hard work from my wonderful hubby...our nursery has furniture and it looks like this... 
Post By: Travis
So Jana is in Arlington for the week, leaving me home alone to get some projects done around the house. For those of you feeling sorry for me... we planned this because I don't want her around the paint fumes and dust and debris while I remodel the bathroom.
That's right, I've tackled the batroom, in which we plan to paint the walls and tile the floors. I believe Jana mentioned in a previous post that we decided to do a patterned tile floor, which just adds to the complexity of what I am trying to get done.
Mom and Pop came over Saturday and generously spent their time helping me with stage 1. It WAS going to be to paint over the awful wallpaper in the batroom, but quickly turned into removing the wallpaper, then painting. We got a surprising amount done in the day, and we found out just how complicated it was going to be. The bathroom has high cielings, but the closets and the toilet room are boxed out, making shelf like structures under the gable of the upper roof.... if you can't picture that... bottom line... NOT easy to paint.
Add to that a textured paint that requires the second coat be hand applied by brush and you have a very sore Travis on Sunday morning.
Sunday I tackled the tile, well kinda. I managed to get all the tiles in the pattern cut, and that's about it. Not to say I didn't do my share on Sunday... that also included finishing the painting, starting demo on the floors in the bathroom and mowing the lawn.... which brings me to the dog portion of this post.
I have now come to the conclusion that Cooper likes to sabotage my yard work. As I mow the back yard the dogs sort of run away from whatever area I am mowing and watch me intensely from seclusion. I have to keep a watchful eye on the grass in front of me for dog toys, balls, sticks and rocks the dogs have managed to dislodge from the flower beds.
Well this Sunday Cooper kept grabbing the balls I would toss out of the way, and cary them to a spot I had not mowed yet and drop them. He added big sticks to this by about half way through, so every few feet I was clearing SOMETHING else from in front of the mower. Each time I did, Cooper looked dissapointed... it was if he wanted to see a big bang!
Well he got his wish when I ran over a tennis ball that was burried in the grass as I came around a corner. There was a loud pop, and a mangled tennis ball shot out from under the mower. Cooper looked thrilled! He grabbed the remains and took off running with them. It is now his favorite toy, and he and Nikki wrestle over it constantly.
Cooper is all boy.
As most of you know...we had Cooper fixed on Monday. He did awesome! All the ladies at the vet's office just bragged about how well he did and how affectionate he is. They love him in there and he loves them! He hardly notices Mom when we go to the vet.
Anyway, Travis was a little worried about whether Cooper was going to still act tough and manly after his little surgery. Well...we have no more worries about Cooper's masculinity...
HE ATE A SNAKE!!!!
That is right...I put him in the back yard for about 5 minutes and when I went back out to give the dogs water...here comes Cooper with a snake hanging out of his mouth!! As soon as I reacted..."Cooper! No!!" He gobbled it up as quick as he could, so I couldn't even see what kind of snake it was. It was hilarious! He has been casually enjoying a snack and when I interupted he scarfed it down! The snake was HUGE! I mean...the part that I saw hanging out of his mouth was the very end of the snake...just thinning out into the tail, but it was at least 6 inches long! I'm guessing the snake was at least a foot long...head included.
I was so proud of him (and knew his Opa would be too)...but as we were laying in bed last night...still in shock at the fact that our puppy ate a snake...out of the blue I said, "Aw...now I'm feeling sorry for the snake." Yup...my pride for my little boy did not hold down my need to care for everything!
I'm so weird...but I have the coolest dog EVER!!!!
This post by: Travis
So my wife told me that I would be the one to have to enter this post... "if you don't I will" was her wording, and as every husband knows, that's when it's time to come clean.
Really the day has been uneventful past lunch time, but it was quite the adventure this morning.
I was up late last night working on some projects, and so I didn't crawl into bed until after midnight. Needless to say I was not very cooperative with the alarm this mroning, and my hand seemed to be on auto-snooze. So I got a little bit of a late start on my morning, and realized that I had to rush out the door to make it in time to catch my usual 8:20 bus. This is the bus that drops me off a few minutes before 9, and gets me into my office at a comfortable starting hour. I had been planning on taking my tax documents to work to finish them up at lunch, but there was no time to run up and get them from the office.
I kissed Jana goodbye and drove to the park and ride. I made it just in time, but as I approached the bus I realized that my pockets seemed rather full. I reach my hand in to discover that I had BOTH my keys AND Jana's. So now I had stranded my wife at home without any option of leaving until I got home after 6. I called her, and after a short discussion I decided it best to head back home and give her the keys to her car. I would hate to leave the pregnant lady home alone with no transportation!
So off we go to the house. I get there and decide that I should go ahead and grab the tax papers while I was there so I ran up... but it took a few minutes to find them. Dang, now I am going to miss the 8:40 bus.
I head BACK to the park n ride, and sure enough, I find myself climbing onto the 9:00 bus. Now, this requires a little explanation. Every bus before 9 goes straight from Kingwood to downtown, approximately 40 minutes. After 9 they stop at 2 other park n rides on the way, 1 hour ride.
I settle into my seat on the nearly empty bus and prop my knees up against the chair in front of me. At the next stop some guy who must bathe in $2 cologne got on and sat, of all places, in the seat in front of me and proceeds to lean his seat back with all his weight onto my knees! Ugh.
After all that, I am exhausted and close my eyes for a quick cat nap. This is standard for me, I sleep on the ride about 1/3 of the time. Well this time I woke up on the south side of town, a good 20 blocks from my office. I SLEPT THROUGH MY STOP.
The worst part was, I knew I had gone too far, but I had no idea where I was. I got off the bus and just sort of started walking in the general direction I believed to be north. Turns out I was right, but it was still a long, hot, muggy walk with my heavy backpack on my back to top it all off.
So I rolled into the office around 10:20 this morning.
Hi Everyone! I know that I have posted a lot today, and I will need to for the next couple of days. As I posted earlier, I have started the PayPerPost program and I signed up with this blog, not thinking about what I was doing. So, I need to post 7 more annoying posts before I can add a separate blog to use.
I am trying to post about things that might be of interest to some of you or that you might have comments about. So, don't stop reading yet!
I am still posting all of our personal things on here too, so stick with me!
Love you all and hope you are having a great week!
Okay, so I'm an online shopper! I'll admit it. I work from home and I'm going to be a stay at home mom. So, the easiest way to get my shopping done these days is over the internet or phone. One thing that I try to do consistently is, send out Birthday cards. I'm not a phone person, so sending a card on a special days makes me feel a little bit better about not being connected as much as most people. Of course, sending all these cards out requires that I get out and buy cards! I have found an easy solution to that problem...online Birthday Cards! This site has some awesome cards and they range from traditional to fun to artsy and cutsy. There is a card to fit anyone and everyone's personality! One of my favorites is this one...
The site is really easy to navigate and has cards for every occasion. They even have cards that relate to the corporate world. I find this useful because my husband still works in the corporate world, so I can just add cards he might use to my order! This is such a simple and wonderful way to get the greeting cards my family my family needs without adding another errand to my list of places to go and things to do! Check this site out and see for yourself! It is awesome!
birthday cards
I first heard about PayPerPost from Shauna, so I thought I would take a look. It actually is a pretty cool deal. Basically, you blog about what you want to blog about and get paid to do it! There are companies out there who are looking for people to post reviews about their products or your opinion on certain issues or whatever else might be interesting. They have some awesome tools that help you get started and it is so simple! Even if you aren't hurting for cash, this is still a great way to make a few extra bucks and all you have to do is write what you want! For all of us opinionated people...this is awesome! We get to state our opinions and get paid for it!
I'm looking forward to building up a nice pad and going to get Jayden some cute clothes (or pamper myself after we get into a routine)! It will also come in handy if we need to make a little extra cash while I'm on maternity leave. Diapers, wipes, formula...they all add up!
If you are looking for a way to pad your pocket...you should look into PayPerPost. It doesn't cost you anything and you can start making money right away!
blog ethics
