Beauty and the Beast

Yesterday, as John and I were leaving Forest Hills Foods, the gentleman who was ringing the bell for the Salvation Army offered us three free ticket to the Forest Hills Northern production of "Beauty and the Beast" for that night. So we dropped some money in his tin and left. We only had 10 minutes to get there so it was good that it was right on our way home. What a blessing it was...and so spontaneous!

The production was amazing! The sets and costumes were incredible, and the performers were great considering it was high school. When you closed your eyes you could almost just picture the movie because the actors sang and sounded so much like the movie. It was the second best non-professional production I've ever seen (the first is GVSU's Rocky Horror Picture Show). The script is obviously good as it is but they decided to throw some extra things in every now and then. The best was Mrs. Potts' line, "We're all in this together" and then they cut in a clip from the "High School Musical" song "We're All in this Together" and the three actors on stage started dancing. And when the audience stopped clapping and laughing Cogsworth said, "That was weird." It was so funny!

The other really amazing part was the song "Be Our Guest." The choreography was awesome and the students did an amazing job with it. When it was over the audience cheered for about a full minute because it was so good. It had been a long time since John and I saw a really good performance and we were so blessed to be given tickets to such a great show! So thanks to the guy who left them and to the Salvation Army guy who passed them on!

Doctor Visits

Last Thursday, as most people know, I ended up in ER. My blood sugar was low for approximately two hours and my brain was not able to function. John thought I had a stroke because I literally couldn't talk, I could think just fine but I couldn't make myself say the words, it was just gibberish. When the paramedics came they were asking me all kinds of questions and, though I could finally talk, I couldn't give them any answers. John said it reminded him of The Notebook because I didn't know who he was. It was very scary. Once they got me to the hospital (my first ambulance trip) I started coming around a little more. They kept asking me questions but some things I still couldn't answer. When I fully came around they sent me home and I was able to just take it easy the rest of the day. The next morning I still felt kind of fuzzy but I think part of me was just scared because I didn't really know what caused me to be so confused and unable to think.

Take Two: Yesterday I woke up with a pain in my right side. I tried to drink more water, stretch it and just relax but nothing was helping. I didn't want to miss another day of work so I went in. After about two hours I couldn't take it anymore, when someone asked me how I was doing I just started crying because of all the pain. They walked me to the bathroom where I layed down on the couch and called my doctor. One of our first responders gave me an ice pack and that seemed to help. Thankfully my doctor didn't ask me to go to a med center or ER, I was hoping I wouldn't have to. They did order some lab tests so John came and picked me up and took me there. (Here I have to make the comment that people who work in labs are 100x better at drawing blood than ER nurses...I mean seriously, did I ask you to stick me wrong and then fish around in there trying to find the vein only for you to have to pull it out and try again anyway? No, no I didn't.) When I got home I layed down in bed and watched/slept through two movies. I talked to the doctor and he said all the tests had come back fine, there's one more out there that takes a couple of days even on rush so we're still waiting but he thinks it'll be fine too. I ate a little bit of dinner and about an hour later threw it up. But after that I felt really good! The pain went away and I felt good the rest of the night. There were a couple of positions that were painful to sleep in but I found one or two that were really comfortable so I stuck to those all night. This morning I felt pretty good and made it through work. The pain started to come back a little bit but nothing nearly as severe as yesterday. I iced it again during work and that helped again. I wonder if it's round ligament pain, I know Sarah had it around this time so I'm hoping that's all it is. But, then again, if it is it's still no fun!

Hopefully this is all that will be going wrong because I certainly have enough to worry about and this stuff just stinks, not to mention it takes me out of work. So I'm praying that most things will go smoothly from here on. I get another ultrasound in 4 to 5 weeks where we'll find out the sex! We're really excited about that. Also, tomorrow I turn 14 weeks and officially enter my second trimester! :)

Ultrasound

John and I had an appointment on Monday for our first ultrasound! As far as they can tell everything looks good so far. Baby is growing well and seems to be healthy. They said he's the perfect size, which is good because it means he's not too big. We will find out more at the next ultrasound when I'm around 19 weeks. At that one they'll look for any neural tube defects, downs syndrome and one other thing that would be fatal for our baby...and the gender of course! I continue to pray that there will be no defects or problems. It's amazing how much you can love this little person that you haven't even met yet.

Expecting

Well, as most of you know, John and I are expecting a baby. We got our puppy and the very next day we found out I was pregnant. We are of course very excited. Things are going well so far. No real morning sickness, although I can always tell either when my blood sugar is high or when I haven't eaten in a while. My doctor (well, nurse for now since I haven't actually met my doctor yet) has been very helpful. I call them about 2 to 3 times a week to report my blood sugars and they make changes as necessary. It has been very helpful in getting my blood sugars in good control and my last A1C (3 month average of my blood sugars) was 6.0 percent, which is pretty much what a normal person's A1C would be. There was a period there where I was fighting a cold so my blood sugars were almost always in the 2oo's, I was afraid to eat during that time! After I got to feeling better and some changes were made things really turned around and, besides a few flukes here and there, they have been really good.

We have our first ultrasound on October 25, our anniversary! We are excited and can't wait to hear the heartbeat and hopefully find out that everything is going well. We continually pray that the baby will be healthy and happy and not have any complications because of my diabetes. I know many of you are praying too and I'm so thankful for you all. You can keep up to date on how big the baby is by checking the ticker at the top of my page. Right now baby is the size of a medium green olive! Which is a big step up from the size of a nail head that "he" was when we first found out about "him"! Yes, I'm going to be using male terms until we find out the gender.

Max has adjusted well to life with us. We were trying to give him freedom during the day when we were gone at work but he kept pooping and peeing on our floor so we had to cage him. But he must be a very smart dog because one day we came home and he greeted us at the door! After the second time that happened I put him in his cage before I left for work and stacked some books in front of the door so he couldn't get out. When I called John later that day he asked if I had caged Max because he was out again! He figured out how to open the top door of the cage! We now lovingly refer to him as "Houdini." :) Now we lock the front of the cage and put a book on the top so he can't get out and he's done really well ever since. He hasn't had any accidents in almost a week. I know that the last picture didn't show up on here so I'm going to post two new ones. Hopefully these work! Enjoy!

Here he's sitting in front of the fan, he loves that spot!

How can you not love that face?!

PUPPY!

John and I are getting a puppy! We are picking him up tomorrow and I just can't wait! We picked up his cage, a few toys, some treats and food/water bowls. I'll post more pictures later but here's the one the breeder sent us. Isn't he cute!?! Actually I think he looks a little shaggy in this picture but we'll get him groomed and then post more ;)

River Bank Run

John and I ran the 5K River Bank Run today. It was freezing cold and rainy but while I was running it felt pretty good. I didn't really train a lot so I was nervous about how I would do. I ended up running about 2.3 miles without stopping but my ankle was hurting so I started walking. Then, after I started running again, I ended up going the wrong way and almost not finishing. But I was determined to cross that darn finish line so I crossed the street, backtracked, found the end of the fence that was past the finish line and started running again from there. I sprinted that last part because I had taken so much time to get there I felt I needed to finish strong...lol. Anyway, the time on the clock was about 42 minutes but the chip time should be lower than that because we started so far back. Even though I went the wrong way I had a really good time running it and want to do another 5K soon. Next year John wants to do the 10K...we have a whole year to train!

Dad!

Happy Birthday DAD! Love you!

Better late than never...

So of course I've been slacking on birthdays again. John's birthday was Jan. 2 and Grandma F.'s was Jan. 4. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to them!

This is John when we were in Las Vegas...he climbed the mountain!

This is Grandma at the family reunion last summer.