Our house was really hot when we got home today. One of these days I may start turning on the air conditioning...but really, do we need it? I don't know. It sure is a nice luxury though. Unfortunately, I shudder to think of how it's going to raise our utilities...so I always am trying to turn it off. Today we just left our windows open and the fans going. Sure, our thermostat read over 80°F (nearly 27°C), but there was little we could do after we got home so we just suffered through it.
That meant, however, that we didn't really feel like cooking or eating. So, I had the marvelous idea of having fruit salad. The only fresh fruit we have right now are apples. We ended up opening a can of oranges, a can of pears, and a can of fruit cocktail and halving all three. It wasn't a bad dinner and really kind of hit the spot.
We left the house to go to our various activities: Andrew had to go back to work and I had to go to one of my marathon primary meetings--it lasted until around 9:00.
I beat Andrew home and we chatted for a bit over Google Talk and decided that we were both starving. Fruit salad is a good component of a dinner, and if you ever go to a pot luck at one of my family gatherings, you will be sure to find 3 or 4 different varieties. Unfortunately, it isn't a very good meal.
Luckily, I'm home and he's not, so I was having some left-over pasta salad while trying to decide what else to eat.
Andrew suggested rice. I started making some rice...and then thought that we should have something more vegetabley. We have a head of dark, lush romaine lettuce in our fridge. I commenced to make a salad. I broke off some leaves and started rinsing them off in the sink. All was fine and dandy...
...That is, until I broke off one last leaf. Hiding deep in the lettuce near the stem was a spider!
I quickly turned the water on full blast and held the lettuce under the current. I'm hoping that the spider was sucked down the drain somehow...if not he somehow crawled deeper into the lettuce.
Oh, what was it that Grandma used to do? Did she soak it in salt water to kill all of the bugs? I think so. I'll have to try that. I am morally opposed to having spiders in my salad.
It's not even that I have anything against spiders themselves. I like that they eat mosquitoes...and they can make pretty webs. And I used to make good money off of them.
My sister, Abra, used to pay me to remove spiders from her bedroom. No problemo. I'd get a cup and a piece of paper and trap the spider and release it outside...because squishing things is gross (I just hate that crushing, oozing sound). In return I would get between $1-5, depending on what change my sister had available. It was a pretty steady business.
Now that I'm married though and have someone to rely on, I have become a bit more squirmish. I'm tempted to blame that on pregnancy, but I really think that it's marriage.
Just the other day there was a spider lurking in the bathroom. It was just a little guy, but I called out for Andrew to come and rescue me. Do I really have that big of a need to be rescued from something the size of an ant? Probably not. Maybe I'm just seeking more attention.
Either way, the head of lettuce is still sitting in my sink, and I'm still wondering what to do about it. If the spider is still lurking in the lettuce, do I really want to refrigerate it? Should I soak my lettuce in salt water to rid it of any other extra protein sources?
Luckily Andrew just walked in the door to come to my rescue. My hero!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Over packaging
Recently our camera started to exhibit a phenomenon known as the "white screen of death." The first known occurrence happened at my brother's final dance concert and I was quite mortified to discover this new trait our camera was exhibiting. Since that first discovery, the camera has been displaying the "white screen of death" at more and more frequent intervals and has been becoming more and more difficult to fix each time.
We are unsure what caused this. Was it from hiking Wadi Mujib? Was it from getting banged around in our backpack? Was it just because the camera was old?
Whatever caused the "white screen of death," we decided that it was time to look for a new camera.
We decided that now would be a good time to do so since we probably wouldn't feel like spending $150 on a camera after the baby is born...
So, we Froogled it first (you can't make a verb out of "Google Product Search") and then we checked out Amazon.com. We found a great deal on Amazon.com...a "Fujifilm FinePix V10 5.1 mega pixels" camera for 50% off the original price, brand new. It has optical zoom, macros, etc., etc., etc. Truthfully, it's probably a pretty cheap camera but it is way supped up compared to our old camera.
Andrew purchased our old camera on his mission for €199 and got a 152 MB memory card for €90! Our camera was around $130, and we got a 1 GB memory card for $20! That is way awesome.
The camera got here in like 3 days, so we've been playing with it (and the 16 MB card that comes with the camera) for a few days now. Finally, our 1 GB card came today...
...in a box 14,144 times its size!
Yes, 14,144 of those little memory cards could have fit in the box they shipped it in. The memory card is only as big as the tip of my thumb...the box, well, it's just much, much bigger. Oh, and I really like how they were sure and stuffed the package under the box flaps so that it wouldn't move around in the box too much. Essentially they shipped an empty box. One of those cardboard envelopes probably would have done the trick just fine.
In short, we're really quite happy to have a new camera. That way, we can give Andrew the new camera to take pictures with because his pictures always turn out nice...and I can continue to take pictures on our old camera, because my pictures usually turn out not-so-nice. I always end up shaking the camera and then the pictures come out all blurry. Andrew has a much steadier hand.
And while I'm into happy mail news, we also got CS3 in the mail today--for free! We bought CS2 at the student price simply because you could upgrade to CS3 for free... That's an $1800 deal. Of course, we got the student priced one, so it cost us around $200, so we really only saved $400 because the CS3 student priced version is $599. Either way you look at it, it was a good deal.
Now we're done buying anything until well after the baby is born, I'm sure.
We are unsure what caused this. Was it from hiking Wadi Mujib? Was it from getting banged around in our backpack? Was it just because the camera was old?
Whatever caused the "white screen of death," we decided that it was time to look for a new camera.
We decided that now would be a good time to do so since we probably wouldn't feel like spending $150 on a camera after the baby is born...
So, we Froogled it first (you can't make a verb out of "Google Product Search") and then we checked out Amazon.com. We found a great deal on Amazon.com...a "Fujifilm FinePix V10 5.1 mega pixels" camera for 50% off the original price, brand new. It has optical zoom, macros, etc., etc., etc. Truthfully, it's probably a pretty cheap camera but it is way supped up compared to our old camera.
Andrew purchased our old camera on his mission for €199 and got a 152 MB memory card for €90! Our camera was around $130, and we got a 1 GB memory card for $20! That is way awesome.
The camera got here in like 3 days, so we've been playing with it (and the 16 MB card that comes with the camera) for a few days now. Finally, our 1 GB card came today...
...in a box 14,144 times its size!
Yes, 14,144 of those little memory cards could have fit in the box they shipped it in. The memory card is only as big as the tip of my thumb...the box, well, it's just much, much bigger. Oh, and I really like how they were sure and stuffed the package under the box flaps so that it wouldn't move around in the box too much. Essentially they shipped an empty box. One of those cardboard envelopes probably would have done the trick just fine.
In short, we're really quite happy to have a new camera. That way, we can give Andrew the new camera to take pictures with because his pictures always turn out nice...and I can continue to take pictures on our old camera, because my pictures usually turn out not-so-nice. I always end up shaking the camera and then the pictures come out all blurry. Andrew has a much steadier hand.
And while I'm into happy mail news, we also got CS3 in the mail today--for free! We bought CS2 at the student price simply because you could upgrade to CS3 for free... That's an $1800 deal. Of course, we got the student priced one, so it cost us around $200, so we really only saved $400 because the CS3 student priced version is $599. Either way you look at it, it was a good deal.
Now we're done buying anything until well after the baby is born, I'm sure.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Fire Safety
This morning, we decided to have pancakes for breakfast. We learned from Andrew's multiple failed attempts at making pancakes in a pan, that he should only make them on a griddle. So, I'm officially the pan-pancake maker and Andrew is officially the griddle-pancake maker.
He might lose that title soon, however.
I was in the bedroom finishing up some laundry while Andrew was in the kitchen working his magic on the griddle.
We were out of syrup, so Andrew began to make some more. That is where things started going wrong. Multi-tasking is difficult enough. Multi-tasking first thing in the morning is very difficult, apparently.
From the bedroom I hear normal cooking sounds and then suddenly I hear...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Umm...honey?"
"What?" I responded while running into the kitchen. In our family we've learned that if anyone says something from the kitchen you should always run...and not walk to see what the problem is. Someone could be unconscious in there, you never know.
"Is sugar flammable?" he answered before I had even got to the kitchen...and it's not a long run.
"Yes...what happened...?"
"Well, I think that some of the alcohol from the maple flavoring caught on fire...but it was just a little bit, so I thought it would just die down...but while I was flipping the pancakes, the fire got a lot bigger. But it's okay because I put the lid on it and it's out now. So, sugar's flammable. Hmmm... that explains a lot."
Yeah, it does. Apparently he spilled quite a bit of syrup on the burner and into the little tray beneath the burner and the whole thing was up in flames. He quickly removed the pot from the burner and used the lid to suffocate the flames.
Luckily, like all good little scouts, my husband was a total pyromaniac with the rest of the troop and gained some excellent fire-putting-outer skills.
A few of the pancakes were browner than others. He forgot about flipping them in his fire fighting frenzy. But breakfast was good, we still have a kitchen, and it's not even very dirty...although Andrew did have fun experimenting with both vinegar and baking soda to get the tray clean. What is that little tray called anyway?
I suppose it is a good thing that we've had our small house fire. We learned in the little fire safety clinic we went to that each household experiences a small house fire every 10 years or so. It looks like we're good for the next 10 years.
As a side note, Andrew and I were just barely in the kitchen putting some groceries (from my mom's food storage) away. Apparently they aren't eating it fast enough anymore. Anyway, the little tray from the stove was sitting on the counter with dry baking soda sitting in it. I sighed, and thinking my husband a little crazy, moved the tray, and wiped off the counter. Andrew picked up the little tray and said, "Yeah, how is this supposed to help?"
"It's not." I said, shaking my head sympathetically.
"Oh," he said, looking confused, shocked and relieved all at the same time, "Everyone always says that baking soda helps."
"It does," I said, "But you have to get it wet and scrub it."
"Ohhhhh," he said, "I thought there was some magical property that it had that made stuff come off, but nothing was happening."
Alas, so much in life requires effort on our part. My lovely husband is now in the kitchen scrubbing.
I have yet another side note. Man, do I ever love my husband. He's just so...funny. I just finished adding the previous side note and walked into the kitchen to continue putting away the groceries. I looked at my husband diligently scrubbing away. Next to him sat the baking powder with a spoon in it.
"Oh, honey," I said, "Not this stuff. The baking soda."
"Really?" he asked, "I've been using this stuff all day."
"Yeah," I said, "Baking powder is a lot more expensive than baking soda..."
"Oh," he said, "And it doesn't seem to work well for cleaning because this isn't doing anything."
Well, that's because one is more powdery than the other. It's the little grain thingies in the baking soda that help get tough things off... It's also a lot more versatile than baking powder, which is typically just used for cooking (and the occasional science project, although powder works better because it's a purer substance).
He's now scrubbing with baking powder. I just asked him if it's working better. He has confirmed that it is. I hope that he isn't getting sprayed with dirty chunks of baking soda. He's wearing his Sunday shirt...sigh...
Emily also had a little adventure with fire today, although hers was less dangerous.
For lunch, I went out with Andrew's family to Winger's for Sarah's birthday lunch. Andrew had to work, so he wasn't there.
Everyone got something to do with sticky chicken fingers, except Karen who got a plate of fish and chips.
Reid and I got the sticky chicken finger quesadillas. Sarah and Jacob got plain sticky chicken fingers. Emily ordered sticky chicken fingers with fire sauce.
She recently won a lemon-eating contest so she fancies herself somewhat of an invincible eater. She did remarkably well with the fire sauce... Is she brave enough to have a broccoli-eating contest with me? Probably not, so how invincible is she, really?
Anyway, she was quite comical to watch trying to eat her chicken fingers drenched in fire sauce. She was crying, and the waitress was continually refilling Emily's water cup. Emily drained 5 cups of water. Once she drank so much water so fast that it started coming out of her nose. It was quite disgusting, really...but oh, so very funny!
She didn't end up finishing her chicken fingers and brought some home. Karen wrote on her doggie-bag (which is actually a box), "Emily: hot stuff." Emily is determined that she is going to finish eating those chicken fingers. I think she has 4 of 6 left over, so we'll have to see...
He might lose that title soon, however.
I was in the bedroom finishing up some laundry while Andrew was in the kitchen working his magic on the griddle.
We were out of syrup, so Andrew began to make some more. That is where things started going wrong. Multi-tasking is difficult enough. Multi-tasking first thing in the morning is very difficult, apparently.
From the bedroom I hear normal cooking sounds and then suddenly I hear...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Umm...honey?"
"What?" I responded while running into the kitchen. In our family we've learned that if anyone says something from the kitchen you should always run...and not walk to see what the problem is. Someone could be unconscious in there, you never know.
"Is sugar flammable?" he answered before I had even got to the kitchen...and it's not a long run.
"Yes...what happened...?"
"Well, I think that some of the alcohol from the maple flavoring caught on fire...but it was just a little bit, so I thought it would just die down...but while I was flipping the pancakes, the fire got a lot bigger. But it's okay because I put the lid on it and it's out now. So, sugar's flammable. Hmmm... that explains a lot."
Yeah, it does. Apparently he spilled quite a bit of syrup on the burner and into the little tray beneath the burner and the whole thing was up in flames. He quickly removed the pot from the burner and used the lid to suffocate the flames.
Luckily, like all good little scouts, my husband was a total pyromaniac with the rest of the troop and gained some excellent fire-putting-outer skills.
A few of the pancakes were browner than others. He forgot about flipping them in his fire fighting frenzy. But breakfast was good, we still have a kitchen, and it's not even very dirty...although Andrew did have fun experimenting with both vinegar and baking soda to get the tray clean. What is that little tray called anyway?
I suppose it is a good thing that we've had our small house fire. We learned in the little fire safety clinic we went to that each household experiences a small house fire every 10 years or so. It looks like we're good for the next 10 years.
"It's not." I said, shaking my head sympathetically.
"Oh," he said, looking confused, shocked and relieved all at the same time, "Everyone always says that baking soda helps."
"It does," I said, "But you have to get it wet and scrub it."
"Ohhhhh," he said, "I thought there was some magical property that it had that made stuff come off, but nothing was happening."
Alas, so much in life requires effort on our part. My lovely husband is now in the kitchen scrubbing.
"Oh, honey," I said, "Not this stuff. The baking soda."
"Really?" he asked, "I've been using this stuff all day."
"Yeah," I said, "Baking powder is a lot more expensive than baking soda..."
"Oh," he said, "And it doesn't seem to work well for cleaning because this isn't doing anything."
Well, that's because one is more powdery than the other. It's the little grain thingies in the baking soda that help get tough things off... It's also a lot more versatile than baking powder, which is typically just used for cooking (and the occasional science project, although powder works better because it's a purer substance).
He's now scrubbing with baking powder. I just asked him if it's working better. He has confirmed that it is. I hope that he isn't getting sprayed with dirty chunks of baking soda. He's wearing his Sunday shirt...sigh...
For lunch, I went out with Andrew's family to Winger's for Sarah's birthday lunch. Andrew had to work, so he wasn't there.
Everyone got something to do with sticky chicken fingers, except Karen who got a plate of fish and chips.
Reid and I got the sticky chicken finger quesadillas. Sarah and Jacob got plain sticky chicken fingers. Emily ordered sticky chicken fingers with fire sauce.
She recently won a lemon-eating contest so she fancies herself somewhat of an invincible eater. She did remarkably well with the fire sauce... Is she brave enough to have a broccoli-eating contest with me? Probably not, so how invincible is she, really?
Anyway, she was quite comical to watch trying to eat her chicken fingers drenched in fire sauce. She was crying, and the waitress was continually refilling Emily's water cup. Emily drained 5 cups of water. Once she drank so much water so fast that it started coming out of her nose. It was quite disgusting, really...but oh, so very funny!
She didn't end up finishing her chicken fingers and brought some home. Karen wrote on her doggie-bag (which is actually a box), "Emily: hot stuff." Emily is determined that she is going to finish eating those chicken fingers. I think she has 4 of 6 left over, so we'll have to see...
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Identity Crisis, part II
I thought the weather was rather ironic yesterday. It was cold. It was stormy. It hailed. It rained. And in some places, it snowed. The weather was really quite...yucky. I had two friends get married yesterday.
One had planned to have her reception outside...it was quickly moved inside.
You would think that my wedding would have been the one to have the bad weather, considering I was married in December (who gets married in December?!?) but the weather at my wedding was actually very beautiful, indeed. It was rather warm, relatively sunny...I didn't even need a jacket, which was a good thing because that would have looked awful in the pictures.
I was invited to two more receptions today, although I will only be able to make it to one.
Yes, the semester is definitely over and summer break has begun. All the weddings are ample evidence of that.
As I walked into Shallee's reception with my mom and Josie, Sister Stanley greeted us.
"Hello, Nancy," she said to my mom.
"Hello, Josie," she said to my sister.
"And..." she paused when she got to me, "Hello."
I was rather pleased that she called my mother by my name and that by the time she got to me realized that I was not my mother, so didn't call me anything at all. You could tell she was rather confused and was really grasping for a name before she simply gave up.
One had planned to have her reception outside...it was quickly moved inside.
You would think that my wedding would have been the one to have the bad weather, considering I was married in December (who gets married in December?!?) but the weather at my wedding was actually very beautiful, indeed. It was rather warm, relatively sunny...I didn't even need a jacket, which was a good thing because that would have looked awful in the pictures.
I was invited to two more receptions today, although I will only be able to make it to one.
Yes, the semester is definitely over and summer break has begun. All the weddings are ample evidence of that.
As I walked into Shallee's reception with my mom and Josie, Sister Stanley greeted us.
"Hello, Nancy," she said to my mom.
"Hello, Josie," she said to my sister.
"And..." she paused when she got to me, "Hello."
I was rather pleased that she called my mother by my name and that by the time she got to me realized that I was not my mother, so didn't call me anything at all. You could tell she was rather confused and was really grasping for a name before she simply gave up.
Almost...but not quite
First, I almost met Elder Holland today...but not quite. He was being interviewed in the classroom of Special Collections. I walked by like 3 or 4 times while I was at work (on my way to use the restroom), but I didn't ever meet him.
My second "almost" today also happened at work. I almost burst out laughing at a girl when she walked in today...but not quite. She wasn't really doing anything humorous except that she was wearing one of those kimono shirts that are coming into style:
There is nothing wrong with these shirts. Don't get me wrong. They are even kind of cute, I suppose.
However, they most definitely are sold in the lingerie section of the shops in Jordan. It's true. My friend Arielle bought one while we were there...I remember how embarrassed I was that Arielle wanted to buy lingerie while I was with her. Totally not my thing to do.
Oddly enough, we weren't given a second look at the cash register. That was my first time out in Amman by myself (meaning without my husband).
Later I learned that we didn't really have anything to be ashamed of. Amman is completely awash with lingerie--and not like in America where it's kind of in the backs of the stores. No, in Amman it's all up front, more like Europe. In fact, they even have street vendors that just lay it out in the streets, and not all of it is as modest as the kimono thing.
One of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life was a group of fully veiled women in hijabs holding lingerie up to each other in the street. It was just a little...oxymoronic.
So anyway, every time I saw this girl, I had to hold in my giggles and suppress my memories of lingerie stores in Amman. It's not everyday you get to see someone walking around BYU campus wearing lingerie...of course it wasn't really lingerie, but still...
My second "almost" today also happened at work. I almost burst out laughing at a girl when she walked in today...but not quite. She wasn't really doing anything humorous except that she was wearing one of those kimono shirts that are coming into style:
There is nothing wrong with these shirts. Don't get me wrong. They are even kind of cute, I suppose.However, they most definitely are sold in the lingerie section of the shops in Jordan. It's true. My friend Arielle bought one while we were there...I remember how embarrassed I was that Arielle wanted to buy lingerie while I was with her. Totally not my thing to do.
Oddly enough, we weren't given a second look at the cash register. That was my first time out in Amman by myself (meaning without my husband).
Later I learned that we didn't really have anything to be ashamed of. Amman is completely awash with lingerie--and not like in America where it's kind of in the backs of the stores. No, in Amman it's all up front, more like Europe. In fact, they even have street vendors that just lay it out in the streets, and not all of it is as modest as the kimono thing.
One of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life was a group of fully veiled women in hijabs holding lingerie up to each other in the street. It was just a little...oxymoronic.
So anyway, every time I saw this girl, I had to hold in my giggles and suppress my memories of lingerie stores in Amman. It's not everyday you get to see someone walking around BYU campus wearing lingerie...of course it wasn't really lingerie, but still...
Friday, May 04, 2007
Money Management
Andrew has what Bridget might call an interesting "style of money management." Although, it does sound like she may be pretty familiar with Andrew's style.
Andrew has what he likes to call "free money." This is a wide variety of things including many things that I don't consider free money at all.
For example, when we went golfing with his family, we paid, but his parents paid us back. In Andrew's mind we somehow made $30. In my mind nothing happened. We still have the exact same amount of money we had before.
Or, my brother was using my cell phone for awhile. It's a family plan so it's $20 per cell phone. We were paying for the bill, and then my brother was paying us back. Every time he gave us $20, Andrew would remark, "Sweet! Free money!" I don't think that was free money. Again, we just broke even...
Tax refunds are also free money. To me, this is a refund. Something I already paid coming back to me. It still belonged to me... To Andrew, this is free.
There are some things that Andrew and I both agree on as free money: scholarships, grants, gift cards, and points accumulated on our credit cards. Those are all free. Things we weren't expecting, things that didn't initially come out of our own pocket, things that people gave to us out of the goodness of their own hearts. That's free.
It has taken me awhile to get Andrew to see my point of view. I think that I am understanding his...but it's still hard for me to consider something free when clearly we a) break even or b) have something returned to us. So, Andrew has added some new terminology when he speaks about money with me.
We now have what he calls "real free money," which he used the other day to reference a gift card his grandparents gave him for his birthday. And then he has plain old "free money," like the refund that we finally got today from our Jordan trip last year--which in my mind isn't really free, see, because we already paid that money, they are just giving a little of it back because we didn't spend it all.
At least this way I know that he knows the difference between free and not free.
Andrew has what he likes to call "free money." This is a wide variety of things including many things that I don't consider free money at all.
For example, when we went golfing with his family, we paid, but his parents paid us back. In Andrew's mind we somehow made $30. In my mind nothing happened. We still have the exact same amount of money we had before.
Or, my brother was using my cell phone for awhile. It's a family plan so it's $20 per cell phone. We were paying for the bill, and then my brother was paying us back. Every time he gave us $20, Andrew would remark, "Sweet! Free money!" I don't think that was free money. Again, we just broke even...
Tax refunds are also free money. To me, this is a refund. Something I already paid coming back to me. It still belonged to me... To Andrew, this is free.
There are some things that Andrew and I both agree on as free money: scholarships, grants, gift cards, and points accumulated on our credit cards. Those are all free. Things we weren't expecting, things that didn't initially come out of our own pocket, things that people gave to us out of the goodness of their own hearts. That's free.
It has taken me awhile to get Andrew to see my point of view. I think that I am understanding his...but it's still hard for me to consider something free when clearly we a) break even or b) have something returned to us. So, Andrew has added some new terminology when he speaks about money with me.
We now have what he calls "real free money," which he used the other day to reference a gift card his grandparents gave him for his birthday. And then he has plain old "free money," like the refund that we finally got today from our Jordan trip last year--which in my mind isn't really free, see, because we already paid that money, they are just giving a little of it back because we didn't spend it all.
At least this way I know that he knows the difference between free and not free.
Sugar High
I can imagine the conversation that went on between the two doctors who thought of the glucose tolerance test. I don't think they were really thinking of their patient's health when they did so.
Dr. #1: Hey, I have an idea of how we can test for diabetes!
Dr. #2: What's that?
Dr. #1: We can have them not eat any sugar all day and then give them a drink with more sugar than anyone could possibly take in one sitting...
Dr. #2: Oh, and then we can poke them with needles and drain their blood!
Dr. #1: Yeah, yeah! And then we can watch as they get sick!
What kind of sick doctors were those?
Yesterday was a hard day for me. I had to get the 1-hour glucose screen done to see if I'm at risk for gestational diabetes. They forgot to have me do it last month, so they asked me to do it ASAP...so we did, the day after our 28 week check up.
The instructions were to avoid all forms of sugar all day: fruit, juice, jam, etc. I then had a choice of one of two meals: eggs and toast for breakfast or meat and vegetables for lunch.
I had lunch. Two hours later I found myself at the hospital, trying to communicate with some very gossipy nurses (who were all much more interested in gossiping than in helping me out).
They gave me an orange drink that tasted like Fanta, only super sweet--like pop isn't super sweet already. I had five minutes to drink it. No problemo, I thought. But then I noticed that it was carbonated so that meant I had to battle the hiccups while trying to drink in a very limited time frame.
I read the bottle between sips:
Take only under the direction of a physician.
May cause vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, or fainting.
Man, those doctors sure were sick. Who gives someone enough sugar in one sitting that it can only be safely taken under the direction of a physician? And why would anyone want to drink so much sugar that they have any of the symptoms listed?
The first nurse had told me to come up to the desk after I had finished drinking it and they would have someone draw my "initial" blood. Apparently her shift ended while I was drinking because there was a new lady at the desk when I went up there and she told me that I didn't need any initial blood work done.
So I sat in my chair for an hour. Andrew read "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" while I, at Andrew's insistence, began the third Harry Potter novel (I haven't even read the first one yet...)
Then a nurse came out and called my name. I looked all around for the nurse. It took me about two minutes until I spotted a short male nurse jumping up and down and waving his arms.
He was nice enough, but I think he was fairly new at his job.
I'm actually not sure if the reason it hurt so bad was because the nurse did a terrible job of sticking me, or if it is simply because I have 50% more blood coursing through my body. Either way, when we left, I was holding my arm and almost crying.
"Why are you holding your arm?" Andrew, who again didn't accompany me into the lab because he is terrified of needles, asked, "You didn't do that last time."
"Because it hurts." I answered shortly. I wasn't feeling too well.
By the time we got home I was ready for a nap. I felt like I had just eaten all of my Halloween candy in one sitting. In my family, Halloween candy usually lasts all year, so I don't even know how that would feel, but I think I have a pretty good idea now.
I took a nap and woke up feeling even worse. Eeww...I never wanted to see sugar ever again. I went out into the living room and lay down on the floor in the fetal position.
"Are you alright?" Andrew asked.
"Yes," I lied.
"Are you sure?" he probed.
"No," I said.
Andrew made me a quesadilla and then left for work. I ate and then got ready to go to yoga. Maybe that would make me feel better.
I then experienced some of the symptoms that I read on the bottle. I won't go into details, but we'll just say that I felt much better a few minutes later.
I left for yoga. It was canceled. No one had told me, so when I got there, no one was there. That was fine with me because I didn't feel too great anyway. I went home and did the same thing I had done just a few minutes before.
Instead of yoga, I attempted to clean the kitchen but my arm was pounding and it hurt to straighten it or lift anything with it.
So, instead of cleaning the kitchen, I phoned Andrew and asked when he could come home and take care of me.
I had killed enough time doing who knows what that he was already on his way home, hurray!
Andrew came home and made me dinner and rubbed my back and played with my hair. I'm so spoiled, I know.
While he was doing the dishes (see the part about my being spoiled), I decided to take off my bandage. I assure you that, although it doesn't look that bad in the picture, it looked pretty gruesome last night.
No wonder my arm hurt. It was all swollen and purple and had three little needle entrances in it.
Let's just say that Andrew and I both are hoping that I passed this test so that we don't have to go in and take the more intensive glucose screen. I really don't know if I'm up to having my blood drawn three times in one day. After all, I only have two arms.
Dr. #1: Hey, I have an idea of how we can test for diabetes!
Dr. #2: What's that?
Dr. #1: We can have them not eat any sugar all day and then give them a drink with more sugar than anyone could possibly take in one sitting...
Dr. #2: Oh, and then we can poke them with needles and drain their blood!
Dr. #1: Yeah, yeah! And then we can watch as they get sick!
What kind of sick doctors were those?
Yesterday was a hard day for me. I had to get the 1-hour glucose screen done to see if I'm at risk for gestational diabetes. They forgot to have me do it last month, so they asked me to do it ASAP...so we did, the day after our 28 week check up.
The instructions were to avoid all forms of sugar all day: fruit, juice, jam, etc. I then had a choice of one of two meals: eggs and toast for breakfast or meat and vegetables for lunch.
I had lunch. Two hours later I found myself at the hospital, trying to communicate with some very gossipy nurses (who were all much more interested in gossiping than in helping me out).
They gave me an orange drink that tasted like Fanta, only super sweet--like pop isn't super sweet already. I had five minutes to drink it. No problemo, I thought. But then I noticed that it was carbonated so that meant I had to battle the hiccups while trying to drink in a very limited time frame.
I read the bottle between sips:
Take only under the direction of a physician.
May cause vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, or fainting.
Man, those doctors sure were sick. Who gives someone enough sugar in one sitting that it can only be safely taken under the direction of a physician? And why would anyone want to drink so much sugar that they have any of the symptoms listed?
The first nurse had told me to come up to the desk after I had finished drinking it and they would have someone draw my "initial" blood. Apparently her shift ended while I was drinking because there was a new lady at the desk when I went up there and she told me that I didn't need any initial blood work done.
So I sat in my chair for an hour. Andrew read "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" while I, at Andrew's insistence, began the third Harry Potter novel (I haven't even read the first one yet...)
Then a nurse came out and called my name. I looked all around for the nurse. It took me about two minutes until I spotted a short male nurse jumping up and down and waving his arms.
He was nice enough, but I think he was fairly new at his job.
I'm actually not sure if the reason it hurt so bad was because the nurse did a terrible job of sticking me, or if it is simply because I have 50% more blood coursing through my body. Either way, when we left, I was holding my arm and almost crying.
"Why are you holding your arm?" Andrew, who again didn't accompany me into the lab because he is terrified of needles, asked, "You didn't do that last time."
"Because it hurts." I answered shortly. I wasn't feeling too well.
By the time we got home I was ready for a nap. I felt like I had just eaten all of my Halloween candy in one sitting. In my family, Halloween candy usually lasts all year, so I don't even know how that would feel, but I think I have a pretty good idea now.
I took a nap and woke up feeling even worse. Eeww...I never wanted to see sugar ever again. I went out into the living room and lay down on the floor in the fetal position.
"Are you alright?" Andrew asked.
"Yes," I lied.
"Are you sure?" he probed.
"No," I said.
Andrew made me a quesadilla and then left for work. I ate and then got ready to go to yoga. Maybe that would make me feel better.
I then experienced some of the symptoms that I read on the bottle. I won't go into details, but we'll just say that I felt much better a few minutes later.
I left for yoga. It was canceled. No one had told me, so when I got there, no one was there. That was fine with me because I didn't feel too great anyway. I went home and did the same thing I had done just a few minutes before.
Instead of yoga, I attempted to clean the kitchen but my arm was pounding and it hurt to straighten it or lift anything with it.
So, instead of cleaning the kitchen, I phoned Andrew and asked when he could come home and take care of me.
I had killed enough time doing who knows what that he was already on his way home, hurray!
Andrew came home and made me dinner and rubbed my back and played with my hair. I'm so spoiled, I know.
While he was doing the dishes (see the part about my being spoiled), I decided to take off my bandage. I assure you that, although it doesn't look that bad in the picture, it looked pretty gruesome last night.
No wonder my arm hurt. It was all swollen and purple and had three little needle entrances in it.
Let's just say that Andrew and I both are hoping that I passed this test so that we don't have to go in and take the more intensive glucose screen. I really don't know if I'm up to having my blood drawn three times in one day. After all, I only have two arms.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
A little FHE fun
For FHE, Andrew's family invited us to go miniature golfing with them. We had just been talking about doing that the week before, so we were eager to accept the invitation. It was a good day to go mini-golfing since they were doing an Operation Smile drive which meant that we got food (we hadn't eaten dinner, really)...it also meant that the price was a lot higher and we had to pay in cash. Andrew happened to have enough cash in his wallet, so we paid, which was okay because his parents paid us back (which in Andrew's mind is like free money).
It was a really fun evening. I have no skill when it comes to miniature golfing, really...and I don't think I will ever try for real turf. I did get a hole in one, although I ended up getting last place over all. Andrew didn't get a hole in one, but he ended up getting second place overall. I guess I really need to hone in on my mini-golfing skills.
Jacob offered me some advice, but I had to pass it up. His technique is a little too...spicy...for my taste.
We had to divide up into two teams because we had too many people to all play one round. Our team went first: me and the boys. We were a little bit slow and always had the girl's team licking our heels. I suppose you could say it was because we had an extra person on our team. If you want to know what I truthfully think, it's because we had me and Jacob on our team. If Jacob and I were to have been on our own team, we would have been mini-golfing all night. Let's just say we got quite a few courtesy scores...and still lost.
I was very, very good at almost getting the ball in a lot of the time, but I missed the hole the majority of the time. Perhaps I should have paid more attention during trigonometry.
It was a really fun evening. I have no skill when it comes to miniature golfing, really...and I don't think I will ever try for real turf. I did get a hole in one, although I ended up getting last place over all. Andrew didn't get a hole in one, but he ended up getting second place overall. I guess I really need to hone in on my mini-golfing skills.
Jacob offered me some advice, but I had to pass it up. His technique is a little too...spicy...for my taste.
We had to divide up into two teams because we had too many people to all play one round. Our team went first: me and the boys. We were a little bit slow and always had the girl's team licking our heels. I suppose you could say it was because we had an extra person on our team. If you want to know what I truthfully think, it's because we had me and Jacob on our team. If Jacob and I were to have been on our own team, we would have been mini-golfing all night. Let's just say we got quite a few courtesy scores...and still lost.
I was very, very good at almost getting the ball in a lot of the time, but I missed the hole the majority of the time. Perhaps I should have paid more attention during trigonometry.
Perhaps if I had played better, Jacob wouldn't have kept giving me his perspicacious recommendations:
Karen came in first place (of course), Andrew was second, Reid third, Sarah fourth, Jacob fifth, Emily sixth, and we all know where I come in here. We all ended up happy though, even those of us who came sulking and spent the majority of our time on our cell phone (I won't name any names...but she might be featured in only 1 picture, just a hint). It's amazing what a little sunshine, fresh air, and a golf club can do to change your mood!
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Conrad Family Get-together
Following all the graduation hullabaloo, we had a family party (as we did for Michelle, Andy, and me a few years ago). On Saturday night, we all went over to Eli and Sadie's place--not a very long trek for Andrew and me--had some good food, visited quite a bit, and overall had an enjoyable time.
This was my first time seeing my cousin, Eric, since he left on his mission. I would like to publicly thank Eric for the use of his bedroom while he was gone. I think I used it twice, maybe three times. Now that he's there, I'll have to find somewhere else to sleep. Oh, man!
The grandkids had fun. I think that was the first time in a long time that we've had all the little boys (Trevon, Andrew and Matthew) all together, just to play. They had a blast on the trampoline. Josie (non-grandchild) and Rosie (grandchild) had a fun time chasing the twins around, until it got too late and the twins got too whiny... The twins (Olivia and Sabrina) had a fun time crawling/walking and trying to get on the trampoline. They also got way too many cookies from way too many different people, but they had a great time.
Okay, so that sums up the grandchildren. Strange--I'm not in the "grandchild" category anymore. I don't feel completely comfortable moving up into the "adult" category, so I think I can safely say that I am in the "child" category. That sounds a lot better than the "parent" or "adult" category.
The children were: Me & Andrew, Carlie, Kelli, Michael, Heather, Craig, Eric, David, Josie, Jessica, Sadie & Eli...and Helaman or Ammon stopped by with a group of friends (I can never keep those two straight, so I can't rightly tell you which one it was--and no, they aren't twins). There was also Egor, our friend from Ukraine. He worked with Craig in book repair and randomly met my Uncle Bruce in Ukraine and showed him around.
We all sat around and talked about how we're avoiding moving on with real life (notice how I kept us in the "child" category and wouldn't move us up to adult--some might protest, but really...I'm not sure we're ready for that yet.)
Now for the grown-ups: My mom, Auntie Colleen & Uncle LeRon, Uncle Bruce & Aunt Sara, Aunt Sara's mom, and Auntie Judy & Uncle Wally. Technically Kelli and Carlie are children, but they hung out with the grown-ups. Probably because they have children in the "grandchild" as old as Josie, who is in the "child" category.
We come from such a "mixed" family that we had to go around and introduce ourselves. Somehow we all started relating ourselves to Craig. For example, I am Craig's cousin. That is a pretty tame relation...some of them got pretty kooky when we started getting into step-this-and-that.
I was going to say, "Now that we've taken attendance, I'll tell you more about the party," but the party really was: introduce, eat, talk, play with kids, eat more...oh, and then I found out we had dessert. Cream puffs. Ahhh...can you tell I'm pregnant?
It wasn't a wild and crazy party, but it certainly was fun and relaxing.
(I didn't get pictures of everyone on here...sorry about that!)
This was my first time seeing my cousin, Eric, since he left on his mission. I would like to publicly thank Eric for the use of his bedroom while he was gone. I think I used it twice, maybe three times. Now that he's there, I'll have to find somewhere else to sleep. Oh, man!
The grandkids had fun. I think that was the first time in a long time that we've had all the little boys (Trevon, Andrew and Matthew) all together, just to play. They had a blast on the trampoline. Josie (non-grandchild) and Rosie (grandchild) had a fun time chasing the twins around, until it got too late and the twins got too whiny... The twins (Olivia and Sabrina) had a fun time crawling/walking and trying to get on the trampoline. They also got way too many cookies from way too many different people, but they had a great time.
Okay, so that sums up the grandchildren. Strange--I'm not in the "grandchild" category anymore. I don't feel completely comfortable moving up into the "adult" category, so I think I can safely say that I am in the "child" category. That sounds a lot better than the "parent" or "adult" category.
The children were: Me & Andrew, Carlie, Kelli, Michael, Heather, Craig, Eric, David, Josie, Jessica, Sadie & Eli...and Helaman or Ammon stopped by with a group of friends (I can never keep those two straight, so I can't rightly tell you which one it was--and no, they aren't twins). There was also Egor, our friend from Ukraine. He worked with Craig in book repair and randomly met my Uncle Bruce in Ukraine and showed him around.
We all sat around and talked about how we're avoiding moving on with real life (notice how I kept us in the "child" category and wouldn't move us up to adult--some might protest, but really...I'm not sure we're ready for that yet.)
Now for the grown-ups: My mom, Auntie Colleen & Uncle LeRon, Uncle Bruce & Aunt Sara, Aunt Sara's mom, and Auntie Judy & Uncle Wally. Technically Kelli and Carlie are children, but they hung out with the grown-ups. Probably because they have children in the "grandchild" as old as Josie, who is in the "child" category.
We come from such a "mixed" family that we had to go around and introduce ourselves. Somehow we all started relating ourselves to Craig. For example, I am Craig's cousin. That is a pretty tame relation...some of them got pretty kooky when we started getting into step-this-and-that.
I was going to say, "Now that we've taken attendance, I'll tell you more about the party," but the party really was: introduce, eat, talk, play with kids, eat more...oh, and then I found out we had dessert. Cream puffs. Ahhh...can you tell I'm pregnant?
It wasn't a wild and crazy party, but it certainly was fun and relaxing.
(I didn't get pictures of everyone on here...sorry about that!)New upgrades
Some of you may have noticed some subtle changes we made recently to the blog. I've been bored with school over and everything, so I decided to play around a little with widgets using CSS and XML. Here's a list of some of the tweaks and upgrades I did for your reading pleasure:
1 - Label cloud - Each of our posts from now on will have labels attached at the bottom for easier searching. Those labels are indexed and put into the label cloud widget. The bigger the word is in the cloud, the more posts there are about it. By clicking on the word, you can see a list of all the posts about that topic. We're currently going back in time and putting labels on our old posts to make our blog more easily searchable.
2 - Recent comments - To promote lively commenting, the most recent comments are found in theleft (oops...) right sidebar. This is really a more subtle way of calling for comments; more subtle than this.
3 - Better RSS feed - The built in RSS/Atom subscription feed wasn't that powerful, so I found a better one at Feedburner.com. Now you can easily subscribe to our feed in Google Reader, the newly rebranded iGoogle, or any other feed reader.
4 - Cool icon - Yep. We recreated the little "favicon" found in the right side of the address bar. Instead of the good ol' orange Blogger thing, we have a cool green H. It makes our bookmark toolbar look cool (although I doubt many of you have a link to our blog on your toolbar...)
So, with this nerdy post, enjoy our new and improved blog!
1 - Label cloud - Each of our posts from now on will have labels attached at the bottom for easier searching. Those labels are indexed and put into the label cloud widget. The bigger the word is in the cloud, the more posts there are about it. By clicking on the word, you can see a list of all the posts about that topic. We're currently going back in time and putting labels on our old posts to make our blog more easily searchable.
2 - Recent comments - To promote lively commenting, the most recent comments are found in the
3 - Better RSS feed - The built in RSS/Atom subscription feed wasn't that powerful, so I found a better one at Feedburner.com. Now you can easily subscribe to our feed in Google Reader, the newly rebranded iGoogle, or any other feed reader.
4 - Cool icon - Yep. We recreated the little "favicon" found in the right side of the address bar. Instead of the good ol' orange Blogger thing, we have a cool green H. It makes our bookmark toolbar look cool (although I doubt many of you have a link to our blog on your toolbar...)
So, with this nerdy post, enjoy our new and improved blog!
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