The Countdown

As of last Friday, I officially only have 7 weeks until my due date. Brian and I really started counting down at the 8 week mark, and we finally feel like we're getting closer. The baby's health is good (as far as we can tell), but mine took a bummer of a turn about a month or so ago. We did the routine gestational diabetes test and, sure enough, I have it. So we had been trying to manage it with just diet and exercise, which didn't work...and then did for about a week and a half...and then didn't work again. So they put me on a pill that also didn't work and even had some not so exciting side effects (nausea and vomiting), and that led to the decision last week to put me on a low dose of insulin once every morning. Today is my third day giving myself a shot, and it still hasn't gotten any easier, but my blood sugar seems to have leveled out. However, now we are not only counting down the weeks to the arrival of our baby boy, I am also now counting down to when I no longer have to give myself a shot and when I can start eating the good stuff again from time to time. Obviously, I need to still monitor my carbohydrate intake to some degree from here on out since this raises my risk of developing type 2 diabetes later on in life. But I won't have to watch it as closely as I am now. I just have to be more aware. And as a reward for good eating behavior during my last trimester, Brian has promised that once the baby is born he will track down whatever desert I request after delivery. I already have a hankering for Coldstone's Black Forest Dream. Mmm.

6 weeks 3 days until due date...and hoping he doesn't come very late.

4th of July

Our Independence Day was fun. We started out with the parade here in town. It started at 10 am, but Brian and I volunteered to save seats at Porter Park for everyone so we showed up at 7 am. It was a pretty good parade, though I have to say it gets harder and harder to see anything each year because the kids hunting for candy get less and less considerate. Many of them are down right rude, and there parents are no where to be seen. Oh well, sooner or later it will lead to a no candy throwing rule because some kid is going to get hit by a float and their parents are going to sue the city even though it was their own fault for not taking care of or supervising their child.

We spent the afternoon just hanging out, and in the evening we had a BBQ with Brian's parents who were in town and Karl and his family. About 9 pm we started shooting off our own fireworks. Once all of the kid friendly ones were done, Karl's kids went inside and Brian's parents went home. Then Brian and Karl brought out some other fireworks that were, well, not so kid friendly. Nothing too serious, but after having one hit me in the foot and another scatter debris above my head, I decided I was done, too. So Brian and Karl finished those off by themselves. And that was the end of the night. We had a pretty good time all in all.

June Happenings

Okay, so I've been slacking a bit...now I hope to make up for that. Here is what we did in the month of June:

Family Reunion
Brian's mother's family does a big reunion every year. Because Grandpa and Grandma are getting up there in age and their health hasn't been too good lately, this year's reunion was held on their farm. It was a lot of fun, and Brian especially enjoyed helping out with the farm chores. One of the activities that Brian's mom does every year at the reunions is to fill some jars up with candy and then hold a guessing contest to see who can guess how many pieces are in the jar. The winner gets the candy. Well, the first day the candy was gummy worms. Brian guessed the closest, but unfortunately someone had left the jar out in the sun. So, if you've ever been curious what would happen if a jar of gummies got melted, here it is.

They also had horses, and that was what Brian was looking forward to the most was going horseback riding. He hadn't been for at least 3 years.

Brian's Birthday
Towards the end of June was Brian's birthday. He had been bugging me about whether or not I was going to make him a cake all week, so I decided to make a small one that I knew both of us could finish before it dried out. So, I made the cake, and was trying to be all Martha Stewart-y by putting it onto our really nice cake stand that we got as a wedding present. It fell apart. So, I tried to piece it back together with frosting, and that wasn't very successful. In the end, we dubbed it the Cow Pie cake. If you are wondering why, see for yourself.

Needless to say, Brian asked very nicely if I could try making a new cake. So I did, and I let Brian get the cake out of the pan that time.

I have pictures of the 4th of July that hopefully I will get around to posting in the next little bit.