Crafty Mama and Sweet Kitties

Today I made Caroline a fancy tutu that she just loves! These suckas cost big bucks, and I'll end up making her two for about $16 (not necessarily frugal, I know, but trust me, much cheaper than the store-bought versions.)

I also Rit-dyed my favorite maternity pants from my Caroline-pregnancy days. A Mimi Maternity splurge on black capris that I wore probably three times a week with her. Thanks to the dye-job, these will make it through 36 more wears if I continue to wear them three times a week.

And here's a site folks other than John and me don't see -- Missy and Mindy cuddling. They live under our bed -- pretty much full-time -- coming out when the house is empty except for John and/or me, which doesn't happen often since the now-three-year-old moved in a few years ago. Poor cats! Caroline went to run an errand with John this afternoon, and the kitties had to rest outside of their under-bed abode as the bed is up against the wall while John installs the flooring in our bedroom. I snapped this picture a second before we heard the sound of the garage door opening, the cats' cue to skiddadle.

Pregnancy Countdown with Movies

In honor of the last trimester of being pregnant -- that time when one wants to do nothing but sit around and eat chocolate (or is that just me?) -- I am adding to my Netflix queue a pregnancy-related movie for each remaining week.

1. Juno -- watched last weekend with John -- great movie!
Favorite lines:
Juno: 'Cause you're, like, the coolest person I've ever met, and you don't even have to try, you know... Bleeker: I try really hard, actually."

2. Business of Being Born

3. She's Having a Baby -- I know I enjoyed this movie when I was a teen, but I know I'll love it having been through and going through pregnancy now.

4. Father of the Bride II

5. Homefries

6. Nine Months

7. Waitress

8. For Keeps

9. Junior -- I told John for the first nine years of our marriage that we would not procreate until He could carry the child himself. Guess our biological clocks moved faster than technology's.

10. Parenthood -- about so much more than just pregnancy, but such a great movie to watch again!

11. Baby Mama

12. Knocked Up

(I've actually recently watched Knocked Up and Baby Mama, so I won't watch those again. I figure I'll need a couple of weeks off with the holidays coming.)

I asked for suggestions from my DUE DATE CLUB on Mothering and got some great suggestions. I love that someone suggested Rosemary's Baby, and I love the movie, too, but I think I'm going to pass on watching it while pregnant.

My lovely souvenir from Wednesday's bloodwork

I wonder what people think when they see me.
-- Six-month pregnant IV drug user?
-- Victim of domestic violence?
-- Pregnant woman forced into a blood-sugar crash who left the lab in such a hurry she carried her bag with her laptop on the arm she had just had blood drawn from?

Fun with Blood Sugar

I passed. That's what matters. But as I read about this glucose tolerance test, I learned that it is a bit controversial. It's not a nice way to treat a six month pregnant body. And now that I've experienced it, I must agree!

I had myself a snack at 9 last night. A bowl of ice cream out of fear that it may be my last for three months. Then I was on a fast. I went straight to the lab when I woke up this morning, but I wake up hungry, so that wasn't easy. I had a blood draw to find my fasting blood sugar level. Then I had to drink glucola -- containing 100 mg of glucose! G-R-O-S-S! It got worse the closer to the bottom I got. After that, I waited. I had a blood draw every hour for the next three hours. So, figure in getting myself and Caroline dressed and commute time, and that was about 15 hours with no food. Remember, I'm pregnant. And I like regularly scheduled meals even when I'm NOT pregnant.

I hit a drive through on the way home. But by the time I got home, though, I was shaking. I had trouble walking up the steps from the garage. When I tried to lift my fries to my mouth, my hands were shaking crazy bad. After my borderline results Monday from the one-hour-test, I got a monitor (free) at Walgreens. They make their moula on the test strips. I tested my blood and my blood sugar was 49. Anything below 70 is considered hypoglycemic. I was scared, so I called and told my sweet husband in case I needed him to get Caroline from school. He told me to call my doctor. I left the nurse a message and ate some more and rested. I was better within a few minutes and was totally fine by the time the nurse called back. Did I mention that snack was a piece of cake -- I had to get my blood sugar back up somehow, right? It was all for my health. :-)

My nurse called later with my results and asked again how I was feeling. I told her I was just fine then. That it was just a weird feeling to experience. She told me my numbers. All were fine, but she did say that my last blood draw, just before I left the office, was 56. "That's really low," she said. Yeah, I could *feel* that!

You'd think they'd do a quick reading or something on that before they send a pregnant woman who hasn't eaten in 15 hours home in a car.

But, all is well! I blame the borderline reading from Monday on a weekend of donuts, Costco cake, and ice cream.

Weekly Command Center

Menu
leftover spaghetti sauce with bowtie pasta
salmon, wild rice, asparagus
cheeseburger quiche and salad
beans and rice
leftovers (Friday)
on the road home from Aggieland (Saturday)
steaks and potatoes on grill

Bargains
Oxyclean is $5.99 at Walgreens.
Crest toothpaste is free after coupons at Walgreens. (On sale for $1.99 minus $1 Walgreens coupon plus $1 manu coupon.)

CVS has the deodorant John prefers (Speedstick unscented) on sale for $2.99 plus $2 in ECB, making it .99. I had a .50 off 2 coupon, so I got deodorant for John for $.74 each.

Decluttering
Still working on decluttering books. I've gotten rid of a few via paperbackswap, but I also brought a few more in via pbs. I am now fascinated with trading. On the cloth diapering discussion board, there is a trades section. I managed to trade some of the old Mary Kay stuff that I stocked up on but never sold or used for some Fuzzi Bunz. Now I've got some books and more MK stuff listed on there to see if I can get more trades. Trading is fun! (but probably not good for decluttering.)

The Johari Window

Looks like it's back up now.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=So+Many+Joys