I accidentally spent $15 on a book that was written in first person present tense. I'm returning it today for something I need for the nursery.

The baby's room is getting there. Bryce put up the new mini blinds a few days ago and he washed all the baby clothes for me. We arranged the bookshelf and dresser yesterday and put all the clothes in the dresser. Bryce took down the ceiling fan and started to put up the new ceiling fan I had bought, but then we realized it only took a 40 watt candelabra bulb and had that really thick shade over it. That wouldn't give off much light at all, so I'm taking it back for a more expensive one today.

The crib / changing table combo arrived on Sunday, so we picked it up when I went to work on Tuesday and put it together yesterday. That wasn't too difficult, but took about five hours. We took the computer into the nursery and watched Heroes Season 2 while doing it. That's such an awesome show.

So I still need the mattress, but there's no big hurry since I do have that bassinet (I still need to put together right and get sheets for). Someone from church said they might have a mattress, so I'm waiting on her to see if she does. Otherwise I have a baby shower coming up and I'll see if I don't get one there. It is tempting to just buy one so I can put the Winnie the Pooh bedding on it and see how it looks. I'd also like to get a rolling shelf / cart thing for all the bathing stuffs, but other than those two things and the ceiling fan, the nursery's pretty well done.

Oh, I still need to take down the Bryce posters that are still hanging up in there. There's Red Sonya, Ghost Rider, and Ann Coulter that need to come down. We have a long dinosaur poster that can go on the wall over the crib.

It's July 1st. It's July 1st. It's July... freaking... 1st...

My bags aren't packed. The lady at the new child class asked if our bags are packed and I said we were working on it, but the truth is I haven't even thought about it. I don't have a pediatrician. I haven't pre-registered at the hospital because I don't have a pediatrician. I think I'll just pick a name and not do the interview. I might be a strange person for putting more effort into finding a vet than a pediatrician, but it seems to me all pediatricians should know about babies, while not all vets know about ferrets. The only two things that I really care about in a pediatrician is they have a well baby waiting room and they have someone else do the shots. Both of those sound like good ideas.

The nursery is our old broken down library with the bookshelves taken out. It needs a new ceiling fan. It needs new blinds. All it is a room with a glider and piles of stuff around it. I bought a chest of drawers that's in the freakin' van. That would have been taken care of on the weekend, but Bryce was really sick. The crib and changing table have been ordered and will be arriving sometime after the 8th. I know I'll feel much better when those two pieces of furniture arrive and are assembled.

I think I'll upload labor music to the MP4 player tonight. As strange as it sounds, there's a couple of songs from the original Hellsing soundtrack that are very relaxing. And I bought a couple of armonica CDs because the the prepared childbirth lady had us listening to harp music, but the harp is boring and I figured the armonica would have a similar effect without being dull. But while listening to the CDs I realized the armonica makes a better background instrument with the strings playing in front of it. The songs with just the armonica, especially just the armonica playing very high notes, were rather cringe-worthy. But oh well, it's the instrument Ben. Franklin invented, which makes it 1000% awesome. Then I'll need some pumping up music for the pushing, like what I would want to play if I were a baseball player coming up to bat. Frankenstein will do nicely and maybe Live at Baghdad, although I could see that one getting on my nerves if I don't want to listen to it.

I made a nice post with insane asylum pictures and descriptions of the St Joseph Psychiatric museum, but then lj only posted 1/5 of it, so I just deleted it. Maybe I'll try again later, but all the pictures are in the gallery in the mean time.

Atlas Moth by ~conundrum44 on deviantART

My week of vacation:

Yesterday we went to Morrill Hall, the UNL museum with a bunch of dead things. They are the home of the largest mounted woolly mammoth.

Today we're about to out to eat and then to the Durham Museum and possibly the Joslyn.

I just found out Bryce has an interview in Kansas tomorrow, right next to St. Joseph, MO.  So I'll tag along and go to the St. Jo Psychiatric Museum.

Thursday will be the big road trip to Ashfall State Park to see more dead things.

Friday we'll either go to the Henry Doorly Zoo or go to the SAC museum and Drive through Safari.  We'll see how miserably humid it happens to be that day.

I'll have plenty of time to rest on maternity leave...  Right?

Poor Kim attracts the strangest people when we go out. We went to a Mexican resturant and got another strange server. This one was telling us about how she's 7 weeks pregnant and amazingly has all the symptoms of being pregnant [puking, always hungry, and several others]. I know every pregnancy is different but at 7 weeks, I'd think a lot of that is in her head. Then she was BRAGGING about how fat she is when we didn't have desert. I was tempted to explain to her why I was taking half of my food home, but oh well. But she just would not leave us alone - it was sad.

I'm typing this on the Wii. Bryce took the computer on the overnight trip he's on right now. He's staying in this $30-some a night motel that doesn't allow long distance calls and his cell has no reception there. Fortunately they have internet and he e-mailed me the phone number.

I guess that's it. Al this wiimote pecking gets old.

So I had that two hour thing at the hospital and got to learn everything I never wanted to about diabetes. Joy.

A pleasant surprise is I can drink as much diet soda as I want. I kind of figured sugar substitutes were bad in large quantities and it would have to be cut as well. I mean, I'm sure the diet soda isn't great for me, but it's not hurting the glucose. So I'm very happy - I honestly don't know which is worse, giving up chocolate or giving up diet Dr. Pepper, but I was prepared for both and am very glad it didn't happen.

So no sugars (duh) and I can have 30 g of carbs for breakfast and 60 for lunch and dinner. I have to stick myself four times a day (before breakfast, 2 hours after breakfast, 2 hours after lunch, and 2 hours after dinner). I am not to drink milk or eat fruit before noon and I can't have pop tarts. I have to have meat or a meat substitute every time I eat. So a slice of whole wheat toast and whatever cheese or pb I put on it will probably be my entire breakfast allotment of carbs. I'm going to have to fill up on free veg at breakfast or on the way to work.

I have to eat 6 times a day basically every two hours, except when I work 11-8. Then I come home for dinner and don't get a last snack since she doesn't want me eating after 9.

I have to exercise 20 - 30 minutes a day, which isn't a problem. Walking once around the outside of Wal-Mart takes about 10 minutes, so I can do that twice a day or just a couple of times if I have time after lunch. It didn't happen yesterday because Bryce came for lunch. He had a webcam interview yesterday morning, so we met to exchange our morning happenings.

So I got all of my after meal readings yesterday - 124 after breakfast (that's four points over the max of 120, but I had forbidden pop tarts for breakfast), 99 after lunch and 102 after dinner. So I'm pleased. This will be a piece of cake, but I'm still glad I have to strictly follow it for only two months.

The diabetes nurse said my OB wants me to do something the nurse has never actually seen a Dr. want. I'm that special. I have to use these pee test strips in the morning to see if I'm peeing out ketones, which means my body is using stored fat for energy. Anyway, I'm to call the OB if I have more than trace amounts. I can only assume this is because I've gained so little weight over the course of this. I'll probably learn more at my OB appointment Monday.

And I'm to keep a fetal movement log. I'm to lay on my left side at around the same time every day for up to an hour and wait for the baby to move 4 or 5 times. Not a problem, he's kicking me any time I stay still for more than a couple of minutes, so I only had to feel for him for 8 minutes after dinner. I know this is really common for OBs to want in the later pregnancy.

Oh, and the stabbing myself isn't as bad as I was afraid. They want you to do the sides of the fingers instead of the finger tips. That made me very happy.

I did my three hour glucose test last Tuesday, so when I didn't hear anything about it I wrote it off as fine and thought little more of it. Then I went to work yesterday and almost immediately got a call from Bryce to call my Dr's nurse. I knew it had to be bad news and then spent the entire first half of my shift playing phone tag with this nurse. I was in a foul mood. When she finally did get a hold of me, she told me I failed and expect a call from the hospital dietitian. Joy.

I got that call from the dietitian's nurse today and they're going to see me for TWO HOURS at 7 AM tomorrow. I'll be talking to the dietitian for an hour and then the nurse for an hour. I guess I'll get such exciting things as my meal plan, exercise plan, and blood sugar monitor. Joy.

I'm depressed about this, but there's lots of good things to be said about it, I suppose. It's good that something's going to be forcing my hand about taking care of myself before the baby comes. Hopefully I'll be able to develop some good habits because of this. And this is probably a temporary condition, but people who get gestational are more likely to get type 2 later in life. So those good habits I hope to form are important.

I've been really run down, but put effort into drinking water the last couple of days and that really helped. I've been drinking between 2 and 3 liters of water at work and actually left work feeling chipper yesterday.

Girl's Camp is going on without me, since they kicked me out. I almost went to the ward night yesterday, and could have made it since it began at 7:30 and I got off at 6, but then there would be the 45 minute drive back. I felt chipper, but didn't want to push it.

Bryce is sweet and took the last two bookshelves out of the library yesterday. Now it's just a room full of baby stuff that needs to be arranged.

We got a Wii a couple of days ago. There aren't many games that interest me on it, but it's so darned fun to play. I'm looking forward to the Silent Hill remake on it - survival horror will be interesting to play with a wiimote. And I could never finish Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube, even though I greatly enjoyed the game. I'm thinking I should try with the cute little gun you can put the wiimote in.

We started a birthing class on Tuesday, which was lots of fun. It will run for six weeks.

That's... Pretty much it for now I think. I haven't been making many posts because writing hasn't been interesting me lately, which is bad when trying to write a novel. I figure I'm just having a hard time concentrating because I'm pregnant. Maybe this water kick will help that, too.

I failed my drinking test and will have to take the three hour fasting one. Everyone cross your fingers for me and send non-diabetic thoughts.

Otherwise, things are going swimmingly as I enter the last two months. :)

There's a lot I could be writing about right now, but all I'm going to say is that I Need A Wii.

I've been sleeping horribly. Hope that changes. Otherwise things are going okay and I'm glad graduation season is winding down.

Bryce keeps calling me at work and pestering me to see this movie. And I would very much like to, but it will have to wait until after graduation season.

We're visiting the bustling metropolises of Ogallala and Grant, NE tomorrow. Bryce has a teaching interview in Grant and has been telling me to keep an open mind about it. We have to be near a hospital and knowledgeable vet, then I'll keep an open mind. Bryce has been trying to tell me Ogallala will probably have both, and is only a 20 minute drive, but it only has 4,000 people itself. Maybe I'll be surprised. Either way, the school is paying for both the gas and hotel room, so yay.

I decided not to sleep as late as I possibly can and try to get some housework and writing done. We'll see how that goes. I've hit such a wall on my writing. I know what has to happen, but making it so is hard. It also hurts that I can barely concentrate on writing or reading right now. All I want to do it veg out and play online games.

I hear Arwen ripping up a box somewhere. I hope she's not making a mess.

Bryce's brother will be coming up for his yearly visit obscenely soon. I need to work up some energy and get the house in order before then. Fortunately, Bryce's last day of student teaching is tomorrow, so he'll be a help again. We really need to hit the yard hard, but it's usually my job to cut down the unwanted trees and poison the stumps. I'm thinking the poisoning part is probably something I shouldn't be doing right now.

But yeah, I'm dreading Bryce's brother coming over. I dreaded it last year, too, but he managed to surprise and not insult me. Of course, I told Bryce that I would kick his brother out of the house if he acted like the flipping jerk he had been the two years prior. I mean, my part in making sure they have a good time does not include being told how stupid I am. Bryce claims he didn't tell his brother as much, but I'm not so sure.

But my nerves have been very raw lately as far as my pet peeves go, and his brother does them in spades. It took all my will power to not get up and go to another table when we took him out to eat last year because he can't eat with his damn mouth shut. And he sniffs and snorts constantly and won't take a decongestant. I don't know how I will stand it.

I got my Mother's Day shopping done. The parasite got me a foot spa, which I so desperately need. I freakin' love it! I had no idea what to get my Mom and Grandma, so I got them prints of my amateur photography. That's probably kind of lame, oh well.

I think I'll talk to my folks about doing Mother's Day on the 17th as opposed to the 10th. All the local high schools (that are closest to my store) are graduating Mother's Day weekend and it really looks like we'll break 100 cake orders for the weekend. That means putting in some long-ass days while I'm 6 months pregnant. The head cake decorator was on vacation a couple of weekends ago and I put in a 10 and a 9 hour day and was soooooo sore by the end of it. I was sooooo sore after the 10 hour day - let alone the 9. So I have the feeling I'll want to shut myself up and sleep Sunday away.

And Mom has a minor operation on Friday. It's pretty routine and I think she'll come home right away, but she'll still be sore on Sunday. Moving Mother's Day back will probably work out for everyone.

I had my latest Dr's appointment yesterday and confirmed the parasite is a boy. So I picked up some clothes on the way out of work, not much, just some Pooh onsies and socks and a clearance Easter suit that will probably be the coming home outfit.