Pregnancy Rant (during which I may offend many or all of you dear readers . . . sorry.)

So, today is October 1st. I've been reminded of that, at least 12 times today, by various people, in various ways.That's because on Oct 18th, our baby is due. Our baby.

 "You're due date is right around the corner!"

"17 days!!" 

"How's that baby doing?" 

"You're getting so close!"

(and all the proverbial, you're about to "pop," you look like you're ready to be done, etc., etc.)

I get it. People are excited.  Some people we know are even a little obsessed with our yet-to-be-born kid (to the point where it's ever-so-close to creepy). We get it, we really do. But, people, this is OUR kid. I've been growing her inside my own uterus for approximately 9.5 months now. Every bleeping day for the last year (because with diabetes, you can't wait until after you find out you're pregnant, you have to start well before) I've been worried about her, and thinking about her.  I've been maintaining a fine balance of insulin/carb/exercise 24 hrs a day for freaking forever in order to get this baby here. Believe me, we are acutely aware of when she is "due" to arrive in this world.

And let's not forget the fact that I still have to push this baby out of my vagina.  So, yes, while I'm excited for her imminent arrival, I'm NOT excited about the fact that I might be split open in my nether regions forever trying to get her here.  Nobody ever talks about that possibility.  No one ever wants to talk about how labor can be incredibly painful and disgusting.  People just want to think about that cute baby that they are going to be able to cuddle and coo at and forget that the mom is going to have to meet the edge of death to get that cutey into this world, bleed for weeks afterwards, possibly be incontinent for an indefinite (or permanent) amount of time, lose sleep, have her nipples possibly be ravaged, crack, and bleed, etc. etc.  Should I go on?

People have stopped asking me how I'm doing, for the most part. They just want to know when the cute baby is getting here.  You know, because I have control over that.

And my poor husband. Nobody has EVER asked him how he's doing.  I think the guys really get the short end of the stick on this whole pregnancy thing.  He's put just as much work into this kid as I have, even though he's not actually gestating it. He's lost just as much sleep (because I have to get up to pee 12 times a night, and then when I don't have to pee my CGM is beeping at me because I'm low or high), he's basically been my right-hand-man with regards to diabetes care, he's had to move countless amounts of furniture that I can't or won't, rub my back/feet/hands at all hours of the day and night, put on my socks and tie my shoes for me (because I literally cannot do it at this point).  He's carried me, while I've carried the baby. And nobody asks him how he's doing.

Don't get me wrong, we're excited that our little girl is going to be born soon.  But, we are also very aware that it is currently not all sunshine and butterflies. Having a baby is hard! Can we all, as a society, collectively decide to stop being disingenuous about this whole process?

And don't worry! We will let you know when she arrives! Except we might not let the stranger down the street while we were out for a walk, or the bank teller at the credit union (who actually asked me if my cervix was dilated), or the cart-girl at the grocery store, or the Macy's sales lady, or the Wendy's cashier know when the baby comes. Because, frankly, it's none of their damn business.

Commence being offended now.



 

Lately

Goodness gracious, do people like to give you unsolicited advice when your'e pregnant! For the most part, it's all doomsday kind of advice, all contradictory to what other people are saying, along the lines of the following:

Sleep now, while you still can, because you won't be able to sleep for the next 18 years of your life! And it will only be 18, if you're lucky!

Enjoy this time, because you will never have a free/happy/stressless/fun moment after the baby arrives!

Make sure you do ______ when you're at the hospital giving birth, otherwise you will suffer (insert most gruesome, horrible pregnancy complication you can possibly think of here).

Don't try to breastfeed, it will only make you and baby frustrated.

Do try to breastfeed, it's the best thing you can do for your baby, and if you don't do it, that means you're a horrible person.

Don't co-sleep, because your baby will die.

Co-sleeping was the best thing we did, we all got so much more sleep!

Etc., etc., etc.!

Out of all the unsolicited "advice" I've received, I've had TWO people, literally TWO people say something positive.  The first person told me, "Having kids will change your life, and it will be the best thing you've ever done! We are so excited for you!"  I was so surprised when this person said that, because I fully expected to hear "Having kids will change your life (insert something awful and negative about your life never being the same again)."  It was a nice change!  The second person was a complete stranger.  We were helping clean up our church building one Saturday morning, and the daughter of one of the members of our congregation who lives out of town and doesn't attend our congregation was their helping her dad clean.  She saw that I was pregnant, and asked how things were going, when I was due, etc., etc., and she said, with this amazing smile of sincerity on her face, "Oh, man. Having kids is the best thing ever! It will totally change your life for the better, and you'll wonder how you ever lived your life without these new people in it! I am so happy for you." 

Best unsolicited advice ever.

I know I can't fully comprehend what it will be like, or how hard it will be to be a parent yet, because this kid is still inside me.  But really, with all the horrible "advice" out there that people give, it's a wonder why people aren't having more children, or delaying having children until much later in life. People with kids make it sound like a death sentence.

One of the most inspiring things I've come across in regards to being a parent, was actually said by Chris Rock (go figure!) in an interview on NPR (see here):

"When I hear people talk about juggling, or the sacrifices they make for their children, I look at them like they're crazy, because 'sacrifice' infers that there was something better to do than being with your children. "

I don't know, maybe it's my naivete, or maybe it's super easy for Chris Rock to love being a parent, because he's rich and probably has a nanny or something, but I like that sentiment and it really resonates with me.  Maybe it's because I'm becoming a parent when I'm older, and so I don't feel like parenting is making me miss out on a ton of things.  Several years before I became a mom, I read a book called "I Am A Mother" by Jane Clayson Johnson (former CBS anchor of the Early Show, Latter-day Saint), and she talked about how everyone's lives rotate through seasons.  We have seasons when we're carefree kids, questioning students, young adults exploring the word, newlyweds hopelessly in love, young parents who are frazzled, more experienced parents, grandparents, etc., etc., etc.  The thing she said that really resonated with me is that everyone will tell you to try to hurry up and get to the next season, or that the season you are in isn't as good as another one (teenagers get this a lot--"Oh,  you're just a teenager, you'll be done with this stage soon, and then you'll be a better person!"), but that this thinking is wrong!  Basically, she said not to let anyone rob you of the season you are currently in, enjoy it and love it and learn everything you can from it. Nobody is better than any body else just because their life is in a different season, and each season has so much to teach us and so much potential joy that can be gleaned from it. I really liked that. 

Any way, lots of deep and sentimental thoughts this time around on Ye Olde Bloggy Blog.  I've been having a lot of them lately! (Especially about how to raise a girl in this crazy world. Seriously, I need to write a series of posts about that, just to get all my thoughts out of my head!) 

Irrational Pregnancy Fears

In all the pregnancy books I've read, they have mentioned that it's totally common to have irrational fears about you or your unborn child while you're pregnant. I'd heard of this before, and one of my books even lists "Irrational Fears" in a "Pregnancy Reference Guide" for common concerns or problems people have during pregnancy.  But I never really realized what "irrational fears" would be like until recently.  Here is my current "freak-things-I'm-afraid-of" list, in no particular order:

• That this child will be born with a gigantic port wine stain over some extremely visible part of its body
• That the child will, in fact, not be a "she" but a "he/she" and that we'll have to "decide" what gender the baby will be later on at some point in its life
• That I'm going to get hit by every single other car on the road as I'm out driving around. 
• The other day I freaked out when I got stopped by a train at a rail road crossing, because I began to envision the train jumping off the tracks and ramming into my car, instantly killing me and my unborn fetus.
• That this friend of mine (who seems a little more obsessed with our baby than we are) is going to go crazy and break into our house and steal our baby, or cut it out of me in the middle of the night when we're sleeping or something (seriously, I watched ONE episode of "Private Practice" (horrible show) and it was the one where a crazy lady cut open a pregnant lady to try to steal her baby--TV is evil!)
• That my child will become a sociopath.  Seriously, there's no test for that. You can't reliably predict if that will happen, and if it does, there's not really anything you can do except lock them up before they kill people. 

Aaaaaand, that's about it for now. Irrational fears, people! They weren't kidding! 

Almost a Year!

Sheesh! I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've updated my personal blog.  Ridiculous!  So much has happened, and yet so much is exactly the same, though.  Here's a quick update on our lives over the past year.

• The biggest new thing= I'm Pregnant! Yup! That's right! I'm writing all about this whole thing over on my diabetes blog, so feel free to hop on over there and check it out. But since most of the readers of this blog follow me over there already anyway, you won't have to! I'm due in October, and we're having a girl, and so far everything is going really well.  Although both Ben & I are a little horrified that we're going to be parents, we're mostly just really excited!  
• We're both still working at the same old things. Ben is still at Battelle, and I'm still teaching piano lessons, although I've got a crazy full load of students this year.  I have 9 students, many of them siblings, and I think that is probably the most amount of students I want at one time.  Although, I'd probably just round it off to 10 to make it a nicer number. :)  I'm planning on keeping them when the baby arrives (after a nice little "maternity" break), but I'm also aware that I might not be able to keep them all, so we'll just have to play that by ear when the time comes.
• We have both had crazy busy callings at church. Ben is the executive secretary for the bishop and I'm the compassionate service leader, so church stuff keeps us busy! 
• We visited all our family out west in May/June. It was a wonderful vacation. Hopefully I'll get my stuff together enough to post pictures of some of that visit soon!
• We are still in Columbus, although we're getting the urge to leave more and more.  We'll definitely be here until the baby comes, and for awhile after, since I have such great doctors here. But we are thinking we want to be closer to family and in a more sunny state. We just have to figure out when and how to make that happen!

And that's pretty much it! I'm sure a lot more stuff has happened, but I'm apparently not so great at remembering to blog about it (we've been busy, cut me some slack!).  I'll try to be better (I know I say that every time).  Sigh. Oh well, it is what it is. :) 

The Great Summer Blackout of 2012

Having lived in Columbus for about 5 years now, I can safely say that this city is the absolute WORST, out of all the other cities I've lived in, at maintaining its electrical grid in good, working order. OK, so maybe Kumasi was worse, but Columbus comes pretty close.

Some of you may remember when Columbus got the remnants of Hurricane Ike a few years ago. I was still single and living with my good friend K at the time. Our power went out for about a week. We did end up getting power back in one half of one outlet, but it really wasn't good for much. It was a trying time. We ate out a lot.

Well, a few days before the 4th of July this year, we had a huge windstorm sweep through the area. Specifically, it was a derecho which is a wind storm made up of straight-line winds that travels over huge geographical area. This one went from the Chicago area all the way to the East Coast. Straight-line winds are the same kind of winds that took off our chimney/roof in the Peach Palace back in the day, for those of you former Peach-palace Pretties who follow this blog.  Basically what straight-line winds do, from what I can gather, is tear up a bunch of stuff in random ways and in random places.

For example, there were TONS of trees knocked down all over the city. But the trees weren't up-rooted, they were sheared off right at the base where the trunk meets the grass. Crazy! And the destruction was really random, too. Trees would be knocked over in one yard, but not in the one right next to it. One neighbor's roof would be ripped off, but not the next.  Crazy. Power lines were down everywhere, roofs were blown off, and billboards looked like mangled heaps of metal. It was dastardly!

Any way, because Columbus has an extremely poor electrical grid to begin with (our power goes out and comes back on immediately at least twice a week in a normal week), this derecho did a number on the city. There were people without power for up to two-weeks. One-million people in Ohio lost power, and President Obama declared  Ohio a Federal Disaster area.  The winds got up to 85 mph! It was really neat and scary to watch from the safety of our home while it was happening, but it was really scary. I've never seen wind and rain blow that hard, except on TV when they are covering hurricanes!  Oh, and did I mention it happened at the very hottest time of the year? The temperature hit 100+ degrees for multiple days in a row while half the city was without power. Awesome.

It happened in the evening right as the sun was going down, so we really didn't see the extent of the damage until the next morning. It was insane! Ben went ventured out to see if he could help any of our neighbors clean up. He met another guy from our ward doing the same thing, and they wandered around the neighborhood for awhile, helping whoever they could clear their yards and get the bigger tree limbs out of the streets.

At first we didn't lose power and as a result,  several of our friends who had lost power and live nearby ended up staying with us or coming to our house to spend the day in the A/C and cook meals.  We took on an entire refrigerator's worth of another family's food. They had just gone shopping and stocked up on so many things and we couldn't bear to let them lose it all, especially since they are on a student budget right now!

But, after about 3 days of having power, we suddenly lost ours. It was AWFUL! The friends who were staying with us took their food and left to go to another friend's house who still had power, but we tried to tough it out in our own home the first night.  When we lost power, I put tin foil up in all the windows in our house, because that's what they suggest you do to try to keep the sun from heating up your home. It was hilarious, and looked like we were crazy people, but I was determined to keep my house from heating up! It worked for awhile, but that night was horrible. I didn't sleep at all, and by the next morning I was going a little crazy from the heat. I couldn't think straight and was starting to feel slightly delirious and very desperate.  I begged Ben to get me out of there! So, we ended up at a friend's house to spend the night too!

Church even got cancelled that week because there was no power and the building had water damage from a leak in the roof caused by the derecho.  This is my second power-outage disaster in Columbus, and it really made me see what areas we were prepared in (like powerless cooking, water storage) and what areas we weren't (like keeping cool in the heat). I can't even imagine living through a disaster like the tornadoes in Joplin or Hurricane Katrina. I feel like Columbus becomes a war-zone when we had these comparably small disasters, I can't even imagine what it would be like if the situation was worse!

Any way, we all survived the heat. The power ended up coming back on, and going back to it's normal 2-3 times a week 2-second outages, which I'll take over a 6 day outage any day!

It was an eye-opener for sure. Ben and I will be purchasing a generator as soon as we can afford one. And, we are so grateful to be members of the church. It really is an instant safety net.

Oh, and apparently that particular derecho was so cool that it gets its own Wikipedia page, here.

Stuff Since Vacation

We have been busy bees these last few months!

I've taken on a few more piano students, and currently have 4, and I just got a call from a mom needing lessons for her two daughters, so if our schedules match up that will be 6! I also pawned 2 other students off on a friend of mine, because they were a little more advanced than I'm comfortable teaching and they had crazy schedules that I just couldn't deal with. I am really enjoying teaching! We're going to try to have a little class/group lesson in October for Halloween where the kids can practice playing in front of each other (in a non-scary, non-recital setting) and we'll probably make a Halloween craft or something fun, too. I did this when I was a kid taking lessons, and I really enjoyed them. I've run the idea past a few of my students and they've all been excited about it, so hopefully it will be OK.

I've been working REALLY hard to get my A1C lower, which you can ready all about here. I try not to make this blog too diabetes-heavy, but it's a part of my life, so sometimes it creeps in here.

Church stuff has been awesome and SUPER crazy all at the same time. I finally got released from being an Activity Days leader, which now leaves me with only TWO callings instead of THREE. It is nice, let me tell you. I loved that calling, and had a blast with those chillins, but I was definitely getting burnt out! And Ben is now the Executive Secretary in our ward, which means we are both somehow a lot more busy, so it was just too much! And because we live in a college town and because it's August, that means we've been helping people move in or out about twice a week lately!

Our ward also had a Luau! Our dear friends, The C-Family, pretty much put on the whole thing. The husband is Polynesian and grew up in Hawaii, so he is pretty adept at throwing luaus!  Ben and I were involved in several aspects of it, the most exciting of which was that we were both in a dance number! I did a slow hula (you can see what it is supposed to look like, here) with some of the other relief society sisters, and Ben did the Haka with a bunch of the Elder's, the bishopric, and a few little boys. And somehow they managed to convince the Bishop to let them do it with their faces painted and no shirts! Also, our little Activity Days girls did a faster tahitian dance (you can see what that one is supposed to look like here) that they had been working on for MONTHS, and they were so cute! It was awesome. I'll try to get some footage of it to post here, I know someone recorded it. This was probably one of the best ward activities I've ever been to. There were 250 people that came, and the gym was decorated amazingly, there was SO MUCH authentic Hawaiian food, and entertainment. Above all, so many people in the ward were involved in so many different parts of putting this thing on, from food prep, to decorating, to being part of the entertainment, that it was very unifying for our ward, which is something our ward desperately needs right now.

Our friend, K, came to visit too! She was only here for a few short hours, but it was SO good to see her, even if we did have to share her with other people. (K! Next time, come visit and don't tell anyone else you're coming, mwa ha ha ha!)

So, all the summer craziness is starting to wind down (Oh, wait! That reminds me that I need to post about "The Great Summer Blackout of 2012".....another day maybe). We're gearing up for fall & winter, and looking forward to it! Hope all of you are doing well!

A very late "Vacation: Part 2"

Sheesh, I can't believe I've neglected to write about the rest of our vacation for this long. There's simply no excuse other than I'm easily distracted by shiny objects, reddit, another nerdy shoulder injury that makes it hard to type with my right hand,  and an extremely busy couple of months. But still!

So,Vacation Part Two! Here we go!  The rest of our vacation was awesome. After leaving our beloved K (sniff sniff) in Our Nation's Capital, we headed down to Ben's family's homestead of High Point, NC via Raleigh, NC.  Ben has an old college buddy that lives in Raleigh with his wife, and we met them for dinner so Ben and he could catch up and so we could get the skinny on what it's like to live in the Raleigh/Durham area.  We got into Raleigh a few hours before we were supposed to meet up with Ben's friend, so we took the time to drive around a little bit. Mostly, we were trying to find a shoe store because our feet hurt so bad from walking the day before that we each needed to buy some new flip flops to give our tender near-blisters some airing out. We were successful! Also, we realized that it was SUPER easy to get around Raleigh, and that we could basically get from one part of the city to another in about 15 minutes, so it's a lot like Columbus in that sense. I always tell people that everything in Columbus is about 20 minutes from everything else, and it's usually true!

We met Ben's friends for dinner, and they were very nice! And they told us how much they enjoy living in the Raleigh area (they actually live in Carey, I think). They said it's nice because it's close to the beach, close to the mountains, and close to D.C! We had a delightful sup with them, and then left to go to Ben's parents'.

While at Ben's family's house we did a lot of just hanging out, but we did take one day to drive back to the Raleigh/Durham/Research Triangle area with Ben's mom to help us check it out even more. We drove around Durham, which was kind of nice, but reminded me a little too much of Oberlin only bigger. We also drove around the Research Triangle, learned all about the difference between "the Triangle"  and "Research Triangle Park" , drove around Carey and the temple, and just had a nice time.  We're a fan of the area for sure.  I think it would definitely be a great place to live.

Ok, I'm sure we did some other fun stuff, but it's been so long since we actually went, that I can't even remember! Blerg!

I was going to update some more about what has happened in life SINCE vacation, but this post is too long, so I'll write it in another one.

Vacation: Part 1

We went on vacation!

Well, sort of. We considered it a working vacation.  See, Ben & I have had the desire to get out of Columbus lately (and by lately, I really mean for the past 3 years).  We like Columbus a lot, it has a lot to offer, but we don't really see ourselves becoming lifers here and it's just time to move on.

So, we're starting the process of trying to figure out where we'd like to "settle down."  Ben's skill set is such that we can pretty much pick the general area we want to live and then work at trying to get him a job wherever that is, which is pretty nice. So, we've decided to start our location search.  We started with a trip to Our Nation's Capital, Washington D.C. And we followed that up with an excursion to the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area of North Carolina.

OUR NATION'S CAPITAL

Carper Family in front of the Washington Monument

Our Nation's Capital was amazing! Our good friend K has recently moved there and really enjoys it and since K is so awesome, we figured if she likes D.C., then we probably would too! And we did!

We pulled into Our Nation's Capital around 3pm, just before rush hour traffic got really bad. We checked into our hotel and then K got off work and came to meet us. Then (and this was probably the highlight of the trip) we went to CAFE RIO for dinner! That's right, folks. The D.C. area is now home to 3 Cafe Rios! So yummy. It was everything I remembered and more!

Erin doing her T-Rex impression. Tiny Arms!

The next day, while K was at work, Ben & I took the Metro into the city and spent the day going to as many museums as we could! We ended up seeing the Natural History Museum, the National Gallery (West), the Air & Space Museum, and the American History Museum.

The Rotunda at the National Gallery

On the recommendation of Ben's brother & cousin, we also walked all the way up Capitol Hill to eat lunch at a little burger place that is just on the other side of the Capitol Building, called The Good Stuff Eatery. Good stuff indeed!

The Capitol Building

We also saw the back side of the White House, including the new vegetable gardens that The First Lady has put in. Very cool!

The Obama Home

The First Lady's Kitchen Garden

Then, K got off work and came to meet us to tour the memorials. We saw the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Memorial. K does not care for Jefferson much, so we skipped that one, which we were just fine with because by that time we were so tired from walking so much that we could barely walk and we were chafing in places that no one should ever have to chafe.

WWII Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

After that long day, K took us to Chinatown to eat at this place called Chop't. It wasn't Chinese food, but it was super tasty, and I wish they would expand them to lots of places all over the country.

Other highlights of the trip to Our Nation's Capital included: a sighting of a blue jay stealing a peanut from a squirrel on The Mall, watching the latest episode of Sherlock with K at her swank apartment in Alexandria, seeing what I was pretty sure was a covert government spy get off the Metro at the Pentagon stop (don't pick up the newspaper he left on his seat!), learning how to correctly use the words 'captial' vs. 'capitol,' accidentally parking K's car in front of two people making out in their car in a busy and well lit parking lot and they didn't stop even though we were obviously parked there and watching them for quite some time! (p.s. we weren't watching them to be creepy, we just had to stay in our car because it was super rainy outside and we were trying to finish eating our frozen yogurt. Don't worry, after a while we moved to another parking space.)

What would've been an awesome picture if the reflecting pool had been full. 

Any way, the trip was awesome, the weather was perfect, the company was fabulous, and we'd go back again in a heart beat! Stay tuned for Part Deux of our D.C./North Carolina adventure!

On the Art of Saying "No"

I can't believe it took me 30 years to figure out that the way the Church keeps people out of trouble is to keep them so busy they don't have time to get into trouble! Fact!

What is the opposite of magnifying your calling? Because that is what we need to start doing up in here. We have been so busy, we've barely had time to breathe, and something has just got to give.  Luckily, we have a nice trip out of town planned in a few weeks, after which we plan on dropping off the face of the planet for awhile.

We had this great Sunday school lesson last Sunday during which one of the members of our stake high-council made the comment that while we are supposed to wear ourselves out in the service of God, it's all about balance, and what wears one person out might be a lot more or a lot less than what wears another person out, and that we shouldn't judge ourselves or others about what that "wearing out" limit might be. He speaks the truth!

My limit has been met, people, and it's time to start saying "No!"  (I wish I could say things like "No, get your own stinking life together!" or "No, you are too emotionally needy and that's why no one wants to be your friend!" or "No, I won't teach your class at the last second because you didn't bother to find someone to do it before even though you knew you were going out of town three months ago" or "No, I will not play for you so you can sing some crappy Sally DeFord piece" or "No, I will not baby-sit your kids because it is making me not want to have kids of my own" or "No, I don't want to go to another girls night, because I actually like spending time with my husband and don't want to sit around listening to you complain about yours or complain about how awful it is to be a mom." ---you get the idea.  I will just have to stick to a plain "No, sorry, I've already got plans.")

Oh, and one more thing. It is super manipulative to call someone up and say "Hey, what are you doing this afternoon?" or "Hey what are you doing next Thursday?" or "Hey what are you doing _____"?  If you want or need something, just ask. Don't tease me into thinking you're going to want to do something fun, when you really just want to find out if I'm free to _____(Fill in the blank)____ for you.

Okay, rant over.  All I'm saying is that sometimes "No" isn't such a bad word, and I plan to use it a lot more often in the near future.

Observations

Just some observations on this, the 29th day of March, the year of our Lord two-thousand and ten:

1. I watched people go in and out of a tanning salon today. Today was ridiculously beautiful, sunny and warm. Something is wrong with this picture. Why would you pay for sunshine when you can get it for free?

2. The serious lack of sidewalks that comes with living in the middle of the city drives me bonkers. Especially in the spring/summer when I want to go for a nice walk without the threat of being killed by traffic while walking on the side of the road. Also, I hate having to drive somewhere just to go for a walk. It seems counter-productive and offends my snooty eco-sensibilities.  Just another way that growing up in "Stars Hollow" has ruined me forever.

3. If I lived in England, the NHS would pay for my insulin. The NHS has lots of problems, but not having to pay for something that everyone else's body makes is very attractive to me. Also, being able to participate semi-fairly in a health care system/market is also something that makes the NHS very appealing to me. I've started doing some more research into health care in other English-speaking countries. We're a little worried in the Carper household about how we'll possibly be able to care for ourselves during retirement, especially since I have the 'betes. Seeing as the current Medicare system is pretty inadequate for taking care of a Type 1, and it only seems like it will get worse in the future, I don't really feel like we can count on that. So, we're exploring other avenues of getting insurance when we're old. Of course, emigration seems like the most viable option, right? ;)
Semi-related aside: When President Obama got elected, I remember reading on some girl's blog that she wept & prayed for America because she was afraid of what kind of country we'd become that we would elect such an "evil" president, and she was worried about what her boys would have to deal with in the future.  I mocked her.  Last night I literally prayed that Heavenly Father would soften the heart of just one more Supreme Court judge so that in June they would rule that the individual mandate didn't violate the constitutionally given powers of congress.  I wonder if that girl would mock me now? 

Glory be!

How is it March already? We have been BUSY here in the the Carper household! For some reason, February turned out to be the absolute busiest month! Sheesh. Not a minute to breathe (literally, because we were both sick for a lot of February, too!), but this week we've finally had a few slower days.  We even went on a spontaneous date on Friday night! We went out to run an errand, and Ben surprised me by saying "let's catch a movie!" We saw "We Bought A Zoo." I loved it!

In other news: We survived the deadly tornado outbreak of March 2012! We were right in the line of the nasty storms, but just north enough in Ohio to not get a tornado, just some thunderstorms and wind, and it actually wasn't that bad. Parts of Ohio got some bad damage and tornadoes, but it wasn't as bad as other places, thank goodness!

More Ohio News: The Chardon school shooting was a sooooo incredibly sad. I grew up not that far away from Chardon, and it is just such a crazy thing that these kinds of things happen! I distinctly remember the day the Columbine shooting happened (we watched it on Channel 1, and then followed it on the news the rest of the day when I was in high school), and thought that it was the craziest thing that could ever happen. I can't believe how many times that horror has been repeated in schools since then.

Some More Ohio News: We're having an outbreak of the Norovirus. Not me, personally, but central-Ohio. It's basically a nasty stomach virus (the one that you always hear people get on cruise ships a lot) but it's particularly bad because the virus can survive on surfaces from 2-10 days! Also, you still shed the virus in your feces for 3 days after you recover (yes, I just said "feces" in my blog), so you are still contagious after you are back at work and stuff.  Anyway, I don't know anyone who's been sick yet, and we've been really good at hand washing in Carper-dom and we're super anti-social so I don't anticipate us getting it, but oh how I love me a good epidemic! That's just how I roll.

Even More Ohio News: Oh, Super Tuesday. How I loathe thee. Seriously, one reason (among many) to NOT move to Ohio is that it is a swing state.  Although, being a registered democrat currently has its advantages, because I haven't been getting all the phone calls urging me to vote for Mitt or Rick or Newt or Ron. Thank goodness! I wish people at church would quit acting like Mitt is God, though. Also, I think they all assume that Mormon=Republican. I think I might need to "come out of the closet" as a democrat to my ward at some point, just to get people talking. Maybe during testimony meeting, wherein I get up and announce how I "know social welfare programs are true" and how I'm "so grateful for comprehensive sex education in schools"?  Just for shock value? Don't worry, I'll restrain myself. But if I hear Brother____ say that "universal health care is Satan's plan" one more time (to an investigator, no less!), I might just have to speak up.

Erin News: I switched from atenolol to treat my SVT to something called Bystolic (nebivolol). It's a newer beta blocker, and is supposed to be a little less harsh in the side-effect arena, because it doesn't penetrate the blood-brain barrier as easy (or something).  So far, I think it's been great. Atenolol gave me headaches, and made me soooooo exhausted, but this new drug seems to be pretty good. It doesn't seem to keep my heart rate quite as low as atenolol, but it does seem to tackle the "I-think-I'm-having-a-heart-attack-but-actually-these-feelings-aren't-really-dangerous" symptoms of SVT better. So, thus far it's a win-win. I haven't had to actually buy it yet though (my GP just gave me a month of samples), so we'll see how much of a win it is when I actually have to pay for it. Hopefully it won't be too expensive.

More Erin News: I've discovered a promising new GF baking blog, The Art of Gluten-Free Baking. I've made the faux oreos (faux-reos, anyone?) and they were really good. I'm planning on baking my way through this blog. Mmmm, it looks so good! I'm making her buttermilk biscuits and her thin mints next. And then maybe her pop-tarts. Yum. I'll let you know how it goes.

And, that's the latest.

My Nose, and other things.

Olfaction:
Is there such a thing as an over-sensitive nose? A super sensitive sniffer, if you will? I seem to be able to smell things that no one else can. When we had our two (yup, that's TWO) gas leaks, I smelled both of them first, before Ben could. One of the times, the repair person from the gas company said she was even surprised I could smell the leak, because she couldn't even smell it. The leak was definitely there, since her gas-detecting contraption thingy (that's the official term for it) said there was a leak, but apparently it wasn't very bad.

Also, I am constantly taking out our trash. I'm always complaining that "our house smells!" and emptying the trash can. I also am annoyed that our trash can seems to absorb the trash smells, and they never go away, even if I change the bag every day, let it sit outside overnight to air out, wash the thing out, etc. We've even recently replaced our trash can because the old one just got too smelly, and guess what? The new one already smells. I think the smells must permeate into the plastic. I've thought about buying a metal trash can to see if it is immune to smell permeability, but I just can't stomach spending $50+ on a metal trash can.

Stupid nose.

Portrait Painting: (This is long and probably boring, so feel free to skip it)
I've started portrait painting again! I'm working on a small test-portrait right now, and will probably do a few smaller ones before I start on something serious, just to help me get back into the swing of things. I'm surprised both how easily some things came back to me, and also by how much technique I've lost by not painting for so long! The color mixing and matching have come back really well, and I forgot how much I love painting skin tone! There are so many different colors that make up skin tone! What's kind of funny is that I've struggled a little bit with my highlighting (lights) but not my shading (darks). I know I have the tendency to not be bold enough with both of those, so I'll have to work on that a little bit more.  The thing that surprised me the most, though, is how much of my actual brush technique I lost (I don't even know if that's the correct term for what I'm talking about, but that's what makes sense to me). I really struggled with figuring out which brush to use, and how to pull or push or smoosh it across the canvass to get the effect I wanted. I could feel in my hand what I wanted to do, but my brain couldn't get the brush to do it, or it couldn't remember which brush to use or which angle to use it at in order to get what it wanted. Does that even make sense?  It used to be so effortless! I would just pick up the brush and paint! Maybe I'm over-thinking things now? Any way, I'm sure it will come back with time and practice!

Sleep:
Remember how I'm the world's worst sleeper? Well, two things were really helpful with that these last few weeks. First, when we had my dad's dog, he would herd us both to bed at a decent hour. He was warm and snuggly and I would be lulled right to sleep when he was lying in the bed with us. Also he made sure we got up at a decent hour too, by stirring and getting in and out of the covers. Brilliant, and totally cute. Second, I got that Wake-up Light. That things is pure bliss! I would seriously headline an infomercial for that thing, that is how much I love it. BUY ONE!  Between that and the dog, my sleep habits were whipped into shape in about 2 weeks! My recent foray into the world of beta blockers has put a little snag in this, but mostly it just makes me want to sleep all_the_time, so it's not so bad. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon!.

And that's it. I'm off to empty the trash. :)

Week 1 on Atenolol.

So, I've been on Atenolol (beta blocker for SVT) for about a week now and I have mixed reactions.

Things I don't like:

• It totally masks my low blood sugars, but I was aware that it could do that so I've been prepared for that. I've been wearing my CGM more and testing more to stay on top of that, but I've definitely tanked a few times before catching those lows! Crazy! 
• It's given me a crazy bad headache for like 4 days, but it's not so bad that I can't function. And today I actually haven't gotten one, so maybe I'm adjusting?
• It makes me exhausted! But not all day long, so that's good. I was also informed that this might happen, but that after about 3 weeks, you kind of adjust to it.
• It doesn't seem to have really stopped my strange heart palpitations. The first few days were okay, but I've had a ton of them since then. 

Things I like:

• It has definitely lowered my heart rate, and while I'm still having tons of palpitations/flutters/heavy heart beats/skipped beats, they don't seem as intense, if that makes any kind of sense.
• It makes it SOOOOOO much easier to work out! Before atenolol, my heart rate would sky rocket to like 175-180 bpm within the first 10 minutes of working out. I'd be out of breath, and ready to stop and the whole rest of the work out would be so labored. Now, it barely hits 140 and I feel like I can work out forever! It makes me wonder how long my heart rate has been high, because I've been feeling this while working out for years. My heart rate has always skyrocketed really fast (I always remember having a really high one in high school when we'd measure it in gym class), but I haven't had the weird palpitations, etc. until this year.  Interesting. Any way, I just know that working out has been so much more fun this last week! Woot.

So, the verdict's still out. There are other beta blockers I can try if this one doesn't work or if the side effects are unbearable, so it's good to know that I can find something else if this one is not adequate. 

BOM, Star Trek, and the Best Husband Ever.

BOM
Our bishop gave our ward a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in the first 100 days of the year. Whew! That is a hard one for me, because I'm a slow reader, but I've actually been listening to most of it on the church web-site while I stretch out before and after I go to the gym, and it hasn't been so hard to keep up.  I LOVE how plain the Book of Mormon is! I've been trying my hardest to get through the whole Old Testament (and taking my sweet time doing it) and it's taken up a lot of my scripture study concentration for awhile, and it's hard! I find the Book of Mormon so much easier to understand, and the doctrine so much clearer! I know a lot of that has to do with the fact that it was translated directly into my native tongue as opposed the Bible which has been translated into like 3 different languages before English. But, I also know that it has to do with the fact that so many of the truths the Bible has lost or is unclear about are made plain and easier to understand in the Book of Mormon. Love it!

Star Trek
Ben and I have been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix over the past few weeks. I remember watching this when I was a kid and really liking it, and it's been fun (and hilarious) to revisit it! Seriously, I totally missed the fact that Commander Riker was a playa' when I was watching these as a kid. So funny!  The first time I saw it was on my parent's little black-and-white TV. When we saw it on color for the first time, it was even better.  And now, it's funny to look back and remember thinking "wow, wouldn't it be cool if we could have touch screen computers and video conferencing?" And now, we do!  I've also been watching a few episodes of Star Trek: Voyager too. Mostly because the theme music is so dang awesome, but also because it's hilarious and entertaining.  And, I officially know that I've entered into nerdom, because I had a Star Trek dream the other night.  That's right, I was on the Enterprise in my dreams, folks. It's all down hill from here.

Best Husband Ever
Did I mention that Ben is the best husband ever? He woke me up this morning with breakfast in bed, just because! And it was the works, too. Eggs, cheese, gluten free toast with cream cheese, juice, water, my morning pills in a small cup, salt & pepper shakers, and even an Origami flower he made and put in a little vase, all on a tray. Just because!  I'm the luckiest woman in the world!

Erin, out!

Throw another one on the pile, why not?

Hey friends. Sorry it's been awhile since I posted! I've been busy!  But, I wanted to let you all know something important.

I found out recently that I have been experiencing something called "supraventricular tachycardia" or "SVT."  It's a very benign heart condition, that basically means your heart isn't wired properly, so you get these strange flutters, skips, palpitations, heavy beats or fast heart rate every once in a while. I was having all of those crazy symptoms, so my doctor did an EKG and then a 30-day cardiac event monitor, and we figured out what it was. Now I will just be taking a small, low-dose of a beta blocker, which will lower my heart rate, and it should clear it all up. The treatment is very safe, super cheap (!), and even protective of my heart, which will be good for me because any damage diabetes might be doing will possibly be mitigated by this now. And, it is possible that it will eventually go away all on its own and that I won't experience this forever. Any way, the bottom line is, it's not dangerous, and very treatable. (And now I can say "I got a condition!" in a thick Brooklyn Jewish accent).

I just wanted to let everyone know, because you're my friends/family and I don't believe in hiding stuff like this from people. Also, it's the easiest way to explain to a bunch of people at one time so I don't have to tell everyone individually while I"ll be popping another pill, or doing things a little differently.

And, how do I feel about this, you may ask? Well, to be honest, extremely relieved! Having diabetes for 18+ years, with few complications thus far, I'm kind of always waiting for the floor to drop out from under me.  Heart disease is a known complication of diabetes, so you can see where I was going with this. Any way, we're just really grateful that it turned out to be not such a big deal!  It's another thing to add to the medical pile I'm developing, but such is life.  Everyone has their own challenges, right? I truly believe that a lot of our challenges are opportunities from God to grow and progress. I'm a fiercely independent soul and all of these medical conditions have helped me to learn to rely on others and especially my Heavenly Father.

So, there it is. I promise the next post won't be about something medical! (probably) :)

A List of Recent Things

1. We dog-sat my dad's dog over the Christmas holiday. He's an extremely nervous/neurotic Chihuahua-mix, who is a rescue dog several times over and has rescue-dog-type "issues". But, he is also probably the most cuddly and affectionate dog I've ever met, and is really good at playing and allows you to dress him up in cute doggy sweater vests. Win-win!  Oh man, Ben & I are dog people. We would go out and buy a dog today if we were allowed to have one in our apartment. We had to get special permission from our landlord to dog-sit for 3 weeks. When we gave the dog back, we were (and are) really sad about it.  REALLY sad. Sigh. Needless to say, we will own a dog sooner than later.

2. I have recently purchased a Philips Wake-Up Light. Oh, glory be! This little contraption has changed my life. Seriously! If I had owned this thing when I was growing up in Ohio, I think my adolescence would have been a lot different (in a good way). In the winter, my body will absolutely not wake up on its own. Unless the sun is out, which only happens about once a week for a few hours if we're lucky, I can go to bed at 10pm and sleep until 10pm the next night if I didn't set an alarm. Seriously, my body will just not wake itself up unless it senses the sun. But, with my new light, I set it to go off at a certain time, and 30 minutes before, it starts gradually turning on, mimicking the rise of the sun. By the time the alarm is set, it has brightened the entire room, and I'm usually already awake! Brilliant! It definitely makes my mornings earlier, and a lot easier! Yessssss! Don't confuse it with a S.A.D lamp, it's not that kind of lamp, but it is amazing, nonetheless. I recommend it for anyone who lives in a place that gets little sun, especially in the winter.

3. I have also recently purchased an Artograph Tracer Projector. One of my goals for the year is to paint one portrait. I really like painting people, and I wanted to get back into it, but it's been a long time since I've painted people, and my ability to mimic facial proportions is not what it used to be. I used a projector in high school, and it was really helpful, and I thought it would help me build my painting confidence again, so I bought one for myself! This one looked a little basic compared to ones I've used in school, but those run in the thousands of dollar range, and I just don't have that kind of disposable income. But, I did have 50 bucks of Amazon money (thanks mom!), so I bought this one. Before I purchased it, I did a lot of research, read a lot of reviews and even tracked down a demonstration of it being used on youtube. It seemed like it would meet my needs. I don't need to project colors, just basic lines and positions of facial features, so I thought it would be good enough. It came in the mail today, and it is more than good enough! It projects very clearly, is easy to focus and enlarge, and the color projection is pretty crisp too! Well worth the $50 I didn't actually spend! I'm excited to start painting again!

4. I'm getting 3 more piano students! That bumps me up to 4 students, total! That's almost enough to make them have a recital. Mwa ha ha ha! 

Whew!

Oh man, it's been a busy couple of weeks. And it's going to get even busier! But I just wanted to let you all know a few things that are going on.

1. I'm blogging for Diabetes Awareness Month again, on my other blog http://theinsulincrowd.blogspot.com/.  I wanted to do it daily, but that is just not going to happen this month!

2. I'm going to be driving to North Carolina on Monday all by myself! That's a 7 hour drive, and I'm a little nervous, but it's for a good cause. I'm headed down to High Point to help out my mother-in-law after she has surgery (don't worry, it's nothing life threatening, she just will need an extra hand for a few days).  Ben will then join me the next week for the week of Thanksgiving. So, I'll be playing nurse in High Point for a week, all by myself! I get along great with my in-laws, but it's still unnerving to be away from home for a week, helping someone else out. But, if anyone is dying to have a really long phone conversation on Monday as I drive down there, during which I can guarantee your call will be dropped a million times as I wind in and out of the Appalachian Foothills, I'd be happy to oblige.

3. Did I mention I'm teaching piano lessons now? (only like a million times already, right?) I love it! I'm going to be missing two weeks when I'm in North Carolina, and I'm actually sad about it.  As my friend "M". would say "I think I missed my calling."  Seriously, I actually enjoy this, and I get paid for it. Granted, I've only taught one highly gifted and motivated Brazilian kid, so who knows what it would be like to teach an over-programmed, bratty, privileged American kid who doesn't practice? But, right now I'm reveling in it. Sometimes I second guess my career choices (especially when I'm not actually working), but I think if I had studied how to be a piano teacher in school, I'd probably hate it. That's how I roll.

Okay, later peeps.

We walked.

And walked, and walked, and walked for the ADA Walk to Stop Diabetes this Saturday, and it was LOADS of fun!

Ben's Battelle team had tons of walkers that came. We had so many that we even got our own "team tent"! Woot! We got all kinds of free stuff, too. Ben scored 4 free t-shirts, and I even came home with 3! There were lots of diabetes-oriented vendors there, too, who were handing out tons of free (mostly useless and mostly gross-tasting) stuff too.

But, in the end the whole experience was really positive. We ended up raising over $300 bucks between the two of us. Ben's co-workers really ponied up the cash there at the end, it was amazing. It was great to go to an event like that and be around "my people," who all kind of understand what each other is going through.

Thanks so much to everyone who donated to this cause! We know everyone is pinching pennies these days, and that makes me even more touched by all the generous donations that everyone gave. So, here is a big fat thank you from me.

THANK YOU!

Updater-tron

Just a small update:

Both Ben & I reached our fundraising goals for the ADA walk! Thanks everyone who donatd/wanted to donate/donated in spirit! If you still want to donate, you are more than welcome to, as well. We'll gladly take your money. :)

So, I've been gluten free for several months now, and let me tell you what I'm noticing. First, I have more energy! Which is amazing, considering this is the time of the year when my energy usually nose dives because of the weather. I've been getting up earlier, and it hasn't been a challenge! What the what?! And, I'm even (gasp) enjoying it a little bit! Who knew life could be like this? Also, another added benefit is that I've lost 5 lbs without even trying! My doctor even said something about it! "Oh, you've lost a little bit of weight?" I told her that I hadn't changed anything except taking gluten out of my diet, and she said "We see that a lot when people stop eating gluten." So, I'll take it!

And we're gettin' our Halloween on here in the Carper house. This is probably my favorite holiday, tied with Christmas. We have purchased a pumpkin (from a pumpkin patch!), have decorations up in our yard (two dollar store styrofoam gravestones leftover from last year, that was a good$2 investment, those things hold up in the weather!), and are working diligently on our costumes which will hopefully be even as cool as last year's.

OK, life is good friends, hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

So Busy.

Somehow, it's only Monday, and it's already been the busiest week ever. And it's just going to get even more busy! Oh well. Next week promises to be less crazy.

One thing of note: I have a piano student! I was supposed to inherit a bunch from another person at church this school year, but for some reason that never happened, but I just had one randomly fall in my lap the other day, and we're starting his lessons tomorrow. I'm a little rusty, but I'm excited to be back in the teaching mode. I taught flute in high school to some kids in the ward and really enjoyed it, so I'm excited to start teaching piano, an instrument I'm even more comfortable with!

Also, it is just a fabulously gorgeous fall this year! So much better than the last few! The trees are amazing! Sometimes I think it's amazing that colors that bright occur naturally. God sure knew what He was doing!

Ok, Erin out.