A Little Bit of Everything

School: In case you haven't heard, or didn't know what the "Little Apple" meant, Nate and I are moving to Kansas! He was accepted to their graduate program in Agronomy and starts this Fall. We have a Bar Mitzvah to go to out there at the end of July, so that is probably when we'll go ahead and make our move. That will be nice 'cause my parents are going to the Bar Mitzvah too, and can therefore help us out! Convenient, I think. There's no place for a car seat in a U-haul, so Baby and I will probably fly out. Driving with a kid who has to eat every 2 hours or so? Not happening.

Anyway, the professor that Nate will be working with seems really nice- he even helped us get in touch with some church members that have helped us figure out a few housing options. The professor is LDS too... so that's nice too. Nate is going to fly out in a couple weeks to finally meet him in person, check out campus, and do any other paperwork they might need to make this whole thing "officially official." We're very happy because K-State was Nate's top choice for grad school. We really wanted him to go there because: the professor knew Nate's mentor-prof from BYU and came highly recommended; Nate will be paid a stipend for his work on the research project they will be doing; tuition will basically be covered; Nate will be able to be a graduate TA (or whatever it's called) to bring in a little more money; the stupid GRE wasn't a requirement for admission, so he didn't have to take it! Plus it's close to a bunch of my family that I don't currently get to see very often, so I'm especially excited about that. Sunflower State here we come!

Subbing: As you know, Nate and I have both been substitute teaching for a couple months. Some days aren't that bad, and others are just plain awful. I feel so old saying this, but kids these days! Sheesh. Who knew that 6-10 year olds could be so disrespectful? Sometimes we get nothing done because I have to spend a ton of time getting them regrouped. First-graders are the worst! Every thirty seconds a different one is tugging at your shirt saying "teeeacher?" And I can't use sarcasm with them because they don't get it yet! I usually sub at the school where my mom teaches, often in 4th grade, and that's better... but yeah, they can be such a pain. I usually come home pretty exhausted and not wanting to take a job for the next day. Luckily since I'm in the same grade at the same school most often, the kids are doing better with me. But when you go into a completely new class- and the elementary students out here rotate classes for different subjects- there is very little time to establish authority. I have plenty of stories to share, but I'll save those for later, since this is going to be a long post anyway. At least it's an income!

Church: Speaking of subbing for 1st graders, Nate and I are now the teachers for the 5-year old Sunday school class. Luckily there are only 7 of them, and they are much easier to handle. Though some of them like to cling on me, which gets irritating. I have a big belly, I'm already uncomfortable without someone else's kid tugging at my arms and resting their head on me!

Image from babycenter.com

Baby! I'm now at 30 weeks, and everything continues to go just fine. This kid is still super active. I read somewhere that you should count how many times Baby moves in one hour, so I did. It said to include every single movement- ie: every hiccup vs. a case of hiccups. Guess how many times he moved? 127. In 60 minutes. So an average of two kicks/somersaults/hiccups every minute! It's usually more than that per minute, with a break for a minute or two here and there. But I'm glad he's active, and I doubt that will change once he's out! He's going to keep us very busy, I am sure. One night Nate had his hand on my belly and Baby had a little spazz attack- it feels like he's kicking and pounding his fists and shaking his head all at the same time, or doing a flip or something- and Nate said, "How can you ever think about anything else?!" I just laughed. I can't! That's why I suddenly say "ow!" and clutch at my side or gasp all the time! At least Nate can sort of understand, having felt some of these crazy kicks himself.

I had to do the dreaded Glucose Tolerance Test a few weeks ago. Everyone always talks about how disgusting the drink is, and how they can't imagine ever drinking orange soda ever again. It really was not that big of a deal. And that's exactly what it tasted like! Flat orange soda. So what? I think the hard part is that you can't eat or drink anything afterward until they take your blood, and I did want to wash the stuff down with a good drink of water. But I lived. Your blood has to be taken pretty much exactly one hour after you finish the drink, or it can mess up the results- they want to know how much of the glucose has been integrated? is that the right word? into your system in that amount of time. So when I went in and the NP checked my belly and Baby's heartbeat and then left the room, I sat waiting for the phlebotomist to come in a take my blood. I waited... and waited... wondering whether this was going to happen on time or not, because even though the drink wasn't as terrible as I'd heard, I did not particularly want to drink it again. So finally someone sticks their head in and says, "aren't you supposed to get your blood drawn?" I said yes, but nobody hsa come in to do it. Well, apparently I was supposed to magically know without anyone telling me to go down the hall to their lab. So I rushed over and made it just in time- a minute or two more and they would have had me do it all over again. If I'd had to come back, that NP would be on my poop list! Why didn't she tell me to go down there? Some of us have only been pregnant once, and don't get their blood drawn every day.

ANYway... The glucose test/Gestational Diabetes is the only thing I've really been nervous about with this pregnancy. I know I'm thin and fairly healthy and blahblah, so I "shouldn't worry about it," but I know a couple people that I would categorize the same way who did have GD. And my oldest sister had it, so that made me nervous too. I've been trying to eat less sugar and less carbs in order to avoid it, but honestly- carbs are delicious, and I eat them a lot. So when I went back in for my next appointment, I was super relieved and even a little excited to hear that I passed the glucose test! By a lot! The nurse said that my blood sugar level of 83 gave me bragging rights (if its above 130 they do more extensive tests) and that I was the "picture of a perfect pregnancy." I wasn't even close to 130! I felt really good about that.

I really have had a great, easy pregnancy. I hear the last trimester is the longest, most uncomfortable time- here's to ten or twelve more weeks of everything going well, and a happy healthy baby boy!

I'll try to be better about blogging so my posts aren't so long next time. Also, check out my Book Blog! I've been good about posting there so far, so I will try to do the same here.