Mmmmm...donuts

Even with a master's degree in communication and a keen eye for marketing gimmicks and media agenda-setting, I find that I am easily influenced by imagery. Particularly, images involving food. A few weeks ago I saw a story on Time.com about how exercise alone can't make you thin. The accompanying photo (above) immediately compelled me to go to the campus grocery store for a donut that looked exactly the same. I convinced myself that I wouldn't get one if they didn't have that exact kind (their selection is usually limited, so I figured the odds were against me). They had one. I bought it. I enjoyed it. The end. Today, weeks later, I saw a link to the same article on Time.com, and even though I knew what I would find, I still clicked on it just to torture myself. I found that my will power is sufficiently built up now after being forced to watch Justin eat a creme-filled chocolate donut on Saturday morning, so I am now impervious to the donut picture's charms. In Justin's defense, he made up for the donut affront by giving me several massages during our "preparing for childbirth" class the same day. Of course, I then took him to watch Pro Bull Riding that night as an anniversary gift, so the equity of the situation slipped through my fingers pretty fast.

Remember that time...

In honor of last night's fall premiere, I decided to relive the best day ever. Back in April we were on the set of The Office. No big deal. :)


I'm in the hallway! No big deal.


Is that the guy who use to be a JCrew Model?




Parkor!

Pumpkin Update

Justin's pumpkin hasn't gotten much love lately. The sprinkler system quit working and he hasn't taken the time to fix it, so the garden is suffering a little bit. Hopefully the pumpkin will make it until October so I can carve a face into it!

And here's me embracing the 29 week bump/pumpkin-to-be

The Family that Pricks Together Sticks Together

Nine years ago Justin was diagnosed with Type 1/juvenile diabetes. 8 days ago I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes (after suffering through 3 mind numbing hours at the Kaiser lab - saved only by the fact that they played High School Musical in the waiting room). We now have matching glucose meters and test strips. I decorated mine with pink puffy paint so we wouldn't get them mixed up. There is one major difference between our conditions - mine will go away in 11 weeks (and doesn't require medication), his unfortunately, will not (and does). In the meantime, I get to live in his world for little while and experience the joys of 4 finger pricks a day.

The gestational diabetes diagnosis came as somewhat of a surprise. I mean, I have done everything right during pregnancy. I lost 10 pounds in the beginning (which I'm proud to say I still haven't completely gained back) by eating healthier and exercising more regularly, I drink at least 12 glasses of water a day, I avoid most sweets (in fact my only "craving" has been turkey sandwiches with swiss cheese, which I satisfy daily at lunch), I spend at least 40 minutes a day walking to and from work, I go on longer walks or swim in the evenings, the list goes on. They say GD happens because of normal pregnancy hormones and was not caused by any fault of my own, but it's still slightly embarrassing.

At any rate, I am now paying even stricter attention to my diet, having weekly phone appointments with a dietician, being even more conscientious of my exercise schedule, and bonding with Justin over our shared condition. (And annoying the crud out of him because I'm being so anal about it.) So far my blood sugar levels are staying in the normal range. Take that gestational diabetes!

I really love when fruit and vegetables have faces. It just makes me really happy. I think it all started years ago with the singing vegetable stand on Sesame Street. My enjoyment actually extends to most inanimate objects that are made to look human, but produce really does it for me. It's not something I go around thinking about everyday or anything, but occasionally it pops into my head. For example, today I had to go to the dietician at Kaiser (more on that later), and she had a cornucopia of little stuffed vegetable magnets with faces. A cute little carrot was smiling at me alongside an eggplant and a giant ear of corn. I shared my joy with her (in a non-creepy way of course). She responded that most people find vegetables with faces off-putting. Then she asked me if I worked with small children...

People of Walmart

I'm jumping on the bandwagon with this post. I first learned about this website from my friend Kate's blog. I didn't actually pay it a visit until I read a story on cnn.com about it. Peopleofwalmart.com is a website where users post pictures of the crazy people/things they have seen at their local Walmart. According to the CNN article, the creators of the site are not trying to be mean-spirited. In fact, they only post pictures of people that deserve it. For example, large people wearing really tiny clothes, those who choose to sport mullet haircuts, or other oddities. All of this wouldn't have prompted me to blog until I went to the website and discovered the above photo, which was taken in Yuba City, CA. My hometown. Nice.

Watch Our Pumpkin Grow

Justin loves his garden. He has experimented with several different "crops" over the years, but decided to keep it simple this year with some corn, sunflowers, and one "giant" pumpkin. When I told Justin several weeks ago that we needed to take weekly photos of my growing stomach (because that's just what people do nowadays) he responded with, "are we really going to be those people?" I'm not really sure who "those" people are, but I am pretty sure that yes, I am one of them. He won the battle for awhile because, frankly there wasn't much of a need for documentation until recently. Then the day came that he requested we start taking pictures to document the growth of HIS giant pumpkin. I, of course, balked at the inconsistency of his thinking that photos of one pumpkin are more acceptable than photos our other, CLEARLY more important "pumpkin," and won the war. We are, however, compromising.

Justin's Pumpkin


Our "Pumpkin"

Maru in the Box

According to Entertainment Weekly, cats like Maru and Nora the piano playing cat are more popular on the Internet than certain Hollywood starlets. What can I say? People love cats. This is my favorite Maru video. Even Justin giggles like a school girl when he watches it.

Zippy gets in on the action

Justin and I live in a relatively small house that was built in 1927. I LOVE it, but we are severely lacking in space - both room and closet space. Our second bedroom has served as our office/my closet/catch all area for the past 4 years and now has to be reassigned to baby detail. I spent the better part of a weekend weeding out half of my closet (kind of traumatic) so it can be shared with an infant in a few months. Zippy definitely knows something is up, but she's not letting it affect her routine. We may have moved the guest bed out of the room, but she's still managed to find a suitable napping place...the yet to be unpacked crib. Good to know she's not losing sleep over the impending changes.

Justin's Best Week Ever

I had to go to Kansas City, MO for a work-related conference in July. (This year I got to present a session about email marketing strategies, which was a lot more interesting than it sounds.) :) Justin had his vacation scheduled for that week, so I forced him to tag along so we could make it our quasi-summer vacation. He was reluctant about the trip until he realized that KC is home to some of the greatest BBQ in the world! We were only able to hit two renowned BBQ establishments, but they were both amazing. We had to document our experience at Oklahoma Joe's, which is famous for not only having great BBQ but also for its location inside a gas station. We opted to dine at the restaurant's second non-gas station location and it did not disappoint.

This was the line to order food on a random Wednesday night.


The amazingness up close


Best day of Justin's life


After dinner I made Justin stop at the Cracker Barrel because I've heard so much about them and wanted to experience one for myself. The highlight for Justin was buying Luke a John Deere onesie from the gift shop. And he gives me a bad time for being from "the country!" Here I am contemplating my next move on the Cracker Barrel front porch.


On our way home from Kansas City we stopped to visit our friends Todd and Shawna in Phoenix. We had a great time hanging out with them and learning all the tricks on parenting little boys (they have a 2.5 year old son). No photos from this leg of the trip because Phoenix is like the seventh circle of hell in July and we were pretty much confined to the house for 3 days. We did, however, get to experience the joys of the Wii, a couple of meals out "on the town," a short early morning visit to the driving range for Todd and Justin, and a trip to 24 hour fitness for Shawna and I. Lesson learned: Subsequent trips to AZ will be made during the winter months only.

Goodbye Andrea...Oh hellllloooo Edward

We have to say goodbye to one of our co-workers (and a member of the Twilight quandrangle) this week. She's leaving to start a new life in Japan, so we threw her a farewell party on campus. One of her parting gifts...an Edward Cullen action figure.



We'll miss you Andrea!!! :(


That's supposed to be a pucker...Fail.

A few of my favorites...

Just a few of my favorite baby items so far...



Hammerhead shark from Auntie Som and Uncle Mike.
Adidas jogsuit from my Aunt Pat (we won't call her a "great aunt" just yet, although she is Great!)
Shark tennis shoes (I couldn't help myself, but I think Grandma Linda paid for them :). Thanks mom!