Halloween Approaches

So we left the krispy kreme last week with a dozen donuts and arrived home with... 2.75. What a creepy halloween mystery. Somehow, the rest all disappeared...

Micah did well on the Halloween 5K. He finished in just over 25 minutes. It was a little wierd because they started earlier than they said they would, so Micah was late beginning. The route around campus wasn't marked, so he had to just follow a print out of a map until he caught up to other runners, but he still finished pretty close to everyone else. Here he is with Dr. Gaylord, who ran the 5k as well.

I'm over 30 weeks now- 75% complete! Here I am in my work uniform this morning- tan pants, black shirt- before heading off to a crazy 9 hour shift.

It is shocking how many folks wait until last minute for halloween costumes. Especially people who seem to care a LOT- most were crushed when we were out of most of our most popular costumes. If it matters that much to you to have a yellow angry birds costume or a blue morph suit, maybe you should leave yourself more than 2 days to start looking for it! It was so busy. We seriously just stood there while people lined up along the whole length of the aisles to ask us for merchandise. And 5 people decided to not come in to work. I guess that's a big risk of hiring so many temps- a lot of them just stop caring and don't show up when things get hard. Lame! Hopefully today's will be the worst shift I to go through. Ahhhhh, what a relief.

Why, Yes!

We are the classiest people in the world. Here we sit down to enjoy an elegant dinner of macaroni and cheese with chili hot dogs.


Recent happenings: Micah was hired to tutor a girl in one of his classes a few hours a week. He gets paid 4.1x the hourly rate that I do at Party City. Lucky, Lucky.

Speaking of Party City, I believe that next week will be my last week working there. I was very unsure as to whether or not I should try to stay on part-time, but I have decided not to for a few reasons. One is that I would only want to stay until Christmas time and the time between Christmas and New Years is supposed to be one of the busiest times of the year. Also, I couldn't take off the weekend of Thanksgiving and I already have plans to go up to Wilmington since we couldn't go this month due to not being able to take off the weeks before Halloween . And most importantly- I don't think I can do 6-9 hour shifts on my feet any more. Even with a good break in the middle, it has gone from being irksome and tiring to downright painful. So, I shall instead spend the last 8-10 weeks of my pregnancy sitting on my butt. I mean... uh.... nesting.


On Monday I went back for my glucose test. I passed (barely) and so it was recommended that I still make some changes to my diet, mainly eliminating carbs where possible. I think that I probably would have failed if I hadn't fasted for so long before the test. My fasting glucose level was 70mg sugar/dl blood, way below the cutoff of 94, but then all 3 measurements after drinking sugar were within just a few mg/dl of the standard for gestational diabetes.

That night during dinner, Micah said, "I just want you to know that I plan to do my share..."
Oh boy! my mind reeled immediately Wash more dishes? Clean the toilets?
"...to make sure that you eat less carbs."
He had spooned the rest of the macaroni and cheese into his bowl.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.

The biggest challenge is that I hardly ever buy meat because it's so expensive here and I don't like vegetables. So, if I were to eliminate all carbohydrates, my diet would consist of... milk. And some fruit once in a while. I need to learn some new lower carb recipes that are easy, tasty and cheap! So far, I made spinach enchiladas that were really good, but not practical except when cheese is on major sale. Tonight I will be trying thin crusted, thick everything-else pizza.


Micah will be running a 5k at GaTech on Friday morning. Stay tuned for how that went.

Brief Respite

Micah took the qualifying exam on Monday afternoon. He thinks he did well. Yay! Hopefully we'll hear in the next couple of months that he passed.

Because I worked over the weekend and Micah had the test, we didn't hadn't done anything for GT's fall recess (which was through Tuesday). So, we left that afternoon for Lake Lanier to spend the evening camping. We stayed at a gorgeous campground right on the water (though we asked for a spot by the bathrooms instead of facing the water so I could pee a billion times in the night...). Even though it was only 30 minutes north from us, I think that the leaves were way more colorful. It was relaxing, even if Micah didn't quite get his mind off of school while we were there.

Here, Micah makes sausage and eggs for breakfast. Dinner was just okay. We burnt the steak but the foil baked potatoes were wonderful. S'mores with toffee almond symphony bars were soooo good. The water was cool, but not freezing like mountain lakes. Sammy and I enjoyed wading in it a little. There were plenty of folks out boating and jet skiing.

This profile shot accentuates my pooch.

When we got back home that afternoon, I first gave Sammy a bath because he was all sandy. Then we decided that he was in serious needy of a haircut. When he gets really fluffy, he is impossible to brush and gets matts all over and that just leads to more grooming headaches. But, he's afraid of getting his hair cut and tries to eat our hands. So, we got a cone so that we could shave him. He didn't like it, but it definitely helped a lot. Unfortunately, we decided after like 20 minutes of trying to shave the same spot on that we need to get some more serious clippers. Ours barely cut through his fluff. So we gave up and left him with one shaved patch on his back and everywhere else covered in 2 inch long fluff. We'll finish the job when we get paid and can buy pet clippers...

The Charmed Life

Yesterday, I had quite an arduous to-do list:

1. Lay in bed trying to rest my sore back

2. Make chocolate chip cookie dough to freeze

3. Bake granola

4. Start a new book

5. Try something new for dinner-black bean macaroni salad stuff

6. Watch project runway

I'm pretty peeved that Laura is out and Kimberly is still in. I think that Laura has been a much more innovative designer throughout the season and Kimberly is fairly inconsistent. I'm also mad that Joshua is still in because I don't like him. He's a dramatic little girl and he only designs fluffy sparkly over-the-top diva-wear.

Today I finally took the car to get it registered in GA. It's required to register your car within 30 days of establishing residency. We took almost 3 months, but fortunately they didn't seem to notice the date on our closing papers so I didn't have to pay the late fine.

The major problem: A white license plate dramatically accentuates the dirtiness of the car. Guess we have to get it washed now...

Also, GA doesn't require a front plate. I'm considering leaving the UT front plate for flair and as a conversation starter. Is that poor form?

An Anecdote from Work

Last night, I worked from the afternoon until the store closed. I was cashiering for most of the evening, but spent the last few slower hours putting away merchandise and helping customers. While I was in the halloween section, a young man approached me for advice on a costume. He wanted to be a character from a tv show. After a while, I admitted that I wasn't familiar with any of the characters he was mentioning because I didn't have tv for a long time and am sort of out of the loop on pop culture. I wanted to get away from the conversation and continue my work, but he asked what I do without tv. I mentioned that I like to read, he had the idea to become a character from a book. He mentioned Kurt Vonnegut, I said that I had just read Slaughterhouse-Five. I described my frustration with the realistic ending, he praised the book's abrupt prose. Then I was thankfully called to the front to check, so I politely ended the conversation. It was about time for the store to close.

After checking out the last few customers, I head down an aisle to return a few items, and the young man caught me again. He told me I was abeautiful woman and asked me to go out with him some time. I thanked him, but informed him that I was married. Being 6 1/2 months pregnant didn't tip him off. Or the wedding ring. So, he left and we closed the front doors.

My manager had been keeping an eye on the guy because he thought that he seemed to be acting nervously. Wanted to make sure he wasn't up to anything suspicious. When I told him what happened, he was very amused and said, "I guess in Atlanta most pregnant ladies aren't married." The other girl who was working with me expressed amused frustration that out of all the girls who work there, the only one to get hit on is the one who's married and pregnant.

What can I say. Being fat is just so alluring.

Busy Bees

This week has been busy!

For me, that has been awesome!

For Micah, it has been very stressful :/

I worked at Party City 4 days this week. It has been nice to get out and have something constructive to do. Being on my feet for so many consecutive hours, my back has been killing me though! It has been entertaining though. It's fun to see all the customers preparing for parties and getting halloween costumes. I can't believe how much money some people spend, though. It drives me crazy to see customers spend hundreds of dollars on decorative plates and napkins and coordinates for a baby's 1st birthday party.

Micah has a huge qualifying exam next Monday. He has 4 chances to take it, but he really wants to pass it the first time so he can stop worrying about it. He is also trying to finish a proposal for a fellowship and another for an NSF grant. That's in addition to his classwork and his TA responsibilities. Oh yeah, and he's applied for a bunch of internships and has been looking into those and did an interview this week. He is considering just staying on campus and sleeping in his office this week. I think it would be bad for his psychological well-being. It will be a relief when he is finished with the test and the proposals. Not having to spend several hours correcting homework next semester will also be awesome!

In other news, we got called as ward missionaries. We were just set apart and were asked to teach gospel essentials next week, so we are getting involved quickly.

Here's the latest (slightly exaggerated) picture of my tummy. Only 12 weeks and some days to go (hopefully)! Woohoo!