Gestational Diabetes

I hit 30 weeks yesterday.

THIRTY WEEKS!
Yowza.

Full term is 40 weeks. 

That means in roughly 10 weeks we will finally be meeting our little Benjamin!

Ahhhh!!!

The past two weeks have not been very fun.

At my last OB appointment, I had a routine blood test for gestational diabetes. 
Every pregnant woman is tested between 24-28 weeks.
I did not pass my blood test.
This, however, did not mean I had GD.
It just meant I had a higher likelihood than others. 
It also meant I had to do a more extensive test.

So a few days later, I went in again.
This time, I had fasted for twelve hours beforehand.
I got to the clinic, and my blood was drawn immediately.
I then drank a sugary drink.
Then every hour on the hour for the next three hours my blood was drawn.
That's right: FOUR blood draws in three hours.
All while having nothing to eat. It was almost 16 hours of no food and too many blood draws when all was said and done.
Well, the next day I found out I failed those blood tests as well and it was confirmed that I have gestational diabetes.

It was a lot to take in.
Getting told you have diabetes is probably hard to take anyway, and all I could think of was my baby, and how this affected him.
And the frustrating thing is I have to wait so long for answers!
I found out on the 16 I have it, but I can't get into the diabetic doctor and dietitian until the 26! That's a week and a half of no answers.
Frustrating.

So I've been reading lots, and having a hard time eating anything.
I just don't know what to eat.
Yes, lots of protein, little carbs.
But it's frustrating not knowing how Benjamin is doing.
Every time I eat, I wonder how it affects him.
I just can't wait to get to the doctor and get some answers.
In the mean time, I spend my time googling diabetic recipes.

One thing I do know for sure though:
The State Fair is NOT going to be the same this year...

Fire at Vicksburg Village

It's been a crazy morning at Vicksburg Village Apartments:
A huge fire broke out at about 4:00 this morning. 

We had our windows open, so I was first woken up by the smell. 

Then I heard the sirens.

The building right next to ours was on fire.

It was insane.

The flames were huge.

The picture above is after the fire departments had been working for a while, so the flames are smaller. Also, it's from the opposite side of the building that the fire was actually on.

Here's some pictures from the other side of the building:

Firefighters from tons of different departments seemed to be working in shifts.

From the vehicles I saw, the departments on scene included: Plymouth, Maple Grove, Eden Prairie, Brooklyn Center, Hopkins, Bloomington, Rogers, Golden Valley, and St. Louis Park.

You can see the damage; This is one of two huge holes in the building. They are saying the fire started on the second floor.

...Still battling the flames at 5:30 in the morning, an hour and a half after we were woken up from the smell and commotion. 

Everything's dying down now (about 7am).

The fire appeared to be put out about 6:00.

But fire trucks and cops are still all over, tables/tents for injuries still set up:

But the commotion has slowed.

They believe it was caused from one of the AC's on someone's patio (each room in each building has it's own AC, located on each patio).

They say the reason the fire reached the extent that it did was because it's a wood building, and our buildings don't have sprinkler systems installed.

Did NOT know that.

Note to self: if you ever move to an apartment building, might be a good idea to check that they have a sprinkler system installed in their buildings...

Miraculously, nobody was injured.

The police chief reported that they believe everyone made it out safely.

I did most of the investigating and picture taking on my own with Tom's phone...once we discovered the fire was contained and our building was safe, Thomas had no problem going back to sleep, despite all the commotion, noise, and smell. 

He'll have no problem with the baby's cries when he arrives... :P

Adventures in the Kitchen

Well it's not news to anyone that I love to cook.

It's become a stress reliever for me, I think. 

Yup.

Just decided that.

Cooking is how I relieve stress.

I love it.

Well it seems like I learn something new every time I cook.

This past week I learned an incredibly valuable lesson, that I would like to share with you all, concerning cooking with oil.

First: Oil gets hot. I mean, HOT. Very hot. Dangerously hot.

No, I did not burn myself.

Or the food.

Worse.

I melted my measuring cup.

Note to self: Pouring hot oil fresh off the stove from the pan into a plastic measuring cup is never a good idea.

I was making gravy.

From scratch.

Creamy, delicious (yes, it turned out DELICIOUS) country gravy to go over my fried porkchops and mashed potatoes.

The recipe said that after frying up the porkchops, to measure out 1/4c of the drippings and oil to use for the gravy.

They should have noted not to use a plastic measuring cup (ya know, for us amateur cooks out there...).

Well, the dinner turned out fabulous (if I do say so myself) I went out that night after dinner and got some new measuring cups (because I can't have an incomplete set of cups!) and made the smart decision of investing in metal measuring cups this time.

On a side note: I must share a recipe with you all.

I don't usually, but this is a must try for everyone.

One: because it's to-die-for-delicious.

Two: It's pretty much THE easiest (not to mention tastiest) dessert I've ever made.

It's these little guys:

It's so easy, you don't even have to write a recipe down.

Here's what you do:

Roll out some Pillsbury crescent rolls onto a baking sheet.

Chop up butter into little tiny pieces (cold, right from the fridge butter obviously works best for chopping) and sprinkle over the rolls. 

Drizzle some brown sugar and granulated sugar over.

Then sprinkle some cinnamon. 

Pop 'em in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes until golden brown and bubbly!

Voila!

Deliciousness.

Oh yes, the icing drizzle!

A couple of spoonfuls of powdered sugar and a couple of tablespoons of milk to your desired consistency and sweetness. 

You can't go wrong.

Seriously.

Go make this.

Right. Now.