Random Updates (plus 25 week belly pics)

I love fall. Mostly because it signals the start of the holidays and I'm a holiday freak. I pretty much love any reason to decorate the house and get excited! I start with Halloween, then fade into Thanksgiving and then go ALL OUT for Christmas. It's seriously my favorite time of year, the holidays.

The other reason I love it is because I live in Florida. Florida, where summer doesn't mean light breezy days in the sunlight. Oh, no. Instead it means miserable oppressive heat (we're talking 95-105 degrees FARENHEIT!) and sticky, gross humidity for at least 5 months (May thru September), maybe more. But THIS year, the weather gods have been kind. It seems as though someone knew that it was October and no longer appropriate for the heat to be stifling. Instead for the last week or two I've been waking up to *gasp* 70 degree mornings, even a few 60-degree mornings!! And even during the peak of the day it hasn't really been much above the mid-80's. I even broke out some light sweaters! (Completely unnecessary but I'll take any excuse to sub-out the summer wardrobe for a bit since it's getting pretty tired.)

Anyway, I took the liberty of decorating the house on the early side this year, to my husband's horror. He thinks I'm a bit silly when it comes to the holiday decorating and festivities. BUT he also always goes on and on about how great the house looks (and feels) after I'm done with it. I even decorate with seasonal smells and I busted out the pumpkin candle and the "Autumn" scented wall-diffuser. YUM! I think mostly the reason he's not a fan is because he doesn't love his part of the job, which entails climbing up on a ladder in the garage to get the decorations down and then going back up on the ladder to hang them outside the house (I usually take care of the inside decorations myself). He even had to drill another hole in our concrete house (not an easy job!) for a new decoration I found. Since he really hates his part, he refused to do it before October. So this weekend we'll finally get our outdoor decorations up.

Here are a few pics of the indoor decorations, I'll post yard pics once everything is set up!

Our Halloween "Welcome" sign! ;-)

My favorite part of any holiday decorations, the dining room set-up. Still need place settings, though.

Since we don't have a fireplace, our entertainment center serves as our "mantel" and holds some holiday greetings and decorations!

Fall-themed kitchen towels, not very exciting.

My pumpkin candle that smells SOOOO yummy!

In other, random updates, I went to see the Ophthalmologist again for my second trimester eye exam. And I passed again with flying colors, well, normal retinal blood vessels anyway. Whew! My nurse also mentioned on my way out that she was also a Type 1. Wait?!? What?!? Of course I tried to fire up a conversation and ask her some questions but I didn't get too much out of her. I have a feeling she's one of those "my-diabetes-isn't-a-big-deal-and-I-don't-like-to-talk-about-it" types. Obviously so unlike those of us in the DOC who crave fellow diabetic company and conversation. Oh, well. I gave up (a little bummed) and moved on.

I'm 25 weeks pregnant today and so happy to be so far along! The swelling has started in earnest, but only in my feet and only after being on them all day. I hate the way it looks and it's not very comfortable but at least it always seems to go away with a night's rest with my feet propped up. Also, I got the go-ahead from my OB for foot massages from the hubby, so YAY! (FYI: certain places on the ankle and calf have been known to induce labor if stimulated so I felt the need to ask before we did it.) I'm tired off and on but not too bad. Other than that, just sore and achy, mostly in my lower back. Again, not too bad.

But she is moving like a MANIAC!! I love it! And you can even can see her kick and jump and squirm from the outside now! She even kicked the OB's Doppler as he was trying to listen to her heartbeat. At first she was just squirming and messing up his signal and then at the end she kicked it and made that whole side of my belly jump and poke out! The OB actually jumped a little and raised his eyebrows and said "I guess I'm done now!" She's so feisty, I love it!

And finally, here is a belly update:

Again, this is me from today at exactly 25 weeks. I promise I wear different outfits, I just decided to stick with this one for consistency and comparison's sake. Although I have found some cute maternity outfits so maybe I should post a few pics of those!

And this is what I see when I look down. Well, not really because I see more boobs, but you get the idea. And I still don't have problems seeing my toes, I just need to lean over just a tad. (To be honest, I had to do that before the pregnancy anyways, thanks to the boobage. Sorry, TMI.)

That's about it. Hope everyone has had a good week and is enjoying the change in seasons as much as I am!

~Layne

PS: Since it's finally cool enough (relatively speaking) for some good ol' fashioned comfort food, I posted a recipe for a really hearty spaghetti sauce. We had it earlier this week and it was awesome! But I don't know that any pasta qualifies as diabetes-friendly so I didn't consider it a D-Feast Friday recipe. The full post is here if you wanna take a peek.