Lack o' Platelets

No, these are not red lifesavers- they are red blood cells, and the little yellow balls are blood platelets-apparently my body doesn't have enough of them.  Probably about 6 weeks ago my doctor told me the normal level is 150-200 and I was at 136.  Because platelet levels often decrease during pregnancy she wasn't too worried, but had my blood drawn again just to make sure.  The results came back as 128.  Still, it seemed like they were pretty stable, but just to be on the cautious side she had blood drawn again this week.  In 3 weeks I went from 128 to 102- eh, not good.  When you hit below 100 they can't give you an epidural.  The absolute lowest you can be for any kind of anesthesia is an 80, and with almost 5 weeks left in my pregnancy things aren't looking too good.

The thought of not getting an epidural flat out terrifies me (I had a lovely experience with Petosin kicking in before they could get me an epidural when I was in labor with Nathan and let's just say I NEVER want to go through that again).  I told Joel that the baby's not allowed to come out unless there are pain meds involved.  However, the bleak truth is that even if I were into the whole natural birth thing, if something were to go wrong with labor they wouldn't be able to do any anethesia for a C-Section, and there are some concerns about my blood not clotting properly and me bleeding out.

So what's the next step you say?  I'm headed back in for more blood work right away this afternoon and then they scheduled me to go see a Hematologist on Monday.  You can tell my OB is worried about it, because they got me an emergency appointment.  We'll see what the Hematologist has to say- my OB had mentioned the possibility of some type of steroids to try to help it, but I really don't have any idea what's going to happen.  Keep your fingers crossed.

A Musical of Titantic Proportions

Tara and I have been close friends since the 7th grade, and her mom has been choreographing the musicals at Baldwinsville High School (our rival high school) since we were Freshman in high school.  It's a yearly ritual to go watch the musical with Tara.  In the 16 years her mom's been doing this, the only productions I've missed have been when I was away at college in Utah or out of the country on a mission in Spain.  This year I saw a musical I hadn't ever seen before- Titantic.  If you're thinking of the movie think again, because it's nothing like it.  The musical actually tries to stick to real characters- there is no love story of Jack and what's her-buck.

I haven't completely decided how much I like the musical itself, because it is quite a downer and a pretty well-known storyline.  I'm not always a fan of walking in and knowing what's going to happen before I've even seen it.  The music itself is not exactly going to be upbeat tune-catchers that you want to sing all day.  In fact, the word eerie comes to mind when trying to describe it.  

The one thing that really impressed me was the sheer number of singing roles (mostly males).  The show is almost entirely singing, and I can't believe they had enough talent at a high school to fill all of the roles and still have a good sounding ensemble.  My hat goes off to those kids.  I know my high school would never have been able to pull off this production.  We most definitely did not have enough guys.

While I'm not sure I would want to see this musical over and over again, I thought it was well done and a good night's entertainment.


 

A Trip Down Memory Lane

A cold night in February five years ago I went out to dinner with my friends Christie and Dan.  Earlier that day Joel had left a message on my phone.  For some reason I was really nervous about calling him back and wanted to put it off.  Christie and Dan were very excited that he had called me and they refused to go into the restaurant until I called him back.  (A little known fact is that Dan had actually sung with Joel in Districts and Regionals in high school).  Luckily, Joel was working so I just left a message on his phone and we went in to eat.  Later that night Joel called me back- Christie and Dan got out of the car and stood out in the cold, so that I could talk to him.  Joel asked me out on our first date and the rest is history. 
Well, Christie and Dan are heading through Ohio on their way to the ACDA Conference in Chicago next week, and we're so excited to see them!  I finished the quilt for Christie just in time. It was supposed to be a birthday present, then a Christmas present,  and I even tried to work it in with Valentine's Day, but I was going to be really upset with myself if I didn't finish it before she got here next week, so I was thrilled to finish it this morning.  It's a little thank you for giving me that extra push to go out with Joel.

Fluffy Frosting

Today was the last day of music class, so we had a final good bye with some musical cupcakes.  I realize the kids don't know any musical notation- I just decorated them that way because I can't help my nerdy self.  How many can you name? 

I found a recipe for pudding frosting in a Krafts Food Magazine a while back and finally got around to trying it out- and it's a good one!  It's light and fluffy and doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of fat or sugar as regular frosting.  If you aren't normally a frosting lover this may be the recipe for you.

2 small pkg. Chocolate Instant Pudding

1 c. Milk

1/4 c. Powdered Sugar

1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed

Whisk the pudding mix, milk and sugar together and then stir in the Cool Whip.

The only downside is that the shelf-life of the frosting is limited to about 1-2 days and it needs to stay refrigerated.  It's very yummy though.

Bon Apetite!

Hi! My Name is Becky & I'm a Choral Music Addict

It feels good to get that out in the open.  :)

When we moved to Ohio this past summer my husband and I unpacked every box in the house within 48 hours- I'm serious- we were on a mission to get unpacked as soon as possible, and feel at home before he started his residency.  We unpacked all the boxes except for one......... and it's been sitting in my dining room ever since we moved.

This box is full of binders of single copies of choral music.  I used to have them organized by voice parts and genre, but after many a music conference and collaborating with other music teachers, my collection has exploded into a massive mess.  I wish I could say that this box is all of it, but I have a number of tote bags up in my closet as well.  A lot of the music I don't think I would ever inflict upon a choir either, so it seriously needs to be cleaned out and organized, because I can't ever find anything I need.

Call it a need to clean things up before the baby arrives, but I have a sudden desire to get rid of the one last box and do some work with my choral music and an excel sheet.   My goal is to have this completely done by the end of the month.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Melty Experimentations

I experimented with a new frosting recipe today, because as much as I love that Buttercream frosting is easy to decorate with, you can only ingest so much Crisco before you feel like your arteries are congealing on you. 

I made a Vanilla Sour Cream recipe I found in a Better Homes & Gardens magazine and well, this is what my cupcakes ended up looking like:




It worked fine for icing a cake, but was not nearly stiff enough to decorate cupcakes in the thick swirls you normally see when you buy them at the store.  In the end, I used a tiny bit of the frosting and refrigerated them to make them harden a bit before giving them away.  I think I'll nix this recipe and try a different one next time.  The search for a yummy frosting continues.......

The Cake Parade

Last night was my last cake decorating class.  We spent most of our time learning how to make roses- and let's just say they're harder to make than they look.  We finished off the class by decorating a final cake and walking them around the store in a mini cake parade.
I had a lot of fun with my friend Monica.  Our cakes look pretty similar, because we were sharing icing, but there were a lot of really cool looking cakes that were all kinds of different colors. I'll probably take the second class eventually, but I think I'll practice what I learned first. 

 I usually try to avoid pregnancy pictures, but hey, I'll take one for the team this time. (The cake is red velvet as per the request of the hubby).

Flowers and More Flowers

Tonight I learned how to fill cupcakes and make a bunch of flowers.  The Pom Pom was the weirdest- it looks like sea coral.  I like the shaggy mums and rosettes the most.  I have to make 100 more tonight so they can dry for my class next Friday, so we'll chat later. :) 

(These are going with a thank you note to the Bishop and his wife.  They deserve a little extra sugar in their life for all they do for our congregation).