31 Awesome Things in 31 Days: Thing #28—Visit Turtles, Eat with Friends, and Survive a Glucose Test

Hollie introducing herself to our friend Liz's turtle, the lovely Brigitte Bardot.

Yesterday was a big day for Awesome Things. We actually originally planned on just making donuts to celebrate National Donut Day, but we never had time to realize that one. Instead, we visited a good friend and her turtles, we had dinner with some other lovely friends who invited us over unexpectedly, and David and I were both asleep by 11:00 p.m. (I was actually asleep before 10:00 p.m. We all woke up this morning feeling incredible).

Note the bandages on both of my arms and the back of my hand, as well as the broken window taped shut with part of a diaper box.

Adventure #1: My Glucose Test

I embarked on this one on my own. Basically, I hate getting my blood drawn, and I definitely don't have the veins for getting blood very efficiently. Pregnant women (at least at my clinic) have to take a glucose test in their third trimester to test for gestational diabetes (I think?). It consists of showing up after fasting for a few hours (in my case, I ate a big breakfast at nine and didn't eat anything until heading to the hospital at 2:00, which is when David got done teaching classes) and then drinking a large styrofoam cup of orange glucose solution (it tastes like melted popsicles that come from a bad popsicle batch). You have five minutes to drink it, and I always try to down mine in six or seven big gulps. It's gross, but I've had grosser.

Then you sit in the waiting room for an hour, after which the phlebotomist takes your blood and you're free to go. The first part was easy. I drank my orange drink, headed to the waiting room, and studied for my qualifying exams (well, what I really did was text my mom for an hour, but I promise I did get some pages read in between texts).

When it came time to take my blood, however, the phlebotomists were perplexed. I have a history of getting poked several times whenever I need a blood sample. When I was diagnosed with mononucleosis as an undergrad, the doctor had to get the sample from the back of my hand because my arms were no good (even the doctor admitted the blood sample was unnecessary—they knew what I had when I fell asleep in the waiting room five minutes after showing up). When I gave birth to Hollie, the nurses had to stick the Hep-Lock IV in the back of my hand, too. That was really the worst. Contractions are bad enough, but having contractions while nurses poke your arms with needles repeatedly to no avail? Ugh. It was the worst.

So I wasn't surprised that the phlebotomists were having trouble. Usually, though, one of my arms ends up working. Not this time. The poor guys were so polite and nice, too. I felt bad. It had to be sort of a blow to the ego that they couldn't get my arms to give up any blood. I laughed at all their jokes about how they would have to resort to cutting off a piece of my arm soon to get what they needed, but I really was sweating it deep down. I hated getting poked so many times, and my arms felt raw. It was time to try the top of my hand.

They made me switch chairs to a comfier spot, and the phlebotomist told me to rest my head and just relax. I looked away until I felt the initial sting and tried to answer all of the questions the two phlebotomists were asking me to keep my mind off of things. I don't know if it was my anxiety or the lack of food all day or just the two vials of blood these two guys had just taken out of me, but I suddenly felt super dizzy and nauseous. It was when I started to see little spots that one of the guys asked, "Hey, are you okay?" and I realized that I was absolutely going to pass out. I somehow got my mouth to say, "Uh....I feel a little sick and dizzy....actually.....uh...." and the guy replied sort of urgently, "We'll stop! We'll stop! Hang on!" and I found myself being wheeled forward by one of them so they could recline the chair and help me put my feet up.

It was embarrassing. They were very nice, though, and I was fortunately the only person in the lab at that moment. They gave me a cold, wet paper towel to put on my neck, and then they made small talk with me to keep me awake, asking questions about everything from my hometown to what brand of shoes I had on (they were Roos). Dave and Hollie showed up at that point, and everyone just chatted until I stopped looking like I was going to fall down if I stood up. I made David go way out of his way home to stop by Taco Bell (our first visit there since I was pregnant with Holls) and I had myself a burrito and a double-decker taco to get my body going again. And that was the first adventure.

Hollie eating at the "little kid table" for the first time ever.

Adventure #2: Dinner with Friends

We were just complaining about not wanting to make dinner when some good friends called and told us to come over. We did! These are some fabulous friends we have from church, and they are famous for their homemade pizzas. I think we ate ten Margherita pizzas while we were there. It was something like that. With basil picked right out of the front yard, literally seconds before we sat down to eat. So delicious!

Their daughter is a year and a half older than Hollie, so watching them play is endearing and tragic. Hollie follows V. throughout the house, but doesn't really understand directions well. The "kids' table" was in the next room over, and I was nervous that Hollie wouldn't eat so far away from Dave and I. I was wrong—she loved it. She ate really well, too. I really think Hollie would be far less fussy and whiny all the time if she had an older sibling to look up to and follow.

 Adventure #3: Visiting the Turtles

My good friend Liz has an incredible garden (which was still looking incredible, even after the hail storm!), and she also happens to be a turtle rescuer. It all started several years ago, I think, when some neighborhood boys saved a turtle from a dog and asked Liz if she could heal it. Then they brought more turtles. The first four were all named after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but then Liz had to branch out with new names for all the turtles that came next.

People found out she was taking care of turtles, and all sorts of people started dropping them off. The turtles started to mate, so now she gets a new batch of baby turtles every summer (in addition to the rescued turtles she takes in). I have no idea how many turtles she has now. Adventure #2 made us a little late coming over, so we missed the turtles' feeding time and many of them had already slipped into their sleeping quarters under the pavement. There were still three or four lingering when we showed up, though. Hollie loves turtles, so it was fun to introduce her to the real thing.

Spotting the turtles eating their food under the patio furniture.

My lovely friend Liz introducing Hollie to the turtles.

Holls was a little shy at first, as she usually is with close encounters of the live animal kind. Here is her signature point that she pulls out whenever she sees something interesting yet intimidating.

A close-up of Brigitte Bardot, just as glamorous and genteel as her namesake.

Hollie really wanted to "pat" the turtle, but only with Dave's help.

Seriously, am I still in Lubbock? Liz is a master gardener, and I didn't even take any pictures of her secret Asian garden on the other side of her house. I repeat, these pictures were taken after the hail storm that sent everybody else's yards into hopeless ruin. 

The other great thing about Liz's garden are all of her wind chimes and ornaments that add music and art to her plants. Hollie is standing by one of my favorite chimes.

Liz showing David some of her knick-knacks hanging on the fence. I just want to point out again how green and living everything is. Seriously. This is West Texas. The same town I live in. How does she do it?

Hollie standing next to her favorite chime in the garden, a funny little thing that lives in a clay pot. She would run her finger down the chimes and then shake her booty to the lingering jingles.

Anyway, I'm so grateful for Liz that she enjoys having young company and isn't afraid of toddlers smelling her lilies or ringing her chimes. She really is incredible. It was a really nice way to end the day, and I loved being able to show Hollie so many green and living things. And the turtles, of course.

So, Thing #28: Survive a glucose test without passing out, eat an impromptu dinner with friends, and visit our friend Liz and her turtles = ACCOMPLISHED.

Have you noticed that most of our Awesome Things are really just us trying to get some "awesome" to rub off on us from our legitimately awesome friends? Seriously. Homemade pizzas and turtle refuges are what is really awesome. We're just showing up and appreciating them.

Oh yeah, and can I mention again that I was asleep by 10:00 p.m.?