Let's Eat!!!

So I figure it's time for a little update. Here it goes:

I went to the doctors on Monday & yep - I have "moderately severe hypoglycemia". The good news is that it looks like it's pretty simply controled if I manage to actually eat the way my doctor told me I should. Since Tuesday I've been doing my best to eat something (meal or snack) every 2 hours even if I'm not hungry. It's most difficult at night because I tend to eat too much for dinner & don't get hungry until 4 hours later normally. So I've been waiting for the evening snack until about 3 1/3 hours after dinner. And I'm munching down the protien pretty hardcore too (doctors recommendation). Aside from meat (which I eat, but often go without for breakfast & lunch...& sometimes even dinner) I'm getting lots of nuts, peanut butter, cheese, milk, yogurt & eggs. And I'm no longer eating lots of sugar by itself. I'm not cutting sugar out of my diet (although I'm tring to eat less of the processed stuff...sugar from fruit is healthier anyways). But I'm trying to eat protien along with my sugar so I don't spike my sugar too badly.

Anyways, it's only been 4 days on the new diet so far & I'm already feeling a lot better. The eating all the time doesn't seem to be too much of a pain in the ass yet, so that's good. I actually sort of enjoy it right now. I'm sure that will wear off though. It's not like I'm stuffing myself stupid every couple of hours...but it's nice to just be munching all day. The only bad thing is that I'm always watching the clock so I don't miss a snack. If avoiding my symtoms is as easy as eating every couple of hours, I'm not going to miss a snack regardless of if I'm hungry or not. The differnce in how I feel already is worth it.

In other news, today was the first day of Day Camp at work...I'm in charge of all the fun stuff (games & songs). The kids rock! We have a great group & they seemed to really have a great time. I know I did!

Contgrats to Casey & Janelle! Happy marriage! May it be a long & happy life together. Congrats on the move Shannon!!! We want pics!!! (& we want them now *wink, wink*).

My friend Sarah is in Ghana & will be finished with Peace Corps training in the next few days I think. I'm sort of envious of her. I know it'll be such a great experience. I admire her guts & courage to attempt something like this & make a 2 year commitment to it. I know she'll rock it out!

Hmmm...not really anything too exciting to share. Life is pretty standard at the moment. There are issues of course, but when aren't there? Overall life is good. And when it's not - hey it's only life afterall.

Wish Me Luck

I have my doctors appointment today to see if I have hypoglycemia. Fingers are crossed that my symtoms have just been stress related, but it's doubtful consdering the symtoms & my family history for this sort of thing. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a long drawn out process. Eating is good...but I'd rather not have to eat all day.

Pictures of Angola

More pictures from my trip to Baton Rouge, LA. These are all from my tour of LA State Prison at Angola. By far my favorite part of the trip - and the most eye opening part too. I already talked a bit about seeing the prison a previous post, so I won't talk much about it here other than the captions in the pictures. Enjoy.

A blurry pic of the entrace to Angola. Once known as the "Bloodiest Prison in America" & now one with the least amount of crime inside. 

Prisoners out working in the fields. 

The only cell block we got to tour. It's not used any more, but it is on the national register of historic places. 

How's this for your fenced in yard? 

The Red Hat Cellblock (see explaination below). 

This was the "Red Hat Cellblock". It was built to house 1 specific prisoner who had escaped from a bunch of different prisons in his career. It's called the "Red Hat Cellblock" because they dyed the hats of the prisoners who were housed here red in order for gaurds to know that these were the most dangerous guys. It allowed the gaurds to spot them easily while they were working in the fields. 

The hallway looking down the cellblock. Single occupant cells on either side. 

This was one of the cells in the "Red Hat Cellblock." I don't know about you, but being able to touch both side walls at the same time would be enough to make me crazy. 

This is the old electric chair that was once used at the prison. They still have a death row, but are now using lethal injection. 

Yes, that semi truck does indeed say "Angola Prison Rodeo". They got grant money to build the rodeo statium & used immate labor to build it. The were finished building the statium in 90 days!!! The immates show off their stuff in the rodeo in the spring & fall. 

1 of the HUGE horses at the prision. This big guy & I were friends instantly...mainly thanks to the fact that I'd just eaten a yummy fruit snack just before we got the barn. He smelled it on my hands & kept wanting to follow me in hopes that I'd share with him. 

A picture of one of the HUGE draft horses they use to help with the farming. And yes, the man in the blue holding the rope is one of the "Trustee's" who gets to take care of the horses. I talked to him for a few minutes & was a nice guy. Really proud of his work! 

Some cute newly born horses at the prison. 

Sunday Quote Blogging...on Tuesday

Well darkness has a hunger thats insatiable
And lightness has a call thats hard to hear
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it
Im crawling on your shores

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
Theres more than one answer to these questions
Pointing me in a crooked line
~ Indigo Girls

Pictures!!!!

So here are some cool pictures that I took on my trip. All of these were taken on my first day when I took a tour of 3 different plantation houses. All of these pictures were taken at our 1st stop - Evergreen Plantation. It was a pretty cool place, as you will see. It was once a working sugar cane plantation. It still has 20 some original slave cabins, most of which housed 2 families (& they were tiny). The Big House was pretty cool. It is now a private vacation residence. The whole place was pretty cool. Check it out. I'll post more pictures of more of my trip later...maybe later tonight.

A great little scene on the grounds. 

The statue closer up. 

"The Big House!" 

A view of the sweet staircase on the front of the "Big House". 

A great view of a cool statue in the back formal garden of the "Big House". 

This tree was too cool looking to not get a pic of! 

A cool view from inside a slave cabin looking out into the fields of sugar cane that most of the slaves at this plantation spent their days working in. 

A double row of Live Oak Trees leading out from the slave quarters at Evergreen. 

One of the original slave houses at Evergreen. 

A View of just how huge these Live Oak Tree's are - here's one with my long sleeve T-Shirt for comparison. Pretty darn huge! 

A row of Live Oak Trees at Evergreen Plantation 

Day's Off & Prison

My last day off is slowly coming to an end as the day nears evening & after a week away from my normal work routine & 3 days off I'm getting that nagging thought - "I'm really not looking forward to going into work tomorrow." I have feeling in my gut that I used to get on Sunday's when I was in college & had to face another week of classes. Ahhh, such is life I guess.

Sunday I spent most of the day just relaxing. Yesterday Randy & I hung out at the Zoo to take advantage of getting in free on Monday (County Residents). Today has been pretty relaxing. I've spent my time reading, checking e-mail, getting caught up on blog reading, wrote some post cards (get those mail boxes ready!), had an exciting trip to the post office, spent money grocery shopping (spent twice as much as normal...but I guess that's expected when it's been a month since my last trip!), cooked a yummy dinner, re-organized my kitchen cupboards (it was mass chaos!), and watched some re-runs of "The Deadliest Catch". I even finished some final unpacking from my trip (only my carry on is left & that's mainly snacks). All in all a nice balance of relaxation & productivity!

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures yet from my trip. I'm waiting until I get to my work computer to unload my pics since I can't burn them onto CD on my PC...plus it'll take less than half the time on my work computer. It's not nearly as slow as mine! So look forward to lots of pics in the near future!!! Some of the ones I took are pretty darn cool I must admit!

So on to my trip. I won't talk much about it now (I'll tell more when I post some pics). All in all it was a pretty awesome trip! I'm glad work sent me because Louisiana is one of those places that I would have never went to on my own. And I had a great time & so much of what I saw was really beautiful! So I guess I gotta thank the man!

My favorite part of my trip was hands down my tour of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. It is the largest state prison in the country (with over 18,000 acres of land). 90% of it's inmates are serving life sentences without much hope for parole. It was such a unique thing to experience to be touring the grounds & getting a glimpse of what was once known as "America's Bloodiest Prison". It's a working farm with inmates working to grow & harvest much of the prisons produce that is needed to keep its population fed.

They have 1 of the largest number of working mules & horses in the nation. We toured 1 of the horse barns & got to see some HUGE draft horses & talk to the inmates who take care of them. I was a little taken aback by being allowed to roam freely amongst inmates serving such long sentences for what I imagine to be brutal crimes to deserve such harsh sentences. But then I remembered that these men are simply people who've made some serious mistakes & are now paying dearly for them. But that behind their crimes, they are people. They seemed happy to see us, not because we presented a distraction for them to cause trouble, or because we could be taken advantage of - but because it was as though we were providing a break from the monotony of daily prison life. (Keep in mind, the inmates we came in contact with were "Trustee's" - men who have been in for at least 10 years & have nearly perfect behavior records, & are rewarded for their good behavior by being assigned jobs they can enjoy & with added privileges.) Their was a definite pride in their faces & their voices as they showed off the horses that they spend their days caring for. It was a really cool experience.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for pics in the next couple of days.

Sunday Quote Blogging

I think I've used this one before, but lets just say that it's kind of fitting for life at the moment.

"This life has been a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received instructions on where to go & what to do."
~ Claire Danes
My So-Called Life

Home Again

I'm home from Baton Rouge. Had a good time, although I'm now exhausted! Gotta get changed & head out to BG to volunteer at the museum. I'll post more later. Lots to tell about the conference & lots of pictures to show off! Just a quickie to tell everyone I'm back! I still haven't had a chance to get caught up on my e-mails, snail mail or blogs, so it may be a couple of days before you get a reply if you've sent me anything. Thanks to those of you who sent me letters so I'd have mail waiting for me other than bills! (*wink, wink* You know who you are!)

Well I'm off to Baton Rouge for the ALHFAM conference! My plane leaves at Noon today. I'll have a full update on the conference (including pics) & life in general when I get back. Lots to tell - lots of news. But it's almost time to leave for the airport so I don't have time to tell them now. (No spoilers in the comments please.) I'll be back in town this coming Friday, so I'll update next Friday or Saturday.

April - sorry I missed the shower. Hope you enjoy the gift! Shannon - thanks for the delivery! Randy & the boys - don't have too much fun at the weekend of Casey!

Catch ya all in a week!