Why no posts??

I know what you're asking... "Hey Appalachia and Beyond! Where've you been?? Don't you do anything fun anymore?!?" Well, to be quite honest, we've been really busy with baby, and I suppose it's time for me to air out the nest a little bit. There's been quite a bit going on that we've kept to ourselves - or rather, I've made Tim keep to ourselves - mainly because I've been hoping it would clear up on it's own, blow over, go away, miraculously disappear, etc.

But now it's time to realize that it's not going to be so. Because of that, we want our readers to know that if they sense a lack of involvement on our part, it's only because we are being very diligent and involved in the health of our baby girl. There are certain things I can't do right now - and certain things Tim doesn't want to do without me because he feels the need to stick close to home in case we need him. All of this is so very new to me.

About four weeks ago I failed my first blood glucose tolerance test. For those of you who don't know, that's a test they give you to make sure your body is responding properly to sugar in your bloodstream (aka diabetes). All in all, we didn't worry too much, but went back two weeks later for a more stringent test.... which I failed as well. I was diagnosed that day with Gestational Diabetes. "No big deal," the doctor said. My fasting scores were great, and he was convinced I could control it with diet. So, he sent me to diabetes school.

In a little more than two hours that day, I was prompted to learn as much as possible about what I could and could not eat, how to test my blood sugar (man, my fingers are sore!), and how to prevent ketones. Then they sent me home with a schedule of times and carbs allowed, a meter and a prescription, a book of Carbohydrate Exchanges, and a "deer in the headlights" glare. Then I spent the last two weeks (with Tim's love and support) trying to make heads or tails of it all, fending off all things junk, eating healthier than I ever have, counting every carb, charting every meal, and pricking my finger four (or more) times a day. Unfortunately, things aren't working out as planned.

Regardless of how strict my diet's been, my fasting readings have been on the rise. My body is progressively resisting insulin regardless of what I do. So, the doctor has placed me on a medicine that will help turn the little bit of insulin my body is making into SUPER insulin, complete with capes! Or, at least that's what I'm envisioning.

So, from now until Dinah is born, I have to see the doctor and have tests run twice a week. We also may face some financial challenges depending upon how our insurance treats all of this. That will definitely cut into our "play fund." On the bright side, we'll get to "see" our little booger every Monday until she's born. :-)

So, while we're going to do our best to keep posting about the few lovely things we're doing out and about, we apologize in advance if you think the blog is lacking. We promise it will spring back to life as soon as we get a handle on the new additions to our schedule.

In addition, this is from Tim:
"Sorry folks, we've been pretty busy this week and really I haven't had time to gather up much in the way of giveaways. However, luckily for me, the Outdoor Blogger Network turned the big zero - one this week. That's right, 1 year ago Joe and Rebecca started up the Outdoor Blogger Network just for folks like us who love the outdoors (whether it be through fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, etc.) and blog about it. So for the big milestone, they are celebrating with a ton of giveaways. I think like 4 a day are being announced and you have until Midnight MST on Sunday October 23 to get entered on any of the giveaways they've listed this week.

In typical fashion, to enter these giveaways, you first have to be a member of the OBN. To be a member of the OBN you have to be a blogger. What's more is you have to be a blogger in the Outdoor Genre. Next you have to get your blog listed in the OBN directory. You can read more about that process here. Finally, you can also get three additional entries to each giveaway you enter. All you have to do is write up a post on your blog about the giveaway. Once you've done that then add three additional comments to each giveaway post that states something like "Blog Entry".

Good luck! And we'll try to have more giveaways available for clicking next week."

Happy Trails,
Robin and Tim

P.S. Since it looks like we are going to be pretty busy for the next few months, we'd like to extend an invite to our readers/fans/fellow bloggers who'd love to do a guest post on Appalachia & Beyond. If you are interested send us an email at appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com and we will get things arranged and set up for guest contributions. Thanks again.