Belated Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My pie was a big hit and the time at the ranch was relaxing and actually cold outside, so it felt like Thanksgiving. I love this picture of my grandma. She came into our house wearing that turkey hat on her head. We are a weird bunch.

I have so much to be thankful for this year:
-A fairly uneventful pregnancy so far
-The most wonderful husband a girl could ask for
-A great family and in-laws
-Wonderful friends
-My dream house in a neighborhood I love
-I love my job
-We live in America
-We have food on our table
-No wars on our soil
-So so much more, I am blessed


AC: Responsibility

P.S. I am going to my first prenatal yoga class tonight. I am extremely inflexible, so it should be interesting!

I am Ewege

What a difference two and a half weeks makes! The babe is growing! (or I am)
Note that 14 weeks was after an entire basket of chips and salsa, so may be a little bloat.





AC: Communication

Mike's Mom's Green Bean Casserole

In honor of Thanksgiving... the BEST green bean casserole I've ever had...

4 reg 16 oz. cans of French style green beans
1 1/2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/4 lb of velveeta
1 can french-fried onions

Pour 2 drained cans of beans in 9 x 13 pan
Heat velveeta and soup in a small pot on stove until the cheese melts
Salt and pepper over top of beans and add 1/2 mixture of soup and cheese and 1/2 of fried onions
Add 2 more cans of drained beans, salt and pepper and layer the rest of soup and cheese
Cook at 350 for 30 to 40 min or until golden brown
The last 5 minutes add remaining onions to crisp

Let's chill

Yesterday I started running around. Running to Four Hands to pick up our new and much needed high boy. Running to our promo closet to get shirts to send out on the jet for our client hunt. Making calls on my cell phone trying to make alternate plans for hunters whose flights involved CA fog or DFW delays. I normally run around like this. I am normally neurotic and stressed and have generally liked to live my life this way. But yesterday, I noticed that I could not get my heartrate to go down. It was scary. Even after a full night's sleep last night, I still was feeling anxious this morning. I called the doctor and my resting heart rate was 112 when I called. Apparently this is pretty normal in pregnancy. They said to call them if it got over 160. They also asked me if I had any extra stress in my life right now and I was able to divulge that I am hosting a dinner for 8 tonight for my family, worrying about making my first pumpkin pie and getting packed for the ranch tomorrow, have a whole list of things have been procrastinating on for work, etc. I need to chill out! Maybe this is a call that it's not healthy for me or the baby to constantly live with a fire under me? I am going to try. The first thing that I am doing is going down my list of "to dos" at work. Right now....

Can't wait for Thanksgiving. Despite my racing heart, I actually feel pretty good today! That is something to be thankful for!

AC: Obedience

Over the river and through the woods

I am still reeling in the relaxed vibe of the weekend. Friday night we had a date night and went to dinner at Macaroni Grill (PF Changs line was out the door) and then saw Lars and the Real Girl, which was such a good movie. Once you get past the initial shock of the idea that the movie will revolve around a man courting a life-sized sex doll, you find it sweet, tender, funny and interesting... and G-rated. I don't think there were any sexual undertones (other than the doll itself) nor swearing...

Saturday after Mike's 16 miler, we headed to Waco to see Grandma H. in her new care facility. It was a very nice place. It was clean and the people working there really seemed to care about Grandma. We were lucky enough to enjoy lunch in their dining room... rolls, salad, lemonade, bland chicken and vegetables and coconut angel pie for dessert. I was amazed at how many really OLD people were there. Grandma is 92 and looks great. Someone had done her makeup and her hair was all set and she'd had a manicure. We asked her if she was looking for a boyfriend and she said she was a lot better off than some of the men in there. Anyway, we had a nice visit and brought Bella into her room for a bit and Grandma tried to feed her a banana.

After Waco, we went to the lakehouse for a night. On the way, we stopped for ice cream. I still am feeling crappy with food not tasting that great to me, but must say that Blue Bell Strawberry ice cream is the exception. I've never been a big strawberry ice cream person, but theirs has big chunks of fresh strawberries. Yum! Anyway, we got to the lake house and Mike made a fire in the fireplace, heated up some leftover baked ziti, took a walk and I was seriously out by 8pm. Yesterday, we got up and enjoyed the ducks swimming in the lake over coffee, ate biscuits and jelly, sausage and eggs, endured the horrible singing and slow organ playing at church in Llano and then took the canoe out. We paddled to previously unexplored barren other side of the lake, took a nap and drove home.

I am really feeling happy about this short week. Grandma S. and my family are coming to dinner tomorrow night at our house, Wednesday we leave for the ranch for Thanksgiving with the H's and then will stop in SA for a night. I am a little bit nervous about making a pie for Thanksgiving. Baking is not my forte and I am bringing the *only* pumpkin pie to the H's celebration. No pressure.

AC: Blank... hello, Dad!

Christmas music, already?

I love Christmas, but come on, they are already playing 24 hours of holiday music on our lite-FM channel. My coworker was listening to it. I will admit that I got a little sappy hearing "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" by Nat King Cole. This song reminds me of my dad. When I heard it today, I started thinking about how much I am excited for Christmas, and happy that we are expecting, but also sad because I won't be spending Christmas with dad this year, nor sharing in a physical joy of the baby with him here in person. That is sad.

On a lighter note, I have always been the type of person that if I get annoyed enough about something that I will write a letter of complaint. Working in TV, people would call and complain ALL the time and we always listened, so I figure if I have a legitimate one, I should therefore express my first amendment right. Yes, as I have admitted before, I am a dork. Here is my email to the program manager at our local station. I'll keep you posted on any responses.

Dear Cat,
Every year, I very much enjoy listening to the Majic of
Christmas starting sometime after Thanksgiving. However, because your
station seems to play a very small list of the same songs, I very quickly stop
listening to it and truly ENJOYING IT somewhere around December 8th. Is
there a way you can tap into the literally millions of Christmas songs out there
instead of playing the same 25 songs by the same artists on repeat, 24 hours a
day for what looks like 5 weeks this year? It would really be a public
service for those of us who enjoy holiday music.

I appreciate your consideration.

Thanks,
Mary Beth

Farewell, first trimester

What a difference 12 weeks makes.
I want to bid a fond, fond farewell to the anxiety and fear that I experienced in the first trimester. Up until about a week ago, I was a complete nutcase. Being tainted by a miscarriage is awful. It totally takes away the innocence of pregnancy... those days when you're dreaming of pink or blue and ribbons and strollers. Those days when you were able to trust that everything would be fine. There are a couple of mantras I learned from others that got me through this time. Repeating seemed to help:
"Today I am pregnant and I love my baby."
"I am pregnant until someone tells me otherwise."
"My past will not dictate my future."
(this is a hard one): "If the worst happens again, there's nothing I can do to stop it. And I know I will survive."

So hard. But I am so SO happy and excited for this time and I am determined not to let fear and anxiety from the Devil ruin the joy of our pregnancy. Hurrah! Until then, we are being dorky expectant parents and taking pictures of my progression....

AC: Compassion

Best Zucchini Bread Ever

I grew up with many fond memories of my mom making this zucchini bread. It is so moist and with the nuts, raisins and cinnamon, quite different than other z breads I've had and may be even a bit cake-like. You may want to bake up some little loaves of this for Christmas and put them in your freezer. If someone stops by to call, you can slap a bow on it and "Merry Christmas."

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs beaten
1C oil
2C sugar
2 1/2 C grated zucchini with skins
1C flour
1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

3 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp vanilla

1 C chopped walnuts

1 1/2 C raisins

Sift the dry stuff together. I didn't do this, because I don't believe in sifting and it came out fine. Get out the "grater" tool on your food processer and have fun putting 2 medium zucchinis down the chute and see them instantly get grated, or you can grate by hand. Set zucchini aside. Beat your eggs and then add each ingredient to food processor in order going down the list (adding sifted ingredients 3rd if you're a sifter). Pour mixture into greased or floured pans 2/3 full. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Makes 2 medium or 3 small loaves. For some reason, this tastes really good with a little butter on it.

Eating has lost its lustre

I love to eat.
I love food more than a lot of things.
Right now, food does not taste good to me and I hate it. I miss eating.

My current favorite food items:

• saltines
  
• peanut butter cheese crackers


• yogurt


• milkshakes


• easyMac (best invention EVER for pregnant ladies)
  
• melba toast (mmm, delicious melba)
  

Every morning after I take my shower, I am standing in my closet and have to run to the toilet. It is no fun. This happens even if I eat beforehand. But, I don't care, I am having a baby and it's worth it, but man, I wish this would go away soon. Especially before Thanksgiving. I am not sure how much I weighed before I was pregnant, but I don't think I gained any weight the first trimester. Or very little.

I am going to a design your own purse party this weekend at my neighbor's. I keep thinking of that episode of Sex in the City at the purse party where the crazy host has taken her sadness over a bad breakup into making these ugly fur and ribbon purses. Samantha gets in trouble for making out with Smith and she screams "you have ugly purses!" on her way out.

My book recommendation for the day is Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Wechsler. I never thought I'd buy a book with "fertility" in the title, especially after my unplanned pregnancy. However, I found this book fascinating and practical when we were trying to conceive. I learned things about my body that I never knew and lots of things I didn't remember from Mr. O'Toole's sex lecture in 7th grade. All women should read this once. God truly is amazing, putting so much care into how everything works down there....

AC: Spontaneity

Out come the maternity clothes

Since I've been pregnant before, I am noticing that I am showing a lot earlier this time. I had to get one of those Bella Bands for my jeans and have been pretty limited in wearing more blousy shirts the past few weeks because anything tight showed my "bump." Last time, I don't think I needed maternity clothes until 18 weeks or so. Those were the days. Not so this time.

Now that everyone knows the news, I am wearing this lovely muu muu-like wrap dress today with some grey tights. I am sure in 6 months I am going to be so sick of these clothes, but for now It feels so good to be comfortable.

We had a celebratory dinner and some good "us" time at Eddie V's last night and were thankfully home by 8. I think I was passed out by 8:15. Too much anxiety and then excitement made for one tired girl. I don't think I've smiled as much as I did yesterday, ever. Although not as personal, it was pretty amazing to send out an email to basically everyone we know and see the responses come in. I brought in strawberry and vanilla Blue Bell with blueberry sauce for our department yesterday and they were really cute about hearing the news, too.

By the way, now that the news is out, I can see where my NaBloPoMo may lean a little more towards the babe... Not to forget about the books, though. My recommendation for today is The Kite Runner, which is the best book I've read in years. I am sure everyone reading this has read it, but if you haven't, it is the most wonderful story and you should read it before the movie comes out this Christmas.

AC: Power

Outing self

Today is my dad's birthday.
No better day to announce we are going to have a baby.
I am 12 weeks along.
The baby is due May 24.
I had an ultrasound this morning and it has arms, legs and a strong heartbeat.
This is the best news I could share. We are so excited!
It is hard to keep a secret for 3 months when it is something this exciting, but I am glad we did.

AC: Abundance (this is so true. my cup truly runneth over today)

Ewwwww!

I did not have a good start to my day today. As I was going to get my bagel from out of the toaster, I felt something crunch underneath my bare foot. It was a cockroach!!! Ew! Ew! Ew! The one morning I do not wear slippers....

AC: inspiration

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Reading Atlas Shrugged was a life-changing event for me. Inspired by my college friend, Meghan, whose family member gives this book to every graduating high schooler in their family, I took this very long book with me to Spain when I was studying there junior year of college. I got completely wrapped up in the story of Dagny Taggart and the idea of what would happen if the world's main philosophers, great thinkers and leaders decided to take a break from holding the weight of the world's problems and leave the world to the hangers-on. This book is pro-human/capitalism and anti-government, philosophical and even a bit romantic. Surrounded by Spanish speakers, I completely devoured this 1000 pages of English escapism... and dreamed of being Dagny Taggart.

MU Ranked 11 in Preseason AP Top 25

My Marquette Golden Eagles are ranked 11 in the AP Preseason Poll. We had a great season last year, up until our embarassing defeat in March Madness. I am going to try to leave the past behind. With Jerel McNeal, Dominic James, Wesley Matthews, Ousmane, Fitzy and my buddy David Cubillan (who never wrote me back, btw), I think we have a strong team. Our top 3 guys are all seniors which stinks, and I was pretty excited about freshman Mbakwe but it looks like he's out for the season. I guess Cubillan will just have to step up as an underclassman. Bring on basketball season.

AC: Grace

Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing

When I was about 9 or 10, Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing sat on my bookshelf, dog-eared and worn from so many readings. My dad would sit and read to me and we would laugh and laugh. This story revolves around a big brother with an annoying little brother. Growing up, my brother was the sweetest kid ever, but the little brother, Fudge, in this book is a little shitzkadobra, as my Slovak relatives would say. There are many tales of Fudge's chronicles here and they are all pretty hilarious... or at least I thought they were hilarious when I was little.

Check it out...

NaBloPoMo begins today

From checking a few of my links on right sidebar this morning, I see that some of my friends are participating in National Blog Posting Month, which has a very annoying moniker, NaBloPoMo.

I am going to accept this challenge and try to post every day in November. To inspire the words to spew from my keyboard, I am going to focus on the subject: Good Books You Should Read. Since I was a little girl, I've always had my nose buried in a book and even briefly entertained the idea of being a librarian, so I guess this is a good outlet for me.

A book I've enjoyed recently is The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly I am a big fan of historical fiction and have even been known to read a romance novel or two, so I loved this book. It takes place in London at the time of Jack the Ripper and Fiona, the main character and a member of the working class, works at a tea factory to get by, but dreams of owning her own shop. An unfortunate series of tragic events follow involving her love and family cause her to flee the country and emigrate to New York to begin a new life for herself, but in the end her past isn't far behind her. This book has quite a few plotlines involved and if it wasn't so beautifully written, could easily fall down to the level of your average romance novel, but doesn't. Overall, is a quite lovely story that is deliciously indulgent. Check it out...

AC: Spontaneity