I Look Just Like My Ma

Once I was called "little Debbie." I thought it was the nicest compliment.

 My parents are in town! Yay! I loooove spending time with my parents. Momma and I are gonna spend oodles of time together. :) Let the glee commence!

This is America, Charlie Brown

YES! I found it! Parts 1 & 2 of the Mayflower/Thanksgiving Charlie Brown. I LOVE THIS MOVIE! It totally helped me on my AP US History test. Gotta watch this every year. :)

Mmm...Thanksgiving Food

These are my favorites. What are yours?

Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

Stuffing, Stuffing, and Stuffing.

Coolest Nightlight Ever

 

The Twilight Turtle is a stuffed-turtle whose hard shell doubles as a nightlight; his shell glows, and get this-- it projects the night sky (with real constellations!) onto the ceiling and walls of your kids' room.  Not the cheapest nightlight around, but unbelievably awesome! 

The PouchMiss

 

I'm having a dither of a time trying to find a diaper bag I'd be willing to pay for. The decent ones (that aren't even that great) cost $70-ish+, which I think is obscene.  PouchMiss ($39) is a tote with all the pockets and storage you could dream of; all it requires is a big purse to stash it in. Pretty nifty: it holds all this, and you can switch out what purse you have to carry. Hmm. I'm considering.

All I need to do now is inherit my sister Melissa's knack for finding ridiculously awesome purses for cheap.

Aha! We did it!

Three weeks have now passed where neither Dylan nor I remembered to take our trashcan to the street for pickup... until 8am, after the truck had already passed us by. On the other side of Provo we'd have been fine if we'd made it by 9 o'clock, but no... we have to live on the street where trash is received at 7:15. Grrr. 

Gratefully, my panic about the trash being too full for one more bag led to finally remembering to street-side it on time. Fourth time's the charm! But hey-- haven't you forgotten to do that once or twice? Three times... in a row? *sigh*

The Faces of Jerusalem

photo by Scot Proctor

A delightful photographic essay titled The Faces of Jerusalem was just done for Meridian Magazine. Though the photos were taken only on the old side of the city-- not in the bustling urban areas--  the essay accurately captures the wide variety of people in the Old City. 

Seeing the faces of these people is truly like walking through the streets; I promise you'll grasp what it's like to be there yourself if you'll take a quick look.

Curious about my full reaction? Read more after the jump: 

Do I have to eat?

Is this what pregnant stick figures look like?

I've never wanted to eat food less in my entire life; I've also never wanted to eat less food in my entire life. I have to eat to avoid nausea (still, though I'm supposed to be out of the nausea stage,) but even when I do eat, I hardly ever want to. Crazy change for the girl who would eat 1/2 a cheesecake in one sitting--if given the chance.

Honestly, I don't know how people get themselves into trouble "eating for two." Every time Dylan and I go out somewhere to eat, I can stomach just 12 bites before I'm full. I've gained 1.5lbs in what tomorrow will be 17 weeks of pregnancy (the average by now is 6lbs). More than that, I just NEVER WANT TO EAT. Nothing sounds good. Nothing satisfies. Eating is just another chore.

At least I'm still looking forward to Thanksgiving. 

Turn Back The Clock

Don't forget Daylight Savings Time. Fall Back!

The bagel that loves you back:

I usually stay away from bagels because they're too hard and flavorless to be worth eating, have 3 or more servings per bagel, and are usually full of empty calories and sugars. French Meadow Bakery's "Hemp Bagels" and I found each other in May, and they're a step forward in bagel-dom.  Though they are a little pricey, I continue to get them on a regular basis. 

A whopping 19 grams of protein, 11 grams of fiber, half the carbs of normal bagels, no added sugars, no yeast, and only 280 calories for the whole bagel instead of the half-bagel serving sizes you usually see, Hemp Bagels are great! You wanna talk whole grain? These babies have 3 servings of whole grains, 9 types of seeds (that you can see in every bite), and lots of good-for-you stuff like sprouted quinoa. Plus they're YUMMY.

Happy Halloween

Just Take A Bite

"Poison" candy apples found here

Snow White won't stand a chance! Aren't they gorgeous?

Recipe after the jump:

It SNOWED today! YAAAAAY!

...just a little... but there WERE flakes. "and there was much rejoicing....yaaaaay."

Time to Say Goodnight

Dylan and I found this today and found it amusing. Perhaps you will, too.

English Muffins

This morning I saved $1.25 by buying English muffins at the Wonder Bakery Thrift-shop instead of the normal grocery store. Ha! *insert happy dance*

Wonder-thrift is a tiny hole-in-the-wall store you can see from our freeway entrance-ramp; since it's not easy to see from any other vantage point few people frequent the shop, even though hundreds drive past it everyday. Link to map/address of Provo store.

There're a ton of bargains in this place, as well as a bunch of random Hostess goodies that I've never seen anywhere else... mmmm...big bags of crunchy gingersnaps... yumminess.

Well, that was scary.

Sunday night Dylan and I had to break a dinner appointment; we drove to Lehi (a few cities away) but then had to turn around and go home because I felt very sick and had pains. Not thinking that it was anything unusual, we just made our apologies and Dylan took me home to rest. 

When we got home, I discovered that I was bleeding profusely. As I am 13 weeks pregnant I instantly started to panic. It's not uncommon to "spot" bleed during pregnancy--I knew this-- but bright red blood in copious amounts is not good. A little later I started leaking fluid (sorry for the graphic descriptions). Fluid loss is a really bad sign. I tried not to panic, but after losing a ton of fluid I was pretty confident that I was having a miscarriage.

Background: I am allergic to my own pregnancy hormones, which is one reason I've been so sick. Weird, right? I'm allergic to my baby! Haha. Anyway. I'm taking meds to hopefully build an immunity, so Monday morning I went in to get my hormone levels checked-- make sure everything was okay on my end-- and the concerned MD asked to do a "doppler," or to check for a fetal heartbeat. 

He found one! Yay! I hadn't heard it before and it was such a relief to know my baby was still there and safe. The Doc had several hypotheses about what had caused the issue, but since a strong heartbeat is present, he ruled out the dangerous ones. Dylan and I are so happy everything's okay.