"Selfish" Pleasures

My friend, Dari, had double knee replacement surgery on Monday at Fairfax hospital. When I first found out, I was most worried about her having to be in the hospital for Christmas. But she has been in a lot of pain and her only other option was waiting until March, so the timing was a huge blessing. I'm also good friends with her daughter, Rachel. Mom and I wanted to make sure she wasn't trying to make the drive to NoVa by herself after work each evening - it can be such a long icky drive. We set out to plan a way that we could help Rachel and visit Dari. In the midst of our planning it dawned on us that Fairfax Hospital is about a mile away from Sweetwater Tavern... aussie rolls, drunken ribeye, roast chicken salad, flourless chocolate waffle, all of our FAVORITES! So I'm getting ready to head out the door to meet Rachel, pick up Mom and head over to see one of my favorite people and one of the best places to eat in the DC area. It's a good day!

Merry Christmas and "Boggle Balls"

These videos come courtesy of Zizi. We have yet to locate our camera and I wanted to share Little Man's stirring rendition of Jingle Bells. This all takes place in my parents soon to be laundry room. He loves the open space and the echo when he's running around.

Beware, Part 2

When I mentioned a few days ago that my appetite was slowly returning, I didn't realize how wrong I was. There's nothing slow about it. It has returned with a vengeance! Mom, Zizi and I met some friends for breakfast yesterday. I couldn't believe how hungry I was. I ate my breakfast, helped Zi with hers and then topped it off with a little of Mom's Sweet Potato Pancakes. Good thing I was full for a good part of the day. Thank goodness it's the holidays.

Beware

It's back! My appetite is slowly returning. I've had some nausea, but haven't thrown up in almost a week. My fingers are crossed that this will continue and if it does... watch out Christmas goodies! And does anyone know if Kneaders will ship their cheesecakes? I may ask Santa for one of each flavor.

And thank you for all of your well wishes. I promise to share my cheesecake if you want to come visit.

Holiday Treats?

When I was pregnant with Little Man, the "eating for two" excuse was great during the holidays. If there was a treat I craved then I usually found a way to make or buy it. I wish I could say the same with this baby. There's no way to know if I have some kind of stomach virus or if the morning sickness has come back to haunt me, but it's seriously taking the fun out of Christmas treats. At my doctor's appointment this morning I found out that at 29 weeks, I've already lost all of my "baby weight" and I'm now working on the pounds left over from Little Man. Of course this is by no means out of choice. If there was a Kneaders I could get to within any reasonable distance, there would be cheesecake... chocolate and strawberry! No matter what the repercussion.

Movin' on up

We are officially done with the ghetto apartment. We started last Friday, getting all of the storage stuff out and as much as the big furniture as we could. Susie had Little Man Friday evening and our plan had been to go over and get stuff packed. Unfortunately, dinner didn't settle well and I spent the evening sick. That made Saturday totally chaotic. But we got it done! We hired a lady from our ward to come over and clean the place. I knew I wasn't going to be able to tackle something like that and we needed to make sure we got our security deposit back. And it was well worth it! She made that place look better than it was when we moved in. So good in fact that our landlady wrote us a check on the spot.

Now we have to tackle the mess here. Figure out where we are going to put stuff until the apartment is done (hopefully only a few more weeks!) and find the stuff we use on a regular basis.... so if anyone sees my hair stuff, let me know. Otherwise the next few weeks could get scary.

The little things in life

We had a rough night last night, Little Man is having a hard time transitioning to a new room and new noises. I was hoping this morning that he would sleep in so I could too. Unfortunately it didn't happen. But I'm trying to not be so negative and find a little more of the Christmas spirit. So this is my list of things I'm grateful for this morning:

"I'll get Little Man so you can take a shower."- I think these are my most favorite words ever! Thank you Grandpa. And he even changed a diaper, something Grandpa hates to do.

Wil unpacking all of the bathroom stuff so I didn't have to search this morning to be able to take a shower. But especially the Mandarin Grapefruit shower gel that smells so good and helps me feel awake.

My mom's turkey and stuffing! We had a small repeat of Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, thanks to Grandma's hard work and the sales at Safeway. I was even able to eat a little for lunch and dinner without getting sick. That also means that today we get turkey sandwiches!!!

2 more days before presents HAVE to be in the mail to Texas. I have two more presents to make. Hopefully I can get them done during naptime or after Little Man goes to bed tonight.

And last, but not least... NAPTIME!

Christmas Treats!

I've been wanting to experiment with a new recipe that I came up with a couple weeks ago, but haven't had the energy. Wil convinced me that today was the day to try it out. I have to say that I'm REALLY glad he did. It was easy and will make a great addition to our Christmas treats. Here it is:

Lemon Blueberry Bark
1 pack dark chocolate - the kind you melt for candies
1/2 pack chocolate chips (I suggest semi sweet)
zest of one lemon
1 1/2 cups of dried blueberries
1/3 cup of almonds, toasted

Melt chocolate in the microwave in one minute intervals until completely melted. Add blueberries, almonds and zest. Spread onto wax or freezer paper and let cool. Break into bite size pieces.

I found a bulk bag of dried blueberries at Costco, but you could also do craisins, orange zest and almonds.

To the Rescue

Amy suggested that ZiZi should win the Best Sister Award and I agree. She is picking Little Man up after work tomorrow and watching him until sometime on Saturday. Not only will that give me time to pack/unpack/organize, but if all goes well I'll also get an uninterrupted night's sleep. I love my sissie!

Two, Two, Two

The number of hours Little Man "napped" before waking up last night.
The time at which he went back to sleep.
The number of hours of sleep Wil got before going to work.

Should I feel bad that when I went to get stuff out to make him a healthy meal he found a leftover eggroll in the fridge and was determined to eat it for breakfast? So determined in fact that the he has eaten 2/3 of it and shows no signs of stopping.

Stomach Flu vs. Morning Sickness

Ladies, I need your help/suggestions. It's been over a week now since I've been able to stomach a decent meal. I don't know if my first trimester morning sickness has come back or if it's just a long running stomach virus of some sort. Either way I'm starting to get worried about the baby and I both getting enough of what we need. The throwing up isn't a problem like it was last week, but any food on my stomach makes me queasy for hours. A chicken sandwich for lunch yesterday, sent me to bed for the rest of the day. Thank goodness Wil was home from work, packing for our move.

Any ideas or suggestions on what might help baby and mommy to stay healthy and hydrated?

Where are you Christmas?

This Faith Hill song from the Grinch movie is on my Christmas music mix cd in the car and I find myself relating to it too well this year. There are so many things that could be influencing my inability to find the holiday spirit... Little Man's hives, my stomach flu, moving next weekend, not knowing for sure where we are moving to. But all the stress aside, I just can't seem to feel Christmas this year. My attempts to decorate, craft, serve or bake aren't going well and I'm not sure what else to do.

This did lead to one good thing this week though... We actually made an attempt at FHE. There wasn't really a lesson or spiritual thought, but there was time and planning involved. We took Little Man to see the neighborhood lights in Chesapeake Beach. He loved seeing all of the different lighting displays that they had, especially Santa going fishing. This one has stuck in his head so well that now all Christmas lights are "fuf" or rather, his version of "fish".