549.22

That is the number of miles I ran this year.  Not great for a runner, but considering I had to get a house ready to put on the market, sell a house, buy a house, move out of a house, renovate a house, move into a house, and then get pregnant and be sick for 3 months, I think 549.22 isn't too bad.  I had a good 4-5 months probably where running wasn't a priority.  I spent a lot of time packing up and unpacking.  I was hoping to get another run in today so I could have made it over 550, but we decided to go to the Georgia Aquarium instead.  There is a mermaid show going on right now and we knew Hope would love it (and she did kind of).  My goal for next year is 750 miles, which is 14.5 miles a week.  Of course right now I am not doing that many miles a week so I am going to be in a deficit in the first part of the year, so I better bump it up after the baby comes. 

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Creamy Tomato Jalapeno Pasta

I found this recipe in my Vegetarian Times magazine and it was a vegan creamy pasta recipe, so I thought I would give it a try.  I made a few tweaks to the recipe to have to work for our family (aka we like a lot of sauce).

The ingredients

After the chopping and the shredding

The sauce coming together

The pasta and sauce combined, yum!

Creamy Tomato Jalapeno Pasta

adapted from Vegetarian Times

Ingredients

• 3 roma tomatoes (about 1.5 cups), diced
• 1 Jalapeno, chopped (I only used 1/2, but it wasn't very hot, so next time I would use the whole)
• 1/2 cup vegan mozzarella cheese (or a monterey would work too)
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened soy milk
• 1 tablespoon vegan spread (Earth Balance and Smart Balance with Flax are both vegan)
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 8 oz. pasta (we used angel hair tonight because that's what we had)

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to packaging.
2. While pasta is cooking, melt 1 tablespoon margarine in a large skillet over low heat.
3. Mix in flour and whisk for 30 seconds.
4. Add in soy milk and whisk until flour mixture is worked into the milk.
5. Add in mozzarella cheese and stir until the cheese is melted.
6. Add in tomatoes, jalapeno, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.  Let simmer for about 5 minutes.
7. Add pasta to the sauce to combine.
8. Serve!

Serves 4. 

I combined the pasta with a simple green salad and some homemade lemon garlic tahini dressing, which is also vegan (and delicious). 

Reflections of . . . 2010

Well I am looking forward to 2011 and thought maybe I should reflect 2010 as well.  I saw on Brittney's blog about summing 2010 and thought I will use some of her questions to reflect 2010 for me.

2010 in 3 words

1. House - buy and selling
2. Getting pregnant
3. Running safely through pregnancy

Top 10 moments of 2010

1. My sister's wedding (love you Val and Eric)
2. Getting an offer on our house just 8 days on the market
3. Running my 3rd half marathon since my daughter was born (she was 1 year, 5 months old)
4. Ran the Race for the Cure 5k
5. Moving into our new home (yeah)
6. Anniversary dinner (OMG it was soooo good) at Basil's
7. Ran the Peachtree Road Race 10k
8. Finding out I was expecting #2
9. Running a local 5k race while being 5 months pregnant
10. Christmas morning with my daughter

Best Purchase of 2010

Our new house, although it wasn't perfect when we bought it, we are making it perfect one room at a time.

The night you felt the prettiest in 2010

Well being pregnant half the year makes it easier for me to pick this one (yeah, the first 6 months of the year).  I would say at my sister's wedding. 

The best meal you ate in 2010

Yeah, we are going back to Basil's for our anniversary dinner.  It was incredible.

Goals for 2011

Already posted that.

What I want 2011 to bring?

This is not a resolutions post but more of a what I want to happen in 2011.  Goals if you will.  I didn't post this last year, but I thought it would be fun and then at the end of the year, I can look back and see how I did.

1. Get Hope into a "big girl" bed (hopefully Jan. 2011)
2. Get nursery ready for new baby (again Jan. 2011)
3. Clean out office/gym area and make it more defined and less cluttered (Feb. 2011)
4. Birth a healthy baby (ideally without having to be induced this time) (March 2011)
5. Make a smooth transition from a family of 3 to a family of 4
6. Develop a schedule where I can get in my workouts with 2 kids while still nursing (that is going to hurt those early morning workouts, any advice?)
7. Get back into pre-pregnancy running shape (no date because I don't want to try to over due it)
8. Participate in the Race for the Cure 5k (this is in May, just 6 weeks after I am due, so I say participate instead of run, because I may be pushing a double jogging stroller in this one)
9. Run the Peachtree Road Race (10k), ideally in under 55 minutes (PR is 50:02), but again, not going to push myself.
10. Run the 13.1 Marathon in Atlanta in October
11. Would like to run some more (3 new) local fun races (5k's and other lengths that aren't traditional)
12. Develop a stronger relationship with my husband (see they aren't all about running)
13. Have 110 blog entries in 2011
14. Run 750 miles in 2011 (I would love to say 1,000 but with the whole pregnancy and giving birth thing, I think 750 is going to be ambitious enough)
15. Stay healthy and fit

15 sounds like a nice round number, so maybe we will just end it there.  Wish me luck!

Santa loves runners

Well it appears I was a very good girl this year because Santa was very good to me, especially when it comes to running.  I did know I was getting my new running shoes (Mizuno Wave Creations) because they were on sale 2 months back so I had the hubs get them for me and store them as a Christmas present.  I can't wait to get into these and see how much different they feel than my old ones.  I am in desperate need of some new running shoes.

Lucky for me, my FIL is a big runner and has been for years.  He always gets the hubs and I a book for Christmas.  Last year he got me a 2 year subscription to Runner's World magazine.  This year he got me a The Runner's Rule Book by Mark Remy.  I have already started to go through it and it's a fun read.  I will have to let you know if I find some good rules to live by.  Rule #1 is "Have Fun."



And this is what pushed me over the edge.  Adam or Santa got me the Bob Duallie Jogging Stroller.  I couldn't believe it.  I am still in shock.  I didn't even put it on my Christmas list because I know just how expensive it is and didn't think anyone would be spending that kind of money on me.  I had planned to save up and buy it myself.  But Adam surprised me with it on Christmas Day.  It's so pretty!

Now, all I need is a few accessories for my new jogging stroller (and a 2nd baby) and I am all set.  Was Santa good to you?

Christmas cheer

Here are some of the things that we do during the holiday season that I thought I would share.  I came from a family that had an "evergreen" tree (aka fake) and Adam came from a family that always got a fresh tree.  I do like the smell of a real tree so we have adopted the idea of getting a real tree and have ever since we were married.  We usually go out the Saturday after Thanksgiving and get our tree so we can have it up for a while.  Here Hope is checking out all of the trees to determine which one she thinks we should get.

Before Hope, Adam used to go over 20-30 trees to determine which one was the "one."  Not anymore.  We only got to look at 3 trees before Hope was running all over the place.  Luckily #3 was the winner.  We were so impressed by it, we think it might be our best tree yet.  

I know once Hope gets a little older we will be doing some crazy decorating on our tree, but for now we keep it simple.  I usually do silver and red balls, but I was afraid Hope would try to play with them and break them, so we did white lights, red bows, and plastic icicles. 

And of course, what Christmas holiday would be complete without some cookie decorating.  We were in charge of some dessert for a family function, so I let Hope go crazy with some icing on the cookies (and some sprinkles).  She had a blast!  We are going to ice some brownie bites for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.  Should be interesting.

What do you do for the holidays?

This week's workouts

Well since I actually did pretty well this week working out, I thought I could post it.  Of course on weeks where I can't workout or don't I probably won't blog about it, so just know that ahead of time.  I did pretty well, a little different from what I had planned on doing, but it all worked out. 

Monday - Ran intervals, didn't go too fast, but needed something to break up the treadmill run, ran about 3 miles
Tuesday - Ran a 5k outside
Wednesday - 40 minutes on the elliptical
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Ran 3 miles on the mill
Saturday - Ran 3 miles on the mill (raining so I couldn't run outside), did a few minutes of upper body weights
Sunday - Plan to rest

I will have to say that having a treadmill at the house has helped a lot.  Between bad weather and not having time to get to the gym and having a little one to take care of, the mill at the house makes it doable.  I am so happy we have it.  Our OnDemand is not working so I didn't get any yoga in this week, but I needed to rest on Thursday so it worked out well for me. 

The easiest best way to win a bake off

I had these a couple of years ago and just about died when I found out exactly how easy the are to make.  They are called Oreo Truffles or Heaven in a Ball.  My sister used them at a work dessert bake off and won so I just made these for my work's dessert contest.  I got second, but people ate so many of mine, that they were gone before everyone could try them, so I think I could have won if I made more. 

Ingredients

• 1 package of oreo's
• 1 1/2 boxes of semi-sweet baking chocolate
• 1 package of cream cheese (I use reduced fat)
• 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
• 1/2 - 1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Break up oreo's and place them in the food processor.  Process until it is a fine powder.  There should be no white.
2. Place cream cheese in the mixer and then the oreo mixture.
3. Mix until the cream cheese is well incorporated and again there is no white. 
4. Take a small piece of the mixture and roll it into a ball and piece on a pan lined with wax paper.  This will probably make 3-4 dozen ball depending on how big you make them.  You will probably need 2 pans to get all the balls on with some space between them.
5. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Break up the baking chocolate and melt the baking chocolate over a double boiler.  Melt slowly, and add the oil at any time.  Once just about melted, turn the heat to low and get out your balls out of the fridge.
7. Dip 4-5 balls at a time and use 2 forks to get them out getting the excess chocolate off each ball.
8. Place back on the lined pan and return to the refrigerator for another 30 minutes.
9. Now, if you want to get fancy, you need to melt the white chocolate in the microwave (microwave for 15-30 seconds at a time and then stir until melted). 
10. Place melted white chocolate in a sandwich baggie and cut off the corner, but just a little bit.  You want the opening to be very small.
11. Get out the balls out the fridge again and then decorate the balls with the melted white chocolate.
12. Back in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
13. Enjoy!  I know they take a little time, but overall, it's an easy recipe and they are devine!

Broken up oreo's in the food processor

All processed, see no white

The cream cheese in the mixer, room tempature makes it a little easier, but it doesn't have to be

All of the oreo mixture and the cream cheese, before mixing

All mixed up, again no white anymore

Rolled up into balls and ready for the first refrigeration

My baking partner helping me dip them into the baking chocolate (love you sweetie)

After they are dipped into the chocolate and ready to go back into the refrigerator

I put little swirls of white chocolate just to go over the top.

My baking partner wanted to do more, so we toasted some almonds and make almond butter in the food processor.  Bunny helped her out.

My chilly run and a bargain buy

Well the past couple of weeks it has been pretty chilly in the south.  Last Tuesday, it was in the mid 20's when I was supposed to run, and I bailed and went to the gym and did 30 minutes on that stair stepper instead.  I was too cold that morning to face the weather.  Well yesterday, it was supposed to be in the teens.  Well I went ahead and wrapped my head around it on Monday night and decided I would conquer the cold this week.  Yesterday the temperature was 16 degrees when I started my run (yeah, about 10 degrees colder than last week, oops).  I had my layers on though, cold weather running tights, long sleeve dryfit shirt, sweatshirt, polar fleece, gloves, hat, socks and my running shoes.  The run wasn't that bad.  That first mile I even had a pretty good time (for a pregnant me).  My face was a little chapped after the run, but other than that, it was pretty good.  It helped that the sun was shining, and the wind was minimal. 

Ok, my bargain buy.  I was making dinner on Monday, and I would have sworn up and down that I had polenta in the house.  Well I already started boiling my liquids when I realized that I didn't have any.  I did a quick search online to see if there was a good substitute.  One woman recommended using cornmeal.  Well I have that for dusting my pizza crusts with, so I gave it a try.  Worked that a charm!  And guess what it's soooo much cheaper than polenta at the store.  I went to the store on Tuesday and did a price comparison.  Now I had in my house the dry polenta, but I just found the precooked one when I was looking.  For 18oz. of precooked polenta, it was on sale for $3.99 ($0.22/oz.).  Well the off brand cornmeal was on sale for $1.00 for 24oz. ($0.04/oz).  That is a huge savings to just use cornmeal next time.  No more polenta buying in our house anymore.  Tasted the exact same. 

Do you have any bargain buys you use or ways to save?

My running these days

So I am still working out, but between the colder temperatures and my growing belly, things are changing.  I was doing 3-4 miles 4 days/week, with 2 of them being with the jogging stroller.  I am not doing 3 miles 3-4 days/week (twice still with the jogging stroller) and incorporating some yoga as well.  If I do not get in 4 days of running then I will do either the elliptical trainer or the stairmaster, just to give me belly a breather. 

The only way I can run now is with some support.  I was getting a lot of round ligament pain early in my pregnancy so my OB recommended a maternity belt, or just cutting off some panty hose and using that.  Well the maternity belts aren't cheap, so I thought I would start with some panty hose.  Works like a charm!  I have had no problems with the round ligament pain if I am sporting my "maternity belt," but if I forget it, then I am in trouble.  I can't run.  Now I can still do my other exercieses with a maternity belt, so I don't have to wear it every time I work out, just running currently. 

I started working in some yoga as well once I hit about 5 months thinking it would be good to get some sort of strength training in, as well as help breathing and focusing (things that are important during labor and delivery).  My goal is to do it twice a week, once for just 20 minutes and then again for 40-45 minutes.  I have been using the OnDemand ExerciseTV yoga videos (for free) to get a variety of sessions in. 

So last week was hard with my workouts because the hubs and I were up late most nights getting the house ready for Christmas and my Annual Holiday Cookie Swap party, so I was very tired and very busy, but the week before looked like this:

Monday - Ran intervals on the treadmill (3.2 miles total)

Tuesday - Ran 3 miles outside (without jogging stroller), 20 minutes of yoga

Wednesday - Ran 3 miles on the mill (easy)

Thursday - 40 minutes of yoga or Rest

Friday - Ran 3 miles with the jogging stroller

Saturday - Ran 3 miles with the jogging stroller

Sunday - Rest

So I am resting 1-2 days a week and as it becomes 2 days of rest more often, I will probably cut my running back to 3 days a week as well.  So that is what a 6 month pregger is doing on the pavement these days.

Road ID

I forgot to mention a while back that I was looking into asking for a Road ID and a shoe pocket for holding my keys for Christmas.  Both I thought would be useful.  Well, I was reading my regular blogs, when I stumbled upon this post from Carolyn.  I thought I had better try for the giveway and I won!

I went online and saw that I didn't just have to get the wrist ID, I could get the shoe ID which had both my pocket for keys and had the personal information I was looking to add on there.  So I got the Shoe ID!  And I love it!  It's exactly what I was looking for. 

Here is a picture of my shoe with my first run with my shoe ID. 



And here is a picture of my running partner ready to tackle the pavement with her Goldfish in hand.  Such a cutie!!!

Road ID has several promotions so check them out.  You can usually get 10% of your Road ID if you play your cards right and it's not an expensive "toy" anyway, so go ahead.  It could save your life someday.  I just got an email and you can receive 10% off your entire purchase with this coupon code:  pcLASTCHANCE2.

My Pre-Thanksgiving Fun Run

Well I was waiting for the official results to come out, but they still haven't, so I will go ahead and post this.  I ran a local 5k race the weekend before Thanksgiving.  It was my first race since knowing I was pregnant.  There had been a lot of debate about me running any races.  I had planned to run another one, but the hubs was not feeling it.  He has major concerns about my running knowing that in a few weeks I have another ultrasound, which the last time around, showed our current toddler was borderline IUGR and I was put on modified bedrest for the rest of the pregnancy.  Although my perinatologist told us "Exercise does not cause IUGR," that response has not changed my lovely husband's mind.  So while I have been itching to race, I have not since I know the husband worries.  But this was local and close and only a 5k, so I told him I was doing it.  Luckily, he didn't have a tennis match until 10:00am (the race was at 8am) so he could watch Hope while I ran the race by myself (another reason I could run, I didn't have to push a jogging stroller). 

Pre-race breakfast was a banana smeared with peanut butter.  I was going to do peanut toast, but I read on the No Meat Athlete that bread and diary take more energy to digest than fruits, so I went with that.  I was going to do a smoothie, but it was just a 5k, so I didn't need that many calories. 

So we got there early, and I got my race number and grabbed a few pictures with my precious daughter (doesn't like looking at the camera currently).

After some chatting, I got in line and was off.  Here Hope is watching mommy run by.

Here I am roudning the last corner before the finish (I am in the pink sleeves and black vest).

And here I am finishing strong.  It was a good race.  I had a pregnancy PR of 28:12 and it was a very hilly race.  I felt good.  

After the race, we didn't stick around for the awards.  It was cold and Adam needed to get going and I had a tennis match that afternoon, so I had to promise to consume as many calories as I could between the race and my tennis match (which I did win, but it took 2.5 hours, oops). 

Novemeber Food Recipes

Here are some recipes I have been meaning to blog about, but never got around to it.  I am way behind in my blogging, so you are going to get 3 recipes in one post today.  Lucky you!  Well since we had so many apples, I wanted to find some other ways to enjoy them besides eating them for lunch everyday.  I thought Hope would enjoy making caramel apples (and obviously this baby has a major sweet tooth as well, which works for me).  Adam wasn't as excited about them at first but then when I told him he wasn't out and trying to eat them with his teeth (you can cut off a piece from the apple) and eat it, he perked up. 



My ingredients

5 apples with wooden sticks poked in the tops

1 bag of caramels microwaved until nice and soft

Butterfinger candy bars crushed up

Crushed walnuts (toasted and cooled)

Chocolate chips (not shown yet)

After I dipped the apples into the caramel and let the excess drip off, I immediately coated them in either the butterfinger crumbles or the walnuts (one had both - talk about yummy!). 

Pop them in the fridge for 30 minutes.  You could be done or . . .  Then for good measure, I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave and drizzled the chocolate over the top of each caramel apple (like they weren't sweet enough).  These were amazing!  It was so nice to have these in the house.  They were so good!  Adam and I would split on after lunch most days.  Yummy!!!  I highly recommend!

After carving our pumpkin every year, I always take the seeds and separate them from the stringy stuff to roast.  This year I went took a different angle though.  My seeds from our pumpkin, cleaned.

Additonal ingredients - 1 tablespoon Earth Balance, 1 tablespoon organic sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon (mixed together)

I threw the butter in the the seeds and mixed and followed by the sugar mixture.  Then it's off to the pan and into the oven (400 degrees) for about 45 minutes.   

Yum again!  This was my midmorning snack everyday for at least a week.

On Halloween, before all the crazy trick or treating started, I made a festive dinner for all 3 of us (yes, Hope got one too).  I adapted this recipe from Angela (thanks, it was great). 

Butternut Squash and Black Bean Chili in Pumpkin Bowls

Ingredients

• 3 mini sweet pumpkins
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 green bell peppers, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small butternut squash, cubed
• 1-15oz. can black beans drained and rinsed
• 1-15oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp paprika
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Take the mini sweet pumpkin and slice the top off about 3/4 of the way up. Scoop out the insides of the pumpkin using a spoon. This is time consuming, so make sure you remember to do this earlier in the day. I saved the seeds again and did a savory roasted pumpkin seeds with a little kosher salt on them on then pop them in the oven.
When the pumpkins are empty and cleaned out, spray or drizzle the insides with olive oil and sprinkle on kosher salt and ground pepper to taste. You will be eating the pumpkin flesh so you want it to taste delicious!
Now pop your pumpkins onto a baking pan and into the oven for 30 minutes. While they are roasting in the oven, make the chili.
In a large pot, add the oil and turn heat to medium. Add chopped onion and minced garlic and sauté the onion for about 5 minutes or so. Reduce heat if necessary to avoid burning.
Now add the chopped pepper and butternut squash. Cook for about 12-15 minutes.
Now add in the drained and rinsed beans, diced tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, paprika, vegetable broth, and S & P and stir well.
Simmer on low-medium for another 5 minutes.
Now remove your pumpkins from the oven and fill the bowls 3/4 of the way full. Place pumpkins carefully back into the oven (again without top) and bake for another 30 minutes.
Once they are cooked, turn oven off and leave pumpkins in the oven with lid on to stay warm. They will stay hot in the oven for another hour if necessary. Serves 3.

The chili was very good, but I might do a little emersion blending next time to thicken it up.  It was nice having the baked pumpkin to add into each chili bite but it was very time consuming, so I might have to save that for special occasions only. 

Well now I am caught up for October and Novemember recipes.  I did one last night that I will post soon!

My Thanksgiving Holiday

Well as much as I would like to say that my Thanksgiving Holiday was fun and relaxing, I can't.  I have not been feeling well since Wednesday.  Let me give you the recap.

Well I had planned to take off the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off of work so I could do some cooking.  Well I ended up having to go to DC for the day for work. Ugh, I know.

Wednesday - My alarm went off at 4:00am so I could be at the airport in time for my 6:15am flight to DC.  I did go ahead and warn hubby that I would be getting a half caf cappuccino (I haven't had caffeine since I found out I was pregnant).  He joked that I didn't love this baby as much as Hope since I was going to drink caffeine knowingly.  Ha ha ha.  So I made it through security with no problems and luckily there was a Starbucks on the way to my gate.  Score!  I got my coffee and headed to my gate.  Made it to DC with no problems and onto my meeting.  I am not one to ask for special treatment for being pregnant, so I was a little nervous about breaking out snacks during the meeting, but the meeting was from 9am-1pm with no lunch break, and I was hungry at 4am when my alarm went off so I ate breakfast on the way to the airport (Zone Bar, my favorite go to packaged bar breakfast).  Well, I saw someone else break out a snack and she definitely wasn't pregnant (very skinny), so I decided I could too without too much attention.  I had a lot of snacks depending on my cravings and calorie needs.  I decided that since lunch was far off, I was going to eat one of my higher calorie snacks, homemade trail mix (dried cherries, pecans, and walnuts).  I was starving, but the weird thing was that I couldn't finish them, not even close before I became full.  Well about 45 minutes later, I was very light headed (like from being hungry) but didn't feel that hungry.  I thought maybe I needed some sugar so I had a few yogurt covered pretzels.  I felt a little better.  I got to the airport and knew my options for food were limited so I had an egg and cheese sandwich on a bagel at Eintein's with an apple and a sprite. I felt grossy full and then had indigestion the rest of the day and night.  Once home, I only could get down some cereal the rest of the night. 

Thursday (aka Thanksgiving Day) - I woke at 3am with severe upper abdominal pain.  I rolled around in bed for a while.  Hope got up at 7:00am, but Adam told me to stay in bed and rest.  I slept a little, but then got up at 8:30am, still having some pain.  I made my way to the couch downstairs and told Adam that my stomach pains felt like when you have a stomach bug, but I wasn't nauseous.  I tried to rest some more, but my stomach hurt too much.  Adam made his famous french toast, and I was able to eat a little, but not much.  I finally got Hope down for a nap when I then tried to nap again, but my stomach just hurt too bad.  I decided to get up then and start my cooking (apple, squash, and leek soup (from Vegetarian Times Nov/Dec issue), apple walnut salad with cranberry vinaigrette (my recipe is slightly different but very similar) and pumpkin bread pudding with homemade dulce de leche ).  Adam argued with me to rest but I couldn't and I thought needed to get these foods done (little did I know there was going to be so much food there, no one would have noticed if I had made anything or not).  Adam helped with everything and we got it done so I could rest for all of 15 minutes before we needed to get ready.  Oh well.  We got to my dad's house and I realized the only thing I had eaten all day was half a piece of french toast and it was after 4pm.  I was a little hungry, but considering I am 5 1/2 months pregnant you would think I was starving.  I had a few pita chips with jalapeno hummus and some hot apple cidar.  Dinner time - I opted to just eat the sides and not worry about making myself a main course.  I had my soup, salad, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, ambrosa, and sweet potato casserole.  I couldn't finish my dinner and I thought I was going to pop.  I did manage to get a little dessert in me (the one I made).

Friday - I woke up feeling ok, but definitely not hungry.  I got up with Hope at 8am (thank you child for sleeping in) and let Adam sleep in a little.  I talked to my sister and she was nearby doing her Black Friday shopping.  Adam got up and I left to meet her and do some shopping.  I ate a biscuit leftover from Thanksgiving with some butter like spread on it and was off.  I shopped until 1:00pm and came home.  Wasn't very hungry but ate some vegetarian stuffing my dad made just for me for lunch.  Couldn't get a lot down, but I tried.  At 4:30pm, I was on the couch again in pain and now very nauseous.  I didn't know what was happening but I didn't feel well at all.  Couldn't eat dinner at all so Adam made a run to buy my saltines and ginger ale.  I did manage to eat a few crackers and drink most of the ginger ale.

Saturday - I couldn't do much, but I did call the on call OB and ask her what was going on.  I was pretty sure nothing was going on with the baby, but you just never know.  She said it could be acid reflux, so Adam was back at the store talking to the pharmacist.  He recommended a double dose of pepcid twice a day.  I had my first dose with breakfast and then around 3pm, I was on the couch again.  I finally went upstairs and was able to fall asleep for a little while (I didn't want to take my second dose so early).  Adam's last regular season football game wasn't on tv here so we had decided to go out to watch it.  I took my second dose right before we left and felt ok, but not sure if I wouldn't have if I didn't.  I didn't eat too much, snacked on Hope's grilled cheese and fries and Adam's nachos, but came home early to put little Hope to bed (and myself). 

Sunday - Well so far, my stomach has been ok.  But with my lack of an appetite, I have such little energy to play with Hope and get jobs done around the house.  A quick search online looks like the baby is up in my stomach region and squashing it.  Awesome!  I am not even 6 months pregnant and already Junior is giving me pains.  I have been able to get some cereal down this morning and my stomach is ok, not great, but at least I am not on the couch.

So my Thanksgiving has been less than desirable.  I want it all back so I can enjoy it more.  I think I am probably the only pregnant woman who actually lost weight over the holiday.  Has anyone had this happen to them?  What is it?  Does it pass quickly?  Is it acid reflux (sorry I have never had acid reflux so I have no idea what it would feel like).  All I know is that at times, it's severe pain.  HELP!!!