Today I kicked off a weekend of making holiday goodies. Most will go to work with me, and only a few can stay here. Today I made Buckeyes, which are sooo easy, but everyone who has had them loves them. These are an internet photo, as I packed mine into the freezer and realized I forgot to get a picture, but they look the same (the chocolate on these is maybe a little neater). I also wasted $10 of organic Whole Foods chocolate because it doesn’t melt right…it was way to grainy to use. My guess is they don’t use emulsifiers, so it separates, but once I went and I got Nestle’s chocolate, it worked fine. Tomorrow I am making butterscotch peanut butter krispie treats…another embarrassingly simple recipe, but everyone goes nuts for these things…and pumpkin bread. I also indulged in a treat today at the Cherrywood Christmas bazaar…a chocolate dulce de leche and seasalt bar. I am such a sucker for the sea salt and caramel combo. Even though it is everywhere now, it’s so good and hard to pass up.
I started a very wet and cold morning with a run with Pancake. We’ve been going into the little neighborhood behind Mueller lately to admire the peacocks. Apparently a few years ago someone dumped one there and others have slowly drifted in. Now they have chicks every year and I would guess there are about 10. My arm has just recovered from Pancake seeing them last week, and lunging while I held her by her leash, but I couldn’t resist running by them again. There are also a couple guinea hens in the same ‘hood, and they actually ran at us to try and shoo us away. There are also a couple colonies of wild parakeets in Austin, one being right by my house, so I saw two huge clumps of the parakeets at Mueller today. They are much bigger than pet store parakeets, and it is always cool to be running along, and all of a sudden a flock of bright green birds is in front of me. This little 6 mile run is officially named the Bird Loop from now on. It’s kinda become my Greenbelt replacement run that I try to do once a week with Pancake. Although very wet and gray out, it was fun, and felt good to still be moving at 31 weeks. Next week will be 8 months pregnant which makes the end seem close, but remember that pregnancy is really 10 months and that whole 9 months thing is a terrible lie!
Next I rushed to yoga, as the Saturday run/ yoga combo has kinda become my “long run”. A total butt kicking class that will leave more sore tomorrow. Yoga is getting harder and harder, and I haven’t succumbed to another prenatal class yet. Since yoga uses your entire body weight for the strength moves, I guess it makes sense that as my pounds pack on it would get harder. While I look forward to being more able bodied again, it will be strange to not have Spec live in me. I am sure all pregnant women go through this, but I’ve gotten so used to him, and having a giant gut, it seems natural in a sense. It just seems normal now to have someone in me constantly moving around.
As I mentioned, I went to the Cherrywood Christmas bazaar today. There are so many of these cool craft bazaars in Austin now, with the whole “these are not your grandmother’s crafts” craft movement. There was a lot of terrific stuff and it is only this weekend, so if you are bored tomorrow you should go….I cannot go to anymore of these because of the baby stuff. I cannot resist artist designed onesies. Spec has onesies with a skull and cross bones, a walrus, a carrot with eyes, a whale shark, and a t-rex. He’ll enjoy the more traditional stuff he’s already got as gifts too, but it’s just so hard to resist the hipster baby stuff.
Mike and I finished off the day with P. Terry’s burgers and the 37th street Christmas lights, which are barely happening anymore. Old Austin, RIP.
Steve and Meghan are running the White Rock marathon tomorrow. I’ll be anxiously looking for their results. Good luck, sisters…..
Why do I have a picture of a cantaloupe? Because Spec now weighs this much. He has picked up a new nickname lately: “The Little Owl”, or “Owlie” in reference to his night owl ways, although it sounds like all babies are up most the night before they are born (and after!). Had an appt today I was a little nervous for since I have developed some low abdominal pain. I thought maybe I had pulled a muscle, as it has been sore to walk. I’ve been running, but a little slower. Luckily my doctor reassured me it is just normal pain as the Little Owl moves lower. That was good news. So, I can run and just deal with whatever discomforts come my way, but there’s nothing bad going on. I got another ultrasound so she could assess his size. I think I was secretly hoping she would say he is big enough that we would need to pick a date to induce so I would know his birthdate, but alas, he is actually a little small, but she said quite a good size for me, currently weighing in at 4 1/2 pounds, at 33wks and 4 days old. He is also head down still, as he should be, so everything seems to point to me just having to wait for nature to run its course, since he’s not too big and in position. This means I could have the dreaded wait up to 2 weeks after my due date. So, Owlie and I had a little talk where I promised him great things if he would agree to come out at 38 weeks. We’ll see if he listened…
