WEEK 28 - Happy Third Trimester To Me!!!!!

I'm so excited to be entering into the 3rd Trimester. Less than 3 months to go...

I had my Week 28 Doctor Appointment yesterday. It was a bitter-sweet appointment....literally.
My morning started early with a super-sweet Glucose drink at 7am. (Not nearly as bad as what people have told me.) I arrived 15 mins early for my 8am lab appointment. The lab tech took a blood sample exactly 1 hour after I finished the Glucose drink.

Then I waited about an hour for the appointment with the Nurse and Doctor. The nurse surprised me with a sonogram that I had not expected. Little Punkin' was moving all around, but she was being a little shy and kept her arm over her eyes. The absolute highlight was seeing her little tongue when she let out a big yawn. Super Cute!

Sadly, Bobby didn't get to see our sweet girl yawn. This was the first appointment he did not attend with me because it was just supposed to be the Glucose test and a quick talk with the doctor. Like I said, the sonogram was unplanned. I told our favorite nurse (Kristen) that Bobby would be bummed he missed the sonogram so she was on a mission to get a good picture for me to take home to Daddy. Punkin' didn't really work with us on the pictures because she kept her arm over her face, so Kristen promised they would do an extra sonogram next visit Bobby attends. :-)

Below is the best picture from yesterday's sonogram. The right side of her head is down, her left arm and hand is mostly over her eyes..... in the center you can see her nose and lips. What a cutie pie!
Little Punkin is doing great and the doctor is really happy with her growth so far.


Now for the bitter part.....I did get some bad news at my appointment yesterday, and I took it pretty hard. I failed my Glucose test.
Now I need to change my diet...
- cut out sugar -- the doctor stated that liquid sugars are the worst culprits...uh yeah, I have been having a big glass of OJ pretty much every day.
- low carbs -- this one is going to be pretty hard for me, not gonna lie
- high protein -- I already knew I needed to be better at this one anyway

Now this doesn't mean I have Gestational Diabetes.....yet.....
I have to go back in next week for the 3-hour Glucose test. If I fail that one as well, then I will be diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes and will have to take insulin.

My doctor thinks that my case can be controlled with a healthier diet and will not go beyond that.
So my new diet starts......uh, yesterday.

It is as good of a time as any to get my diet on track. Even though I took this news pretty bad, I know that the changes I will be making will benefit both me and Punkin. This is the least I can do.....
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Christmas Affair & Date Night

If you didn't make it to the Jr.League's Christmas Affair, you missed out and now you will have to wait until next year. My sister and I enjoyed the event Friday after work. We parked at the Barton Creek Mall, rode the shuttle to Palmer Event Center, and shopped until it closed at 9pm.
We found some great gifts as well as a few things for ourselves. We did not eat dinner before we went, but we kept our tummies happy by tasting all the samples of dips, soups, crackers, and chocolate. Since that was our 3rd year to attend, we have now officially named it our yearly tradition. :-)

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Upon advice of our interior decorator, we are now looking for an "accent piece" for our living room. On Saturday, we went to a furniture store that neither of us had ever been before....FourHands. We were both expecting a MUCH bigger place, with lots more to look at. Nope, obviously the time to hit up FourHands is when they do their warehouse sale (at a different location). I have been to that sale one time. One of my friends works the warehouse sales, so I am expecting her to let me know when the next one is!
After a quick look around FourHands, we decided to check out The Khanza. That is where we got our dining room furniture, which I LOVE! They were having a warehouse sale at their extra space off S.Lamar and Oltorf. So we made a run down there as well. We didn't find what we were looking for, but it was fun just browsing. Totally fine with me....now I get to keep shopping!!!

After furniture shopping, our date night began....
Earlier in the day Bobby asked me where I wanted to go for dinner, and I told him we should try the new restaurant Maria Maria (owned by Carlos Santana). He wanted to make reservations, but I told him not to since we would be getting there before the dinner crowd and I wanted to just sit in the bar for awhile and chat and drink while we wait for a table.
We walk in the door at Maria Maria about 6:30p, and it looked pretty empty. HA! There was a 2 hour wait due to being booked solid with reservations starting at 7pm. My bad. Sitting at the bar and people watching for about an hour is one thing....2 hours is something entirely different.
So we headed to one of Bobby's standby favorites - Fleming's. He called to see if they had availability. The chick on the phone put his name in the system and confirmed his information and seating preference....all of a sudden he was a VIP at Flemings ;-)
We both had the specials...everything was amazing!

After dinner we walked around the block for dessert at The Melting Pot. We ordered the Original with extra peanut butter. 1 Word: YUM!
I had a fabulous girlie martini there that I intend to try & duplicate for the Girls Christmas Party. ;-)

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ooooooo.......love me some Bobby Flay!

Austin Statesman reported this on Saturday, Nov 22:

Stars come out in Austin

Downtown Austin was the destination for three celebrities this week: chef Bobby Flay, actress Claire Danes and rocker Chris Martin.

The Food Network's Flay dropped by Cuba Libre then dallied at Lamberts. We hear that Flay is opening a restaurant near the Mean-Eyed Cat.

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a recipe for any cake you have ever dreamed of baking...

This is remarkable & just in time for the holiday baking season! Just click on the name of the cake and bam! the recipe appears!

'Night Before Christmas' Coffee Cake	'Real New York Style' Cheesecake Supreme
A Cake That's Fit For A Queen	Amaretto Italian Sour Cream Cake	Amazing Tropical Fruit Cake
Apple and Nut Cake	Apple Cake	Apple Cake
Apple Sauce Cake	Applesauce Fruitcake	Apricot Nectar Pound Cake
Baby Cheescakes Baby Cheesecakes	Banana Cake	Barron Family Cheesecake
Baumtorte (Tree Cake)	Becky's Pumpkin Cupcakes	Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake
Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake	Broken Angel Cake With Chocolate Chips	Candied Fruit Cake
Carmel Coffee Cake	Carrot Cake with Hot Glaze	Carrot-Pineapple Cake
Cherry Cake	Cherry Cake Sauce	Cherry Cheesecake Cups
Cherry-Pineapple Dump Cake	Chocolate Angel Food	Chocolate Browny Cake
Chocolate Chip Muffins	Chocolate Cookie Sheet Cake	Chocolat e Éclair Cake
Chocolate Ice Box Dessert	Chocolate Logs	Chocolate Lovers Heaven Triple Threat Chocolate Di
Chocolate Sheet Cake	Chocolate welington fudge pudding	Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cake
Christmas Cake	Christmas choclate cake	Christmas Mixed Glace Fruit Loaf
Christmas-Comes-But-Once-A-Year-Chocolate Cake	Cinnamon Morning Delight	Coca-Cola Cake
Coconut Cake	Cookie Pizza	Cream Cheese Icing
Cream Cheese Pound Cake	Cream Puff Cake	Creamy Chocolate Cupcakes
Creamy Chocolate Layered Cake	Decadent Chocolate Cake	Decadent Fudge Cake
Deluxe Chocolate Marshmallow Bars	Dream Cake	Dreamcicle Cake
Drizzle Cake	Earthquake Cake	Easy Cocoa Snack Cake
Easy Coconut Cake	Éclair Cake	Edie Ching's Cherry Cheesecake
Eggnog Cake	Extra Moist Coconut Cakes	Festive Pumpkin Gingerbread
Flower Garden Cake	Fruit Cake	Fruit Cocktail Cake
German Chocolate Upside-Down Cake	Golden Bacardi Rum Cake	Gooey Butter Cake
Gum drop cake	Heavenly Pecan Cake	Hedge Hog Cake
Holiday Cake	Holiday Poke Cake	Holiday Rum Cake
Honey Bun Cake	Honey Cake	Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
Hummingbird Cake	Ice-Cream Chocolate Roll	Jewish Apple Cake
Johnny Appleseed Cake	Lemon Cake	Lemon Poppyseed Cakes
Lemon Pound Cake	Linda's Yule Log	Mama's Homemade Banana Cake
Mandy's Cake	Microwave Scottish Pudding	Mini Fruitcakes
Miniature Cheesecakes	Mississippi Fudge Cake	Mississippi Mud
Mock Lemon Meringue Cake	Neiman Marcus Cake	No Bake Fruit Cake
Norwegian Gold Cake	Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake	Old Fashion Pound Cake
Old Fashioned Light Fruitcake	Orange Date-Nut Cake	Orange Slice Cake
Oreo Cheesecake	Peanut-Topped Devil's Food	Pecan Icing
Pennsylvania Dutch Pastry	Pineapple Heaven	Plum-Nut Cake
Pound Cake Pound Cake	Pumpkin Cake Roll	Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin log	Pumpkin Nut Roll	Pumpkin Pie Cake
Pumpkin Roll	Queen's Cake	Red Velvet Cake
Reese`s white cake	Reese's Brownie Cupcakes	Refrigerator Chocolate Cheesecake
Russian Tea Cakes	Russian Teacakes	Santa's Breakfast Cake
Self-Filled Cupcakes	Shirley's Chocolate Sheet Cake	Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Sour Cream Pound Cake	Southern Apple Cake	Swedish Nut Cake
Tiny Christmas Fruitcakes	Toll House Carrot Cake	Triple Chocolate Torte
Turtle Bars	Turtle Cake	Warcake
Watergate Cake	White Christmas Loaf	World War I Cake
World War II Cake

Where did the Weekend go???

I had a really awesome weekend! It was over way too fast!

Friday night Bobby & I had our usual debate about dinner. We eat out often (too often - we know) and we get tired of the places around the corner from our house. If he lets me pick, 90% of the time it will be Mexican food. So Friday night we were headed to Chuy's until I mentioned Hooters shrimp....Bobby jumped on that idea since it was something besides Mexican.
Driving north on Mopac I realized just how glad I was that we had ventured outside of our little area. THE MOON WAS MAGNIFICENT! It was dark orange, low, and huge...just over the skyline of Austin. It was one of those moments you know will not happen very often. I only took my eyes off of it long enough to text a few people to tell them to check it out. It was absolutely beautiful.
Hooters was not great. I used to always love to go & get the buffalo shrimp. This time, not nearly as good as I remember. I only make it there once every few years....it will probably take a few more years until I'll try it again.

Saturday afternoon I met up with some friends at the Hill Country Galleria for lunch, girl time, and some serious shopping. We all found a few good deals and spent too much money on Christmas decor. :-) Some of the husbands met up at a bar in Austin for some live music.
While the rest of us were out shopping and listening to live music, Bobby was home slaving away in the kitchen. Don't feel too bad for him....he really enjoyed his afternoon cooking for friends. He cooked a "practice turkey" along with some sides in prep for next week when he will be cooking the turkey for my family's Thanksgiving meal. The food was all (of course) delicious.

After dinner we all rocked out to Guitar Hero World Tour. Most in the group were newbies, so it took us several tries to make it through a song and not get booed off stage. But once we all found our niche, we jammed through lots of songs we knew and even some we had never heard before.
Surprisingly Madison was the Rock Star of the night on the drums. She rocked those drums for over 5 hours straight! Very Impressive!
We were all wiped by 1 am...Madison and N even stayed over. I am pretty sure Madison's hubby did not believe her when she told him she was staying over due to too much GHWT.

Saturday morning we got up early and kicked the girls out about 6:30am. Bobby & I headed to San Antonio to watch my sister run a half-marathon. Not exactly something we were all fired up to do after a late night of drinkin' & rockin'.
We cheered for my sister at the 8 mile mark and again at the finish line. Then we waited for her to get through all the post-race stuff. We all had lunch on the riverwalk then split our separate ways. Sister headed home to re-coop. Bobby & I headed to the mexican market and browsed around for while before heading back home.
On the way home I thanked Bobby for pushing us to make it to the marathon. It was really cool to see my sister complete a goal she has been working toward for a while. It really made me wish I had not given up running & training with her.
This made me think back to when she and I first started running. It was about 2 years ago when I found a beginner runner training group to train for 5Ks and 10Ks. I forwarded the information to her and asked her to go with me to the information session. She was pretty hesitant, but I finally did talk her into just going and listening to the spill. While there they handed out separate sign up sheets for the 5K & 10K training groups. I told her I wanted us to sign up for the 10K...she was like NO WAY! I finally convinced her to just sign up for the 10K, with a promise that we didn't have to actually run the 10K, we could always just do the 5Ks. We training together for about 7 months and then ran the Cap10. I remember what a huge accomplishment we both felt afterwards. I am sure she felt that x 10 yesterday.

I am so proud of you sis!

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