Theobromine Schmeobromine

That big word is the medical term for intestinal poisoning from chocolate--you know, the old "Don't give your dog chocolate; it'll kill 'em" thing. Well, turns out our rangy mutt Ranger has super-dog chocolate resistance powers! He really is a terrible dog, but just so lovable! Anyway, I had a Wal-Mart sack of Halloween candy sitting in a kitchen table chair, and I must have knocked it off into the floor when I grabbed my purse and ran out the door for Sunday night church. Ranger was in the house, and of course, discoverd this sack. When we came home, I found one large Kit-Kat bag completely empty--no wrappers, nothing. Just tiny bits of milk chocolate and cookie scattered across the rug. He ate the entire bag, wrappers and all; it had to have been two pounds of chocolate at least!!

I read on Wikipedia today about Theobromine poisoning, and it said that it would take a little over a pound of milk chocolate to make a 44lb dog sick. Well, Ranger probably weighs about 60lbs, and he is none worse for the wear after this little chocolate experiment! He even ate ravenously the next morning! And actually, just so all you pet owners know, the American Veterinary Medical Association says that chocolate rarely causes actual death, usually just temporary stomach problems. Still yet, does anyone really want to share their chocolate? Not me!

Scarily Good Weekend!

This weekend was strikingly similar to last weekend, at least Saturday was: STUDY TIME! Friday night, though, we did something kind of fun: Jay and I went to the annual Coleman Halloween carnival--this year it kind of meant something for Kyle, my younger brother, because the seniors run the big money-making activity of the night: Bingo! So we played some bingo--unfortunately, we went home empty-handed, although I did get to shout Bingo! one time, courtesy of my red Power Ranger youngest brother, Tyler. The very first game we sat down to together, he got five right across the middle! He was so surprised, he could only sputter, Bingo? So I had to holler it for him. His prize? One of the dubious grab bags, filled with all the reject stuff the stores gave my brother and his compadres: two VHS tapes of five-year-old movies, an audio cassette of Robert Plant, some Sundowner mugs, some Sonic gift certificates, and a Big Red soda. Ty enjoyed the Big Red soda, and was glad to see he got a replacement copy of Spiderman, since they lost their DVD of it. Mom bingoed, too, although a bit anticlimactically: one of her best friends was sitting next to her, so of course she was chattering away and trying to catch all the numbers at the same time. She lacked one number to Bingo, and said, Oh, just this number left! And then looked at her friend's board, and that number had been called already! She missed it! But she still bingoed in time, and won another grab bag.

Saturday was spent cleaning house and reading snippets of Chaucer, Donne, Milton, Swift, Wordsworth, Keats, and of course, Shakespeare. Fun! I have decided I like American lit much better than Brit Lit, with the exception of Shakespeare, who is lots of fun, I think. Give me Poe, Thoreau, Dickenson, Whitman, Steinbeck, and Hemingway anyday over those others! Unfortunately, Senior English is usually Brit Lit, so that means Beowulf, all that rigidly structured poetry, and Shakespeare, who will offer some relief.

Baby update: My next prenatal appointment is next week, and the big ultrasound where I find out the sex and see if he/she's healthy is two weeks after that. I can't wait!

Kids Incorporated flashback

I'm not sure how many of you will appreciate this; I'm thinking Lissa and Amanda might be the only ones who smell what I'm steppin' in with this little post.

How in the world did Stacy Ferguson, the star of Kids Incorporated (ca. 1987 Disney show that was almost as good as MMC, but sadly, lacked the staying power), go from this to this?!! Forgive me if you already knew that All-American, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Stacy grew up to become the pseudo-ethnic, provacative rapper girl we know as Fergie, originally of The Black-Eyed Peas? I don't even want to know what a "London Bridge" is. Stacy was my sister and my favorite on Kids Inc.: she could "Walk Like an Egyptian" and "Do the Dinosaur" like no other!

12 weeks bump!

Well, here's my bump! I can't believe I'm already showing, but I definitely am. I'm going to do some scrapbook pages of pregnancy, showers, etc., so I'll probably take pics at every trimester at least.

I had a good fall break; can't believe it's over already! I studied for about 11 hours for the English OSAT, which is in two weeks, and Jay went hunting two or three times. Bought some maternity clothes, and saw a really good movie, The Prestige.

Fun, relaxing weekend

Jay and I actually went out to eat this weekend! We went with this couple Jay is building a house for to this really neat restaurant in McKinney called Genghis Grill. You make your own stir-fry: pick your meat, seasoning, veggies, sauce, and noodles/rice, and then the dudes (I wouldn't call them chefs) cook it all up for you on the grill. I tried to use one of their recipe cards--Thai Chicken--and went a little overboard on the dragon salt--I was breathing fire! This was the ideal restaurant for Jay, as he loves to do all the fun stuff in the kitchen, and then have someone else actually put it together and clean up afterward. Ha! The restaurant was definitely trial-and-error, but fun nonetheless.

On the pregnancy front, I have hit the 3 months mark! My pants are getting tighter, and it's becoming more difficult to sleep. It's just weird getting used to this sudden, extra girth around my middle that makes it impossible to sleep on my belly, my favorite way to sleep. Also, I sleep on my back a lot, and that's unsafe for the baby after your first trimester, I read. Anway, somebody call the Whaa-mbulance for me, right?

Fall Break this weekend! I'm going to study, study, study for my English teaching certification exam, which is only two weeks from this weekend! Yikes!

Second prenatal appointment

Well, as I'd mentioned before, the dissipation of my morning sickness had me a little worried. I didn't feel pregnant anymore! But rest assured; I'm still pregnant! I went to the dr. yesterday, and heard the baby fig's heartbeat!! It was amazing!

I get to have my *big* ultrasound in 6wks. That's when the doc will check out the organs, and we should learn the gender! SO excited!! I'm so ready to start planning the nursery, names, and buying clothes and books and toys!! (I know I'll get a lot at showers, but the possibility of shopping in the baby department is absolutely thrilling!) Registries!! Hurray for registering for gifts at Target and Wal-Mart!

I also had another baby dream last night. It was much less linear and understandable than my last one: In this one, I was racing through Wal-Mart I think, pulling along one of our preacher's sons, who's 7, with me. We reached some sort of bar & grill / ticket buying place, and I was trying to buy tickets for an OU game on this kiosk thing (inside a Wal-Mart!). Anyway, I left the boy with this table of boys I knew while I messed with the kiosk a few feet away. During that time, the boy somehow became my baby, named Daniel. Another boy dream!! I remember looking over at the little boy-child, so amused to see these young guys holding him so gently, and so proud of my little baby!

My first baby dream!

Well, I'd read that moms-to-be often have very vivid dreams, and sometimes even dream about their baby! Well I did that last night, and it was pure bliss! It was a beautiful, blond baby boy! I remember thinking last night before I went to sleep about how we'll have to start keeping the dogs out of the house more once baby arrives, and sure enough, my dream was about me trying to keep the dogs away from our little boy! His name was vague; I remember thinking it was a combination of Sam and Austin--Weird, huh? Samston? Aussam? Ha! I hope I don't get crazy in my third tri and start making up wacky names!

Boomer Sooner!

Well, I always get excited for OU/Texas weekend, not so much for the game, but for the fun get-together my family usually has. Uncle Danny and Aunt Neila fly in from Indiana to go the game every year, so we ususally see them the day before or after, and Uncle Matt and Aunt Michelle drive down from the OKC area and leave their three girls with us for the weekend while they jaunt on down to Dallas! So we'll gather at my mom's house tomorrow for some game-watching, visiting, snacking, and playing. Check out my cooking blog for the dishes I'll be bringing. Today, I got a little jolt of Sooner pride when the Pride of Oklahoma did a performance at SOSU! The director, Brian Britt, is a Durant High alumn, and his parents both worked at SOSU for years. It was so fun; I forgot how exhilirating it is! I did feel kind of weird being the only person who knew all the words to the chant, all the moments to shout "OU!" and "Go big red!" and to hold my right index finger proudly in the air during the chant. (How can anyone be so disrespectful as to NOT do that?!!) Oh, and of course yell "Sooners" at the end of the national anthem over "brave" (as in "land of the....Sooners!") When I first heard that, I thought it was a tad disrespectful, and usually didn't do it at games, but today, I felt compelled to show my Sooner pride!

Jay's very excited because bow season started five days ago. He hasn't gone yet, but he's going tomorrow morning. Thus begins my season of widowhood. No, it's not that bad--he'll go three or four mornings a week for the next few months, and then he'll take one trip to Kansas for three or four days during black powder season. That's the only part that really leaves me a "hunting season widow."

Well, as I posted last time, I was thinking my morning sickness going away around week 9 was kind of weird, but it's back now. It's very mild though. I left work yesterday for it, mostly because I felt extremely tired, and a little queasy. So regular snacking and resting are back on the agenda for me.

Boomer Sooner!

Eating (un)healthfully

So, according to What to Expect When You're Expecting, an excellent diet during pregnancy leads to excellent health of the baby. Unfortunately, the book says, most pregnant women simply have a medium-good to low-excellent diet, leading to medium health for the baby. I honestly do want to give my baby the best possible start in life, but eating healthy is SO HARD when you love the following things so much:

1. Pizza!
2. Peanut butter (in large amounts and frequently, not these 2tsp servings)
3. Taco Bell (I had stayed away from this for so long, but the other day, in a moment of near-starvation, I headed for the border, and my taste for the Bell is ba-aack!)
4. Eating in general.

I enjoy eating, okay? I'm not a glutton, and my portion sizes are good, but I certainly don't have an excellent diet, especially on weekends. Also, the whole varied diet thing? What to Expect's Best Odds Diet gives you twelve food groups to work into your day, from green leafy and yellow fruits to protein and iron. Geez! This means every single thing I eat needs to fit into one of these categories, and not a category I've already met my quota in for the day!

And then I hear some people say, "Who cares? You're supposed to gain weight; eat what you want!" "Those vitamins will take care of everything you need!" (That last one might have been a voice inside my head.)

For now, I'm trying my best to steer clear of fast food and desserts and control my portions. On weekends though, just about anything goes. Any tips from healthy eaters and/or mommies on getting all the nutrients my baby needs?