things....and more things

Is there anything better than smelling a smell that makes you feel nostalgic? Really now. Smells have a way of putting me in a mood where I want to sing songs, dance a dance, write a poem, or recount tales of my childhood!!

I carved a "happy" pumpkin today, at Plava's request, to add to our slow growing family of pumpkins on the porch. Aaaaaaah, the smell of the guts is like no other smell. Well, there are a few smells like that in my life - turkey dinner cooking, a certain perfume I bought when I was a teenager, freshly cut grass, and the list goes on. But oh, pumpkins smell SO delicious!! I wish it was as wonderful to munch on the pumpkin guts as it is to smell it!!!

So today is Halloween! Happy Halloween!! I, Plava, my sister Teresa and her two kids went to the pumpkin patch this morning. For all the excitement Plava showed leading up to this event, she was surprisingly unhappy when we were there, but then that's to be expected. Who could ever predict the mood pattern of a toddler? I think she had a fun time in spite of feeling unsure and rather whiny. She told me that she enjoyed it, so I'll take that!!

I particularly like this last shot. It looks like a band picture that belongs in a cd case.

On another note, I've got three weeks and three days until my due date. Eeeep!! That sure sounds soon, doesn't it? I'm excited about it! I don't know how mentally prepared I am, but when can you ever really be mentally prepared for something this big? I mean, no amount of advice or warning or anything could have prepared us for what we went through when Plava came, and although this won't be as extreme a lifestyle change as going from two fairly selfish adults to having to sacrifice time and sleep and personal desires for a new baby (that was worth it all, by the way), it will still be a huge change, and a huge challenge to sort out how we're going to handle two kids at once.

Ryan has decided (and been encouraged by his boss!) to take some paternity leave. WOO!!! I can't express how excited this makes me! He's going to take 6 weeks! 6 WEEKS!!! This is excellent. I feel like the transition is going to be easier because of that. Christmas won't be such a chaotic, difficult time with business and gatherings and gift giving and receiving, but rather it will be something we'll be doing as a full family. We can do it!!

So, with three and a half weeks to go, you can imagine that I'm looking rather round these days. Well, what do you think?


I'm trying to do two things at the same time these days that just aren't working out together. I'm trying to cut down/cut out sugar, and I'm also trying to eat semi-vegetarian. Okay, semi-vegetarian doesn't actually make logical sense, but what we've been doing is rather than eating meat at every dinner, we're eating it more like 2 or 3 times a week. It's cheaper (!!!) and it's nice to eat other types of protein that are stinkin' healthy! (Like chickpeas and lentils...mmmm) BUT, the problem lies with the way my body has been reacting to the change in diet. You see, when one is low in protein, a typical response is to crave sugar. SUGAR!!! And that brings us to the fact that I'm trying to cut out sugar so that I don't bear a 12 lb baby in a couple weeks. ACK!!

Halloween has been no help, I tell you.

So I'm struggling. I'm adding a little more meat back into my diet and trying to eat cheese, nuts and seeds as snacks (along with fruit and more healthy sugars to curb my moments of DESIRE). Man, I have hardly ever felt these kind of cravings for sugar, and have hardly ever had such difficulty NOT eating something I'm craving!! The candy waiting for the trick-or-treaters calls to me, lures me, beckons me to it, and I cave most times. NOT every time, but most times.

Thankfully, I AM getting better, and there's nothing as effective as getting out of the house and away from it to keep my hands clean.

So wish me luck! I've got sugar to avoid, meat intake to keep low, a baby to birth, trick-or-treating to accomplish, and a life-change to flip flop through. It should be a fun couple of months!!!