so every other thanksgiving i can recall, i remember eating WAY too much food and feeling so extremely horrendous the rest of the day , but still manage to shovel in another helping two hours later and sample every dessert on the card table. yikes! i hate that feeling when you feel like you are going to burst! but this year was different. i had eaten a good snack a couple hours before dinner was going to start so that i wouldnt be starving and be tempted to chow down. and i succeeded. i only had one helping of everything and of course saved room for a slice of pie. or two(= and whip cream naturally (=

i was very excited about this cranberry sauce recipe i had found last week. i have never even liked cranberry sauce at any occasion, but for some reason i thought i would like to attempt to make this one. it turned out so good! here is the link for the recipe if you are interested. and i bought a chocolate torte from trader joes last week that is absolutely fantastic.... you must purchase this cake for a party! and some sparkling blueberry juice to wash down dinner... really was great!

i told my husband a while back that i was looking for a book that had every food in it with all of the nutrition facts and health benefits and other interesting info about healthy foods... and i found it. i stumbled across it and am so excited about it. it is called The Worlds Healthiest Foods by George Mateljan. he started the first organic health food line years ago and has been experimenting and researching lots of foods for a while. seriously, everyone needs this book, it is so helpful and interesting. by the way it is HUGE! looks like an encyclopedia.. which it sort of is. i felt like i was in high school again, studying for a test or something. and it also has several recipes for each food. i have tried a few and they are great. there is a website where i found out about this book, i have a link to it on my side bar. but i will put it here too. www.whfoods.org .

justin is open to the idea of getting rid of the junk he eats, but he says i shouldnt rush him....and that he has already made lots of changes since we have been married. like eating whole wheat pasta, fruit leathers and cutting back on doritos. i guess i cant expect him to stop cold turkey eating what is fatty and yummy, but it makes it a lot easier for me not to eat junk if it isnt in the house. he has been gone since sunday and i havent eaten anything like i would when he is here. salads for dinner and nothing fried... and there was still left over halloween candy sitting around and i wasnt even tempted.. hmmm..... i never really thought about it but he is a bad influence on me (= well it is just easier to eat the same thing for dinner as him. it is too much time to make separate things, although sometimes that does happen. i am not really a good cook or anything, so hopefully i will be able to whip up some fabulous healthy meals that he will love and not want to eat cheese covered cheese all the time.

speaking of him being gone. on sunday night after he left the kids were doing well. valen went to bed without a peep and dahlia was an angel! but then morning came. valen woke up at 5, which is fine, but then right after he went back to sleep, dahlia was awakened by the storminess and started screaming at 6am!!! so that woke up valen and we all had a smashing dark morning(= (i am joking) so i lost hope after that, and since then things havent gone very well, but they could have been worse, i just keep telling myself that (= so i am looking forward to some rest tonight since justin will be in just in time for valens screaming episode. i am so glad he has this job, but still hate the part where he goes away! but i am glad he got a break. even though he is working down there, he is still having a lot of fun.

things are kinda rough in these parts. ive got mastitis AGAIN! so we have decided to buy an electric breast pump and see if that makes a difference. he hasnt been eating very well lately. not latching comfortably and hasnt been eating very much. at his last appointment he hadnt gained a lot, but the doctor said not to worry as long as he is healthy and is gaining something. but i really think he is actually losing weight. his diapers fit different and he looks scrawny, so we will pump for a while so we can make sure he is getting all of my goodness. this pump we bought is awesome and sure beats manual pumping by a long shot!!

hopefully we can get him on a better schedule. this two times a night deal (sometimes three) is getting old real fast. i am so sleep deprived, i dont know how i function at all. justin was listening to a podcast about sleep and how much we need it to function properly. studies have been done to show that your brain doesnt work as well on little or no sleep. which is what i have been saying forever! (= so when new moms say they lost their brain during delivery.. it is true! i hopefully will get mine back before next summer (= if only dahlia would take naps, life would be so rosy (=