Is it really Sunday already? Does the holiday weekend really end tomorrow? Bah humbug! I have thoroughly enjoyed myself the last few days and do not want it to end. It seems you all love the care-free, holly-jolly feeling as well – evidenced by the numerous smiley faces in the comments from my last post. Also, for those who asked, I have not shared a recipe for the fudge because its a pretty special recipe to me. I can tell you this – instant coffee and peppermint extract are involved for the peppermint mocha version. I make the rest with love. 😉

Last night Peter & I shipped Makenzie off to her grandma’s for the night, so we could have one last night to ourselves before baby B arrives. With packed weekends between now and the New Year, plus not knowing how soon baby B plans to make an appearance, we wanted to take advantage while we could.

You would think that we would choose to use that night for a spectacular evening in downtown Atlanta or a mini baby-moon to the North Georgia mountains. Wrong! I only wanted a low key evening just the two of us and the chance to sleep in the next morning. Instead of a high class evening, we ended up on a date that had us laughing at its high school nature – dinner and a movie. It still suited us perfectly, despite the 10+ years since our high school days.

Since we had plans to hit up a theater with an IMAX, our night brought us to an area mall. That meant chain restaurant city. Out of our options, we decided to visit where we actually had our first date almost 5 years ago – Carrabbas. It satisfied me plenty. We started off with the bread + oil/herb mix for dipping.

Then, I had an Italian salad with the mezzaluna (chicken & spinach ravioli with a sundried tomato sauce) for my dinner.

Delicious and I still have half of my meal leftover. Easy dinner tonight? Hmmmm….

After dinner, we headed to our movie – Harrie Potter 7 in the IMAX theater.

I am a total tweeny bopper with my love for the Harry Potter books and movies. Twilight too! They are so fun to me. I went in without any high expectations because I have heard many say it wasn’t quite as good as they hoped. I ended up pleasantly surprised. I loved it and cannot wait for the final movie next year.  I will say IMAX doesn’t live up to its claim to fame though. Not worth the extra $6.50 per ticket.

After that we headed home and crashed. I don’t do well staying up until after midnight. Knowing we didn’t have Makenzie to wake us up in the morning helped. And we took advantage. I did not wake up until 10 am and stayed in bed until 11! We haven’t done that since before kids. It felt amazing.

Since it was already so late, we both were quite hungry and at the last minute decided to hit up The Flying Biscuit for a breakfast out to continue our lazy care-free time together. I wanted savory so opted for their basic platter which included farm fresh scrambled eggs, chicken sausages, a fresh biscuit with cranberry apple butter, and some of their famous grits.

Peter ordered the same thing but with an oat pancake on the side for us to share.

That place serves the best breakfast out of any restaurant I have tried. Only half that plate and a few bites of the oat pancake filled me up.

I still feel a little under the weather and did have another big contraction last night (just one) so I plan to spend the rest of the day taking it easy. I hope you all have the chance to as well. See ya in the morning with a Q+A post for all the questions I received related to my weight. Duh duh duh. 😉

• What is your favorite chain restaurant?
• Do you ever go into movies with lower expectations because you don’t want to end up disappointed?

Good morning! Or whatever you call 11 am. I’ve already been up for 6 hours. Likely longer, in fact, since I did not sleep much at all last night. I maybe got 3 or 4 hours total. I laid down at 10:30 and was up by midnight tossing and turning from the worst lower back, hip, and sciatic pain I have ever felt. On the bright side of this oh so fabulous pregnancy, my blood sugar levels are perfect and I don’t have gestational diabetes. Yay!

I really do feel thankful for that. And for hot tea, Tylenol, and a daughter willing to let me chill on the couch until I can move again without wincing. You know, until she needs something. So an entire five minutes at a time people! Woo! I sure do love her though. Despite the fact I almost considered still going to Power class because it could feel easier on my body than the up/down/up/down of chasing after and helping her.

What? Did I say something wrong? Oh, you’re just reminding me of that whole role model thing? Thanks. I needed that. 😉 In all seriousness though, I am taking a rest day today because I know my body does not feel up to doing much. I always remind myself of the fortune of this pregnancy and the child it will bring. And I will enjoy my day, even though there is no rest for the weary mother. So now we shall move on to this morning’s sleepily written post: my favorite oat concoctions!

As you may know, I set up a place for you all to easily ask me questions for the Q + A series I hope to do in November. I also realized this morning that I typed the link incorrectly, so I apologize to the the 20 or so of you who clicked and found a missing page in the past few days. HERE IS THE CORRECT LINK if you feel inclined to ask me a question. I’m an open book, so ask away. You can also post a reader’s request topic there, as someone did requesting a post on my favorite ways to eat oatmeal. And here we go!

I make my oats the same way every day I have them, which is most days because they are easy, versatile, and delicious. I always make my oats hot. I do not do overnight oats. Something about the texture bothers me. I do the eyeball method, so you will have to bear with me here. I add about 1/3 c oats with cinnamon to a microwave safe dish and then add enough water to slightly cover the oats.

I microwave (yes, microwave – I’m the notorious lazy cook remember?) for 4 minutes at 50% power and it always gives me the perfect creamy consistency. At this point, I add my toppings. I add any variety of the following that sounds good on a particular day: sliced banana, berries, sliced peaches, “baked” apples, dried fruit, coconut, nutella, honey, peanut butter, greek yogurt, maple syrup, maple almond butter (thanks to Janetha!), pumpkin, and on the rare occasion some protein powder. I’m sure I have forgotten some favorites in there too. Below are some of my favorite combos:

Berries + Nutella

Pumpkin + Maple Almond Butter Parfait

Greek Yogurt (usually strawberry or honey flavor) + Peanut Butter

Dried Fruit, Honey, and Peanut Butter (a current obsession for the whole lower volume eating need)

Banana, Coconut, and Peanut Butter (although I bet this would be amazing with Pineapple Chobani instead of the pb)

• What is your favorite oat topping combo? Or, if oats aren’t your thing, what is your favorite go to breakfast?
• What’s your favorite tea? I’m loving me some black chai vanilla right now. So calming! And hot!