I’ve heard from several of my friends about the “18 week belly pop” that they had during their pregnancies.  Now, at 18 weeks, I am a believer.

It’s also crazy how much bigger I look at the end of each day (vs. in the beginning).  These pictures I take each week are in the morning, immediately upon waking up.  However, once I have eaten and drunk (drunk?!?!  drinken???) a day’s worth of food and drinks, I’ve got a bump like WHOA.  I will be taking a picture of that shortly… I keep forgetting.

I am now in the 5th month, and baby is still growing rapidly.

According to Babycenter, Baby P is now 5 1/2 inches long and the length of a bell pepper!  The baby has fingerprints on his fingers and so he/she is now an individual. 

(source)

Yesterday we had the 2nd trimester detailed ultrasound.  Everything looked good, and it was truly amazing to see baby’s parts one at a time.  My favorites were the hands and feet, and the spine (which was amazing to be able to see.)  But the big news of the week was finding out the baby’s gender….

It’s a BOY!!!

S and I are both excited – but S is especially thrilled.  I would have taken either gender, I just wanted a healthy baby.  But S can’t wait to have a “mini-me” to throw the football with and teach how to use tools and fix things.  Boys!! 

Now things seem so much more real.  I have been putting off really thinking about things – what to buy, names, etc. – until we found out the gender.  Now that we know… I have no more excuses! 

My 18-week check in:

• Total weight gain: 9-10 pounds.
• Maternity clothes? About half-half, same as last week.  However, one day this week to work I wore some non-maternity clothes that I have worn quite frequently the past few weeks.  It happened to be a free-flowing, baggy empire shirt dress, and a coworker commented, “Ah, in the maternity clothes now, huh?”  Oh well.
• Stretch marks? None yet.
• Sleep: This week was pretty good, although we are still not sold on the Tempurpedic.
• Workouts: 
• Monday – elliptical (30 min)
• Tuesday – elliptical (30 min)
• Wednesday – run/walk (3 miles)
• Thursday – run 4 miles (this was HARD and I am still sore…)
• Friday – walked 2 miles
• Today (rest day)
• Tomorrow I am supposed to run 4 miles with the SFMTP group.  Based on how I felt after Thursday’s 4 mile run, I think this might be a run/walk, and I might cut it short… I will go based on how I feel in the morning
• Best moment this week: The detailed ultrasound and finding out we will have a baby boy!
• Food cravings: Somebody brought in chocolate-covered caramel popcorn at work and I had two huge bowlfuls… and have been craving it ever since!
• Aversions: None
• Symptoms: Major soreness (in NEW places) after my 4 mile run.
• Belly Button in or out? In.
• Wedding rings on or off? On.

My new gift to myself this week?  A pair of Uggs.

I never really had the urge to own (or pay for) a pair of Uggs.  But during my trip to Pittsburgh in December, my sister raved about her new pair of Uggs and said they were so incredibly comfortable she never took them off.  Now that my back and feet have started hurting fairly regularly, and I have decided it’s flat shoes from here on out through the end of the pregnancy, I decided to treat myself to a pair.

These can be worn high, slouchy,

Or folded.

Please excuse the crazy cat hair on my leggings.  Just one of the hazards of having two cats – especially when one of them is white.

My sister was right, they are crazy comfortable and have worn them for 3 days straight.  Totally worth the $$.

Ok, I’m off to watch “Wag the Dog” with S and get to bed early for my 4 mile run tomorrow.  Crazy how I am now having anxiety for my 4 mile runs (when previously this anxiety was saved for 18-20 milers!!!)

G’night, ya’ll!

Sometimes I can be a bit of a hermit.  Ok, usually I am a bit of a hermit.

(source)

Ironically enough, however, I love to be around people and have friends.  Friends and relationships in my life are the things that keep me going – the things that make me the happiest and make life worth living.  I secretly have this fear of being totally alone.

The problem is, I never actually want to go out and do something before I actually do it.  Once I am out an being social, I have a great time.  But it’s getting out there that’s the hard part for me.  I don’t want to unpark my butt from my couch!

Well, just call me Little Miss Social this weekend because I did a record 3 things with friends.  Friday night, I went to the movies with my friend Debbie.  We saw One for the Money which wasn’t that great.  The plot and the acting were just subpar.  I don’t particularly like Katherine Heigl and don’t find her likeable at all.  But I had a great time because I was out of the house with a friend!  I hadn’t been to the movies since S and I saw Moneyball back in September!

Yesterday was my hermit day, although I barely spent any of it at home.  I did do some cleaning, including my LEAST favorite chore – bathroom cleaning.

(source)

Fast forward to this morning, where we had our first run of the season for the San Francisco Marathon Training Program – Run 365.  Today was just a 3 mile run, which is pretty much the farthest I have run for 2-3 months now.  It is no longer an easy jog for me, either.  Next week we are doing 4 miles, which I think I can still handle.  But after that, I think I might be more of a walker and aid-station supporter.  I will just go with how I feel.  I am also considering getting a maternity support belt to help me with exercise as I get bigger.

After our 3 miler and a quick shower, I packed my belly and myself into the car to head up to San Francisco to meet my friends Jana and Wanda.  As an unexpected but happy surprise, our friend Virginia joined us as well.  We went to Skool, a restaurant that S actually recommended to me after going there with some coworkers a few times.  Their brunch menu looked pretty good, and they had convenient parking (not so easy to find mid-day in San Francisco) so we went for it.

(source)

We started with a shared appetizer of Baby Eryngii Fries – chinese straw mushrooms battered and fried. 

They were unique, but didn’t have that much flavor on their own so I was a little disappointed.  The dipping sauces helped, though.

For my main course, I went with the bacon and eggs.  Two eggs soft boiled, 4 slices of bacon, 2 pieces of toast, and fruit salad.  It also came with marble potatoes (cute little roasted potatoes) on the side.

I ate my whole plate clean and left wishing I had more bacon.  Bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon!!  It has been too long since I have had you, my friend.  I see more of you in my very near future.

On the way home, I stopped at a different Costco than the one I usually go to.  And lo and behold….

I heard angels singing.  They had my Knudsen cottage cheese!  Now please, please, PLEASE, Santa Clara Costco.  KEEP THE KNUDSEN!!!

Now S and I are relaxing, snacking, and watching the Pro Bowl.  Which is incredibly boring.  I love football, but have never gotten into the Pro Bowl.  I enjoyed reading, and heartily agreed with, this article.

Here are a couple of other goodies I bought this weekend:

Some goodies from Whole foods.

Kale chips,

and peanut butter.  I love that their peanut butter is only $1.99!  Whole Foods actually has some good deals, you just have to know your prices.

And some other, not-so-wholesome pickups from Target that I couldn’t resist, due to my never-failing inability to NOT buy new things.

Speaking of which, I ate my peanut honey pretzel Luna bar and LOVED it.  Now, I can’t find them anymore.  I hope more stores start carrying them soon!

Now back to the Pro Bowl (by which I really mean, back to my new snacks.)

Does anybody else have trouble getting out of their house and being social?  Any tips (besides JUST DO IT?!!?)

One of my pet peeves is when a store that I regularly go to stops making or selling something that I regularly buy.  Especially when I didn’t know it was coming, and I show up at the store prepared to get it and it is GONE.

I am in love with Knudsen’s cottage cheese.  It’s so good, and I have never been able to find another brand that compares.  I can eat it sweet or savory, and incorporate it into any meal or snack of the day.  It’s not cheap at the regular grocery store, but they sell a 3 lb tub at Costco for $5.39 and I buy one every single week.  Sometimes I  go to Costco when I don’t need a single other thing, JUST to buy my Knudsen cottage cheese.

Or at least I did.

Two weekends ago, in my regular Costco trip, the Knudsen was GONE.  In it’s place?

Hmm.  Daisy?  What’s this?  Having no alternative, I bought it.  Big mistake.

Daisy cottage cheese SUCKS.  It’s mushy and tasteless, and the curds are scarily uniform in size and shape. 

I tried it savory and sweet, all my favorite ways, and I still couldn’t stomach it.

I tried, oh how I tried to love you, Daisy’s.  But I ended up throwing 3/4 of the container away.  Last weekend I went back to Costco, hoping that it was just a fluke and that my beloved Knudsen cottage cheese would be back.

Nope.  Still Daisy’s. 

Now I have a dilemma.  Keep going back each weekend to check if Knudsen has returned?  Try a different Costco to see if it is just the closest one to my house that has committed this blasphemy?  Suck it up and pay $6 for 1lb of Knudsen at Safeway (when I know it will be gone in 2 days?)???

Sigh. 

Costco, you’re on my s*&t list.

In other news, I made a pretty stellar recipe for dinner this week – stuffed shells.  I’m not cooking quite as often these days, as I am feeling so tired by the time I get home from work and just want to plotz on the couch.  So I’m pretty proud of this one.

Browned ground beef,

Boil the shells.

Create the filling,

Prep the pan.

Assemble,

Sprinkle Bury.

Bake.

Eat!

Ricotta and beef stuffed shells

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 40 min

Ingredients

• 14 or so Jumbo Shells
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 (15 ounce) container ricotta or cottage cheese
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• Spices to taste (I used garlic salt and pepper)
• 3/4 jar marinara sauce, divided
• Additional Parmesan cheese for topping

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook beef in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until lightly browned.
3. Remove from heat and drain.
4. Combine ricotta, mozzarella, 1/3 cup Parmesan and spicesin a medium bowl. Stir in browned beef.
5. Spread 1 cup spaghetti sauce in 8×8-inch baking dish. Spoon about 1/4 cup meat and cheese mixture into each shell. Arrange shells in a single layer baking dish. Sprinkle any remaining meat mixture over shells. Top shells with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese, if desired.
6. Bake for 25 minutes, or until heated through.

Not too time consuming or difficult for a homemade meal!

In happy news, we sold our old bed!  That was a relief. 

In less happy news, we aren’t yet thrilled with the Tempurpedic.  It is still too hard.  It still has approximately 87 days to “break in” and prove itself.  Otherwise, back to Sleep Train tempy shall go, and we are left without a bed!

Which wouldn’t be so bad, if at least I had my Knudsen cottage cheese.

I have got to choose a better time to take these pictures.

See, I kept forgetting to ask S to take my picture each week.  So we set an alarm on his phone to remind us to take it first thing in the morning.  Which is why you get my stellar, I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-after-tossing-and-turning-due-to-pregnancy-insomnia look. 

According to Babycenter this week:

Your baby’s skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she’s around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

The weight of a turnip??

In addition,

You may also notice your eyes becoming drier. Using over-the-counter lubricating drops may help. If your contact lenses become uncomfortable, try wearing them for shorter stretches of time. If you still have discomfort, switch to glasses until after you give birth.

I have totally been feeling the dry eyes lately.  I’m using Visine like it’s my job, since I don’t have any contacts to be able to take out!

My 17-week check in:

• Total weight gain: About 8 pounds so far.
• Maternity clothes? About half-half.  I only have one pair of my “normal” jeans that I can still fit into, ones that were really baggy on me before the pregnancy.  I am mostly sporting dresses and skirts with elastic waists at this point.
• Stretch marks? None yet.  S bought me some oil and cream for my birthday which I rub on every evening after I get out of the shower.  Fingers crossed it helps as the pregnancy progresses!
• Sleep: Ehh… hit or miss.  Since Friday night it has been pretty good, since I have been so exhausted every night and am still trying to make up for lost sleep. Last night I tossed and turned for hours, though.
• Workouts:  I ran Sunday and yesterday (3 miles each time) and went to the gym on Monday.  The remaining days I tried to at least get a good walk in.  Running is getting harder and harder, I’m not sure how much longer I will be able to do it.
• Best moment this week: Nothing too exciting this week, I think the best moments have been going to bed and getting a chance to read and sleep in the new Tempurpedic!
• Miss Anything? Sushi, sushi, sushi!  And caffeinated coffee.  Can’t wait until I can have that boost again!
• Movement: I’ve felt little bubbles, but am still unable to definitively tell if they are baby or food…
• Food cravings: Not really.  Eating pretty much as usual, just a little bit more.
• Aversions: Nada
• Symptoms: Tired, feeling bigger and heavier. 
• Belly Button in or out? In.
• Wedding rings on or off? On.
• Most looking forward to:  Feeling the baby move/kick, and for S to be able to feel it too!  I imagine it must be hard for him to know what is going on and not be able to feel or experience any of it except through what I tell him.  Remind me that I said this when I actually am in labor and have to experience that for myself.

And look at the kittys’ new grand hotel.  Small hotel on top of big hotel = Kitty QUEEN!

She can almost touch the ceiling!

Ok, nap time.

Tonight stuffed shells are on the menu for dinner.  Then it’s time for my FAVORITE time of the day, bed time!

It was a fantastic weekend.  A sleep-depriving, exhausting, but fantastic weekend.

Friday night through Saturday morning I was at work, managing a large maintenance change.  All went well, and the work was completed right on schedule.  I’d been pretty stressed out and heads down planning for that, so I feel so happy and proud now that it is complete.  It’s like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.

I got home a little before 8am on Saturday  morning, and immediately crashed in our new Tempurpedic!  I wish I could say that I had the best sleep of my life because it was so incredibly comfortable.  The truth was that I did have very good sleep, but I was so exhausted at that point that I could have slept outside on the cement patio and had good sleep.  The Tempurpedic is actually a little hard at this point – it is definitely not as soft like the one in the mattress store.  I think that it just needs to break in a little bit, since it is brand new.  So I will had an update in a couple weeks.  The mattress came with a 100 day guarantee, so we have plenty of time to make sure it is our perfect fit.  And it has to be a perfect fit, or I am sending it back for sure since it was so expensive.

I slept until about 1pm.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing because I was still pretty tired.  I did do some grocery shopping at Fresh ‘n Easy. Every time I go there, I think that I should go more often because they have great prices on lots of items.

After an early bedtime on Saturday, I woke up bright and early on Sunday for the San Francisco Marathon training program kickoff! 

The new gear, JB-approved.

This year, the program is called “Run 365” and I am volunteering again as a pacer like I did last year.  This year, of course, will be a little different.  I’m not sure how much I will be running, if at all.  So I will be a floater – helping out wherever I can including with aid tables, bagel pickup and delivery, logistics, etc.  I am hoping I can run a little bit (short, slow runs) but there will be no pacing or long runs in my near future. 

The kickoff was fun – we got to meet the new trainees and do introductions. 

We had each trainee check in and pick up their gear.  They they ran – either 1 mile or 3 miles – to understand their current running level and pace.  Based on this information, they were assigned to a pace group to begin running next week.

Love my fellow pacers. 

You can tell the pacers by our bright yellow hats!  Can’t miss us.

There was breakfast and goodies for all, including bagels with cream cheese and peanut butter, cookies, brownies, trail mix, fruit…

Coffee and orange juice.  Only caffeinated… fortunately I brought my own mug of decaf so I had some to sip!

Gary is the head of the south bay program and he’s funny and awesome.

Lots of fun and joking around! 

And look at this ADORABLE polar bear puppy that was there!  I wanted to take it home sooooo bad.

Post-kickoff I headed home and made lunch for S and I.  I made a roast beef sandwich with a whole wheat omega-3 baguette I picked up at Fresh ‘n Easy the day before.  Sooooo good.  With veggies and hummus on the side.

I am so in love with Trader Joe’s Garlic Eggplant hummus.  It is delicious!  All of those marks in the container are from me dipping my finger in it and eating it plain.

The rest of my day was spent watching football, eating snacks, and relaxing.  The perfect end to the weekend.  The football games were awesome, too.  I was rooting for the 49ers, and was sad when they lost.  But the real heartbreaker was the end of the Ravens vs. Patriots game.  I was semi-rooting for the Ravens (I pretty much hate both teams so was torn) but I felt so bad for Cundiff when he missed that final field goal.  He must feel even worse than Kyle Williams today.

So… today’s Monday.  That sucks.  The upside is, at least I didn’t miss a playoff finals game-tying field goal yesterday.  Look on the bright side, right?

I am a few days late on this, but please excuse me as I finish working through the major change that we have going on right now at work.  I finally get a few minutes of breathing room!

So… on wednesday I was officially 16 weeks pregnant.

From Babycenter:

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he’s about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren’t recognizable yet. He’s even started growing toenails. And there’s a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

Baby P already has toenails?!?!

In addition, it says that:

Soon you’ll experience one of the most wonderful moments of pregnancy — feeling your baby move. While some women notice "quickening" as early as 16 weeks, many don’t feel their baby move until about 18 weeks or more.

I swear that I have felt some baby in there at some points the past couple of weeks.  But maybe it is just my dinner moving around    I can’t wait to definitively feel the baby.  That is going to make this so much more real.

I’m still kind of in that stage where this doesn’t seem real.  My head knows its real, but it still I cannot yet truly believe it. 

Two things that I am loving this week:

1.  My new SNOOGLE!

The snoogle was introduced to me by a friend of mine who had a baby back in June.  She told me how wonderful it was and how much it helped her throughout her pregnancy.  She also said that she would give hers to me except… she still wanted to use it after her pregnancy was over!  So I had to get one of my own.  I’ve also seen this being used by some other pregnancy all-stars, like this new momma.  As soon as I bought it and posted about it on facebook, I received tons of comments from my friends who are moms.  The consensus?  The pregnant women LOVE them.  The husbands?  Not so much.

This pillow is no joke.  It’s huge, and heavy!  But so far it has been worth its weight in gold.  And I’m sure it will only be more useful as I get bigger and further along.

The second new thing… drumroll please…

2.  A new TEMPURPEDIC BED!

This one has been on S’s wish list for quite a while now.  And we were pretty much done with our queen-sized Ikea bed.  It did me good, lasting for over 5 years since I moved here to California, and it is still in great shape so I am selling it if you know anyone who is interested.  But it’s not exactly the best and most supportive mattress, and it wasn’t the most sturdy bed.  Now that I’m married and “settled down”, I was ready to invest in a better bed.  Of course, I didn’t anticipate spending as much as we did.  But I don’t have regrets, this baby is like sleeping on a cloud!  Or so I think.  It just arrived today, and I haven’t slept on it because I have to be in the office working all night tonight.  But I’m sure that when I come home Saturday morning and sleep all day Saturday, it will be like sleeping on a cloud!

The new bed(s):

Excuse the hospital bed-ish look.  We have yet to buy a bed frame for it, so right now we just have the good old Tempurpedic frame and mattress.

We got the split king bed.  I know that a lot of married folks don’t think that you should have a king-sized bed, and probably particularly not a split king.  In fact, a year or so ago that was what I thought, too.  However, after sleeping with my wonderful S for two and a half years now, I’m more than ready for my extra space thankyouverymuch.  Especially now that both me and my snoogle have to fit in it. 

My side:

S’s side:

He is working from home today, and has not moved from the bed since it was delivered this morning.

No, you can’t have your lunch and dinner there.

The cool thing about having a split king is that we each have our own controllers for making the head and foot of the bed go up and down.  So night-owl S can put his head up and read, while grandma early-bird Rachel can go to bed by 8:30pm.

Look how loving this couple looks.  They must have a split king.

  Ok, now I am back to work.  Only 6 hours left to go in this change (fingers crossed!!!)

I’m a sucker for new things – especially new food things.  If it says “NEW!” on the package, I have got to try it.  There have been cases where I didn’t even like the old or original, but I still buy the new one.  Because it’s new, people.  I might love it!

Today, I found lots of new things that I just had to buy.  At Trader Joes:

And, although it’s not new, it is a new RECIPE.  You know I gotta try that too.

And then at Target, new Chobani flavors!

I have a crazy amount of Chobani in my fridge right now.  Last week, Safeway had it on sale for $1 each and I stocked up.  Then this week, Target had the same price (and new flavors!!)  I shall be eating Chobani for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And I don’t mind.

Finally, I got:

Can’t wait to try all my new finds!

Speaking of new things, guess what else I splurged on last week?

Yes, I did.  I kind of felt guilty doing it, seeing as how I make banana soft serve myself on a regular basis, and since I have already splurged on a Vitamix.

But making banana soft serve in the vitamix, or in my other, “normal” blender, isn’t easy.  When I try to make a single serving with 1 1/2 – 2 bananas, the pieces of frozen banana go crazy when I turn on the blender and bounce all over the place.  With enough patience, and stopping every few seconds to push down the pieces of banana that stick to the sides of the blender, I eventually end up with banana soft serve, but by that time it is usually pretty liquidy and I have to let it sit in the freezer for a few minutes to get closer to a soft serve consistency.

After hearing some folks on facebook rave about the Yonana, I finally couldn’t help myself anymore.  It helped that I had some Amazon.com account credit to soften the $50 blow.

The verdict?  It is awesome!  I haven’t experimented with any other fruits, although I am looking forward to trying some modifications and mix-ins.  Last night, I went with plain old banana with Nuttzo peanut butter and some maple syrup drizzle on top.

It was delicious!  And the perfect consistency straight out of the machine, without me having to re-freeze it or do anything at all.

Now I just have to figure out where the heck to put another kitchen appliance in my teeny kitchen!

Finally, I give you an update on our new floor.

Remember what I came home to over one month ago?

Here is what we have now:

Not too shabby, right?  All that is left to do is all of the trim around the outside,

The

separators in between rooms (not sure of the “correct” name)

And around the fireplace.

I can’t wait until this is DONE!  We haven’t even started thinking about the upstairs yet…

Ok, JB says goodbye.

Apparently, blogging hasn’t been my top priority.  Actually, it has been high on my priority list.  I have thought about blogging many times during the past week, and have wanted to blog.  But I haven’t.

One reason is work – I have been working pretty much day and night preparing for a very large project milestone that will occur next Friday.  My team will be bringing down the most important corporate applications and servers that we have – applications that, I have been informed, cost the company millions of dollars in revenue for every hour that they are down.  The maintenance is necessary, so it has been approved, but suffice to say that planning and perfection in executing are of the essence during this work. 

The other reason is that… I have an announcement.  We have an announcement. So I didn’t want to just rush through this announcement in between project meetings and outage planning.  I wanted to sit down and enjoy every minute of typing this.

(source)

The past 8 months haven’t been easy for us, as we tried to get to this point.  That might or might not be a topic of a future blog post.   But understand that we are grateful.  Very, very grateful.

That’s right…..

(source)

We are also very, very excited.

I am still somewhat at a point where it doesn’t seem real.  But now, well into my second trimester, I know that it IS real. 

I know because I can no longer go up a staircase let alone run more than 3 miles without being out of breath and tired. 

I know because I go to bed by 8:30 (reigned in from my previously outrageous bedtime of 9:30). 

I know because during Thanksgiving time, I couldn’t stomach the thought of eating anything pumpkin flavored (usually my favorite, this has been the only aversion I have experienced thus far in the pregnancy.  Oh, and it is long gone.  )  . 

I know because I gave up a marathon.

I know because my barely-b-cup “girls” are well into the C range, and I have to wear a sports bra when I sleep to be comfortable.

I know because I’m getting spacey.  Usually, I am the one in the relationship who is sharp as a tack – remembering where everything is and when all of the appointments are.  In the past week, I have put things belonging in the fridge into the freezer, things belonging in the cabinet into the bed room, and I’m pretty sure one time I complimented S’s new shirt by telling him I liked his broccoli.

I know because I’m starting to show.  And people are starting to know – WITHOUT me telling them. 

I’m proud to announce: 

Baby P. 

Expected to arrive July 4th, 2012!!!

(source)

Goodbye 2011. 

Hello 2012.

I’m about 8 days late.  But in the big scheme of things, 365 days that make up a year, 8 isn’t really that bad… right?  It’s about a2% margin.

Now, I give to you my new years, and the remainder of my trip to Switzerland, in the blink of an eye.

Truthfully, there’s not all that much I like about Switzerland.  But one of the things I like – LOVE – are the roasted chestnuts that you can buy from street vendors.

These things are amazing, especially when you first get them and they are all warm.  I always feel like I should be singing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” but really these aren’t a Christmas thing.  They are available in the cities all year round!

And they give you a spiffy bag with two sides.  One side has the chestnuts, and one side is empty for you to put the shells in as you eat them.  Genius!  Why don’t pistachio or peanut sellers at the farmers market do this??

Another thing I love, of course, is the chocolate.  I am starting to love it even more, in fact.  The first few times I went to Switzerland, they seemed to only have plain chocolate (milk and dark).  This was high-quality and delicious, of course, but I like all sorts of mix-ins and flavors with my chocolate!  Well, now it appears that they are having more flavors and varieties available.  S thinks this is because there are so many American tourists, and that’s what Americans want (because Swiss people usually just go for the plain old chocolate) and he might be right. 

A favorite of mine is this fondant-filled chocolate.

Looks plain, but a special surprise in the middle!

Speaking of surprises, look at what I found on my egg in Switzerland!

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to cry, but it was still a surprise… 

Another surprise was seeing a running store in Geneva.  There aren’t really that many runners in Switzerland, it seems.  At least… you never see any running outside on the streets.  The few times I went for a run on my trip, the people outside kind of looked at me like I was crazy.  But there must be other runners, if there is a WHOLE STORE for them, right??

It was the first time I had been to Geneva, which was fun.

The giant Geneva fountain…

On our last day in Switzerland, we went to Bern with S’s family to have a coffee and look around.

We got to the Bern clock right before 4 o’clock so decided to watch the hour hit.

It was fairly… anticlimactic.  A few things chimed and moved around, but other than that it wasn’t really worth the wait in the cold.

A last visit in the Lötschental valley (praise the lord).

Bye bye Grandma and Grandpa valley!

A brief walk through Interlaken.

A stop for a donner kabob. Have you ever had one?

They taste better when served by a Swiss dude in a red beret.

And finally, my trip concluded with my first trip on a Swiss train.  It was not, I might add, my choice.  But S’s parents decided that we needed to take the train from their house to the airport in Zurich, since their biggest car is a Toyota Prius which would not fit the five of us (Mom, Dad, Sister, S and I) plus our crap ton of luggage.

The highlight was sitting in the dining car and having a nice breakfast.

Cheeeeeeeeese!

Ok, that’s it.  Then I got on a plane, flew 12 hours, and was back on American soil in my beloved California.

I must give a shout out to Swiss Airlines.  It’s no secret that I don’t love Switzerland or most Swiss things.  But this airline rocks!  They feed you – a LOT – and it is really good food.   2 full meals and plenty of snacks on each of our flights, including this Movenpick ice cream!!

They are also really nice, friendly, and helpful.  I wish that Swiss Airlines had flights within the US!

Ok, now I’m off to watch the Steelers game.  Tebow, you’re going down! 

That Ben and Jerry’s isn’t only in the US?  In fact, it is very popular in Switzerland.

They even have some flavors that we don’t have (or at least I have never seen.)

Fairly Nuts:  Caramel ice cream with a praline almond cluster and caramel swirls

Coconutterfly fair:  Chocolate ice cream with a coconut caramel swirl and chocolaty covered coconut caramel crunch pieces

Baked Alaska:  Vanilla ice cream with marshmallow swirls and white chocolaty polar bears (I really want to try this one!!!)

Did you know… that McDonalds in Switzerland are cooler than in the US.  Some, like this one, have separate coffee and espresso bars inside.

With special treats, like cupcakes, brownies, carrot cake…

Even macaroons!

Som also have automated kiosks for easy ordering, so you can get exactly what you want and don’t have to stand in line.

They also have different kinds of menu offerings that we don’t have in the US, like a shrimp and avocado wrap, an order of shrimp, chicken wings, McZuri (a veal burger) and a McGrillSchnagg (sausage made from Swiss pork).

Did you know…

Whenever you order a coffee in Switzerland, it comes with a little sweet?  Either a chocolate or a cookie… it’s a wonderful partner to your hot drink.

Did you know…

You’re never too old to play in the snow?

And nature can make a wonderful freezer, especially for homemade black forest cake.

Until your never-too-old-to-play-in-the-snow husband attacks it with a fork during a playtime refueling.