The Cheese, Oh!, the Cheese

10 weeks!

My oven has never been so clean!  I got up Saturday with so much energy, as opposed to dragging all day every other day, that I cleaned the oven bottom.  Then the oven glass.  Then the oven grill.  I was a cleaning machine!  I scrubbed, scraped, and buffed out every speck of remains out of that oven.  It took me a few hours, and I STILL had enough energy to put a load of wash in, scrub N's hair, and get ready for a party.  Which we didn't make because our car wouldn't start.  :/

Lately, my cravings have been more noticeable.  I'm not a huge Mexican food fan, but the combination of ground beef, refried beans, cheese, sour cream, and avocados makes my mouth water.  Something about all that soft food going together...  MMMmmmm.  SO craving it now.  And tempura rolls, some of the few rolls I can have.

And ever since December, breakfast has to be arepas made from white masarepa flour with yellow cheese (cheddar or colby).  YELLOW cheese, you hear?!?  Not white cheddar, not gouda, YELLOW.  This craving for yellow cheese is killing me here.  I get it from our small store here at work where they get military commissary items, but they run out.  And then I go a little nuts.  Yesterday I ran all over the city looking for any kind of yellow cheese, and no luck.  Tried the local supermarket deli, tried the English market, even tried the gourmet tourist trap Saluhallen with 10 different deli counters, and I finally came to the monochromatic realization: most if not all the cheese I found here is white.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the cheese in Europe.  I love cheese period, but yes, cheese here is wonderful.  I just have a craving once in a while for yellow cheddar or colby, it melts different.  Look, I know the cheese is not naturally yellow (or orange), and it's just added coloring, but I'm just salivating for it.

Which brings me to another topic, that everything that goes in, has to come out.  Generally.  The constipation  these last several weeks has been, well, nothing short of painful.  Just the thought of going to the restroom brought tears to my eyes.  And yes, I've tried several remedies: kiwis, yogurt, muesli, coffee, oranges, water, fiber tablets...  I'm hoping last night was the turning point.  It was the first time in a very long time I didn't suffer through the process.

So maybe, just maybe, if I'm getting my energy back, and the constipation may be getting better, maybe this is the beginning of that "middle" trimester where things sail by easier, when your body isn't so out of whack.  One can hope?!?