Heifering Up...

Let's face it... You all know how I love food. So, it really shouldn't be a surprise to you, or to me, that I stood on the scale yesterday evening and saw that I had gained 5 pounds since the last time I weighed. It was one of those, "Oh shoot" moments when I realized I would have to scale back a little on my eating (no pun intended ;)). Actually, I shouldn't have weighed myself when I did for an accurate weight. Hahaha... I am currently wearing and fitting into a pair of my skinny pants, so it's not like I'm really a heifer. But when I stepped on the scale and saw that, I literally laughed. So, let me give you the rundown of my food consumption this weekend and you see if you can determine where I went wrong ;).

Well, you saw my splurge for my solo girlie night. Enough said about that in my last post, I do believe.

Friday I worked until 11:30 -- my last opportunity to do that. On the up-side, today I get off at 11:15. So yippee!!! I'm all about early afternoons off. But I see I'm already getting off-topic, so I'd better right myself :). So, if you keep up with my blog comments, you will see that Stefanie invited me to eat lunch with her on Friday. See, she has these meal plan things here at the University, and it's a use-it-or-lose-it kind of deal. And since Stefanie is going to BYU next year, she would be losing hers. So, she invited to treat me to lunch at Lakeside Dining. Man, it reminded me of an airport terminal in some ways, at least the airport in Tocumen (Panama), because you had to go down into the food area and you could look up and there were all glass walls where people could sit and eat and look down on you. Anyway, it was a buffet and it was awesome. I didn't even know places like that existed on campus. I think they try to hide them from me :). Okay, in spite of the fact that I said I really heifered up this weekend, I want you to know I did not make a pig of myself at this place. I didn't go back for seconds. But I did get dessert. They had delicious soft chocolate chip cookies. I mean, they were good. You can see them in the picture. (Again, I will embed multiple pictures and clicking on any one of them will take you to where you can view them all).



So, after leaving lunch (oh yeah, Stefanie also used up two more meals for us to get to-go plates. Probably we should have done this at the time we were getting our first plate, because by this time, I was packed and nothing looked good. But, in the interest of kind-of-free food, we both loaded up so we'd have extra food stocked. I admit it... I took home more cookies :). And a huge 20 oz. cup of chocolate milk. After dozing in my room and trying to sleep off my very full tummy (yeah, probably should have been out running or something), I went to Wal-Mart. But you know they say it's good to shop on a full stomach, because then you don't impulse-buy. I can attest to that. Nothing looked appetizing at Wal-Mart. However, as I cannot pass up a good deal, when I saw 2 different Ben & Jerry's flavors in the little pint containers at $1.00 each, I had to get them. And in my defense... one of them was strawberry banana frozen yogurt. (And so it really doesn't matter that the other one was peanut butter cup, because they cancel each other out :)). Just FYI -- I have not eaten any of either of them yet. No need to, as I am still working on the mint cookie frozen yogurt ;).

So, after Wal-Mart (by the way, I was highly annoyed that Wal-Mart did not have any black slip-on sandal-y type heels), I tried to find a shoe-store in my vicinity. Alas, it was not to be had. So I ran home and showered, did my hair and make-up. This is why you don't take naps when you have stuff to do... Luckily, I had 15 minutes before I needed to be at the reception thing. Yeah, I'm neurotic. I have a thing with being on time, and it usually leaves me feeling awkward. But I can't seem to help myself. But anyway, since I didn't want to be early to the thing, I ran over to Target (pronounced tar-jay) and they did have some shoes for me! Yippee! And then I was only like 5 minutes late to the reception thing. But I was still one of the first to arrive. And it was awkward. April, Courtney, and April's boyfriend Mark got there about 5:30. And finally I was able to feel more normal. So, we decided to get some food and then we wandered off by ourselves to visit. Okay, so I don't know who planned that menu. I'm sorry, but yikes. There were a few things I could/would eat, like cheese cubes. And some things I thought I would eat and then later regretted. That happened with most of the food (and there wasn't much, trust me). Okay, so the mini sandwiches were pimento cheese (very Southern for those of you who don't know). These would have been fine with me. Except that they ended up being on rye bread! Ugh! Ick! Blech! I only found that out after I took a bite!!! Ick. Yuck! I hate rye bread. It tastes like licorice! And don't argue with me. It does. And then I moved on to eat whatever spread that was with the crackers. Oh my gosh... One smell of that stuff made me think twice. I let everyone smell it. I'm not even sure what it was. I tasted it a little. And yuck! I don't know what it was. Mark ended up eating it (I'm not sure how he could) and he decided it was hummus mixed with some herb of some sort. Whatever herb it was, it was potent. And so I ate the other cracker plain, and it was stale. And then, because the woman hosting this said that someone told her you couldn't not have something sweet... She pointed th way to the cookies and candy. Gingersnaps and a small bowl of jolly ranchers. I kid you not. Ugh. You know how I love a good spread. This was definitely disappointing. What can I say? I'm a food snob. Good thing I ate such a huge lunch. So, April, Mark, Courtney and I sat around laughing and talking. Courtney was bored stiff and ready to go. April looked over at me at one point and said, "Why did only the nerdy people from the program show up?" I looked at her and said, "Do you know what this says about us?" How depressing! Anyway, be glad you weren't there. So, we managed to sneak away by about 6 and decided we needed real food. And after much deliberation, we decided on IHOP (which Courtney finally realized stands for International House of Pancakes). The IHOP part was the best part... Real food, lots of laughs.



Friday night I talked to my dad and Brad, and then I went to sleep.

On Saturday, I got up early and headed to the Temple in Birmingham. Karen met me there and afterwards, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Delicious. I must recommend the Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple. It is divine. I should probably branch out again and try something new... BUt the last 3 or 4 times I've been, I think I've gotten this one. It is soooo good. It's very rich though. I was sorry I ate the whole piece in one sitting after I was done. I rarely do that. But I didn't eat as much of the lunch as I normally do, so I thought I had room for the whole piece of cheesecake. Apparently I had room, but it wasn't a nice fit or anything. Karen and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit. It's so nice to see friends I don't get to see very often.



I drove home, got a shower. Decided I needed to come up with something cute for the nusery kids to do for their moms for Mother's Day. It also needed to be inexpensive. I mean, I can get reimbursed for anything I purchase for nursery. But that's a hassle, and it's not really about the money. I know I can find cute crafty things to do and not spend a ton of money doing it. So, I went to Hobby Lobby and looked around. I found stuff to do home-made cards and came up with a simple idea that would be different. In years past, the kids have put their hand print on a paper with the poem about handprints on the wall, etc. I wanted to do something different. So, this is what I did:



That was my example one. And you know what? I'm sending that one to my mommy. It'll be late, of course. But it's hers just the same. I started thinking yesterday as I decided to write in that card and get it ready to send to my mom about why it is we now just purchase our cards as adults. I'm not saying bought cards aren't nice. But who said that just because you could afford a bought card, that you should? I may be 27, and my thumprint might not be as cute and adorable as that of the little 2 year olds... But something tells me my mom will love this card. It has something no store-bought card has... It has a part of me in it. Again, I'm not knocking store-bought cards. I just thought about how, when we couldn't afford to buy the cards, we made do with what we had... And somehow those probably were more of us.

Anyway, I watched two movies on Saturday night. I watched The Thin Man, which was a recommendation from Tammy. I liked it. It is older and about a detective and his wife. But they are a funny couple. Very cute. Will probably borrow the others from the public library also. The other movie is from where the quote of the week comes, so I won't tell you what it was. But it was a present to myself, since it was on sale :).

And, in conclusion, I called my mom and wished her Happy Mother's Day yesterday. I also called Christina and Tarylyn and talked to my grandmother and aunt a bit. And I hope all of you mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day!

And, oh yeah... So I got a most unexpected compliment on Sunday. A girl that helps out in nursery (Celeste - she played 80s games with me once) is moving this week. Before she left at the end of the day yesterday, she said to me, "I just wanted to tell you that I think you are one of the prettiest girls in the Ward. You have a classic beauty." I thought it was a very nice thing to say. She will be greatly missed in nursery. She was such a huge help.