Easter

Easter Weekend:

The five of us, all ages 15-24 dyed Easter eggs at my Mom's request. The cool thing about all big kids/adults doing eggs is that you get some really neat looking ones. We got to go to a sweet birthday party on Saturday for little Alice's 1st birthday. It was ladybug themed and her mommy got actual ladybugs to release for the kids to play with, it was very cute and I got to spend some time with friends and my family.

Easter morning we went to church, but not to the service, we were in the nursery the whole time! Second service there were 31 kids in the crazy joint. I changed about 12 diapers in 20 minutes at one point. Ricky hid the eggs for the kiddos to hunt and made a run to get the family some breakfast.
After church we went to Longhorn and my mom treated us to delicious lunch. I got the flat iron steak from the light menu- it was my favorite steak I have had at Longhorn. Very yummy. Then we went back to my mom's and saw all the goodies the Easter Bunny had brought us. We had so much candy between Ricky and I! (I couldn't control my candy snacking on Monday and Tuesday, so I had Ricky bring the rest of the candy to work with him.) After baskets we headed home, unpacked and then a couple hours later drove to the Millenia area to meet Ricky's folks and his Auntie Val and Uncle Alan who had just flown in from England. There was a delay with their bags and customs, so Ricky and I waited in the parking lot of BJ's for one hour, then at the table almost another hour. Then Derek and Alan arrived, but Linda and Val had taken a wrong turn and were almost 30 minutes later. By the time we finished dinner it was nearly 11pm. It was a long day for us, but I can't even imagine how long it must have felt for Val and Alan who left London around 3am our time that day!

Goals

1) Get to a healthy and happy weight.
I have been thinking about my new goals since the year began. As you may know I re-joined Weight Watchers (using the online version) I hope to be within 5 pounds of my healthy goal weight by July and to maintain that weight.

2) Get Active
Additionally, I need to start exercising again. This goal presents a particular problem right now. I don't really feel safe walking/jogging in my neighborhood. We can't afford a gym right now, and my pilates videos and zumba and dance games are great but in our apartment right now there is no room to move them. So, for right now I am going to get at least one hour of serious exercise per a week and try to remain active and on my feet in the apartment when I can.

3) Continue reading more and watching less
No more than 2-3 hours a day TV- which is actually a big change when you consider Ricky and I do marathons every evening. At least 1 hour of reading each day I am home all day. And posting about the books I read each month.

4) Get better at keeping in regular contact with friends and family
If this means I have to schedule certain times to call certain people and stick to it, then that's what I will have to do. Emails and calls count. Texts and FB Messages don't, necessarily. This obviously depends on the preferred method of communication of the other person and their comfort level with modern tech communications.

boeuf bourguignon

Lunch

Broccoli and cheese quiche!

Salmon with sautéed spinach and Hollandaise

And homemade whole grain bread

Delicious adventures in lunchtime

Today I struck gold!

I had leftover smoked turkey from a barbecue meal and didn't really want a sandwich. And I had some eggroll wrappers that needed using.

Thus baked turkey brie roll-ups!

They are very yummy.

In each eggroll wrapper I placed a small chunk of brie, about an ounce of chopped turkey (If you didn't have smoked like I did left over, I think it would be delicious with good deli meat too.), six to eight dried cranberries, and a tinie-tiny squirt of spicy mustard.

Wrapped up those babies and then set them on a pan with a roasting rack. Then I spritzed them lightly with PAM. And baked them for 14 minutes at 400 F.

Deliciousness!

The Rusty Spoon and The Who

Last Saturday, November 3, Ricky and I went out for a special evening. Each of us got to do something we had really been wanting to, and we both enjoyed the night very much.

For dinner we went downtown, to eat at a place my friend Aja had been telling me was awesome. The Rusty Spoon is a gastro pub committed to local and ethical ingredients, freshness and making it all from scratch. It was soo good. We went early so we could have a leisurely time of our meal and still get to our event before it got too hectic. We ended up arriving at 4:30- before dinner service even started. We sat at the bar to have a beer, they had a pretty good craft and import selection. We enjoyed the emptiness of the restaurant at that time and talked with the bartender about the menu, their beers, and their farm sources, etc. After our first drink (maybe Ricky's second) the kitchen opened and we started out with a Butcher's Board. YUM. It had a delicious house made kielbasa with a housemade apple butter, a proscuitto like ham with shaved fresh fennel, and some kind of seafood fritter (I can't remember but it was good). I really enjoyed this first course. We waited a while (we still had an hour and a half till the doors opened and I am notoriously indecisive on menus- especially when it all sounds very good) and then ordered our entrees. Ricky got a ribeye with brussels sprouts and macaroni and cheese. I got the culotte steak with salsa verde, potato gratin and a broiled tomato with was delicious. The most delicious and tender steak I have had in ages. We took our time and savored our meals, had another drink and finished with a dessert of fresh pear cake. It was a very good meal!

Then we walked over to the Amway Center to see The Who in concert. Ricky was very very excited, even though our seats were on the top tier (because it is very expensive to see The Who).

 You can sort of see how far away we were.

During The Who

Happy us!