The latest obsession.

Being a Pitcher, comes with a few pre-requisites.
(Kind of like being a mother has the pre-requisite of being a female.)
- You have to patiently deal with punctuality issues.
- Be tolerant of flannel sheets year-round.
- Be okay with sharing items (i.e. the community cup, the community chapstick..  etc.)
- Loving Reese’s.
The first two have been trying at times, the last two, not that hard.
Especially the last one.
Loving Reese’s has come easily to those who live in our home.
Loving dark chocolate, however, is an art.
So I believed, that when someone who knows of my love for dark chocolate brought me a new-fangled treat, that the treats would be safe from other Reese’s lovers in the house.
This kind heart brought them to me in the check-stand form, the larger cups in the pack of two.  Two of those check-stand packs, to be exact.
So I had no problems, in theory, of sharing one of those with Merrill, who can appreciate dark chocolate from time to time.
Then the plans changed one day.
I have been doing pretty well cutting back on sugar, but this one particular day, around five o’clock, right during dinner preparations, I NEEDED sugar.  Thankfully, I had something three times as good.  (12 times if I am doing the math right, there were four cups..)
It was heavenly.
Peyton found her way to me, she probably heard the rustling of the wrapper, smelled the scent of something better than just good.
Being the kind mother I am, I gave her one of the cups that I had only taken one bite of.
In that moment, it was decided that there would be no package of two saved for Merrill.  I enjoyed every bite, every bite with the exception of the last two bites.  Peyton wanted more too.
Enter some awesome coupons I clipped in May.
I found the miniatures, purchased them and some of the regular miniature Reese’s intended for the consumption of others in the house, only to have the bag of dark chocolate ones practically inhaled in less than one day.
By Merrill and myself.
Yup.  He likes ‘em too.
So as I had to go to the bank to make the deposit yesterday, I found the perfect excuse to buy another bag.
(The bank is so conveniently located within the walls of our local grocery store.)
I don’t call it a total failure in my war on sugar.  Dark chocolate is so good for you!  As is the protein in the peanut butter.
How’s that for looking on the bright side? ;)

Wined & Dined..

Okay.. not so much "wine" but a lot of the "dine" part..
I guess part of the perks of the new business, is stuff like this happening...
Tonight, we were invited to eat at Zucca, a very yummy, and pretty new restaurant in our area. I have been there a couple of times myself, and loved it! (Mmmmm.. two words: MARGHERITA PIZZA..) So, when we were invited tonight, I was game.
Driving there (less than 5 minutes away), the thought came to me, we might not be picking what we were eating this evening..
I was spot on..
The Executive Chef had planned our authentic 7 (seven) course meal.
Wow...
We started off with a wine list, which we passed on :)
We were served a non-alcoholic peach Bellini (yummmmm).
We each enjoyed some of Evan's margherita pizza (see the drool marks above..) and then the rest of our courses followed.. all yummy.. I didn't so much care for the pictured dish.. I am not that big of a seafood fan.. Dixon and Merrill sure licked it up..
I also had Veal for the first time.. it was very tasty.
Now imagine this: 5 different desserts, beautifully plated, ready for me!!! Okay, not all for me, but we did pass them all around (counterclockwise so I would get Merrill's molten chocolate truffle cake first...) and got to sample them all!
Heaven!!!
What an experience... the best staff were there, to serve us, and the Maitre'd was like our best buddy...
Those guys are awesome!!

It's all about you Skyler...

So one might just ask, "Why are you up at 1:30 in the morning, BLOGGING?!" So Skyler will see.. you see, Skyler was our most awesome waiter tonight (okay.. yesterday) at the ol' OG (Olive Garden).. He was a good sport, putting up with our shenanigans. I highly recommend him :) Thanks Skyler!! See, you can just see how awesome and fun he was in this here pic..
They sang "Happy Birthday" to me.. with a cute pink candle in my Black Tie Mousse Cake.. yummm...
And here we are.. those of us who didn't have to work.. missed you Jen!
I'll have to model the way cute shirt Christie made for me.. tomorrow, perhaps?
Thanks girls for a fun night out.. love you guys! Really, who eats at Olive Garden at 9 pm?!.. Julie.. ;)

29..

It's awesome..
Celebrating the last of my twenties..
Can't wait to be 30!! (364 days to go...)
Today was an incredible day, birthday or no birthday.. history is in the making, and we are blessed enough to witness it. I hope Lynn and Ash have inherited my memory!!
Got a birthday call from mom (heart).. so thankful she's the one who gave birth to me! Look at all I have because SHE gave me life.. and raised me too.. taught me just about everything I know!!
My sweet little Lynnie, gave me 2 dollars and 2 cents.. "So you can buy somethin' for yourself.. like some nail polish.. or a lip gloss... maybe a dress (wiggling her little eyebrows..) so you can wear it on a date!.. or to church.." What a sweet unselfish kid! She gets that from her dad.. ;)
Loved my e-card from Ally.. thanks sweetie!
I had a few visitors, a few calls, more than a few birthday wishes on Facebook, and they are still comin'!
Enjoyed just a little of this HUGE ice cream cake curteosy of Kaitlyn and MiKell.. thanks chickies! Lynn, Ash, and Pey loved it as well..
Mer took me to McGrath's (more than one late night up watching Food Network had my mouth watering..) got steak and crab legs.. mmmm.... forgot my camera, tried my cell phone's camera. and my computer won't let me save it as a picture file! Well, all the better.. I wouldn't want to tease ;)
Then we got to wrestle the girls to leave Grammy's house... we had to work off dinner anyway..
Plenty of sweet hugs and kisses from the girls... what a day!!
Thanks all for making it such a swell day!!

Three days...

So.. that cold that was in my house before Christmas.. the one I was avoiding so well.. I got it.
It hit me Saturday, and it hasn't been pretty.
Lynn got some variation of it, Ashley has it too, so we have been home bound for the last two days.
I am seriously not good for much. My head is quite foggy. I wish I could scrap!! But I know if I did, I'd just tear it all apart once I can see clearly again.. so I am behind in the 4 a week thing.. Let me enlighten you on what I have learned while being useless..
Snuggling up to my sweetie, always makes me feel better..
If I had broken that wish bone and come out victor, I would have wished that this would go away, never to return.. but really, Ash won, Lynn was broken hearted..
And the best way to spend a Monday, is playing..
I did get the house cleaned, re-acquainted myself with my hellacious non-sucking vacuum (just a week to go Mer ;)..).. got tons of laundry done, and managed to get a shower in before Merrill came home!
In Peyton's "I don't want to sleep unless you are holding me in a way that I can sleep but you can't" phase last night, I learned that watching Travel Channel's "Deep Fried Delights" and "Best Steakhouses" is a very bad idea.. can you say, hungry?
I ended-up taking Pey out for a drive after midnight, trying to get her to zonk.. it was short-lived. Let's hope it was a one night event :)
Sleeping with her on the couch, not so good.. she is a wild woman!! Yoga did't quite cure my back and neck today.

My Bloggin' Good Friend Ally...

Today, I love my Mailman... Well, I really love Ally, but I love that my mailman didn't screw this one up! Isn't' this fun? I got a box-FULL of Girl Scout cookies, and a surprise on top! Thanks Ally!!! (I did eat half a box of Samoas all by myself last night while I was nursing Peyton, so they cancelled themselves out, right? Too cute! Love the Peyton Green! Such a fun surprise after busting my butt cleaning my house and referee-ing sister fights all day long... I woke up Peyton last night to take a pic to post, then my camera battery (yes I need to buy a back up...) went dead... no posting last night! My blessing of the day: An awesome friend who not only sends me Girls Scout cookies, but a bonus! Love ya Ally!

I am so thankful for prayer!!!
I know I've said that things need to be taken care of, calling wise... I've been worrying about that and how to get it done. And today my prayers were answered when the Bishop approached me. It will all be better.
Lynn has a fever, again, and this morning she told me her throat was sore too. When she found out that that meant she couldn't go to primary, she said that she felt all better. Since when has there been a fight over her wanting to go? Anyway, she really wanted the kids to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. Once I told her that they could sing to her next week, she was okay. Merrill is still battling a headache from FRIDAY... I need a wonder drug for him.
My divinity last night:
First attempt: syrup turned into hard candy. I got a phone call, church stuff, while we (yes, a family activity) were cooking the syrup, and it went a little longer than I thought it would, of course... We got hard candy. I forgot to tell him to turn down the heat.
The second attempt we were more careful, maybe too careful... We cooked it, to what I thought was hard ball stage, mom tells me it was probably in the first stages of that but not to temperature. You are supposed to beat it in the beaten egg yolks, until the gloss leaves, about 5 to 6 minutes. 15 minutes later, it was still glossy. Ash and I enjoyed eating it with spoons. It was like marshmallow cream. Mer and Lynn thought we were crazy! I decided to just dump it out on a cookie sheet and see if it would set up. It did a little. It tastes just like it should, just not the right consistency. And now Lynn enjoys some tastes too.

So I am thinking here, I needed to add another post here, one that is separated from my heartfelt one below...
I have been in a funk lately that I have been self-medicating with food. The other night it was a chocolate Haagen-Daz bar covered in dark chocolate, then some late night pumpkin pie buried in whipped cream, a few nights before that it was spaghetti with homemade marinara around 10 pm, another night a dark chocolate Dove ice cream bar (see how I love dark chocolate...), and last night... I know I mentioned Ben & Jerry's... I didn't come back to say that it ended up being the whole pint! I really love the graham cracker swirl in the strawberry cheesecake swirl ice cream. I just couldn't stop. Once I got all the graham cracker out, I rationalized that there really wasn't enough left to bother saving it for later, so I just ate the rest...
1 pint = 4 servings
1 serving = 260 calories
260 x 4 = 1040 calories (and that's if my Roy High School math skills are correct...)
So who wants an update on how much I weigh after my next doctor's appointment? (Which I should add will be conveniently after Thanksgiving...)
Oh, and yes, it helped me feel better, a little bit.