Today was my friend’s son’s 3rd birthday party. Of course I wanted to bring my little niece. However, there was one little problem. If you read my blog you know that I rarely talk about children. I mean they are cool little people, but they typically don’t fit into my schedule which is why I don’t have any yet. But, for some reason I really wanted to take my niece. I was so nervous, I’ve never taken her anywhere alone. My friend assured me that I would have plenty of back up. When I went to my sister’s house to pick her up, as soon as I walked in the door, my niece exclaimed “Ni Hao Auntie!” Ni Hao…I asked my sister? Isn’t that Chinese for hello? My sister laughed and said yes it is, she watches some show like Dora the Explorer where the little girl speaks Chinese. How cute for my 2 year old niece to greet me in Chinese. I asked her about the special rules. You guys probably know our baby was a preemie (1.7 lbs at 24 weeks) so she’s got all kinds of stuff going on. Aside from severe asthma and allergies, my sister said no strawberries, no citrus fruit, no pork, no egg whites, no peanuts. “Uh….okay, is that all?” No wonder I’m nervous I thought to myself. She asked the baby is that all and she shook her head no. My sister says “oh yeah, no dairy or dogs”…. Well, me or my sister don’t eat pork and we’re both lactose intolerant so that part would be easy to remember. She saw my worried look and asked “Do you want me to write it down?” I said “no I think I got it all.” We loaded up her car seat into my car and we were off.
I thought I got a great parking spot at the huge mall, but I grossly underestimated the challenge of walking with a two year old. When we got inside the party she freaked out because of all of the balloons. She LOVES “ba-oons”. Inside the party we had so much fun. As a paralegal, I was a little concerned that I had to sign a waiver before she played in the bounce house. Of course I read every line, and hesitantly signed stating that I would not sue them for emotional distress, paralysis, head injuries, suffocation or death…This was just what the nervous Auntie needed to make her feel even more uncomfortable. Nonetheless, my niece got in the castle shaped bounce house (she survived), played musical chairs, danced to the hokey Pokey, and even rode the real train around the mall. When it was time to eat my friend offered her a fruit cup. I quickly called my sister… can she have a fruit cup??? She told me a small fruit cup was okay just not to let her eat like a whole orange. I was happy that my niece chose the breadstick over the cheese pizza or the pizza with pork sausage. We had a blast!
We went to Cabela’s sporting goods store after the party to look at the giant turtles and the aquarium. At the end of our adventure, there were no tears, no tantrums, no messy diapers. After I returned her to Mommy, my friend and I met up for our usual weekend movie marathon. We only saw two movies today “Just Go With It” and “Unknown”. Surprisingly enough “Just Go With it” was much funnier than I anticipated, and even though Unknown had an unexpected twist, I still wanted it to be better. Oh and before I forget, let me rewind, I knew today was going to be busy, so I got up and walked 2 miles at the gym this morning!
Today was such a weird day. It was a freakishly beautiful spring-like day in February. My coworker friend and I went to lunch at Chavas, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Soulard downtown. She got to the point where she was tired of the shenanigans at the law firm where we work. For example, “spell check this document for me, or print the e-mail I just sent you and bring it to me.” She jokingly said it’s such a beautiful Friday it would be a great day to get fired, so I could go home and enjoy the rest of the day. I jokingly said you know you hate your job when… You say it’s a beautiful day to get fired. Ironically enough, this afternoon I got a text from her simply stating “God delivered me!” I knew exactly what she meant with no questions asked. This is my lunch buddy we eat together every day, and hang out for movie marathons most weekends. All I could think of was how bored I would be at work now. I can’t say all the things I’d really like to say about the firm where I work because someone could find my blog and, I have a mortgage to pay so I don’t want to be next on the chopping block.
Anyway, I thought it would be a good day to soak in the hot tub at the gym. Of course my little sister was on board to join me. We went to the gym and talked and walked a leisure 3 miles around the track. Then we put on our swimsuits and headed to the whirlpool. I turned on the bubble maker and put my foot in. It was so hot! I don’t know how my little sister stepped in with no problem. I felt like I was stepping into a pot of boiling water. I eased myself into the whirlpool as my body began to adjust the temperature. After a minute or two it started to feel good. Then I looked at the floating thermometer and it said 102°! I panicked and got ready to climb out, no wonder why felt like I was stepping into a pot of boiling water. That was until my little sister pointed to the sign stating that the whirlpool should stay at 102°. Maybe I was just a little wound up from the events of the day. I decided to use lean back and relax and enjoy. I laid my head back, It was so fantastic it felt like a water massage. After I marinated in the human sized pot for a while, I decided to try the sauna. I have access to all this nice stuff at the gym and never take advantage of it. As soon as I stepped into the sauna it felt like I walked into an oven. Is it supposed to be this hot I asked? Maybe it’s been so cold outside for so long that regular hot feels like superhot. Regardless, I could only stay in the sauna for just a few minutes before I had enough. And then I wondered why did everything remind me of the stove and the oven? Is it because I’m fat or because I like to cook? Oh well I guess it doesn’t matter. What did matter was that I felt good that I got in a quick workout and I felt extremely relaxed. I think I need a whirlpool at home. It was so nice, definitely something I will be doing again in the near future.
Oh! P.S. I signed up for a 5 Mile St. Patricks day Race today! Not a 5K …5 MILES!
Unfortunately, I missed TNT group training yesterday morning due to circumstances beyond my control. However, after church today, I went to the Park with the hope of completing 9 miles. I was so excited that today’s temperature was well into the 50s. Finally, some of the snow and ice would begin to melt. I took Nyah with me. But, I forgot how poorly she behaves in public around other dogs. And today, it seemed that everyone brought their dog to the park. At home she is the sweetest dog… “Bring me your toy Nyah, sit Nyah, come here Nyah.” Friends and family that visit me actually tell me she’s one of the best behaved dogs that they’ve seen. However, when she gets around other dogs, she morphs into an uncontrollable 65 pound beast. She barks and charges at other dogs both big and small. All of the other walkers and runners look at me like why can’t you control your dog? I want to tell them “really you should see her at home she’s nothing like this, I swear!”
Trying to control her became unbearable/embarrassing, and my back was hurting from pulling her around and trying to dodge a million melted snow puddles. Me and my soggy socks and muddy shoes were only able to finish about 3 miles. I felt a little disappointed, especially since I missed group training. I told my Big Little sister, who reminded me that some miles was better than no miles. And, I’ve got a whole week to make it up…Well, that’s about it. I’m about to plan out my menu for tomorrow’s Meatless Monday. Last week, I was completely unprepared and I ended up eating bowls of cereal and Doritos. Hopefully I can make this Monday a lot healthier.
I have a confession, in the past couple months I have become a Huge Oprah fan. Groupie would probably be a more accurate description. Every day I run home and watch episodes of The Oprah Winfrey show and shows that I have DVR’d on the OWN network. I have done just about everything except for put posters of her on my wall like a teenage girl! Which today, I actually considered…. Anyway, last week she had a riveting episode of her show detailing ins and outs of the meat industry. She took us way too deep into the slaughterhouse. She encouraged all of her staff to go Vegan for a week or a month I can’t remember which. I knew there was no way in the world that I would attempt to be a vegan. Vegans do not consume any animal products, that means no eggs, no cheese, no meat. Cheese is perfect with almost every meal for me, so I wasn’t even going to pretend to consider becoming a Vegan. However, she piqued my interest when she said that you could try a Meatless Monday. I debated it back and forth not mentioning it to you guys until I was sure that was what I wanted to do. Finally, Sunday night I realized I was ready to commit.
Today I had my first Meatless Monday. For breakfast I had a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch cereal and milk. For lunch I made a fantastic pasta that I took to work. I chopped up fresh zucchini and squash and added some red spaghetti sauce. However my big little sister called and threw me for a loop. She’s been experiencing a series of unfortunate events, and asked me to go to lunch with her. How could I say no? I left my veggie lunch at work and went with her to TGI Friday’s restaurant. Everything on the menu had meat in it. I almost gave in and then I asked the waiter for help. He recommended that I get a pasta, add all the veggies, and hold the chicken. My Big Little Sister on the other hand, ordered the Jack Daniel’s platter with steak and shrimp and french fries. I wanted one of her shrimps dipped in Jack Daniels sauce so bad! However, I didn’t want to fail at my very first attempt at a Meatless Monday it’s only one day after all. The pasta was okay, but not as good as the one I had cooked.
I didn’t get home from work until almost 7 o’clock and my other sister called and asked “We’re still going to the gym right?” “I’m so excited to workout!” she exclaimed, I’ve been waiting all day for you to get home. I forced a fake smile and said I’m so excited to go to the gym I can hardly stand it ! I swapped my business clothes for sweat pants and a T-shirt, bundled up against the brutal cold and picked up my little sister, and headed to the gym. We went to the indoor track and completed 3 miles. By the time I got home I was exhausted. I didn’t want more pasta with veggies. I was too tired to cook as well. So, I made another bowl of cereal and ate some Doritos left over from Super Bowl. It was definitely not the healthiest meatless Monday, but, it was certainly meatless!
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal – My fave
L- Pasta with Veggies at Fridays
S- Slim-Fast
D- Cereal & left over Doritos (totally Random and dead wrong, I know)
After I returned her to Mommy, my friend and I met up for our usual weekend movie marathon. We only saw two movies today “Just Go With It” and “Unknown”. Surprisingly enough “Just Go With it” was much funnier than I anticipated, and even though Unknown had an unexpected twist, I still wanted it to be better. Oh and before I forget, let me rewind, I knew today was going to be busy, so I got up and walked 2 miles at the gym this morning!
’d on the 
