I had such a fun-filled weekend. Friday night was game 7 of the World Series in Major League Baseball. St. Louis was on fire! I was sitting at home alone watching the game before called my Big Little Sister and suggested that we go somewhere and watch it together. We went downtown to the Casino and watched the game on the giant projector screen. It was so much fun! After the Cardinals won, there were tons of hugs and high fives from whatever stranger was closest to you. It was crazy wild energy. We waited around for about an hour, thinking that traffic had died down. We were wrong! Traffic was still bumper to bumper and Cards fans were everywhere. They were drinking, celebrating and dancing in the street. My sister is a bit more adventurous than me and she drove right towards the stadium into the madness. We held our arms out the windows into the cool October night air and slapped high-fives to everyone that walked through the traffic. We had a blast.
The next morning, my Mom and I went to the Farmers market. She got 8 crates of strawberries for $5. Sometimes you pay almost $4 just for one at the grocery store. I bought some new spices like Lime Chipotle and re-stocked my favorite one “Soulard Grill” which tastes good in everything. My Special Friend was “Busy” and didn’t want to “commit then cancel” hmmmm…So, that evening I went to the movies with two of my good friends from high school. We saw Paranormal Activity 3. I love scary movies, and it definitely had some cringe worthy parts. But it wasn’t as good as the 1st one. I came home and fell asleep watching “Bad Teacher” with Cameron Diaz. I’m such a movie fanatic. I thought about writing a blog for movie reviews, since I usually watch at least 5 movies each week, but when would I find time to do that?
Sunday, I finally made time for the gym. Barely. My little Sister and I chatted it up for a half an hour on the elliptical machine, before heading to Wal-Mart. Silly me I decided to wait until the day before Halloween to get a costume. There was nothing left at Wal-Mart, so we headed to Target. The only thing left was a horrible bloody arm and a Monopoly board game costume. Then I saw it! One glittery white glove, sent down from the costume gods. It wasn’t even in the original packaging. I took it to the register and gave the checkout boy a “don’t mess with me look” as I handed him a pack of lace costume gloves to scan in exchange for my unwrapped MJ glove. He obliged, even though my sister said I was holding up the line. I ransacked my closet at home and pulled off a pretty Smooth Criminal look if you ask me. My “Brother from another Mother” joined me at my friend’s Halloween party about 2 hours later. We had a good time. I could have eaten a little better, drank a little less and worked out a little more, but I still had quite a fun weekend.
Halloween here in the States is a fun spooky holiday surrounded by sweet treats. But, for those of us trying to lose or maintain our weight, it can be a very tricky day to handle. So, I did a little research and came up with 7 ways to tackle the candy obsession and stay on track… I even threw in a few kid-friend ideas.
1) Instead of candy, pack snack sized portions of animal crackers, 100 calorie packs, raisins, trail mix, sugar free hot cocoa or apple cider.
2) After carving the pumpkin, save the seeds and roast them in oven. Or as my super-efficient mother did when I was a child. Cook them on a plate in the microwave.
3) Make Orange or Black Jello. Decorate it with Plastic spiders or cut out spooky shapes.
4) Healthy Caramel Apples - Click the link for a recipe to Trim some of the calories
5) Banana Ghost Pops - Using Bananas, coconut and Orange Juice
6) Apple Bites - These are too cute! - Just quarter and core an apple, cut a wedge from the skin side of each quarter, then press slivered almonds in place for teeth. Tip: If you’re not going to serve them right away, baste the apples with orange juice to keep them from browning.
7) Easy Cheese Fingers – Ingredients – Mozzarella string cheese, Green bell pepper, Cream cheese
Instructions:
1) Wearing plastic gloves or sandwich bags over your hands to keep the cheese as smudge-free as possible, use a paring knife (parents only) to cut each string in half and then carve a shallow area for a fingernail just below the rounded end of each half.
2) Mark the joint right below the nail as well as the knuckle joint by carving out tiny horizontal wedges of cheese, as pictured.
3) For the fingernails, slice a green bell pepper into 3/8-inch-wide strips. Set the strips skin side down on your work surface and trim the pulp so that it’s about half as thick. Then cut the strips into ragged-topped nail shapes and stick them in place at the ends of the fingers with dabs of cream cheese.
I went to church this morning. My mother and another member of the board asked me to assist with the church walk-a-thon. Of course you know that’s right up my ally. I had about 20 people to sign up after church. I even scheduled two group training sessions before the walk on September 24. That’s not really enough time to train, but I’m working with the date they chose. After church, I went to the gym, but I went pretty late. My 10K training schedule indicated that I should complete 3.5 miles today. However, I was only able to complete about 2.7 miles on the treadmill before the gym closed. I was reading The South Beach Diet 
book as I walked on the treadmill. It’s a very easy read, and I almost read the whole book in one day. I actually learned a lot, and I’m going to do a video book review soon. I walked until the security guard came and put me out because the gym was closed. I was going to walk the last mile or so outside the gym, but I got lazy, and there was this weird old guy sort of following me around. He got beside me on the treadmill, and told me to have a happy holiday, at least 3 times in 5 minutes. Is Labor Day even a real holiday? … Then he was following right behind me as I walked outside. I realize now that he might be kind of “special,” but I felt more comfortable just going home.
My Lawyer friend’s birthday is on the Fourth of July. We celebrated her 30th birthday in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. At first, I was a little leery of spending the holiday weekend in a cabin in the mountains.
However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much I enjoyed it. The wood cabin was fairly new with 3 bedrooms on the second level. There were 5 bathrooms, a game room, hot tub and a movie theater.
It was huge! Once we got settled in, I volunteered to prepare a Mexican feast for the birthday girl, her mom, her sister and her 2 other friends. They loved it. I was glad everyone liked it since I’m not used to cooking for that many people. The next morning, I woke up and walked out on the deck to inhale the crisp beautiful scenery. It was so peaceful and serene.
Sunday night we went to the “first” 4th of July Midnight parade to kick things off. I have to say it was the strangest parade I’ve ever attended. There was a weird guy walking around with a cat that waved named Princess Sugarpop, dressed up in doll clothes with a hat and reading glasses. Since it was my friend’s birthday, we were really hype and cheering and laughing. Everyone around us was pretty quiet and just lazily clapped. It was so strange, I figured that maybe they were like that because it was late and they were tired. The Christian groups were a little more aggressive than the churches at home. They passed out pamphlets and had a life sized Jesus on the cross on the back of a pick up truck in the parade.
We ate so much during the entire trip. The next morning my friend’s mom got up and cooked Fish and grits with biscuits, eggs and fried potatoes. It was delicious! We lounged in the pool and watched “Hall Pass” down in the theater. That movie is so outrageous. It was sort of Hangover-like.
On the 4th, I went to the gym at our private resort. I felt like I absolutely had to go, especially since I was eating so much, and did not like the image that looked back at me in the trip pictures. I’ve slowly gained back so much weight. I didn’t care that it was a holiday, that I was celebrating my friend’s birthday, or that I was on vacation, I had to work out. I grinded it out on the elliptical machine (with the arms) for just over 20 minutes. I worked up a sweat and felt great. Afterwards, I joined the rest of the ladies in the pool. My Friend’s mom bar-b-qued and made all the other “fixins.” I made a cute Birthday/4th of July Flag designed cake for dessert.
I watched a low budget movie in the theater by myself while some others took a nap. That evening we went into downtown Gatlinburg for the holiday fireworks. We got to see a little bit more of the culture. They were selling deep fried everything (including snickers and twinkies), stuff I’ve only seen on TV. 
There were images of bears and confederate flags EVERYwhere and we were greeted with heavy southern accents. Most people were friendly, but there was an older guy at the popcorn shop showing subtle racism; no eye contact, obviously not wanting to serve me, putting my change on the counter so he wouldn’t have to touch my hand, you know ignorant stuff like that. But it’s the south, and that kind of crap happens at home too, so I didn’t really let it bother me. We watched the fireworks, and sat in rocking chairs outside sharing stories. It was such a beautiful night, the temperature was perfect. Then just for fun, we got dressed up and took some ol’ Time Western photos. Me and my lawyer friend posed with guns and liquor as her mom posed as our madam. It was such much fun pretending. I love the pictures. (sorry it’s blurry, I didn’t get to scan it it in yet, so I just took a pic of the pic)
On Tuesday, we went to breakfast at the Red Rooster pancake house and hit the highway for our 9 hour road trip. I feel relaxed and refreshed and rejuvenated. I’ve got a good chocolately tan too from lounging in the pool. It was so nice for six educated women to spend time together in a house with absolutely no drama. There were no fights or arguments, we didn’t even disagree. If you get a chance, and want to unwind, head on over to Gatlinburg. It has my stamp of approval. 
Happy Mother’s Day to all you Mother’s out there! You have one of the most important jobs in the world, and we all to often take it for granted. So I wanted to say thanks for all you do. I took my Little Sister to her biological Mother’s grave site today, where she left a bright smiley face balloon. I don’t think I ever told you all the whole story. Her mother was my Dad’s 1st cousin and she died at the young age of 40. She was a single Mom of a 9 year old, and my parents adopted her. For a while she was my Sister-Cousin, and after few years, it became too complicated to explain the story and now she’s just my Sister. The trip to the cemetery reminded me how grateful I am to have a wonderful mother and the strong relationship that we share. So thank you Mama for being you, and raising me to be all that I am today. Love ya!
