Another Weekend Comes to an End

I slept in a little today, yay!

When I got up I made myself a coffee and rented a movie on Apple TV.

LION

I read the book awhile back and had been wanting to see the movie ever since.

I tried to watch it right away but the streaming kept pausing so I stopped it for awhile and played some Candy Crush.

After a bit I tried it again and it seemed to work better.

Mom came up and watched it with me too.

I had tried to watch it once before but the captioning wasn't working.

They speak Hindi through quite a bit of the show so watching it without knowing what they were saying was difficult and I turned it off.

Mom has difficulty reading since her stroke and I realized because of that,she was probably feeling the same way I had.  So many things have changed for her.

She could read some of it and understood the gist of what was going on and I read out the captioning to her when it was important to the story line or something really long or information that you couldn't just gather from watching the scene.

I enjoyed the movie myself, they changed a few things from the book and it was slow at parts.

I didn't really like how they portrayed his adoptive brother and I am not sure that I like Nicole Kidman as the mom.  Dev Patel's hair kept annoying me too, I'm not sure why but it did.

Sunny Pawar was awesome though as the young Saroo.

He just made you want to scoop him up in your arms and take care of him.

What a great story though and it was a true story at that.

I think of that vulnerable 5 year old boy being in that situation and what if that had been my little boy.

It is just unimaginable, unthinkable, horrible.

I wonder also how many times something like this has happened but without the happily ever after ending.

Some things in this world are just not right.

After the movie I did a bit of laundry then I got myself a snack

and a cuddle buddy

settled in to watch the last two episodes of season 9 of Heartland.

Can't believe I finally caught up.

Season 10 is currently airing so is isn't available on Netflix yet.  I may have to buy it on ITunes.

I was still hungry after the pop chips so I finished off these leftovers from Friday.

I was looking up ideas for something to make for supper and I remembered this recipe that I had seen on Facebook for Crunchy Pea Salad.

I had shared it so that I could find it again later.

It looked kind of strange but interesting and I wanted to give it a try.

I looked it up and figured out what ingredients I would need and headed to the store.

Preparations are under way in the kitchen!

Looks promising, I added some water chestnuts even though the recipe didn't call for them.

I figured a little more crunch couldn't hurt anything.

As promised it was crunchy and tasty. 

It was different but I enjoyed it and would make it again

Had some visitors after supper.

Little Mr. H and his favorite place to play.

He comes to me and says "bed" which means he wants to get on our bed and alternate between jumping on it and pretending he is sleeping.

He gets a great kick out of it and so do I.

Makes me nervous though because I am afraid he is going to fall off.  We've had a few close calls but so far it hasn't happened.

Little Miss A just loves all the stuffies.

She made a tent bed for Professor Snuggles - she couldn't get him to lay in there and test it out but she tried.

She was proud of it regardless. 

My Honey nicknamed him the Balloonatic because he is so crazy about balloons and that hasn't changed any.

Made a pot of chicken chili for My Honey for supper.

Filled it with lots of beans, lentils & veggies.

Should feed us for a few days.

Back to work in the am, boy do the weekends ever fly by!

Now that I have a week of following Weight Watchers under my belt, I am going to add in working out this week.

I am going to hop on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes each day.

I am going to stick with walking for this week and see how my ankle feels next Sunday then plan from there.

Until next time, be happy!

Birthday Supper

Since I was able to sleep in this morning, of course I woke up at 6:30am and couldn't go back to sleep.

So I got up and did dishes, cleaned the kitchen and did a few loads of laundry.

Also had time to have some breakfast, a coffee and enjoy an episode of Fixer Upper before the girls arrived to pick me up at 9:30am.

We were right on time this morning, at the last minute I decided to stop back at my place and change into flip flops because I was expecting it to be really nice in the city and I am glad I did because it was.

We stopped at A&W half way there for a snack.  They had a breakfast wrap that was only 220 calories so I opted for that.  It had ketchup on it which was kind of weird but it was good.

What a difference in Edmonton compared to here weather wise.

We still have snow every where and in Edmonton it is truly spring, the grass is green and the sun was shining.  I kind of wanted to just stay there.

We went straight to West Edmonton Mall and first thing I saw was this

Punch Buggy Black!

My Honey & I always play the punch buggy game so whenever I see one it makes me think of him!

We shopped around the mall a little because we were early for the movie.

We stopped at Old Navy and I got a few things,

a t-shirt dress, workout pants, two tops,

and my favorite jogging capris.

I have a pair that are a few years old and they are starting to get holes in the thighs so I found them just in time.

All this was only $120!

I like Old Navy because they have reasonable prices and they have clothes that fit me.

I don't like anything to be snug so right now I am buying XXL.

By my next birthday I will be out of the X's!

Made it to the movie in plenty of time. 

At first the kiosk said next showing of this movie May 3rd.

What?#@$!

Tried again and it worked so not sure what was up with that.

Got a water and a small popcorn - no butter or flavored seasonings this time.

I didn't want to skip the popcorn altogether but wanted to make the best choices that I could as far as calories.

I saw the trailer for this and wanted to see it right away.

It did not disappoint - such a great movie and a bit of a tear jerker, scratch that, it was a HUGE tear jerker.

I could hear people blubbering all around me - I was just a blubbering too!

After the movie we decided to try out the virtual ride.  I'd been wanting to do it in Vegas but didn't get a chance.

I choose the Roller Coaster one

and my two friends chose the Zombie one where you actually go around shooting zombies.

My one friend has motion sickness quite bad and even though it was only a 7-8 minute ride, she was looking quite green at the end.

That would really suck - there are so many things that you would have to avoid because of it.

We passed a frozen yogurt place on the way out and I couldn't resist.

I almost forgot to take a picture until it was almost all gone.

I tried to stay away from the chocolate toppings and chose the little flavor balls & fruit.

It was Y-U-M-M-Y!

We had made a reservation at Chop Steakhouse so we headed over there.

We were a little early and the place was empty but by the time we left it was jam packed so I am grateful that we made a reservation.

I always seem to notice the light fixtures and today was no exception.

Kind of a cool one.

Ms.N & Ms.S

Ms. B & I

We couldn't decide if we wanted just appetizers or entrees so just ended up getting both.

This guacamole, crab, salsa fresco dip sounded better than it tasted.

They also gave us fresh bread for the table with softened whipped butter and it was delicious.

It is a pet peeve of mine when a restaurant gives you nice fresh bread and rock hard butter!

Onion rings with garlic, lemon aioli.

The coating on the onion rings was crunch, tasty & it held up very well.

The aioli was a delicious too.

They also had roast beef, potato, sour cream soup so we had to try it.

It just tasted like a bowl of gravy but like the best gravy you ever tasted!  Soooo Gooood!

Ms. N had the spicy shrimp.

I had the salmon which came with pesto, butternut squash and fresh green beans.

I was already kind of full from the appetizers so I barely touched it.

That's ok though - I had it wrapped up to take home for My Honey and he will appreciate it.

Because it was my birthday they gave me a free dessert.  It was only a tiny little piece that we all shared but the presentation was lovely.

When they brought out the bill they also gave me this,

a birthday card signed by the staff there and a free appetizer for next time that I go in.

How thoughtful, I have never seen a restaurant do that before.

After supper we headed home.

The closer we got to home, the more snow we were seeing but it had gone down a lot since we left this morning.

We got home around 9 pm which is a decent hour for us. 

We used to leave at 7am and not get home until 1pm.

We just don't have the energy to do that anymore.

There were tons of deer out on the road tonight too so I am just as happy that it was still light out and we could see them.  Dodging deer in the dark is exhausting.

I quite enjoy our birthday dinner trips. 

The best part is the conversation in the vehicle on the 2+ hour drive each way.

I watched another episode of Fixer Upper (PVR is a great invention) before heading to bed.

It was a great day and I look forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow.

Until next time, be happy!

Friday, Friday, Friday - My Favorite Day of the Week

The sun was shining when I looked out the window this morning - great way to start a day.

I was thinking "yay, melt that snow away".

Then when I went outside I saw this

My car was completely covered in frost and it was chilly out there.

-4 to be exact.

Snow won't be melting away any this morning.

Had some baby peppers for a snack this morning.

What a convenient snack, no need to peel or cut, just take them out of the bag, wash them and eat them.

And 0 points - even better.

It had warmed up a little by lunch time, +5 out there now.

I can hear the water dripping out there too which is music to my ears!

Watched last nights episode of Grey's Anatomy at lunch and had a little blubbering fest.

A pregnant patient was dying of cancer and refused treatment so she could bring the baby to term.

I know they are just fictional characters but still - Kleenex was needed.

The afternoon at work was uneventful.

I did buy some tickets to the Dinner Theatre in Edmonton for next weekend.

Tickets are on sale for $50 until the end of April so I wanted to take advantage of the deal.

I would have bought some for the next show too but I am not sure how much free time we will have this summer.

Stopped by the store after to work to pick up these bad boys for supper.

Dinner preparation has begun.

I also cooked green beans and pork chops.

And I whipped up these for my mom to have for snacks.

Was feeling so good that I was going to have a nice hot meal for My Honey when he got home for work and then the breaker blew and I lost the stove.

There is no way of knowing which breaker is which and I had a load of laundry going that I was afraid of disturbing so had to wait for MH to get home and reset the breaker.

Got him to show me which one it was though for next time.

Luckily supper was just about ready so it didn't take much longer.

I am not sure if I would call the Bran Muffins a huge success but they are edible.

I had one fresh out of the oven - should have figured out the points first as it came out to 6 Pts per muffin.

I ended up 2 points over for today which I figure is not bad.  I was under points a couple days too so I think it kind of evens out.

Next week I want to start working out, even if it is just walking at first.

I want to get back to running eventually but I want to be really careful about my ankle and not injure it and be set back again.

Heading to the city with the birthday group tomorrow to celebrate my birthday.

It's the first time that we were able to all get together.

Going to dinner and a movie, should be fun.

That's all for today folks, until next time, be happy!

Weekend is Getting Close

It was another cold day out today.

It is supposed to warm up on the weekend so all I can say is "bring on the weekend"!

Not much to report today.

One of the girls at the office had a birthday today so we took her out to lunch.

Turned out it was Adminstrator Apreciation week also so our foreman came too and bought us all lunch.

He is such a nice guy.

I have been following weight watchers, staying within my daily points and I am feeling good about that.

The swelling on my ankles has gone down considerably.

Just for comparison, this was when I got home on Monday.

And this is today, 3 days later.

I didn't have any other pictures from today so I thought I would do a Throwback Thursday but with some inspiring pictures for myself.

These were taken on a weekend trip we took to BC 4 years ago.

I was working out everyday

I had a Body Media band back then and I would probably still have one today if it didn't involve a monthly payment.

I worked really hard to get down to the size I was here so I know I can do it again.

Everywhere you look in BC the views are just stunning.

The weather was gorgeous that whole weekend too.

My "serious" look! 

This was taken in Nova Scotia that same year.

I was looking good!

And just because I love it so much I had to add this picture of my nephew Mr.D a few years back.

I love how happy he looks - she really captured a great moment here (my sister)!

Love him!

Until next time, be happy!