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Hey girls! Janis, I'm sorry if I confused you, but I was talking about being off my eating plan on Thursday, like Brenda would be off her plan for *her* DD's birthday. I thought they were having the party on Thursday, not Friday. We went to the Coral Gables Wine and Food Festival. I haven't caught the news yet but there were cameras all over the place and still-picture photographers. They had a whole street blocked off, with tables set up on both sides of the street full of goodies from whatever restaurant. There were also small round tables set up in the middle of the road, and three bands at different locations on the street. It was LOUD, and PACKED. You really had to be careful not to spill your food or drink while you were making your way through all the people. Boy did we have a blast! Everyone from DH's work had tickets, so we kept running into friends from DH's work. The food and drinks were AMAZING. The most memorable thing for me was a whole wheat pasta thingy, (I can't describe the shape,) filled with creamed cheese and truffles, (the mushrooms, not the chocolate candy. :) )in a beef sauce. Simply amazing. Morton's Steak House had a table there, so we had little steak sandwiches. We sampled little stuffed calzones (beef & veges)which were one of my favorites. Besides that we had things like chicken antipasto salad, short ribs (just the meat, no bones,) with cole slaw...that combo was from the Marriot Hotel and DH almost fainted it was so good. We also sampled Indian food, mexican food, and Italian. There were many exotic fish dishes, but everytime I smelled the fish I almost puked, so I didn't get any of that. DH also got some Chinese, but I couldn't handle the smell of that either. I've been fighting something off and was close to being sick with MANY of the smells there. The place was packed with "beautiful people" and my Lord, did those women DOUSE themselves with perfume! Made my head spin. But I didn't complain about it because I didn't want to be picky. We sampled a LOT of booze last night, even though I didn't think we would. For some reason we kept getting lots of vodka drinks. We had vodka with lemonaide, vodka with cranberry juice, vodka with mango, and vodka with some kind of mix that had pineapple juice in it. That was my favorite! We didn't get drunk, but I did get *very happy* and a bit tipsy. *grin* There were desserts there too, but the only thing I tried was chocolate. Had some regular milk chocolate plus some chocolate popcorn. It was delicious! This one shop had a way of making chocolate look like a picture frame, with a color picture in it. It was the COOLEST thing! The lady at the table said a lot of people used them for party favors, which I thought was a great idea. She had other little nik-naks made with chocolate too. Anyway, it was fun, fun, fun and I wish we could do it all over again tonight. *grin* I am getting sick though, and haven't been able to eat much today. Just a little soup with a piece of cawnbread for breakfast/lunch. I had some fresh strawberries later on too. The soup turned out AWESOME Janis. Best I've ever made. I doubled the recipe and left out about 1 1/2 cups of water. It made for a GREAT consistency. It also made so much that my giant crockpot was filled to the brim. I know what you mean about being a perfectionist and wanting time to "do it right". My daughter and I are both exactly the same way! Oh well. I hope you don't get too overburdened on Monday. Just take them all one.at.a.time and do your best, without worrying about getting to other ones. You can only do so much! Brenda, I know you're busy so peek in later when you've got a minute. I hope you all have FUN!!! I am feeling pretty sick so I'm gonna go lay down. BLECK.

Laura, I'm sorry you're sick! I hate having stomach yuckies going on. I would rather have an achy flu with a fever and chills than be sick to my stomach, that's how much I hate it. But I'm glad you were able to enjoy your day at the food festival. It sounds like you had a blast! The fish smells would make me want to puke, too! :D And the vodka drinks sound awesome. I bet the vodka/cranberry was delicious! Guess what I'm going to do? I've got the stuff out on the counter to bake chocolate chip toffee almond cookies, but I think it's going to take too long, so I'm just going to bake a nice from-scratch buttermilk cake with chocolate frosting! Yum! Perfect for a Friday night. And maybe on Sunday, I'll make some pea soup. Your recipe sounds really good. Would you mind sharing? That is, if typing out a recipe won't make you feel too sick. ;) Take it easy and have your DH baby you back to health. I'm off now to start my cake. Talk to you later.

Happy Sunday ladies! :D Not much going on here. Thanks to Laura, we're having pea soup and cornbread for dinner tonight, which I'll get started later on. I plan on taking it e a s y today because this upcoming week is going to be something else! My boss, thankfully, is out of the hospital and she called me yesterday to tell me that my bucket is over flowing. I have a feeling I will be swamped all week, so I'm going to really relax today. Of course, I need to do some laundry, but I can handle that. :) Well, guess what I did yesterday! I let Hayley drive the car!!! My mom, Hayley and I went in search of this wildlife preserve yesterday way out west in another town. Well, it was on a dirt road and we were out in the boon docks, not another soul around and it was just gorgeous! Vibrant yellow flowers were so thick it looked like carpeting and it was clear as bell...blue skies, blue mountains with snow still on the peak. Gorgeous! We took seveal pictures and I'd love to post one here, but I don't know how to get it to show up. Anyway, I just asked Hayley if she'd like to drive and her first reaction was NO! :D She finally agreed and was so exicted about it! I told her to just forget about using the gas pedal (the car goes anyway when put into drive) and just practice steering and braking. When she got that down, I allowed her to step on the gas very slightly. She drove for probably an hour and a half...just tooling around on these dirt roads out in the middle of no where. It was the perfect day! And she was just thrilled! She could hardly wait to get home and tell her friends that she had driven the car! My dad taught me how to drive when I was 10, so I figured she was 3 years older than that now and should have no problem. And she didn't. So now this will be something that Hayley and I will be doing every now and then for the next few years. It was so much fun! :D Not much else is happening. I baked that cake and it turned out really good! I put in some baking toffee pieces into the cake batter and topped it with warm, homemade chocolate frosting. We're all enjoying it with a little vanilla ice cream at night. Yep, don't ya just wish that diets tasted that good? Hope you all are having a nice Sunday. I'll check in tomorrow morning before work.

Good morning ladies! WHERE is everybody? *shrug* I got a lot done yesterday because DH had to go into work to finish a job. Made a big dinner and dessert, but now am feeling sluggish from it. UGH. BACK ON THE WAGON TODAY! Janis, that is crazy about letting Hayley drive. I hope she doesn't start wanting to steal the car. *grin* How'd your soup turn out? I still have a little left over with some cornbread too. I HAVE, HAVE, HAVE to exercise today if I want to see the scale budge. I'm so NOT used to exercising lately, so it's going to take more of an effort. Needs to be done though. Brenda, how was DD's sleepover? We are anxious to hear the details! Are you back on the wagon today? *waves hi* to Lynne, Stephanie and Holiday.

Hi Laura! :D I got nothing done yesterday...not even my laundry. I took a nice long nap yesterday afternoon, jumped in the shower, ate dinner and then settled down to watch tv...and I ended up falling asleep again. I guess maybe now I'm revived enough for the coming week. The boss worked all day long yesterday, so I know I will be swamped today. :( I almost have a headache just thinking about it! Our pea soup turned out really good. I think I'll bring it with me tomorrow for work. I forgot about it this morning and ended up making myself a chicken sandwich. Hope everyone is having a nice Monday. I'll pop in after work if I'm not too pooped! ;)

With all this talk about soup, I remembered I had a bag of lentils in the cupboard. I made lentil soup this weekend. I forgot that one bag makes a TON of soup so I think I'll be throwing about half away. My DH is happy with about one bowl, then he's tired of it. I can eat it off and on for several days.

I put onions, celery, carrots and tomatoes in it so I feel really healthy.

By the way, for anyone who's interested; my friends at the Greek resturant next to where I work told me they always put a splash (a little bit) of red wine vinegar in the bowl right before serving. It really enhances the flavor.

Hi Lynne. I love lentil soup, too. Thanks for the idea about the red wine vinegar. I'll have to try that. Instead of throwing your left-over soup out, put it away in the freezer for a busy night. That's what I do whenever I get over zealous and make too much. ;) Work today wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I stayed busy, but I wasn't the kind of swamped-busy that makes me get stressed out. I got off at 4, which was nice. I came home, showered and now I'm ready to settle down and watch some tv. Ahhh, feels good to be home! :D Hope everyone had a good day. I have Bible study tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that. :cool:

Good morning. *waves* Off to Bible study I go and then off to work after that. I don't know what's wrong with me, but boy, am I achy this morning! Hips ache and ankles are just a barkin'. This getting old stuff is for the birds! Sometimes I'll be thinking at work, "I'd like to go do blah blah blah after work today," and by the end of the day, I'm so stiff and sore that all I want to do is go home. Today after work, I'd like to go to the mall where GNC (General Nutrition Center) is and buy some new vitamins because I'm almost out of mine. But I'll just have to wait and see how stiff I am as the day goes on. I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but we found a great BBQ place in town over the weekend and I keep thinking about it. I want to go back and try more stuff! The smell inside that place was incredible. I didn't care for the beef brisket like I thought I would, though. I thought it would be wonderful...maybe it is at other places. However, this place had the best pulled pork and smoked turkey! And I am not a pork lover, so for me to actually think the pork was the best is really saying something! Oh my goodness! I want to go back just so I can have a smoked turkey sandwich! Yum!!! Well, I better get myself dressed. I like kicking back in the morning like this for a while. I miss that. Talk to you ladies after work. Hope you all have a blessed day.

Hi girls! Lynne, I'm going to try that red-wine vinegar trick! Thanks! And your lentil soup sounds delicious. Your DH is exactly the same as mine when it comes to soup, one bowl and he's done. I, on the other hand have been eating it for days. :) I have a giant crockpot so I doubled the recipe, leaving out 1 1/2 cups of water. I absolutely loved the consistency! I was all *happy* about it, (since the last time I didn't like it as much,) but DH was kinda like, "What's the big deal? It's SOUP. *shrug*" Men just don't understand. :) Janis, I'm glad work was *just right* for you. What are you studying in your bible study class right now? I didn't end up exercising yesterday. Just felt BLAH all day. That's been happening a lot lately, and I know it's partly because I won't exercise! So, it's a vicious circle. :doh: Brenda and Stephanie, I hope you stop by. We're missin' ya! :sad: What is up with you ladies?

I am so behind on our thread, *big sigh* but I love reading about what you ladies are doing. :) I am super exhausted from the blow out, birthday bash. We had 10 girls and I stayed up until 4am before finally falling asleep in the recliner. I had LOTS of party games to keep the drama down to a dull roar. Tween girls and all, you know. *where's that eyeroll smilie?* It was fun though. I'll check back in with you guys in a little while. I haven't been on this computer in a while and I need to make sure my virus protection is up to date. There's a new virus that's supposed to hit tomorrow. Make sure you have your protection updated!!!!