Um, turns out I am a bit competitive!

Last week I talked about a FitBit challenge my friend Dave put together called “Workweek Hustle.”  Basically to try to get more steps in during your work week.  It ran Monday – Friday.  FitBit suggests you get in 10,000 steps in a day, which works out to an average of about 5 miles per day.  Well, with a desk job, some days I can look down and before my lunch time workout, I’ve only had about 1200 steps!  But, I got my ass to the gym during lunch – ended up doing about 15 minutes of strength before getting on the treadmill and walking.  I could usually get in 2.25 miles at lunch alone.

The key to my success for the week though was walking for 60 minutes after work.  I am loving it!  I would just change back into my workout clothes at work, and literally be on the treadmill by about 5:07.  The traffic is a lot less at that time too, so I am usually home between 6:30 and 6:45 – not bad!  I even went to the gym AFTER having a beer and dinner and a movie out – how crazy is that!

Jenna W, not sure who you are but I kept getting notices that you were on my heels so to speak, and it did keep me motivated to go that extra mile.  So in all – between Monday – Friday, I walked 46 miles and did an hour and fifteen minutes of strength training – woop!

I had a good weekend.  Still trying to figure out my new “normal.”  All I know is that I have spent more time with Hannah these last two months than I probably did the last two years when she lived in Chicago and I am loving it.  Friday night she and Jacob asked for pizza.  Mind you, Jacob HATES pizza, but he loves my pizza.   If they ordered pizza back in Chicago, Jacob would never eat it, and always get chicken fingers.

I relaxed and caught up on my DVR – Red, their older dog, will sit with me as long as Rummy, the tiny dog isn’t around – which normally doesn’t last long, but this dog reminds me of Ed.

We went out to lunch on Saturday.  I decided that this year is going to be Adventure 2015!  Meaning I am going to push myself outside my comfort zone and do things that I normally wouldn’t.  While you guys all know I am a complete foodie, I always have a fear of ordering something unfamiliar at a restaurant in case I hate it, and usually stick to what I know.  But Saturday it was a bit chilly, overcast, and I wanted soup, so I ordered a spicy shrimp udon noodle soup.  Holy balls, this was good – perfectly spiced broth with cooked shrimp, zucchini, broccoli and carrots and a tempura shrimp on the side.  It had this thick delicious noodles – it felt like I was eating for 1/2 an hour, and I hardly made a dent.  I plan on adding chicken to the leftovers and having it again for lunch one day this week.

We went thrifting, I went to the gym and Saturday night Hannah and I caught up on American Idol for the week.  Not sure how long I’ll watch that show, but I do like the audition parts – just wish they had more of the bad auditions though!

I had to send a message to my blog friend Tracey on Saturday because I filled up on gas – she lives in California and was complaining about when she’s going to get the lower gas prices because she was still paying just under $3 a gallon.  I paid:

It only cost me $16 to fill up for the week – nice! 

My friends at Cabot Cheese sent me some more cheese loot – I have a giveaway planned with them next month, but this was my loot:

I decided to make breakfast nachos yesterday using the Pepper Jack cheese.  I told Hannah that I was using that cheese and she said “do you think you could do have that cheese and half of regular cheddar?”  Have I mentioned that Hannah doesn’t really like spicy food?  I know!  How they hell did she come out of my body not liking spicy shit AND liking onions.”  If I wasn’t there, I would ask for a DNA test.

I buy blue corn tortillas at my store – they sell 50 tortillas for $1.99 and I make tortilla chips out of them in my deep fryer – so I get 200 tortilla chips for $1.99!  I cooked up some egg beaters, egg whites and spinach, topped the egg mixture on the tortilla chips and topped it with the Cabot cheese and finished it up under the broiler until the cheese was all melty.  Then some chopped cilantro and Frank’s hot sauce.  Yum!

Yesterday was twin fest!  Long time readers know that I have a twin sister and that our best friends are twins.  We’ve known each other since we were 8 and this year marks our 39th year of friendship.  Note:  We do not dress up for these events – usually sweats, no makeup and glasses are worn.  It’s usually at one of our houses, but this was the first time that we had it my house!  Usually Tony was always here.  It’s a long drive for them to get to my house – 45 minutes for Donna & Dora and just over an hour for my sister.   I made chips and salsa, had hummus and pita chips and some marinated mozzarella cheese and crackers.  And lunch?  More pizza!   My Instagram friend Sherri and I believe that life isn’t worthy living without pizza!

We laughed, we cried, we laughed again. . . and cried.  We talked about the details of Tony’s passing.  I was just talking all matter of factly about some of the details of when Tony got transferred to University of Illinois, and how on the Friday before he passed away, one doctor came to me and said “your husband is dying and there isn’t anything else we can do for him.”  I was perfectly fine saying that sentence out loud, but the next words out of my mouth brought the tears.  “I never thought he was going to die.”  And that’s the truth.  I just assumed that he’d be sick for a long time – if he got a transplant, then worrying about organ rejection, etc.  I would always be the caregiver and take care of him.  We’d all be dabbing the tears from our eyes, and then I would say something like “thanks for coming over and making me cry!” and then we’d just laugh again. 

I know it’s okay to laugh between the tears.  Laughter is good for my soul.  So thanks ladies for coming over – love you guys!

Now go make today awesome!