I thought I hit my snooze on Saturday morning, but turns out, I turned it off and woke up late.  I missed my Weight Watchers meeting, but I weighed in at home – down 1.4 this past week!  One more weigh in for April – I think I have to lose 1.8 to lose 5 pounds in April.  

Saturday was a Mom/Grandma/Daughter Day.  We met my Mom at her house on Saturday to have lunch before heading to the book store for Jessica’s book signing.  I never wear lipstick, but Hannah had this red lipstick and I thought – why not?!

I had to laugh because my sister sent me this picture later in the day and said “I wore lipstick today too!”  I don’t think we look that much alike in these pics – but I have never not had bangs.

We went to a restaurant a few blocks from the book store – I kind of love places that offer breakfast outside breakfast hours.  I decided on the ranchero tacos – most of the filling was zero points, but I added a point for oil, counted the one tortilla I ate, the cojita cheese and potatoes and called lunch 10 points.  It was delicious. 

It was near 50 on Saturday – love!!

Okay, I wish I could do Jessica’s book signing all over – I would do it completely differently.  We were one of the first people there – got a seat while she talked about how the cookbook came together, she is just as beautiful and bubbly in person as she is on her blog and Instagram.

We were like 10th in line to get her book signed.  She already mailed me one that she autographed for me, but the one I bought was for the winner of my 50th birthday giveaway.  I realized I was going to the book signing and asked the girl that won if she minded if she waited for me to get it autographed and she said “yes please!”

As soon as I got close to her she jumped up and said “Biz!” and then said “hey Hannah” when she saw her behind me.  Then she pointed to my Mom in the audience and said “I knew that was your Mom sitting there!”  

But we literally only spent like 30 seconds together.  There were lots of people still waiting in line.  What I should have done was asked her how long she was going to be there – ran errands with Mom and Hannah and then gone back when things slowed down so we could catch up.  But I didn’t do that.  

I’m sorry I didn’t spend more time with you!  As we were driving home, I got a message from Jessica saying “I hardly saw you – we didn’t plan this very well did we – we should have had lunch together before the signing!”  Rats.  

We had fun hanging out with my Momma though.  Hannah enjoyed going through old photos – some of which I hadn’t seen or hadn’t seen in a very long time.

That photo is my parents after they got married, but before my brother was born, so probably 1964 or 1965.  What’s weird is that two of my Mom’s grandchildren are older now than when she was in this picture – 24 or 25 years old.

I love, love this one.  They had a friend take engagement pictures for them, so they would have been about 21 (my Mom) and 23 (my Dad) years old.

Before I left for my Mom’s house I made more mini banana breads.  Hannah asked if she could eat one in the car on the way, so I put one on a plate for her – but, um, turns out it wasn’t cooked all the way through.  As we were packing up Hannah’s car (she always shops at Nana’s house!) we told Mom she could have the banana bread – but that it was just raw and she had to finish baking it. 😀  I love this picture of Hannah and my Mom though.

And I need to clean the lens on my phone – look at the difference between the two photos!  

My Mom just enjoys spending time with her favorite child and grandchild.  Duh.

Sunday I had a foodie event at Eataly.  If you don’t follow Teri at No Crumbs Left, you need to.  She’s funny, down to earth, just a positive spirit.  

The meet and greet was at a private space at Eataly before it was open to the public.  Teri talked about how she started her blog – basically she didn’t want to have a blog.  She was recently divorced but wanted a way to support her kids while being with them.  She started with Instagram, just sharing her passion of good food and got approached to contribute to an online food site (The Feed Feed).   She had a recipe she called Heroin Chicken that everyone said was so addicting like heroin.  It became viral and Mother’s Against Drunk Drivers were trying to have the recipe pulled – but Teri just added an E on the end, and thus because one of the most popular recipes on her blog – Heroine Chicken.  

She started sharing her recipes on Facebook, but then people would ask her where a particular recipe was, and she would have to explain that they would have to scroll back three pages on her Facebook page, and it was decided that a blog was necessary for people to access her recipes more easily.  Her daughter Lucy came up with the name No Crumbs Left.  She now has nearly 200,000 Instagram followers, nearly half a million followers on Facebook.

How cute is the event space we were in?!

I was truly inspired by her talk.  Once she decided that was how she was going to provide for her family she was “All In.”  She worked hard, made a lot of mistakes along the way, but never let go of the prize, which was doing what she loved – cooking great food for people and making a living for her family.

I’ve realized that I’ve never really put myself “All In” with this blog.  I know I have a lot of work to change the SEO, and add more stuff to Pinterest and stuff, but sometimes the shear volume of the behind the scenes work I need to do to get a bigger audience is intimidating. 

But I know I need to do it if I hope to make a side income from this blog (after nearly 10 years!).  I’ve written down my game plan of short, attainable goals that will hopefully get me to 100,000 page views a month so that advertisers will be interested in me.  Right now, I am at 70,000 so I have my work cut out for me.  But I know it’s possible!  I’m All In!

Teri even did an Instastory with me – so fun!  

Lately we’ve been doing Sunday dinners.  At a minimum Jacob’s grandpa comes over, and yesterday Jacob’s Dad stayed too.  I bought Certified Angus Beef New York strips to put on the Weber.  When Pit Barrel sent me their barrel smoker, they sent me a bunch of seasonings, and we love this one – it has a bit of a kick to it, and just enhances the flavor of the meat.

It was near 60 degrees and I was grilling out in a t-shirt and flip flops.  #love  I cooked them on indirect heat and did a reverse sear.

At the very end I seared the fat on the side of the steaks.  

Yum.  I made scalloped potatoes on the side and it we ate outside and it was delightful.  I only ate half my steak, so I’ll have the rest for breakfast later this week, or maybe make steak tacos out of the leftovers.

It was a great weekend.  I always blamed Tony being the homebody, but I think it was partly me too.  I am glad I got out and met two of my blog friends, even if my visit with Jessica was short.  She knows how proud I am of her and how far she’s come.  I didn’t need to tell her in person, but I wish I would have.

Happy Monday friends – are you All In?!