Birthday!

Thanks for the birthday wishes here, on Facebook and Instagram.  It’s weird because every year I don’t really feel that much older, but I am considering 48 is the new 35!   While I didn’t get to spend the day with my tiwn sister, it was a good day.  I had a semi-productive/lazy day, and it was perfect.

Jacob had to work later on Saturday so I decided to pick going out to breakfast, which is my favorite meal to eat out.  Usually it’s some type of diner, and there are so many options to choose from, by either staying savory or going sweet with pancakes or waffles.  I stuck to one of my regular breakfasts:  corned beef hash, scrambled eggs, hash browns and sour dough toast.  I ended up eating only half of this, but it was so good!  Gotta love a good corned beef hash!

Our server went to high school with Hannah and Jacob, so Hannah told her it was my birthday and she brought out a red velvet cupcake with a candle on it – that buttercream frosting?  Um, insulin worthy!

We got back from breakfast and saw a FedEx truck drop a package off.  My step-son Joe and his wife Lizz sent me Shari’s Berries – holy balls are these delicious.  They say that you really need to eat them within 48 hours and let’s just say we didn’t have a problem with that.  I think there might be one left!  Thanks guys!  It also came with four truffles – sinfully delicious!  I told Hannah and Jacob I didn’t need anything for my birthday.  But they did end up getting me stuff:  a new journal, a wonder wallet, a new saute pan, a new cast iron grill pan that I can’t wait to use, and a sign to hang in my kitchen

Oh, and a mandolin slicer.  After eating out so much while in Texas, I had no desire to go out to dinner for my birthday.  I decided on Italian beef sandwiches and handmade potato chips for dinner.   Shaved Italian beef is meat Hannah will actually eat!   So I got busy making baguettes, and while the dough was rising, Hannah and I watched Teen Mom 2 (guilty pleasure of ours!) and watched videos on Vine and YouTube while in our pajamas, even though it was the middle of the afternoon.  It was great and I had no guilt about thinking about all the things I “should” be doing because turns out I don’t have a job right now, so this week I’ll have my productive pants on.

Here’s is my safety announcement for the day.  USE THE HAND ATTACHMENT to save your fingers from being sliced.  I know better too, which is partly funny.  I had one last bit of potato to slice, and thought “I’ll just do this last piece without it” and quickly sliced two fingers pretty badly.  I could have easily sliced off the ends of my fingers, so I guess it could have been worse.  I also made potato chips using both red potatoes and Idaho potatoes – Idaho potatoes pictured above were hands down the better choice.   I had just cleaned out the deep fryer too, so these were extra crispy and light with the new oil and not greasy at all.

I am sure I’ve mentioned it before, but for some reason I see 3:19 on a clock nearly every day – and March 19th being my birthday, it’s especially special to see it on my actual birthday.   I can be anywhere, driving down the street and see it on a bank sign, in the car, at work, in the kitchen – anywhere.  Hannah and I were out thrifting for a bit on Saturday and I looked down at my phone, and saw 3:19!   I love that picture of Tony – I’ve had that picture as my screen saver for about the last six months.

It’s hard to believe that this is my second birthday without him already.  He used to make me the best breakfasts – it was his favorite meal to cook for me.  He could just take a look in the fridge and come up with the most amazing breakfasts, even if he got pissed off most of the time because he couldn’t find anything in the kitchen.  I finally figured out that after he chose his ingredients, I’d ask him what tools he’d need, and pull them all out for him.  Not a day goes by that I don’t miss the hell out of him.

The dogs are happy that I am home too.  This was them looking up at me as if to ask “grandma, when are you going to sit down?!”

And Roman is tall enough now to reach the dining room table, how can you say no to that cute face?!  That lip kills me!

I did make it to the gym yesterday, even though I was in my pajamas until 3:15 in the afternoon!  I also meal planned because even though I am self-employed now, I realized that I still need to keep a schedule so that I am actually productive and reaching towards a goal of having a job working with food.  I want to get my food handlers license just to have.   I need to continue to build my LinkedIn page.  I have more behind the scenes blog work to do, and I have to get to the gym each day.  My goal is to take advantage of some of the group exercise classes this week.  Tomorrow I’ll be doing an hour BodyPump class and I can’t wait.  Do you guys remenber Erica from Itzy’s Kitchen?  She actually taught her BodyPump class up until her 38th week of pregnancy – crazy!  And literally five days after he was born, she was already walking two miles.  She doesn’t blog anymore, but I follow her on Instagram. 

Yesterday I did 60 minutes on the treadmill – walking 4 minutes then sprinting 1 minute and repeating.  My last sprint was at an 8:00 minute mile pace.   One thing that helped me with those sprints?  Spanx.   I grew up with spanx because we used to wear them under our field hockey uniforms and my sister used to have them under her pom pom skirts.  When I was in Austin on one of our several trips to Goodwill, Hannah and Sarah and I walked around and I found this pair of Spanx for only $4.99 – and they retail for $72!

They call it their “power pant” but I call it “holding in the muffin top pant.”   Anyone who has any type of belly fat, you know what it’s like to run not wearing the right pants.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to stop running in order to tie my pants tighter, or have them start to fall down as I run.  But these pants literally hold everything in.  There is no movement at all.  I could just concentrate on running and not have to worry that my pants were going to be on the ground.

And it just so happened that I was watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and they were at a place that made amazing pork sandwiches.  Gotta love watching FoodTV while exercising!

Alright, time to get busy with my day.  I have to admit though, this “semi-retirement” lifestyle is pretty great so far!   Make it a great day!