Thursday, October 22: Day 133

We have the coziest fireplace!!

I LOVE fireplaces. We're in the sweet spot right now when it comes to having fires in our fireplace because in a few weeks or so it will be too cold for it (the hot air from the fire will just be sucked right up the chimney due to the 20 degree or lower weather). So we're trying to have fires as much as possible. My favorite thing is to sit right there on the fireplace benchy thing and read a book while I get all warmified. What makes it even better is having that really awesome guy on the couch, too. He's pretty amazing.

Wednesday, October 21: Day 132

My in-laws gave me a gift card to Old Navy for my birthday and I've been saving it for when I lose a few pounds. Well....I haven't lost a few pounds and I decided to just go see what they had today. I often go into stores and feel old because nothing looks cute and I remember my older sister saying when I was in high school that it was hard for her to find anything she liked and I would think "There's so many cute clothes! How can she think that?" Well. That's my thought nearly every time I go shopping now. I think some of the problem, though, is that the few things I do think are cute, don't fit me the way I want them to. They always look better on the manaquins. (I think I spelled that wrong)

Anyway, I found some socks that stole my heart as soon as I touched them. They're the thick, fuzzy kind that are blankets for your feet. I wanted to get 7 pairs--one for each day of the week--but restrained myself and just bought one. They are the most fabulous socks I've ever owned. If they look a little worn in the picture it's because I already wore them before snapping the shot. Thick socks are a MUST this time of year on this part of the globe. So I just may have to go back and get more.

Tuesday, October 20: Day 131

A little over a week ago, when I woke up and stepped out of bed I immediately felt a pain in my right foot. Right on the top where you foot meets your leg and it bends. It just felt like my muscle had been stretched the wrong way and for the first few steps it was really bad but it started to feel a little bit better as the morning went on. I figured it would go away in a couple of days. Well a few days ago, I started to notice it was swollen in that area. And it's very sensitive to touch. It doesn't necessarily hurt when weight it put on it, but when I move it around or touch it at all. I have no idea what it is, although I'm nearly certain it has to do with muscle, not bone. I really don't want to go get it looked at but I'm wondering if I should? I've stopped exercising entirely and I'm really starting to feel lowsy about the whole thing. Any suggestions?

Monday, October 19: Day 130

Is broccoli still healthy if you drench it in ranch? Does the ranch negate any health benefits of the broccoli? I need to know. I bought a huge bag of broccoli at Costco in hopes it would force me to eat more. I definitely have eaten more but the increase in Ranch dressing ingestion since then has risen dramatically. What do you think? Am I better off eating broccoli if it means more Ranch? I can't quite handle biting into raw broccoli without masking the flavor. Boiling it I hear makes it lose some of the nutritional value. Broiling it makes it dryer than dry. Does anyone have a good way of making broccoli taste good?

Sunday, October 18: Day 129

Tonight I was the odd girl out at dinner. We had three of Matthias's friends over, two of which had wives who were out of town. I think the funniest part of the night was when one of them asked me, "Are those noodles homemade?" I laughed at him and said if by homemade he meant putting them into boiling water then yes. Who makes homemade noodles?

Saturday, October 17: Day 128

The Simpers invited us to their celebration of Target coming to South Anchorage tonight. It's maybe a 3 minute drive from our apartment and I've been there probably 5-6 times already in about 2 weeks since it's opened. It's on the way to nearly everywhere so it's the perfect place to drop by for the one item I forgot or whatever it is I need. So it really is a fantastic thing to celebrate. They organized a scavenger hunt for each team to go do in the store itself. Clues led to different items you can find there and you had to take a picture with everyone on your team as evidence you found each one. We left for that portion of the party, unfortunately, but we were leaving for good reason...

Judge Beistline (the judge Matthias works for) was giving a presentation in one of the courtrooms where Matthias works. It was for a group of homeschoolers but we wanted to go to support and I wanted to go to hear more about his good stories from the cases he's worked on. I was not disappointed.

After it was over, we went back to the Simpers to hang out. They had a chocolate fountain going with all kinds of things to dip in and I caved and had some. She made this amazing cake in the shape and design of the Target symbol and it was cut in bite sized pieces that you could also dip in the chocolate. Was she trying to kill me? Cake and chocolate? Arughgg! It was so delicious.

Friday, October 16: Day 127

Rachel invited me over to her place for lunch today. I love that we live close enough to walk down the street and do that sort of thing. She made these delicious homemade rolls we made into sandwiches along with some tomato soup and goldfish crackers. Yum. I totally want to steal her roll recipe. I could have eaten a dozen of those.

She has the two most darling little girls. The youngest, Lucy, was born about 4 months ago and makes me completely baby hungry. I think there's a reason we're brought into this world so cute and tiny.