Present!

Seehee love the animation you have added to the group.

I did not have a chance to share with everyone I was on vacation last week & went to Newport, RI to view the mansions decorated for the Holidays. It was just beautiful.

As requested, Tonya's two little darlin's



(Tonya- I took a little of the green out-hope that's ok!)

awwe......

Tonya, wow buzz and Beulah are so much bigger than the first pictures!
Nice to know that no one is saying that about any of us Hatters!

Here you go Snoozie, have as many cups as you please :-)

I am posting this here for those of you that asked about my day and wanted details. Feel free to ask any questions and hopefully I can answer them.

Ok, so yesterday was all about me...I love food and everything about it. I am an avid watcher of Top Chef and have seen almost every episode of every season. I am lucky to live in a food city. Richard Blaise has 3 restaurants in town and as of yesterday I am fortunate enough to have visited all 3. The first he opened was FlipBurger where he does amazing this with gourmet burgers. Just imagine the flavors of Mushoo Pork in a burger with Asian sweetbreads instead of fries. Sweetbreads are paired thymus glands and pancreas of milk-fed veal or calves. I know it sounds horrendous but they are really yummy.
We started the day by eating breakfast at Home Grown Café with a roasted tomato, spinach, mushroom and goat cheese omelet with latkes. It was awesome.
Next on the agenda was a trip to the DeKalb Farmers market. OMG, I have never seen such beautiful produce. Everything can be found there from spices, homemade breads, jams, jellies and such from around the world. I did go a little crazy when I found mushrooms and brussel sprouts for 1/3 of the price I had been paying. They even have live fish they will kill and clean for you. A wonderful experience and even though it is a bit of a drive I will be going back.
We hit up some boutiques and such in the Highlands and had a nice Aztec sipping chocolate at Cacao.
The second Blaise restaurant is HD1 and it is a hot dog joint. Not just any hot dog but a Haute Dog! All beef hot dog with many varieties of toppings. There is even a carrot dog! My foodie friend and co-worker is a vegetarian so she had the carrot dog… A little weird as it was a whole steamed carrot on a bun with pickled veggies but she said it was scrumptious. I had an East Bound and Down dog, Pulled pork and slaw on an all beef dog. It was so goooood. Next time I want to try one the bratwurst Ruben style.
After a visit to the Sundial lounge 83 stories up in the Westin we went to dinner at the 3rd Blaise establishment…The Spence. If you remember seeing Richard on Top Chef then you know he made an appetizer of raw oysters with horseradish pearls that he froze with liquid nitrogen. All I can say is I could eat my weight in those. My second dish was bone marrow, hamachi tartare, and fried quail eggs. Those eggs are tiny… It was so very rich but oh so good. Christin had Thai roasted brussel sprouts, buttercup squash crème Brule and creamy parmesan grits. All of these were excellent. If you look at the online menu it has some of these items but it changes with the mood.
I am looking forward to another adventure in this city that I call home. I live about 35 miles north of Atlanta proper and with the traffic here I don’t go in town much. Christin has chosen to live in town and can walk so very many places while I live in suburbia. I have serious envy.
~t

Tonya, what a yummy day, the farmers market sounded awesome.
Snoozie, sounded like a perfect bonding day with your friend.
my dad's wife is obsessed with talking about weight and she has told me numerous times, I don't understand why you let yourself gain weight. She is not thin, but every day she tells me how much she weighed that morning and how much my dad weighed. In the car from the airport she asked me how much I lost, easy question. Then she asked how much I weighed. She has been asking me that for the entire 7 years she has been married to my dad. I started to tell her what I always do- I don't tell anyone my weight. Then I decided who cares, I have taken away the power of that one number to define me, so if she wants to know who cares. So I started by asking her how much she thought I weighed. She guessed about 165. She was genuinely surprised when I told her 206. And since I told her that is 101 pounds less than my heaviest, i told her yes your math is correct, I weighed over 300. She was speechless. So for my entire visit she rated what any of us were eating as good or bad. I did a good job of ignoring the food discussion and made reasonable choices. And I enjoyed the best strawberries in the world- plant city Florida strawberries!
So I got home late last night and while bob is moving furniture to the assisted living I am spending the day at physician prompt care with MIL, she was angry at her sons for taking some of "her" good furniture to the assisted living, telling them they should have just bought a few cheap pieces for her husband! I am so thankful for her parents, bob and his brother spent so much time with them, that the grandparents taught them to appreciate and celebrate life, I never once heard them complain, even though they buried 3 of 5 children. I hope bob and I can both follow their example as we age.

Kobiesmom, .....Very big NSV!!! I have done that so many times and still do it to this day ,at times.... but we're getting better!!

Kobie, that is an awesome NSV. So many times I have made excuses to stay home or go to an event and sit in one spot for the entire time trying my best to be "invisible". For me it is not my size. I have noticed that when I start to eat healthy and exercise I start to feel more comfortable with other people even before I have a noticeable weight loss. The other thing I noticed is that when I am eating healthy and exercising and I go to a social event I will eat what I want, including dessert if I am in the mood. When I have been ignoring my health and not moving and eating a lot of junk, when I go to a social event, I will scarcely eat a thing, because I am convinced people are looking disapprovingly at my plate. I have had more than one person tell me that they don't know how I gained so much weight because I don't eat much. It is not a mystery to me. When I am in an unhealthy state of mind, I become very isolated and I eat copious amounts of junk food in my car and in my house when I am alone or when the family is sleeping. Ironically I now have had more than one person ask me if I eat such a big lunch all the time, because it is a lot of food for someone losing weight. I tell them it is not the quantity of food it is the quality of the food.
Carol, good luck with your no oreos day! I can not have girl scout cookies in my house! I would enjoy having one of my favorite Samoas or even 2 thin mints. But I don't have the restraint to do it. Right now I have some dark chocolate peppermint godiva truffles in my freezer and I can handle having one 50 calorie truffle. But girl scout cookies I can not handle!
Snoozie, I had the same reaction when I saw your picture, I better eat healthy of Snoozie will come after me!
I was having computer issues this morning while I was working at home, so I took a break and put up some outside Christmas lights. We used to go all out, but Bob doesn't like putting them up now that the kids are grown, but I like having some when I get home in the dark. and for the first time ever, every other house on our court has some outside lights or decorations. And I really did not like coming home and seeing our house the only dark one. The last few years our son has helped me put up outside lights, but he won't be home from school in Michigan until the 23rd. So I didn't do the big trees, just bushes and the light pole. Enough to make me feel good when I turn the corner into our court.
DH and I are going on a date tonight to breathe a sigh of relief, now that his dad is in a dementia care assisted living and his mom moved back into her house!!! One of us goes over every day, but what a relief. For those of you who have been long term caregivers for the elderly, God Bless You, I had no idea of the challenge. Part of me feels like a failure for not being able to make it work out, but I think she is also happier in her own home.
Comfort and Joy to all the Hatters! Janet

for snoozie: was listening to the radio on the way in... did you know that if you ever smoked marijuana you reduce / eliminate type 2 diabetes? and you could even have a beer - "whole grain theory"... just sayin....

and i even had a no oreo day yesterday......

:laugh: :smokin: :bigsmile:

@ seehee - make a pic when you have a moment - check out my posts.. and use your best judgement....