Birthday Week - Age 31 (Yikes!)

So much has been going on over here and I have not taken the five minutes to sit down and write about it. I mean, if we're being honest, I did spend this past week celebrating my birthday.

If we're being completely honest, 31 was a hard one. I think it's the fact that I'm officially "in" my thirties that is strange/depressing. The thing that keeps me going is knowing that Scott is a lot closer to 40 than I am. *wink* Love ya babe!

Like I mentioned, I spent the majority of my week celebrating and eating truly awful for you but totally delicious meals. My frolleauges took me out on Tuesday to Mellow Mushroom. Let me tell you the backstory on this one. When I went to the Vocus conference last year one of the sessions was led by the PR director of Mellow Mushroom. She talked about a campaign that they did on Twitter and I have brought this up in many meetings declaring it the best campaign ever. Take a  peek:

Anyway, the creepy mushroom is a staple in my office. I give you exhibit a:

If you have a Mellow Mushroom near you, go over and have a calzone. You won't regret it. 

Wednesday was my actual birthday and when I arrived at the office apparently I was too early. Alyssa slammed my office door and yelled at me that it was my birthday and I should learn to sleep in. The door slamming was worth it though. The girls did an amazing job and made me feel the love!

There was also another birthday lunch (Qdoba!) and then we went to volunteer at Second Harvest Food Bank to sort donations. I really wanted to make volunteering a part of my birthday. I've been volunteering there for almost a year and I love being able to give back.

After the food bank I met up with Scott, the kiddos, Mimi, PawPaw, Aunt Buddy and Karyn at Abuelo's.  It's seriously my favorite Mexican restaurant. 

Thursday was birthday lunch part three, this time we went to one of my favorite places on campus, Burger U. I love their garlic parmesan fries, they are worth the two sticks of gum and handful of mints I have to consume after the fact.

Thursday night is when everything kind of went downhill. Aaron was complaining of a sore throat and then he puked all over us in the middle of the night. I knew in that moment...strep. How he managed to catch strep I have no idea. All of the times Jillian has had it this past year, he has not caught it once. 

I took Friday off to confirm my suspicion. I think the test turned almost immediately. Our afternoon was spent snuggling, eating yellow rice and drinking strawberry kiwi juice. 

The rest of the weekend was spent letting Aaron rest and a girls lunch with my Jilly. I will thank the awful strep virus for making me actually deep clean my house. So...there's that. 

I think we're finally caught up! Phew! Hope you had a fantastic weekend!

What My Family Ate for Dinner - Week 8

Another week and maybe another week of not the best eating.

Here's what my family ate for dinner this week:

Sunday, April 20: Easter! We had a late lunch of ham, green beans, potato wedges and birds nest cupcakes.

I got the idea for the cupcakes from a friends Facebook post. It was actually a cake and the directions were in Italian. I brushed off my three semesters of Italian and did my best to translate the directions.

For the cupcake version I cheated and used boxed cake mix and canned frosting. I used chocolate sprinkles to create the "nest" and cadbury robin's eggs for the eggs. They were delicious and the perfect dessert for Easter.

Monday, April 21: My favorite part about Easter is the leftovers. I always make hot ham and cheese sandwiches. I put them on King's Hawaiian rolls and made a side of roasted asparagus. Yum!

Tuesday, April 22: Mexican Quinoa Bowl. This has quickly become on of Scott's favorite dishes. We love it the next day, too, which is always a plus!

Wednesday, April 23: It was my birthday so we went out to my favorite Mexican restaurant, Abuelo's. I had my favorite, the carnita enchilada and maybe a margarita...or two.

Thursday, April 24: I had an acupuncture appointment (I KNOW!), so we did leftovers.

Friday, April 25: I met my friend Michelle for dinner at Chili's to celebrate my birthday.

Saturday, April 26: We were supposed to have turkey burger casserole tonight, however, we were in the garage doing a lot of work (you know, when it's 90 degrees), so we opted to have pizza brought in instead.

It's not the worst menu we've had, but it's not the best. I should mention this does not include the various birthday lunches I was treated to. I have a lot of green goodness in my future to flush out all of this!

Thanksgiving Thursday

For those of you that don't know what Thanksgiving Thursday is, it is the one time during the week where you stop and basically count your blessings. Even if you've had one of those weeks, I promise you can find at least one thing to be thankful for, no matter how big or small.

This week I am thankful for:

• Scott, who motivates me through his weight loss journey. I am so proud of him and so happy he is on this path!

• Aaron who made sure he gave me an extra birthday snuggle.

• Jillian who made sure everyone in a 10 mile radius knew it was my birthday.

• Family all around us.

• Friends that send you the sweetest cards with the funniest things written inside. Love you bench!

• Frolleagues that decorate your office to the point that you have to duck to leave. Also, for making me feel loved the entire day.

• Starbucks giftcards. It's always the perfect gift :)

• Margarita's.

• Sparkle mail!

• A great year 30 and what I'm hoping will be a better year 31.

What are you thankful for this week?