Week 28 A Little Late

I'm sorry, friends, but I just really haven't felt like blogging. I've been worried to even start a post because I was concerned that it would turn into a big negative ball of yuck. I'm going to try to keep it on the positive side today, but I do have a few negatives that I'll share. 1. I've been feeling pretty sub-par. Something's been wrong with my eyes for about a month now and I've become extremely sensitive to light. It's so bad that sometimes even our living room lamp makes my eyes water. Going to the doctor next Friday to get that checked out. 2. I've gained and it's no wonder because I haven't tracked my food for about two weeks now. 3. School is obnoxious. Actually, speaking of school, would anyone be willing to help me out? I'm taking a research for writers class this semester and I have to choose a topic and interview 3 people about it and pretend like I'm going to write an article about it for publishing. I'm really not going to try to get anything published, we're just supposed to follow the steps that someone would take if they were trying to get published. Anyhow, the topic I chose was lap band surgery, so, if anyone wants to volunteer to be interviewed by me, I'd super appreciate it.

On to the positive now:
My 5 year anniversary/Valentine's celebration day on Saturday was awesome. Ben really outdid himself and while he didn't propose, we had a fabulous time. When I got home from work that day, he gave me 5 cards with various times on them. The first one I got to open immediately and it said that we'd spend the whole day reliving old memories and making new ones. Each card held a choice, so really the whole date was up to me. The first card was called "a day at the museum". He gave me the choice between the Andy Warhol Museum and the Mattress Factory Museum. I chose the latter of the two because we both have always wanted to go there due to its uniqueness and such good reviews. We got there and felt so ridiculously out of place. Here's what I mean...

The first exhibit was a bandster's worst nightmare.
A whole room FULL of bread!

It was crazy, I tell you!

It looks so good, too. But anyway, the rest of the museum was more peculiar than this room, believe it or not.
There was an overly clean room, which gave me terrible anxiety...

And there were these polka dot rooms, which were actually my favorite.

Not optimal for photography, but you get the idea.

Not prime for photos, though, but kind of neat in person.

Moving on, the next envelope was for dinner. I've been crazy for spicy/Mexican food ever since surgery (so weird-never cared for it pre-op), so he made reservations at an upscale Mexican restaurant, but he ended up calling to cancel because I liked the other option better. It was a small family owned restaurant called Carmi's in Pittsburgh's North Side neighborhood. We were there once about a year ago and they had amaaaazing comfort food. Best mac and cheese ever. So, we went there and had a bit of a carb-fest. Their dinners come with two sides and soup or salad, and cornbread. Not bandster friendly, but mighty tasty. We both got the spare rib dinner which came with 2 ribs. I ate those, plus one side of mac and cheese, a cup of chicken and dumplings, and a few bites of cornbread. It was heavenly. Regrettable when I saw a gain of 3 lbs on Monday morning, but way tasty.

After dinner, the next envelope gave me the option to do go see a live show at a cafe in town or to go to the Carnegie Science Center to see a laser show (something we used to do all the time). I chose the latter and we got there way early, so we played around the science center before Laser Lady Gaga started. Once we got up to the planetarium to see the show, we found roughly 20 fourth graders already seated. I don't normally like children in large quantities but it was so funny to watch them dance and hear them sing. It was cute. The only good picture of us together was taken at the laser show...

It's not even all that good because my eyes are weird...Whatever.

Afterwards, we got in the car and he gave me the fourth card. This time, I had no choice. We went and painted pottery! I'd been saying for a few weeks that I wanted to do it, so we went to a little shop and did that. I picked a vase and he picked a cup. We actually get to go pick them up tomorrow because they needed to be glazed, so I'm pretty excited about that. Here's what we ended up with...

During

After

It was a really fun time. Then, for my final card, I had the choice between going to Eat n Park (local chain restaurant where we had our first date) or the Melting Pot. I can't turn down the Melting Pot! So, we ended up having both cheese and chocolate fondue (and I may have had a sangria). We told them we were celebrating our 5 year anniversary and they gave me a carnation and they provided some champagne for us to toast with. I've been very good about not having carbonation since being banded, but I tried a sip of the champagne. It wasn't sweet enough for my liking, so I let Ben have the rest. All in all, it was an amazing time and I really think he's going to have trouble trying to top this date when he proposes.

Also, I got my brother and sister-in-law a dog today. She's obsessed with pugs and for forever she's wanted one-specifically a black male. She wanted to get it before the baby came so she'd have time to train it, but she just couldn't find one in her price range. It just so happened that my friend at school has to move and it came up in casual conversation that she was looking to rehome her black male pug. Crazy, right? So, I went and got him today and he's at their house right now. Justin had to leave for work at 7 and Anna's working til 11:30, so she's just going to walk in and there'll be a surprise puppy. I hope she doesn't get scared when she walks in the house. He'll be a year old next month, so he and the baby can grow up together. I'm super excited about it. He's such a sweet dog, too.

Food-wise, I've been trying to get back on track since our date, but it's been hard. We have Ben's mom's birthday to celebrate this weekend and we're going to Applebee's. I already know I'm going to order the grilled chicken wonton tacos, so I won't go overboard. I'm sure there will be dessert--I'm going to make Ben share with me whether he wants to or not. Hopefully I'll be back down to a good weight next week.

Speaking of weight, Ben did get me the Wii console so I've been playing Wii fit-how come none of you told me how downright rude that thing can be? Jeez. I step on it and it says "ouch". I skip a day and it judges me for being "too busy" for it? My goodness, I just wasn't expecting that. Apparently I've got terrible balance, but my running skills are somewhat decent. I'm actually really enjoying it and I'm glad Ben got it for me for our anniversary. Good investment, I think.

I'm pretty sure I've rambled on loooong enough for tonight, so I'm just going to stop there. Sorry for being MIA for the last week. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Oh, and Happy belated Valentine's day. Love you all!!

xoxo