Valentine's Trip 2015

I wanted to go ahead and recap Valentine's Day on here not only for yall but because I love to be able to look back at days in my life on this blog and remember the good times. 

It's safe to say we definitely went all out for Valentines this year!

In years past we have NEVER done anything remotely like this.  We got together when we were basically young kids, hubby wasn't even 20 years old.  So I have seen much cheaper Valentine's in our 11 (almost 12) years together!

Usually we end up going out to dinner and to a movie.  Sometimes we don't even get to celebrate on the actual day due to hubby being out of town working.  He is pretty good about getting me flowers and chocolate I will say :) But one of my favorite Valentine's days was a few years ago when we had steak and shrimp at home and watched Saving Private Ryan (super romantic right?!).

But let's just say this year is super different than any others in the past and Jacob worked a LOT last year so our time together is precious.  I wanted this year to be special and so did he.  I suggested we go out of town, he wanted to be a tourist in our own city so that is what we did!  We live about 30-40 minutes from Charlotte so we booked a (very expensive) night at the Marriott City Center.

I really wish I would have planned this ahead better! I waited until the last minute to get dinner reservations and if I had researched more I would have gotten us tickets to the Phantom of the Opera at the Belk Theatre!  They had a symphony and another play going on close to downtown as well but they were all sold out or not working with our time schedule. 

So let's start at the beginning shall we?

Of course every valentines day starts with a little tift over breakfast.  Ha! 

We went to Cracker barrel to eat.  Long wait and I was not in the mood to stay in the warm store with tons of people crowding around me.  We went to Ihop.  Wait as well with people everywhere inside.  We decided to go to bojangles.  We were starving and snippy due to horrible drivers in traffic so breakfast was not the most romantic thing HA!

We went to the Target at the Metropolitan (a shopping center) on our way to uptown (which is downtown, we are weird here in Charlotte) and then we went to the hotel to see if we could check in early.  Much to our surprise, we could! 

We got a city view room as requested and the nice guy at check in even gave us complimentary parking in the garage (18.00 savings!) which was super awesome of him!  Plus they had delicious little fancy chocolates at the desk for us to grab. 

Y'all.  The beds were heaven.  I am not kidding, best hotel bed I have ever slept in.  Soft down comforter, the pillows were wonderful, soft mattress; not too firm not too soft.  JUST right. 

 

So we decided to go out and explore a bit!  Now, I don't know why it has never really occurred to me but in the center city area there is no retail shops.  SO weird!  I was highly disappointed we had no where to shop or even browse! Ha!!

 

But we walked around a lot and just enjoyed being together.  We checked out the Epicenter which is fairly new.  It is seriously overrated though.  They have a Studio Movie Grill where you can watch movies and eat and drink if you wish.  They have some bars, which I don't do, and a ton of restaurants.  Meh.  Once again no shopping.  We ended up eating at a Japanese "fast food" type place and our food took forever to come out.  It wasn't even that good and cost like 20.00. 

 

Later we went back to the hotel and relaxed a bit and decided we should do the Carriage rides that they give around the city.  It was 25.00 for two people for 20 minutes!  The cheap person in me told Jacob that was ridiculous and he agreed but we were sick of walking and this was the most entertaining thing they were offering ha.  It was quite romantic I must say!  I was glad we did it and spent the money. 

 

 

After that we got Starbucks.  I got a raspberry mocha and it came with a cookie.  Jacob got the same.

 

We walked around outside some more, exploring our city!

 

We found the restaurant that we had reservations at later that night.  It was very close to our hotel which was nice!  Yall it was so cold!

And I noticed at the Belk Theatre that Dirty Dancing is coming in June!  I HAVE to go see this!

So we went back to the hotel and I took a relaxing bubble bath with some aromatherapy suds Bestie had given me for Valentines, thanks Bestie!

 

Hubby had been quite secretive all day.  The night before he had brought me home a present but no flowers which surprised me because he pretty much always gets me flowers.  But still I was happy!  It was a cute little bear, starbucks k cups, and chocolate!

 

 

He knows the way to my heart haha! 

 

So while I am bathing he leaves to go downstairs, comes back up acting even weirder making sure I am still in the tub lol.  I get out of the bath and there is a beautiful vase of flowers with chocolate truffles! He even upgraded the vase to a mason jar vase he said, he is so sweet!  He had them delivered to the hotel and apparently they had been downstairs since 11am! He had been asking since right after check in so he was a tad annoyed that no one bothered to let him know. Lol. 

 

But they were beautiful and I was so happy!  I have never gotten flowers delivered!

 

 

Our dinner reservation was at 9:30 and so I got myself ready and had to take some selfies haha. 

 

 

After gaining all this weight it is a rare thing for me to feel pretty anymore. And typing this I am realizing how sad and true it is! 

Anyways we got dressed and entered a wind that can only be compared to the Wizard of Oz!  WOOSH! All my beautiful curls.  I grabbed hubby back inside and made him take a pic with me in case my hair got all messed up later LOL!

 

We so fancy!

 

Ha!

 

Our reservations were at Luce and I was going out on a limb here.  No one recommended it that I knew and I had never heard of it but it was fantastic Italian cuisine!  The manager was our server and he was wonderful the entire time and I felt like a princess there!  It was a very expensive meal but the experience was worth every penny!

 

 

I got the gnocchi pasta with a meat sauce and Jacob got the Mare (which was pasta and a whole lot of seafood).  We also got Caesar salads and it came with delicious bread and a little dish of cantellini bean mixture.  For desert we had a crème brulee to share! Amazing!

 

 

And last I will leave you with a picture of our beautiful queen city lit up at night time.  This was the Duke Energy building lit up pink!

It was such a romantic little trip.  The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel which was included in the package for free (normally 17.00 a person!) and it was incredibly delicious! 

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day...this has been my favorite day all year, so far! :)

No eating out!

Hey everyone!

Its a beautiful day here except everything is covered in a sheet of ice!  We had a crazy ice storm and school canceled.  Luckily Hubby had no where to be today either so last night we had sloppy joes and watched a movie!

We totally slept in this morning. Ha. 

But I wanted to report on yesterday. 

For breakfast I had one piece of toast with egg and cheese and some coffee. 

Lunch was a piece of Gorton's grilled tilapia with trader joes mashed potatoes (they are little frozen balls that you can measure out into servings and microwave, genius!) and green beans. 

Lunch ended up being super late though.  We were having a printer crisis and tensions were high and I really wanted to stress eat a bunch of chocolate.  But I went in my closet and had a little cry sesh and felt better lol.  I decided I wasn't going to give up that easy and I went and made a healthy lunch. 

Thank the good Lord we got the printer working again and by this time the weather took a turn for the worst and hubby didn't want me going grocery shopping alone so I went with him. 

I got some trail mix bars at walmart for a snack and a water. 

I went with hubby to do a short job and then we got some redbox movies on the way home. 

We had planned to have steak that we have been putting off but I had a ton of calories left so I decided we would have sloppy joes.  By the way has anyone seen the price of ground beef lately!!?? Ridiculous! 

Let me also say that I was STARVING by the time we left that job and was really tempted to get something on the way home!! All the Mexican restaurants looked so cozy and inviting lol.  But we had cold groceries with us and I was determined not to break my little challenge.

I decided to see if I can make it a week without eating out. 

So far, so good. LOL. 

I did really good tracking yesterday until I ate some peanut m & m's last night but there weren't very many of them.  I am not striving for perfection but just close to it and no fast food or eating out.  I have to get my body out of that fast food craving mode.  It will go away!  Its hard at first but I've done it once and I can do it again! 

Thank yall for the kind words yesterday I really appreciate the comments and support!!!

I Miss Y'all

I really miss blogging!

I miss you guys.

I miss the support and I really need to get back to reading and commenting like I should!

I am sorry for the absence life has just been crazy!

I never thought there would be an adjustment period for staying at home. 

But there is!  A big one!

Life has just been crazy since November.

I had our anniversary in November, then tons of family staying in for Christmas and New Years. 

My brother came in and stayed with us most of his visit. 

And in between Christmas and New Years my aunt really took a turn for the worse. 

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 2 years ago this month and she passed away on New Years Eve.  It was a very sad start to the New Year. 

Our dog died last Sunday too. 

I am just feeling overwhelmed and sad right now.  We have business things going on, insurance taxes, etc...it is like I have a never ending cloud of gloom hanging over my head. I dread things until they are over then I dread something new.  Pretty sure you could call it anxiety! 

But its not all bad.  We had a wonderful Valentine's Day.  Hubby missed New Years with me because he was out of town working so I claimed Valentines and my birthday as PLEASE make sure you are off days! I will re cap that soon if I get back into blogging.  Plus sometimes I get to accompany him on little trips and that is super fun ;)

Anyways my weight has just been creeping up and I think Im less than 20 lbs away from my all time high weight.  How did this happen?  No idea.  Staying at home and being so close to town is a big factor I think.  I am so tempted to go get food when I am home alone too.  Because there is no point in fixing big healthy meals for one.  Have any of you ever faced this delimma? I am SO annoyed at myself.  I have a whole kitchen at my disposal now, not a little breakroom!!! I have tons of time to decide what I want and I keep reaching for the bad stuff!  I know what to do I just will not do it.

I feel lonely a lot too.  I have a lot of wonderful friends in my Book Club and Bible Study but I constantly feel alone. April is a RN now and she works ALL the time.  Jacob is gone a lot.  My parents are now 3 hrs away.  Grandma is at least 20 minutes away.  But I do have a great life and I don't mean to complain, I just feel like I am probably not in this boat alone, comment if you feel the same way!! Maybe you are surrounded by people and you still feel alone. 

I love you all and I hope you are well, please let me know what you have been up to and whats going on in your life.  Also if you blog let me know I would love to read yours!