Tag: Chimichangas

Time Well Spent

Sometimes, you have to MAKE time. That is what I did the last time my boss asked for all of our “time off requests.” I chose one day a month and took it off to be sure that my wife and I get some “us” time. Last Friday, was the first of those days.

By the end of Wednesday night, I was ready to have that day off! Wednesday was a real mess. Everybody had really difficult patients. It was like someone deliberately put all of them on the same night to create the “Perfect Crapstorm!” I could hear Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock’s fantastic line, “What is your contingency plan for a crapstorm of this magnitude?” running through my head all night.

Thursday, I came home and was able to get some sleep. I was up at my normal time, and about to get ready for work when I received a text message that there were patients who cancelled and it was my turn to stay home. I cannot even begin to tell you how overjoyed I was to have a bonus night off!

I told my wife that after dinner, we were going to get ice cream! It certainly was not on my diet, but all that mattered was that I was going to have the night with the family. We all packed into the car and went to a local ice cream place about 8 miles from us. I tried to get a family picture while we were there, but neither of the kids knew we were taking the picture …

It was a perfect night. It wasn’t too hot, but there was plenty of sunshine. One of the best moments of the evening was watching Ella willingly share her ice cream with Andrew. It was so sweet to watch.

Then came Friday. Knowing that we were planning on having dinner out somewhere, Sam and I began to discuss where to go to eat. Why is trying to decide where to eat such a chore for couples? It’s crazy. Sam said she’d be happy going to Applebee’s, which I really didn’t want to do. So we looked at the internet and our “lists.” We have a list of places that we would love to try and a list of places that we like. We decided to stay close to home and go to one of our favorite Mexican places.

Prior to us dating, we used to go to this place with one of our teachers. The food is excellent. Once we began dating, we’d go there often. Now, there is one close to our house and we eat there frequently. We dropped the kids off at Sam’s sister’s house and we went to the restaurant that was close to the college.

They brought us their homemade chips and salsa, which is something I should have avoided because of how many points the chips are on Weight Watchers, but I didn’t. Instead, I made the healthy choice of avoiding the chimichangas I usually order, and opted for the chicken fajita, which is basically all free. I ate loads of veggies and chicken. I avoided the tortilla shells and the sour cream. It was delicious.

I also did something I hadn’t done in some time – I had a beer. I made sure to get a light beer and I counted the points for it. While I enjoyed it, I realized that I really have not missed it. There was a time where I was drinking beer almost every night. It was emotionally driven and brought on by stress. Today, I don’t feel the need to drink at all. I’m happy with my coffee or water.

After dinner, Sam and I drove to Target and walked through the store. We were looking for a couple things, but mostly just browsing. We got a few ideas for the kids for Christmas and enjoyed just walking – with no real hurry to get stuff done. It was wonderful.

The time together was much needed. It was a perfect evening. Driving home to get the kids, we talked, held hands and just enjoyed “us.” I am already looking forward to next month’s date day!!

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We had our garage sale on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday may have been busier than the rest of my weekend. I got my steps in for the day, that’s for sure!

You may remember that when we were expecting Ella, we took what was our dining room and built a wall to make a nursery. When that happened, we moved our dining room table to the living room. Eventually, we bought Ella toys that we needed to make room for, so we moved the table downstairs.

So for over 2 years, we’ve eaten dinners on the couch and Ella ate at her little table. Sam decided it was time to bring the table back upstairs. Ella is big enough to sit at the table (she may need a booster) and Andrew has a high chair that straps to one of the chairs. So we put Ella’s table in her room and got rid of the big high chair.

I brought up the table and Sunday morning, we all got to eat breakfast and lunch at the table. It’s amazing how much that really meant to us. Having all of us at the table really was quite a nice bonding experience. It’s been nice to be able to do this again.

The kids and I played outside a lot and we took our walk around the neighborhood. Afterward, we came home and played with toys and watched TV. Ella was sitting next to me on the floor and we were watching one of her shows. We were probably sitting like this for 15 minutes before I noticed that we were sitting the same way. So I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture. Please pardon the “weekend bumming around” socks I am wearing.

On Monday morning, Andrew was up first. I got up with him and made him a bottle. After he ate it, he got down on the floor and was trying to pet our cat. Our cat is terrified of Ella. Probably because she chases her all over the place. I’m surprised at how much the cat lets Andrew pet her.

Knowing that I had over did it with the chimichangas from Saturday night, I wanted to be sure that I got a good walk in. I put the kids in the stroller and we were off and walking. Midway through the walk, I was thrown a curveball. I totally lost one of the front wheels on the stroller!!

We were at least a half mile from home, and Sam was asleep, so I had to keep walking home. There were times where I was able to push with just the one wheel. Most of the time, however, I pushed down on the stroller handle to lift the wheel up from the ground and walked home that way. Either way, it was not fun.

By the time we got home, Ella wanted to stay outside and play. All I wanted to do was sit down and chug a bottle of water. So I put Andrew in his swing and Ella played in the dirt. LOL

I must have been worried about weighing in on Tuesday morning, because Monday night I had a dream that I was sitting at the dining room table stuffing my face with plain M&M’s.

I don’t remember what I was stressing about in the dream, but I just kept stuffing my face with those M&M’s. Finally, I remember I have to weigh in and push the bowl off the table.

When I weighed in, I was surprised to see that I had actually lost a pound. I really thought that I would be up or stay the same. Those chimichangas were worth every bite, and I know that because of them, my week was not as good as it could have been. However, a loss is still a loss. I will do it one pound at a time. Total weight loss – 14 pounds.

I took the kids out for a walk in the other double stroller we have. It’s not as easy to push as the jogger, but it gets us through the neighborhood. After we got home, Ella wanted to play on the trampoline. I decided to let Andrew go in for a second and he loved it. If I had to pick a picture that says “This is summer,” it might just be this one:

Ella wanted me to come in and play, too. It takes me a minute to get myself up and in that thing (and even longer to get out). We had such fun just rolling and jumping around. The kids are hard to wrangle for photos now, but I was able to nab this one of the three of us before going inside for naps.

What a wonderful blessing these kids are!!