Day 8: ME on a diet

This morning, I had to kick Dan out of bed so he could go play Magic in KC.  This also meant I had to kick Livi out of bed early.  She said, "Just two more, Mom."  I'm not sure where the two came from, but once I finally got her out of bed, she was very clear that it was all Daddy's fault that she had to get up when she wasn't ready.  We were halfway to Eudora, running about ten minutes late, when Dan realized he didn't have his phone.  That put a bit of a kink in our day, but we worked it out.  I had a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and then took Dan to McD's for breakfast.  Livi and I dropped Dan off at the card store and then headed up to Oak Park and spent the next two hours at Barnes & Noble.  This has become Livi's favorite book store for two reasons.  Reason one, they have a train set.  Reason two, they have a "stage."  So, first she played with the train and had to share five cars with about seven other kids.  Then they had a story time at 11.  Rebecca, the lady who works there, started off story time by sharing a plate of cookies with all of the kiddos.  Then she read Scaredy-cat, Splat! by Rob Scotton.  It's a cute story about a cat who is getting ready for his Halloween party at school.  He's got his costume, his jack-o-lantern and his pet mouse.  Of course, things didn't go exactly as he anticipated, but the kids really enjoyed the story.  Not one of my favorites, but nice for the season.  After the story, cookies were passed a second time.  Not a bad strategy to convince kids ranging from two years to eight to cooperate.  The second book was Splat! the Cat.  It seemed a little bit backwards to start with the holiday book and then go to the intro book, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  Rebecca read with a lot of enthusiasm and it was pretty fun.

Livi had to do a lot of compromising while we were there because there were so many other kids to share with.  She didn't get to sit in the chair she wanted, but she was cool as long as I sat with her.

After story time, RANDOM DANCING!  Well, maybe it wasn't really random, since that was part of Livi's plan for the day, but it was certainly freestyle.  :)  If you're never visited the kids section at a Barnes & Noble, you may be very confused right now. They have a little stage area with a big comfy chair in the middle and a small step up that run the width of the stage behind the chair.  It's the perfect place for a beautiful dancer to hold impromptu recitals.  And the crazy part is, when Livi starts dancing, so do other kids.  So Olivia, Paige, Luke and Will were all dancing madly.  We met Paige, her older brother, Luke, and her little brother, Will, at the train set before story time.  Paige danced with her books.  She refused to put them down.  Will would dance, then read then dance.  Luke was only there for a few minutes, but I think they all enjoyed the show.  And I have never seen a child that would not take advantage of having a parent as a captive audience.  It didn't matter that I was not their parent, I watch and smile and encourage them and they were happy.  The show lasted about thirty minutes or so.  Olivia is always fun for me to watch because she is innovative.  She uses the entire stage, she does her own thing but then she'll throw in a first position or an arabesque, she'll use her jazz hands like in tap and she'll throw herself over the chair or step for dramatic effect.  She owns the stage.  It's just another way that Livi shows her confidence and lust for life.  I pray every day that Dan and I are helping her to grow into those things and not out of them.  I don't want her to ever doubt her own beauty for even one second.

While we were at B&N, I picked up a paperback copy of Man's Search for Meaningby Viktor Frankl.  I haven't read more than the introductions, but I am already intrigued.  I will fill you in when I do some reading.

We stopped by the card store and checked on Dan.  He had just finished his first round.  They had free pizza for the players, so he didn't need lunch.  I told him we would stop by again after we had lunch.  We found the Hunan Magic Wok.  I ordered shrimp and broccoli with an extra crab rangoon and egg roll.  I also got a cup of egg drop soup.  Livi and I were sharing our mini smorgasbord and we had a fun time.  As we shared the soup, our waitress, Sophia, brought Livi a small cup of her own so she wouldn't have to share.  Livi dipped her egg roll in the thick, dark red sweet and sour sauce and proceeded to let it drip over her plate to create a smiling butterfly.  We weren't really on a schedule, so we dilly-dallied as long as we wanted.  The food was yummy, the waitress was friendly and we had a lovely meal.  Olivia pointed out a few times yesterday that it was "just the two of us."  It was such a nice day.

After lunch, we picked Dan up for a break from the store.  After we dropped him off, we headed to the grocery store.  This was my first trip to Price Chopper but I had a few sales and coupons.  The store that we went to was on 135th & Mur-Len and it was not cool.  They were out of several of the items I was there for.  They took the "while supplies last" concept pretty seriously and just refused to restock, I guess.  Dan was wanting a steak dinner, but I wouldn't buy anything from their meat case.  Many of the steaks were greying around the edges and they didn't really have a meat counter.  Just a couple of cases of half frozen meats.  I still spent $21.27 and saved $14.86.  With being able to bargain shop like that, I figured it was worth trying a different store at least.

Dan called from another guy's phone just before we hit the checkout and said he was ready to go home.  We picked him up and headed for the Price Chopper at K-10 & Woodland.  It was literally the day to the night of the last store.  It was clean, well-lit and welcoming.  I could shop there often, and it's only 26 minutes away.  It's on the way for whatever reason we are heading to KC, and for every $50 I spend in one trip, I'll save a nickel per gallon on gas at QT.  That's what drew my attention in the first place.  As long as I'm not making an extra trip, I think it's a profitable venture.  We found an actual meat counter with a helpful butcher.  He explained why one rib eye was $18.99 a pound, one $12.99 and another $11.99.  The first was prime, which is the best and we know that's super yummy.  But for $18.99 a pound, we wouldn't save much over going out and splitting at Outback.  The $11.99 was natural with no growth hormones, but we could pay the extra dollar to get the hormones if we wanted.  We opted not to.  He also explained that the meats in the cooler were only select, which was a step down from the choice that we purchased.  They also had a neat chart showing us that the meat at the other store was oxidized and that's what made it look funny.  Good to know.  We happily procured the rest of our list from shelves that had been restocked and we even picked up a couple of things we needed that I hadn't planned on.  We spent $34.62 and still saved $7.62.   Overall, I saved 29% on things I would have purchased anyway.  That's $22.48 that I just earned.  It's like our steak dinner with roasted asparagus, tomatoes and potatoes was free!  And we got paid a bit to eat it too.  :)

We mistimed our meal a bit so we all munched on roasted veggies as a finger food appetizer and followed it up with some yummy ribeye.  We had cinnamon rolls for dessert, not a great choice, but very tasty.  Dan and I watched an episode of Outlaw, the new show with Jimmy Smits, and it made me cry.  It was so sad.  I hope they plan to rebuild off the grief in the future.  Then Livi watched a show and headed for bed and Dan and I watched Sam the Cooking Guy grill a salad.  What?  You don't watch Sam the Cooking Guy?  Well you should!  Discovery Health!

More Grill Stuff
BBQ doesn't have to mean the same thing all the time. Sam makes a Grilled Hearts of Romaine salad, a Grilled Eggplant Parmesan sandwich and simple but great Boneless Pork Chops on the grill.

These were all super good looking recipes.  I've never really had eggplant before, but I'm up to trying it!  Sam is so fun to watch and everything he cooks is EASY!

So, a couple of good points that I forgot to mention, we are going to church as a family tomorrow.  Also, I just got YOU on a DIET in the mail today.  I have been reading it out loud to Dan.  We made it through the intro and we are going to do it together.  It was reading How good is good enough? out loud to Dan as he was cooking that made him think that maybe he would be ok with this church.  I'm thinking this is an effective strategy we can use to work together on things.  Now, if I could just kick this cold so reading doesn't start a coughing fit, we'll be in business!