Goooood evening friends! How are you today? I hope great. Once again, I thank you all for your congratulations. I love how they just keep coming in. It sounds like you all are almost as excited as I am. Many of you are even saying you want to hear more about the pregnancy. Don’t worry! I will be talking about it regularly because it will affect a lot of my life right now. I guess I should have worded my last post differently to say my blog won’t be all about pregnancy, but like it has always been plus some pregnancy talk mixed in on a regular basis. Sound good? Good!

Now that we have that all cleared up, let’s talk about my “ooh-la-la” day. It started off pretty typical. I woke up and had my morning devotion time, then got the babes and I ready for the gym. I hit up a Power + Kick class combo this morning which left me feeling good. I have to take advantage of energetic days because I know before too long the first trimester energy crash will hit and I will be about as useful as stiletto heels during a hike…aka instead of sinking into mud, I will be sinking into our couch.

After the gym, my daytime hours were spent loving on the M and “ooh-la-la”ing my lunch. I had leftovers from last night with a ton of mango on the side. I heart mango. Both pictures aren’t from my lunch, but reused from yesterday. My appetite was too driven to pause for pictures today.

Most of my day’s fun began around 5:00. My mom and sister arrived for us to spend the afternoon together. I think this was the best moment of the day. Makenzie was wearing the special shirt I made her and my sister’s reaction was priceless.

I wonder how long it will take Peter’s family and others to figure the shirt out when the time comes for us to share with them. That won’t be for a little while, but I really loved the shirt idea.

After my sister pierced my eardrums it was time to get to the real reason for their visit. Since my sister was busy being a pirate all weekend, we had to wait until tonight to treat my mom to her biggest present – a mani/pedi combo on us. Bonus? We both get one too. And seeing as I never get mani/pedis I was thrilled for some pampering.

Happy 2,354,795,827th Mother’s Day to me! At least that is what it feels like. Ooh-la-la, right?

After we got home from our couple hours of fun, it was time to eat! Something I have no problem doing. Tonight I decided to try something new. What was on the menu? Portabella burgers and Nutbutter Parsnip Fries from Angela.

For the Portabella burgers I just marinated them for about 10 minutes (no more) in a mixture of olive oil, worcestershire sauce, garlic, pepper, and steak seasoning. Then, the hubs grilled them for about 5-8 minutes per side while basting them with the remainder of the marinade.

For the Nutbutter Parsnip Fries I just followed the recipe Angela posted in the link above. I have never had parsnips before so this worried me a tiny bit, but they tasted delicious. Although they did burn a bit. Lesson learned for next time, because I WILL be making these again.

What a delicious meal! And it totally makes up for the lack of a portabella wrap I had last week.

• How often do you get mani/pedis? Or what is a “luxury” that you do regularly for yourself? I WISH mine was massages. I would looooove to have a regular massage. If I had to say I have a luxury it would be getting new workout clothes when I know I don’t need more.
• What is a food you recently tried that you have never eaten before? Or what is something you don’t think you could ever try? Something I don’t think I would ever try is sea urchin. They showed it on a Food Network show recently and it just did not look appetizing in the least. I didn’t even know you could eat it!

How does time go by so fast? It's already Sunday afternoon! Yesterday went by in a blur...and not because I had some margaritas. I have to say I sometimes enjoy time going by fast. It means I am busy and am surrounded by lots of things to do. For this lady, that typically means things to do with friends or activities I thoroughly enjoy working on. God has blessed me by filling my life with things I am passionate about. Being a mother & wife, helping students, leading a Sunday class, blogging, involving myself in health & fitness, spending time with friends, and more. So being busy just reminds me how full my life is. He is amazing and never ceases to meet our needs and, on top of that, He abundantly gives joy that overflows. Can you tell I'm high on life today? That doesn't have to do with the margaritas either. 😉

This weekend wasn't anything too special. We didn't have any set plans since we were going to be out of town. Friday we just stayed in with dinner and some relaxation together. We even hit the sack by 9:00. Party hearty!

Saturday was a lot more exciting. I hit up the gym for Power + Kick classes. I have decided that mirrors in group exercise classes are not necessary and a pet peeve of mine.[Source]

I don't really see the point in them being all over. This could be nitpicky, but I realized it was a pet peeve of mine. Maybe I am being over dramatic, but I was in a spot right in front of a mirror for class on Saturday and it drove me crazy having to watch myself workout the entire time. It also gave me a lot of time to go from "I feel strong doing these squats" thinking to "Oh look at myself. My thighs/butt/hips jiggle so much while I'm jumping in Kick" thoughts. NOT COOL! I know I have the power to control my thoughts and fight the negative talk. The point is however that staring at myself for 2 hours distracted me from simply being able to feel strong and enjoy a quality workout. I know the argument for mirrors is that they can help people check their form...but in most exercises, if you are looking in a mirror you lose proper form by moving your neck out of alignment or you are being distracted by yourself or others you can see in them. Is it overthinking things to consider this can put too much of an emphasis on image? Maybe it would be okay if all mirrors looked like this:

That is the best Operation Beautiful message I have ever seen. That was on our church bathroom mirror this morning. I have never seen it up before. I wondered if it was an Operation Beautiful message but I didn’t see any note about the website. No matter. I thought it was really uplifting to see and maybe I will send it in to Caitlin as a note I found. 🙂

Now that I have rambled unnecessarily for too long, I will get back to the remainder of our Saturday. We decided to get together with some friends of ours. We went to the park to play with Makenzie.

Obviously I had fun making weird faces, going down slides, and pushing swings for insane lengths of time. All whilst drooling over our friend Dan’s camera. Hey, Peter. If you read this…that would be a great Mother’s Day present. Wishful thinking never hurts. Don’t dash my dreams before they’ve even started.

The fun began after the park. My buddy Nicole knows how to make a mean margarita. So I was not surprised when I downed three of these beauties over the course of the night.

I think the chips and tacos helped soak up some of the tequila. PS – Chips need salsa. Some people (raises hand) just don’t like Queso.

Not too much though. A little buzz never hurt anyone. Although I don’t think my 3 (ahem, strong) margaritas compared to baby M’s buzz. She was buzzing on sugar and presents. Dan & Nicole gave Makenzie a little backpack, a little purse, and a necklace just for fun. Then they topped it off with a cupcake. Clearly she was in heaven. And their love for M makes me forgive the lack of salsa. Kidding. Or maybe not. I take salsa seriously.

Check out Lisa's Giveaway here! I promise it will have you buzzing with happiness too.