It seems quite a few of you really enjoyed this morning’s 30 Days of Self Love post. I smiled with each and every one of your comments on how you are physically beautiful. We should never deny our beauty, inside and out. I would love to read more, so share how you’re beautiful in the comment section of today’s post.

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Since the only blogging I do over the weekends right now is for the 30 Days, I owe you a recap. We had no set plans going into this weekend. I love weekends where you can go with the flow. I expected relaxation, family time, and a good meal out for our one night a week restaurant visit. Saturday fell a little bit short of those hopes and dreams. Even my massage.

I headed out Saturday morning to use up a Groupon I received for a prenatal massage. I almost had butterflies from the excitement! My body needed this massage and I could not wait to feel less tension. I got myself situated on the massage table – on my side with a body pillow for support – and settled in to await bliss.

I would not quite describe this massage as bliss. I would not describe it as bad either…but weird. A good 1/3 of the massage was done through the sheet! And with basically no pressure. It felt like someone poking me in the shoulder or back over and over to wake me up. Not exactly relaxing. Part of what I love about massages is the use of oils and really feeling the release of muscles. No oils touched my skin and minimal tension release happened. I did enjoy the chance to relax, but I certainly would not go back. Any Atlanta area massage studios want to offer me a chance for review? I promise to play nice! As long as you don’t rub me raw through a sheet. 😉

The lackluster Saturday continued with a Georgia Bulldogs game loss and a pretty nasty dinner. We typically prefer going to local, non-massive-chain restaurants in our area but had a BOGO coupon for Ruby Tuesday. I remembered liking their food okay and who am I to say no to a cheap dinner with a salad bar involved? Lesson learned – say no!

My salad suited me nicely. Greens, beets, artichoke hearts, edamame, olives, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette, and things I’m likely forgetting.

My meal, however, equated to disaster. I used to love their steak but I could not handle it. It had a lot of chew to it, which cannot be good in my standards. All in all, I had sweet potato fries for dinner. Not worth the $15 we saved from going elsewhere.

I enjoyed Sunday a lot more. It started off fairly typical with church, home for lunch, and chilling during M’s nap. Then, we made the spontaneous decision to head out to the park for the afternoon. I soaked up some quality time with the family and a leisurely stroll around the park’s little pond.

Spending afternoons together outdoors gets me all warm and fuzzy inside every time. We closed out the night with more fun. The hilarity of the movie Date Night ensued. I really liked it! I liked the fact it wasn’t too long and gave us an early bedtime even more. Such a wild life we live. Oh well. It all added up to a pleasurable Sunday!

• What was the best and worst part of your weekend?
• Have you ever had something you looked forward to turn out lackluster? What was it?
• Check out my guest post on Healthy Living Blogs!

That would be 525,600 minutes (like in the song from Rent) multiplied by 89 – the number of years we celebrated for my G-Pa’s birthday last night. The man amazes me.

He is 89 going on 25 and truly lives life to the fullest. As much as my family jokes that he will be around longer than all of us, it still saddens me that there is no way to truly know how much longer we have with him. He is healthy and strong, but there’s no escaping the circle of life. Okay I need to stop with the depressing talk and instead focus on the good. Like the many things I have learned from watching my G-Pa and the vivaciousness with which he lives his life.

1. Stick to your beliefs - My G-Pa is pretty old school in some of his ways of thinking, but they are his beliefs and he will not change them. I admire that. He holds strongly to his ideals and consistently lives his life according to them. Many people can spout ways they think others should live or things people shouldn’t do…but not many will live them day to day in their own lives. We should all have something we feel strongly about and refuse to back down from.

2. Love- He lost his wife in 1996 a few months before his 50th wedding anniversary and as heartbroken as he was, he continued thriving. He even went on to find love in another woman a few years ago, but sadly she passed on too. He never lets what life gives him keep him from loving though. He loves to pour it out on others, including his family. What he has given and done for us over the years cannot be measured because he understands love is not something you tally, but that you simply give.

3. Laugh – My G-Pa has one of the best senses of humor I know. He is 89 but can crack jokes with the best of them. I remember for his 80th birthday some old women who persistently watch the closed circuit lobby video footage at the condos we stay in were nagging him saying he hired strippers to come see him. Those “strippers” we found out were my cousins & I coming home from a karaoke bar at around 11 at night in jean shorts and tank tops. This annoyed my G-Pa so he had to get back at those “old bitties”. His plan? To have us really dress as hookers, take us down in the lobby and in front of the video camera pass out a bunch of cash to each of us then tell every man he crossed by in the condo that he was a lucky man and that we all left smiling. That shut up those “old bitties” (who mind you were 20 years younger than him). It became a running joke and one year we even made Hank’s Hoes tshirts.

4. You don’t have to follow the rules and be “good” all the time – He will wake up and go walking for 3 or so miles every day. He will do what he can to care for his health, but he will also have a good time. Because after all, another one of his rules…is you have to have two martinis before you order your meal. 😉 Life just isn’t fun without any vices.

5. Don’t judge a restaurant only by their martinis – Okay this one is more by default. G-Pa loves his martinis and places he can get good ones. We went to his favorite restaurant last night for his birthday (chosen for the martini) and it was a disappointment. They had a veggie plate option where you could order 3 sides and a salad and it also came with dessert. Sounded good. Things started off fine with a decent enough salad.

Nothing special, but it was crisp and fresh tasting and had the dressing on the side so I didn’t have to eat swimming leaves. Then for my “entree” I opted for Pear + Cheese, Sweet Potato Soufflé, and Brussel Sprouts as my three chosen items.

In my mind the pear and cheese would be a fresh (not canned) pear with some sort of Brie or nice cheese. Not Kraft shredded cheddar sprinkled on top and with…get this…mayonnaise on the side!! Ewww! I tasted it and was like “what IS this???” When my sister tasted it too and said mayo I about gagged. Who does that?! The sprouts were overcooked and bland. The sweet potato was no souffle, but overly mashed sweet potato with some raisins tossed in for good measure. Blah. Blech. Ich. Ew. And I was craving a good veggie meal!

The stars were aligned against me though and determined a healthy meal was not in my future. Instead my dinner would consist of toasted coconut peanut butter pie to round out my salad and three bites of the disgusting sorry array above.

As you can imagine..even without a formal dinner, I still left that restaurant with a satisfied stomach. 😉

• What is the most disappointing meal you have ever had?
• Who is someone you look up to and admire?
• What is your favorite musical? I badly want to see either Rent, Hair, Wicked, or Chicago in NYC one day. I think that would be so cool.