Kings in the Corner

Well, hello there! Top of the mornin' to ya! ♣

I meant to post last night, but (quick, Talia, think of a good excuse...crap, there isn't one...) we had friends over for dinner and they left close to 11:30 p.m. and I was just too exhausted to get on the computer before bed. (Wait a second, that actually IS a really great excuse! Phew!)

Last night our friends, Melissa and Dave, came over for dinner. My sweet husband and I had not seen them in what felt like forrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeever and since both of our weekends have been jam packed the past few months, we decided to just get together during the week. Tuesday is as good a day as any, right?

I went to my second home the grocery store a few hours before they arrived and the only thing I knew for sure my husband we would cook was: chicken. Since I'm eating a figure girl competition(ish) diet, I knew I'd only be having green beans with my chicken (no starch for dinner, booo! )but I wanted to make sure I had two sides for our guests friends. I walked around the store and picked up two bags of all-natural Rosemary, Garlic and Parmesan potato wedges (I hear they were good!) and two ready-made frozen bags of Broccoli with Cheese Sauce. (Don't judge-I never said I this was a foodie blog:) Later in the evening, my Hot Grillin' Man grilled some chicken while I baked the potato wedges and microwaved steamed the broccoli. After we all said grace (which is awesome, btw, to pray with friends!) I slipped away to prepare my plate and measure out some green beans and a small serving of the cheesy broccoli and made sure not to make eye contact with anyone else's plate HA! The potatoes smelled soooo good, but I'll eat my weight in potatoes after the bikini figure competition is over, so it will all even out in the end:)

After dinner we moseyed over to the living room where the boys fired up Xbox and played Forza 3. My husband isn't a big "gamer" but he does own 4 or 5 Xbox games and every now and then he likes to play just to unwind. I actually like to watch him play Forza racing because I love fast cars and the scenery and images look SO lifelike on our new flat-screen HD tv! Occasionally, Hubbs will win a race and buy me any car I want...in any color I want! So, I am the proud owner of a pink Charger, pink Ferrari and a pink Land Rover. Thanks, honey!

Anyway, we all laughed and had a great time hanging out. While the boys channeled Ricky Bobby, Melissa and I started a card game. Kings on the Corner. Have you ever played it? I ♥ it! It reminds me of solitaire, only you get to play with others. (hmm, irony at its finest)

We used my husband's Penn State playing cards and played until I won, naturally. I kid, I kid:)


BTW-Isn't our coffee table so cool?! It's been in our family for nearly 5o years and was brought back from Japan when my grandfather was stationed there in the Army. It is really dark wood with red hues interspersed within the table and has the most beautiful carvings on the sides and legs (which I guess you can't really see. Oh well;(

A dozen Toll House chocolate chip cookies were enjoyed by the lucky ones....

while I snacked on this:

...more green beans, two egg whites and 2 oz grilled chicken. sigh. As hard as it was to smell the delicious chocolate chip cookies, I impress myself more and more with my self-control and determination to follow this comp diet through. No cheats. If I can manage to live in our place with candles burning like "Toasted Marshmallow", "Wild Blueberry Muffin" and "Caramel Apple" and not binge on hot wax because they smell like candy, then I can pass up cookies. Easy peasy.

One more thing- It felt really good to tell Melissa and Dave about my goal to enter a bikini figure competition. You see, I haven't told too many of my friends and I'm very selective who I share my dreams with. You know that Scripture verse, "Don't throw your pearls to swine"? I've learned over the years to be very selective regarding who I share my dreams with. It seems the world tends to laugh in your face and try to bring you down and I just don't want to open myself up for others' doubts and/or negative opinions about what I do with my life. Aside from my immediate family and a few (AMAZING) friends I've met here in Pittsburgh, I've really kept quiet about my goal. Well, aside from writing an entire blog about my journey HAHA!

The thing about writing this blog is that I feel "safe" sharing my 'figure gal' dreams with those in this healthy living section of the blog world. I feel like even if you personally are not making it your goal to compete, that you at least "get it" when I take pictures of my food or ramble on and on about health benefits of bee pollen or chia seeds. You understand when I share my strength training successes or vent about body image or how stupid the scale is. I feel encouraged when I read a comment and it motivates me even more to stay the course and finish out what I've started. I'm not in this to win trophies (though, that would totally rock, wouldn't it?!) and make a life-long career out of this. I'm just a simple gal, blessed with the opportunity and time to devote to this goal before we start a family in the future.

One final thing-- Thank you SO SO SO much to those of you who have left comments! I absolutely LOVE hearing from you! I get so excited and smile like the Grinch when his heart grows three times the size on Christmas Day. Just call me the Grinchette because when I receive a new comment, I smile a little like:

Grew three sizes 2 sound bite Christmas sound bites

Time for a killer lower-body workout! Have a marvelous day! Perhaps I'll post later!