Category Archives: Finally Friday

Because Friday is finally here and I need one day to talk about whatever comes to mind.

Deals, Good Friends, Yummy Salad, and Cleaning Up

It’s been a good week I guess. ;) Chicken breasts were only $1.48 at Winco this week in Tulsa, but we HAD to wear a face covering. Tiffany and I choose to wear scarves instead of face masks. These are thinner and we can breathe better and they are prettier too. ;)

Tiffany found an outside blanket for only $5 in the clearance section at Walmart. She will use it in the car when taking one of her dogs somewhere, like the lake or park or something. It was 50% off, so that was cool.

I had an emotional breakdown the other day because I’m just done being this weight!!! Yep, it was not good but kicked me in the gut enough to make me be more serious and have less splurging going on. So we are making it a point to exercise at least 5 days a week and eat lower calorie foods. We’re still doing THM (Trim Healthy Mama) but just renewing our mindfulness to how much we are eating, how often we are eating, and choosing the lighter options.

My commitment was tested when I went to lunch with my friend Gwin this week. It’s hard to believe that we’ve known each other for ten years now. Much has changed in these last ten years but we are still friends.

We ate at Braum’s. I figured that if I ate a light lunch before I left the house I could just get a sugar free ice cream there but as it turned out, my breakfast at eight lasted until nearly one o’clock. I opted to get a salad instead of one of the yummy burgers. It was their Strawberry Poppyseed Chicken Salad.

It had some blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, grilled chicken, almonds, carrots, cabbage, spinach, and romaine lettuce. It also came with packaged croutons, saltines, and no fat cottage cheese. The dressing was in a pouch, so you could add as much or as little as you desired. Well the in the first five ingredients there were three forms of sugar, so I opted to use only a tiny bit (maybe a teaspoon) on top. I added the cottage cheese to the salad too. It was quite good. :)

For those on THM, it was an E salad because of the fruit and the chicken was lean, so it fit the parameters. I just stayed away from the croutons and crackers.

We had a great visit. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a good chat, so it was extra nice. Tiffany and her friend came by and got some ice cream cones (Tiff’s was sugar free but probably not the best choice ;) ) and sat with us for a little bit. Gwin is a trip!

I remembered at the last minute that I needed to take a picture and handed the phone to Tiffany. This is the result . . .

She’s fun to be with and I’m so glad to have her as a friend. :)

Well, we are supposed to use our rain passes at the water park this weekend. I hope it is a nice day, we have fun, and it isn’t too crowded. :)

Oh, I have been working on cleaning up the craft room this week and it looks worse than when I started! :o You know how that works, right? I’m getting rid of some of the things that I don’t need or use any more but they are now occupying floor space instead of the shelf space they were taking up. It’s just frustrating to have a bigger mess than when I started but it is necessary. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. ;)

We have some dear friends coming next weekend and I’ve got to get things straightened up enough for them to have a decent place to sleep. So I’m on kind of a dead line and I’ve gone out of the house more this week than I have in a while. :D

I hope you have a good weekend. I’m hoping to see my parents at some point this weekend too. I’m missing them; it’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to visit with them.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Incredible Pizza Tulsa ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Incredible Pizza Fun

I like miniature golf but it is way too crazy hot in Oklahoma to play outside. Several years ago we went to an indoor neon mini golf  with Brian and Lauren and really enjoyed it. Then a couple years ago when our friends came we for a week, we went to Incredible Pizza in Tulsa to play their indoor mini golf; it too was neon but not nearly as cool as the one we played in McAlester.

Any way, we needed something fun to do when we went to Edmond to celebrate Brian’s birthday and Incredible Pizza was the winner–mostly because of the mini golf. ;) We went for dinner because they have a deal where you buy an $18 game card and get the buffet for 99¢. Yeah, that’s pretty good for dinner. :D

I promise, I wasn’t mad at all. :D I’m just not very photogenic. I did not eat on plan at all. I did eat a salad but I decided to just have fun and eat whatever I liked. Unfortunately, I ate a little bit too much. :D Oh well, live and learn.

After we ate, we played mini golf. Yes, it is a bit expensive for just eight holes ($4.50 or $4.00) but it was fun and we weren’t outside in the sweltering heat. ;)

Lauren beat us all this time! She even got a hole-in-one on the last hole! :D Unfortunately they didn’t have score cards, so we used my phone and just kept a running tally of what we girls scored. The guys played together a hole ahead of us.

Those are my girls! Love them to bits.

After we finished that, Brian and Liam played a game together.

He was having soooo much fun!

Then the guys and Tiffany played the virtual reality game. It too was expensive but they really really enjoyed it.

At one point they were all down on their knees. :D

We played the mini bowling and we all played different arcade games. Lauren and I played some air hockey (I won ;) ). I always enjoy air hockey and skeeball, which we also played. I’m not really any good at any of it but I had fun.

Michael and Liam both rode motorcycles and were in the same game together. So fun!

There really wasn’t anything I wanted to play, so I took Liam over to the kids ride section and let him ride.

There was one that we both did together too.

It was a fun day and we enjoyed ourselves. It wasn’t crowded at all, which was nice. And it was nice and clean.

After we left there we checked into the hotel and went for a swim. It was a good bit of exercise. ;) I took a book with me and enjoyed reading it after showering.

We had the air conditioner set pretty low because we all like to sleep in the cooler temperatures. It was a good thing because a storm came through and knocked out the electricity for about two hours! Consequently we did not roast.

I’ve stayed at this hotel before and remember the beds being a bit softer. Of course that was quite a few years ago. This time the beds were quite firm! Ugh!

We had hoped to swim before checking out in the morning but they don’t open the pool until nine. We decided to go get a little something to hold us over until brunch with Brian, Lauren, and Liam and were extremely glad that they were treating us to brunch because there was NO hot food. Yep, no sausage, biscuits, waffles, bacon, or eggs. Just some muffins, fruit, quick oats, cold dry scones, and cereal.

We met them at Neighborhood Jam and had a delicious breakfast! The Heap was delicious (not on plan but delicious)! I got pulled pork as my choice of meat on top of my hash browns with pico, avocado, cheese, and a biscuit with two eggs over easy on the side, by request — usually the eggs are served on the same plate. It was scrumptious! I think everyone enjoyed their breakfast. (I wrote a bit more about the wonderful food at Neighborhood Jam here.)

It was a really good time spent with family and look forward to next time.

Oh, we did end up going to the water park with my sister and her girls but it rained and we got day passes to use another time. At least we had about 45 minutes in the pool before we had to leave. The kids went down the slides, over the obstacle course, and down the lazy river at least once before the siren blew to get out of the water.

We got out and ate our lunch before it started to actually rain and then moved to the car. We sat out there for about another half hour before we could get our passes. It was nice to visit together and look forward to working out a time to use those day passes without a threat of rain. =))

Well that’s it for me today. I hope you have a good weekend. No clue what we are doing but I’ll enjoy myself, whatever it is. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

 

Brian’s Birthday, Eats, and Family

We went down to Edmond last weekend to celebrate Brian’s birthday. (He’s our oldest son.) We had reserved a car with Enterprise and Michael even mentioned the car being in Sapulpa when they called to confirm the rental the night before we were to pick it up. So we left early in the morning, dropped Tiffany’s dog off at my parents’ house because they were kind enough to agree to watch her overnight, and headed to Sapulpa to get the rental car. We got there and there were only two cars in the lot and it looked like the doors were locked.

Michael called and was told that the car was thirty minutes away! Yes, thirty minutes in the wrong direction!!! We opted to save the time and money and just drive our car instead. Our old car did just fine. :)

After a bit, we had to make a pit stop and I was HUNGRY. We were planning to go eat at a favorite restaurant of Brian’s for lunch when we arrived, but we’d had a light breakfast, so we picked up something to stave off our hunger. Then we got back in the car and headed out–we were there within like twenty minutes. :D It was another forty-five minutes or so before we ate, so no big deal.

We ate at Thai Delight. I’ve never eaten Thai food before so I asked him what he suggested. Pad See-Ew.

So basically this is chicken, vegetables, egg, and egg noodles. It was delicious!!! Even though it was definitely NOT on my THM eating plan, I would get it again. :D

Sean got a tempura combo meal with lots of stuff to try. :) Fried carrot and fried mushrooms were among the other batter fried items.

Unfortunately I caught Brian trying some of Sean’s bounty, so it’s not a very flattering photo of the birthday boy. ;)

We left there and Brian took us for a tour of where he works, Life Church. He loves his job and it seems like a really great place to work.

The lights say Fully Devoted. Brian said this area has just been renovated. Here’s another seating area.

Yeah, I have a real talent for catching people not looking their best. :( Sorry about that family!

They have a lot of cool signs posted around the offices and church. This is one I liked.

We were headed back to Brian and Lauren’s place for a bit until we could check into our hotel and head to our next adventure when we decided to stop and experience Boba Tea. Once again, this is not something I had tried before and there were soooo many choices that I asked for Brian’s recommendation. I went with the Mango, Boba, 50% sugar (again not on THM plan ;) ). It was quite good but I think I’ll skip the boba next time unless I can get like 25% boba. :D

Then we were going to head back to their place and Lauren pointed out the $5 Below store. From the things she tells me she can find in hers, I wanted to check it out, even though we have one in our area now too.

Sean and Liam both got sunglasses while we were there. :)

Liam’s were Minecraft! That boy loves anything Minecraft.

This is getting long, so I’ll share the rest of our trip next week. :) I think we are finally going to get to that waterpark this weekend, so it looks like I’ll have content for the next two Fridays, IF I remember to take some pictures. :D

Well, I hope you have a good weekend too.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

PS. This is an adorable decoration that was in the ladies’ restroom of Thai Delight.

It was so cute and so clean!

Celebrating an Anniversary and a Birthday, and Fun Postponed

Michael and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary last weekend! We’re not big celebraters. :D We just went to eat at Rib Crib this year. :) It was yummy! Then we looked around Walmart for a little bit and grabbed the two ingredients we needed for homemade ice cream.

Yeah, it’s a horrible picture of me but oh well, it is what it is. :) Notice I have a sleeveless top on and he has long sleeves? :D That’s about how we are in most things . . . opposites.

Tiffany made the angelic birthday cake ice cream for us all to enjoy that very hot night. It was pretty good. It was a bit on the softer side of soft serve but it was good all the same.

Let see, what else did we do this last week? We visited a church for the second time and decided it is not for us. We have been to some small churches but this one is the smallest yet. To be fair, they are in the process of looking for a new pastor, so they’ve lost quite a few people this year.

They were really nice and friendly and invited us to their potluck dinner they had Sunday after church. The food was good and the fellowship was nice. But it just isn’t the right place for us at this time. So the search will continue.

Oh, I think I mentioned last week that we were supposed to be going to a water park last weekend. But alas, we had to postpone because someone that is going with us got sick. We’ll get there eventually. :D

We’re going to visit my oldest son Brian and his family this weekend. It’s his birthday this weekend, so we’re going to go have some fun with them. :) Swimming is definitely on our plan. I’m sure the chickens are not going to like that they will be stuck in the pen until we get back but at least they’ll get out of the coop while we are gone. :)

Well, I’m going to run. I have lots to do before we leave. I hope you have a wonderful Independence Day weekend!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Celebrations, Food, Fun, and the Not Nice

We had a good Father’s Day last Sunday. Sean treated us to Chinese buffet. Unfortunately Brian wasn’t feeling well so he didn’t come up. But I was so pleased that Lauren and Liam still came up to celebrate with us (and a few birthdays with the extended family). It is so wonderful that she knows we love her and Liam and want them here even if Brian can’t come. :p Oh! And she still came even though she’d had oral surgery on Friday, removing all four wisdom teeth!!! What a trooper!

Food

I made the Lemon Poppy Seed Cake/Bars from Glenda Geoff’s cookbook, Around the Family Table Cookbook, which uses sourdough discard. It was really good! We used it instead of the frozen mud pie for the candles for the birthday celebrations. ;)

We hadn’t eaten Chinese food out in years. Of course, we did not stay on plan though. ;) White rice, white noodles, sugared and breaded meats but it was good. :)

Not Nice

On Tuesday I ended up with a UTI! Ugh! I have only had one of those 2 or 3 times in my life! Last time I took apple cider vinegar, several times a day for over a week to get rid of it. On Monday I’ll share what I did this time to get rid of it in about 2 days.

Fun

Tiffany and I are supposed to go to the water park with my sister and nieces today. We were supposed to go last week but ‘Aunt Flo’ showed up and kept us from going. ;) It should be fun. :)

Our sunflowers have really grown! These are the tallest ones we’ve ever had!

Here is how much it towers over me! Albeit I am only five foot and a half inch. ;)

I had to cut off part of my face to get all of the sunflower in the picture. :D

Well, that’s it for me today. I’m going to run. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Michael and I celebrate our 33rd anniversary tomorrow! Wow!

To us! :(

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Painting Garden Statues with Washable Paint and Library Reopened

We did go and do some painting at my parents’ house last week. We had a good time. I decided not to work any more on the piece I did last week. I think it is good enough after looking it over again. I’m always harder on myself while I’m working a piece than looking back at a piece after I’ve left it for a bit.

You can’t see it in this picture but the leaves and the purple on the butterfly have glitter in the paint and looks quite nice in person. ;)

Here’s a picture of Tiffany and Macie painting at my mom’s.

Macie and Tiffany painting ~ Lifeofjoy.meThat hedgehog turned out so nice!

Ashlee and Mom–Don’t know what she was astounded at. :DYou can see the shoe after I painted it down below. (This picture really made it look much nicer than it was. :D )

Ashlee’s a perfectionist, so while Macie did about three pieces, she was perfecting her one. :)

The majority of the paints we used were washable which made things a bit more difficult. Fortunately Mom had some little tiny paint pots (they looked like what you get in a paint by number) and these, I’m told, were easier to use.

The fairy Tiffany painted had a dramatic change. Unfortunately, there is no before picture. Just imagine a drab grayish-green color over almost of these items. ;) The pop of color is lovely. She really did a great job on it!

Macie started this one of the squirrels and stump but it was a bit too difficult with the paint we were working with. So she passed the brush to me and I finished it up.

I desperately wanted the butterfly to be gorgeous but it just wasn’t covering good! Ugh. In the end, I just had to be happy that it looked a lot better than it did when Macie and I started. :D

Then there was this shoe planter. We thought we’d go with a cream base but a cream color could not be seen–it was not opaque enough. So we went bold and used pink. :D

You just really don’t have any idea how difficult it is to paint with washable paint until you try to add layers. :o I could have made this look sooo much better with a different kind of paint. But once again, it looks better than it looked before. ;)

Mom had some spray to cover these with to protect them from any water–remember, much of this paint is washable. :o I’ll be interested to see how they do over time.


Our library opened this week! They did a bit more remodeling, updating the flooring, while they were closed. They are limiting each person to 1 hour inside and only ten patrons at a time.

It never occurred to me to return our books before they reopened! :D Seriously. Didn’t enter my mind. :) I had planned to only get 5 books this time but since we were limited in how long we could be there, I opted to go ahead and get the ten allowed since I didn’t have the time to scrutinize each book.

We should have a video up on our youtube channel sharing our library haul tomorrow. Tiffany’s been fighting a migraine headache all week, so I’m not positive we’ll get it recorded, edited, and posted but I’m going to try. ;)

Well, that’s it for me today. I’ve got a bit of baking to do with it being Father’s Day this weekend. Brian, Lauren, and Liam are coming up! And I’m excited to see them and the rest of the family this weekend.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

A Good Deal and Leisure Reading and Gaming

We’ve had two days of reprieve from the oppressive ninety degree heat this week, very refreshing. However, it’s supposed to climb right back up there and stay for the next several weeks. Ugh!!! I don’t do well with the heat. I’m hot natured and use a fan all year long.

Early this week Tiffany and I went over to the local park and walked around the lake. That is where we filmed this week’s youtube video. ;) It was nice and something we will probably do weekly  for a while. The outdoors really helps with mood and overall mental health, as well as being good for vitamin D.

We walked all the way around it. We walked mostly on the “road” but also in the grass walking from shady spot to shady spot. It bolstered our mood and we were able to get back to the house and be productive. :)

There hasn’t been a whole lot happen this week. I’ve started Mario Odyssey from the beginning again. :) I’m loving it as much or more this time around. Since I know what I’m doing, it I’m not losing as many lives on each level, which is really nice! :D

Oh! We finished the puzzle we started after Tiffany’s birthday. I was surprised how easy it was. There was enough gradient in the sky to make placing the pieces not as difficult as it could have been. And enough unique details to help in placing other pieces. It was a fun puzzle and I will do it again some time.

On errand day Tiffany and I found a deal on some luggage. We got some nice pieces half price!!! We were amazed and very thankful.

Not the best picture but at least there is a picture. :D

We’re going back to my parents’ house today to finish painting the outdoor pieces my mom has that have been quite weathered. You may remember that we started working on them last week but we weren’t finished with all the touches, even after working for four hours. ;) Whatever we get done today will be it, done or not. :D Mom wants her dining room table returned from being an art studio. :D

Hopefully, I remember to take some pictures to share next week. Unfortunately they won’t be as dramatic as they could have been with good before and after shots. :\ Oh well.

Well, that’s about it for me this week. I’m still reading the third in the iRobot series by Isaac Asimov, The Robots of Dawn. It was going along enjoyably until chapter 25. Then for a few chapters I was definitely concerned with it. I’m nearly 60% finished and it’s looking better. I’ve borrowed it from the library through the Libby app, so I’m not reading any others right now, in case my loan expires before I’m finished.

Tiffany and I have taken to spending a timed thirty minutes outside reading each day. We prefer to do this right after breakfast but yesterday it was right after lunch. :) That was okay because the high was only in the high 80’s yesterday but . . . oh, I’m repeating myself now . . . sorry about that. :D

Well, I’m going to run for now. I hope you have a good weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Birthday ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Daughter’s Birthday Activities

Last week we celebrated Tiffany’s birthday. She loves the water so we decided to go to a local lake a few minutes from home. My parents and sister and her family joined us.

It’s a nice little lake. :)

We waded in the water. The baby and toddler fish were not afraid of us.

It was funny because there were a couple of groups of smaller fish like this and then there were some that were a bit bigger but still swimming in schools together and right in this same area-ish. The bigger ones were several inches long.

The girls (Tiffany included) decided to make a sand donut instead of a sand castle. :D They are a creative lot.

Before we left for the beach though, we had loaded sweet potato fries and chocolate “milkshakes” for lunch. :)

Yeah, they were good! :) We took leftover cinnamon rolls for our snack at the lake. :) Yum!

So we had these babies for breakfast and snack. Definitely not conducive to weight loss but oh so delicious for a celebration! :)

We only stayed at the lake for around two hours but it was long enough that Tiffany had the enjoyment of the water and I got a tiny bit sunburned. :D

We got home and showered and then decided to put together a puzzle. I’d gotten this beauty in my stocking for Christmas. I definitely want to find a similar one of a bit higher quality.

I loved the picture but the pieces didn’t go together nicely at all. But I still like it.

We finished this one and started a new one that I have never even opened before. It has a pretty sunrise/sunset with a lighted bridge. We’re still working on it so maybe I’ll remember to take some pictures of it and share it next week. ;)

After dinner we watched the newest Doctor Dolittle movie. It was okay but a let down from the trailer which made it look amazing. It’s one of the few movies I’d been looking forward to watching.

We had Suzy Q cake in the middle of the movie–yum!

It was a good day and Tiffany enjoyed herself, her gifts, the food, and the outing. :)

I’m going to run for now. We spent the afternoon yesterday at my parents’ with my nieces painting some of her outside decorations. I’ll share some pictures here next week (I hope ;) )

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Birthday, Dollar Tree Decorating, and Gel Nails at Home

It’s Tiffany’s birthday this week!!! In spite of the stressful time we are going through, I am trying to make it a wonderful celebration.

Of course she requested the sourdough cinnamon rolls. :) This time I’m using the 3-day ferment recipe instead of the 7-hour ferment one. These will be a crossover on the THM plan, which means that they won’t be good for weight loss but they are still on plan. :)

Cinnamon Rolls rising and then ready to bake for Tiff’s birthday breakfast.

We’ve ordered some books that were on sale that we’ve wanted (her more books than me) and these are what she has pre-spent some of her birthday money on. Several have arrived already, so with the clothes that she got at Ross last week, she already knows what her gifts are but she hasn’t been able to wear or read them yet. :D

Tiffany loves to swim, so we are going to the lake and some of the family are going to join us there. I was reminded that the water is going to be cold but hopefully it will be warm enough for her to swim some.

I’m making the Suzy Q (Ding Dong) cake for her so maybe I’ll get some pictures added to that post. It’s Suzy Q because I’m making it rectangular instead of round. ;)


We had this old vine wreath that we put out each fall. It wasn’t decorated very good and most of the additions had come off. We bought three strands of fake ivy and a sprig of magnolia flowers at Dollar Tree and Tiffany added them to the wreath.

I had a metal sign outside and the words came off of the stake. It says, “Home Sweet Home.”. Tiffany repainted the letters and added it to the wreath. It looks nice now. :)


I painted my nails with some gel nail polish (Sensationail) on Mother’s Day. I only had 3 chips in them after a week. At fourteen days my nails had grown out enough that I started itching to scrape off the polish. :D

I don’t know why but I love scraping off the polish. It’s pretty cool when I can use my nails to remove the polish and don’t have to rely on nail polish remover.

Tiffany and I are going to do our nails this weekend; it’s her gift to herself. :) I’m probably going to use the color I just removed. :D I really like it. It is nice and summery.

I’m going to run. I hope you have a good weekend; we’re going to. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Re-opening and Buying Clothes and Such

Let’s see . . . this week has been stressful but I won’t go into that here. Tiffany and I did some shopping on errand day this week. We went to WinCo and then to Ross! Yeah! Ross was open!!!

Clothes at Ross

I’ve been wanting another nice sleeveless top to wear this summer. I got one last summer and love it so much but don’t want to wear it too much. ;) So, this was the reason behind me wanting to visit Ross.

Tiffany and I both got over a dozen pieces to take to the fitting room and try on. We walked to the back and saw the sad tidings that the fitting room is not open at this time. :o This is no bueno!!! I don’t buy things without trying them on first–I just don’t. So we stood there sorting through the clothes we had gathered.

An employee came by and I asked about their return policy–30 days with receipt–and continued sorting through the our bounty. ;) While we were there sorting, several others came up wanting to try on clothes and we shared what we knew. They were all happy to hear the return policy. :)

I ended up getting 6 shirts! :p And I only spent about $42 of my birthday money. I got two that were dressy, two nice sleeveless tops, one casual tank, and a nice yellow one. Each was between $5.49 and $7.99 on clearance. (I tried to take pictures but they did not turn out very good, so I’ll have to try again some other time. ;) )

Dollar Tree

We also went to Dollar Tree and did some looking around but their air conditioner was out and it was a bit too warm in there for us. However we ended up roaming over most of the store anyway, just skipping a few sections.

They now have some brooms, mops, and swiffer-style mops and dusters too. We were in need of a new broom, so we got one. :) Of course, we picked up a few other things too.

Barnes and Noble

Then we popped in Barnes and Noble. :) Happy Place!!! Tiffany got a couple of books and journals and I got a Cauliflower cookbook to celebrate getting rid of a couple of stacks of magazines. :D

Groceries

After that we, it was about two in the afternoon and we still had to stop at three more grocery stores. We were plum tired by the time we finally got home! But we’d had a fun day.

Weed-Eater

Michael picked up some new spools for our weedeater this week, so I was able to trim up the stepping stones up front. I managed to do so just before it started to rain. :)


Exercise: Zumba

Tiffany and I got out our Zumba for the Wii U and did a short class again this week. We were barely able to complete it; we were plum tuckered out. We’ve decided that we really need to zumba once a week, to work on our stamina. :)

Well, I think that is it for me. I’m going to run for now. I hope you have a great weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº