Loquacious Lady

A few months ago, when I saw that Wicked would be coming to the Fox Theatre again this fall, I got really excited. “We should go!!” I said to Tom. But it wasn’t in the budget at the time, and I put it out of my mind…other than staring wistfully at the signs for it as I drove down 85.

Then, at the beginning of September, a message from Tom popped up on my phone with no words, just this picture:

YAY! I was so excited!

Tom didn’t just surprise me with tickets. He also had gotten tickets right on the aisle because I have to go to the restroom constantly now that Josey likes to rest on my bladder. And occasionally kickbox my bladder. Such a thoughtful hubby.

The Perfect Day:

Yesterday arrived before we knew it, and we were both excited. I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I actually married a man who ENJOYS shows. I would guess it’s because he loves music and has played guitar since he was 12, but he appreciates a good musical. It’s one of my favorite experiences to go see a show with Tom and discuss it the whole way home.

Anyway. Thursday was one of those rare, perfect days. The kind of day that you wish every day could be like.

We both got up and got to work that morning. Okay, he got up 2 hours before me.

But I was up by 8AM and at my desk working on editing photos, out the door to do a portrait session by 10:45, and back by noon. The baby at my session was in a good mood, and I got a ton of great shots. Meanwhile, Tom was busting it at home and making a lot of headway in his work.

After I got home, we ate lunch and took the dogs for a walk on the greenway. After 3.5 miles in great weather, we headed home. I laid down for a few minutes because I was tired, and Tom got more work done. Then I started getting ready.

We had agreed on a time to leave, and believe it or not (if you know me, you might not), we were both ready and out the door just when we agreed to leave. Yes, I left on time for something. Miracles can happen.

As we drove towards Atlanta, and we started hitting traffic, we both commented how it wasn’t stressing us out because we left ourselves so much time. We parked our car (Tom had already paid for parking online- perfect!), and we walked to a restaurant nearby to eat.

During dinner, we talked about shows we’ve seen before, hopes that this show would live up to the hype, and just stuff going on in life in general. We weren’t rushed at all, and when we were done, we paid and strolled over to the Fox, where a stranger was nice enough to take our picture (on my phone) before the show.

We found our seats, and then we were BLOWN AWAY. It was such a great show!!! And I even managed to hold it long enough to get to intermission. Yay for not missing a single song! All the performers were amazing, but the actress who played Elphaba- wow. She was incredible.

We were not disappointed, and the whole way home we talked about our favorite parts and other plays we would like to see. And I made one mistake.

I said, “This has been a perfect day.” Tom agreed.

The Wicked Night:

Somewhere between walking 3.5 miles after not having walked for exercise in a few weeks (thanks to spraining my ankle) and wearing heels for 5 hours in Atlanta, my calves decided to make me pay for the abuse.

For a few weeks, in the middle of the night, I will stretch my legs out and wake up with a little cramp in my calves. Then I roll my foot around, and it goes away.

Last night, it didn’t go away. My right calf seized up into a massive knot that had me reaching over, grabbing Tom and screaming for help. For probably 10 or 15 minutes, he rubbed down my leg while I literally writhed and screamed into my pillow and cried. A lot.

Our dogs were freaking out. I like to think of myself as tough, but that cramping was beyond gritting my teeth and baring it.

I haven’t screamed like that since I stabbed myself in the hand. And I kept thinking (in the intervals where it hurt less and I wasn’t screaming), “If this is what labor is like, but in your stomach, I am going to be such a wuss. And thank God for epidurals.” Tom said my calf felt like there was a brick in it where the knot was.

After he had magically rubbed the knot into submission, Tom helped me hobble to the bathroom. I don’t know what was going on, if it was the pain or what, but I was NOT feeling good.

After an hour of an encore performance of cramping, only this time in my stomach, I leaned over and threw up on the floor. Repeatedly.

Then I woke up Tom again. He had fallen asleep with the lamp on waiting for me to come out of the bathroom.

He cleaned up the floor for me while I limped to a different bathroom. After another 30 minutes or so, I came back to bed. He had been waiting on me to make sure I was okay, and finally he could get some sleep.

I kept apologizing, and he kept telling me, “I don’t want to hear the word ‘Sorry’ one more time tonight. You can’t help it.” and “It’s just practice for when Josey’s here, right?”

It was a rough night. This morning my throat is sore, and my leg feels like someone spent hours punching it. My stomach is still bothering me. But I get to work from home.

Tom went in to the 8BIT offices today- with no complaints. He was yawning and sleepy, and he was hoping coffee would be there when he arrived. But no complaints.

I sure do love my husband. He’s wonderful. A perfect day, and a “wicked” night- as long as he’s in it with me, I’m ready for either.

 ~Meghan

One of my sister’s best friends growing up, Gracie, was the only daughter in her family. And when she and her family would be out, and her daddy would spot someone wearing, say, jeans that lace up on the side and show the world a sliver (or more) of your entire leg, well this would happen:

Her dad would wait until they were passing by the fashion offender, turn to his daughter and say, “Gracie, lace-up jeans aren’t for everyone.” Like he was trying to teach her a lesson, and not the person they were passing.

At least, that’s how Kristen told it to my family. It has always made me laugh, and so it’s stuck with me.

Fast forward to the other day, when our floors were being ripped up- there was dust EVERYWHERE. On EVERYTHING.

Our house was covered in it. We were scared to open the fridge and introduce it to all that dust, so I went to pick up something for me and Tom.

As I left the restaurant with a bag of food, my eye was drawn to a couple of women talking near my car.

One was dressed normally, and the other was…well, she was wearing a crochet sweater. With nothing but a black bra under it.

In case you are like my husband, who wouldn’t know what I’m talking about, here is a visual:

Now does it make sense? A sweater that is basically holes, with nothing but a black bra under it.

I felt a little flabbergasted. Not only do I hate the idea of women (or men) walking around with see-through shirts (I mean, how desperate for attention are you??), but this lady, while in great shape, looked to be about 60 years old.

I got in my car and just stared at her…behind my big dark sunglasses so she wouldn’t know. I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing.

I mean, did she really think that was age-appropriate? Or even appropriate at any age? I don’t care how fit you are, I don’t need to know what color bra you have on or see through your holey shirt.

I contemplated taking a picture on my phone, but then I thought, “Why would I make other people look at that?”

So instead, I turned my car towards home, smirked, and thought to myself, “See-through shirts aren’t for everyone, Gracie.”

~Meghan

Friday night, Tom and I had plans to join the 8BIT guys and their wives at the home of John and Sue for dinner. We decided to go to Atlanta early to get some things from IKEA for my side of the office (can’t wait to share that with y’all!!), then to head over.

On the way to IKEA, John told us to come a little later because their girls were napping. Then as we were leaving IKEA, he asked us to go get crackers for the party.

We ran by Target, and on the way out, Tom was starting to get antsy. All the other families were there, guys posting silly pictures on twitter, and we were now late. He wanted to be goofing off with the guys, not sitting in Atlanta traffic.

So you can imagine our surprise when we opened the door and everyone jumped out yelling “Surprise!”

My first thought was, “….is this a joke? We all knew we were having dinner together…” And then I looked around.

Everywhere were little signs about Josey…in a theme of FTW (“for the win” for those of you who don’t use internet short-speak). SO cute. And it clicked- they were throwing us a baby shower!

I was more than a little surprised! Neither of us suspected a thing when John kept delaying us!

Hugs all around…

We all were able to just spend time hanging out, snacking on appetizers, and then eating delish kabobs and mashed potatoes that Sue had prepared and Jared grilled.

It was so fun! After we ate, each family gave us gifts to open for Josey. They were so generous; we were overwhelmed! This baby girl is already so lucky just because she will have people like this in her life.

Then it was time for cake!!! I can’t explain how good this lemon cake was. You have to try it for yourself. We were all really excited to try out a cake from this bakery! It did not disappoint.

After we had all devoured a slice…or two…we stayed a little longer, just chatting. The sun set, and we told each other funny stories about our childhoods, plans for our current living spaces, anecdotes from the parents at the table about their kids, and more.

It was a perfect night- the kind that left me and Tom glowing because we felt so happy and loved by our friends. This is the kind of friendship we prayed for 8BIT to grow into, and it was like in that moment we were seeing that it had happened.

Thank you 8BIT and wives for throwing us such a sweet baby shower! We loved every minute of it, and we love y’all. =)
~Meghan

(All photos courtesy of John. Except the photo of John and Sue. No idea who took that one.)

Alrighty. Where did we leave off yesterday?

Oh yes. This:

After all that, we had the mold mitigators come out once again, to spray for the mold and ensure that we wouldn’t have any more growing in our house.

Then the cabinets were delivered. I didn’t get pictures of that because I didn’t want to make the guy think I was checking up on him and taking pictures for some kind of legal reason.

The grout was the only thing they didn’t do, so Tom and I did that ourselves. It might not be as nice looking as having a pro do it, but it works for us.

The floors were up next. Oh my goodness.

We used Atlanta Flooring Design, and we were SO happy.

We chose a matte finish on our new engineered floors, and these floors have a thicker “wear layer” than the ones we had before, so we can actually have these sanded down and refinished in ten years or so, when we move out.

Also, we wanted to get the nasty carpet in our dining room and office torn up and have the floors run throughout those rooms as well.

I was so amazed. Three guys showed up at our house at 9:15 one morning, and they worked until 9:30 that night. They didn’t leave until the job was done. It’s hard to find people that hardworking anymore!

Our floors went from this:

To this:

To this:

“Aaaaaahhhhh” (That was angels singing.)

There was an INSANE amount of dust all over everything in our house. We are still cleaning it up. But at least we can breathe now. And I’d rather breathe dust than mold.

All the shoe molding around the baseboards had to be taken off as the floors came up, then replaced with the floors. And then the baseboards need to be repainted in the entire downstairs.

You can see where the paint came off the baseboards and the pre-primed shoe mold has nails in it. The paint will fix all of that, and we had someone come out to give us a quote this morning.

They will be back out in a week and a half, and the floors will OFFICIALLY BE DONE! Whew!

Oh, and here is the new island:

No more stubbing our toes on loose floorboards! And we have running water and a dishwasher!

“Aaaaaahhhhh” (Angels again.)

There’s stuff all over it because I have slowly been putting stuff back into our office now that the floors are done. Slowly, because I am making sure it doesn’t get cluttered in there again. The office won’t be shown today because the makeover in that room deserves its own post!

But I will show you the dining room:

A little devoid of personality, and I want to change the fabric on the chairs, but still. It is CLEAN. Without any nasty carpet that the previous owners let their pets pee on. Amen.

The crown molding and chair rails you see on the floor are going to go up in Josey’s room. Another post in and of itself.

And I was soooo excited because I finally was able to move furniture around a bit. This used to be in the foyer:

And now it is in the dining room. I am going to paint it black, I think, and it will get updated hardware. It also could use some artwork on the wall above it. And maybe some lamps or something. But it has lots of my serving pieces inside, which used to all be crammed into my china cabinet.

Now, my china cabinet has only a few pieces below, and lots of my grandmother’s china above, with a little bit of my own mixed in, and my own stemware and some serving pieces on display. Fun!

And then this piece, dating back to the 1940′s, finally got a home in the foyer:

I absolutely LOVE this piece. I plan to paint it a really fun color on the outside sometime in the future. Still undecided on what color.

And the inside of this piece is what allowed me to shift all the stuff from the china cabinet to the sideboard. Because all the stuff from the sideboard got shifted to here:

“Aaaaaahhh” (Satan.) (Just kidding, it was angels singing again.)

Look at all that storage! LOVE.

And while we were making improvements, Tom and I thought it was about time we updated the AWFUL builder’s grade fan in our living room.

Ugh.

So we learned a lot about fans that day.

And we got this one instead:

So much better.

And we replaced the nasty light fixture in the (always hot) office with the same fan. Yay!

And then we took the horrible old fan and put it in our guest bedroom over the garage. It’s always hot in there, and we couldn’t afford 3 new fans. Oh well. We have the same gross one in our bedroom.

Our thinking is that we work on the rooms that get the most traffic from guests (pretty much the whole downstairs) first, then we work our way up to bedrooms later.

Except for Josey. Her room will be the nicest in the house.

So anyway. I think you could say we’ve come a long, long, looooong way from two months ago.

We’re happy with the changes, and we’re so grateful for homeowner’s insurance.

And we’re also SO grateful that this happened before Josey was born. I cannot imagine all the dust and the noise and the stress going on with a newborn around. Phew!

~Meghan

Let’s see. It started with this:

Which we wouldn’t have known about if it weren’t for this:

And then pulling out all of this (and more), which was blocking the moldy puddle from view:

First we called the insurance company.

Who told us to call a plumber. So we did.

The plumber found leaks in the faucet and garage disposal. They took this nastiness off:

And we bought this for them to put in its place:

SO much better.

Then we called the insurance company. Again.

Who told us to call the mold mitigators.

Who came out and set up this very large, very noisy, but very helpful, dehumidifier:

Then the insurance adjuster came to our house, measured, took a disk of pictures and our old, nasty faucet and garbage disposal back as evidence, and got back to us later with an estimate.

Then he told us the check would be in the mail but to get the loose, possibly moldy floors around the cabinets up.

The mold mitigators came back out for their dehumidifier and left us with this:

For over a month, our kitchen looked like this. And we tripped on loose pieces of wood sticking out from the stove, yelled at flooring when we stubbed our toes, and glared at our cabinet with all it’s moldy grossness.

Why a month?

We waited on the estimate. Then we waited on the check.

Then we had to go to the bank with info about our mortgage and our insurance and ourselves to deposit the check.

Then we had someone come look at our kitchen and give us a quote on cabinets. Which took 3 weeks to come in.

Finally…they arrived. Unfortunately, they didn’t carry our model anymore, and we couldn’t just order a box. We had to order it with the doors and drawers and have them replace them with our old ones to match.

But first, the old stuff had to go.

First, Tom took all the drawers out.

Then Austin (Will’s dad and a great contractor) took off the cabinet doors. And took the cabinets apart.

But not before he took out our dishwasher and he and Tom moved the countertop out of the way (with the sink and faucet attached).

By the way- I hate that dishwasher. But it still beats having no dishwasher at all.

Everything got moved out of place, and our kitchen was in chaos.

And after the cabinets were moved out of the way…Austin found the mold. It was gross.

Also, apparently flies like getting under cabinets with mold. And dying. I about puked.

Yep. It was disgusting. Mold, sitting water, and gross floors. GAG.

So Austin cut the moldy drywall away.

And he took the cabinets and moldy drywall out. Then he tightened the pipe caps up and made sure they weren’t leaking anymore. And he sprayed bleach all over the floor.

Bleach all over the floor is strong, dude. He recommended the preggo chick take herself upstairs when the mold and chemicals made their debut, and after a few minutes, I had to agree. It was too much.

Austin cleaned the floors and took off.

Tom blocked off the bleached, icky area from the dogs. And this is what it looked like for a few days:

Uh-huh. Our house was so warm and inviting, let me tell ya.

The end.

Just kidding.

There is (obviously) more to the story than that. But it will have to wait for Friday because I’ve got approximately 20 pictures in this post, and I think that’s enough for one day.

Tomorrow…the turning point!

~Meghan

A while back, I mentioned that we had a leak. With mold.

Over the next two months, we had our floors ripped out, our cabinets ripped out, mold cleaned, new cabinets installed, new plumbing done, and new floors put down.

I will show you what all we have done differently in our house since. But first, let me show you this picture:

It got worse before it got better.

The dust was incredible.

The smells of chemicals still linger.

I will share the stories.

But first I will say this- it was all worth it. Yes, even the mold.

And if you don’t have homeowner’s or renter’s insurance- GET IT.

~Meghan

Okay, friends- I promise I’m not crazy. You CAN feed your family for WAY less than you would guess, and you CAN prepare it in a way that will make your life SO much easier. I started doing this recently, and I am LOVING it.

Yesterday, I showed you how I bought a bunch of stuff at the store without breaking the bank. And I promised I would show you what I did with all of that food.

Here it is. Well, here’s most of it, anyway:

Let me explain.

The other day, I was on Pinterest (read more about that here), and I came across a pin that really caught my eye. It was about how to make two month’s worth of dinners for a few dollars each.

“HOW is that possible??” I wondered. Instead of simply repinning it and thinking I’d read more about it later (and then forgetting about it), I clicked right through to the blog and immediately read how she did it.

Basically, this smart blogger shopped sales and got ridiculously low prices on meat and produce (even I wasn’t as lucky as her, unfortunately). Then she has a “cooking day.” Here’s what she does:

• She bakes all her baked potatoes, scoops them out, and mashes the insides up with yummy stuff. Then she puts it back in the shells, wraps them, puts them in a bag, and freezes them. Then she has loads of twice baked potatoes to pull out as a side for any meal.
• She chops up her onions and peppers and garlic to add to meats for flavoring, and she grates the carrots to add to meats to bulk them up a bit.
• She makes a marinade to go with several of her meats, then she divides those meats into bags, pours marinade in the bags, and freezes them. Later, as they thaw out, the marinade soaks in, and all she has to do is cook the meat.
• She seasons and pats out ground beef (or turkey) into patties for hamburgers and freezes them for later.
• She browns up ground meat with the chopped up veggies and puts it into baggies and freezes them so that she can have pre-cooked meat to thaw out and use as the base for meals (spaghetti, etc).
• She browns up ground meat with the chopped up veggies as well as spices and taco seasoning to have pre-cooked taco meat. After dividing it in baggies and freezing, she has meat for tacos, nachos, and toppings of other sides as well. All she has to do is thaw it out.
• She boils carrots, onions and chicken still on the bone to get LOTS of shredded chicken to divide and freeze (enchiladas, chicken salad, anything that calls for cooked, shredded chicken). And she freezes the chicken stock for later meals.

Get where I’m going with all this? This woman is a genius. Because not only did she buy everything cheaply, but she went ahead and did the hard part- the prep work and some of the cooking.

If you are like me, your days are busy, and sometimes the last thing you want to do is answer the question, “What’s for dinner?” Because you don’t know. You don’t know what to make, you don’t know how much time you will have, and you don’t want to think about it when you’re doing other stuff.

And this way, you don’t have to!

I know, because I followed her example. After buying all of that food, I set to work getting it all marinated (I used a variety of marinades), seasoned, patted out, browned, boiled, scooped, mashed, and divided up. I labeled each baggy with the name of its contents, and I threw them in the freezer in our garage.

As I put them in the freezer, I counted them up. I had 68 bags of potatoes, meats, and broth (which I use for homemade chicken noodle soup). This comes out to 48 meals, not including the leftovers I am sure we will have. (I will just go ahead and assume that this will get us through 60 days because I know we will have leftovers from these meals and that we eat out once a week.)

But sticking with the 48 meals….I then went back and counted up how much I spent on JUST what went into making the food in the bags. It was $132.45 including tax.

That comes out to $2.76 a dinner. That’s $1.38 per person in our family each night. Wow.

So you have a bigger family than me? That’s okay. Say you have 6 people in your family. It would still be cheaper to have a meal for $8.28 a night covering 6 people (I just multiplied my number by 3) than to pay for even two of those people to have fast food. That’s insane.

And the meals are homemade, nutritious, and require VERY little effort the day you eat them. You just pull out something from the freezer the night before and throw it in the fridge. The next night, you know just what you’re having, and it’s ready to go!

This has to be one of the easiest, cheapest ways to feed a family for two months at a time. I can’t believe it’s taken me until now to do this!

I should also point out that I had a lot of left over carrots, peppers, onions, and garlic. I divided this up and froze it as well. I can use it in cooking over the next couple of months, but I have so much left over, that I think I might just use it in my next cooking day and skip buying even more produce. That will make my next cooking day even cheaper! And I won’t have to do the prep work of chopping next time around.

I also didn’t include the sausage I bought, two big packs of chicken on the bone, a pack of turkey hotdogs, and two pounds of ground turkey. I didn’t actually use them in the bagged meals. Instead, I left them in their packages in the freezer.

I like having some unseasoned turkey I can brown up for meals that would taste odd with peppers or onions in them, and I wanted some chicken on the bone left for later so I could make chicken and dumplings as the weather cools off. Sausage will be used in a quiche or some other breakfast meal.

And let’s be honest. Those hotdogs will be lucky to survive until next week.

So none of those counted towards my meal count or my meal total. But they are even more things I can add into our diet over the next couple of months. You don’t have to limit yourself to eating only what you make on your cooking day. But it sure is nice to have that option.

I also didn’t want only to have twice baked potatoes, so I chopped a lot of the potatoes up, divided them into baggies, poured in some EVOO, and tossed in some herbs. I love roasting potatoes like this and having them as a side. Yum.

Since then we have had potatoes with filet mignon, hamburgers with fries I already had on hand, teriyaki chicken with potatoes, and spaghetti (made with turkey meat that was already seasoned and cooked). And yes, we have leftover spaghetti in the fridge.

So there you have it. Two months of meals for $2.76 a night for our family, served without hassle. Life has been so much easier because of this freezer meal system. Love it.

~Meghan

I set out the other day to tackle some stores. I had coupons for a few items that I got at great prices, but I also intended to shop sales.

Specifically, I was looking for meat and produce that was marked down because it was either on sale, bruised but still edible, or about to go bad if not purchased and eaten soon (can’t beat those quick sale prices).

I was happy with my haul and with the price I paid for it. First let me show you what I brought home.

Here are my non-edible items:

My foods that were neither meat nor produce.

My meats.

And my produce.

All of that rung up to a grand total of $247.18. No, I didn’t waltz out of there after only paying $15 like some of the extreme couponers you see on tv, but that’s still pretty darn good.

I DID walk out of there with meats and produce galore, which they don’t tend to focus on in those shows since there aren’t usually coupons on them.

I also was shopping by myself with some hormonal cravings going on. In other words, I saw a few items (ahem, Krispy Kreme? Star Crunch? To name a few…) that I wanted but hadn’t planned to buy.

And Tom wasn’t there to stop me. So I bought them. (Not that I heard any complaints, let me tell you. Homeboy can put away some star crunch…)

I paid full price and sacrificed what could have been a more impressive total. But that’s okay. I’m not on tv doing a couponing show, and I’m human. And pregnant.

So there.

Now, you may be wondering why I bought approximately 2 billion pounds of food for our small family. That is coming tomorrow, and I promise, I will let you know exactly what I did with it.

But until then, let me remind you of a few things:

1. Shopping for the items that are on sale is key. If you have a coupon, but the item is full price, you are not going to get a great deal.

2. Store brand is almost always the same quality as your favorite brand. So, when you don’t have a coupon or a major sale for certain things (chips, for example, which Tom and I both-admittedly-love), buy the store brand if it’s a bit cheaper.

3. Buy enough of those items that are on sale to get you through to the next time it goes on sale. But don’t take the whole shelf. No reason to be greedy.

Now, those were reminders. Here are some other tips from my shopping trip that I didn’t cover before in my couponing guide.

1. I went to the meat department at both Publix and Kroger and asked them when they mark down their meats for quick sale. Did they have a specific day that they did this?

Turns out, Publix told me that they NEVER reduce the price of their meats. I stared at the lady in confusion. I mean, surely if something is about to go bad, they would rather sell it cheaply than have to throw it away?

But she said that she had worked there for years and never seen the meat get marked down. This might just be my Publix, but there it is.

At Kroger, they said they don’t have a specific day. They look at the date the package is marked to expire, and a few days before it does, they mark it down for quick sale.

Since different packages have different dates, they check them each day and have mark downs daily. So if you don’t find what you need, you can always check back.

You also don’t have to feel as bad about grabbing most of the reduced meat because there will be more for the other shoppers each day. Woo!

With that in mind, I will be shopping at Kroger for my meat from now on, unless there is some incredible sale plus coupon for meat at Publix.

Too bad for my shopping day, none of the organic meats were reduced. And since I was looking to buy a lot, I went for the cheaper prices.

2. The other thing that’s good to know is that some stores offer “rainchecks.” You know how sometimes couponers can clear out an item before you get to it? Well, Publix, if they realize this has happened, kindly puts up a raincheck notice where that item was located.

For example, I had a coupon for a $1 off of KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce. Then they marked it down to $.99. WOO! Except it was all gone. BOO!

Since they realized this, I took a photo of the raincheck on my phone (made remembering all the raincheck items much easier), and after checking out, I went to customer service.

I told them the item and how many ounces it was, as well as how many I had planned to purchase. They wrote me a raincheck that I can use on that item to get it at the same $.99 price for 30 days.

That’s good service.

I didn’t run into that problem at Kroger that day, so I didn’t think to ask if they offer that to customers. But I was really glad to find out that Publix does.

If you find yourself shopping for items that have all been taken up already, at any store, I would recommend approaching customer service (or even the manager) about a raincheck for when the item comes back into stock.

SO. That is all the advice I have for today. Tomorrow, I get to show you what I did with all the meat and produce. Fun times!
~Meghan

The other day, my sweet mama took me shopping for some maternity clothes since nothing fits me anymore. We finished shopping around rush hour, so we decided to kill the time waiting out the traffic by having dinner. We ended up at Prime, a steakhouse right in Lenox Mall.

I don’t know if they do this every day, but when we went, they had a sign up saying their steaks were half price from 4pm-6pm. Sounds about perfect to me.

Mom and I both ordered iceburg wedges and petit filets. They were AMAZING.

The salad was crisp and fresh, and the steak was so delicious. It was melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the seasoning on it was perfect. We didn’t need any sauce with those babies. (Forgive the photos- like last week, they are all from my cell.)

Mom also ordered the jumbo asparagus with hollandaise sauce. She said it was delish.

And I had a side of the cottage fries with caramelized onions. One word: YUM.

You wouldn’t believe how good those were. Crispy, flavorful, and delicious. Again: YUM.

Everything we had there was so good. I wouldn’t have thought to head for the mall for a great steakhouse, but there it was. If you are in Atlanta, maybe shopping at the mall and wanting something better than Sbarros or mall Chinese food, try out Prime.

You won’t regret it!

 ~Meghan

When carrying things down the stairs, especially when pregnant, don’t carry so much stuff that you can’t see your next step.

Because you might miss the last step and fall. And sprain your ankle. And dump what you were carrying all over the floor.

You also might freak out your husband and have to call the OB on call to prove you don’t need to go get checked out at the hospital. Not that you’ll blame him, after all, if you are pregnant.

And you might even wake up the next morning, forgetting what happened and try to walk on your hurt ankle like normal. It might just hurt like the dickens.

Ask me how I know.

~Meghan

ps- Have I mentioned how accident prone I am before? I have? Okay. Good.