OI-SHEE!

Another weekend passed... lots of food, friends & fun!

Friday night, Jen (aka Beni), Jonathan, Rosemary, Anika and I had a traditional sukiyaki dinner at Rosemary's house. Basically, Sukiyaki is a Japanese family-style dinner that is cooked at the table - Similar to teppanyaki, but without the show. It consists of tons of fresh veggies and thinly sliced beef. It's all cooked in the same skillet with some water, little bit of oil, and soy sauce and you eat straight from the pan. It's one of the prettiest meals you could eat, considering the presentation style. To top it off, it was Oi-Shee!! (Delicious)

Anika likes sukiyaki so much that she was literally shoveling the food into her mouth. Well, Rosemary didn't notice how long the noodles were, and Anika wasn't chewing. Needless to say, she started to gag on the noodle, and without skipping a beat, everything that she had previously eaten, ended up in her lap. She didn't even get upset. Rosemary pulled her high chair away from the table to clean her up and Anika was so apathetic to the fact that she just regurgitated her dinner, and was so into eating it, that she kept eating more. It was AWESOME. If any other people were there, they may not have found it so funny, but the way she just acted like nothing ever happened - had all three of us rolling on the floor.

The Dieters (Rosemary, Steve & Anika) have four - count them - FOUR cats. Now, if you know anything about me, you probably know that I've always been quite the ailurophobe. Rosemary did NOT and STILL does NOT know that I am an ailurophobe or that I might be slightly allergic to cats. I have been doing better though. I've really been working on it - especially since Mike got Fozzie - the cat that I - yes, ME - named... Well, Jonathan has not been around cats very much. The kid had NO FEAR. As the pictures prove, I'm pretty sure I can predict a cat sometime in his future... The picture above is Jonathan snuggling with Tiger on the couch and in the picture on the right, he is giving Machan a kiss.

Saturday brought me to the Leary's house where Reagan greeted me with a great big hug, smile and screaming "KEEEEEEEEETEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" at the top of her lungs. :) What more could I ask for?? Josh cooked up some Swedish meatballs... Britt, Ryan & Gabe came over and we all had a nice dinner together and then Gabe went to a sleepover, Reagan went to bed, and we had adult time by the fire pit. All in all, it was a great time. Brittney also brought be some interesting news which I can't explain at this time, but it may mean change is on the horizon for me. We'll have to see how the next few weeks play out. As you can imagine, change - even for the better - creates a fair amount of anxiety in me. Possibly the culprit of this cold that I'm fighting off.... (I'm determined NOT to get sick!)

This weekend also brought my first official Yoga experience. Paige is beginning her Yoga teacher training and I told her I would only participate in her classes if she first gave me "private" lessons. I have to say... I have done pilates for a year and a half now at home to the Windsor Pilates DVD, and I do enjoy it. However, I never realized how completely INTENSE yoga really is when you are doing it correctly! Pilates is intense in it's own right, but yoga was a totally different ball game. I quite enjoyed it, though, I must admit. I like the whole meditation/relaxation aspect of it also. I'm hoping it will improve my inner chakra... and perhaps a couple of other things in the process ;)

Here's to an anxiety-free week. HA!

OH! and P.S. They played my most favorite song at church this weekend. I was CONVINCED that was a sign that this week is going to be great :) Hope I'm right!