Pasta Pass Pauli

I have never eaten at Olive Garden before in my life. That didn't really bother me.  Well a few weeks ago Paul called me and was super excited because he bought....The Never Ending Pasta Pass from Olive Garden.

I gave him a pretty hard time about it.

For 7 weeks he get as much soup, salad and pasta as he can eat from Olive Garden.  The pass was a promotion they were having to drum up some publicity. They sold 1,000 of them, they were $100 each.

Luckily you can get the food to go, so Paul now bring home Olive Garden twice a day.  I was pretty skeptical, chain restaurant food in my mind is fatty, salty, and generic.

We add spinach, tomato and carrots to the salad and it turns out pretty good.  We add some steamed vegetables to the whole week pasta and its pretty healthy.  The soups split between us are delicious, neither of us have gained any weight.  And I am kind of enjoying not having to cook.

Economically we have already saved $100 on groceries, so I would say that I am enjoying being married to "Pasta Pass Paul"

and Olive Garden is better than I expected.

                                                                      pasta pass paul(i)

Baby weight

Maybe this is bragging, but its my blog SO...
I have lost all my baby weight, here are some numbers.
Got pregnant 100 lbs.
42 weeks later 140 lbs.
After giving birth 130 lbs.
Now (6.5 months later)105 lbs.

I am not really trying to get back down to 100, if it happens that's fine, but I stopped trying to loose weight when I hit 110, so its a nice surprise that it keeps coming off.

Celebrating the small things in life with  Olive Garden? more on that in the next post.

surprise surprise

Fall is actually here in Florida.  We are not sure if the weather is different because we are in a new location or because this particular Autumn is cooler everywhere in Florida (some friends in gainesville posted about the cool weather), but either way we are embracing it.  Opening windows and door, happily turning off the a/c and wearing real clothes. hooray for seasons!

That is one or two years ago and its not this cold yet...but I need a fall related picture.

Update

Paul passed the florida bar, so we are all relieved, and our prayers were answered.
Also life has been very good recently.  The weather is starting to cool down slightly and it makes everything better.  Today while Sylvia was napping I was laying on the couch in front of a open door with a nice breeze blowing in while reading some children's books I got from the library for Sylvia.  I felt more relaxed and happy in that moment than I have since what feels like since high school.  (not that college life wasn't fun)  It was just an absolutely care-free moment and I can't wait for more to come.  I think its Panama City slowing my life down and I love it.

Here are some pictures from recent days.  At the back of our complex we have a pool and below the pool is a grassy lawn and then a mini beach.  There are lots of trees and in the afternoons I bring a blanket, let Sylvia crawl around and just listen to the water gently lapping.  I wish I could describe it better but it is really wonderful.

Also we went to Destin last weekend because Paul attended a conference there.

its my birthday!

Even though I have been accidentally telling people I am already 26 for the last few months...now I really am.  So Happy Birthday to me, Sylvia gave me the gift of only waking up once last night, best gift ever :)

sylvia crawls

yes she does and it is sooo cute

smokers

Let me preface this that I have never used tobacco in my life.

I feel like tobacco smokers are unfairly discriminated against.  I was recently filling out a job application  and it addressed tobacco use?!?  Is that fair.  Also CVS is getting all sorts of praise for not selling tobacco anymore.  Are they really helping anyone?  Is that really going to stop people from smoking...no.  They are just going to drive farther to get it, after the resources are likely already strained enough just to smoke.  Smoking is an addiction and they are going to have plenty of natural consequences for it without people making their lives more difficult.

From my observation people that smoke tend to have life circumstances that already make their lives difficult, they are just trying to cope...just like all of us.  Some people (a lot) cope with eating too much sugar, some cope by drinking etoh, some had life circumstances that made it so that smoking was the obvious and modeled way to cope.  Does not mean they are not people and do not have feelings.  Picking on people who smoke is the picking the low hanging fruit.  Its PC to say bad thing about smoking and smokers, but that does not mean its right.

I wish no one smoked, I hate to be around smoking, I hate the smell, I would be devastated if any of my children chose to smoke but, making their lives harder when each of our lives is plenty hard enough does not solve anything.  All smokers know its bad, I am sure most of them wish they never started, so lets not rub their ongoing struggles in their face.