Instead of diving head first back into the world of blogging, I am just going to stick my big toe in so I don't drown. That is kinda what I feel like when I try to think of all the things I need to blog about. Anyway, I have two great stories that I want to share with you, and then maybe one day soon, I will recap all of December in one post.
Story One: Weight Watchers in the Ghetto
Back in November, Jaime, Nate, Brad, and I made a bet to see who could lose more weight (boys vs. girls). We planned it out, set dates, established rules and prizes, and then of course we talked a bunch of junk to each other. If I remember correctly, we told the boys they would have to post pictures of themselves in Speedos if they lost the bet. Anyway Jaime and I had a theory that the guys would hang in there and go strong for a couple of weeks and then they would slack off. So far, this theory is working out great for us. Nate almost turned anorexic for a while, and Brad cut back from about three servings of food, down to only going back for seconds. We were really impressed! But then the holidays came, and all progress was lost. Jaime and I have planned to swoop in from behind and take the lead now that the memory of the Speedos is starting to fade.
I have been wanting to join Weight Watchers for many many months now, and have yet to do it. So, my dear and darling husband finally got tired of me talking about it and bought me a membership! Yay! (Seems a little ironic, like he is helping out the other team, but we won't mention that) Now...to the good part of the story. I picked a location and time for a meeting and convinced Jaime to tag along with me to the check it out last night. Before we got too far down the road, she had convinced me to stop a chick-fil-a for supper. I believe she said something like, "we need to cushion our weight, so next week it will look like we have lost more." So instead grabbing a lite caesar wrap to eat, we add a cookies 'n cream milkshake to our order. Now we are eating while driving and looking for the place that we thought was supposedly just off the main road, and then we realize we are going further into the ghetto. Not only are we in the ghetto, but there are shady men walking very close to our vehicle. We immediately started thinking of excuses for why we couldn't get out of the car. We hadn't finished our dinner, and we really didn't want to waste our milkshake, and we really weren't sure if this was the meeting that we wanted to go to (We wanted to go to a meeting at a church that was much closer to home, but they didn't have a Thursday night meeting.) Needless to say, instead of pulling into weight watchers, we pulled a U-ey and headed for the mall. I would like to say that we took the opportunity to exercise and speed walk for a little exercise. But I can't. We walked around and looked at all the clothes we will be able to fit into if we ever make it to a meeting. We're aiming to attend next week. I'll let you know how that one goes.
Story two: Seaweed Muffin.
Do I need to say anything else? I mean, really...Seaweed Muffin says enough, right? I want you to close your eyes, and envision what you think a Seaweed Muffin might be. Did something like this come to mind?
This picture does not begin to do any justice to this foreign, over-processed, and incredibly foul smelling little beast of a snack.
Here's the scoop on the "Seaweed Muffin." Actually, I only wish that I known it was a Seaweed Muffin when I had to smile, nod, and swallow four bites of this thing, but I had no clue what it was. During one of my home visits today, the child that I was seeing had snack time. This sounds normal, but my circumstances were so far beyond normal that I have been used to in the past. This was the first day that I have visited this particular child. Instead of having therapy for just one hour, I have to visit this child for two. That doesn't sound too difficult, but it is. To make things fun, he stays with his grandparents during the day. Neither of them speak any English. Because our therapy session was so long, his grandmother decided that my friend needed to take a break and have snack. And evidently since I missed my Weight Watchers meeting last night, she took one look at me and thought I was a hungry girl that liked to eat so I needed a snack too. She came at me waving this thing in her hand and saying something in Chinese. I politely declined and she insisted. The more I declined, the more she insisted. I had no choice but to take it and pray silently that I would be able to stomach it. I opened it and tried to smell it before I put it in my mouth without being too obvious. It smelled like fish. I felt like a crusty sponge. I thought if I dipped it into my 2 1/2 oz. dixie cup of luke warm tap water that she also gave me, that it would expand to three times its size. In the midst of my panic, I didn't get the chance to notice that there were in fact two small english words written on bottom corner. All I saw were the green sprinkle-like powdered seasoning that was coating my fish-smelling biscuit. During the entire session, I struggled to get this little boy to make any sounds, much less say any words. He stuck one bite in his mouth and said "Mmmm, yummy! Good." I gagged a little, and said, "Yes! This is so yummy!" I had to continue taking small bites while she was sitting there, but as soon as she left the room, I stuffed it in my pocket (but I made sure that it was wrapped up neatly so I could save it and take it home to Brad for him to sample.) My prayer is that this is not a weekly occurrence, or that she at least has a wider variety of muffins filled with something from the sea. 
***Update: Nate just ate the rest of the Seaweed Muffin in exchange for two pounds taken off of his total weight at the final weigh-in. His face turned about the same green color as the wrapper. ***
