weekending

 

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? Mine was good, though different, and I hope yours was too! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's post. 

I got the weekend kicked off with my dad. We had a great day together on Friday! I'm always thankful for those. I made us tuna salad for lunch, and we enjoyed trying to solve all the problems of the world all afternoon. Sandy came to pick him up, since she'd stayed in town that day, and I started cooking my dinner shortly after he left. 

Todd worked that night, so I ate dinner and watched a GAC Christmas movie. Are you watching any of those or the Hallmark ones yet? Is it still too early for you? Speaking of that, I'm switching to Christmas themed books for the last two months of the year. I can't wait! I'll finish the cozy mystery I'm reading and then I'll get the season kicked off with one I just bought over the weekend.  

For dinner Friday night, I made this lasagna inspired pasta. I cooked the noodles according the instructions, and I sauteed onion and garlic in a pan. When that was finished, I added some pasta water to the pan while I added spinach to wilt it. I mixed all of that together with the pasta, and added cottage cheese and marinara sauce, then topped it with parmesan. I baked it at 350 for a half hour, and it was perfect: hot and bubbly. I ate two helpings, then saved the rest for Drew. Speaking of him, he's about to become the theme of my weekend. This kind of dish is right up his alley! Because we don't really eat pasta anymore, and because the other boys in the house don't care for it with marinara, I figured Drew would appreciate not worrying about dinner after work this week. I will send this home with him tonight when he comes over for dinner...along with the soup I'm making for us for our family dinner. 

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning, and made plans with Mom, but had to cancel. I came down with stomach virus, I guess. Noah had had something similar one day this week and we didn't think much of it, but after I got it, Todd came down with the same symptoms Saturday night. We were fine by Sunday morning, thankfully, but we still got out that afternoon. I actually felt mostly fine, I was just taking it easy with the I ate. Don't judge for what you're about to see, though...

I took this of Todd riding off on Saturday morning. He's so happy to have his bike back! It was in the shop for a month.

We had dinner with Drew at Dim Sum King. We ordered appetizers mostly, to share, but the majority of what I ate was rice. This picture below is a steamed pumpkin with spare ribs inside. It looks amazing, but none of us were impressed. 

We were back home and comfy by seven, and I spent the evening reading a cozy mystery by a new author. I'll share about it tomorrow, so come back!

I was at church by 7:20 on Sunday morning, and admiring the sunrise. It was so foggy!

I spent the afternoon going down a rabbit trail of Matthew Perry posts...and this one got me, along with a TikTok video of the one where Chandler is working out of town, and all the Friends are there to say goodbye to him. I bawled over that one! This loss is a big one for us, because so much of our life revolved around the show. I feel like in every stage of life we've been through, we could relate it to a Friends episode. I've read so much about him in the last few years of his life, and it seems he'd come to terms with his troubled past; one article is one that he was interviewed for saying that God had saved him. I hope that's the case, but isn't it always a sad thing when someone who was a big part of your life dies? 

That afternoon I attended the baby shower of one of the girls I helped lead in youth several years ago. 

And here's the part where Drew comes in....we did a thing together yesterday.

  

(The blood is normal, but it stopped.) We got matching tattoos! I was so surprised that he wanted to do this, but who am I to say no if he's all for it? I think it's so sweet, and I love that we have that as a memory together. 💙💙

We went to eat Mexican food afterward, then I came home. I passed by this huge pumpkin as I was driving and had to take a picture! The people that sell these pumpkins have been at this same location for many years, and the boys always loved passing by there when they were younger. 

Here it is when I removed the bandage that kept falling off.

It's a little stained right now, from the ink that was rubbed off when he finished, but it'll fade in a few days. I love where Drew did his, and so does he. That's all that matters! 

How was your weekend? Did you do something fun that you loved? I had different plans for Saturday, but we canceled them because of the rain. I wasn't too upset about it, since I also didn't feel great. 

Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all.