Happy new week! I hope you’re feeling rested after Super Bowl Sunday. After the snooze-fest that was the first half, I was certainly not expecting that game to go into OT – or for the Chiefs to win.

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

Let’s talk about three important things.

1) The Halftime Show – what did you think!? This is probably and unpopular opinion but I thought it was okay but not my favorite halftime show ever. (I liked Rihanna better last year!) The first part with all the circus-type stuff felt chaotic – and why did no one’s outfits match???, haha. Highlights for me were the roller skating, when Alicia Keys sang and that whole last bit with Lil Jon and Ludacris. Missed hearing Scream and OMG but when you have as many hits as Usher – there’s no way to fit them all in.

All that said – I would absolutely go see Usher in concert when he’s in Charlotte for two nights this summer and it was very entertaining!

2) The Ads – I admittedly didn’t get to watch many ads because there was a lot of chatting/socializing going on but I did think the Dunkin’ ad with J Lo, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Tom Brady was so funny. Tell me your faves and I’ll watch them on YouTube!

3) The Food – what did you eat/cook?

I went over to Dorie’s for a Super Bowl gathering and we had a great spread that included two types of chili (chicken and beef), cornbread, pizza, buffalo chicken dip, hummus, guacamole, seven-layer dip, chicken salad phyllo cups, turkey sandwiches, a Mexican chopped salad, brownies, a cookie cake and more.

I contributed the chopped salad and the turkey sandwiches. The chopped salad was layered with romaine, tomatoes, corn, black beans, avocado, cilantro, shredded Mexican cheese blend, tortilla strips and Trader Joe’s ranch seasoning. I was going to make a homemade cumin lime vinaigrette but ran out of steam/time and just brought a bottle of ranch instead.

The turkey sandwiches were a spinoff of the popular Hawaiian roll ham sliders. The team at Schmidt Old Tyme sent me a big sampling of their game day rolls for the big game so I put them to use in a delicious warm and melty turkey sandwich. I layered the bottom of the rolls with mayo, Boar’s Head cracked pepper turkey and provolone cheese and then put the tops on. I brushed a mix of melted butter, dijon mustard, honey, poppy seeds and dried minced onion over top and baked for about 15-20 mins at 350. Good stuff!

And that’s a wrap on Super Bowl LVIII – I’ll refrain from feeding the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce fire. 😉

OTHER LIFE SNAPSHOTS

Still going strong on the February walking challenge! There were two days last week where Finn and I headed out with me on foot and him on his scooter. He came up with a “hill challenge” where he wanted to scooter down all the hills in our neighborhood. We did three miles on each walk and probably didn’t even cover half the downhills – our neighborhood is very hilly and big! He’s never gotten into any of his bikes but grateful he loves the scooter.

I have subbed a few runs for the walks including one on Sunday evening before I went to Dorie’s for the Super Bowl party. It was one of those situations where I didn’t really have time to run but really NEEDED to run (anxiety management). I felt so much better after a quick three miles of movement and fresh air.

Benji and Zoey have definitely enjoyed the extra outings and exercise. I was so proud of us for getting our walk in on Friday evening even though it was dark. Had I not committed to this personal challenge I definitely wouldn’t have done it but 20 minutes of walking while chatting with my grandmother ended up being so very nice!

Finn was out of school a couple of days last week and had to tag along with me for a few training sessions. I looked over one day and he had a resistance band wrapped around his head and was holding a PVC pipe in full ninja mode.

Future CY front desk staff.

Asked me to take a picture of these two stuffies to remember for Valentine’s Day. I’ve gotten him to embrace taking photos of things he wants instead of always expecting me to buy things.

Benji snuggles.

Sunday morning coffee, smoothie, podcast and puzzle. I made good progress on it Sunday morning and ended up staying up late finishing this puzzle last night.

And one final PSA – schedule your annual skin check! Over the last five years or so I have tried to be more diligent about annual skin checks with my dermatologist. I see PA Melissa Boothe at Charlotte Dermatology and she’s EXCELLENT! Personable, extremely thorough and down-to-earth. We do skin checks but she also takes a lot of time answering any other skin questions that I have. In this visit she prescribed two new (non-steroid) creams for me to try for some peri-oral redness that I have struggled with for years.

I had noticed one small raised spot that had come up on my chest right at the top of my sternum. She said it was likely a pre-cancer actinic keratosis. She said I could either freeze it or biopsy it and send to the lab. We decided to try freezing first and if it doesn’t resolve we’ll biopsy. So important to stay on top of these things so that very minor issues don’t become bigger ones. Both my mom and grandmother had Mohs procedures done last fall for carcinomas with excellent results. Skin cancer doesn’t really run in my immediate family but my grandmother spends a lot of time in the sun on her balcony and my mom is immune-compromised due to her transplant and skin cancer is SUPER common among transplant recipients.

Time to go teach yoga! Have a great week friends!

QUESTIONS

Thoughts on the halftime show? 

Favorite ads? 

What did you cook/eat?