Thank you all a million times over for your love on last week’s blog anniversary post (and on every post, really)!
Pop and I made it back home to New York without any 7 hour delays, thank the Lord!
I spent the past three days with lots of family members, including lots of BABIES! (I’m that crazy lady who would like to hold your baby whenever you’re ready/in two minutes/now, please.) In case you missed the update last week, I was visiting St. Louis for my baby cousin’s baptism.
Let’s catch up!
Friday
Mom and I started the day with a rather delicious and filling {complimentary} hotel breakfast. This is what I ate every morning:
Two plain oatmeal packets with honey, banana, and two little packs of peanut butter + a box o’ milk
As long as the breakfast trifecta is present, I’m all set.
Then we went to see my baby cousins!
My cousin CC (bottom right): “Um, Alison?”
Me: “Yes?”
CC: “Um, I’m having so much fun!”
From now on, I’m going to announce when I’m having fun, just like that.
They took us to a farm/park close to their house, where we saw some Butterball-worthy turkeys, loud goats, majestic horses, and lots of bacon giant pigs.
Meet Maurice. He’s bigger than you and me.
We worked up an appetite for lunch involving a Southern/Midwestern delicacy.
Chick-fil-A, chickadees.
I’ve never seen a fast food joint so packed in my LIFE. A line that never shortened, a drive-thru that was backed up, and not a table to spare.
I was bummed that we missed breakfast, because the #1 thing I wanted was a biscuit, but I tried some of their fried chicken with the special sauce, and it was pretty bomb. My main order was the grilled chicken wrap + “superfood salad” (a cup of kale and craisins).
The afternoon consisted of some hanging out and errands. Another Midwestern stereotype coming to life:
Man at TJMaxx (with beard, cowboy hat, and southern twang): *stares at me for a few seconds* ”
Excuse me? What nationality are you?”
Me: (in my 200% American accent) “I’m Chinese and Thai.”
Man: “Chinese and Thai… Well. Welcome to the United States!”
Me: ….
Man: “I mean, you probably already live here..”
Me: “haha yeah… I live in New York.” *walk away slowly*
He seemed rather intrigued that an Asian was standing there in the flesh.
Moving on. Dinner consisted of…
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We ate at The Old Spaghetti Factory and ordered another St. Louis classic to start— toasted ravioli.
I like their definition of toasted (fried). I ordered the Angel Hair Pomodoro (so I guess… not spaghetti), which was everything I was craving and more. Followed by a peanut butter cookie from the hotel lobby.
After picking up bro Ben from the airport, I ended the night looking like my own worst nightmare.
moisturizing, hydrating, terrifying face mask + lip gel mask thing
I Snapchatted my friends telling them to sleep with their eyes open that night. Sorry if this traumatized you. I’m still recovering myself.
Saturday
In short, Saturday involved family time allllll day, leading up to a big barbecue at my cousins’ house. It started with a wonderful walk with my aunt in the morning, and the day continued with helping out in the kitchen and contributing my “famous” roasted sweet potatoes.
Steaks, burgers, creamed corn, sweet potatoes, and salad. I had some of everything and an oatmeal raisin cookie a la mode + sugar high for dessert. Thank you to all who made it happen!
With all the excitement and joy of being around family, especially the little ones, I didn’t have the time or care to worry about healthy food and/or exercise. You eat, play, and just enjoy the time you have with your loved ones. It makes sense, and the little ones have it down pat.
And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 18:3-4
I’ve learned trusted that my body gravitates toward what it needs. If I need some butt-to-couch time, I will sit down and be a couch potato for a bit. If I want to let off some energy, I’ll go do something fun with people I love. For instance, the “big kids” went out for some frisbee golf at dusk, which was a blast.
Ben, stop acting surprised that I’m taking candid photos of people
Sunday
This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!
The Sunday Mass and Baptism were beautiful (definitely cried tears of joy at some point), and the reception was lovely. God is good.
Congratulations, Josephine and family!
After bittersweet goodbyes, everyone split ways. Dad and I en route to New York. Mom and bro Ben en route to Florida. We’ll see each other again soon!
Asian cashew salad at Wendy’s in the Detroit airport for dinner
Back on the grind this week. We’ll get through it together.
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So tell me:
You and babies. What happens?
Do you ever use facial masks?
Have you ever played frisbee golf?
Have you ever eaten at Chick-fil-A?
Daily Moves and Grooves 
Your cousins are utterly adorable and I’m glad you enjoyed your time with your family!
Rapid fire: I love babies and I get irrationally excited when I get to interact with them. Facial masks are amazing and relaxing and they make me look very scary. Frisbee golf is fun. That and cornhole are classic yard games. Aaaand I ate at Chick-Fil-A this weekend. 🙂
Have a fabulous Monday!
Ah I remember cornhole at every carnival type thing when I was younger. What should I get at Chick-Fil-A next time!? 🙂
Hmmm. If you’re feeling a snack (because they’re seriously small), both the grilled and regular chicken nuggets are amazing. Otherwise, a classic chicken sandwich is pretty hard to beat! (I’ve never had one of their biscuits, though. Like you, I’d love to try them sometime!)
Thanks, Ellen! I’ll surely try that next time 🙂
I often think about how kids live and that they really have it all figured out! No stress, just fun and not caring what others think. This sounds like such a happy weekend. I love spending time with relatives. I have never been to Chick-fil-A but totally would! I think there is one near my house actually so I should try that.
That might be the only thing I miss about being younger— not worrying so much about body image. Get a biscuit and tell me if it’s as amazing as everyone else has said!
Ooooh what a fun filled weekend! I have a mild to severe case of baby obsession if I do say so myself. I also definitely had this stage where I bought all the cheap korean face masks and wear them. Except they never did much for me so I stopped but the scary face days were lived. I love your balance of meals you had for the weekend- chicken salads AND fried ravioli/dessert. Keep rocking Alison :)!
Yeah, I’m not sure if the facial masks even do much for me, but it’s fun(ny) to wear them anyway 😉
LOL @ your interaction with that man at TJ Maxx. Like I legitimately wish I was there to witness that. Also, I love the concept of announcing “I’m having a lot of fun.” So simple and so perfect.
I couldn’t believe it happened, haha. I wish someone recorded it!
LOL at the face mask! Why is it that the things that are supposed to make us look beautiful in the long run as absolutely terrifying in the short term? Those masks actually remind me of the guy from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but I won’t go into detail because then I’ll never be able to use them again 😛
Is that the Jason dude? With the hockey mask-type thing!?
I want a baby😩 and a chik a filet in NY, and Maurice while I’m at it😜
You have the best Asian stories btw😂😂😂
Looks like a fantabulous weekend filled with all the right stuff👍🏼
And I always say kids really do have it figured out in a lot of ways. Go with the flow , intuitive ,and aren’t super analytical about everything! Those were the days! I’m just really glad I didn’t have all this technology back when I was a kid 👵🏼👵🏼👵🏼because in a lot of ways it’s keeps us from being carefree and creative!!
Do you call it Chick-a-filet? Haha! My cousins call it Chick-o-lay 🙂
So true that technology sort of puts shackles on us in a way… something to always think about!
I completely resonate with what you said about kids. I think as I’ve gotten older, I have become more mature, but also, through recovery, I’ve become more like a little child in my eating habits, learning to not stress about the little things, and such… 🙂 Your food pictures are delicious looking. And the face mask? It kind of looked like a piece of pie dough, from which you cut out eye and mouth holes. ;D Did it work? What kind of a face mask was it?
I agree that I’ve seemed to revert to more “intuitive” eating habits like I had when I was a kid. A beautiful thing!
Haha I see the pie dough! It was a moisturizing/hydrating face mask I believe.
Babies + me = (usually) a crying baby. For some reason most don’t like me! Although as I’ve gotten older it’s more of a toss up as to whether they cry or not, I still am very nervous around babies. I’ve never done a facial mask before, and when I saw just the top of your forehead in the picture on my phone I was like, “Whoa what happened!” Very relieved to know it was purposeful. 🙂 I haven’t played Frisbee golf myself, but when we were on our way home from a big event with a group of friends, our caravan stopped for a break at a park like thing that had a Frisbee golf setup, and they played it before we had to say the big goodbye (we weren’t going to be involved in the program anymore). I have only seen them a couple times since, and it has been very hard, because they were pretty much the only friends I had and I miss them a lot! So I have mixed emotions tied to Frisbee golf. 🙂 That reminds me, I was going to say that seeing all the pictures of you and your family makes me miss my Asian friends so much! To me, being an Asian is a good thing, and I often wish I was born Asian. 🙂 Back to your questions, though, I haven’t had Chick-fil-A, but they recently built one up here in my area, and we’ve REALLY wanted to try it! We just don’t eat out much, so we forget about it. 😦 Oh and WEIRD thing, I just listened to that part in Matthew that you quoted this morning! (And I love your cousin announcing when she was having fun; I think I’m going to start doing that, too! 🙂 ) Now I’m going to stop rambling about myself. I’m so glad you had such a good time; it looked like a lot of fun!
Aww that’s a bittersweet frisbie golf story. Hopefully you can play it again one day with happy memories! 🙂
And I’m certainly proud of my Asian heritage. It’s hilarious that this particular Midwesterner just seemed so perplexed by an ethnic being in America, haha.
Hahahah I found one of those creepy serial killer face masks in a vacant hotel room the other day.
If I’m being honest, I was kinda tempted to put it on…….
You should have put it on and just knocked on people’s doors.
Geeze are you trying to be the Pope? All these babies. So glad you got to spend time with mama and Ben- Poor thing, she must be sick of airplanes!
So. Chick Fil A. Their biscuits = epic. You should totally go back for one.
LOL. You didn’t know that I’m aspiring to be the first female pope???
All jokes aside. Let’s petition for a Chick Fil A in the city.
“You and babies. What happens?” <– hahaha that question! I actually love babies, too- they're so squishy and cuddly and have the best scent (usually- hah).
And I grew up in Atlanta, GA, where the Chick-fil-A headquarters are, so CFA was basically my childhood. Is it a new thing for you?! It's still my go-to fast food restaurant, along with Panera and Chipotle.
LOL a strange question of the day, for sure. *awkward smile*
First of all I LOVE your blog! Second I was wondering how come your mom and brother went to another place then you and your dad back to your hometown???
Hi, Denisse! Thanks for stopping by!
My mom and bro are staying near Orlando in our vacation home since my brother is working there right now. So my mom is keeping him company there 🙂