Birthday Weekend

On Friday afternoon, I decided to surprise my mom at home for the weekend. Given that I'm considering postdoc positions outside of Florida, I've been making the effort to spend more time with my family. On Saturday, we had breakfast with my sister at her house and we watched my nephews for a little bit. On Sunday, my mom and I went shopping. I bought a new pair of jeans and a new pair of Under Armour workout capris. I was very happy, but wished that I could have found a nice top too. I made Louisiana red beans and King Cake for Sunday night dinner. My best friend came over to join us for dinner and my dad even came over for cake. On Monday, my mom had to work so my best friend and I spent the day together. We went to Whole Foods in Tampa for lunch. I took her out to dinner for her birthday a few weeks ago, so she treated me to lunch. I got the tofu tacos off the hot bar and some chocolate chip cookies from the bakery. I was secretly hoping the hot bar would have a new vegan entree, but the tofu tacos were quite good. We spent the afternoon goofing off, watching Hoarders, and then we ordered pizza for dinner. We had quite the funny looking pizza - half veggie without cheese and half with extra cheese, bacon, and grilled chicken. I really enjoy her company, we've known each other since 7th grade and we've never had an argument. :) On Tuesday, my actual birthday, my mom and I met my sister for lunch at Genghis Grill, a new restaurant in our town. It has a buffet where you select the items you want in your stir fry, then they cook it on a big grill and add your starch. I selected tofu, peppers, bamboo shoots, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, spices, and the 3G sauce from the buffet. They grilled it up and served it over brown rice. Yum! Quite a delicious lunch. We headed over to Target, where I bought some neon workout clothes. I was incredibly happy to receive some actual gifts, because there really isn't much joy to receiving a birthday check. My mom did write me a birthday check, but I was much happier to have something tangible. Loved the weekend at home, so I was little bummed to return to work today. Oh well, I have to submit the rough draft of my thesis in a month so I have to work, work, work. My slides are done, but I've only written about 75% of my thesis. I'll get it done on time though! :)