postcard from the road

Greetings my fellow NC folks.  I'm still on the road and enjoying my vacation.  My mom and I are on the way up to Minneapolis to see my sister.   Today we covered over 500 miles and stopped at TWO different Cracker Barrel restaurants along the way.  The first time I noted the "Kid's Menu" said it was for "Kids of All Ages" which I thought was awesome!!  So I ordered the 2 grilled chicken tenderloins and some green beans.  I also noted the menu featured almost a whole page of  Low Carb Options.  But those meals looked so big and I knew I couldn't eat that much.  The kids plate was PERFECT!!  On the second stop I didn't see anything else on the kids menu that looked that great except for the shrimp and I had the feeling the shrimp was probably cooked from frozen.  I'm picky about my shrimp, so I went for some BBQ pork with 2 sides (green beans and cabbage, which I ate very little of).  There was a family sitting across the restaurant with a screeching 3 year-old who would NOT stop screaming and screeching.  It went on and on.....   It hurt my ears and was so grating my mom and I literally got up and walked OUT!  We weren't even halfway finished with our meal.  We told the manager we could not and WOULD not put up with that.  The manager was very nice and apologized.  That's the second time I walked out of a restaurant because of out-of-control children who ruined my dinner.   When we checked into a motel I had a box of South Beach Diet protein bars.  It was great!  That's the first protein bar I've had since my surgery.  Oh yeah, the motel has an exercise room with a nice scale - the kind like a doctor's office has.  So, I got on and I was FOUR pounds down from my last weighing.  I'll take it!!  WOO HOO!!

Hi Meredith,

Congrats on the weight loss!

I'm delighted to hear that you are having such a great time and that you are finding that you are able to eat out and order things that really do work well with your new lifestyle. I'm so sorry to hear that your dinner was ruined by the screaching kids... I had a get together tonight with my son's finance's family and my husband's family so that everyone could meet and my sister-in-law's kids were screaching and screaming and running around like that. I found it nearly unbearable. My children are far from perfect, but that kind of behavior was never tolerated in my family. I'm not sure why others tolerate that behavior with their children. If mine ever acted up and we could 'squelch' it quickly and quietly, then the children were quickly removed until they could control themselves.

Wishing you continued success and quieter, more peaceful meals. 

So glad your trip is going good, except for the kid.  You sure it wasn't us?  hehe  No, I've left restaurants in the middle of meals because my kids we're misbehaving.  It's not fair to the others around us.  We have just recently been able to go places and have a full meal and I even took the girls to Andy's today for lunch and had a fairly nice meal (with them, not necessarily because of the food).  Hope the rest of your trip is good and keep up the good work!