Mommy's night out and a Food Misson for Readers

Yesterday, I met up with a group of 4 of my fabulous friends. Every year for Christmas, we forgo gifts and pick a Saturday to hang out together and sleep over night. We rotate homes in alphabetical order. This year it was Laura's turn.

We had some fun shopping at the mall. I can't remember the last time I went shopping without Colin in tow. It's a totally different experience because I could actually try on clothes! I really wanted to spend some of my birthday and Christmas money on some new work pants. It seemed like an easy task: walk into Express, pick up some Editors, try them on, marvel at their wonder, purchase, and walk out. Alas, I didn't find anything there or at 2 other stores that looked decent. I used to wear a size 6 or 8 pants. You're going to hate me for saying this, but a size 2 fit well, but didn't hung all baggy-like in the rear. So they were a no go. A size 2. I haven't fit into size 2s since...middle school? 9th grade? Somewhere around there. Thank you breastfeeding? I think. All I know is the 6s in my closet are falling off. And I need a little more junk in my trunk, and if I have to make brownies every weekend to get it back, maybe I will. But then I think...it will all catch up to me once breastfeeding is over, so I don't and just deal. Am I ridiculous for worrying? I should embrace it, right? ::sigh::

Then we went to Laura's house and made some fabulous homemade pizza (we all buy an ingredient for dinner to spread out cost), drank some wine (I had a small glass, then switched to sparkling apple cider), played Apples to Apples and sat around and chatted. This morning, I woke up at 7:30 (oh...and also 3:00 wondering if I should pump, and 5:15 to actually pump), hung out for a little while longer while my car warmed up, and left at about 8:00 am.

I had a lot of fun, and it was good to take a break from family life for a day. This was my first overnight without Colin. I survived better than expected. Don't get me wrong. I missed Colin (and Kevin!) like crazy, and there were times when I'd think to myself, "I wonder what they're doing," or "Colin's probably eating supper," or "I hope Colin sleeps well tonight."

And Kevin survived too. Colin had a typical night where he wakes up multiple times for who knows what reason. Good thing we're used to that, I guess.

In other news, I'm on this freezer meal kick. A few weeks ago, I made 2 pans of Cheesy Ham Macaroni and 2 pans of Pizza Pasta Casserole. We've decided that if I do this--make 4 freezer meals--a month, and cook them on either Mondays or Tuesdays--which are piano lesson nights, which means we don't eat until late b/c lessons are done at 6 pm--we'd get a decent meal to start off our week. Then we can eat the leftovers for part of the week instead of buying lunch food. So I'm looking for your favorite freezer meals. Post them in the comments section so that all of the readers can partake if they'd like.

Now I'm off to go scour the interwebz for recipes for my stash.