This weekend was a hard one, but a good one. We had my sweet Grandma’s funeral. We got to be surrounded by family and friends who loved my Grandma just as much as we did (and still do). The funeral was on Saturday and I took Friday off from work. I didn’t run all weekend, which felt strange, but sleep seemed to win most mornings. I slept A LOT. I did start Friday with the most delicious egg scramble. Eggs, leftover chicken, spinach, and goat cheese. Mmm.
I loaded up our recycling to take to the Recycling Center. This is what happens when you put off taking everything for a couple of weeks…my car was loaded down.
My Mom and I got a massage mid-morning, which was wonderful. We both needed it! Then we met my Dad for lunch at Nearly Famous. It was nice to spend the day with them.
My friend, Christina, always sends out the best Christmas cards. This is hers for this year. Everyone needs a friend like her.
Jake and I had my family members who were in town over for dinner Friday night. We kept it simple with pizzas and salad. I normally only get to see this side of my family once a year if I’m lucky, so even though the situation sucks, it has been so nice getting to see them 3 to 4 times this year. Trying to look at things in a positive light!
I picked up some of our favorite adult beverages to share with everyone, too.
I slept in Saturday morning, then got up and started to get ready. At one point, I thought how much I wished my Grandma would be at the visitation. She always knew what to say to people and she always put them at ease, both of which are important in those types of situations. I thought it was ironic how much I needed her there, when the entire day was for her no longer being with us. I really miss her. I wore her locket all day.
The visitation and funeral were both so beautiful. They were everything Grandma would have wanted. My Mom and her siblings did an amazing job. They put together an incredible display of pictures and so many people sent the most beautiful flower arrangements. I was pretty emotional during the visitation and funeral, but it was amazing to be able to talk to all the people who came who loved my Grandma. The service itself was wonderful. My parents’ pastor used a quote from my blog, which meant so much to me. His entire sermon was around my comment about grief being strange. He had known my Grandmother for a very long time, so that made everything he said extra special.
After the service, some of the women from the church put together the most delicious spread of food for everyone. It was so tasty.
After we ate, we spent time remembering Grandma and shooting some hoops, which would have made her laugh. I played basketball all through high school, so it was fun to play with my family for a little bit. Shooting is definitely hard in heels. And yes, I am sore from our 30-minutes of basketball. HA!
I would not have survived the past couple of months without this guy. I know it hasn’t been easy to be married to me lately. I am not normally a patient person, but after everything with my Grandma, it has been even worse. I’ve just been very short with people. I’m thankful he understands me.
After the funeral, we all changed into comfy clothes and headed over to my parents’ house for dinner and a little more family time. Chris from St. George’s BBQ brought all of this delicious food over for us. After all of the incredible food we had this weekend, I feel like I don’t need to eat for a year. Buuuut we all know that won’t happen, I love food way too much. ; )
I got to cuddle with this little angel princess. She is getting so ‘talkative’, I am anxiously waiting for her first words. I really want them to be, “Aunt Chelsea is my best friend!”
After dinner, it was home to cuddle with our girls. I think Lu likes my new scarf.

Sunday consisted of more sleeping in before heading over to my Grandma’s house to help everyone sort through her things. I was hungry, so I grabbed a burrito from Mama Jean’s on my way over.
It was almost therapeutic having my family there and going through all of my Grandma’s belongings together. We each took various items that meant something to us and we will donate the rest. I posted a few free items online and people came and got those yesterday. I know my Grandma would be so pleased that people are getting good use out of her belongings. After a couple hours of going through things in her home, I headed home and got started on meal prep and laundry. I feel like I am having a hard time getting caught up on everything lately. I managed to get all of our meal prep finished and most of the laundry washed and put away, so that helped me feel a little bit better.
Our lunches this week are chicken gyros. I baked the chicken and put it into a pita and topped it with tzatziki sauce, feta cheese, cucumbers, Roma tomato slices, and red onion. I think they will be delicious.
Since I made Jake eat those sweet overnight oats all last week and he was such a good sport (he wasn’t a huge fan of them), I made a manly breakfast for us this week. This was super easy to make, too. It’s a biscuit, sausage, egg, and cheese casserole. The original recipe found (HERE) calls for gravy, but I left that out. This smelled so good and I cannot wait to eat it.
Here are the ingredients that went into mine. I cut the biscuits into eight pieces, almost like a pizza, layered those on the bottom of a greased casserole dish, then added the eggs, egg whites, cooked breakfast turkey sausage, and cheese. I baked everything at 350° until it was firm, about 30 to 35 minutes.
We finally got around to decorating our Christmas tree last night. Jake and I have very different styles when it comes to decorating a tree, so it has taken us a couple of years to figure out how to make those mesh. I think this year we did the best job and we both love our tree so much.
I was laughing at this ornament that my Mom gave me last year when I graduated. Jake put it on the very front of our tree and put a light over it like this.
I went to the Y this morning to run on the treadmill because mine isn’t set up yet and I just didn’t feel like running by myself in the dark. I ended up doing a 4 mile tempo run (8:57. 8:41, 8:27, 8:15), which felt amazing. After my run, I did a little bit of lifting, too.

Happy Monday, friends!