Sweet Lemon Herb Marinated Shrimp & Mahi Mahi

1 lb fresh deveined shrimp (tails or no tails - you decide)

2 defrosted Mahi Mahi steaks

1 cup of olive oil

1/3 cup of honey

1 T of fresh parsely or Italian parsley, chopped

1 T of fresh thyme

2 fresh garlic cloves, minced

lemon zest (key ingredient)

one hearty squeeze of fresh lemon juice

1 t kosher salt

1 t pepper

Marinate for at least 30 minutes. Up to 3 hours. Thred shrimp on skewers with red peppers, yellow peppers, onions and whole mushrooms. Grill for a few minutes on each side for kebabs, Mahi Mahi will take a little longer.

I served the kebabs with angel hair pasta and sauteed crushed tomatos, more garlic, lemon and a little white wine. DELISH! Even better for lunch the next day.

Viva la Vida!

What a magical night at Riverport on Friday night. Yes, finally, my sweet Chris Martin and the guys from Coldplay came back to St. Louis after a loooong 4 years. The last time we saw Coldplay was literally the day before I found out we were pregnant with Claire. We've seen them for a total of 3 times now. Mike and I fell in love to the soundtrack of "Parachutes", we put one of their songs on our wedding cd and we generally just adore this band. I compare their concerts to having a religious experience. There is usually goosebumps and even tears of joy. Friday night was no different.

We got a great group together on the lawn; my sister, Leah, Carrie, Jason, Jenny and Matt, Eric and Suzanne and we even got to see Aunt Jackie, Sami and their family from France! The coolest part was that halfway through the show, the guys walked out onto the lawn and played some acoustic songs from a mini-stage. I gravitated for the spotlight following the band like a moth to a flame. I got SO close to them! It was unreal. They played "Green Eyes", the dummer Will played guitar and sang a little ditty and Chris broke out into a "Bille Jean" Michael Jackson cover. The crowd went wild. In all of my years going to shows at Riverport (technically it's Verizon Wireless, but it'll always be Riverport to me...) and I've never known a show to go out on the lawn. Considering lawn tickets were a reasonable (?) $60 a piece, I thought that was pretty cool. We also got a free live cd "Left Right Left Right Left", which has some great live tunes.

Besides the 60 minutes it took for us to exit the dang parking lot - it was a magical night to remember. I can't wait until they come back!

Oh! and by the way - a friend of Carrie's got this photograph and autograph from Chris Martin after the show. Who's that girl in the limo? And is Chris not wearing a shirt? Gwyneth?!....

Flower Power

Most evenings after we all get home, Claire has been running through the backyard and handpicking flowers for me. She takes this task very seriously and fully expects me to place them in a vase with water - which I do of course. The next day, the 'flowers' are brown and shriveled, so she treks out to the backyard again - a virtual 'flower' garden if you will. And I love every bouqet she picks for me.

Chillin

Claire has just been really cute lately.

Nothing specific.

That's all I got!

Losing

So... a lot of people in my life don't know this yet, but I joined Weight Watchers 8 weeks ago.(thanks to Jenny!) I am proud to announce that I have 15 fewer pounds of fat on me than I did when I started. I have a lot more to go until I reach my goal, but I am super proud of myself! I've lost over 5% of my original body weight and about 17% of my ultimate goal. (I would like to weigh 5 pounds less than I did on my wedding day).

Wanna know what 1 pound of fat looks like? I thought so...

Nullah

Friday night we used Mike's new grill for the 3rd time this week and had the Steelman's over for turkey burgers.. Then we watched "Australia" with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. It was SUCH a wonderful movie. Compelling story, beautiful cinematography, excellent acting, adorable little boy that somehow reminded me of Claire. It was very long though, I'm surprised the boys stayed awake, meanwhile Jenny and I were tearing up. Good flick - highly recommended!