Coffee, Shopping, Panera Bread, and Oh Yes, The Doctor!

Today was that special day that most of us women would rather just skip each year - you know, the annual exam and the mammogram! I find that by booking BOTH of these appointments on the same day allows me to take 1/2 day off and basically just get them out of the way TOGETHER!


Of course, both appointments are on opposite sides of town (Colorado Springs) but that's OK as there are LOTS of places in-between! I headed out in the drizzly, cold (43 degrees when I left the house) cloudy weather and joined the other 4000 people headed down the pass - or so it seemed anyway!


First was the mammogram - I was delighted to see they had a new piece of equipment this year - imagine being handed a gown straight out of the "heater" box!! Someone donated this cute little oven contraption and I thought it was great!! Putting on a nice warm gown on a cold day was quite pleasurable, even knowing what was coming........... Unfortunately the procedure hasn't changed one bit - still the cold, hard metal just waiting for you!

After that, the technician walked me to the exit door and guess what is right there as you exit -A Daily Grind - one of my favorite coffee places! I imagine they conveniently placed it there so you can get a cup of coffee to settle your pounding nerves! Even though it wasn't Friday, I knew I DESERVED a coffee so in I went!

Since my next appointment was still an hour and 1/2 away, I headed to Ross thinking I might find a pair of navy capris! No such luck - the store didn't even OPEN until 9:30 and it was only 9:10! Luckily Target was in the same shopping center so I headed in to shop - I just love those $1.00 bins at the front of the store and proceeded to get some cute books for the boys and a fun puzzle book for Rayna - but nothing cute for the babies this time - although I did buy stocking stuffers for the "big" girls!! Christmas shopping in July - I love it! Anyway, I actually found my navy capris there so I was excited!

Next it was on to Big Lots, hoping to find another pair of reading glasses, but they didn't have any in my lense size - of course I couldn't walk out empty handed so I walked around and found a few necessary items!

My annual exam was next and the worst part of this was knowing the nurse would weigh me - I KNEW I had gained some weight - I just didn't know how much! And yes, I should have kicked my shoes off BEFORE climbing up on the scale - yikes - 3 more pounds than last year! I mulled that over in my mind as I was waiting for the doctor to come in and decided that one pound was probably from the super rich caramel mocha coffee that I had just drank, another pound just HAD to be my shoes and clothes, and that last lone pound - I'll chalk it up to muscle - after all, I've been exercising all summer very diligently and we all know that muscle weighs more than fat!! There - I feel better already about my weight!!

I decided to celebrate my year of good health by taking myself out to lunch - I headed toward Fazzoli's as the thought of eating one (as if I would eat ONLY one) of their breadsticks sounded SO good to me but as I drove by Panera Bread, all I could think of was that yummy mango smoothie I had with Jill in Ft. Collins when I took her out for lunch! The smoothie won - I whipped the car around at the next light and enjoyed the next 1/2 hour eating their great corn chowder, 1/2 of a turkey sandwich and the awesome mango smoothie!

Driving back up the pass in the rain, I decided the morning wasn't too bad after all - but I'll still take work any day over the doctor!