Volunteering = Date Night

What does volunteering have to do with date night? Well when Jacob is the one doing the volunteering, it leaves Mom and Dad with time to themselves! This past Friday night, Jacob and his scout troop put in some volunteer hours at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. The group was set up at one end of the NBHS football field with a rock climbing tower and zip line. Don't ask me what this has to do with the event, but it was a popular venue. I thought they should have been collecting donations for each climb, but I guess it was just there for enjoyment! The boys assisted climbers with the safety harnesses and zip line retrieval. When it wasn't busy, they got to climb and zip too! Jacob still has big fears of falling, but he made it to the top.
He made it!
Zipping down!

As for date night...it started right after we dropped him off. This not being a planned evening (we thought Jim would be working late again), we just went out to a nice, relaxing dinner at P.F. Chang's China Bistro. The food was wonderful! If you are not familiar with P.F. Chang's, I suggest you find one and become acquainted. It's not even close to your typical Chinese cuisine. We started our meal off with Sake (for Jim) and an Asian Pear Mojito (for me) along with the Won Ton Soup and Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps. Jim then had the Mahi-Mahi with a lemongrass garlic sauce and I had the Oolong Marinated Sea Bass (my mouth is watering just thinking about it!) We ended the meal by sharing the Banana Spring Rolls served with coconut ice cream and caramel sauce...Ahhhhh It was a much need night out for us and we enjoyed the evening immensely!

Afterwards we came home and relaxed a little before having to go pick-up Jacob. When we arrived at 11 pm, he didn't want to leave yet so we gave him another hour. Some of the boys spent the whole night, but since the sky was threatening rain, we thought it best he come home. He was exhausted all day Saturday!

Warm Wonderful Wednesday

Today was beautiful, warm and a bit windy. The thermometer reached a high of 98 degrees in New Braunfels...I know, you may think this is hot, but I thought it was grand because there was no humidity!! It was that dry Texas heat and I was actually able to enjoy some time on my patio without getting drenched in sweat.

This evening, after running some errands, Jacob and I stopped by Landa Park on the way home for a quick picnic dinner by the Comal River. It was 7:00 and still 95 degrees and the thought of putting our feet in the 72 degree water was too much to resist! It felt great, although after awhile a bit numbing. We no sooner got our blanket laid down and our food unpacked and we got some visitors.At first we thought this little group of fluffy ducklings were looking to steal some food; however, they surprised us when they walked right over to our blanket and took the plunge right next to Jacob. They were so close he could have touched them. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera out. They didn't hang out for long, but headed up stream against a fairly quick current. Not long after they were back for a short visit and then on down stream where some people were tossing bread into the water.

It was a wonderful way to wrap up the day...just me and my boy!

Go Find Your Redbox!

We love our movie and pizza Fridays. It's a great way to wind down from the week and start the weekend on a fun note. If we want to see a new movie, we usually end up renting a movie-on-demand from Time Warner. However, rental prices are now $4.99 + taxes. This adds up quickly on the cable bill! Thankfully, our friend Stephanie Hardy recommended Redbox DVD rentals in her blog. Redbox DVD is a kiosk found inside or outside major stores that rents movies for $1.00!! All you need is a debit/credit card. There are lots choices and new movies are updated on Tuesday. You can even sign-up on Redbox.com and get FREE movie codes emailed to you and you can reserve movies and then go pick them up! We haven't tried that part yet, but I'm sure Stephanie has. We checked online and Redbox is located in Williamsport at Wegman's, Weis and Giant. Little did we know they are also located in Summerville at all the WalMarts! Boy, we could have been saving ourselves some serious money!!

Now, for this past Friday's flick..."Bedtime Stories" was the movie of choice, thanks again to Stephanie's recommendation. We were a little leery about an Adam Sandler movie for Jacob, so we never went to see it in the theaters and we never heard much about it. However, this movie was cute and entertaining for all. We laughed out loud and Jacob even watched it a second time on Saturday morning. It was fun to hear his laughter coming from the game room while I was making breakfast. He's been repeating his favorite one liners ever since. Of course, the best part was it was only $1.00!!!!

Sometimes it's the little things...

I'd like to think that I have somewhat of a green thumb. I've had successful vegetable gardens, flower beds and pretty healthy house plants. My one challenge has been getting an orchid to re-bloom. I've killed several orchids over the years, but I keep buying them. Last year, at the Flowertown Festival, I purchased two. One, we had in our master bathroom and the other was in "Sue's room." The one in the bathroom lost not only it's blooms, but also dropped it's leaves. In hindsight, I think it must have something to do with the bathroom cleaners I was using (I now use greener products.) When we moved I tossed that one and brought the other one with us. It had lost it's blooms, but the rest of it looked good. Somehow it (and my other house plants) survived the journey to Texas (via PA) nestled in the back of the Explorer and in the back seat of Jim's car. The orchid now resides in our master bathroom and over Easter weekend, it bloomed...

Coincidence? I think not. Sometimes it's the little things that send the biggest message.

*Snap* and a Year Goes By

Wow! It's hard to believe that one year ago today, Jim retired from the Navy!

It was a bittersweet day as we said good-bye to our "old way of life" and looked forward to our future. We felt very blessed to be able to share that day with family and friends...even if Jim made us all cry. At the time we didn't know where we would be living, what career path Jim would take or how soon we would be saying good-bye to our South Carolina home. Since then life has been filled with new challenges, adventures and blessings for our family. What a difference a year makes. I wonder what's on the horizon?

Great Weekend!

We just had a great fun filled weekend. Friday night Jacob invited his friend Mason over for the night. It was the first time he's had a friend sleep over since we lived in SC. They made homemade pizzas (something Mason had never done before), played video games, watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua, ate popcorn and stayed up way too late. Saturday morning, the boys tried their hand at making breakfast. Mason had never cooked before, so scrambled egg expert Jacob showed him the art of cracking eggs! Soon after breakfast, they were joined by another friend, Mikey and kept things to a quiet roar while I cleaned up the kitchen mess. Finally, at two o'clock, we kicked everyone out.

Jacob and Mason making breakfast.

Jacob, Mason and Mikey chowing on fruit.

After Jim came home from work (yes, on a Saturday), we headed 28 miles south of San Antonio to the 62nd Annual Poteet Strawberry Festival. Strawberries are a favorite in this house, so we were all excited to see what this was all about, after all, it was billed as the largest agricultural festival in Texas and one of the most popular events in the state! Poteet is just a speck on the map, yet easy to find. All along the road people had stands set up selling strawberry shortcake, tacos, brisket, turkey legs, etc. Is was rather a funny sight since it went on for a couple of miles before ever getting to town. The local volunteer fire company even had it's yearly collection set up at the one signal light going into Poteet (smart idea with a captive crowd.)

When we finally arrived at the festival, we unfortunately left the camera in the car, so we don't have any pictures to share. This was Jim's first Texas festival/fair...Jacob and I have already enjoyed foods at the county fair and at Wurstfest, so this was Jim's first time eating a turkey leg. When Jim was in line (the longest line) he questioned whether is was going to be worth it. He got his answer, it was yummy...such a shame we didn't have a picture of his first bite! We also ate strawberry shortcake, roasted corn on the cob, strawberry "nachos", and tasted several jams and jellies. Jim also sampled the strawberry wine. They had several venues of entertainment, craft booths and carnival rides. Even in the 92+ degree weather, someone was walking around dressed as a strawberry! It was a nice family day and in the end we left with a flat of sweet Poteet strawberries!

On Sunday, Jacob and I had a great Mommy/Son day (yes, Jim was at work again.) We baked a pound cake to go with the strawberries and a loaf of banana bread (the oven was hot and the bananas were ripe) and made chocolate covered strawberries. Since the weather was so beautiful, we also weeded the front landscaping and Jacob mowed the front lawn. He's trying to earn money for that camera, ya know. Jim came home just in time for a dinner of great-grammy's hamburger BBQ, salad and strawberries and pound cake. At this point I've frozen a couple of bags of berries for later and we've been nibbling on the rest. Ah, I just love having fresh strawberries in the Spring!

Fun with the Blackshears

Last weekend, to wrap up Spring Break, we took a impromptu trip to the Dallas area to visit with the Blackshear family. It was only a four hour drive and for this traveling family it was a piece of cake! Dave, Michelle, Michaela (13) and Becky (11) were our neighbors in Connecticut and then again in Hawaii. Dave retired from the Navy two years ago and they now live in Forney, Texas just east of Dallas. This was the first time we've seen each other in four years! Of course, we were all surprised at how much our children have grown. Even though they have been neighbors and have logged many hours of playtime, the kids vaguely remembered each other. However, they got along just great! We had a great time and look forward to more fun times with the Blackshears.

Becky, Jacob and Michaela

On the way home we had two sleepy heads.