Eating Out

I celebrated my birthday yesterday by going out to dinner at Red Lobster, Mother-in-Law's treat.  Of course, we had to drive to St. George to do it, so we waited until I was home from work and drove down there.
Mike had to check Home Depot about some marble he needed for a job first. Fail.
 
Then we headed to the restaurant. We didn't even have to wait, so that was nice.
We ate way too much food. I thought Mike and I had agreed a while back that we would get in the habit of eating less, split or share entrees, etc.
It didn't happen. 
I think he ordered something really big.
So did I.

AND WE ATE IT ALL.
Why, WHY do we DO that????
Ugh. But it was good. Shrimp, crab, lobster, more shrimp, salad, biscuits, cole slaw. Yeah. Lots of yummy food.


When the check came, Berenice pulled out some gift cards to pay the bill.  She uses those at Red Lobster all the time and we're happy to help her eat the food, drive her down there, etc.

The two cards seemed like just the perfect amount to cover the  bill AND the tip, so we discussed the fact that we didn't need to sit there. We didn't really need the receipt. Maybe we should just go?

But we didn't.  So we sat and visited a bit longer.

And it's a good thing. The waiter came back and said that the $50 gift card had only TEN dollars on it! Yikes! We would have shorted that fellow quite a sum of money. Wow. How embarrassing would THAT have been, to have someone flagging us down in the parking lot, or taking our license number or something.  'Hey, YOU! Get BACK here!!'

Ha!  All was well in the end.  The restaurant got their money, the waiter got his tip.  And we ate everything all up.  And the scenario is not unfamiliar to us. One other time she gave them a gift card that was supposed to have $25 on it, but only had $1.35 or something like that.  That was interesting, too, because she didn't have a whole bunch of those gift cards that time. We didn't get stuck washing dishes that time, either.

So much for the Biggest Loser group at Mike's work that we joined.  Might not be good for us, but it'll be really encouraging for all the others. ha.


Happy Birthday to me! ;-)

A little catch up...or ketchup

The summer flew,
Now it's fall,


And there should be a poem or ditty or limerick in there. I haven't got it quite in me. Feel free to finish it on your own.

We had a great summer.  I did, anyway.  We had a new grandbaby --baby Rachel--toward the end. That was wonderful.  She is SOOOO cute!  She will be blessed this coming Sunday, November 2.

I got to visit with Mom and Donna at a Scrapbook retreat in September, too.  That was a lot of fun. AND, in week or so, I'm going to Georgia to visit with Mom and Dad again!  Mike is coming along for a few of those days, Mom and Donna and I will have an All Girls Weekend for a bit, then I'll go to conference (work-related) in Atlanta for a few days.  I'm looking forward to all aspects of that.

I thoroughly enjoyed our garden. I didn't really put up a lot of it. Hardly any, as a matter of fact.  We gave a lot away.  We had another bumper apple crop and I gave a LOT of those away, too (13 boxes). But I still seem to be "doing" apples.  A lot. (Just drying them) We have been covering up the tomato bushes, but now that it's practically November, I guess we'll give up on that this weekend since we'll be away.  And I'm kind of done with it all, anyway.  This was the first year we've juiced apples, and my-oh-my---What a treat!  yummy stuff.  Especially when heated and you add cinnamon.  Hot mulled apple cider, fresh off the tree. Nothin' better.

I've enjoyed my new kitchen floor.  Wish I could do better at keeping up with floors and dishes and the regular stuff that normal people seem to accomplish with little or no effort.  My sink is totally piled high right now, but I choose to sit and shop online (to support my daughter's jewelry party), and to catch up on my TV show I never get to watch.  I still can't ever seem to actually catch it on tv. "Once Upon a Time," in case anyone was interested.

I have not sat down to play the piano in forever.  I think I may have forgotten how.  I didn't hardly decorate for fall or Halloween at all.  Seems rather pointless with no grandkids around, doesn't it?  I have a few pumpkins out and about, and I took some treats in to work.  And I did take some of my decorations there, too, so it looks a little festive at work.

We had our first ever 17th ward halloween party/trunk or treat on Tuesday night.  I dressed as "Lindyana" Jones. ha!  One of the ward members called me that and I thought it was clever. No pictures, though.  I did get to hold a tiki torch, so that added some authenticity. I had a snake in my trunk and some old bones, too (really skeletal models from the library). I thought it was kind of cool and creepy looking. I can even still snap that bull whip!  CRRACKK!!  Too bad I felt so icky that night.  They had a great chili dinner and yummy desserts.  But I was just ill and fell into bed by nine-thirty that evening, just shivering and aching.  Ugh.  It passed quickly. Thankfully.

When Eric came for a brief visit in October, we went up on the mountain and took some gorgeous photos of fall leaves.  It was the perfect time of day and the perfect time of the year.  Just glorious. I do love fall, and we've had a wonderful one!

What else?  Mike has been so busy at work and outside of work. It's been a long time since he's taken on any outside jobs. I mean work other than the regular SWATC work.  There are just not enough hours in the day or days in the week to keep up with that much work.  Or energy in one's body, either.  We feel like we are aging.  We are.  So is everyone.  It stinks to age.  What they say about it not being for sissies is true.  Aging is tough.

I was reminiscing about "MY THREE SONS" earlier today.  I remember being with my three sons together last about 2 years ago when Nick got married.  All three were together in the temple with me. That was so nice. They were so silly, all together at the reception.  I remember taking a day off of work and going skiing with my three sons once.  Two of us skied and two snow boarded.  Man, that was a long time ago.  Those times are too few and far between. We need to do more of those, fellas!

My two gals and I were just together this summer. We attended the temple, too!  We even got to do family names.  And we've had such fun on AGW over the years. I miss those, too.  When are we going to have another one of those???

Loving Fall

Introducing Rachel

The newest member of our family joined us August 26.  Meet Rachel Liebhardt, Kaylee and Nick's cute little daughter.

Nick just got her all jammied up and ready for bed.  She's very alert and wiggly!

It takes MUCH concentration to give her a bath.

And she likes it. :-)

She went to her first Dr. Appointment, and was measured and poked and prodded and weighed.

It's a good thing she's wearing a diaper now, because once it came off, Rachel really let loose!

On the ride home from the Dr. Office. Whew. That was exhausting! And she's still smiling!! What a good baby.

Big YAWN!!!

AND me, enjoying some snuggle time. :-)  It's been fun...

Be sure to check Nick and Kaylee's blog--lots more details and plenty of pictures to come.  Their really cute newborn photos are showing up on Facebook, too.  Just adorable.

A "Nothing" Day

You know how sometimes, when someone asks you what you did on this particular Saturday, you say, "Nothin' "?

I was prepared to say that tonight. (I have to hostess at Shakespeare for a bit. I do enjoy that.)

But this morning, just because we didn't get up early and go fishing or do anything spectacular, it still ended up being a full of nothing day.

For instance:

I slept in.  I absolutely TREASURE the days that I let my body wake up on it's own.

I fixed a nourishing breakfast for two.  Steel cut oats, apricot nectar, toast with apple butter. I should note that the apricot nector and the apple butter were "home-grown" and very yummy.

I read the paper and did the crossword puzzle.  And the cryptoquote.

I put away clean dishes from the dish washer and loaded up up with dirty ones and cleaned off the counters.  Sort of.  Just the work areas.  I also swept the floor and mopped up the dirty spots [on my new hardwood kitchen floor].  These are NOT things I do every day, sadly.  Mike's been helping with the dishes of late, so I kind of got out of the habit.  But sink-cleaning always needs to be done.  Well, and ALL the rest of it! ha.

I did laundry.  Off and on all day.  I can say that it's almost all put away now.

I went on an emergency run to the library for about a half hour.  The University Call Center called me to say the alarm wouldn't set, the campus police was there and having problems, so I rode my bike down (very swiftly, I might add) there to turn off the alarm, check on codes for public safety personnel, find and meet with the new Dean, assign him his personal back door code, and give HIM a tutorial on entries and exits at the back door during closed hours. He was the one who initially set it off, coming in without an assigned code to disarm the building.  It was a rather exciting little half hour.  And I'll bet you didn't know I had such power and authority over my building, did you?

I cleaned the back entry of our home.  Vacuumed the steps and rugs and area around the shoe cupboard. I even scrubbed off the concrete steps with a rag because there was a lot of sticky spotty things. Probably drippy  Otter pops and other popsicle kind of things that drip during the summer when lots of kids are around.  And Mike accused me of becoming a bit OCD. HA! Like I have EVER cleaned my steps before or ever will again until I really notice some serious grime --that would come in onto my shiny new hardwood kitchen floor.

I chatted with Mike for a bit between HIS errands.

I prepared a nourishing lunch for us .  Mixed greens salad with lots of veggies and smoked salmon, with a side of cole slaw.  Because I like it and we have a bunch.  Home grown, nearly every bite (and the salmon was caught by us, too!).

Then we watched most of a movie that was on TV.  Because sitting around and eating and visiting is so exhausting, you know. ;-)  "It could Happen to You" with Nicholas Cage. I like Nick Cage.

I fielded a couple of phone calls, picked up a voice mail message to relay.

Then Mike and I were going to put up a blind in the kitchen window over the sink. We could not figure out if it worked or not!  It was so confusing.  So we went to plan B, but the hardware wasn't there for Plan B blind.  So he left to do a chore for his mom and I got curious and did some searching on the internet for Levolor blind installation.  Did YOU know there was such a thing as cordless mini blinds?! They are childproof. Meaning, there are no dangerous dangling cords. Well, apparently they are stupidproof, too!  We were so surprised to find that you just grab the bottom and pull--they come down.  Push the bottom UP and they go up. Who knew??!! HA!  Certainly not us. But now I have a blind in the window over my sink.  Most of the time it will stay up under the valance, but when I'm working with the sun shining in my eyes, it's going to be SOOOOooo nice to have.  After all these years.  (I always meant to make a Roman shade to put there.  With the remaining IVY FABRIC I've had for twenty-some years.  Oh, dear. I'm done with ivy, remember?)

I prepared for my primary lesson for tomorrow.  Cut out badges, made copies of Noah's Ark handouts, made wordstrips, etc. etc.

Warmed up leftovers for my dinner. Mike wasn't hungry or interested, but I knew I had to leave soon for USF, so I ate anyway.  And then curled my hair, washed my face, put on makeup for the first time today.

Updated my blog.  Visited with Pam Christensen for a few minutes and set her home with some veggies from the garden.

Then, I hostessed at The Utah Shakespeare Festival, came home and enjoyed a nice root beer float with Mike while watching a thriller movie on TV ("Cellular")-- creepy!

Something and a lot of nothing all day long. Never scrubbed a bathroom or vacuumed a carpet, shook a rug or even stepped into my yard or garden. Never paid a bill or sorted any papers or "stuff." You know the stuff that just PILES up around here.  But it's been fun.  I need a day of "nothing" once in a while.