A New Adventure

My husband and I are about to embark upon a new adventure, I think. But before I tell you about it, I want to give you a bit of background.

When my husband and I bought our home, we prayed that it would be a house that served God, a house where the doors were always open to those in need. We intended it to be a place of ministry, and we try to always make it a place where God is honored and glorified. We've hosted Russians from our sister church in Penza, Russia. We've prepared holiday feasts for those that need a place to celebrate. We've held Bible study groups here. And now, we take on our newest, and possibly our biggest, adventure.

A friend of mine is currently going through some changes in her world. In an effort to make her life a little easier, we've offered her a place to live for a few months while she sorts out some stuff and figures out her next move. Yes, you read that right. We're getting a roommate. GULP.

I haven't had a roommate since 1989. And my husband has never had a roommate. This will prove to be interesting, I'm sure.

And though she's my friend, I know there will be some challenges, for her as much as for us. I've asked her for permission to blog about this experience, and she agreed (I think), provided I do not use her real name. Fair enough. I'll simply refer to her as Numero Cuatro. Number Four. It's my nickname for her, based on where she landed on my speed dial list.

So Numero Cuatro will be moving in sometime in August. She'll be staying in our guest room for about six months. She'll be sharing a bathroom with our cat. And she's not really a fan of cats. Challenge number one. Wonder how it will turn out? Stay tuned!

Here's to new adventures and getting my guest room cleaned out in two weeks!

Posted via BlogPress on my iPad

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Small Town Fairs

This weekend, our small town had one of it's many annual street fairs, the newly renamed Outdoor Adventure Days, formerly known as Main Street Days. Truth be told, I like the old name better. Gave it a more small town feel.

The fair is held on the historic part of our town's Main Street, in the heart of downtown Grapevine. A perfect spot with it's old timey shop façades, small boutique shopping and mostly non-franchised dining choices. The streets are blocked off, the booths, mostly food, drink, and arts and crafts, are brightly lit to attract and lure the merry fair goers.

Despite an exhausting bout with allergies this week, I put on a happy face and joined my husband and some friends the first night, and family the second night. Despite the sneezing and stuffy head, I had a great time. There's something about carnival food, bright lights, and the peal of children laughing as they are spun into dizzy oblivion that just makes me feel better, no matter how much my sinuses try to rain on my parade.

We started our small town fair adventure with my husband snapping a rare shot of me without a camera in front of my face.

I quickly reclaimed my camera to shoot this delightful shot of our friend Steve and his precious daughter Sofia.

Sofia is quite the ham. Can you tell?

The art and craft booths had awesome things you could buy; this particular ensemble caught my eye. If I had a stick figure, I'd totally buy this. And wear it. Often. 

No street fair is complete without at least one Funnel Cake booth. In the case of our small town fairs, there's usually three or four.

Fair goers love their funnel cake.

One of the things I love about the street fairs in our small town is that the shops and restaurants all stay open later than usual, and the places are all lit up, which gives them a special charm.

Window shopping is especially fun - the windows all look fantastic. And I just love the little outfit on the right, hat and all.

The skirt on the right in this window? LOVE IT. WANT IT. Will need to lose 100 pounds to wear it.

And then there's the midway. No street fair is complete without it.

The only ride my stuffed head could manage was the Ferris Wheel, which afforded a lovely shot of the fair grounds from way on high.

This little girl caught my heart, her eyes big as saucers and probably terrified of the flying machine ride, but determined to ride nonetheless.

Our friends Steve and Sofia also felt the urge to fly.

After Steve and Sofia returned to terra firma, our other friend Rusty volunteered to take Sofia for a bumper car ride. 

Sofia eyed their next target with sheer glee.

The next day, we hit the fair again, but this time with family. My nephew, Hilton, shooting for a giant, stuffed basketball. He missed.

My husband, tongue between his lips, faired no better than Hilton.

Neither did Kim, my sister in law. Hmm. She had her tongue between her lips too. A family trait, maybe? 

And then there's this face. She wanted no part of shooting hoops. She had her mind set on bigger things.

There was the roller coaster. Fearless.

Yeah. Fearless. Until you get off looking like this.

Thank God that look isn't permanent.

Next on the ride agenda, Wipeout. Which is what Hilton looked like when the thing started moving backwards for him. We thought for sure Kevin and Heidi would be wearing his lunch.

He held it together. And looked like this when the ride was over. I think maybe he threw up in his mouth a little. Maybe.

Height check to make sure she could ride alone. "Look Ma', I'm SO tall!

Let's go fly!

"What's next?"

Tilt-A-Whirl. Uncle Kevin likes to make it spin!

Lean left. LEFT!!!

Now right! RIGHT!!

Tilt-A-Whirl twisty faces.

Uncle Kevin, always up for some fun with the kiddos.

Last ride of the night, the Sizzler. All is well as we start the ride.

Danger! Danger! Centrifugal force mashing me to the outer edge!

Must. Resist. Urge. To. Melt. Into. Centrifugal. Powers.

Will. Pull. My. Self. Back. To. Center.

I. Give. Up. The. Force. Wins.

Way more fun when you just LET GO!

Man! This thing moves.

Spinning is so relaxing.

And now the other way. WHEEEEEEE!

Staying safe on the ground, with stomach and heart intact. Love the in-laws!

The Palace Theatre presents another Variety Show. Maybe it's time to check this place out.

By the time we were ready for food, I was worn out. Fun summer nights, but man, I could do without the tree pollens! 

Here's to small town fairs and carnival food!

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And The Winner Is...

Drumroll please! The winner of my first blog giveaway is....

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this very important message.
(You didn't really think I was just gonna blurt it out, did you? Silly goose.)

I wanted to clue you all in a little on why I did the giveaway and how I selected a winner. I know you probably don't care, but I'm telling you anyway.

The first and most obvious reason is that I'd hoped to get more followers for my blog. Shameless, right? But it actually did work. I went from having one follower to having six. And I didn't even make following my blog a requirement for entry into the giveaway, as so many other bloggers do. Ok, sure, I may lose five of you after I make the announcement of who won the Starbucks Gift Card, but I appreciate you stopping in, nonetheless.

The second reason I did it was... well, there really wasn't a second reason. Driving traffic to the site was about it. Pitiful? Yes. Effective? Somewhat.

Now, as to how I selected a winner, there was only one way to be fair, since many of the entrants were friends of mine.

A huge shout out to all of you, by the way, for putting up with my constant tweets and status updates about the giveaway; so glad none of you unfriended me, though I sure would understand if you'd blocked me from your news feed for a few days. It's okay to turn my news feed back on now. Really. I promise. Please?

Back to how I picked a winner (and how all winners of future giveaways will be selected!)

Each comment was assigned a number in sequential order as it was posted and provided it was within the timeframe specified. Once I had all the entries, I headed over to RANDOM.ORG and used their awesome Random Number Generator. You just put in your starting and ending numbers and it will pick a random number for you.

In this case, it selected number 13. Yes, lucky number 13.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming

Making the winner of the $25 Starbucks Gift Card...

The envelope please....

AztecConsulting! Congratulations!
I will be contacting you shortly for information on how to collect your winnings.

To the rest of you who didn't win this time, be not discouraged, there will be more giveaways.

Thank you so much for participating, and for sharing your awesome Starbucks drinks with me; I will definitely be ordering some, ok, most, of these at some point in my future.

Here's to a caffeinated weekend!

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Girl Time, Girlie Food

My husband went out of town this past weekend, to spend some time with the guys and get in touch with his "wild at heart" man.

This meant I had the weekend to myself and I chose to spend it in one of my favorite ways; hanging out with my girlfriends eating girlie food.

Yes. Girlie food.

There are some things guys, my husband in particular, just prefer not to eat. Don't ask me why. It's perfectly respectable food. Still, apparently it's not manly. Therefore, I eat this "girlie" food whenever my husband is out of town, or any other chance I have to enjoy girl time.

Started the day by putting together my favorite quiche. It's chock full of all kinds of goodies.

There's bacon.

And butter. Ah, butter. You make everything right.

We also have onions. Sweet. Softened in butter. Delicious.

And finally mushrooms and artichokes. Oh my.

All this encased in egg, cream, and swiss cheese, and we have a beautiful quiche.

Now, a girl cannot live on quiche alone. 

So we had the quintessential girl food - salad.

But not just any salad. This was my special spinach and fruit salad, topped with delightful chevre cheese crumbles and lightly drizzled with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

With these tasty dishes as our main entrees, I had to find something equally delicious as a starter, but something that could also serve as a snack tray.

I decided on a fruit and cheese tray. Raspberries, apple slices, grapes, and strawberries all complimented the smoked gouda, brie, and creamy chevre decorating this noshing tray.

Of course, girl time is just not girl time without the absolute, must have, girl food - chocolate!

This truffle tray:

and these spicy Mexican chocolate soufflés,

were the perfect finish for an awesome afternoon with my girlfriends.

Ladies, if you don't already have a girl day established in your routine, I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than to have an excuse to partake of these girlie treats among your girlie friends

Here's to the power of girls, and their food!

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