A Kidless Weekend

Matt and I had our first weekend alone, without the kids, in four years. Yeah, I know, we don't get out much and really didn't want to impose and ask someone to watch our kids. Matt had a work dinner so we thought we would try to get someone to watch the girls. We asked our wonderful neighbors and they were available. That was so nice of them. Plus, I thought it would be easier on the girls if they had trouble sleeping at someone else's house, they could come next door and sleep in their own bed. It worked out well. Girls were really good and Kevin and Leah seemed to really enjoy the girls staying with them.

We left on Friday night and stayed in Eastland, TX. Then the next morning we got up and drove to Breckenridge, TX. Matt had to teach a class at 8 at the hospital. So, I sat in the class and read, filed my nails and just had an over all relaxing day without the constant whine I sometimes hear all day. Matt's class got out around noon. We got some lunch and drove to Temple, where the dinner was. It was a long drive and I wasn't looking forward to driving back home after the dinner was over.

So, we got to Temple, TX and stopped at a Starbucks, had some coffee and then got dressed in their restroom. We thought it would be kind of weird if we were to get dressed in the hotel bathroom without having a room. Anyway, so we got dressed up. We looked good. Unfortunately, we did not get a picture of us all dressed up. Maybe next time. But we looked good. So, we did the dinner thing and left the hotel just before 10pm. We were on our way home. We didn't get home until midnight.

Leah put the girls to bed in their beds at home so we would not have to move them when we got home. They did good all weekend. Here are some pictures to prove it.

Below are the pictures of them the next morning. Aren't they cute! We did enjoy our time away but, were happy to be home with our babies. The girls were so wore out from the weekend they went to bed at 7 pm on Sunday night. It was nice.

I Miss My Friends

So, two of my friends that lived pretty close to me moved within a week of each other. They are not too terribly far, but far enough to not get together. It is sad and it seems like a very tragic end to a great friendship. Although we will always remain friends, I don't think we will see each other very often so, we will grow further and further apart and our kids will probably forget one another.

I am just not sure that I am willing to let these two friends go. It will be harder to get together, but we will have to all make an effort. We need to find common ground for all of us and meet as much as our busy schedules will allow, which may get a little tricky, since some of our kids are in school this year. Plus, we all are on a budget and gas prices seem to be breaking the bank these days. Yeah, this really isn't looking good, but I will do my best to meet up with my dear friends.

I met my two friends, one through the Hurst Rec. Center and the other through my mommies group. We really hit it off. They were just two of those people that you shared so much in common, that we were bound to be great friends. In fact, one of my friends and I went to the same college. And the other friend, her kids and my kids are exactly the same age. Her daughter is two weeks older than Rebecca and her son is four days younger than Annie. That is crazy. But that is the bond that I share with my friends.

I feel like I am writing a eulogy for my friends. I just miss my friends and hope that we can find enough time in our busy schedules to get together. It would be a tragedy to let this friendship end.

Moo, Moo, Oink, Oink, Cluck, Cluck, Up Chuck?

This is our freezer. It is full of meat and some veggies. Anyway, we went to this place called Country Meat Market. You can get a year supply of meat. We got beef, pork, chicken and fish. It is fresh and is "Choice" in the USDA grading system. Choice is a higher grade of meat than what you get at a regular grocery store. You can get Choice at places like Costco. Anyway, that is a lesson in itself.

We went on July 4th thinking we are going to get 400 lbs of meat at like $300. Boy, were we wrong. First, we got the down low of what they were all about. They took us (Matt, Rebecca, Annie and I) in the back where the beef is hanging from a chain that has several hooks on it and hangs from the ceiling. My first thought when I walked in the back is, I'm going to have to sterilize my shoes. There was some chunks of meat on the floor that had missed the trash can and the smell was not anything to write home about either. Matt is holding Rebecca and I have Annie, when the guy is explaining the different cuts and what we get in our bulk order. Well, lets just say that the stench of the place and the dead cow and pig hanging right there didn't help Annie any. Poor girl started dry heaving like she was going to barf all over the place. Annie did her first dry heave and I thought she had trouble swallowing the skittle that she was eating. Then she did it two more times in a row and I thought we are going to have a huge mess if I don't get her out of here. I am the type that if I see someone barf, I am most likely going to join you.

So, I told the guy that if I don't get out of here we are going to have a big mess and excused myself leaving Matt and Rebecca in the back. They guy finished and they came out and we discussed our options and asked questions on how everything works. Well, come to find out that it was going to cost us like $260 a month for a year. That is like a car payment to us. We weren't going to be able to do that. We were ready to walk out when the owner came out and said let see if I can make a better deal for you. So, he asked what can you spend a month? I said $100. He said let me see what I can do. He comes back out and said I can get you 270 pounds of meat beef for $116 a month. Okay, now that is more like it. On top of that he is throwing in 100 pork chops, ribs, bacon, 20 T-bones, 20 NY Strips, Angus brisket, chicken breasts, sausage, salmon, shrimp and veggies. Plus, he gave us a $100 discount and did not charge us the processing fee. Nice. So, we said okay and they started cutting up our meat to our specifications. Like our ground beef is in 1 pound packages and our steaks cut to 1 inch thickness. Makes it nice. Anyway, Matt goes in the back and starts writing as fast as he can on the packages what is inside. Anyway, it was done in like 20 minutes.

We got every cut of steak you can think of. We have like 30 pounds of ground beef. We have roasts coming out our ears. Every cut of the roasts, pork and beef. We are set for over a year. Clearly, by the picture there is no way we can eat all this meat in a year. It will be interesting to see how much we do go through.

We signed our papers and headed out the door with a year supply of meat in our van. The great thing about this is if there is a cut that we don't like or it gets freezer burn (which they guarantee for 18 months) we can take it back to their store and replace it pound for pound or cut for cut for free. That is great. Anyway, if we pay off our meat in 90 days it is interest free. Our full payment is going out tomorrow. Yay! This will save us time and money by having everything we need in our freezer right now. I am so glad we were able to do this. The people were so great and we plan on using them again when we need more meat. Overall, it was a really great experience and happy to report there were no barfing incidence. Oh, and the meat is really good too.