Summer Shenannigans #2: Trying New Things

This summer has been about trying new things. Mr. Hubby and I have been making a list of things we wanted to try and/or do this summer that are new to us. That's not to say that we haven't been enjoying some things that are not new, but our goal is to expand our horizons. I've been hearing all about The Melting Pot from friends at work. It's a fondue restaurant that offers 4 course dinners! Mr. Hubby and I decided to give it a try one weekend for our date night. Since it was just a casual date night, we weren't ready to plop down $75 for a meal, so we opted for the cheaper 3 course option of the cheese fondue appetizer, a salad, and the dessert fondue. We left out the main course. We had plenty to eat with what we ordered. I don't even know how we would have consumed the main course with all the meats! We started with the basic cheddar fondue. They prepare it right there at your table and serve it up with bread, veggies and apples. I took some pics, but they aren't the best. So, please excuse my total lack of iPhone photography skills.

We definitely polished this off without any difficulties. Well....Mr. Hubby had a few "fondue fails" to which he couldn't seem to keep from dropping the food off his fondue fork into the pot! I had to aid in the rescue efforts several times. 

Next up, we had our salads. And since there is nothing cool or significant about a salad, I didn't include a picture. Try not to be too disappointed. Then, we had our dessert. We ordered the Flaming Turtle chocolate fondue. It is chocolate, caramel, and candied pecans. They prepared it at our table, and they made it flame. Now much to my dismay, I had a "blogger fail" because I didn't get a picture of it actually flaming. This one was served with strawberries, bananas, pineapple, blondies, brownies, pound cake, rice krispie treats, golden oreo covered marshmallows, and chocolate covered oreo marshmallows. We were all over that business. I mean, that fondue was slap your hubby good! (Disclaimer: no husbands were injured during this dinner)

We seriously would've licked the pot clean if we weren't in a fancy dining establishment!

Since it was date night and we both looked pretty good looking, we posed for a "date night selfie" in the parking lot. Mr. Hubby is just too handsome:)

Keeping with the theme of trying new things, I am continuing to do my volunteer work at a local hospital. So far, I'm really enjoying the work and the people I have met. It's nice to do something different and to do it willingly with a servant's heart! I may just be doing paper work, making phone calls, and entering data into a computer, but I like the fact that I'm helping out other hospital employees by lessening their work load. As a teacher, I understand what free and willing help even once a week can do for a person!

Later in the week, my mother-in-law and I FINALLY got to try Painting With a Twist. We've been trying for several months to find a date and a painting that we both would like. Luckily since it's summer time, we are both off from work and are more flexible. We found a painting of an infinity cross that we both liked. The atmosphere is very fun and enjoyable, the instructor was funny and lively, the people that we painted with were friendly, and there was 80s music going in the background! Now, I'm not an artist by any means, but this was easier than I expected. My mother-in-law definitely showed me up, but seeing as how she has years of crafty experience I don't see the need to compare my amateur abilities to hers:)

My first pic is of the rules they post. These are more "guidelines" I guess you could say.

The following pics are my before with a blank canvas, a during with the background painted, and the final product.

I don't think I did too bad considering I'm the farthest thing from an artist you will see. I think my youngest sisters' title of artist in the family is safe. This next pic is me and my mother-in-law with our finished paintings. Again, no comparisons, please. Then we have half of the group photo of everyone who was there in our class.

We did some other fun things this week. Mr. Hubby and I got season passes to Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor. The rain finally stopped this week for us to go to Six Flags. I haven't been in about 5 years. It has been much longer for Mr. Hubby. He is not a fan of roller coasters. However, I broke him in right away with the scariest coaster at the park: Mr. Freeze in reverse! We rode all the coasters (except for the few they had closed) and he did great! Hopefully next week it'll be hot enough for the water park!

Our nephew is in town this week staying with Mr. Hubby's parents. So Monday this week we spent some time with him. We took him to the library to get books for the week. Since I am a teacher, I knew all the good books. I introduced him to the author Moe Willems. He writes the Pigeon books and the Piggy and Elephant books. I got him a few of my favorites. At first he wasn't too sure about the books, but I convinced him to give them a try. And wouldn't you  know it, they were his favorite books! His Nana said all he would read are those pigeon books and the other Moe Willems book, "This is Not a Good Idea." He would pick those books as his nap time and bed time books to read to himself. He even loved "This is Not a Good Idea" so much, that he asked to have it read to him over and over so much that he learned it himself. He's 5 years old and about to start kindergarten, and he was re-telling that book like a pro! He sure did make his teacher aunt happy. His kindergarten teacher is going to be so lucky this year! We also took him to McDonalds, to Sonic for a milkshake, and to the grocery store. I even got to lay down and snuggle with him during his nap. I just love this sweet boy so much! He's so much fun to play with. His uncle even played soccer with him....IN THE HOUSE! Because Nana and his uncle are cool like that.

And so it goes, another busy summer week has flown by. We are getting closer to our Dominican getaway. Stay tuned for more summer adventures!

Summer Shenannigans #1: Del Rio Family Vacation

Well after a crazy first week of summer, I finally got to take a vacation. This time I brought Mr. Hubby along for the fun. A couple of years ago when I went on this trip with my family, he didn't get to come with me. It was a lot of fun having him enjoy the experience with me this go around. We went to Del Rio, Texas to visit my great aunt and uncle. They have a house on Lake Amistad. My parents and sisters arrived last Wednesday, but Mr. Hubby and I couldn't come down till Friday. We had a little four-day weekend adventure. We hit the road at 2:30am Friday morning. Surprisingly, we didn't even need to stop. Good thing too, because there really wasn't any place to stop once we got going. It is pretty much just open country road. Once we got further south, the scenery got really pretty, so I had to snap some shots.

Clearly, Mr. Hubby was an intense driver on these curvy roads. We arrived at 8:30 that morning and had the whole day ahead of us. They had just woke for the day, so we even got to eat some good country breakfast. My aunt prepared biscuits, gravy, eggs, bacon, and hash browns. Mr Hubby nearly lost it (he's a BIG eater and loves food). Even though we were snacking on the way down there, we still somehow found an appetite to fit that yumminess in! My cousin came over to take us "kids" out boating and tubing on the lake. I had forgotten how beautiful this lake was:

We started out with some fun tubing! We let Mr. Hubby go first since he'd never been. I just didn't think it was fair that since he was a "newbie" my cousin took it easy on him.

It looks like I'm having a nice, leisure ride.....BUT my cousin did try to tip me over for a big finish. I DENIED him that pleasure. Our first day we were tubing by the dam. That's what you see there in the background. We are on the Rio Grande, practically on the border of Mexico. If you were to look closely on top of the dam, there are two eagles, one representing Texas, and the other representing Mexico. After everyone had their turn tubing, they wanted to jump in the lake and swim. I have this fear of swimming in open water. I don't do lake and ocean swimming! I'm a swimming pool kinda girl. It has nothing to do with fear of drowning, just a fear of the unknown...like what could be in that water!? While everyone else was just jumping in, I was observing from the boat. Of course, that means I was teased mercilessly until I finally decided to get in. The first time I "climbed" in via the boat ladder. Once I was in, you really couldn't get me out. From then on, I would freely jump in with everyone else. It is one of the cleanest lakes you will ever be in. We decided to ham it up for the cameras:

I have no idea why every shot has me with my mouth wide open. Apparently, it's a favorite pose of mine. My Hubby and I decided we needed a couple pic while chillin' on the boat:

That night, we had the most delicious meal: home made fried catfish and home made hush puppies with all the fixins. That even included Pioneer Woman's smashed potatoes!!! It was so mouthwatering, I just had to get a pic:

So much for my eating healthy! Momentary break. Well worth it. Saturday was a relaxing day with a simple boat ride to check the trout lines to see if we caught some fish. We did go eat at this AMAZING lil' Mexican restaurant down town. It is family owned for 77 years! It really was great food. In hindsight, I really should have snapped some shots of the food in front of us, but I was just so excited to eat it that I forgot. Again, Mr. Hubby went on an all-out eating spree. I really wish I had his metabolism. Here are some shots from the restaurant, including the lovely view, and a beaver!

You know I need to include at least one couple's selfie:

Even managed to get a lovely pic with my sis. It's a rare thing when we both love the way we look in our pics, but this one we both agreed was a good one:

 Sunday, we went to church then came back home to snap a few pics before going back to the lake. My family...Mr. Hubby is snapping the pic!

This time, my cousin did not take it easy on Mr. Hubby when he got on the tube. He managed to flip him and everyone else off the tube during their ride. Everyone else, that is, except me!!! Mr. Hubby even rode with my sister's boyfriend. Now there were some comedic moments. They rode on their stomachs and straddled the tube. I got a pic of them straddling then tipping!

Monday, everyone but my aunt went out for a boat ride. They took us to see the springs, but it was too windy to see them. My cousin got out his speed boat and gave us each a ride in it! Now that was fun! I couldn't really feel my face much after the ride, but it was a blast. Sorry, no way to get pics on that ride. Mr. Hubby and I left that afternoon for our journey home. It was relaxing, but very fun! Love these fun mini getaways. I can't wait to see what other shennanigans Mr. Hubby and I will have ahead of us this summer. I plan on making it a fun one!

Summertime Kick-off

Summer time is upon us. For a teacher, that means, hopefully, 10 weeks of fun and relaxation before late August hits. My first week was super packed of things to do. Monday, hair appointment....check out my awesome color streak:)

Tuesday, volunteer orientation at the hospital. I decided this summer to find something to do that would get me out of the house and doing something productive, other than spending money! My neighbor is the chaplain and head of volunteers at a local hospital. He asked me back in February about volunteering over the summer. Over spring break I did all the preliminary work. I start on Thursday. I think my first job is going to be in medical records helping transfer everything on paper into electronic form. I'm looking forward to this new experience.

Wednesday and Thursday I had all day workshops for professional development. Not even a whole week out of school and already I'm working! But, I did get paid for attending. I had good company and good lunch options. I have a couple more days of classes I'm taking throughout the summer to get all my PD done before school starts. Thursday when the hubby and I both got home, we starting preparing for our weekend trip (more info on that in an upcoming post). We took the dogs to his parents' house, did some snack shopping, picked up the rental car, and packed our bags. We had a 2:30am departure time the following day. We managed to squeeze in 4 hours of sleep before the alarm woke us up at 2:00am!

Other summer activities: Clearly, I've been reading like a mad woman. I'm pretty sure I've lost count on how many books I put away already. I put away 4 in the past 3 days alone! I read a whole one this morning before sitting down to do this:)

A recent visit to my parents' house a few weeks ago to attend my youngest sister's high school graduation made me want a pool in my backyard. Now, since the hubby and I don't have the half acre lot my parents do, nor the funds or desire to do the pool upkeep, we went for a simpler method that worked out for us!

Now, don't judge our pool. It's 10 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 14" deep. It's just perfect for the hubby and I to have a nice relaxing float. We bought a tarp to put under it and a tarp to cover it. It really is a shame we've only used it once since we bought it. We've just been so busy. The night we bought it, we decided to have our first grill session of the summer. So, I used a recipe given to me by one of my awesome teammates at school to make a homemade pizza dough and grill pizza outside! I put some olive oil and minced garlic on the crust and we roasted tomatoes on the cast iron skillet on the grill. We used mozzarella and turkey pepperoni for our pizza. It may look messy and unconventional, but it was delicious!

I hope to keep up my blog with more fun summer adventures! Stay tuned for our 4 day weekend adventure, and in one month....our Dominican getaway!!!