Found in Fishers

New AARP member off to Tampa!

Well it is decided! I am taking Juan to Tampa for a long weekend in May to celebrate his 50th Birthday.
The money from my mall winnings has been safely secured for a good reason and finally I came up with one about two weeks ago.  I decided that I would take Juan on a secret trip for his birthday. Kinda like a kidnapping of sorts. The plan was to tell him we were going to Chicago for the weekend but really take him somewhere else.

I thought about Napa Valley. Well, that is what I wanted to do. I thought about Seattle, still I wanted to do. Charleston or San Antonio, ditto. It is not suppose to be about me. So I started seriously looking into Vegas. No matter how much I looked I just could not find something I wanted to do for 5 days that John would also enjoy. Monday I decided to stop trying to make it a mystery and just ask him. He chose Tampa. He did not even think about it too long. Tampa it is.

For about a minute he did rethink the whole Vegas scene but agreed that it would not be fun for 5 days. We already booked our flights. $69 each way, what a deal. And the kids will have to take care of themselves and the dogs. With both 18 or over when we leave, we hope the house is in the same condition as when we left.

Isn't it a bit ironic that the new AARP member wants to take a vacation in Florida. Hee Hee. Hope he is not planning to look for a retirement spot.

Saturday on Sunday

It is time to start getting ready for another work week. Today we saw Saturday on Sunday and it was good.

We have been attending a new church, Heartland Church, on the south side of Fishers. Today there was a guest speaker, Jeff Saturday from the Indianapolis Colts. He and his wife talked about his football life and his journey with God. Coincidentally, our friends Kelli and Mark from Michigan City were also visiting us. Mark is a major Colts fan! We all went to church together and then lunch with the kids to Tijuana Flats where Liz works. I like the flats but I have had tacos there for 2 days in a row. Guess I won't need to eat there again for a couple weeks. I hope Kelli and Mark are able to come back again soon, we enjoyed visiting with them. I even put out my infamous Barack Obama pillow for them. They thought maybe their room was a presidential suite. Poor Mark got kicked out midway through the night for snoring. I found him on the couch when I woke up.

Before the worship service, Michigan City Mark was able to get his picture taken with Jeff. After the service Liz was able to get two autographs for her bosses at Tijuana Flats.

Valentine's Day weekend

The weekend is going by quickly. Good thing I get an extra day off with President's Day. I woke up on Valentine's Day to a beautiful bouquet of roses, thanks to Juan. After a day of grocery shopping and stocking up the breakfast cabinets at the high school, I decided that I would rather cook a nice meal at home than go out to eat. I hate fighting crowds in restaurants anyway.

I started out with some very nice looking rib eye steaks, yes Sarah I actually bought something other than a chuck steak. I also bought some big honking baked potatoes, broccoli, garlic bread, and cheesecake for dessert. After waiting for the potatoes to finish baking, I was hoping we could eat at 6:00 but the potatoes were not even close to being done. I served the first course, shrimp cocktail. It was outstanding. We each got about 9 jumbo shrimp. With a delay in getting the potatoes cooked, we did not eat the main course until 7:00. It was worth the wait. Very good for sure. Since I cooked John took on the dishes after dinner. I have not eaten that much in one meal in such a long time that I knew it would be trouble for me at night. And sure enough it was. I had some really wicked dreams. One very vivid dream was with me as an adult with a kindergarten sister. I was babysitting and there was some kind of murder, don't remember who but I was the witness. I just remember that my sister was in trouble for not going to school and I was trying to explain that we had a very hard night. Glad I woke up in the middle of this dream it was creepy. I swear I should write a book of wild dreams. Last week I dreamed I had a one foot tall child with a normal size head and was in Jamaica  with this child looking for my old neighbor Cindy who was kidnapped.

Sunday was a good day too! Went to lunch with my friend Katie and saw an outstanding movie, Slumdog Millionaire. I highly recommend it. I am lucky to have a buddy that is willing to go and see the latest movies. I love the chance to see movies at the theater. We have seen a lot of movies lately but I wanted to see Slumdog before the Oscars. If you don't get a chance to see it soon, definitely rent it one day. You will not be sorry. It truly is one of the best movies I have seen this year. The movie is about a Mumbai teenager that is on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He knows the questions because of experiences in his life growing up in the slums but they think he is cheating.

Tomorrow, my day off it, won't be too exciting. I have some cleaning to get done as we are having company for the weekend and the dust is thick in the house.

What the HECK!

I often tease Sarah about curriculum things. I am mostly joking. But, sometimes I am not. For example, when Liam was in preschool they did a unit on South America. Ok, 3 year old children still need to learn where they live and its relationship to the world. Preschoolers in the US don't even know they live North America! I also make comments about the amount of coloring projects my nephew does in first grade. The classroom has mastered a crayon curriculum. This time, I could not be quiet. What the heck!

I was recently invited to a wine tasting party to benefit Liam's school. It was held at school but since it is a parochial school I thought, well ok Jesus drank wine too and it does benefit the school. Plus, I enjoy wine tasting parties. When we walked into the cafeteria-auditorium-gymnasium otherwise known as the school basement, there was a nice crowd of people. There were also several tables set up with some really great looking, and tasting, snacks. I went with Sarah and my dad. Other than the fact that people liked to hover at the wine tables making it difficult to get samples I was having a great time tasting the wine choices. About an hour into the tasting, we decided to get some snacks and sit down for a bit.

As I was sitting I noticed something kinda odd. I looked again and then I became alarmed! The room was decorated with wine tasting posters obviously made by children. I just could not take off my curriculum director hat. How can one justify that making wine tasting posters is a good use of instructional time! How can one think it is appropriate for children to make posters like that! Boy I must be a prude! There is no way on God's green earth do I think making wine tasting posters during school time by children is appropriate. I don't even think it is appropriate for children to make posters like that. Let's hope minimally that no instructional time was used for the project.

In the end, I did find two more wines that would like to buy. I might need to get one just to calm my nerves.