Memorial Day weekend

Saturday - Suit shopping - see previous blog entry for that event.

Sunday - We went to grocery shopping at Sam's Club and Walmart. Saturday evening, Doug started two "pork butts" in the smoker. He will take these to Iowa for the memorial service. I think he will probably make at least two more next weekend.

Monday - In the morning, Doug did some lawn maintenance and I did some housework. In the afternoon, Doug took his two pork butts out and he said they were the best he's ever done.  The Elliott family came over for an afternoon by the pool and then Doug grilled some Steak & Vegie Shisk Kebobs for dinner. Below are some photos from Monday.

 Andrew says "Happy Memorial Day!"

 Andrew loved playing in the water from the hose.

 Andrew crawled in the chair by Grandpa and was "checking out" his sandwich.

 Andrew talked him in to a bite!

 Getting Andrew to splash in the pool water.

 He ended up soaked ~ before he got his swimsuit on.

 Splashing by the side of the pool

 Swimsuit ON!
First bomb pomp of the summer.
I think he likes it!!!

 He wanted the whole thing ~ He didn't want to share with Grandma!

 It must have felt good on his new teeth coming in.

Andrew was very fascinated with Grandpa all day.
When Grandpa was outside the fence he was always "peeking" to see what he was doing.

Andrew was always next to Grandpa if he was around.

He kept calling "Poppa", "Poppa", "Poppa"

Jill was a little annoyed...especially since Andrew hasn't started saying Mama yet.

Saturday Suit shopping

Saturday morning we started the day leisurely with coffee, planning out our day.

Suit shopping was on the top of the list, followed by grocery shopping at Sam's Club and Walmart.
Sounds easy enough...doesn't it?
Doug has been postponing looking for a suit to wear to his Dad's memorial service in June, but with only about 3 weeks until the service, it was crunch time!

We left the house around 10am and headed to the Men's Wearhouse in Lewisville.
They were advertising a Buy One - Get One free sale. Doug was confident he would find a suit here, so I headed over to Joann Fabrics to get some scrapbooking supplies.  The BO-GO sale was only on polyester suits - similar to leisure suis; the next suit they showed him outside of the sale was about $525; then the next suit they showed him, he liked, but it was $750.  So he would have gotten two suits for $750 but that was more than he was willing to pay for a suit.

 So I had made my way to Joann Fabrics and had a few items in my hands when Doug called my cell phone asking "Where are you?". I put my items back and went to pick him up.  We then headed down the frontage road of 35W to the K&G Fashion Superstore. They were advertising a Buy One - Get the Second One 1/2 off.   

The K&G Superstore had a few suits he liked: 1)Jones New York black suit and 2)Michael Kors charcoal suit.  These suits were $269 and he was hoping to get a suit for less than that price.  The sales rep at the store referred us to two other locations that had more suits in their stores: Irving and Plano. Both in totally different directions.  We decided to go to Bass Pro Shop and do a return of a couple of shirts he had picked up recently and didn't like the way they washed up. So return complete and $50 in the bank, we headed to WhatABurger for lunch. We stopped by the JCPenney outlet store in the Grapevine Mills Mall. He had purchased a tuxedo there a few years ago, so they might have suits. NOT!!  So we were off to the Irving - K&G Men's Superstore. They had even less of a selection of suits but a more zealous sales representative. Doug was gettign "QUITE" frustrated at this point and just wanted to go home and drink beer. I convinced him to keep going as the goal today was to get a suit. We talked about checking out the mall and see if Dillards, Macy's or JCPenneys would have a reasonable suit.  We kept with the plan and drove across town to the Plano - K&G Men's Superstore.  This was a huge store but all the suits were the same.  We headed north and decided to try the Allen Premium Outlet Mall. They have a Michael Kors store, a Jones New York store, Brooks Brothers store, etc..  But with a storm fast approaching and it was 6pm, we didn't have a lot of time to be messing around.  The Allen Premium Outlet Mall was crazy busy and not a parking spot to be had!!  After checking out the inventory at these stores, it turns out most of the stores were women's clothing only...Jeesh!  Across the street from the Allen Outlet mall is a Dillards, Macys & JCPenney.  So we went there and quickly found out these suits started at $495. 

Can you guess where we ended up?  Back at the first K&G Men's Superstore in Lewisville that we visited at around 11am.  Doug purchased the Jones New York black suit for $269 and was measured for the alterations ~ an additional $39. The suit will be ready for pickup next weekend.

We were home by 7:45pm; hungry and exhausted. Popped a pizza in the oven and watched a Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners.

It was a long day and I think in hindsight that suit shopping now trumps shoe shopping!

Can I get an AMEN from my children? They all know from personal experience about shoe shopping with Dad!

Needless to say, we didn't get to Sam's Club or Walmart..that will have to wait until Sunday.

Summer Time is Rangers Time.

It's summer time and there is nothing more American than baseball. Most evenings here are spent watching the Texas Rangers.  My favorite player is shown in the middle after scoring on a recent home run. "#7 - David Murphy".  He started the season a little slow, but has been hitting pretty good lately.

The Texas Rangers are rated the best team in baseball right now. They are currently leading the American league with the best record to date: 30 wins and 17 losses.  Followed by the National leagues, St. Louis Cardinals with 30 wins and 16 losses.

You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too....Roy Campanella.

Coloring with Andrew

The Elliotts were over today for some pool time and dinner.  Before we went out in the pool Andrew and I decided to do a little coloring. Check out the side of my refrigerator for the completed masterpiece!

Saturday with Andrew

On Saturday, Grandma and Andrew had lots of fun.

I taught him how to blow bubbles!  He couldn't wait to get his hand in there!

I love the cute little "blow bubbles" face!

He finally started chasing the bubbles and was trying to step on them

 More bubbles Grandma!

 Bubble blowing was a short lived, so we walked around the block.
He held my hand the entire time! Awwwww!

After a cupcake snack, we we finished the afternoon in the spa.

Another Mother's Day gift

Yesterday, the Elliotts and the Kiefers were here for a family lunch.  I had received my Mother's Day flowers from the Kiefers and Karl & Audrey earlier in the week.  Today, the Elliotts brought me a mother's day gift. A foot massager!! It is the same one I used at Jen & Dwights a month ago.  It works great and I will get hours and hours of use out of it....But I will probably have to fight Doug to use it.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=40709178

 

 

Friday Night - Escape Brakes

Jackie and Jonathan were home this weekend and they asked Doug to replace the brakes on the Ford Escape. 

Driver's front

Driver's front completed.

Passenger front brakes in progress.

Almost done!

Checking the right - rear drum brakes.  Looks good!

Checking the left - rear drum brakes. Looks good too!



Ford parts (pads and rotors), brake cleaner and specific 9mm tool - Total Cost $287.90
Savings about of at least $300 from what the Ford dealership would have charged for the job.

Dress for Karl and Audrey's wedding

Today, I received the dress I ordered for Karl and Audrey's wedding.

I had the dress custom made to my measurements.
The dress came from a dress maker in China. 
I ordered the dress on April 16th and in less than 30 days it was here!
Cost $119.99 (+ shipping $18.37). It was delivered by DHL.

I found the dress on Pinterest here

Colors for Karl and Audrey's wedding is a dark purple and antique gold.

My dress is a champagne color
There is a quilted belt with an attached fabric rose.
The dress can be worn with / without the belt or
the dress can be worn with the lace jacket and the belt over the jacket.

Which look do you prefer?  

Now for accessories and shoes!!! 

Mother's Day flowers

Yesterday I received two bouquets of flowers for Mother's Day.

I received a bouquet of yellow and white daisies from Jackie & Jonathan!

 

I received a bouquet of 100+  stems of daisies from Karl and Audrey!
This was the largest vase I had and they hardly fit!



This is a close-up of the vivid assortment of colors.

I AM LOVED!

Washington DC trip (May 1st - May 5th)

Wednesday, May 1st - Vacation Day #2

We departed DFW for Reagan airport in Washington, DC.

Rented a Toyota Corolla from Enterprise and headed to the hotel.

(You don't want a large car in DC as the parking is all small and parallel parking)

We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Alexandria, Virginia      Hotel link

Our first dinner in town, we went to "Hops Grill and Brewery".  
Here is the menu.
Doug had the Backyard Barbecue Burger and I had the Cheddar Burger.
We tried the local beer Thoroughbred Red & Lightning Bold Gold.
The service left a little to be desired.

Thursday, May2nd - Vacation Day #2
We tried to park in a lot and take the Metro in to DC. But the lots were full so we ended up driving downtown and parking in the Reagan Building parking lot.
We spent the entire day at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

I won't go in to all that we saw. Here is the link about the museum

We had reservations downtown Alexandria, just off the Potomac River at "The Wharf"

Here is a link to the restaurant & menu.  The food was excellent.
We both had specials that were not on the menu.
Doug had the horseradish crusted Atlantic salmon with saffron rice.
I had the Mediterranean "Bronzini" (two fillets of Sea Bass) with steamed vegetables.
We enjoyed trying a variety of wines by the glass.

 

I'm glad we visited the monuments on our prior visit to DC in 2002 as the Washington Monument was closed and under repair from the earthquake that happened on August 23, 2011.
Here is a photo of all the scaffolding around the monument.

Friday, May 3rd - Vacation Day #3We finished going through the American History museum and then spent the remainder of the day at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It closed at 7:30pm that day!
Sorry no photos of the outside of this museum, as this building was under construction.
We only spent a half day at this museum as we had seen most of it on our last trip.
Here is the link to more info on the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Here is a photo of the Natural History museum lobby.

We finished the day back at Hops to try something else on the menu.

Saturday, May 4th - Vacation Day #4
We found a new place to park today, at a rate of $10/day.
We visited the International Spy Museum in the morning (link here)
The story of spies, intelligence operations and deceptions that changed the course of history.
I enjoyed the KGB / Cold War section;
We both thought the James Bond / fake spy stuff was a little hokey.
This is the only place we visited that had an admission $19.95 per person.
All the other museums are FREE!!!!

Had lunch at PotBelly (my first time!)
We both had "The Wreck" on white.  Yummy!!

 

We spent the afternoon at the National Archives. 
The National Archives is a bombproof, fireproof facility that protects the nation's most treasured documents.  The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept forever.   See here for more info

 

We got to see three very important and historical documents:
Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights.
These three documents are under low light, cool conditions and armed guard
in the rotunda of the National Archives.

 

We spent a little more time checking out the archives and did some digging in to the Challenger space shuttle explosion and the investigation around the sinking of the Titantic.

Snack time!
Stopping for a beer and some Southwestern spring rolls at Gordon Biersch

before heading back to the hotel.



Sunday, May 5th - Vacation Day #5
Slept in, packed and headed to airport for trip home.
The weather was greate - It was an action packed vacation.
 My feet are just recovering from all the walking around!