Weekend Trips

We had a GREAT weekend. Went lots of places...ate lots of food (our usual for the weekend). I save up allllll my eating for the weekend!

Friday night at dinner, an older lady walked up and said to Mike: "I just want to say 'Thank you'." Mike was perplexed for a moment but soon realized she wanted to thank him for his military service. Mike was in the Navy and was in the first Gulf War. We are in a military town and have tons of Marines here...we usually just think of them first. I almost forgot that my husband is a veteran for a moment!

On Sunday, we toured the Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington. One of my favorite shows (One Tree Hill) is filmed in Wilmington and we came across a mural featured in the finale last week adjacent to the battleship parking lot. I was as excited as a kid in a candy store! (I am such a dork!!)

(the words are the lyrics from the Cure song - I Will Always Love You)

I had Mike take this picture of more dorks (taking pictures) as I we drove away....I'm not the only one!



The actual battleship, then:

















On Monday, more eating.

Matilda LOVED the fettuccine - - - loved it so much she just sucked the sauce right off the noodles and never ate any of them. We found a very large pile in her lap after we picked her up. I don't think she actually ate one noodle.

She's acting goofy in the picture below - - not upset at all...she kept leaning back and making strange faces.

Then it was off to a local zoo. Matilda loves looking at animals, so we knew she would enjoy it.

The owner of the zoo brought out some animals for Matilda to enjoy. You can hear him cooing in this video! He is such an enthusiastic, nice man.

Guilty Pleasure

Let's just say that I went to this very popular, retail store over the weekend that we never go to. For many reasons. Some of which I can't completely remember...BUT one I definitely do is that they are usually soooo crowded and the people are so rude that I was afraid I would stroke out every time I went there - so, Target is our normal shopping place (except for groceries).

But, I have to admit I was like a kid in a candy store the other day. Everything seemed so cheap! Earlier in the weekend we were browsing at a new bookstore that opened in our town (finally) and I have been pining for a Crystal Gayle greatest hits CD. We found it there for $18.99. Too much! They had some other choices but none that had all of the songs I wanted. (What is the deal with that anyway??? I think they do it on purpose so you have to buy more CDs.) Mike told me buy it anyway - but I couldn't bear to. Why give them those extra bucks?? I usually buy most of my CDs and stuff on Amazon anyway and figured I'd check there.

The next day we went to a smaller town with a few shops and decided to try their Wal*Mart for my elusive CD. We didn't find it in the regular alphabetized part of the aisle but Mike was perusing the various artists that were on sale dirt cheap and as I was doing the same thing, I asked him if he found it. No, he didn't think he saw anything worth mentioning. Of course, when I looked up he had placed this right in my line of vision:

for
$8.82!!

What???? The exact same CD I had looked at earlier for more than $10 less! WTF?? Wow! What luck! They are THE largest music retailer for a reason I guess...

And we found Matilda's organic biter biscuits I like to get her. Plus, these new

rice treats that she absolutely loves!

AND we found some pjs for her with her favorite characters on them (Sponge Bob and Elmo). Not that she watches them just yet, but she likes her mom's Sponge Bob pjs - she is entranced by his eyes. And she has several Elmo toys and books and she loves his big eyes, too. One thing I don't understand are these 3 piece pajama sets. You can either get a set with two shirts and one pair of pants or a set with two paints and one shirt. It gives me a headache! As I was lamenting this fact, I noticed that the extra Sponge Bob shirt would match the extra Elmo pants and so it was perfect! 3 whole new pajama sets in Bilda's favorite characters!

Also, did I mention that I just happened across my favorite childhood book that I've been wanting to get for Matilda and thought I would have to order online. Just stumbled across it - for $2.50:



Jackpot!!!

I'm sure we'll head back there again sometime. We like to go to this smaller town that is actually closer to where we are living. We'll still have our weekly Target runs...but when we need more Mum Mums (and I'm SURE we will)...we'll probably end up with a cart full of stuff we never knew we had to have!

I Voted 2.0

I guess ONE good thing about moving to North Carolina is that I got to vote in the ever important primary today. It's always very moving for me to vote - and this election is especially important to me. History will be made in November this year. Even if my man, Obama, isn't on the ballot.

When the lady handed me my "I Voted" sticker, my voice cracked as I said: "Thank you." And an older man there made certain that Matilda had a sticker, too. (Even though he called her a "he". It was sweet of him though...)

Tradition continues:

Big Tub Bather (with guest)