PART 2: Sand&sun, delish food, and family time

After making our garage-sale rounds we met my second mother's daughter, her boyfriend, and his daughter at the beach in Port Lavaca. It was the perfect day for the beach and we had a fantastic time! We came prepared with snacks and everything we needed to really enjoy a relaxing afternoon.  We sunbathed (as if I needed any sun J) and periodically took dips in the water to cool off.

Yep, that's right. My mom was trying to read the newspaper at the beach. Don't tell me you've never done that. Nope? Me either.  Only my mother would! J

 After the beach we came home and I helped my second mother cook dinner. Been looking forward to this food for a while so I figured whatever I could do to make it easier on her, the better! Look at this goodness!!

Chicken and dressing, Turkey breast, brocolli rice casserole, creamed corn. Yum!

DESSERT! 

We enjoyed dinner and spent the rest of the night chatting and drinking some vino.  It was a perfect ending to a wonderful day!

 The next morning I got up and went for a run on the same trail.  I ran 5.11 miles in 50:42, a 9:55 pace.  Not bad, if I do say so myself.  I’m pretty proud of my time; I may not be fast but I’m steady and consistent.

 After getting cleaned up, we went to church.  We went to Faith Family Church, my second mother’s home church.  Pastor Graff and his wife, Tamara, spoke about  “The Road to Romance”.  Mrs. Graff also happens to be Joel Osteen’s sister.  I really liked that they took a tag-team approach to the sermon.  Pastor Graff said that since they were going to be talking about keeping the romance alive in a marriage (and that takes two), that it would be best to speak on the subject from both perspectives.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and especially appreciated that their honest and frank approach to love, marriage, and everything that comes along with it.  They are brave souls and even touched upon things that others would be scared to talk about!

 After church, it was LEFTOVERS TIME!!!!  I ate another round of all of that delicious food and then we took the short trip to Bloomington to my mother’s house.  After visiting my hometown, my favorite neighbors, and Mom’s cats, we loaded up all of our goodies.  My Mom always loads us up with lots of awesome stuff!  We made it back to Victoria just in time to hop on the bus to head back to Houston. 

My bambina with my mother's giant cat.

After what seemed like a short ride, we made it safely back home.  My handsome hubs was waiting on us when we arrived!  We came home, unloaded all of our stuff, got caught up on the weekend and headed to bed.



Overall, it was a beautiful weekend spent amongst family!  It had been a while since we had spent a whole weekend with my mom and my second mother.  Needless to say, I am definitely looking forward to spending some more QUALITY TIME with my favorite ladies. J

     

My beautiful mother and I!

 My second mother and I!

PART 1: Shawarma’s, celebrity sighting, and the wheels on the bus

This weekend was the long-awaited and much-anticipated Girl’s Weekend.  It started off with a bang! 

Friday morning I ran 2 miles on the treadmill at the gym and then did a Pilates class.  Please tell me why I was breathing heavier in Pilates than during my run.  That Pilates stuff is NO JOKE!!  I finished my work out and came home to pack.  We left for the bus station, yes you heard me correctly – the bus station, but first went to Abdallah’s Restaurant and Bakery because we were in the mood to eat Lebanese food. 

Before I continue, let me explain why, when we have a perfectly good car, we decided to ride the bus to my Mom’s.  You see my daughter wanted an “adventure.”  She wanted to ride the bus, since she had ridden it once before with my Mom and thought it would be fun to do it again.  We believe in exposing our daughter to as many life experiences as possible, and this one was feasible so we did it.  We rode the bus!

At Abdalla’s we ordered the Beef Shawarmas with a side of Hummus.  The people were really nice; they actually remembered my husband even though he had only been one other time, three weeks earlier!  The food was ah-maz-ing!!  The Shawarma was HUGE, enough for two meals, and that’s saying a lot because I eat a lot!  The Hummus was flavorful and creamy.  I could have eaten a whole vat of the stuff!  We have added it to our list of new favorite restaurants and will definitely be going back…and soon!  Is it just me or is that now two restaurants I’ve added to our “Favorite Restaurants” list in the last week?! 

As we were about to leave, we met Greg Onofrio, the guy from the WB 39’s “NewsFix.”  He’s not just “some guy”, though, he actually narrates the news show and does the closing commentary.  Talk about a nice guy!  Not only was he friendly and funny, he was down to Earth, actually engaged in real conversation with us, and even posed for pictures.  I was a fan of “NewsFix” before but I will definitely be watching it even more faithfully now!!

After meeting the Houston celebrity, we made it to the bus.  The wheels on the bus went round and round and two and a half hours later we were in Victoria!  My second mother picked us up and we werejoined shortly by my Mom.  After a gourmet dinner at Wienerschnitzel, we hung out, chatted, watched some television and then went to bed.

Saturday morning’s workout was an early morning six-mile run on a running/biking trail not far from my second mother’s house.  It was beautiful weather and my run felt really good! 

After getting back and getting cleaning up, we went Garage Sale-ing for a few hours.  I sure have missed a good old-fashioned Garage Sale run!  It’s been years since I’ve done one.

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I’m going to stop there for now but I will be back to tell you about the second half of our weekend.  Coming up: the beach, the food, church, Mom’s house, and the trip home!