Magnolia Market at the Silos & In-N-Out Burger – Waco, TX

Hello, Monday morning. How was my weekend? Well… I just about broke my right middle finger last night. We had wicked weird weather that blew through. I was trying to open a door in a downpour while carrying the little one and my hand wouldn’t let go of the door handle. My silly hand is sort of swollen and still hurts this morning. Hello Monday.

But let’s focus on the fact that it has been a week since I was on vacation and I totally miss it. I love going on Vacation! This year we chose to go to San Antonio, Texas. We debated and hemmed and hawed quite a bit trying to decide where to go. Hubby really wanted to go to Sea World so our choices had to kind of involve cities that had a Sea World.

Last summer when we spent time down at my aunt and uncle’s house, they got my family hooked on watching Fixer Upper. Of course, the show that decided to go off the air this year in April. Sure… So we got a year of them + reruns. At that time, my aunt wanted us to go to Waco, but we just ran out of time. Truthfully, I had no idea who Chip and Joanna Gaines were so I was like, what’s in Waco? Well, now I know. 🙂

Since Waco is on the way to San Antonio, I asked hubby if we could stop by their market and hopefully eat at their restaurant. We figured being a Monday morning, pulling into the restaurant around 10:30 would work. Um… Hello. NO! The wait was 1 hour 45 minutes and there were NO parking spots. We decided to forgo the restaurant, but that didn’t stop us from going to Magnolia Market at the Silos.

Magnolia Market at the Silo’s

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Where to Stay/Coffee – Denison, Texas

It’s been a week since we got back from vacation. A WEEK. How on earth did time fly so fast? Seriously. So much has happened in this past week. We finally, thank the good Lord, got Rain! We needed it. Our AC went on the fritz and came back again. Don’t know, don’t ask :). Hubby got home with us only to turn around Monday and head back to Boston, more on that later. Tbug started School. My parents left on vacation. It’s just been a whirlwind of things.

p.s. I might have been dragging my feet about packing myself after packing 3 other people for our trip…

The leading up story

Hubby’s work took him out of town to Boston the week before we were to leave on vacation. Our scheduled departure date was Sunday, August 5, 2018. Hubby’s work trip was supposed to bring him home on August 3, 2018. Supposed to…

Hubby was supposed to board a Delta flight in Boston in the evening on Friday, get into Kansas City late, and potentially drive home to be home around Midnight. A storm threatened the Eastern Seaboard and all Delta flights were canceled in a 150-mile radius around Boston, although hubby said no storm ever hit where they were. All of his co-workers who flew on Southwest Airlines, their flight was delayed, but they got out.

His travel partner and he jumped on trying to scurry and find flights home. The earliest they could get home was Sunday. His travel partner wound up getting home around 4 pm into Kansas City on Sunday. He got rerouted finally through Northwest Arkansas and got home around noon on Sunday. No flights were to be found for Saturday. Oy! (more…)

Chuy’s – Rogers, AR

What is the significance of this picture? To prove that hubby was HOME! Wait, what?

Let’s back up… So 2 weeks ago hubby was in Boston for work. He was supposed to be home Friday, August 3, 2018. I state “was” because his flight got canceled as did every flight Delta had that night within a 150-mile radius of Boston. There was some storm and instead of postponing like Southwest Airlines did, Delta just canceled and apparently that’s what they always do. UGH!

Why did I really care? Well because Sunday, August 5th we were supposed to be leaving on vacation. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right? So hubby and his co-worker who were traveling together looked into multiple routes to get home and both didn’t get home until Sunday. Hubby left out of KCI (Kansas City) and finally found a flight into XNA (Northwest Arkansas) at noon on Sunday. His co-worker got home Sunday at 4 pm into KCI.

Hubby was looking for every route to get home on Saturday and couldn’t do it. Our plans included us leaving between 5 and 6 on Sunday evening. It was a fuster cluck. With him rerouted through XNA, my parents and I drove up to KCI to get his truck because that’s a 2ish hour trip. Then Sunday morning we headed to XNA to pick him up and bring him home, quickly do laundry, finish packing him, and leave here on time. It was stressful! But we accomplished it, even with eating lunch at Chuy’s Tex-Mex.

Chuy’s Tex-Mex – Rogers AR

Chuy’s actually originated in the early 80’s in Austin, Texas. For what feels like months, our friend Jared has been telling us we needed to try this restaurant. A week earlier my parents tried this restaurant and raved about it too. So when they found out we were going to XNA, he suggested going with us and we could try Chuy’s. They raved about it so much they said we needed to find one in San Antonio (which there are like 3 or 4 locations). (more…)

The Mercantile – Pawhuska, OK

There’s a long-running joke at my house that I have an arranged marriage for Tbug. I’m going to marry her to Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman’s oldest son Bryce.

This joke started sometime last summer. Truthfully, he’s a cute boy. He’s a farmer/rancher. I always say farm boys are the best. Tbug wanted to own a horse ranch someday, or so she said when she was younger. If he sticks with the family business, they run Mustangs plus all the horses they use for everyday ranch work. Win-win…

Then for my own reasons… they go snow skiing in Colorado and I always wanted to go. They can just take me too (and my husband… of course). Hello, his mom is The Pioneer Woman. I mean come on. And finally, if Abug would have been a boy, she’d have been named Bryce. I’d finally get my Bryce. There are more reasons for the joke and it keeps getting added to, but those are some of the big ones.

The Mercantile

Ever since the Merc has opened I have wanted to go. Pawhuska is only about 2 1/2 hours from here so not to bad. But it seems like every plan I had made to go, didn’t happen. They all fell through. I was starting to think it would NEVER happen. FINALLY, it did. I guess patience is key and sometimes I don’t have that.

A couple weeks ago I was talking to my sister in law about wanting to go. She said we should make plans to go. I kind of scoffed in her face and said I refuse to make any more plans like that because they keep falling through. Then a couple weeks later I mentioned to my husband and said she would go. One thing led to another and they made plans for us to go. (more…)

Orlando, Florida: What to Eat, Where to Stay, What to Do

So my husband and I got to attend DEMA (Diver’s Equipment & Marketing Association) 2017, Go Dive Now. This is a yearly show that bounces between Las Vegas and Orlando, although I’ve heard a rumor that they are adding New Orleans into the mix in a couple years. But this was the year that DEMA was in Orlando. That means we hopped a plane with Deb and Grady and flew to Orlando, Florida.

Where to Eat

The first question is…. Where to eat in Orlando. Oh gosh. We were there at the Orange County Convention Center on International Drive. Let me just tell you there were gobs of GREAT places to eat, but here’s what we chose… And let’s just say, YUM!

Dunkin Donuts

7440-A International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819

We actually had a Dunkin Donuts almost right outside our hotel room. Not quite but pretty darn close. In fact, we had a lot of breakfast places right in that area. The first day we were there, hubby and I chose to walk here and get breakfast. Good choice!

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7th Anniversary

Hello. We’ve now been married 7 years. Some days it feels just like yesterday that we were dating and other days it feels like much longer. But the thing is…. we still kind of like each other. (haha)

This year our anniversary fell on Labor Day Monday. It does that from time to time. I guess that’s what happens when you get married Labor Day Weekend. Chances are your anniversary will fall on Labor Day Weekend. Totally cool with that, because that meant we got to spend our Anniversary together. Score.

Our morning started off with breakfast at Jimmy’s Egg. Ever eaten at one of them? You should. They specialize in Breakfast and lunch. This… this is good and totally worth every last calorie laden bite. This is the Carnitas Skillet. I’ve tried and tried to find the description and I’m afraid if I tell you I’ll forget something…. so be prepared…. It’s hash browns, eggs, cheese (Monterey Jack), pulled pork, sausage, bacon (maybe, I can’t remember), topped with tomatoes and onions and just all around YUM!

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My 34th Birthday

 

Here we are, halfway through the next month and I still haven’t recapped/talked about my birthday.

I should tell you I hate birthdays. Not because I don’t like getting older. No, I’m fine with that. That means I’m still alive. I just hate the day. In more recent years I haven’t had good birthdays. It’s been forgotten by family and friends (not all, please don’t take offense if you remembered!!!). It gets treated like another day. It’s just not a big deal. And I guess I feel like it should be a big deal? I don’t know. Maybe I’m full of myself… ha.

When hubby and I got together, it seems like he gets week long birthday’s and I barely get a day. I guess I was a bit jealous of that. The reason he gets that is that if his birthday falls during the week, we’re supposed to get Tbug to celebrate, but that doesn’t always happen. So we celebrate on his birthday. I’ve thrown him surprise birthdays. Plus we’ve celebrated his real birthday on a weekend we had Tbug. Multiple times all of this has happened.

This year, my hubby decided to give me a week long birthday. This morning I saw a quote on Facebook:

I know good men still exist because I am lucky enough to have one.

A friend from college commented that she couldn’t help but think back to our Memoirs class and how much she learned about him. Maybe this is something I should have written about in class… Although I’m not far enough removed from it to use for a memoir.

Anyway, let’s quit procrastinating and let’s discuss

my birthday.

My birthday started out the weekend before my birthday, if you ask hubby. I had been wanting to eat at the Japanese Steakhouse for a while. He decided we were eating there and that was the start of my birthday.

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The Pineville Grill {Pineville, MO}

If there’s one thing I can tell you about myself on this rainy morning, it would be, I like Breakfast food. There, I said it. This coming from the person who is not now nor has ever been a morning person. I seriously can’t tell you my favorite breakfast food either. I like biscuits and gravy, I like omelets, I like pancakes, I just like breakfast food and sometimes it is difficult to go eat breakfast and make up my mind what I really want. I’m glad we got that out of the way :).

I woke up this morning and laid in bed watching it storm like crazy. Last weekend we were under flash river flood warnings and this weekend we are too. The only difference is we live on top of a hill here and last weekend we were camping at the Trails for Kids held at Crag O’Lea in Pineville, MO.

My husband Mark and I along with a bunch of our friends are on the Trails for Kids committee so we started camping on Wednesday evening so that we could be there to help check people in. Little did we know what our weekend was going to have in store for us. WOW!

But Thursday morning we woke up and we were all hungry so we decided to drive into Pineville and eat breakfast at the Pineville Grill.

The Pineville Grill

As I said, the girl who isn’t a morning person likes her breakfast food! This was an omelet that had pretty much everything. eggs, bacon, sausage (although I had them hold the sausage), ham, cheese, onions, bell peppers, and more cheese. Mine came with a side of either toast or biscuits and gravy or something else… I went for the biscuits and gravy. I’m actually glad I did because my darling little ate quite a bit of my biscuits and gravy. Apparently she’s a biscuits and gravy fan too.

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Eagle Drive-In {Joplin, MO}

Eagle Drive-In. Must I say anymore? I think the pictures can do the talking for themselves!

This is the JoMo Po’ Boy. Calamari, Eagle Sauce, Tomato, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I obviously didn’t eat it, I don’t eat seafood. Mark though, he LOVED it. Oh and Eagle Sauce they say is similar to Thousand Island dressing, but better. This came with a side, fries were the obvious choice. Then there is the choice of sauce to go with the fries. That is Eagle Sauce.

This is the Black and bleu Burger. It was also thoroughly enjoyed. Now I don’t eat Bleu Cheese either, but my mom LOVED it. She went with a side of fries too. Her sauce of choice, Garlic Aioli.

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Andolini’s Pizzeria {Tulsa, OK}

Last month my aunt who lives in Southern Oklahoma came up to see the girls so we decided to have a girls day. We debated where to go shopping… Fayetteville, Tulsa, Springfield… Decisions decisions. Eventually we decided upon Tulsa. I’ve spent a lot of time shopping in Tulsa, my aunt actually lived there while in Med school. The one down side to Tulsa is when it comes to food. No, there are a lot of restaurants in Tulsa, but we tend to stick to the same ol same ol restaurants. I was kind of in the mood for something new. Aunt Connie had recently been in Tulsa for a convention and learned about a few new places down around Utica Square. Since we were going to Utica Square first, it was perfect. Eventually we decided upon Andolini’s Pizzeria. Let’s just say, this was an AWESOME choice.

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