Celebrating 15 Years!

My hubby and I celebrate a very special anniversary this year-15 years!  Despite being sick, and looking awful, he still took me out to dinner-and treated me extra special.  I love that man!

Twisty Treats

Last week I visited Merry Toppins for the first time.  Then on Monday my hubby suggested we stop by Twisty Treats in Rockwall, which is the same concept:  help yourself to your favorite flavor of frozen yogurt and whatever toppings you would like, and then pay by the ounce.  I remembered from my visit to Merry Toppins not to go crazy with the yogurt-it's all about the toppings!  So I got just a little fro yo:  chocolate and vanilla swirled.  Then I topped away:  hot fudge, whole pecans, cheesecake, and a few other toppings.  Yum!  I could get used to being treated to frozen yogurt regularly!

The Harbor

While In Rockwall the other day, we took a quick stroll along "The Harbor" area. Raised on the coast, I am drawn to the water.  I took lots of pictures, but we didn't stay long.

 My hubby went down to check out the dead alligator-turns out it was an alligator gar...

 ...and ended up spotting these ducks enjoying the shade of the bridge.

 I could sit here for hours (other than the fact I was beyond exhausted)

 Yes, you know I had to get my feet wet, even if only for a few minutes...

Spaghetti Squash Marinara

After half a day Saturday and all day Sunday doing nothing but staying in bed, you could say I had somewhat recovered from my total exhaustion of the week before.  I used a personal day at work Monday, and slept in until around 10:30.  But, I knew I had to again become a part of the land of the living.  My hubby and I had to run an errand in Garland, and since we were so close already, we drove just a little further to Rockwall so we could eat lunch at Ruby Tuesday.  Ruby's is a restaurant we remember fondly from back home in Virginia from years gone by.  There are a few Ruby Tuesday's in Texas, but none that close to home.


While perusing the menu (I always ordered a burger back then), I noticed that they had a new section on their menu (but then again-I was a teenager-who knows how new it actually is-or, come to think about it-maybe it has been there all along, and I just never cared.  But I digress...) called "Petite Plates".  They are apparently smaller portions of healthy items.  My eyes quickly noticed the Spaghetti Squash Marinara Pasta. I changed my mind about a dozen times before the waitress came, but I kept coming back to this dish.  I was intrigued, to say the least.  I have heard many times that you can use spaghetti squash as an alternative to spaghetti to lower your calories.  But I am a carb lover.  I never had a desire to try this at home because I just knew nothing could take the place of my pasta.  Since I wasn't feeling the greatest though (I was dealing with exhaustion, but I also picked up a nasty cough and some congestion along the way), I figured I would try it-I wasn't that hungry, so if I didn't like it, no biggie-I would survive.


It finally arrived-spaghetti squash covered with a red pepper marinara and tossed with some sliced zucchini, with some parmesan cheese on top.  I had at first considered that even if I liked the spaghetti squash, would I like the red sauce?  Many restaurants with lower calories options have a fresh tomato and onion sauce that put over pasta that tastes more like fresh veggies than it does sauce.  But the sauce was impressive.  It tasted like real sauce.  Then I dug a little deeper to the zucchini, and it was tasty as well.  (Certainly not meat, but definitely tasty.)  And last but not least, I finally tried the spaghetti squash.  And I liked it!  I was tasting it expecting it to be some crunchy vegetable (think the consistency of a steamed carrot), but it was not!  It did have some crunch compared to spaghetti, but that was very minimal.  I only ate about 1/3 of my meal before getting full, which was unfortunate, because I really would have enjoyed finishing my meal.  This meal is a definite to order again-assuming it's not another 10 years before visiting Ruby Tuesdays.

My First Trail Ride

My hubby is on staff at a cowboy church, and yet I have only been on a horse once in my life-when I was in elementary school.  I love watching the activities in the arena, but feel incredibly inadequate when it comes to actually doing anything with the animals.  So when I realized that we would have the opportunity to go on a short trail ride while at Girls Camp, I jumped at the chance-it would be a great place to learn a little bit without completely embarrassing myself in front of people who have been riding horses since before they knew how to walk.


The trail ride was about 15 to 20 minutes, and due to the storm the night before, the horses had downed trees and branches to step over.  I rode on a horse named Tucker.  The wrangler told me Tucker was obese-she said a horses weight is assigned a number 1 though 9, and Tucker was a 9.  The ride was fun-we went through the woods up and down some hills, and around corners.  We had to stop a few times for downed trees-the wrangler had to move them some so the horses could step over them.  We got some great pictures, too-I am the one in the green shirt in these pictures:

Last Day of Girls Camp

In almost every camp, someone ends up getting sick or hurt at some point-unfortunately for this camp, a little girl had trouble breathing, so her counselor, the nurse, and I took her to the ER shortly after midnight on Saturday.  Thankfully, it was not nearly as bad as it could have been.  Her parents arrived and took her back to the doctor, so the rest of waited in the waiting room.  We got back to camp just before daybreak.

I had just enough time for a shower before my trail ride (more about that later), and then it was time to get the morning started.  The speaker had another great service planned.

She also had the same silly crazy hair game we played last week-the girls love this one!

 We also got to see the puppets one last time.

Overall, it was a great camp, and we had positive feedback about both the event and the new location.  We are already making notes for next year!

Rain at Girls Camp

Getting ready for the day on Friday, I put on my boots and jeans-I knew I was headed to Girls Camp, and during my break I planned to go on a trail ride.

But, unfortunately, just about the time for me to head to the horses, I noticed the sky was getting dark, and it was really windy out.  A fast moving storm came through-there was some seriously heavy rain!  No trail ride for me.

During the downpour, everyone stayed put-mostly in the dining hall.  Once it was over, it was free time-which meant time to play outside-putt putt golf, carpet ball, and the playground-among some of the choices.  But since the ground was completely wet, we brought all the girls inside, and played some fun games.  I was so glad we had several college-aged students for this camp to lead the games.

Once the games were over, we showed "The Incredibles".  Last camp we showed the movie at the outdoor ampitheatre, but this time around, we showed it inside.