Eat for FREE

Update: Jennifer just reminded me that on Saturday Nights during the summer, Fellowship Church is having patio parties with games and free food. It is free for your whole family. They have had pizza and barbeque. What a great way to spend your night with family and friends out by the lake for FREE.

Although our children are all out of our house, they know when they go out to eat with us it is free. The only rule is that if it is on a Saturday night, they have to have gone to church with us first. We don't allow any slackers. :)

Well not exactly. Only if you are under 12 and eating with Mom and Dad. I have a listing of several restaurants in the Metroplex that offer free or almost free kids meals. Check it out.

When my kids were little, I remember when that stopped eating baby food and started to get kids meals. At first, Jennifer and Justin would share one. Then they wanted their own. When they turned around 12, they started ordering off of the regular menu. Now when we go out, Justin orders the most expensive meal on the menu. Ouch!

Monday
Margaritas - kids eat free all day
Hangtown Grill - kids eat free all day
Gattiland - moms eat free
TGI Friday’s - kids eat free and get free animal balloons
Texadelphia South - kids eat free
Zuzu - kids free after 6:00 p.m.
La Salsa - kids eat free after 4:00 p.m.
Double Dave's Pizza - kids under 5 eat free
Serranos - kids eat free
Joe’s Crab Shack - Kids meal $0.99 up to two meals per paying adult

Tuesday
Spaghetti Warehouse - kids eat free at night
Fazoli’s - kids eat for $0.99 from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Kerbey Lane - kids eat free all day
Denny’s - kids eat free from 4:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Chick-fil-A - kids eat free after 5:00 p.m.
Bennigan’s - kids eat free after 5:00 p.m.
Zuzu - kids eat free after 6:00 p.m.
La Salsa - kids eat free after 4:00 pm
McAllister's - kids eat free
Double Dave's Pizza - kids under 5 eat free
Central Market - N. Lamar kids eat free
Joe’s Crab Shack - $0.99 kids meals up to two per paying adult

Wednesday
Luby’s - kids eat free after 4:30 p.m.
EZ’s - kids eat free all day
Moe’s Southwest Grill - kids eat free after 5:00 p.m.
Central Market - kids eat free after 5:00 p.m.
Zen - kids eat free after 5:00 p.m.
La Salsa - kids eat free
Double Dave's Pizza - kids under 5 eat free
Joe’s Crab Shack - $0.99 kids meals up to two per paying adult

Thursday
La Salsa - kids eat free
Double Dave's Pizza- kids under 5 eat
Joe’s Crab Shack - $0.99 kids meals to two per paying adult

Saturday
Luby’s - kids eat free all day
Texas Land & Cattle - kids eat free from 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Sunday
Souper Salad - kids aged 3-5 eat for $0.50; kids aged 6-12 eat for $0.99
Zen - kids eat free all day
Texadelphia - kids eat free at certain locations
Dickey’s Barbeque Pit- kids under 12 eat free all day

All Week
Cici’s Pizza - kids under 3 eat free
Fresh Choice - kids aged 2 and under eat free; kids aged 3-5 eat for $.99; kids aged 6-8 eat for $2.99
Denny’s - kids eat free on their birthday
Pizza Hut’s lunch buffet - kids eat free

What's In Your Car?

I was just reading Donna's blog and saw this and thought it was really funny. Several years ago, my cars used to look like Donna's. Now I am so picky about my cars that I can't stand to have anything extra in them.

My car is 3 years old and it looks almost brand new. I am so picky about my car staying perfect that I still will not let anyone eat or drink in it. If a friend brings a drink in my car, I start having heart palpitations.

In the past, I used to eat in my car every day. You get little crumbs and drips and they just never go away, no matter how many times you go to the car wash. I vowed after I got my last car to never do that again. The little girls have never had a bite to eat or anything to drink in my car and it has stayed perfect.

I am very picky about where I park so no one will bang my doors. I only have one ding and it came from the church parking lot. The parkers make you park in certain spots, so I don't ever have a choice and that is were I got my ding.

The only thing in my car is:

2 car seats
1 diaper bag
1 stroller
1 police scanner

When I pick the girls up from Mother's Day Out, I carefully take their glitter papers and lay them in the back, or toss them secretely before they get in the car so that it doesn't get in my car. The minute I get out of the car, I get everything out that doesn't belong there.

I know I am a little extreme, but that is okay with me. I can live with it.

I am getting a new car, and I gave Pops a lecture last night on how he has to drive it. I am going from a tall SUV to a car and I can just see the first time he is in "La La Land" and pulls up to a curb and parks and shatters the bottom. When you are used to not having to watch the curbs and corners, it can get tricky when you are low to the ground and not used to it.

I have already decided I am not driving it to church for a while because I don't want any dings. I know this sounds pretty crazy, but unfortunately I am a perfectionist when it comes to taking care of stuff.

I am so extreme that I am getting new carseats so that they match perfectly. The other two are in perfect condition, but not the right color. These will be the 6th ones I have bought in the last 4 1/2 years.

A long time ago I learned that our posessions don't belong to us, they are just loaned to us by God to take care of. That changed my whole perspective on how I take care of my stuff.

Low Key Memorial Day Weekend

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Saturday we went around looking at cars, and that is always fun (NOT). I was thinking about getting another Tahoe and was totally surprised when Classic Chevrolet was only giving $4,500 in rebates and hardly marking them down additionally. They can keep their gas guzzlers. I am sure the reason they are not marking them down is that with gas being $4 a gallon, they have lots of people waiting in line to buy one.

Saturday night we went to Hibiscus with Mark and Tori and had a great meal with good company. I could eat the crab dip and sour cream apple pie with lavender ice cream and forget everything else. They are both so good.

Sunday we had a good time at a cookout with the DeVito family and all of their friends. Karsyn and Landrie had fun swimming. Check out my little fish.

I shopped a little bit yesterday and then we went to Pappasito's. We went around 7 and it was empty.

Today we are dealing with car issues. Jennifer's air conditioner in her car quit, so I met her at the dealership to get it fixed. When I got in my car, it wouldn't start and was acting funky, like maybe it had an electrical problem. On the way to help Jennifer, Janelle called me to say her car was not working and had to be towed. Car issues are my #1 pet peeve.

Update: The day is looking up. Jennifer and I jumped my car and it has been fine since then. I thought it might be something serious since it was making a funny noise and lots of lights and messages were flashing. Janelle just called and her car issue ended up being a really dead battery, so that was not too terribly expensive. The best news is that I just got a call that my kitchen furniture (that has been back ordered since January) is being delivered on Friday. Yeah!!!

Hawaiian Food In Chinatown

The last day we were in Hawaii, we decided to go to Chinatown. We were told it was a neat place to see. It was neat if you like hot smelly places with lots of people and flies everywhere.

I had originally wanted to go there to see the lei making, but I didn't see any. I probably didn't go down the right street, but after going where we did, I was done and just wanted to leave. There was shop after shop with vegetables, fish and meat.

I saw all kinds of disgusting stuff like octopus, intestines, pig tails, pig legs and this pig head with the eyes still intact. Yuk!

I Am So Boooooring!

How can I possibly be so boring with these two precious little girls? They keep me busy and exhausted! Today I decided we would go shopping just to get out of the house, and I spent 5 minutes trying to get them in the car. They were in the garage running around playing "chase". When I finally got them in the car, Landrie jumped into the very back and Karsyn followed her. When I opened up the back of the car to get Landrie out, Karsyn jumped into Landrie's car seat and I had to pry her out kicking and screaming. I was standing there wondering if I should just stay home. It would definitely be easier. I am old, I'm 50 you know!

Here is a picture of my cake and flowers that I got. I love pink.

After going to Hawaii and having a week full of Birthday/Mother's Day celebrations, this week has been very uneventful. I have thought several times that I have all of this extra time and I should blog, but I have nothing to write about. Pops has been out of town since Sunday and he is coming back tonight. This should be his last trip for a long time.

Jennifer will be out of school for the summer next Friday and my "job" will end. I will probably see the girls every day, but they won't be my responsibility. I will get to be just Lolly :)

I need to find something to do with my extra time. I have volunteered to work in the church office and I am hoping something fun will come up. I have done many volunteer jobs in my life. Some were fun and some felt like you were just shuffling paper around to have something to do. I want to do something that has value. I want to make a difference.

I may be boring, but I have been blessed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOLLY!

Lolly is 50 today and I wanted to surprise her for her birthday, so I've written a post for her on my blog.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I LOVE YOU!!

Big Fat Birthday!

Today is a big one. Just to give you a hint in case you can't guess which one, my oldest daughter is 28, so do the match. I am sad because I can't pretend I am 35 anymore.

The celebration weekend started yesterday. Tina, Helen and Jan had a pre-birthday lunch at Celebrity with a dozen of my favorite vanilla thumbprint cookies. We also had a beautiful hot pink and green strawberry cake. We ended up not cutting it and saving it for today.

Janelle came home and she, Pops, Landrie and I went to The Keg for dinner.

When I woke up this morning, Pops had gifts staged all over the house. For lunch, Tina has arranged a birthday lunch at a place I have never heard of. I love to try new places. I can't wait. The family is going to Maggiano's tonight.

Tomorrow night, Pops and I are going to Hector's On Henderson and Sunday, for Mother's Day, the family is going to Pappasito's. It will be fun weekend. I am really looking forward to it.

Hattie's

We made it to Hattie's Saturday night and it was well worth the wait. We were about 15 minutes late for our reservation and I was worried they would not let us in because it was SO crowded. The small waiting area was so crowded you could hardly make it to the hostess stand. Luckily, the hostess was very nice and had remembered us from the night before. I told her we got lost and she said that it was no problem.

Everything on the menu looked good. It was hard to make a decision because there were several things I wanted to try. We started out with appetizers of a crab cake, wedge salad and a really unusual, but highly recommended appetizer. It was small figs, stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts and wrapped in prosciutto. It was really good. It is the first time I have ever had a fig and the sweet fig, with the tangy blue cheese and the crunch of the walnut with the salty prosciutto was really good. The crab cake was 98% crab with just a little filler. Very good.

I had the pecan crusted catfish that was delicious. My only complaint is that it was served over the mashed potatoes (that were also delicious). I like to keep my food separate so I would have preferred that the potatoes not be stuck to the bottom of the fish making it soggy. I know that it makes for a prettier plate, but not for the ultimate taste.

Justin had the bacon wrapped jalapeno quail and Pops had the shrimp and grits. Both were really good. The only food that none of us liked were the side of braised greens. That is not Hattie's fault, we are just not "greens" people. I don't think you can do anything to them to make them taste like anything other than weeds.

Great dessert. They have a "fried" pie of the day with coconut ice cream. We had the blackberry. The "fried" crust was made from puff pastry. It tasted like funnel cake. Melt in your mouth.

We have had a pretty good run with new restaurants this past week. We have found 3 new one and we will definitely be back.

To Dallas Again - More New Restaurants

First of all, I am ready to fire Time Warner. I have had internet issues for 8 days now. Most of the time I don't have a connection, but every once in a while, I get lucky. They came out Tuesday and said it would be fixed Wednesday, because the problem is with an outside street line. I have called several times and have been told that once it is scheduled, they have 72 hours to fix it. I called yesterday to tell them my 72 hours is up and then was told it can take up to a week. He assured me it would be fixed today because they are usually fixed within 24 hours. None of it makes any sense to me, but hopefully it will be fixed soon. Dial-up is brutal.

I get easily bored and like variety in my life. I am also that way about restaurants. In the past week, I have eaten in Dallas 4 times. We are planning on going back tonight. We already have reservations for next Friday and Saturday in Dallas. We love to go different places.

Last night, we headed to South Dallas to Hattie's on Bishop Street. I knew I should have made a reservation, but wasn't sure what time we would be heading out. When we arrived at Hattie's at 7:30, we were told they could seat us between 8:30 and 9:00. We decided to head down the street and see what else we could find.

We came across a restaurant called Cafe Vera Cruz. The inside was so neat. The building is very old and eclectic and had some of the neatest art. It was very contemporary and not something that would work in my house, but was fun to look at. We started out at an uncomfortable table at the bar, but were shortly moved to a table. Thank goodness. The bar stools were so tall that my feet were dangling with nothing to rest them on. It was everything I could do to keep my shoes on. I do know better than to try to go someplace on a weekend night without reservations, so I have just been reminded once again.

I had the chicken enchiladas that were just fair, but Pops had the Mole enchiladas that were off the chart. The only other place I have had any that came close is a restaurant in San Jose, California. We were so happy to find some that were excellent and much closer. There were a lot of different things on the menu and I am anxious to go back and check them out.

Bishop St. is a very unique "artsy" area and fun to walk around. Really different shops with really different people. You feel like you are "out of town". It didn't hurt at all that it was 70 degrees outside.

We are going to make a reservation for Hattie's tonight and hopefully go back. Reservations, Reservations, Reservations!!!