ANNIVERSARY DINNER!!!

Well after the special surprise that our children did for us (We missed you Jason and Missy and Zachary and Logan and Adreana!)

 Scott and I thought we would go out to eat for our anniversary later that week.  

I have to go back a few weeks first, to the end of April on one day when I was sooo very busy, had driven up to Michigan about an hour and a half, to see a few clients then a different direction for about 2 hours then in yet another direction for a few more hours.  That makes a very busy day-in driving alone, not to mention the time spent at every house with each client!  I was tired, I remembered that I had not taken out anything for supper (I know, bad planning on my part-!) so I decided to stop at the local Apple Bees in Sturgis for something to go.  I ordered cheese burger baskets with fries, the 2 for $20.00 ones which meant that they would come with bacon.  Well since we do not eat pork, and have not now for about 4 to 5 years I asked them to NOT put the bacon on it.

  "That is fine mam, no bacon." 

So I pick up the order, got it home and there is bacon -and it looks like a LOT of bacon, like they added extra, on the burgers! How nice...not...

Talk about messing up the order! The french fries could not be eaten because the bacon hung over the burgers dripping onto the french fries!  I was upset.  I was tired.  It is about 20 minutes to town from our home, so I was not driving back.  I called and spoke to a manager, complained-explaining that we do NOT EAT PORK and had ordered it WITHOUT PORK.  Bacon IS PORK!!!! He said I could come back, and I said NO.  I was not driving that far for their mistake.  

He did apologize, but hey, the reason I ordered out was because I was too tired to cook, and that plan was ruined now. 

He again apologized, and offered to send me a card worth $25.00 for my time.  Saying he was adding a few more dollars on it for my trouble. 

woop-ee.  

Now remember, the special 2/$20.00 is the base price, then you add tax, (6%-) so you add $1.20 and then the tip I gave to the person who brought it out to me in the drive up waiting area, and OH GOODIE!!!, I got about $2.00 for my 'trouble'.  Wow,  am I "impressed."

Well when the card arrived, I decided to save it for a special time.  Maybe for our anniversary.  You would think that they would not mess up again.  

You would think...

I thought anyway...

that is what I get for thinking....

So the week of our anniversary, we decided to meet after work (again a busy day, and we were both tired after working) so we met in town at the apple bees -for another try for a anniversary dinner.

After all-this was to be a 'free meal' (free!  HA HA We had already paid for it weeks before-since we could not eat the other meal-so it was not a free meal)

We ordered another meal from the 2/$20.00 menu.  Chicken this time.  The order came, not brought out by out waitress, but someone else.  We did not receive any silverware.  We tried to flag someone down, no one would pay attention. 

They were not busy, only about 4-5 small groups in there eating at this time of day.  So there is NO excuse for not having better service. 

Finally Scott got someones attention, (after he had to actually chase down a waitress) we got our silverware.  I opened mine, and it looked like dead maggots (prob was rice, but it did not look like that) on my fork.  They were all filthy.  Scott's was dirty too, but did not have 'things' on them, just dirty.  Why would anyone wrap up dirty silverware????Gross!!! and with this???

I was feeling ill now....

   Again, unable to find ANYONE, and by the time we did, the food was getting very cold now.  French fries were COLD.  Don't put ketchup on cold fries, they only get colder!

   We got new silver ware, and  I began to slowly eat my chicken, allowing my stomach to stop churning.....the 'thin end first' of the chicken-which seemed fine, cold but fine. 

Then I cut into the thicker part of the chicken, thinking --I will cut up the chicken completely, then eat it instead of cut-eat-cut-eat because I am a cut-cut-cut-cut-eat-eat-eat type of person.

IT WAS RAW!!!

Now I am wanting to become ill.  

I can not believe this.

We complained-AGAIN.  Why do people not care about their service????

The manager came over, and of course said he would redo my meal, and not charge me.  But he charged me for the drink.  I am sorry, the WHOLE meal SHOULD  have been free.  Period.  Even the drinks.  

YOU DO NOT SERVE RAW CHICKEN.  EVER.

I could not eat anymore.  

Fast forward to another week, and we thought-ruined anniversary dinner before, so lets try it again-with a different restaurant.  We are looking for punishment in our lives. 

So over to Shipshewana we go-to the buggy wheel.  We choose family style.  Good food, all cooked completely, yeah!!!
.....but they were out of roast beef for a choice of meat.  How does that restaurant run out of roast beef?

We did not get refills on our drinks until we were DONE with our food, because the waitress was too busy, but the hostess and a few others had time to just stand around.  I hate seeing people just stand around when the waitress is sooo busy, and unable to keep up.  It really looks bad... 

sigh.

"How was your food mam?" as we paid.  Well fine, except......

I told them "you need to help a busy waitress by filling everyone's drinks."  No excuse.  She agreed, and said she would "fix' that problem.  right. I bet you will.
And she was surprised that they were out of roast beef..."really??" 

maybe next time we will see...

Next time...Ha! 

I guess that is enough trying to go out to eat...spent money -hard to come by-for us-for many bad experiences..... 

maybe it will be better on anniversary #31-in may of 2011? 

ANNIVERSARY #30

Anniversary #30.  Well let me just say, first of all, it is only by GOD's grace that we are still married.  It is out of obedience to HIM that we choose to stay together when the times got tough, which we had some very hard times through out the years...
I hear all the time- "we fell out of love..."
                            " I just dont love him/her anymore..."
                            " we have nothing in common..."
bla bla bla.
It is a CHOICE to stay together.
It is a CHOICE to stay in love-even when that love is not returned.
It is a CHOICE to work on a problem marriage.

We mad the CHOICE to stay together thru everything.  Good times and bad. It was a choice.

So this last May 17th was our official 30 year anniversary.  Our children decided to do a surprise party for us.  But I have to say, it did not stay a surprise very long, I figured it out.  I actually asked my daughter if they were doing anything, and she said "mom, your hard to deal with..." or something like that...I told her...well what if we want to go away?  To that she responded..."just stay home."

So I figured something was up.  Then our youngest -Dustin ..who lives a couple of hours away called and asked us what day would be better for him to visit us.  I told him sunday.  So then I knew...hummmm it will be on Sunday.

So Sunday came, and at 6 am, we received a phone call from our daughter telling us they were broken down on the way to work.  They were really broken down-no trick to get us out of the house.  So Scott went out and tried to help them.  After a few hours they got the car to our home.  Steven never made it to work as he had to work on the car all day.  Scott helped him.  Nalani made it in, and Anastasia had planned to stay her for the day anyway-cooking.  She was gonna 'kick us out of the house" for awhile so everyone could show up and then we return home to a 'surprise'.  but that changed with a broken down auto.  So we knew something was us.  We just tried to 'not notice..all the cooking..."

That day I was hurting-my back.  But I rested all day, so by the time the after noon time came when everyone would show up, I was doing better, still not my best, but better.  I choose a tall chair to sit in  (we were out side) but it was a broken one.  I put Ice on my back and sat there-not getting around to greet my guests at all.  I felt bad about that, but it was that or not be there at all!

The kids kept it simple, which was fine.  Everyone just visited, and cooked their hotdogs or hamburgers, and then we all had a dish to pass.  Food was great!  I had had snuck and ate some that Anastasia had prepared when I was inside earlier!  So I was not too hungry once it started!

Well, everyone was beginning to leave, just a family or two left, and I dropped something on the ground.  So leaned down (still sitting in the 'broken chair') and leaned to the side of the chair that was cracked...it continued to crack and broke completely!  Down I went...sort of in slow motion, but down anyway!  What a way to end the day!

here are some photos of the day!

1the kids could not afford to send us (their parents) to hawaii for this anniversary, so had an Hawaian theme!
The last photo is of the nice strawberry my husband had picked out for me...to give to me...he thought it looked good, then he dropped it.

MOM...

A few weeks back I took mom to lunch, to one of her favorite restaurants. The M and M grill in Colon Michigan. I personally think it is a grease pit, since I do not eat stuff like that (we do not eat fast foods or greasy foods-fried foods)...but mom likes the toasted cheese sandwiches they make.  They do grill stuff there, a few items-so I can try to be a bit choosy what I eat.

 Mom was not too happy though, they really grilled her sandwich too much, it was 'too done'. The restaurant is under new ownership, and the new owners I have noticed ( in my opinion) do not have the same caring attitude about their customers-

It was hard for mom to chew since it was too done, but stubborn as she is, she would not let them re-do it.  

Restaurants really need to pay attention to details like that, especially for the elderly-and young children-who you can figure, might have a hard time chewing!

I notice as I age, people in general-do NOT pay attention to details that help us 'older' people out. 

Example:  I think that Younger people talk very fast, and as you age and do not hear well, it makes it hard to hear everything they say.  I am constantly asking people to slow down how they talk, or to speak up..  Yes, I admit that I need  a hearing aid, but when insurance does not pay for it, it comes down to this:  do I get a hearing aid?  Or do we pay our house payment for the next 4 months?  Well, no hearing aid.  House payment wins.

The damage to my ear occurred when I worked as a nurse in the hospital and the free standing birth centers, I use to listen to the fetal heart tones with the hand held doppler holding it up to my ear, if mom was asleep so I would not awaken her.  I was really good at doing that, not disturbing the mom.  Now -the result? My hearing in that left ear is going.  If I could do it all over again, sorry moms, I would not care if I awoke you !  But I would be able to hear now.

So back to the story-this waitress -should have look at that sandwich and said to the cook, NO, this is for a older person, and you cooked it too hard -re do it please.  But no, she does not. She just brings it out.  A toasted cheese sandwich should not be as hard as a brick. Ever. 

Mom still enjoyed getting out of the house.  Enjoyed the day...the drive...and liked spending time with one of her daughters.

I think I finally got mom to smile a little...

Our 30 Year Celebration!

Today (may 17th) we celebrate our 30 year anniversary.  It is hard to believe that we have made it this long.  I have to day that if we did not have the LORD YHWH in our lives, we would have been divorced a long time ago.  It is only living the way HE has us live, and allowing HIM to change our hearts-that we have stayed together.
   Well our children decided to plan a surprise celebration, which was nice.  It was to be a picnic, type get together.  They chose a theme of Hawaiian, since they could not afford to pay for a trip for us to Hawaii!
  As the guests arrived they were given a lei, and we fired up the grill.
The origional plan was that they would send Scott and I out and we would have been gone, and returned to a yard full of family and friends, well that did not work!
  First I had a sore back, so was not feeling the best, sitting on ice on my back.  I really did not want to be out driving around!  Plus at 6 am, the phone rang, it was our daughter (s), and son in law, who had broken down on the road on the way to work-so Scott had to go out with the truck and rescue them.  They finally got the car back to the house, and Scott spent the day working on it with Stephen...who never made it to work.  Nalani did make it to work, and Anastasia was at the house all day, doing laundry and cooking a large amount of food.  So I knew basically what was going on.
  In a way that was fine, since my back was a problem for the day,  I tried to rest but when your back hurts it really does not work to well to just sit around!
  People grilled their food, and shared dishes-which was good...Scott picked out a great looking strawberry for me,  here that is...!

I decided after he dropped it to not eat it...

Our children decided to tell what they had learned from us-Nathan shared being married for 30 years-it can be done-and how to move a pond 3 inched every few days...(yes I had them do this, it kept them out of trouble!!)
Anastasia shared she learned how to hand up a dress so the hanger marks did not show...(they use to hang up my long skirts that I wear-on a hanger to dry for me, thinking they were helping, and when I take the skirt off the hanger, it had the hanger shape to it, so it stuck out on the sides!)I taught them to not do that!
Nalani learned to zoom with confidence.  When you drive, dont turn left slowly (although she explained it slightly different) but the actual teaching was dont pull out so slow that you practically stop in traffic because they do not stop for you!  Get going, zoom with confidence!
Dustin shared remembering how to burn chicken while grilling that his dad taught him how to do.
Here is the full list ...
In case you couldn't remember them all, or didn't hear them all, I thought Nalani and I would try to list them for you. Trying to remember them was hard.. maybe we're getting old too?

Nathan:
Mom- Be careful to be around women who like to move ponds.
Dad- Being married thirty years, it can be done!

Anastasia:
Mom- Learned how to hang up skirts properly.
Dad- How to Milk a Goat.

Nalani:
Mom- Zoom quickly with confidence.
Dad- The first cup of coffee must be black and drank in silence.

Dustin:
Mom- Listen to the wife- she's right.
Dad- How to burn chicken the right way.

Steven:
Mom- Re-stated how women are always right, no point in fighting it.
Dad- If he can't fix it, Scott can!

Sam:
Both- Not to leave Dustin alone with food.
Thanks to all who could attend -blessing us and sharing this time with us!