9.12.2009

The last bits of summer

I have always considered Labor Day weekend to be the last hoorah before going back to school. It meant block parties or bbqs at a beach house growing up; now it means the last nice long weekend off from work & school before the holidays. Our closest friends in Dallas were gone for the weekend, so we spent almost all of our weekend together playing! My boss let me leave at 4pm on Friday & so the long weekend began! I’m pretty sure I called someone to brag about the fact that I was starting the weekend an hour early =)
One of our goals for the weekend (or mine at least) was to get out of the house, since we had heard reports of lower temperatures (at least not triple digits). We decided to take a low-budget day trip to Mesquite on Saturday, and after sleeping in a little, we made our lunches and headed out to a new disc golf course. I’m pretty sure this was our first disc golf session since I’ve been in Dallas, and we were reminded of how much we like it. So much so that David has decided to start spending a few afternoons a week on his days off playing on his own & listening to the Hebrew vocab he recorded & put on his ipod - fun, exercise & learning all in one =) We especially enjoyed this 18 hole course – I think it reminded us a little of SLO. There were trees & creeks winding through the entire course with little bridges everywhere to cross where it was deep, and a swing set off of the first hole (what a good way to start out the course!). Inevitably, I threw my disc in the water a ton (including the first time, when David told me I needed to “play it as it lays” and I did – good thing I was wearing sandals) until it was no longer retrievable….sad day. After our failed attempts to fish out my disc, we went to find the one David had already thrown & could not find his either…someone had picked it up.

In a strange turn of events, a very nice man pointed us in the direction of the guy who had picked up David’s disc. He turned out to be a DTS grad & we ended up finishing the back nine with him. He gave David one of his discs & afterwards David was able to recover my disc from the deepest creek running down the center of the course (without having to go for a swim!). So instead of losing two discs, we gained one.

We ate our lunch on a picnic table in the shade of the trees of the park, went to Walmart to stock up on soda & candy, and went to see “Up” at the dollar theater. We found a great coupon for pizza when we got home & drove a new way to pick it up (I keep accidentally stumbling upon new places I haven’t been yet that aren’t that far from our place & it gives me the urge to explore). We finished the day with our pizza & a game of scrabble.
Sunday, Andy preached a great sermon on Work & then we went to Panera for lunch. Yum. We ate & sat with our books and laptop (yes, singular, David’s does not travel well) for a few hours working - although I wouldn’t consider reading my Bible & writing emails work & I’m not sure David would consider reading Advanced Greek Grammar work either, at least it was hard for me to tell because he kept chuckling…. I have come to love sitting in coffee shops, sipping tea & reading or working on my laptop, especially when I have a companion. I also have a newfound love for lazy Sunday afternoons that include trips to coffee shops or naps at home – they are just better when you’re married. We ended up playing another round of disc golf in Mesquite (disc-tragedy free) and heading home for a double feature. We spent most of Monday doing chores at home & running errands, but it felt good to be productive & start a new week with a clean apartment (& clean clothes).

David very rarely gets an entire 3 day weekend off of work like this, so it was a special treat to get to spend the whole weekend together. And it was good to be outside. I must say, we are excited for the impending fall season...

9.10.2009

Summer Recap

Summer in Texas is hot.

It also means GREAT Thunderstorms.

I realize I haven’t written in two months so I thought I would recap our summer, or at least the last two months of it.

Some highlights of July:

- We spent the 4th of July at our company get together at Dan & Lisa Saur’s lake house about an hour south of Dallas. It was a great way for David to get to know them a little bit & meet most of our staff.

We swam in the lake, went out on
the boat & ate dinner on the front porch. We didn’t stay for fireworks, but we had a great time.

- My friend Melissa came to visit for about a week. She stayed with her sister who lives here too, but I got to see her a bunch and it was great! July is a tough month to visit Dallas though, so we spent a lot of time inside watching movies, playing games & shopping. We also celebrated her 20 birthday at a tea house; good fun!

- Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince – awesome. And bonus: after seeing the movie, David read thru all of the books in about a month =)

The highlight of August was getting to see our friend Matt from SLO. He & his dad stayed with us for a night on their way out to St. Louis, Missouri, where Matt is starting his first year of seminary at Covenant. We had enough time to catch a Rangers-Twins game in Arlington & get dollar hot dogs. It was really good to see him and catch up.


Like I said, summer in Texas is hot, so with the exception of swimming, we spent a lot of time inside – we spent a couple weeks putting together a giant puzzle, watched a lot of movies, took up playing Scrabble (& got an official Scrabble dictionary), and discovered the dollar theater of Mesquite (seriously, $1.25 to see new movies just out of theatres). Every time the temperature dropped below 100, we tried to take advantage of it & get outside to the park, the lake, or to play tennis.