Dad's Visit

On Friday, Dad came down to discuss some investment/retirement business with his financial advisor (also a personal longtime friend, who married my parents). We were able to "steal" him for an extra day since he was already in the area. Once Nick and I got off of work, we all three met up at Timberline Steak House for supper. Nick and I had been once before. Dad realized when we drove through the parking lot that the building looked like it used to be a train depot. I've always thought it looked brand new. When we got in, we all noticed a huge picture of the building about 100 years ago. Sure enough, it was originally a train depot (pretty cool!). The boys had steaks & I got chicken tenders. After we headed home, Dad was anxious to show us his new dance. Yes, I said dance... He's been taking dance classes at the Jewish synagogue and was excited to show us his "new moves". He's also really gotten into studying the Hebrew language. He'd gotten a really nice Rosetta Stone Hebrew program for his computer and he showed us the ropes. Nick and I played on it for a while. Both of us agreed it would be nice to invest in a foreign language program some time (both of us want to be fluent in another language).

On Saturday morning, Nick and Dad slept in. My body clock is set because I get up the same time each weekday, so I got up a little after seven to fix breakfast. I made fiesta eggs, bacon, and apple-cheesy-toasty-thingies (they need a much better name, but none has come yet). The whole house smelled wonderful. After a nice breakfast, we took Dad to a nearby walking trail we have. The trail used to be where railroad tracks were laid. When you get to the end of the trail, railroad tracks pick up again. We went passed the trail and followed the abandoned track a while. We probably walked a couple miles. The weather was a bit chilly but absolutely beautiful, nice and sunny. We knew Dad would love a place like Suzanne's, so we took him there to check out all the cool organic/all-natural stuff. We spent a good hour there. On our way out the door, Dad was trying to convince the employees there to sell Sunrider (the company he's involved with and so passionate about). I couldn't help but laugh... he was trying to sell all-natural products to an all natural store (kind of like selling milk to a cow, ay?). We ate lunch at Sprout's and came back home, where Dad helped fix our bed. Bit by bit the frame has literally fallen apart over time. It's mostly because it's old, but it's also a waterbed frame and we have a regular mattress set in it, which it's probably not meant to withstand. When he came, we'd had the headboard come off, two side frames, and the baseboard had stripped. Now, it's good as new!
We had a great time having him down. We both haven't seen him since Christmas, so it was really nice to have him here for a day. We're really looking forward to being back home a few times in April. We haven't been able to get back to St. Joe since Alex's Christmas program (the first week of December).

Yesterday, after church we went out to eat with another couple from Villa Heights at Panera. Nick has realized that it would not be advantageous to apply for the children's ministry position there (he's realized he's not passionate about children's ministry, so much as he was passionate to get out of Starbucks). Nick and I are realizing it's going to be crazy being in two small groups, one of which is from Villa Heights. We're really praying about what to do, because we don't want to drown in activities. Where as last semester we stayed at home every evening, this semester we have evening commitments every nights but the weekends. It's not been healthy, so hopefully we'll hit a good balance after this semester's over.

Sunday afternoon, we did our weekly shopping. Though Wal-Mart really does have everything, we're finding we like going other places more variety and better prices. We've found Target has the cheapest cereal anywhere. We took a pitstop at Target in the appliances section. We've been wanting to get a juicer for a month of so. We found the one we want there. Nick will be saving tips for a month so we can get it.

Exciting news... Nick has found a position he really wants at a church. It would involve a ton of commuting and a lot change for both of us. We don't know what would come of it, but he's doing some research. We were both up late talking about it and talking with our parents. We're praying about it and will tell more if anything comes of it.