Road Trip Recap

Last weekend the hubby and I took a little road trip.

We left on Friday and headed to Reno.

It's a two hour trip.

Two hours of really nothing exciting to look at except the vehicles in front of you.

We had a little shopping to do for the farm, some personal shopping and then meeting up with some old friends of the hubby's.

Sometimes you can't get the parts for equipment that you need in our town and the only place to go is either the Internet or the big city. This time, it was cheaper to go Reno than to order the parts and pay shipping.

Once we hit town....

We made a stop here for lunch!

YUM!

In-N-Out Burger is the only fast food place that I can safely eat at.

Since gluten hates me, I avoid it like the plague and therefore I avoid fast food places.

But I love In-N-Out Burger!

When I order, I order protein style/allergy and that's when the employees snap to attention.

The order is announced differently and then the employee taking the order steps to the first station and again gives the order to make sure that the others working the line heard it correctly and begin the process of making sure my food is handled correctly. Which means no contact with any bread or gluten containing items.

As my food moves down the line from station to station, every single person washes their hands and puts on gloves before touching it.

In-N-Out is also the only place that I feel totally safe eating the french fries.

They cut and fry their own fries right on the spot, so they are fresh and not bagged or coated with flour like other fast food french fries are.

Also, they don't fry anything else like onion rings which are flour coated, so their fryers are dedicated to one purpose only and not contaminated by anything else.

Yes, eating out with me is an adventure to say the least!

Luckily, more and more places are offering gluten free choices and becoming more accommodating for those of us with severe gluten intolerance and/or celiac disease!

But I digress...

I totally, happily and joyfully enjoyed my lunch!

After lunch we ran around picking up parts for the farm!

Every place we went to had stellar customer service!

We made a stop at Barnes & Noble so I could look for a few books.

Hubby got bored....very, very bored!

Mid-afternoon we checked into our hotel.

We had a very nice room!

This little treat was an early Valentine's Day present!

We had a nice sitting area.

A comfy king size bed...

 and three TVs!

Yes, three! One in the sitting area, one in front of the bed and one above the wet bar area.

Not that we watched TV much, but it was kinda cool and silly all at the same time!

And...we had a spa tub!

A very enjoyable spa tub!

(side note...the room above us had a spa tub as well. There was a leak coming from it and it dripped, dripped, dripped on us Friday night while we sat in our spa tub! It freaked me out! I kept envisioning the ceiling crashing in on us as we relaxed in our bubbly tub...lol! We reported it when we checked out! Hope they fix that issue before the ceiling falls on someone!)

We had a nice view from the room...

Of the Hotel limos

and the Big City lights!

We met up with hubby's friends for drinks at the local Elk's Lodge and then headed off to dinner later in the evening. Had a great prime rib dinner at the Ruby River Steakhouse which happened to be located just across the street from our hotel. It was great seeing everyone and meeting some new friends as well.

We spent Saturday doing a bit more shopping.

Made a stop at Whole Foods for gluten free food items that I can't purchase locally.

Found a dedicated gluten free bakery at the other end of town called Haven on Earth!

Picked up some yummy gf breads to bring home and had the best gluten free snickerdoodle ever!

Made a trip to Man Land...a.k.a. Cabela's.
Hubby picked up a few things he needed and I found a great buy on a pair of Born shoes!

They were marked down from $99 to $39.99!

Squeeee! Shoes on the cheap....Love it!

Who doesn't love to find shoes on sale...well unless your a man and you think you only need one pair of shoes because they go with everything...lol!

On the way out of town late Saturday afternoon we stopped at BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse for a late lunch. They have amazingly good food and yes, they have a gluten free menu which makes me a happy gal!

We had a great lunch and then hit the road for home!

It was a great little get away and a fun weekend indeed!

Are You Ready?

After a weekend of shopping and baking, I'm still not ready for Christmas! There are still gifts left to purchase and goodies to be delivered to friends! Will it ever get done!? Don't even mention Holiday cards.....we are getting them, but I doubt I'll be sending any! Maybe everyone will get a New Year's card......LOL! Are you all ready for Christmas or are you still scurrying around to get last minute stuff done?

Duty, Weather and Shopping

Well folks, I survived jury duty this past week, survived the wild and wacky weather and survived shopping at Walmart today!

Jury duty was interesting. Since I have never been called to serve before, I was unsure of what to expect. The judge made the whole jury selection process very informative from start to finish. I arrived at 8 a.m. and was finally dismissed at 1 p.m. My name was never called, so I didn't have to go sit in the jury box and go through the question and answer process. I doubt I would have been seated if my name had been called as I work with children and anyone who even remotely had anything to do with children was dismissed. The nature of the case was a tough one, so I am rather glad I didn't get chosen.

The weather this past week was wild and wacky to say the least. We had temps in the 60's, a wind storm with 60 mph gusts and massive dust, rain, snow and now temps in the 30's!

Shopping at Walmart today was interesting! We arrived early and the store seemed fairly empty, which is how I like to shop, empty store, no people, just get it done and over with fast! Half way through the shopping, the store became packed with people...packed with rude, grumpy people! Hayman finally made a beeline for the exit and went out to wait in the car. I hurried through the rest of the shopping as Walmart was not the only stop we had to make and of course, I forgot a few things. Oh well, just wanted to get out of crazyville before the grumpies started wearing off on me.

This coming week will of course be a busy one. My sis arrives on the train Tuesday and will be here through Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone had a great week and is ready for the busy week ahead! Who's cooking the turkey in your house?

Work, Movies and Shopping........

First off, I can't believe that I haven't posted anything since last Tuesday! I'm not sure where the last week went? I had every intention of having wonderful things to post the last few days, but I didn't get around to it. The end of last week at work was busy, busy, busy. My boss asked me to write a "strategic plan" on how I will move our county 4-H program forward and how I will go about putting those plans into action. Upon hearing that from him last Wednesday, my brain seemed to go into shut down mode. Talk about major writers block! I have my thoughts about this "strategic plan" down on paper for the most part....now I just need to organize them into coherent sentences. This project is due on the desk of my superior on Tuesday. No problem, no sweat, piece of cake......piece of cheesecake! And if you think I'm serious about those...well you're wrong. I'm a bit worried that I won't have it done by Tuesday. Every time I sit down to work on it, my brain goes blank! So I'm not going to work on it again until tomorrow...after I'm done cleaning house. Maybe I will have some sort of work related, creative inspiration after a bit of house cleaning. One can only hope...........

Yesterday, I didn't feel to great, so I spent the day on the couch watching movies with Hayman. We watched Space Cowboys and The Bucket List. Good movies, both of them. Then I made Hayman watch P.S. I Love You. That movie is one of my favorites. Hayman didn't know what it was about, so against his better judgement said he would watch it with me. Well about fifteen minutes into the movie, he looked over at me and said, "this is sad, I can't watch this." But he did. He watched the whole movie.....he laughed, he was very quiet in spots, he chuckled and then, well, he got dust in his eye. Yep, dust......the darn dust will make your eyes water every time. I just love a man who's not afraid to get "dust" in his eyes............my big, strong Hayman got a bit teary eyed.

Today we headed to town for some grocery shopping. What a tedious chore that has become. Where I once had plenty of time to grocery shop, now I must find time to fit it in. Good thing I have been a menu planner for years. That is something I started out of necessity....living many, many years in remote locations, sometimes hours away from a large grocery store. Even though we are only roughly thirty miles from town now, I still plan meals and do our major shopping once every two weeks. I still make a trip to the store in between for needed items, but the planning and sticking to the routine saves us money. When I started back to work, a few people said to me that since I would be in town everyday, I would inevitably go to the store every day for items or to pick up stuff for dinner each night. I made a vow to never, ever let that happen. That to me is a waste of money! So I continue to plan, shop accordingly and cook all of our evening meals daily. I believe that a good, home cooked meal and sitting down as a family each night to eat and share our day is of great importance. Call me old fashioned......but last minute food or take out just won't cut it for me.........

Okay, so where was I going when I started telling you about our shopping trip and then got off on a tangent about meals......oh yes, while shopping today, I went down the candy isle. I don't go down that isle often....but today, I was looking for something. As I was walking down the isle, the Dove Chocolates caught my eye. I was given Dove Chocolates in my Secret Santa box at Christmas time. I'm now addicted to them........thank you Red.....=) So today, I spied them.....they beckoned to me......I bought two boxes......Silky Smooth Dark Chocolate Promises and Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate Caramel Promises. As you unwrap these little goodies, there is a message on the underside of the foil wrapper. I unwrapped one right before I started this post. This was my Promise Message...............

"Don't Judge Others or Yourself."

And I will leave you with that thought..........I think I will go make myself a milkshake.