I don’t think I’m a particularly lucky person.  I have taken tons of surveys and never won anything.  Even when I was a kid I didn’t win.  I remember my Mom dragging me to Bingo at the fire hall but I never won.  Well, except for that one time when I won a dish towel but I don’t think you can count that.    A dish towel?  Really?

A few weeks ago when I checked out at my neighborhood Farm Fresh a survey printed along with my receipt.  When I came home I thought, “what the heck – it will just take a few minutes” so I sat down at my computer and took the survey.  Of course I didn’t think I would ever hear anything.  As a matter of fact, I had myself convinced that Farm Fresh probably didn’t even choose winners.

Imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail from Farm Fresh stating that I was chosen to win $100!  Seriously?  No way!  I was sure it was a scam so I just ignored the e-mail.  Then a few days later I got a phone call from the people who Farm Fresh uses to pick the winners.  Holy cow - was it possible that I could have actually won?  I was told to go back to the e-mail and download a form and fax it back – so I did - but I got it there a day late.  I didn’t hear anything for weeks so I just assumed that my form got there too late and I wasn’t going to be a winner…again.

 Then, a Federal Express package arrived and inside I found this envelope.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I was actually a winner!

Woody was very excited.  He had lots of plans for my $100 gift card to Farm Fresh.  He figured that we should buy lots of steak.  If you know Woody this will not come as a surprise.   So, the next time I went to Farm Fresh to pick up a few things (sorry Woody – no steak) I pulled out my gift card to pay.

When I looked at the gift card something caught my eye.  Apparently, the gift card could be used at several grocery stores but what really jumped out at me was Shop ‘n Save.  No, we don’t have a Shop ‘n Save in our area but I put the card back in my wallet anyway because at that moment I knew the gift card wasn’t meant for me – it was meant for someone very special to me.

Sometimes life takes twists and turns and sometimes there are more bills than there is money.  Sometimes the pipes leak and the electrical outlets blow out.  Sometimes the furnace breaks and breaks again.  Sometimes it’s really hard to figure out where you’ll get the money to pay for the oil to heat your house.  Sometimes life is hard.

My special person is going through a rough financial time right now and I know in my heart that this gift card is meant for her.  I also know that a $100 gift card to a grocery store won’t make everything better but maybe it will help just a little.

I know something else too.  I know that I am lucky.  I’m lucky to have this loving, caring, giving, special person in my life and I’m lucky that I was able to help her in this little way.

Woody and I decided to do something different with the kids when they were here for a visit.  We thought a cruise would be fun so we decided to go to Yorktown and sail on a schooner.  The schooner Alliance is a 105 foot gaff-rigged 3-masted schooner and one of their 2-hour cruises sounded like the ticket.  The guests can help set the sails and I understand that dolphins and egrets are often spotted.  Sounded like a great afternoon to us so off we went!

Josh and Megan were all strapped in and ready to go!  Noah was strapped in and ready to go too but he was hiding.

Schooner Alliance

It was a bright sunny day and we were ready to see the sights of Yorktown.

Noah looks pretty sharp in Ya Ya’s sunglasses.

Here are some of the sights we saw – we passed this fishing boat.

These Coast Guard boats are fast and they were everywhere - not a good idea to misbehave on the water!

A big supply ship was docked at the Naval Weapon’s Station.

How about this little cottage?

A day out with Ya Ya and Ra Ra (aka Woody and Bonnie) wouldn’t be right without ice cream.  Lucky for us Ben & Jerry’s was right across from the boat docks.  It looks like Noah and Woody are starting to look-alike.

What is your fun memory of being with your Grandparents?

THEY’RE HERE!

That’s exactly what Woody and I screamed when we saw the white mini-van pull into our driveway.  Not that we had paced in front of the window for what seemed like hours – of course not!   Jesse, Kristi, the kids, and good old Rex dog were on their way to Jesse’s family reunion and decided to make a pit stop at our house.  Our babies were coming for a visit and we were super excited!  I think we nearly killed each other trying to get out the door first.

It looks like a small dog got butchered in my front yard!  If I hadn’t seen Kristi brush Rex I would have thought just that.  How is it possible for a lab to have this much fur to spare?  Kristi said it was because he was nervous on the trip.  Hmmm…I wonder if he was afraid they would leave him along the way or do you suppose being in the car with four kids for 16 hours did it?

Woody never misses a chance to put Jesse to work when he is here.  He especially likes to give him the jobs that require a ladder so he got Jesse on the job of trimming tree branches.   It turns out that there was another reason to trim the branches.

Look at what Josh made!  How cute is that!  Josh worked very hard on making me a bird house.  He and his Dad designed it, bought all the pieces and parts and created this bird house just for me.

Jesse found a great place for my new bird house on the tree right outside my den window.  Every time I look outside I see my new bird house and remember Josh’s big smile when he gave it to me.  I love that kid…

Apparently, Josh is not the only creative one in the family.  It looks like Noah was working hard too.

Wow – look at that gun!

The days flew by at warp speed and before I knew it everyone was getting back in the mini van to move on to their next adventure.   Maybe Kristi will forget the pain of traveling with 4 kids and a dog and will make the trip home again soon.

What do you do when you live in Yorktown and have out-of-state guests come for a visit?  You take them to the Outer Banks, of course!  Our friends, Henny (short for John Henry), Debbie, and Jake came for a visit so we decided to make a day trip to the Outer Banks.

You can’t go to the Outer Banks without stopping at Morris Farm Market – at least that’s Woody’s rule.  If you have never been there you don’t know what you’re missing.  They have samples of almost everything – it’s kinda like Costco on speed.  We sampled every kind of yummy goodness you can think of; cantaloupe, watermelon, peaches, nuts, wine, pound cake, apple cider, blueberry cider, peach cider, and blackberry cider just to name a few.  Every thing there is fresh and oh so good!

I believe they collect tractors because tractors line the roadway on both sides of the market.  This is one of the tractors you could get on.  I thought it was a Kodak moment so I snapped a picture of Henny (on the left), Jake (driving), and Debbie (on the right).

Here is Hen (short for Henny) and Jake taking a look at a tractor.  The interesting thing is that it was running.  Hmmm, I wonder why?

Oh, now I get it

Seriously, they were actually churning ice cream with the tractor.  I didn’t taste it but if it is as good as everything else it was incredible.  I can honestly say I have never seen anything like that before!

Another thing Woody HAS to do when we go to the beach is get Cajun peanuts.

Two hours into our trip and we hit the sand!  There is nothing like leaving the pavement and driving on the beach.  At this point the windows must go down so we can hear the sounds of the ocean.  Is there anything better?

Here is Hen and Jake getting their toes wet.

This was our camp for the day.  It was a blustery day and the wind was coming off the water so to keep from getting sand-blasted we turned our chairs away from the water.  It was still a B-E-A-U-tiful day and we got to spend it with wonderful friends – what could be better than that?

My Handsome Honey Pie

Look at that face!  This is my cutey patootie husband, Woody.  It was Mother’s Day and of course Woody went to visit his Mom (like every good son should do) but that didn’t stop him from thinking about me.  When he came home from his Mom’s he popped his head in the back door and told me to count to 30 then come to the front door.  I wasn’t sure if I should be intrigued or scared.  Non-the-less, I counted to 30 and when I opened the door this is what I saw.  There was Woody smiling up at me with a huge heart plant hanger.  How sweet was that?   A big heart from my big-hearted hubby.

How cute is this?

Woody knew I had a hanging basket that needed a home and I think it looks so cute hanging in the middle of the heart, don’t you?

Flowers from Shane

I am also blessed to have Shane as my son.  He brought me a very nice card and these b-e-a-u-tiful flowers.  Shane was also nice enough to spend all day with me working on my Cupcake War project.  If you’d like to check out my Cupcake War entry (It just may have been a winner!) you can click here  http://bythebayblog.com/?p=1003

My daughter, Kristi, is the best daughter any Mother could ever dream of having.  She remembered Mother’s Day by sending me a gift from Barnes and Noble.  Unfortunately, I thought it was just an advertisement so I deleted the e-mail….ooops!

Here’s what I found.  Gifts are really nice and I so appreciate everyone thinking of me.  The most important thing to me, however, is to know that my children and my husband are nice, loving, caring, giving people and believe it or not…they love me.  That’s the best gift I could ever receive!

Cupcake War that is. This week I participated in the 2nd Annual Liz Moore Cupcake War.  We do Cupcake War to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughter or CHKD as we lovingly call it.  Here’s how it works:  People enter their best looking and yummiest cupcakes.  Then our doors are open for the public to come in, make a donation to CHKD and get a baker’s box to fill with as many cupcakes as they can fit.  The fun part is that they cast their vote for the best cupcake.  Now, you would think they would vote for the best tasting cupcake but no, it seems that the best presentation wins so I knew that if I was going to enter, I had to go big!

At first, I toyed with the idea of not participating this year but Kristi wouldn’t hear of it.  She came up with the idea of making hamburger cupcakes.  Hamburger cupcakes?  Now, how was I going to win with hamburgers?  Then the creative juices started to flow from the whole family.  This is my hamburger entry.

My 2012 Cupcake War entry

We decided to make a picnic theme.  See the raw hamburgers on the grill?  Woody came up with the idea to make them out of Rice Krispies treats and I think they turned out great!

Rice Krispy treat hamburgers

The charcoal is made out of cupcakes too and just in case you didn’t notice, the grill is smoking.

Smoking grill

Shane spent all day on Mother’s Day figuring out how to hook the fog machine up to the grill.  He hid the fog machine in the styrofoam cooler.  It worked perfectly!

Fries with your burger?

You can’t have burgers without fries so I made fries out of pound cake.  I must admit that I had to go to three cities to find the knife that would make my crinkle cut fries but I think it was worth it.  Oh, the ketchup is buttercream frosting and so is the ketchup, mustard, and lettuce on the hamburger.  The sesame seeds on top of the cupcake bun just added the finishing touch, don’t you think?

Cupcake hamburgers

I don’t know who won yet but regardless our 2nd Annual Liz Moore Cupcake War was a success.  We raised about $2,000 for the kids – how awesome is that?