A very nice week

Last night’s fireworks ended a great week.  Work was uneventful and quite enjoyable and really stress free.  I even got to have a nice sunset as I was loading one of our flights.  The air force boys have been extremely helpful on our flights too, it just make life so much easier.

Yesterday I had a day off and I thought I would treat myself to a pedicure.  It has been months sense I have had one.   Before things got really busy the last few months we used to go to a really nice nail salon as a family and get our feet pampered once a month when I would get back from traveling.   I think we really need to get back to doing that if we can squeeze in the time.  I was always a bonding experience for us.   I went to this nail salon just up the road yesterday mostly because it is so close to walk to, I have not really heard much about it but it always seems busy when I go by though.   I was pleasantly surprise at the experience.   I got a hot stone pedicure, and it was so good!   At the end after they massage your legs the use hot stones to finish the massage.  I really enjoyed the heat of the stones and the smooth stones, it was really soothing.   After they painted my nails the brought me out to a round table to dry the polish.  This is where I was caught off guard for sure!  They proceeded to give you a nice neck and back massage.  For the people that know me I’m a little weird on my body space and people that I don’t know touching me really bothers me.  I think for that reason I have never choose to get any kind of messages, even though I have always wondered it if would be good or not.   I really enjoyed the neck and back message so much,  I would go back just for that any day J   I would have to say that going there was the most pleasant experience I have had at a nail salon ever.

Graduation week

Well last week was incredibly busy for our family.  I drove home from work in PA on the 23^rd to get home for Christa’s graduation from 5^th grade.   It seems like the years have flown by, I can’t believe our baby in going to be a 6^th grader next year!   She was I a talent show last week as well and got a nice trophy for her dance.   I so wish I could have been there for her performance.  

Then on the 24^th my parents came to town.  It has been over 2 years sense I have seen my dad and a year sense I have seen my mom.  I think because of the not seeing each other for so long and the already strained relationship sure made it hard for all of us.    Tina’s mom came a day later to add the stress to a new level.   Now the grandparents get jealous of how much time each one gets to spend with the girls.

  

Saturday was our big day though; Brenna had her high school graduation!   Both Tina and I are so proud of her and how hard she worked to get to that point.  It was so nice to have all the family together to support her.  Tina and I were reflecting on how fast the time seemed to go by.  It just seems like yesterday when she was going to her 1^st day of school in Sitka.  Over the last two years we have seen how she has blossomed into a nice young woman.   I can’t wait to see what she does in her future.

Coffee Time

Tina and I have found a new hang out.  We have been going to a place called the Single Smile Café.  We just love this cute little coffee shop.  I get my new usual a large coffee and a plane bagel with peanut butter on it.  Tina is the more adventurous and tries new things there. We love the atmosphere,  we also like that they have a piano playing music.  We find that the piano music is really relaxing to us. I think for me the best part of going there is spending the time with Tina though.

The Single Smile Café reminds us of when Tina and I were going to Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, AK.  Tina worked at this place called Coffee Express.  She was always so good to me; she would make me these triple sized turkey or ham sandwiches.  We were just young college students madly in love with each other.  At that time we lived just right around the corner in this place we called “Crack Alley”.  Because we were poor college students it was all we could really afford, but it was our own and we were off campus J

Crack Alley sure left us with all kinds of great memories, mostly because of the characters that lived in the units around us.  We had names for all of them, the walls were paper thin so their names would represent what we would could hear about them through the walls.    My parents were so worried about Tina and I getting a apartment together, in their eyes we were living in sin.  Of course they didn’t know about the last few semesters prior to that of the "co-habitation" that I did in her dorm room.  One of my best memories though about this place was the day that we went to the justice of peace a few blocks away and got married.  It sure was one of the best things we have done as a couple.