Yea Judy, Fred and Dottie!

Okay, this posting is not about Maine, it's about Texas. But I don't have (and don't want to start) another blog . . . at least not yet . . . so I'm posting it here.

Background:
I taught elementary school in Dallas for 21 years at The Lamplighter School--an awesome early childhood education school for children ages 3-10. My specialty was math and I L O V E teaching math. I had quite a collection of resources for teaching math. When I retired from Lamplighter, I carefully packed up all of those resources. They represented so many years of fond memories of rewarding work. Fast forward to 8 years later (now). Time is a great healer and after 8 years of storing that stuff, I knew it was an incredible resource collection but I didn't have the emotional attachment anymore. I could've sold all the resources piecemeal in my estate sale but instead I contacted Dottie and Fred at my church. They head up the Outreach Committee and have contacts all over the community. I told them about the collection and asked if they knew of a school that could really use the materials. It took a while since it was summer and school was out, but they found one! Our Lady of Perpetual Help is our parish's sister parish and they have a K-8 school. OLPH was thrilled to take the entire collection. They were going to really focus on improving their math curriculum this year, so the timing was perfect.

I had to leave town before all the connections were made, so I called Judy to ask for help. She's a long time friend (and Virginia's mom) who goes to All Saints, too, and works on the Outreach Committee with Dottie and Fred. She agreed to house the entire collection until the connections were all made. Dr. Mari and I delivered all the stuff (it filled my entire Saturn, including the trunk, back seat, and passenger seat, so Dr. Mari had to follow me over there in her car) late Saturday night before I left town Monday. (What? Procrastinate? Wait to the last minute? Not me!) I was going to call Dottie and Fred before I left to tell them where the stuff was, but somehow never got around to it. But Judy made the connection and by the time I called Dottie today, 3 weeks after I left town, she told me they had already found the perfect home, picked up the stuff, and delivered it to OLPH.

Yeeehah!!

God is soooooo good!

Thank you Judy, Dottie, and Fred!!

Saturday, 8/19/07: great license plate

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8/16/07: Crabcakes and Whoopie Pie

Ooops. This is out of order. But here are photos of our delicious dinner on my last night at OOB with Grace. We went to Bailey's Lobster Pound at lunch to get our lobster rolls and also picked up crab cakes for dinner. They're different from Maryland Crab Cakes but they were oh so yummy. The black is not burnt, it's like blackened cajun seasonings.

And for dessert? Whoopie Pie! A Maine classic.

Does it seem like all we did in OOB was eat? Well, it wasn't. We really worked, and worked hard, but work doesn't photograph well. So all you get to see is what we ate.

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Saturday, 8/19/07: Texas Barbeque in Maine!

I couldn't resist. I've driven by this place several times but it was usually late at night, coming home from an airport. Today, I was on my own schedule, so I stopped in for lunch. This restaurant is run by Mike and Terri. Mike is an El Paso native. He uses real mesquite wood and everything is really yummy. His meats are incredibly tender and moist. The barbecue sauces aren't as good as Spring Creek Barbecue but they were still good.

They do catering, but imagine this: they're already booked for Texas Independence Day 2008! Who else is having a party that day?? I want to meet them! But we can still stop by and pick up a big load of barbecue for takeout.

They're closed tomorrow so that they can take their sons back to college. I love it! Family first.

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