Date Night

We wanted to find a local, North Carolina feel restaurant instead of a huge chain place. Frank Chason's Grandson's North Carolina Buffett fit the bill perfectly. It had great southern food, rustic decor and a refreshingly nice staff. We even drank out of handled jars. I tried hushpuppies for the first time, not bad. The restaurant was 30-40 mins away so we rode Lance's bike. Great ride, yummy food and a fantastic date !

Vacations over

So while on vacation I also took a break from the blog. California was awesome but the trip was just too short! It's taken a few days to recover. Today I finally finished unpacking, cleaned the house, cooked some soup and planted some a couple more plants in my patio garden. I wanted to use the ham bone from Easter to make some soup so I found a recipe online and gave it a try. I had to get up at 7am to get the soup simmering. It ended up cooking for about 10 hours. The soup had a nice rich flavor, but wasn't necessarily the best soup I've ever eaten. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner which was great since the soup recipes made 12 servings. My little pot couldn't handle all of it and was constantly bubbling out onto the stove all day long. Lance helped me clean up the stove after dinner and thank goodness the stuff came off. Since we're constantly having power outages with all these storms Lance had me buy a lantern from the store. We have lots of camping stuff but no light other than flashlights. He wanted a fancy propane light but I ended up getting a kerosene lantern. We grew up with them and I know how to work them.

While at the store I found some cucumber and squash plants so I bought them up. We aren't suppose to plant gardens in the ground and I keep moving my garden boxes inside to protect them from the wind so I found some 4 gallon tubs at the dollar store to use for my cucumber and squash plants. I now have a budding patio garden. I have two strawberry plants, a pepper, a tomato and now 4 cucumber and 4 squash plants. Plus the tomato, pepper and strawberry plants are already growing produce. Of course with more storms coming I pulled the plants up into a corner to protect them from the wind.

I'll post some pictures of vacation soon. I'm still trying to catch my breath a bit. Oh and one more thing. I found out that there's a 2 day military spouse conference going on in a couple of weeks. I can't attend the first day, which is mostly craft classes, since I'll be working. But the second day I signed up for and am really excited about. I get to be a soldier for a day, at least some of the more exciting parts about being a soldier (I'm sure they'll skip the hours of waiting around for nothing to happen). I'll get to do PT, an obstacle course, jump from the 34 foot airborne training tower and some other fun stuff which might include simulated shooting. Lance is going to try and come watch but I'm excited to try some crazy things. Plus I'll be able to relate to Lance a little more when he tells me about some of his training. Hope it doesn't get stormed out!

Face Painting

I gots skils. the girls wanted there faces painted at the zoo, but they didn't have enough time. thus i got recruited. I let the girls pick their design from a Google search.

SHAMU!!! SHAMU!!!

We all had a fun at Sea World. we tried to do everything. We saw the shows, fed sea lions and dolphins, got splashed by Shamu, ( hence no picture) rode the rides, got crazy discounts on food, and stayed until they kicked us out.

The Hartung family having a great time at Sea World.

The girls are sitting by the beluga tank, posing with mom and, braving the starfish encounter.

The dolphin show and, Buffy mingling with one of the stars.

We rode Atlantis twice and, I scared some little girls and there families pretending to be a polar bear

A day at the beach

After long time away we got back to the pacific. we had a great time doin the things you do at the beach.

Gwen and cora enjoyed the sand, while Lance and Buffy enjoyed taking pictures.

Peggy and Wendy enjoyed the surf.

And we all enjoyed the company.

A place for stickers

LOVE going to see family, especially little nieces!

Spring

This spring I discovered that we live in a home with flowerbeds, that's really a first for us. There were already some little purple flowers near the house, but they were a little sparse and the tree flower bed was empty. Yesterday I found that small six packs of annuals were only 50 cents at Lowes. Yay for cheap flowers! Today is absolutely beautiful so the cat and I spent the afternoon planting little flowers. I also have a small container garden on our back patio with a tomato, a pepper and two strawberry plants. Everything I tried to plant from seed didn't turn out to well so I bought some already started plants. I hope some of this hard work pays off! At least the front of our house looks good.

I was pulling the trashcan to the street when something slimy touched me. Of course I freaked out and shook whatever it was off of me. Since it was dark I was hoping it was a frog and not a weird bug. Later Lance helped me move some chairs and we found this cute little guy by the trash cans, so it was a frog after all. Good frog, eat all the bugs.

I randomly decided to make some California rolls the other day. Turned out well so I made some more. They're surprisingly easy to make and taste great!

Little Big Zoo

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How about you, you, you? Lance and I had a great time at the zoo today. Of course nothing exciting is close by so we had a nice drive out there. Along the way we found this amazing little town that seems to be a mecca for pottery. The road was officially the Pottery Highway and almost every home in the area was a pottery shop. We didn't have time to stop but we'll probably be headed back to spend a day exploring the little pottery city. It was surprisingly cold so Lance let me wear his huge wind breaker, fantastic for pictures. The zoo we went to is geographically very large, but is still considered a smaller zoo based on the amount of animals housed there. The exhibits were quite large and natural looking, I think we saw some of the happiest zoo animals we've ever seen. We took a tram to the far end of the zoo to start our day in the Africa section. Elephants, giraffe and lions were all out for some photos. We went up on a special giraffe deck to feed the giraffe. Unfortunately they were full when we got there, but it was still fun to see them more at eye level.

After Africa we took a break to act like kids. We bought the combo tickets which included tickets to a Dora the Explorer show and the carousel. I think Lance felt ridiculous standing in line with 3D glasses to see Dora, but it was actually fun listening to the kids yell at Dora. I loved going on the carousel, it reminds me of Mary Poppins. I rode on an Okapi while Lance got to sit on an ostrich next to me. He's a good sport!

The North America part of the zoo had a lot of active bears. First we saw the grizzly bear jump into his pool to go for an afternoon swim. We reached the black bears exhibit as the trainer let them out to hunt for treats. My favorite though was watching the polar bar. Not only was he huge, but he was having a fantastic time throwing his ball up in the air. Very entertaining, I think he was the highlight of our trip. The cougar and bobcats were also awake and paced their enclosures in anticipation of their afternoon snacks. I think we'll end up going back to that zoo again since we had such and enjoyable time. The drive went through some beautiful and unique areas too. Now that were home it's time to clean up and get ready for another week.



Zebras, Giraffe and gorillas at the zoo. The gorilla is the one lying down.


Taking a ride on the carousel. Thank you people for standing in our bison shot.



Lance eating honey in front of the bees. Lance hanging out with the desert animals.


Pretty cool sight, a vampire bat drinking blood. Some baboons having fun.


The polar bear had fun playing games. We drove through a really cool pottery city.

Some hockey and other stuff

Well, it's been a little while since we posted so here's a bit of catch up. Last Saturday we had a fun time going to a local hockey game with a group from Lance's company. It was a minor league game, which means it's was a little grittier and more entertaining. Not only did we win 5-0 but there were about 5 proper fights during the game. The fights may have been influenced by the presence of Darth Vader and some Storm Troopers, they were visiting. The team also hosted a Teddy Bear Toss which involves throwing teddy bears on the ice after the first goal to give to the local hospital. It was definitely a fun night!

Sunday was a bit interesting. Lance had worked a 24 hour shift from Friday to Saturday so he was prepared to completely sleep through church. I was dragging my feet a bit so accepted that we'd be late and fixed Lance an egg breakfast to entice him to get ready and join me for church. He ate and immediately went back to bed. I got to church about half way through and was immediately approached by a guy at church who was looking for Lance. Apparently they want Lance to help out with the Elder's Quorum (think group of guys that do a LOT of service for the families in the area). I had to drive home to get Lance so he could accept the call in person. I made it to the last 20 minutes of church. Thanks Lance.

Monday was also an adventure. I've been getting allergy shots twice a week. They basically inject you with everything you're allergic to in a higher and higher dose until you reach your "maintenance dose." Once you reach your maintenance dose you only have to get a shot once a month. Well I was 4 shots away from that on Monday when I had a severe allergic reaction to the shots. After I got the shot I had to sit and wait 30 minutes since a severe reaction would usually occur during that time. I was the only one in the waiting room and I noticed I had to start coughing a lot. I thought maybe it was something from lunch stuck in my throat so I got a drink of water. A few minutes later my eyes starting itching but since I had new contacts I ignored that too. Then I noticed I was starting to wheeze. I finally got up and found the nurse. I had the entire staff of 3 nurses and the doctor helping me out within a few seconds, which was comforting. Almost immediately after I got the nurse my throat and face really started to swell up. They gave me an Epi shot, a breathing treatment and gave me some other drugs through an IV. I responded pretty quickly to all the drugs, but they made me shaky and sleepy. I didn't have Lance's work number so the nurse kept calling our friends in his unit until someone answered their cell phone (which they aren't suppose to do). Our friend found Lance and sent him to the hospital to find me. I had to wait at the hospital for a couple of hours to make sure my reaction had stopped. Lance took me home and I slept for the rest of the evening. Other than being a little tired I felt fine the next day. It sure would be scary to have a reaction like that without nurses and doctors around. Now my main problem is that since I had a severe reaction I have to jump backwards in the shot schedule which means I'm pretty far away from my maintenance dose. Grrr, I was so close.

Today was a fun relaxing pizza and movie night but we've got a few plans for adventure tomorrow!


Here we are at the game.


Apparently we live in an area full of the dark side, I'm not surprised.


Punch someone in the face then help pick up teddy bears for kids, figures.