Burger Sliders and the Children's Home (FUMCH)

Hubby made homemade Burger Sliders and they were delicious! Cheese, onions, pickles plus deep fried french fries and coleslaw on the side. Love his supper surprises!
The recipe is at "make dinner easy dot com" or go to better recipes blog.
Bake the burger mixture:

Buy small dinner rolls, slice whatever you wish to have on your sliders:

Bake the burger, then add the sliced cheese:

Add french fries and coleslaw!

We also received a donation of Revlon hair products to deliver to the children's home. The truck was loaded down and it was a rainy day! (the cover was just temporary while parked overnight).

 We should have taken a photo of the very low tires! Heavy load!

Thank you to Brad Bloom who arranges for the Home to receive these wonderful products! If there is anything you can/would do for the children's home, learn more at their website or drop us a line! Read past posts about donations!
Today is Friday and we do have a very sad task to do; we are heading out to a Celebration of Life for a co-worker, he was 38 years old. We know his Dad from work very well, the Dad is a retiree from  our company and golfs with Ford each Wednesday morning. So sad to lose a son. Prayers for the Wright family.

The Week Ending Sunday 02/23/2014

Some random and miscellaneous thoughts for this past week.
We started the weekend quietly on Friday evening as AA went to the Orange Park UMC Parent's Night Out. We headed to Bernie's Wine Shop tasting. It was surprisingly enjoyable tasting many reds (Ford was brave and tasted the whites); along with some cheese and crackers, chatting with some locals, all good!
Saturday was grocery shopping, going to the library, playing at a local playground, and cooking dinner at home.
AA reads as many books as is put in front of her. She did select this one by herself at the local library on Saturday. Her first grade teacher regularly sends home chapter books for her to read. This one, over 300 pages, she read yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful days so sat outside and enjoyed reading.

Ford made a new recipe wit bacon and asparagus. The sauce it bakes in was way too sweet. With a few modifications, will be great the next time! We enjoyed the California wine given to us by Mike D'Avico with our salmon dinner.

Ford also made his usual large batch of meatballs and spaghetti sauce, all very yummy!

Sunday, the second Spring U. S. Kids Golf Tournament was to be held. Due to a horrid thunderstorm and rain, now postponed until March 9th. The girls (Alyzabeth, Caiden, Bryn) ran around the Club House, all good. I asked them to show if they were "#1", got a few photos.

Matthew Forte, the Director's little daughter is a cutie, caught this one photo as her Daddy was announcing the rescheduling of the tournament.

Tomorrow, AA and I plan to go to the library and do some shopping; then to meet up with Daddy to practice golfing if the weather cooperates!

Chinese New Year Family Photo - 2014

We enjoy having the annual photo taken at the First Coast (FC) Families with Chinese Children (FCC) celebration. Here is last year's post.

I think this is the best part of the celebration, getting the family together.
However, we don't have all the family at this celebration. Partly because of the cost of the FCC event; we only invited our immediate kids (Justin, Leaa and Alyzabeth). I think it is time to make a home-made Lunar New Year celebration and invite all the family. Several groups in the area host smaller celebrations. Maybe 2015 we will add an "at-home" family celebration. It is the year of the sheep and begins February 18th. Jesse may do a lesson on Chinese music, we can plan crafts for the kids and make wonderful Chinese food like the lettuce wraps I was able to make successfully recently! Along with dumplings, fish, rice flour sweet cake, I think we will try it as a big family event....and call it Jesse's birthday party too :)

Here are a few of the past FC FCC family photos I still have on my computer and handy......or you can see the blog posts here.... 2011.

Happy New Year of the Horse!

Monday - President's Day Activities

We spent a lovely day relaxing, being lazy at home and doing a few errands. We dropped by the Forte's with some toys and clothes AA had outgrown and played nine holes at Eagle Harbor. Eagle Harbor had hosted a three day Hurricane tournament that was just wrapping up. We were able to get on the course the same time as the Members. Such a beautiful day (for wintery February!). Several groups allowed us to play through and many members commented on how they enjoyed watching AA play. A great day for us!

I always like taking a photo of the water slide in the background!

Ball washing routine!

After golfing, we enjoyed some quiet time on the river at the River House, then dinner and bedtime routine! Off to school and work in the morning!
It continued to be great weather, so they played golf again on Tuesday while I was at work. Have to take advantage of the sunny, warm weather!

Saturday - Retirement Party Fun!

It was a fun party at the River House: we had delicious food by Kelly Powell, smooth music by Jesse Cruce (son-in-law). The weather was bright, clear and cool. But not too cold! Perfect for a February evening! Family came along with many SJRPP/JEA retirees and co-workers, about 60 of us had a nice evening together.
The little girls had dinner with us and then stayed at the River Suites with a great babysitter, MF.

Friends Kenny and Pam:

Rose and Bob Sweatland:

Paul and Diana Smith, all the way from Pennsylvania!

JEA Greg Wood and Jennifer:

Jim and Sandy Jackson with Jay Worley in the middle:

 The retired "Staff/Management" from SJRPP (up through 2007):

Beautiful daughter and SIL playing and singing the music:

Mark Wright visiting with Sandy J. and Paul Smith:

I was gifted with lots of wine, a "get ready for the Beach" bag (with wine and sandals), decorator pillows, silver bracelet, cognac, a few items to remind us of our blessings and several gift cards. I won't mention who dared to give me a Steelers' shot glass!! Everyone was too generous! All I wished for was a good evening with friends, which I received! Along with sweet words from Hubby and a great review of my career and praise from Paul Smith.

I didn't get photos of all the guests like: the Wills, Hiers, Hester, Perry's. Nelson's, Aldrich, Daum's, LB, Legow's, Martin's, Kofler's, Glennon's, Jensen's, D'Avico, Jim and Cliffreda Read, Sharon Register........ Plus family: Leaa, Jesse, Nicole, Jordan, Christa, Cathy, Werner, Carolyn, Dawn, Marsha and Carl! Thank you to all who came!

Sunday: The Golf Academy of North FL (TGANF) - Magnolia GC

AA participated in the second event held by TGANF by Coach Brian. The first one was January 26th, click on link here to read about it.
Sunday's event (02/16/14) had fewer children (I think nine girls and boys in the "experienced" group), but we got to golf with local Maren H. (age 11) again; she's going to be a good golfer, booming long drives! Her friend Emma joined this time; her first tournament.

Daddy and Daughter checking the target and how to line up for this hole:

Coach Brian Kibler and AA:

Golfer Maren, won longest drive of the contest!

AA tied with a different boy this time (again) and lost (again) in the paper tie-breaker. I almost cried. Two times now and our girl is called out, listened to Coach Brian to tell her she had a winning score, then tell her to go away as the boy won and got the medal. I don't know how she understands it all. Sometimes I look at her face and see the dismay, but then it disappears. Of course, it is fair how the tie breaker is done. AA just needs to play better to win outright. Maybe next time. Coach did call her out and gave her the smile award for the day...... somewhat awkward after just working through her sadness at winning but not getting first place again.
We did have a little celebration afterwards, treated by our Tennessee friends, the Read's over at Taps Restaurant. Good fun, they always make us laugh and cheer up the world when around them! We said our good-bye's as their weekend visit came to an end and hope to see them next time they are "in town"!