Why I "Like" Gabby's Burgers and Fries

In case you've ever wondered, interesting phone calls come into the church office all of the time. In fact, I could probably start a blog to document these phone calls, or at least begin a new feature on my blog.

Case in point: This morning a guy called and told me that he owns Gabby's Burgers and had found some purses in his dumpster, one of which had a church bulletin from Grace inside. He had Googled our church to get the number and was very interested in helping the owner of the purse (turned out it was a tote bag--and if you're a woman like me who carries both, you know the difference) get her belongings back. One thing that was in the bag was a Bible and this guy was willing to go out of his way to bring it to our office to see if we could find the owner.

I had recently seen a friend from church post on Facebook about having had her purse stolen from a car while in the lot of a local park, so I was ready to put two and two together and get this bag back to that friend. I asked the guy on the phone where his restaurant is located (by Greer Stadium, at 493 Humphreys, if you're interested), and that is WAY away from the park where my friend had her purse stolen.

When the restaurant owner walked into the church office with the bags/purses, I immediately saw a red bag that belongs to a different friend of mine and the other purse had some ID of a person who I didn't know. I called my "red bag friend" and she said that she had had her purse stolen while she was kayaking not far from the park where the other friend's purse was taken (stay with me, I know this is confusing). My "red bag friend" was ecstatic to know that her bag had been found (the bag itself has sentimental value), plus the only thing missing was a ten dollar bill! Her prescription glasses were still there. Her house key. Her driver's license. All there. Praise the Lord!

While she was still on the line, she told me to tell the restaurant owner that he was an answer to prayer. He thanked me, but he was eager to get back to Googling the address found in the other purse (since we didn't know that person) and he soon left to continue being a Good Samaritan (loose reference, since the Good Samaritan in the Bible was caring for someone beaten up and left on the side of the road, not returning purses found in dumpsters, but you get the idea).

 I did some Googling of my own and found the website for his restaurant, Gabby's Burgers and Fries and can't wait to go eat there sometime soon (I purposely chose that page to link to instead of their homepage so you can read the story). I also went on Facebook and "liked" his place, even though I haven't eaten there yet. Sometimes, it's just the right thing to do, especially when someone else has done the right thing first.

Erica is Four!

Today is Erica's fourth birthday! As excited as I was to meet her and hold her when she was born, I think she surpassed that excitement in anticipation of her birthday this year. She was thrilled to get a special outing to the zoo with her friend, Colette, from preschool.

Erica: "Aunt Nette, would you make a birthday card for me and for Colette?"
Me: I think I could do that (and of course, I did!)

After the zoo outing and naps, we got together for Erica's family birthday party, complete with presents and cupcakes and her choice of chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries for dinner. I had made a banner similar to the one for Mary Lane's birthday, but I put some flamingos on Erica's, since that is her favorite animal to see at the zoo.

Here are some pictures of the exuberant four-year-old:

Photo album customized with Smilebox

Walkin' in Memphis

At the end of July, our whole family took a weekend trip to visit Uncle Bud and Aunt Vickie who live in Memphis. They have lived there a long time (Vickie was born and raised there) and we've been to see them lots of times. But this time, we decided to be tourists for the afternoon.

With Daniel's strong interest in music, we thought it would be fun to go check out Beale Street and some of the musical connections in Memphis (we didn't make it to Graceland). Since it was very hot, we opted to walk a "few feet off of Beale" to the Rock and Soul Museum, which happens to be adjacent to the FedEx Forum, where the Memphis Grizzlies play basketball. Later that evening, we met up with the rest of the fam and ate dinner at a restaurant on Beale Street and then went to see a Memphis Redbirds baseball game (the stadium is also in downtown Memphis).

The museum was curated with the help of the Smithsonian Institute, so it's not too shabby. Lots of fun musical memorabilia and juke boxes with music from the 40s, 50s and 60s to listen to (or dance to, if you're a woman off of a tour bus who was reliving her youth . . . not anyone we knew, but she was comical to watch).

Before we went downtown on Saturday, we also spent some time in Germantown, outside of Memphis, at a park (again, it was HOT) and walking around a shaded outdoor museum of sorts with an old-timey jail and fire truck and train caboose.

It was a fun trip and we enjoyed getting to spend time with Bud and Vickie and various other relatives and friends of the family.

Now for the pictures:

Swinging at the park

A little piece of shade

Mary Lane liked this "little boy" and thought he was crying.

Erica and Grandma in jail

Someone's peeking around the ladder on the back of the red caboose

Smile!

Daniel was conveniently wearing his U2 shirt that day, so it was a great photo op

Our dinner destination

Uncle Bud, Aunt Vickie and Erica

Vickie's sister, Valerie, and Erica became buddies

Vickie and Bud own the jewelry store that sponsors the "Kiss Cam"

My cousin, Scott, and his wife, Sonnia

Vickie's nephew, Cole, with Daniel and Vickie

Thirteenth First Day of School

Well, I'm behind on posting again (why do I put such high expectations on myself?) and I also wasn't able to find all of the pictures that I wanted for this post. So . . . I'll just have to improvise and adjust my expectations.

Last Wednesday (yes, August 1st) was Daniel's last first day of school, or with a more positive spin, his thirteenth first day of school. Yikes!

I sure couldn't really imagine what that day would be like when I took him to Kindergarten on August 17, 2000. I remember that he was nervous, but was very brave and went into his classroom and sat down to color at his new desk. After the appropriate amount of time, we left and he didn't cry . . . until the next day and the next 50 or 60 or 100 school days after that. Poor guy, he missed his Momma!

Every year I have taken Daniel's picture on the front steps of our house. Here are some of the milestone years:

Senior Year - 2012

8th grade - 2008 (Last year of Meigs Middle School)

4th grade - 2004 (Last year of Tusculum Elementary School)

Kindergarten - 2000

There was one more big difference between Daniel's first day of Kindergarten and his first day of Senior year. When we took him to Tusculum Elementary for his very first day of school, we drove him down the street and walked him to his classroom.

On his last first day of school, Daniel drove himself downtown to Hume-Fogg High School, parked behind the school and strutted into the school to find his own classrooms. Yep, he's a Senior!