Our productive weekend...

So this weekend was Joe's 3 day weekend. He gets them every other week. Not bad, right? We had an unusually busy weekend but it turned out to be pretty awesome.

As I've mentioned, I've been working with the HS cheer squad this past month. I'm mostly teaching gymnastics and being a second set of eyes for the coach. She runs a great program and the kids involved are great to work with. This past weekend was their Homecoming weekend. In all the craziness of my week, I did not realize it but the school pep rally was at the same time as my Key Spouse training session, so I had to miss it. I was bummed not to be there but heard the girls did well. After that was the parade through housing and then off to the town pep rally and game. It was really nice to be part of an organization again. To be able to watch a routine, secretly know of the mistakes and inwardly celebrate the victories. They did a great job and I was so impressed at how fast it was all thrown together. They learned quickly and put on a good show. We only stayed until half time, even though it was an exciting game. We heard they won!

After the game, one of the guys on Joe's shift was having his daughter's first birthday party. We were invited and went for a bit. It was nice to meet the guys that Joe works with and of course, he had to introduce me as the girl that bakes for them every other week. They were very grateful, as always guys are when it comes to baked goods ... or anything they do not have to do for themselves for that matter. Since we all know how much of a partier I am NOT these days, I didn't stay long. Instead, I walked our friend Erin and her very young are, Blaine (Who called me Miss Nickels) to their house to relax after a long day.

Yesterday, we both slept in, but for different reasons. Joe, of course, was hungover I'm sure. I was just exhausted. After discussing that we did not want to sit in the house and unpack, for yet another weekend, We decided to go up to Seville to visit Ikea. We're almost done with the house but need a few pieces of furniture to finish it and be able to unpack the last bit. In particular, I want two bookcases and since I have one from Ikea from about 10 years ago that's still in great shape, I'm sold on buying from there again. We hiked all the way up, an hour and a half away, only to learn two things .... (1) do not shop on a Saturday in Spain unless you want to be trampled on and (2) call before you drive an hour and a half for an item. Ha!

The store was so packed and Spanish people have NO sense of personal space. So we were pushed, nudged and crowded around. Thank God neither of us is claustrophobic or we'd be in big trouble! I've been to crazy concerts that weren't as crowded.

On the way back, we went a different way home and saw some neat things. We drove past miles of farms. The farmers had plowed their fields and were burning piles of shrubs so there were these huge clouds drifting up every so often. It did not smell like the burning leaves smell that I remember from being at my Grandmom's when I was a kid ( and it was still legal to burn). It did not smell great at all. But with the sun setting in the background, driving past all the farm fields was pretty relaxing.

Then we came upon the wind farms. There must have been 20 windmills right to the side of us and they look so graceful up close. They're just so unexpected to see in herds like that. As we got into town, we had to kill some time before we could go for dinner, since the restaurant did not open until 8 pm Remember, in Spain, people dinner until pretty late at night. So we went to Fuentebravia, which is right outside our base gate, to the beach. We watched what we could of the sunset. The rest the clouds blocked. It was such a great ending to the day.

We finally made it to dinner around 8:00 and went to one of Joe's favorite spots, Bailey's, which is a steakhouse near base. I was skeptical but conceded when I could literally cut my steak with a fork. I never understood that expression until I had that steak last night. It was SO yummy. My mistake was ordering sangria there. Some recipes call for liquors like Brandy and this restaurant DEFINITELY used something because it was so strong I had to sip on it. It was like drinking straight liquor. I didn't make it through the whole huge glass they brought me but enjoyed the bit I had.

We made it home by 10 and watched Joe's new Car's Blue Ray DVD that he was super excited to try in his new PS3. Guys and their electronics... ha!

We concluded our weekend with a productive, but relaxing day today. We did some necessary shopping, hung the bedroom tv, did a deep clean of the house and then enjoyed our traditional Sunday pasta dinner. I feel like we ran around like crazy but had one of the best weekends that I can remember for a while.

The only thing that could have made it even better was being able to watch my Eagles tonight... no such luck. Only the Giants. Oh well. Maybe next weekend.