Timmy's First Communion and Tim Sr.'s visit

Timmy reached a big milestone this past weekend: his first Holy Communion. 

Quick story about that banner: We had been told in advance that while we were at the First Communion retreat a couple weeks ago, we'd be given the materials to take home so we could make the banners at our leisure. What happened instead was we were put in a room for the last hour of the retreat and told to make one NOW. It was like "Go!" and everyone started running around gathering materials. There was no time to plan it out -- just a quick Google image search, Timmy picked one, and then we commenced cutting and gluing at a furious pace. It was like one of those cooking competition shows on TV. Many parent-and-kid teams managed to produce professional looking banners under this pressure, but Timmy's looks like two kids did it. I will say, however, that we had good teamwork, and I enjoyed doing this project with him, especially since we seem to butt heads often these days. He has strong will and big emotions which, once he learns to rein them in, will make him into a great man like his father.

I love the way the light shines through the stained glass windows in the evenings. 

Grandy says it best.

Tim Sr. came down to visit for a few days, and Carolyn would have come with him, but her doctor advised against travel while she recovered from a horrible bout of flu. We missed her. We didn't turn on Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy! for the whole time.😞 Not that there was anything stopping us, but if Grandma had been there, she wouldn't have let us forget! The Bruins game can wait.

While he was here, Tim and I got to use their anniversary gift to us -- dinner for just the two of us at Chef and the Farmer an hour away in Kinston, N.C. I had no idea what to expect, but Tim has watched A Chef's Life on PBS many times, and he had planned ahead what to order. I was glad because I really don't like making these decisions. I worried he was ordering too much food for us, but in the end we only took home half a pizza. The food was to-die-for delicious! We shared all the courses except for our entrees. The beef tartare was my absolute favorite, with the berries and bacon pizza a close second. While he had steak for his entree, he ordered me the North Carolina tile fish with miso pesto and red peas. I devoured it all. Apparently I love red peas, which I heretofore did not know existed. On the way home in the car, I told him we need to come back here one more time before we move. He did not agree, since his experience hadn't been quite as good as mine. His steak had fallen short of his expectations. He does that every time, and there is a growing list of restaurants that he or we have been to, that have stellar reputations, but the steak just is not up to par according to Tim. He'll never learn to not order steak until he gets back to that place in NYC that he hasn't stopped talking about, that set an impossibly high bar for steaks everywhere. He kind of smirked at me and acted like it was going to be a looong while before we go out to a pricey restaurant. I took the opportunity to remind him that "I wasn't this fancy when you met me. This is all your doing. I was like let's go out to Ruby Tuesday, and I'll have a Bud Lite, but then I met you and you made me into a foodie and a 'drinkie' ... and you have yourself to blame for that."

Except for the steak.

(Blogger is insisting that these last two paragraphs be centered rather than aligned left, so I guess I'll just go with it and make the whole thing centered.)

Besides a First Communion and a date night, we spent the rest of our time at soccer games and practices, hanging out at home, or doing our favorite New Bern things -- the waterfront, Cow Cafe, and downtown. This is the prettiest little city to live in, and it's the best time of year for walking around.

Joey is crazy about Grandpa.