Seasons 52

We went out to dinner tonight with some friends.  We tried a new restaurant (to me) Seasons 52

The Seasons 52 menu is seasonally-inspired with the fresh appeal of the farmer’s market. It represents a unique blend of art and science, with creative offerings designed to excite and surprise the palate.
They feature dining choices that are thoughtfully prepared and in appropriate portion sizes. So their
guests feel the freedom to indulge in a complete dining experience, including their custom flatbreads and signature mini-indulgence desserts, while still feeling good about themselves and their dining choices.

They use natural cooking techniques such as wood-fire grilling, brick-oven cooking and caramelizing vegetables to let the natural flavors shine through. And they execute precision with seasoning, and oil with control and care to ensure just the right amount is used to bring out the great flavor profiles. An added benefit to this style is that our menu items are naturally lower in calories. In fact, they make a promise that nothing on their menu is over 475 calories. The result is great tasting, highly satisfying food that just so happens to be good for you!  And then you can even indulge in these mini desserts!  Just enough for your sweet tooth.  Blueberry Cheesecake and Oren Cookie Mouse and many more that I can't even remember, but they all are served just like this.

I had a wonderful Tiger Shrimp Penne Pasta and market vegetables sautéed in a lemon-basil sauce with Parmesan cheese.  Delicious!

My husband had Fieldale Farms All-Natural BBQ Chicken with Yukon Gold garlic mashed potatoes and fresh roasted corn saladOur friends had Wood-Roasted Pork Tenderloin with herb polenta, broccoli, cremini mushrooms and shallot-Dijon glaze.

Well I thought the whole dining experience was excellent.  The staff was engaging and friendly, and couldn't do enough.
I think they have restaurants in other areas.  I recommend you try them if you ever get the chance.




Well my husband just left for his sleep study.  He has sleep apnea, and tonight they are going to try this breathing machine on him.  He never feels rested when he gets up in the morning and this machine will help him get a good nights sleep.  Sleep Apnea is not good for your heart.  I just hope he can get use to this machine on his nose!

Ok, I think I need to get some work done!  Have an awesome day.

Susan

Crazy Stupid Love

Crazy Stupid Love.

We just saw this movie tonight.  We loved it!  My husband is very hard to please when it comes to movies, and he actually liked this one very much.  It was funny, sad, endearing, smart, great writing and so much more.

Of course seeing Ryan Gosling with out his shirt is a plus.  Nice 6pack!  Steve Carell and his one liners are hysterically funny.  Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how good it was, of course, in my opinion.

Clowning around.....

I have a story and it goes like this.  A long time ago, there was this young married woman who was helping out at church one day with some other women.  They were commenting on the new Christian Clowning that was going on in some churches.  They talked about it for a while and decided to take the course.  Gwynedd Mercy College was offering it at the time.  It was such an interesting course.  Did you know that once a Clown applies their make up they can't speak.  Everything must be done in mime.  The ladies learned all they could.  When they were done the class they spoke to their Pastor and asked if they could preform next Sunday's sermon in mime.  The Pastor was all for it, so they got down to the business of addressing how they would act out the sermon that the Pastor was going to present.  The Pastor decided to participate with them as well, since his wife was one of the women who took the course.  She explained  everything he had to know.  They all made their outfits, and they to had to have some kind of meaning for everything they added to their outfit. When Sunday came they were all a little nervous, but it went off without a hitch and it was very well accepted.  Everyone loved it and thought it was quite meaningful due to the fact that it was done in mime and the quietness of the church.  Here are some of the pictures.

It was amazing, that's all I can say.  Everyone left church with a full heart that day and will never forget that sermon. It was very spiritual.

Now it was around Halloween and the one young lady asked her family if they would be up for putting a skit together and perform it for a few family members where they were going to visit.  They were all up for it.  So the young lady made her husband and three children all Clown outfits.  The young husband had a beard at the time and the young woman wasn't sure if he would let her put his white face on top of the beard.  But the young man who loves his wife dearly said it was OK.  When they were all dressed and ready to go they practiced their skit in mime.  It was about how much God loves us.  The kids were awesome!

As they were performing their act, it brought tears to the young lady's eyes to think how lucky she was to have a family who trusted her with the help of God to make this happen.  The young family that I am talking about is our family.  I have one picture from this event, and it is one of my most prized possessions.  The glass was broken in our move and when I finally got around to fix it, the picture was stuck to the glass.  I took it to a camera shop to see if they could do anything about it.  They explained it would be very expensive, so I just had them scan the picture for me.

My Clown name is Susabelle, which was very meaningful to me.  My Aunt use to call me by that name. The Christian Clowning course was awesome!  We never wanted it to end.

Whishing you all a wonderful Sunday!

Susan

Hodge Podge Wednesday......

FIRST is WEDNESDAY HODGE PODGE from Joyce at From This Side of the Pond. This one is a great way to get to know some wonderful new boggy friends and learn more about some old ones...not that I'm calling anyone OLD, mind you.

1. Do you and your family enjoy camping? What do you enjoy most/like the least when it comes to family camping? When was the last time you camped?

No, no, no, I don't enjoy camping now.  When I was younger we use to camp with our church friends a few times, it was so much fun back then!  My idea of camping is a room at the Hilton!  I can't ever remember taking the kids camping.  I do know they went with the boy scouts, and Indian Princesses.

2. Did you attend a summer camp when you were a kid? Is that a happy or not so happy memory?

I went with a youth group once for a weekend.  We did stay in cabins and that was fun too, but I was a kid and kids like doing things like that especially with friends.

3. Over the course of your life, what have you probably spent more time pondering than anything else?

I guess life, and how to live it to the best that I can along with being a better person.  You sometimes wonder, am I doing this right, am I being a good mother, wife, sister and daughter?  There is a lot to think about in this life here and now.  What is the way to be?  My husbands professor use to ask the class that, and that is something to think about!  Suffice it to say that is what I have been pondering lately.

4. Which of the seven natural wonders of the world would you most like to see? There are many lists of 'wonders' but this is the standard natural wonder list-Mount Everest, The Great Barrier Reef, The Grand Canyon, Victoria Falls, The Harbor of Rio de Janerio, Paricutan Volcano and The Northern Lights.

Well we have seen the Grand Canyon, I know it is beautiful, but it is really just a big hole to me.  I would love to see the Northern Lights.

5. What was your first real job?

Well, when I way younger 14 I guess, I use to work for my Dad.  He had a restaurant and I was a waitress.  I think everyone should be a waitress once in their life.  I think it teaches you how to deal with every kind of person that comes along.  It was an awesome experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world.  But, of course when I was old enough I went to the mall and got a job with Ladybug.  Now I know many of the older ladies know what that brand was!  Everyone want to wear it.  I probably spent more that I ever made, hence I was on my way to becoming a clothes horse!  I am trying to break that habit now.  I may be on a limited income soon.

6. Lemonade or Sweet tea...which do you prefer on a hot summer day?

Lemonade if it is home made.  Ice tea other wise.

7. What is something that always brings a smile to your face?

My grand kiddies, Connor, Ryan and Megan!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I think I am all thought out for today, other than I really have to get to work and finish these projects that I have started!

Hope you all have an awesome day! 

Susan 

Family Day

Well, Christmas eve and Christmas day were wonderful.  We were with family and enjoyed every minute.  As I get older I seem to realize how quickly time passes by.  Like Oprah, I am trying to learn to live in the moment.  Being with family this weekend I tried to do just that.  Sitting there looking at our family as they each opened their gifts was just awesome.  We have been so fortunate to have such a respectful family.  My husband and I just look at each other and we are both thinking, how did we do this?  When you get married people usually don't read books on telling you how to raise good kids.  We have 4 children,  I am not saying that we didn't have our challenges.  Like the time when we were at Penn State for # 1 & #2's graduation, and # 3 was home babysitting # 4 (because he had a playoff game).  # 3 decided to send # 4 to a friends house so he could have his own graduation party.  We received a call from our home town police and said their was a party at our house and what would we like to do.  My husband told the policeman to get everyone out of the house, (of course they were already out of the house due to the fact that one of kid # 3's friend called him and said that he heard on a police scanner that they were directed to our address) and we would handle it when we got home the next day.  Kid # 3 lost his privilege of going to senior week.  So we did have a few problems along the way, and thankfully we all made it through those rough teenage year.  When we are all together and reminiscing about things that happened growing up, that story has been the topic of many a conversations at our dinner table.  We can all laugh about it now.  All I can say is that we have been blessed.
I guess the point of the story is that enjoy every minute with your children and loved ones, because it passes all too quickly.  When we talk about retirement now, we think we should have saved more money when we were younger.  We both look at each other and laugh because who would have ever thought when we were younger that we would grow old, but that is a story for another time.