BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02679 Allison found my this giant jar of Chili crisp. She knows how much I love this in my soups and more. I've tried many different versions of this. My favorite is a garlic Chili Crisp that I find at Eugene Henry's on the Cape but that is a rather small jar for $14. This one was $9.99. 

Photo-A-Day #02678 Our family was featured in the Bishop Feehan magazine called Cornerstone. They interviewed me, my mom, my sister Shelby and Eva. They interviewed a few other families as well about multi generational Feehan families. We each talked about our experiences at the school and the things that linked us to our time there like the theater. Eva and I did the most in theater except for my Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim, Aunt Luann and Uncle Richard were all mentioned in the article, too. I like how they put little family trees on each of the articles. There was also an article about the arts at Feehan and how the Choir, Band and Theater all had great events in March and Eva was mentioned by name.

Photo-A-Day #02677 Today at The Pretzel Factory they were twisting pretzels while I was there. When it came time to clean the Stringer they were finishing up and there as a a good pile of dough. I asked if I could try my hand at making something. I tried to make a mortar board for a graduation. It came out looking like a fat stingray.

Photo-A-Day #02676 Tonight was the induction ceremony for the National Junior Honor Society. Andy was inducted. We are very proud of how well Andy has done in school and he's excited for High School.  We've all been reading The Outsiders in the house. Eva read it first and then Andy and then me. Allison is reading it now and once she is done we have the movie from 1983 to watch. Andy's ELA class is now working on the Outsiders and from Andy it seems like his teacher didn't quite read it or get it. It was funny listening to Andy and Eva talking about the book and how major things about the book were being presented to Andy incorrectly but he knows the score so he's gonna do well with this book in school.

Photo-A-Day #02675 Today was Eva's last day at high school. She does have one more exam tomorrow but otherwise she is finished. I can't believe how quickly this all went. We're only a couple months out from college, too. She's been doing a bunch of things all on her own like planning trips with her friends. She even bought a couple tickets to a show near her college for October in plans to go with someone she makes friend with in college. That is great for her. She's also making a couple of online purchases and has finally started using a bit of her Summer Job money to enjoy it. I'm really proud about the concert ticket purchase that she made.

Photo-A-Day #02674 Andy had a fundraiser through school where he had to sell Double Good Popcorn. This stuff was expensive but it was actually really tasty popcorn. My favorite was the Chi - Town Chow Down because it is the mix of caramel and Cheese popcorn. But they also had one that was caramel popcorn with cheese flavor on it. That was really good stuff. 

Photo-A-Day #02673 The raised bed has been filled up and the seedlings that we started in the mini greenhouses have been planted. I put in some stakes to be around the squash and zucchini. We'll try and grow them vertically off the ground a bit.

Photo-A-Day #02672 Today was Mother's Day. I had to sleep but the kids took care of Allison. Andy went to Church in the morning with Allison. We celebrated with a nice meal of swordfish and steak that I grilled for dinner.

Photo-A-Day #02671 I have a new item on my car, it is a solar powered Autobot symbol. I put it on my gas tank door. It lights up at night and goes from red to green and other colors. 

Photo-A-Day #02670 I brought a mess of pretzels in to work tonight. I also brought in one of each of the dips. Yesterday I was saying that I had to try them out and today I gave each a shot. A small amount on this pretzel so that I can speak better of the flavors that I actually like and can recommend to people. I brought them in for my cousins, Shaun. We also shared them with everyone who is upstairs in the building. There are still a ton left for him to take home.

Photo-A-Day #02669 This is our Dip Zone at The Pretzel Factory. I try and make sure that it is always filled with all the correct items. We needed to make a bunch of them each day and I like to organize them in the walk-in when I have some time. There are many flavors. I have not tried them all because they are very sweet. I do recommend the Salted Caramel one and Cinnamon is good. I like all the mustards, too.

Photo-A-Day #02668 I went and picked up my comic books today and it included this Graded comic that I won fromt he raffle on Free Comic Book Day. 9.8 is crazy high too. I'll never read this comic or take it out of the package. I'll probably look to sell it since I don't collect this series.

Photo-A-Day #02667 Tonight was Cinco De Mayo. I made some more Birria meat. I went to Chartley Country Store and picked up a 4.5 lb chuck roast and did it up with the Birria Bomb and the Instant Pot. Allison got some Margarita Mix and I had my one for the year. The consume was good and so were the tacos. Very nice night of food.

Photo-A-Day #02666 With the tree in front of the house having been removed we had to do something to get it looking nicer. Allison and I got some candy corn shrubs to plant on the corner. I also picked up some wood chips to spread around there and I'll have Andy do some weeding soon to get it all looking good. I'm also thinking of adding a big half Whiskey Barrel to the top of the stump and fill it with some flowers. At least till the shrubs grow in and get larger to cover the stump.

Photo-A-Day #02665 Today Allison and I did the Marriage PRep Course for Transfiguration of the Lord Parish. Last night we went to a fun dinner with everyone pictured above plus the team. It was a nice meal and everyone who attended was really nice. We had a whole day of talks and fun exercises to show the engaged couples that they have an additional support system with regards to their marriage. I ran out at lunch and picked up a Crowd Pleaser set of pretzels for everyone. They loved them. 

Photo-A-Day #02664 Today was Free comic Book Day. I made sure that I got over to The Laughing Shield comics to pick up my subscriptions but also some of the free comics. I had intended only o get two free comics, the Energon Universe special and the Dungeon Crawler Carl comic. However, a few other ones caught my eye and I grabbed those, too. We had a limit of 10 comics per person and so I got 8 total. There was a Supernatural one as well as The Greatest American Hero which actually looks very interesting and a fun one to continue with. I have been watching the old episodes on Amazon Prime from time to time. I also picked up a set of comic books because they had special covers. I had been eyeing them for months and today they were 20% off so I pulled the trigger on those. They were special covers of G.I. JOE featuring 5 of the Dreadnoks. I thought that they would be nice additions to my collection.

Photo-A-Day #02663 Today was Eva's Senior Prom. She's been working on her outfit for a very long time and she and her friend Aviva matched up with each other perfectly. They were so excited for the event. I picked Eva up from school today and took her to lunch at K.C.'s Burger Bar for lunch before taking her to get her hair cut. I then took her home so she could get ready. Eva even put on some very pretty fake nails for the event. Everything she did with her outfit matched up so well from makeup to nails and also wearing Allison's wedding jewelry (necklace and earrings). Aviva arrived around 5 O'Clock. She had made special bouquets for she and Eva.  They were very beautiful and Eva was thrilled. The two young ladies looked fantastic in their outfits. We took photos in the backyard and also some under the trellises. We also took some by the Rhododendron bush. I wish that it had been in bloom but there was nothing in bloom around. The nice tree int eh backyard bloomed...