Who says nothing's free?

I've already shared with you some of the not-so-fun part of our trip to Abilene, so I thought it only fair to share some of the perks of the trip with you, as well.

On our way out of town I drove through a local coffee shop (the same one that has so graciously put up with me on the numerous times I've ordered before realizing I didn't have my purse). Anyway, this time I had my purse with me, but when I got to the window to pay for our two large fraps the guy said since it was me there was no charge. When I asked him why he said that he remembered the last time he waited on me that they had made a mistake in my order and he had determined that the next time he saw me it would be on the house. Can you believe that? I thought it was very sweet and just another reason I'll remain their loyal customer for life!

Then 5 hours later after checking into our hotel I took Monk, American Boy, and Baby Lu to Outback steakhouse for a special treat. (We almost never eat out and certainly NEVER eat out at places that cost as much as Outback.) Since I only had 3 kids with me and we had to do something for supper I thought I'd splurge. Obviously we don't get out much because I wasn't thinking about it being the Friday night rush. It took them forever to seat us and then when we finally got our meals they served me a hockey puck instead of a steak. The waiter felt very bad about it and offered to send it back but by that time it was already 8:30 and I needed to get Baby Lu to bed ASAP. I told them not to worry about it to just bring me the check and the manager came by and said our meal was on the house. Not bad for one day, huh?

As we were leaving Monk was complaining that he didn't like places like that, "dark, dirty, with greasy food" in his words. I said, "But Monk they gave us a $50 meal for free." His reply: "Oh, well for being free that was pretty good."

And finally, Monk left the swim meet with 3 big moonpie "medals" around his neck. I guess they weren't exactly free since he had to swim fast for them, but they were free to me. Who says nothing's free in life?

This picture has nothing to do with anything except I thought it was cute. Baby Lu looked around at the meet and noticed all the other girls had swim caps on so she insisted on wearing one, too.