Our wonderful weekend

This past weekend, we had some of the best fun we’ve had in a long time around here, even though none of our activities included DH because he had to work. That stinks, but that’s the way it is, for now.

Our weekend started last Friday night with a concert — one of my favorite forms of entertainment. MercyMe, Aaron Shust and Monk & Neagle came to the Wicomico Civic Center, which is only about 10 minutes away! How could I resist this… a Christian concert in my neck of the woods! There’s no way, especially since I learned that MercyMe’s lead singer, Bart Millard, had a five-year-old son (Sam) who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was two.

Although Corey thought it took too long and was a bit too loud, it was an excellent show. The praise and worship was intense and very heartfelt, with the entire crowd singing some songs while the lead singer kept silent. During other songs, we certainly made a most joyful noise unto the Lord! It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had in my Christian walk, yet I know there will be others that far surpass this concert. In between songs, Corey was looking around at all the people and asked me, “All these people are Christians??!!” All I could say was that most of them probably were or they wouldn’t be there, and if they weren’t, they probably would be before the concert was over!

After the show, we got to meet MercyMe, and all the band members signed my CD and Cody’s t-shirt! We also got to talk to them and introduced Corey to Bart, who asked if he was taking shots or using the pump. When I said that he had only been on the pump a week, he seemed very interested and said they had been considering it for Sam but weren’t sure yet. There was a huge line of people waiting to meet them and get autographs so we kept moving after we thanked them for a great concert. After we left, I wondered why I didn’t thank them for coming to our area too, because Salisbury, MD, is nowhere near the size of say, Washington, D.C., or even Baltimore. Well-known bands usually skip us, but I’m grateful they decided to include Delmarva in their tour itinerary.

Sadly, there aren’t any concert photos to speak of except the ones on my cell phone, but I don’t have a cable to download them to my PC.

On Saturday, we headed to Ocean City, MD, with my MIL (Nana) for a number of special events, including the 10th Annual Endless Summer Cruisin’, Oktoberfest and the MSNA (Maryland State Numismatic Association) Coin Show, in which my FIL (Pop-Pop) was a vendor. As an avid coin collector, he attends coin club meetings and goes to shows on a regular basis. From what I’ve heard, he successfully sold some coins, too! Way to go, Pop-Pop!

The car show was expensive with a $10 admission price, so we didn’t venture inside the fence but stayed on the perimeter and took some photos. The boys had a great time seeing all the hot rods and custom cars that were there, especially when some of the drivers were prone to showing off their fancy rides to whoever was watching, and there were a lot of people seated all along Coastal Highway waiting with cameras and camcorders ready for such a moment.

At the Boardwalk, we also let the boys get on some of the rides. On the right is Corey’s first time on the bumper cars, kiddie-style, of course. I had to coerce Cody to get on the teacup ride with his little brother, and even though he gave me his version on the evil-eye for it, he had a blast! The teacup was spinning so fast, Corey couldn’t hold his head up at one point!

Oktoberfest, held at the Convention Center at the same time as the coin show, also had an arts and crafts show. Hoping to pick up something interesting for one of my swap pals, I was sorely disappointed in what was offered by the vendors. To say it was pathetic as far as crafts shows go is a serious understatement. There wasn’t a single thing I was interested in.

We should have known this festival wouldn’t be the best when we walked in, because the music playing for Oktoberfest was from the ’50s era! That’s a bad omen right there, but we went in and tried to enjoy ourselves. Eventually they played some German music and dancers came out in traditional German attire and danced some traditional German dances (I’m guessing).

We also had some German-type food; bratwurst, knockwurst, sauerkraut, pickles, hot German potato salad (I realized I really like my potato salad cold), and carrot cake. I tried to talk Corey into getting the German chocolate cake, but he wouldn’t have anything to do with it. The food was alright, but the carrot cake was the best! German food is not my favorite, by far, but Mexican food — I could eat Mexican food every day of the week!

The entire time we were eating, Corey kept bugging me to go see if the puppet show guy was back at his booth. That was one of the best surprises I had all day; a blast from the past, actually. When I was in my pre- and early teens, my friend’s mom would pick me up and take us to Skateland in Ocean City every Friday night. That was our thing at the time… a lot of our friends from school would be there and we always had a lot of fun. Sometimes Puppetman Jim would be there on rollerskates with his large puppets entertaining the kids in the rink. I can’t remember, but I think his puppets would have on rollerskates too. But this guy was good at puppeteering, and he had that kind of personality that kids were attracted to. Anyhow, I have a lot of memories of this man from 25 years ago so you can imagine my surprise when we came upon him at Oktoberfest. He’s still around, and he still looks the same as he did back then! He was working the puppets for MY kids, the same as he did when I was a kid, the same age as my Cody. It’s uncanny! The kids both came home with a puppet; Cody chose a green alien wearing a silver space suit, and Corey chose a brachiosaurus.

On Sunday, I left the boys and DH home to go to the knitting group that meets at Barnes & Noble, and scored two balls of Dale Garn Baby Ull in a banana yellow color for FREE. One of the ladies was giving away some of her stash yarn that she didn’t want because Stitches East is this weekend and she’s making room for the new yarn she’ll be getting. This yarn is excellent for socks, there’s enough for one pair, and I’m planning to overdye them because I have an aversion to yellow socks. Really. To make a long story from my childhood short, the last time I wore yellow socks, a raccoon bit my foot.

After that, knitting at Panera Bread with the Delmarva Knitters group, where I finished the first block of the baby log cabin blanket I’m going to try to make from Mason Dixon Knitting, just to use up some of my stash. Before I started knitting, I got the chipotle chicken sandwich and fiesta con queso soup with a pumpkin spice latte, and it was delicious. Blogless Janice came out and I knit a green stem for her baby pumpkin hat that she knit with a Knifty Knitter loom, and I used cable needles (for crying out loud!) to knit it because I didn’t have any extra needles with me. Necessity is the mother of invention, someone once said!

Early this afternoon, I asked Corey to get the mail for me, and while I was brushing my hair in the bathroom, he was looking for his shoes and socks. Then I overheard him say, “You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do, and what I’ve gotta do is wear dirty socks.” I guess it’s time for me to do the laundry now — LOL!