Shave Ice – Asbery's Echoes

Back To Normal

I love our small town parade. So much patriotism, lots of kids, old cars, horses and fun! See the green and gray building in the background? This old car belongs to an old schoolmate of mine and his passenger is an old friend who worked with my mom at the bank. Her husband was my government and econ teacher in high school. My dad had his barbershop in the right half of that building for years. And there was a laundromat on the left side. Once in awhile my sister and I got to go over to the laundromat and visit August and get a bottle of pop! Now I get my taxes done there and I get my hair cut in the back. At one time the upstairs of this building was a hospital – that was long before I was born!

Wow – we had a busy last few days! We sold shave ice on the 3rd and the 4th, the weather was unbearably hot and humid (which is good for selling shave ice but hard on these old bodies!), our freezer decided to misbehave during this time so we dealt with that, the 4th of July parade, getting the camper ready for camping on the 5th, the freezer apparently had some stale water in a drippan underneath that provided us with one horrible horrible smell that had to be taken care of, finally made it to the campground, had beautiful camping weather, managed to get in lots of stitching and relaxing, babysitting Bayah at the campground Friday night, a wedding reception in Bettendorf on Saturday night for my cousin, home with the camper yesterday, over to Dad and Mom’s last night to retrieve all our meat to put back in the freezer that is now up and running again. We had lots of fun but today I’m thankful to get back to normal!

Drew got to watch the parade with two of his buddies he hadn’t seen school let out in the spring!

Braxton won the greased pig contest in his age group – he was so proud!

There’s nothing better than breakfast prepared by the hubby over an open fire!

Drew put a few miles on his scooter over the weekend!

Little Miss Bayah spent the evening with us while Daddy, Mommy and big brother went bowling to celebrate a birthday. Drew was thrilled to get to spend some time with her!

Since it was just Joe, Drew and I camping this weekend we had a lot of free time – I chose to stitch – of course!

Busy Busy Weekend

We had a busy busy weekend. We spent Saturday selling shave ice – it turned out to be a beautiful day. Rain in the morning then it cleared off. Not too hot, a little breeze. A perfect day for a wonderful benefit day for Cale Jarmes. Then Sunday was spent getting the camper ready for our coming trip. Joe worked on the outside, I worked on the inside. It’s sparkly, shiny clean on the outside and organized and clean on the inside! (All except the toy cupboard. That will have to wait for a day I don’t have Drew around). Now to get salads and desserts made and clothes packed and we’ll be ready for a fun family weekend. We also took a break one eveninb, got some ice cream and drove out to Belva Deer where we saw this sweet Canadian Geese family going for a walk. They didn’t even care that we were behind them – they just kept waddling towards the pond!

Getting Ready

Wow – where did Wednesday go? A day sure flies by when you’re busy! No nice slow summer days around here for awhile. I started getting food ready today for our family camping trip next weekend. Barbecue Chicken and Sloppy Joe’s are in the freezer. They make great quick lunches – just warm them up, slap on a bun, add some carrot sticks and fruit – perfect quick meal! Next week I’ll make a couple salads and a dessert, grab some things out of the freezer and we should be good to go – food wise anyway!

While the chicken was cooking away in the crock pot and before I scrambled up the hamburger for Sloppy Joe’s – I worked on getting shave ice ready. Every year I think it won’t take long and every year while diving into it – I realize it’s going to take at least two days to get everything ready! We are selling this Saturday at a Fun Day being put on in remembrance of a young man who passed away last year in a car accident. His family is putting it on – all freewill – and they have a huge day planned. Lots of food, games, tournaments, entertainment and fellowship. It should be lots of fun. So today I started cleaning out the trailer, cleaning all the jugs and supplies, and started mixing up flavors. What a job!

I ran out of sugar and had Joe stop at WalMart on his way home from work to pick up more. Which worked out fine because he had to stop there anyway to get a tire for the trailer. We weren’t going to get far with the old one as it was flat as a pancake! I had thought I would mix up some more syrup when he got home but by the time supper was over, all my camping food was in the freezer and the kitchen was cleaned up – I was just too tired. It shouldn’t take too long to get the rest mixed up and ready to go though – now that everything has been organized and cleaned up. And come the 4th of July – all I’ll have to do is make sure we have enough syrup mixed up – all the hard work will have already been done. Yeah!

National Night Out

National Night Out was a huge success again! Our City Police Department puts this on the first Tuesday in August every year and they do such a wonderful job. The kids have a blast – they come home with a bag full of stuff – pens, balloons, tattoos, koozies, t-shirts, balls, juice boxes, candy, etc. And the community donates prizes galore. This year they had six bicycles to give away! It’s such a wonderful way for the kids to interact with our City Police and our Sheriff’s Department and to make them feel comfortable talking to them and being around them. It’s just a great evening for all involved and we’re happy to be asked to be there and participate with our shave ice!

I don’t get to wander around and really see all the fun things going on. I only get to see a very small piece of the action as I can’t leave our stand. We stay busy the whole night! Our square is blocked off and the stands are set up on the street. We set up in the courtyard. There were water fights on the south side of the square and bouncy houses were set up on the east side. And so much free entertainment provided by our very talented locals in the community. There was a petting zoo set up too. And pizza and kettle corn. A fun night held just for the kids in the community!

Yesterday we slept in after having been up late selling. Then we made our grocery list for the weekend and off to Osky we went to Fareway. Today I’ll be making salads and packing up the camper for our fun yearly camping trip to Clear Lake. We’re planning on leaving tomorrow morning around 10:00. No rush just enjoying the trip there. It should be a fun weekend for sure!