Explorations: Clarks' Landing

One of the hardest things about not being a native to my town is not knowing all the awesome things that used to be here before I moved here.  Which is why I am so excited that Clarks' Landing has opened in Kittanning.  Everyone talks about this great restaurant the used to be in town, called Clarks.  Family restaurant, great prices, good food, whats not to love?  Well, it shut down last year, before I ever got to try it.  So, when I learned that it would be reopening at a new location, with a slightly new name, I was super excited to try it out.

Today, I got the chance.


The first thing we noticed as we walked up was the adorable outdoor seating.  I love the bright colored umbrellas, and the nice view of our town.

We walk inside, and we are greeted by a bright, friendly interior.  Everything is shiny and new!  I liked the look of the place, very warm and inviting.

Similarly, the staff were all friendly and helpful.

When we got the menu, I was flabbergasted.

There were so many different things to choose from.  The menu is so extensive, there is no way someone, even the pickiest of eaters, could not find something to suit their palate.  Everything sounded so delicious.  Hubby settled on a burger, and I ordered my favorite, a buffalo chicken salad.  A restaurant's whole reputation, in my opinion, can be won or lost on their buffalo chicken salad.  When the salad came, I took a deep breath, and prepared to make my determination.

Verdict?  Absolutely the best buffalo chicken salad I have had in months, possibly ever.  I have tried them from so many different places in town, and I am telling you, this one was hands down the best in town.  I ate every bite of it.

Hubby also opted for a piece of pie, which looked delicious, but I was too stuffed to even taste it.  He was very happy with it though.

We got a copy of their carry out menu (many more buffalo chicken salads in my future I predict), and I can guarantee we will be back.

Clarks' Landing reopened in the midst of a site that is being redeveloped as Kit-Han-Ne Village.  The plans look gorgeous, and I really hope some more businesses move in, I think it will be great for our town.

How to Save a Life

This week, I had an opportunity, as part of my new job, to be trained in CPR, and learn how to use an automated external dibifillator, or AED.  I hope to goodness I never have to use these skills, but I am thankful I have them.

I have been trained in CPR before, once as part of a CPR/First Aid class in college, and once as part of previous employment training.  I have not held certification in over 10 years (wow, I am old.).  One of the things I loved about the training I had this week was how "home town" it was.  The training was held in a local fire station, and pretty much everyone in the class knew everyone else, except me, I only knew my coworkers.  They talked about things going on in their towns, babies being born, the upcoming fair, it was all so personal.

And because it was so personal, I think everyone took the class really seriously.  Because if we had to use these skills, it most likely would not be on a stranger.  It would be on a friend, a neighbor, or a loved one.  When we got to infant CPR, the instructor talked so frankly about how scary it is to use these skills on a baby, and how upset we would probably get if ever we were in that situation.

Because many of the people in the class were part of the medical and emergency community, I feel like I learned things about CPR that I never knew, like why it is so important to make sure the compressions are deep enough, and why you wait for the chest to completely recoil.  I feel so prepared to use these skills, I just pray I never need to.

It makes me so thankful for the emergency services here in my town, and everywhere.

Word Filled Wednesday: Fruits

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Fruits are evident in my life.  Not the "apples and oranges" kind of fruits, the "goodness and kindness" kinds of fruits mentioned in the passage from Galatians.  These kinds of fruits nourish my soul the way the other kind nourish my body.

These fruits are not always easy for me to see.  I am not the most patient or disciplined of people.  I get anxious a lot.  But when I take a moment to reflect, and trust in God, these fruits become more evident.  However, I must do my fair share of the work.

My job is a perfect example.  The opportunity for a job that was perfectly suited for me arose when I least expected it.  God was clearly opening a window for me to experience fruits of the spirit.  But I had to do my share.  I had to apply, and be patient, and work hard at showing why I was the perfect one for the job.  So I worked, and now am reaping the fruits.

For some people, seeing these fruits seems effortless.  I will never be one of those people.  I have to work really hard at discipline, in order to see the fruits of self control.  I have to work at being kind when I lose my patience.  But the work worth it, to see the fruits, and be so filled with joy, the way I am now.

I will work as hard as I need to, in order to be nourished by these fruits.

Out of Town: Garrett County Bear Trail

As I mentioned, we recently returned to Deep Creek for our friends' wedding.  However, it also served as a little mini holiday for us, so we spent some time just the two of us as well as with the wedding revelers.  We went with no real set plans, and stumbled upon the coolest thing ever.

Our first night there, at the Wisp, we saw this cool, brightly painted wooden bear.  We later came to find out, there was a whole trail of bears, 20 in all, throughout the county.  You got this passport, and each business sponsoring a bear would stamp your passport for you.  At the end, you had the passport verified and were entered to win some cool prizes.  Given that we just did a geotrail this summer, and we completed a search for the Erie frogs earlier this month, this was right up our alley.  Challenge accepted!

We spent parts of the next two days finding the bears.  It was a little tricky being from out of town, we backtracked quite a bit.  But in the end we found all the bears.  We had one left to get, and we decided to hit it up on Sunday, after we checked out.  Much to our dismay, the business that fostered the bear was closed when we got there.

 I called the Discovery Center, who sponsored the Bear Trail, and the worker said if we brought her a picture, we would accept that.  So, in the end, we did finish the trail, and got to enter to win the prizes.

The coolest thing is that these bears will be auctioned off in November, and all proceeds go toward the creation of a Forest Canopy Walkway, which will be gorgeous.  I would love to buy one of these bears, and I think Hubby would too.  He really took a shine to a couple of them, Barnella Quiltbeary and Vinny V.

To see more all my pictures from the Bear Trail, click here.

Do you remember ....... sun tea?

Photo Credit

The other day, I looked out my back door and noticed our neighbor was brewing up a fresh batch of sun tea.  Until I noticed the jar on her sidewalk, I had completely forgotten about sun tea; we used to make it all the time when I was a kid.  

I distinctly remember that we had a small sidewalk at our house, and my mom would put a jar of tea out to brew in the sunshine.  We would leave it there for a few hours, then bring it in to the house to chill it.  It seemed like a little piece of heaven.  But I thought people had pretty much stopped brewing sun tea anymore, since it has a propensity to create bacteria.  Apparently the water has bacteria that is boiled off when making tea the traditional way, but its growth is actually fostered by sun brewing.

As the summer days blaze on, I, like most, tend to increase my fluid intake.  Surprising though, I find myself drinking more coffee.  While a hot drink on a scorcher of a day might seem crazy, I think it is actually the caffeine I am wanting as opposed to the heat.  Sometimes I will even make iced coffee.  I think I would be too nervous making sun tea, because it is just my luck that mine would be chock full of bacteria, and I would get sick.  I guess it is best to leave this drink in the memories of my childhood.

Flocked!

I am beyond blessed to have a wonderful group of friends that I have met through my husband.  Some of the wives of his friends, some are the friends of those friends, and we form this little cohesive group that is unlike anything I have ever experienced.  We have nicknamed ourselves the Real Housewives of Armstrong County.  We try to get together once a month for a girl's night, and try to help celebrate the wonderful things going on in each other's lives.

Erin got to become an official member last weekend, since she was now a wife and not a fiance.  And while the wedding was a celebration of this, we decided that we needed to help officially congratulate them, and specifically Erin for become a full fledged member of the "Real Housewives".  What better way than to flock them?

Flocking is something that people do with flamingo lawn ornaments.  A local youth group is raising money by having people pay to have a neighbor or a friend flocked.  I decided to put a little spin on this, and instead of decorating just the lawn, we decorated their whole house with tropical flamingo decorations.

What couple would not like the luxury of their honeymoon being extended for another day or two?  That is what we did, by decorating their house, and showing them some love.  We even put a couple of home cooked meals in the freezer so they would not need to cook for a couple of days.

One of the great things about living in a small town is that I have had a chance to create such close, meaningful relationships, not only with my friends, but with their families as well.  Erin's sister knew about our little plan, and helped keep the secret until the newlyweds got home today.

It was so fun for us girls to help extended the celebration for a day or two by surprising Erin and Jason.  We truly love them from the bottom of our hearts!

Out of Town: Erie Frogs

If you remember my posts about our trip to Erie in April, you may remember I mentioned the Erie Frogs.  In 2004, The Lake Erie Art Project was named Leap Frog, and consisted of fiberglass frog statues being created and decorated by artists, then placed in different Erie locations.  This was a follow up project to the 2001 Go Fish project, which was of course fish statues.

This is the kind of thing Hubby and I adore, so imagine our excitement when we realized that there was a multistage geocache involving the frogs.  Unfortunately the April snow was not conducive to doing it, so we determined we would return to Erie sometime to complete the cache.  On July 4th, that opportunity arose.

The way the cache is set up, you go to a location, find the frog, answer a question about the frog that results in a number, and plug that number into the correct spot in the coordinate for the final cache.  So, we got up early, packed up the dogs, and headed to the first frog, which is one we had seen on our previous trip.

Some of the frogs were in kind of bad shape, but remember they have been out in the elements for 7 years or so now.  We still had quite a blast finding them all.  

Hubby thinks this one looks like the offspring of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.

Towards the end of the frog hunting, we were getting a little punchy, as you can see.

But finally, we found all the frogs to get the final coordinate. It took less than 2 hours, and was really fun. We plugged the final coordinate in and headed to the final cache location. Unfortunately, when we got there, we saw a big sign that said NO PETS. With it being hot out, I was not going to leave the dogs in the car alone, so I stayed in the car while Hubby went to the final cache location, which was very fitting according to the theme, but that is all I will reveal!

Since Erie is so close, I am sure we will visit again, and I plan on doing more frog hunting.  With over 100 statues, I am sure it will not prove difficult.  

Some people go to the beach during summer, some people go to amusement parks.  Us, we go see odd or unique things in towns and cities nearby.  And I love it.

To see all the pictures I took on our frog hunt, click here.