Ball State and The Chocolate Dream

Hi!  Glad you could come to visit for a while.  Grab whatever you’d like to drink and we’ll sit inside.  It hit 70º today, but it never fully felt that warm.  And now that it’s dark outside so it’s even cooler now.

I don’t have anything sweet to offer you.  However, I have to tell you that we just went to Carrabba’s for my youngest’s birthday.  His birthday is actually Tuesday, but we celebrated tonight because his brother is in the last week before his play (which they call Hell week because practice is every day after school until 8:00 or 9:00 pm) and there would be no time for us to celebrate together.  When we go to Carrabba’s, we always get the Chocolate Dream for dessert.  I actually only eat half of my lasagna so I have room to eat up to half of the dessert (we order two).  If you have never had the treat of this wonderful dessert, let me share a picture with you:

It is a chocolate brownie, chocolate mousse, whipped cream, another layer of the same and a rich chocolate sauce all over the top and on the plate.  It is amazing!  If you get the chance to have one, take at least one bite.  YUM!

My youngest will be 15 on Tuesday.  In a couple of weeks my oldest will be 18.  It’s hard to believe they’re this age already and, yet, it seems like it’s taken a long time to get to this age.  I think it seems both feelings fit because I’ve always enjoyed them right where they are in growing up.  I’ve never been the type of mom that looks back and wistfully wishes the boys were still babies, or Kindergartners or whatever stage.  When I see pictures, I always “aww” and say how cute they were and remember certain things.  However, I never want them to be anything other than where they are at the moment.  It’s been a great ride with more trials than I can count.  But the good times outweigh the bad by a landslide.

On Tuesday, my oldest and I went on a college tour of Ball State University.  This is his dad’s and my alma mater.  This was his first choice for college, but then he realized that this is a school of 22,000 students.  It is, by no means, a huge school, but he had decided he liked the really small schools with 1,500 to 2,000 students.  I told him we would go on a tour of the school when classes were in session so he could see if there were too many people.  When I was attending BSU, I always felt like it was like a small midwest town.  When the tour was done, I asked him what he thought and he said it was 2nd…a very close 2nd to University of Evansville.  There are just so many more opportunities Ball State than he would ever get at the really small schools.  We’ll see how it all turns out and where he ends up next year.

The rest of the week was a little slower as far as appointments, but I feel like my mind has gone a mile a minute.  I have a lot going on this coming week, but I’m so, so tired.  I feel like I haven’t slept in days.  I haven’t had much down time.  I had a small period of time on Saturday where no one was home but me (which rarely happens).  When I was done with outside work and had taken a shower, I sat down to drink a meal shake and just relaxed.  It was wonderful.  I really relaxed and it made me realize that I am always ON.  I am always doing something while also thinking about ALL the other projects needing to be done with all I’d like to write about and possible ideas thrown in as well.  I have to find a way to slow down and shut off for a while so I am able to actually do everything I need and want to do.

So, how has your week been?  Are you working on any interesting projects?  I’d love to hear from you.

~ Joanna Lynn

(Weekend Coffee Share is part of Diana’s blog, Part-time Monster Blog.  Stop by and check out Diana’s blog and have coffee with other bloggers, too.)