Health Inspector Superior

This blog has been written by the anonymous Guest Blogger - aka Don'tknow Who Blogger (DWB). The health inspector of this blog had a very interesting Friday night. A Wal-Mart store in her territory had a fire on Friday afernoon, and had to close down while things got cleaned up and electricty restored. Ms. Health Inspector Superior had to go down and check things out before they could reopen the grocery side of the store. She left the house about 10 pm, inspected from 10:45 to 2:00 AM, and got home about 2:45 AM.

This particular store is the largest volume Wal-Mart in the whole state of Texas (and that's a pretty big state full of Wal-Mart shoppers). She had to decide which food stuffs to inspect and which to accept "as is," like those wrapped, those wrapped but processed (having at any time come into contact with human hands), what about open produce, unrefrigerated but were they exposed to smoke or toxic fumes, and then all the refrigerated or frozen foods. Then she and the store management team went through each section of food types to be inspected, meats, milks and eggs and dairy products, all sorts of frozen and refrigerated foods, the bakery and the in-store Subway shop, etc. She inspected all the refrigerated trailers in the parking lot, where the store had hurried frozen/refrigerated foods out to save them, and go through all the cooler and freezers in the store to see if they were keeping acceptably low temps with the electricity out. This DWB went with her and she was awesome to watch. Attagirl, Carol!

Hey, Grandma

Some folks love Mozart. Some love Brahms. Some love Elvis (why, I am not sure). But to me, the sweetest strains of the most melodious music to my heart were the words "Hey, Grandma!" on a recent trip we took with the two eldest Grands this summer.

We went to see the Illinois Branch, and left with Hannah and Austin in tow. They enjoyed me bringing along some old car toys we had when their Dad used to be a young boy and go on car trips with us. I think we ate at half the Cracker Barrels in the area. We went to the Birthplace of Lincoln, Mammoth Cave, the Smokey Mountains (hiked to a waterfall), and played in Lake Cherokee, near where Grammy and Gramps live, with Grammy and Gramps watching from the hill. We took a tour of Grandpa's old college campus, the University of Tennessee, and, after a quick stop in which they had one last visit with their Great-Grandma Bennett, hurried on back to Bedford, Texas, where the Pait Grandparents took over and enjoyed a few days with them until connecting with the rest of the Bennett Bunch in Oklahoma for some family time. I heartily recommend grandparent trips...the kids were well-behaved, enthusiastic, and enjoyed everything we did with cheerful and loving hearts.


Eating at Cracker Barrel...everyone's favorite on the trip.


Cheerful...and I didn't have to bribe them with candy the way I used to bribe my kids....


Striving to conquer the same games his Dad used to play in the car on trips...


Good hikers! After the fun at the waterfall


Austin wanted to climb this rock on the way up, but was patient, and got to climb it on the way down the mountain.


Grandpa the work horse....made sure we didn't leave anything behind.


Wearing the new hats Grandpa got them to keep the sun off their heads...and Austin wearing his souvenir shirt...which he wore the rest of the trip, between washings.

Some pics from the Illinois part of the trip...


Ellie and Noah at the Children's Museum we took them to while we were in Illinois. Ellie never got bored of getting the small balls to "suck" up the pipes. Noah was proud of the lego structure he built.


Some snuggle time with Grandpa. I'm not sure who was asleep first, Grandpa or Ellie, but I don't think it was Noah! He looks pretty perky!