Our day off TOGETHER! :)

Yesterday morning, without me being aware of it, Ray set the alarm for an hour later than usual (7:30). When he got out of the shower, it was already almost 8:00! He still hadn’t gotten dressed, eaten any breakfast, etc. I said, “Do you know what time it is?!” Doing something on the computer, he said, “I don’t care. I’m quitting anyway”. I simply said, “O-kay”. It got to be 8:15, just 15 minutes before he was due to work. He still hadn’t done a thing.

About 8:30, he comes to where I am and hands me a gift wrapped in lime green paper. I open the card first. It is a very nice card with a handwritten mom-to-be type message. I loved it! Then, I opened the gift. First, I see two tickets Ray made – for each of us to get into a Mrs. Baird’s Bakery Tour! Incase you don’t know, Mrs. Baird’s is THE bread in Texas (kinda like Bunny Bread is in Louisiana). Since we heard about the bakery tours when we first moved here years ago, we thought it would be fun to do! BUT unfortunately, tours are given in the middle of the week at odd times. So, it hasn’t ever worked out. We always said we’d go when we were both off and didn’t have anything else planned. I thought that was a nice plan for the future, whenever we could create that ideal situation.

But Ray made it happen yesterday! He reserved our spot on the tour weeks ago, AND he took the entire day off to be with me! :) I was super excited! But in addition to that, there was something else under our tour admission tickets! There was a t-shirt! Ray said, “That’s for you to wear today!” I opened it up. It had a cool graphic and said, “Bun in the oven”! A picture of both is below.

The tour admission tickets Ray designed are super cool (don't know if you can tell in the picture above)...but RAY did it. Enough said! :) And if you're wondering who the old lady is, that is the real Mrs. Baird.

The factory is located in Fort Worth so it was a little hike. But it wasn’t bad. We had a nice drive. The introduction video to the tour was a bit cheesy. They really should invest in the production of another video. We had to put on a hair net and a helmet (with a sound system inside of it so we could hear the tour guide). Hairnets are pretty funny! Ray had his way back on his head (instead of on his forehead) so there was a big bunch in the back. The tour guide asked him to fix it – guess it didn’t meet tour standards! ;) Oh, the helmets! They were like construction helmets but pretty small. I did what she told us – to pull it open on the sides and put it on. It worked for me. But with Ray, it didn’t work so well. My dear love has a large noggin (to hold all of those brains). So, it took both of us to get his on! Finally, we were successful! I don’t think it was comfortable for him, but it fit…and it wasn’t going anywhere! ;)

The tour was pretty neat. We got to see all the steps of the bread making. And there was this one part we walked through that was quite warm (well, VERY warm for a pregnant woman)! It was the baking area! We saw all the freshly baked bread coming out of the oven and going on a conveyer belt twisted all around the room in order to cool!

After the tour, we got to taste some fresh hot hamburger buns! They were good – so much better than what you buy in the store, needless to say.

Here are a few pictures of Ray and I outside of the bakery (cameras were not allowed inside).

~"Tish"