Chad's Favorite Things: Stephanie

I realized it had been quite some time since I had written a "Favorite" article of any kind. For my topic today, I decided to write something easy, so I picked my wife. It might seem like a "cop-out" of sorts ("yeah, yeah, it's probably easy to just pick and write about your wife"), and I suppose that's true. But I had my reasons and they are in fact related to The Parks, and doggone it, she's earned it! There are a couple of different reasons I chose her to write about today.

How perfectly apropos!

First, my wife is a storyteller. We've been together for over 15 years now, and for as long as I've known her, she's been a writer. She'll write anything she sets her mind to: short-stories, poetry, anything creative. She's constantly writing and sometimes I think it might just be her one true love, excluding me and our sons of course, and sometimes I have to wonder about me. Our 15 years together have been 15 years of me reading what she's written and shaking my head in wonder at her ability to string coherent and beautiful sentences together. I've always enjoyed writing myself, but some "I know more than you and my way is right" professors in college killed my desire to write for quite a while. It's only been just recently that I've begun writing again, and many of you have been here reading me the entire time. I have my wife to thank for that, and it's because of her that I'm a storyteller now, too.

Granted, I do it in many different ways but at it's heart that's what I'm trying to do here (albeit it with words and pictures) - I'm (we're) just trying to tell a story. I don't profess to have her skills or creativity, but she nonetheless has taught me the lesson firsthand that in art (and writing) I write not for others and for their approval, but first and foremost for myself. And if I'm happy with what I've written, the chances are good someone else is bound to appreciate them too. It hasn't been easy to continue writing every day here, and there have been days when circumstances just made me want to pack it all in, because it seemed like people just didn't care. But she was there to continue to push me forward and tell me to keep at it, and she'll be there the next time I begin to feel like that, too.

Second, she supports me in my doing what it is that I enjoy.

And I do my best to support her, even if it DOES mean watching 'Captain EO' again!

Stephanie and I don't get to spend the amount of time together in The Parks that I think that we would both like to. And to be frank, the rest of the family isn't quite as nutty about The Parks as I am. We do spend quite a bit of time there together as a family, but there's just no way they would want to go as frequently as I do. At least, not at this point, but one can always hope! And with trying to maintain a blog, it sort of dictates (and I'm okay with that) that I go a little bit more than your "average Joe", I think.

It would be easy for her to say, "No, you can't go" to me, and I would acquiesce and stay home. But she's never done that. She knows the kind of joy that it brings me, and even though it costs me time at home with the entire family sometimes, she's willing to throw me out of the house herself sometimes because she knows it's what I need to do. And let's be honest, our marriage has always been like that. I've always been willing to let her do what she needs to do for her own sanity, too, especially with three boys thrown into the loop. The truth is, though, a lot of marriages don't operate like that unfortunately. I know how blessed (note that I didn't say "lucky") I am to have a wife who is in full support of me doing what I love doing, even if it is just going to The Park to hang out with friends on Sunday evening and writing about it the entire week after.

So yeah, there you go. The truth is I don't get to spend as much time in The Parks with Stephanie that I would like to. But you know, there's a positive to that, too. It makes the times that I do get to do so that much sweeter. And that's why Stephanie may just be Chad's "favoritEST!" thing in The Parks.

One of the few people on the planet I will happily take my picture with

Chad (AND Amy's) Favorite Things: Goofy's Sour Balls

Various Goofy's Candy Co. selections on display

After standing idly by while Amy and Mark have been doing their own "Favorite Things" posts, I decided it was high time for me to get into the act!

Unfortunately this created a bit of a power struggle within the organization as once word got out about my choice, Amy claimed to have liked my favorite "much longer than me", so I had to include her in my post.  Darnit!  But, it's all good, and I do mean Goofy's Sour Balls good!  I've recently become addicted to these little balls of wonder (there are currently two bags of them floating around my house and one in my car), and since it was because of Amy that I am, I guess I can include her in this one.

Up until quite recently, I was a taffy kind of guy.  No trip into The Park would be complete without a trip into the Main St. Candy Palace to replenish my stock, but this all changed during "Family Fun Weekends" while we were in line for some Character Meet and Greets.  We had been line for quite a while, so Amy left to go find some snackage for herself.  Care to take a guess what she came back with?  Between the three of us we had killed the entire bag within minutes.  Not the healthiest of things to do, to be sure, but I've been hooked ever since.

I won't bore you with all the details about what makes a sour ball a sour ball (you bite into them and they're sour; seems pretty self-explanatory) but I think what I like about these particular sour balls is that they are in fact quite soft when you bite into them; not quite like a gummy worm but much softer than a "Lemon-Head" or the like.  They come in several flavors:  Lemon, Lime, Orange, Cherry and Grape.  The bags themselves will run you $3.45, which isn't bad at all when you think about it, and you have a couple of choices from which to choose.  You can buy bags that consist of only Cherry-flavored sour balls, or you can go for the assorted bag (which we always do) which have all of the flavors I listed above.  Unfortunately, Cherry is the only flavor special enough to have a bag all on its own, but Amy and I are both dreaming of the day when Grape will be allowed to as well.

So, where you can buy this candy of choice for the Days In The Park team?  The question that might be better posed is, "Where can't you buy Goofy's Sour Balls?"  If it's a store, and it's at The Resort, then very likely they have a candy section and if they do, you're almost assured of finding the entire line-up of Goofy's Candy Co goodies, and that includes the sour balls.  They're everywhere!

If you're a fan of sour candy in general (some aren't we realize) then we think you'll be very pleased with Goofy's Sour Balls.  They're really flavorful, not overbearing (like an "Atomic Warhead" or something that's out to kill you on purpose), and an entire bag will typically last your family for quite a bit (unless you're like us and your addiction is full-blown).  This particular Park sweet comes highly recommended by all of us (even though it is my favorite).

Now, if you'll excuse me, my saliva glands are in full effect and I need to go eat some sour balls.

Amy likes to torture me by texting me random pics of opened bags of MY favorite thing

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