May 3rd- The first of many...hopefully

May 3, 2017 Year 6 Day 3

FREE PRETZEL #3

Today was the first day that a past recipient decided to take on my challenge of paying it forward and giving the FREE PRETZEL to someone they would have liked to nominate.  This person happens to also be a relative and was someone who I had thought about giving the pretzel to, but alas things have never worked out. My sister Mary took on this responsibility today as she was the second person to respond to my initial email and today was the perfect day to see how this would go.  I will let her take it from here...

Hello there avid pretzel followers, I have been lucky enough to be granted with today's pretzel entry!  For those of you who do not know me, I am Tim's younger, smarter, more athletic, more attractive, sister Mary! I was lucky to receive the pretzel during Tims first year and it was a privilege as well as a delicious delight, so when he sent an email to past recipients asking for nominations, I quickly responded with someone I felt was very deserving! So about my day......

I jumped out of bed, wooo hooo, today's the day! I received a text from Tim telling me he left the pretzel in the main office for me to pick up, it's as official as it comes! I headed off to Johnson elementary to pick up the pretzel! As I entered the office the secretary said, "So you are Tim's sister! I smiled knowing where this was going, she said "He sure is something, what a character he is!" "Oh I know, but I'm not like him, I have hair ". ;) so I grabbed the pretzel and off we went!

I expected just one pretzel but instead I got a bag of three! A FREE PRETZEL and his two friends! I asked Tim why so many and he gratefully said "for the recipient, you and anyone else who's there!" Sweeeeeet! 

So pretzel and I headed off down 295 for our special person! 

It was a beautiful day and pretzel enjoyed the nice ride, think it's the farthest it's been in awhile! 

We got to rock out to some old time jams, TLC "No SCrubs"

After about 25 minutes we arrived at our beautiful destination, the house my uncle built himself many years ago! 

And wasaaaallllllla here we are in Mullica Hill NJ, home of our lucky recipient for the day our sweet Aunt Terry, my father's older sister! Now, this lady right here is a sweetheart, has a big heart and if anyone could guess her actual age I'd give you a whole bag of pretzels but since I have no time for that, I will tell you that this little lady turned 90 years old back in March. Can you believe it? 

Aunt Terry, smiling to beat the band.

I didn't think so! So our Aunt Terry was the lucky FREE PRETZEL recipient today! We Casales come from a very close knit family, both on our mothers side as well as our fathers! We have aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings who support us in everything we do, from athletic competitions and holidays to life events such as weddings and showers! There is very little that we tend to miss and unless some crazy life event is happening on  that same day, you will almost always find our aunts present for those moments! Aunt Terry has been there for everything, since we were little kids until now and her generosity and sweet manner brings joy to the hearts of those around her! She was so happy to receive this pretzel and although I had to explain it to her what Tim does and I know she still didn't understand, she was beyond excited to bite into it! 

She ate half of it plain before saying she needed mustard for the rest of it! 

My Uncle Bill died in August and for a 90 year old woman you can imagine how lonely life could get so quickly! She is my godmother and on the night of his viewing she hugged me and said "please come visit me, don't leave me alone!" So from that day on I made a vow to visit my aunt once a week and since August, j have lived up to my promise and have loved every minute of it! It has taught me to slow down in life, to take time with those who matter because you can't fill the void that is left when they leave for good but if you build up the moments you make when they are alive then you can carry on with those precious memories, knowing you shared that time with them while they were alive! So each week we drink our coffee and chit chat at the table like we did today, only this time we had a pretzel to munch on.  Thank you Tim :) Aunt Terry's loved her treat and is a most deserving recipient and rightfully so! Let's hope she gets one next year too! 

But alas my pretzel readers we are not done! If you follow the blog religiously or maybe just yearly you will notice that there are not many people who receive it more than once! I have only received in once back in 2012 (cough cough...so long ago) however, there are a few lucky fellows who get to bite into that pretzel more than once! So right down the road from my aunt is Rowan University and as I left my aunt's house I realized I still had one pretzel and my best friend was a quick 5 minutes down the road! I drove into Rowan's campus texted my friend and said come on out I got something for you! 

A Tar Heel surprise!

Funny enough the last time Caitlyn McHugh received the pretzel she had graduated from UNC and was heading back down there for internship, well she will graduate from Rowan with her masters in a week and ironically will be heading back to Chapel Hill for uhhh ohhhh real life job! Caitlyn was very gratuitous of the extra pretzel as she had become part of our family! I mean heck she's obviously Tim's favorite sister, getting the pretzel twice in the past, might as well give it to her again 😉good luck caitlyn, we will miss you here in Jersey and you will miss those Philly pretzels!

Thanks for tuning in to my chapter of the pretzel diaries! Thank you Tim for the opportunity to nominate as well as write! Good luck to all those hoping for a pretzel!!

Thanks Mary, that was an awesome job and two great stories to share.  I can still remember going to Terry and Bill's and always wanting to go outside and putt on Uncle Bill's putting green that he built on the side of the house.  They also had a tile floor in their foyer with a loose tile that I always made sure was still loose. And I can still picture Uncle Bill in his lounge chair watching golf.  I might need to start coming with you on your visits.

Golf Update: My Paul VI Eagles defeated Seneca today and secured a spot in the Non-Public State Sectionals for the first time in 3 years! Congrats to them.

Until tomorrow...