Thankful Thursday Valentines Edition

OK... before we talk about Valentines day, I am sitting here watching Something Borrowed, Something New on TLC.  Have you seen this show where the bride has to decide between wearing a new dress or her mothers dress?  This Mom today just said that the new dress her daughter was wearing didn't look as "young" and new as her dress... her dress from the 80's.  Did she seriously just say that?  Cause I'm an 80's girl too.  I get wanting your daughter to wear your dress.  I am even a vintage lover... but um hello? 80's, formerly white, now yellowish, sad little turtleneck dress.... Let's say it together... It's her wedding.  It's not about you.  OK... see, I feel better now. That was infinitely better telling you rather than continuing to talk to myself and the TV since we are the only ones here to listen. 

Now are you saying um it's date night.  It's after midnight.  Why are Monogirl and the TV the only one to talk to at Monogirl's house? Well that would be because Mr. Monogirl is currently at a male bonding ritual youth guys lock in at the church. I am sure once he heard of the plans for multiple Xboxes....I'm sorry, how does one refer to multi Xbox games?  Xboxi?  A gaggle of Xboxes?  Perhaps it would be more manly if we call it a pack of Xboxes... ha!  Anyway... there were promises of video games... boxing... and some sort of occasion where one needs this giant Q-tip looking thing to knock over other Q-tip wielding opponents.  Whatever the thing is... it was pretty stinkin' funny to see our Youth Pastor come walking through the front door with it slung over his shoulder today. We had date night for a bit first with dinner at the Chinese place in town... not the Big City... and then.... wait for it... a fun shopping trip to Home.  Depot.  Yes.  Date night at Home Depot.  Darrel thought it was a great idea.  :)  After a little TV time and dessert together at home, he headed for the youth event for a bit leaving night owl Monogirl to her blogging and perhaps scrapping while she waits for him to come back home in a few hours.  Was worried about him driving because he falls asleep driving when he is tired... and he's been up since 5:30 this morning.  Since I was worried, I had asked him to text me when he got there.  He of course forgot... so when I texted him I had to tell him he now had me wondering if my text just distracted him in mid joust causing him to get knocked in the head with a giant q-tip.... bwa ha ha ha ha....

Valentines Day... well judging from the picture are you thinking it was pretty perfect?  You would be correct.  The day started with a little baking project for my husband.  I mean actually I should just say I baked a cake... but um trust me.  This cake is a project.  Take a look.

This would be the chocolate cake that I first made for my husband 3 days before our wedding back in 1987.  It was for his birthday.  I've told you the story before.  My young, in love, wants to please her man, self decided to make a 3 layer chocolate cake with real whipped cream filling and from scratch icing on a 100 degree day in a mobile home with no A/C.  It was not my best decision ever.  The cake part involves mixing and cooling a cocoa mixture.  Sifting things.  Beating things for 5 minutes at a time.  The whipped cream of course prefers coldness and chilled bowls and beaters and um NOT being made in a 100 degree mobile home in June.  The icing?  Melted chocolate, cream, butter cooked and then whisked together with powdered sugar in a bowl sitting in another bowl full of ice in a 100 degree mobile home in June.  Did I mention that part?  I thought that icing would NEVER turn into icing... now that I've made it again I see why.  It takes time, and cooling for the chocolate to set up and even begin to approach something resembling icing.  No wonder I added like a box of powdered sugar back in 1987 trying to turn it into something resembling anything that would stick to the cake! ha!  I mean... was I young and in love or what?  Now I'm all oh Monogirl.. what were you thinking? 

Well... now I'm old and in love and my husband has talked about this cake for years so I wanted to make him another one now that I know what I'm doing... right.  I sifted. I melted.  I beat.  I chilled.  I stacked the perfect 3 layer cake.... right up until the end.  As I am finishing icing I notice the layers have slid a little. I try to gently.... slide it back.  This of course causes the layers to almost completely slide apart causing me to tilt it back the other way causing me to look like I am playing one of those little games where you have to tilt to get the little BB in the hole.  Not so good for layer cakes.  I manage to get it straight... but realize what has happened is my whipped cream got too warm... and slippery.... and I need to get it back in the fridge.  My outside icing?  Not looking so good.  So I chill.  I try to repair... I get one side looking half decent.  The other side?  Has a lip of whipped cream sticking out all the way around.  Lovely.  Oh well.  I figured it would taste good.  I mean chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and whipped cream?  What's not good about that no matter how smooshed up you get it?  Darrel was thrilled with his Valentines cake and we enjoyed a yummy dessert together after dinner which was at home with carryout from Olive Garden.

My gift was this lovely Swarovski Crystal tennis bracelet.  LOVE.  Is he good or what?  Picked it out all by himself he did.  He also gave me two cards, one of which was left for me in the morning with this little bottle of Jessica Simpson perfume.  He said he didn't know what it smelled like but it was pink, it was Jessica Simpson, what wouldn't I like about that?  I told you he was smart.  The day before Valentines he had another little fiestaware bowl for me full of dove chocolates.  This time the bowl was yellow.  LOVE.  Oh!  And he sent the pink roses to work on Wednesday.  :)  LOVE again.

My gift to him was 2 filters for his camera lenses, a hand strap for his camera, and a lens cleaning pen thingy.  He is all about the camera right now so I am thinking that was the perfect fit.  After recovering from the cake adventure, I got myself cleaned up and fixed up for our "date" while he picked up our dinner and I also found some time to whip up this valentines card.

Not too shabby for a quick card making session?  The strips in the center are washi tapes.  The heart punch in kraft was from a Martha Stewart anywhere punch.  The border punch is also Martha.  The "love" metal word was one of my gifts from Darrel during Valentines month and the papers were left over from our vow renewal wedding favors.  Cool right? 

It was a good day and a great month and we had so much fun.  I pronounce the creation of Valentines Month very good.  And... I am so thankful for the fun we had all month, for the romance, for Valentines Day and for a husband that knows how to speak my language and continues to sweep me off my feet after 28 years together. 

And as if all that weren't way more than enough, there is even more to be thankful for this past week such as....

• Date night in Kentucky
• relaxing at Barnes and Noble
• Sunday lunch at La Carreta
• my Sunday School class and the sweet ladies that are a part of it
• flowers.  I love flowers.  Especially pink roses
• fiestaware!
• actually creating something... even if just a card.  Hey its a start!
• reading
• my favorite gray sweater
• gel manicures
• the new Survivor season to watch together
• this verse:  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me. - Psalm 51:10.  God has put that verse in my path several times lately.
• chocolate cake
• new scrapping supplies
• music
• a new doorknob for the garage.  The old one will NOT let you put your key in to unlock it without a major struggle which is made even more fun when Miss Sophie is doing her trampoline act on the other side of the door hitting the window. 
• and with that I am also thankful for Miss Sophie. 
• my new tool carousel. 
• a husband that shops
• diet Pepsi
• long hair
• my parents
• compliments from my husband
• kind words from a friend
• understanding
• pink label makers

So many blessings.  God has been good to us.  I hope you have a fabulous weekend.  Monogirl is probably going to need to rest some.  She is feeling the fatigue today.  Maybe she will rest at the scrapping table.... 

 

Blessings!

Merry Valentines

Here you have Miss Sophie enjoying a Sunday afternoon nap.  I'm thinking she picked the best spot in the house.  She sure loves Darrel.... or the chair... maybe Darrel is just in her favorite chair?  Nah... I am thinking its the other way around.  She loves the chair because Darrel is in it!  What's not to love?

So Friday on the way home from work I stopped at Shopko to pick up a few more things for Valentines month.  As I am wandering the chips, nuts, and candy aisles I spotted a bag of these.  They were left over from Christmas but um my husband loves those things.  They were originally $8, on clearance for $4.99 or so the shelf said.  When I got home I was checking my receipt and I didn't see the $4.99 anywhere.  I saw a .79 entry with a description that seemed to match so I checked the number with the bar code and guess what?  They were .79!  OK.  I should have bought more.  When I gave them to Darrel Saturday morning first he said a resounding YUM and then when I told him the story, he said... we need to go buy more. A while later he headed to town... not to be confused with the Big City.... to take the garbage to the collection place.  When you live in the country... you get to do fun things like that.  Or perhaps I should say you hope your husband will do fun things like that.  I had described to him where I found the candy in the store and he said he was going to stop.  When he came home?  He sheepishly walks into the living room with 2 bags full of Peppermint Bark.  He bought NINE more.  He said he took a couple up to the register to check the price.  The girl scanned them and said they were .79.  He said... I'll be right back and went to gather the rest of the bags.  Apparently he has more of an affection for Peppermint Bark than I realized.  Ya think?  Too funny.  He said that just a few days ago he had eaten his last one for Christmas and had the sad thought that he guessed he wouldn't get anymore of those till next year.  I'm thinking if he didnt' already... he is loving Valentines month at this point. 

This... was my gift for Friday.  Now how cute is that?  I was in love with the box to the point I didn't care what was inside.  ha!  My second thought was "I wonder if that will fit in a project life pocket?" It's filled with chocolate stripe cookies.  That could be good.  I haven't sampled them yet.

For date night this week, my husband declared we were spending the evening at home.  He thought his wife... I guess that would be Mrs. Monogirl.... had been too tired all week and we needed to stay home and be restful.  Works for Monogirl.  He brought us home a pizza, bread sticks and dessert!  A chocolate pie from a local Amish place.  We watched an episode or two of The Apprentice season 1, and then a movie... or so we thought.  We have been streaming movies via Amazon and our Blu-Ray player.  Not so much this week.  It would NOT load and we spent like an hour monkeying with it.  NOT our idea of a fun date night because um Mrs. Monogirl?  Well patience is not her best thing.  Finally got it to work.... sort of... and watched Trouble With The Curve.  Not bad... I'd give it maybe 6.5 out of 10 stars. 

I have still been on the hunt for a Making Memories tool caddy... or something close.  My husband offered to build me one, which I would LOVE but I know he isn't going to have time to do that any time soon and I think we already mentioned my patience level... So in the meantime I came across this model by Hobby Lobby.  I've seen other scrapping ladies mention it on the 2 Peas message board and the consensus seems to be that the MM model, the Michael's Recollections model and the Hobby Lobby model are all fairly similar.  Since I had a 40% off coupon and Hobby Lobby had a $2.95 shipping special I said SOLD.  A little concerned it will be too small since dimensions are not listed on the web site but hoping it will be the 12" or so size like the MM? Supposed to be here by Wednesday.  Let's hope the post office person doesn't try to cram it in the mailbox...

And now I plan to wander on over to Goodreads so I can figure out what I want to read next.  Book 1 for 2013 has been completed.  Only 49 more to go.  I am thinking of going with this one. 

Blessings!

Happy Valentine's Day! Did you have a good one? I did and technically it's not over yet for us. We had choir rehearsal tonight so we are having our romantic dinner/evening alone tomorrow night. These are the beautiful roses I found waiting for me today on our dinning room table. Along with a yummy box of Fannie May Mint Meltaways. Love those! Not only did my husband get those things for me, he gave me 2 of those cool new hallmark cards that play music. One with Josh Groban and one with Lionel Richie. Very cool! When I get home from work this gift was waiting for me.....

A new Precious Moments figuine. Isn't it cute? It's called Your Love Makes My Heart Blossom. I have always liked the Precious Moments figures. I love the message Sam Butcher puts into them. Several years back we visited the Precious Moments Chapel. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I could have just sat down in the middle of the main chapel and just soaked it all in for hours. I'd love to visit there again sometime.

This is the card I made for my husband. I used some Valentine's papers I had from a Jenni Bowlin kit from last year. The ribbon was from that kit too. I just added some ink, the MM Jellie word and the kraft cardstock. I saw something similar to this somewhere but I can't remember when/where. I wish I could so I could give credit.

Do you have snow where you are? We just have a little bit. Maybe an inch? We mostly got rain, ice and sleet. Not too bad. I was so surprised they closed the area schools. We used to live near Chicago and they required a blizzard before even considering closing school.

Hope the rest of your week goes well. I am home tomorrow but have lots of housework and class work to get caught up on.

Blessings!