Love is in the Air!

Valentine's Day came a little early here.  Ok, ok...I got HH's stuff, and I just couldn't wait to give it to him!  I love my personalized candy heart he made with my favorites.

We are "couple of the year." :)

Everyone needs their own street sign right?

Love prescription pills with red hots!

Bags for HH to open on the hour with little treats in them. 

I made these snowmen for my kids.  It was so easy to do!  They loved them. 

There has been lots of controversy over Paula Deen's reveal of her being diabetic.  My super talented friend and former co-worker wrote a great piece about this subject on his blog Late Nights, and Early Mornings.  The article is titled Get Out of My Kitchen, Tellin' Me How to Cook.

First "Snow" Day

Yeah, today is my first "snow" day.  Or shall we say windchill is predicted to be -25 to -35.  There is some law in SD that says you can't be in school when it is that cold.  Heck, maybe the buses won't even crank over at that point.  We have kids that are picked up 80-90 miles ONE WAY to come to school.  So how did I find out about there not being school....viral.  I saw ONE post on Facebook.  I start trying to confirm it by logical means such as the local TV station, our school's website, our teacher website for grades/plans/attendance, our school answering machine, and the bus garage.  No DICE.  I call the local public roads department, and they say we are closed.  I also check with the grocery store, and our local gas station...both say we are closed.  My phone tree person did not call.  Grrr....

I love having my satellite radio, and I discovered this group on The Highway station:



I've started looking on the internet for our "next" thing.  I have decided we must ABSOLUTELY go to a concert at Red Rock Amphitheater!  They have a ton of big hit people, just waiting for the new schedule to come out!  We are only eight hours from this awesomeness!!!



I have made an appointment to get HH and I's pictures made in the Black Hills in May.  We want some outdoors shots.  Ok, I want some outdoors shots, and he is willing to go along with me and do this.  There are so many gorgeous places to have your picture taken there.  My family didn't take a lot of formal pictures together, and while I really appreciate the candid ones, I do want to be in a regular practice of taking formal (nontraditional) pictures together.  You and Me Photography is going to do our shoot!

My niece Kate has had some developmental difficulties with speech.  She is 2 1/2, and yesterday she said her first sentence!!!  She was at the dentist and she said, "I want to go home now."  Poor baby girl! 

I'm going to relax for a bit, then try to do two lessons for my New Testament class, and one assignment for my maintaining my certification classes.  I will have to go up to the school today and plan.  I have training the next two days and need to get everything in order there.  Now, I will nap.  :)

Joy Dare

We are having laptop problems (as in it needs to be replaced), and I am starting classes (I need two classes to keep my SD teaching license), but I am going to try to post my pictures from the Joy Challenge over at A Holy Experience.

I started late, but yesterday I took a picture of three gifts...

Something Old

This is my grandmother's chest.  She got it in 1945 when my grandfather got out of WWII.  I received it when I graduated college in 2001.  I love this chest, and hope to be able to pass it down to one of my children.


Something New

I had a cool picture of the wind blowing across the prairie, but my iphone is not cooperating. 
Something Blue

Again, IPhone issues....I had this large blue paperweight that looks like a gem that sits on my desk.  HH gave it to me while we were dating. 

My "Destination Imagination" Girls...

These girls are so much fun, and hard workers.  I was in DI when it was called "Odyssey of the Mind."  We have to create a movie trailer as part of our prepared challenge.  They are practicing for their instant challenge in the picture above.

I Can Do This!!!

Today, I am hosting my first ladies fellowship at our house.  These series of meetings each month were my idea, and HH has happily supported them. 

Here are some of the goods we are having...

Spicy Chicken Tomato Soup

Chili and Garlic Chex Mix

I love making different versions of Chex Mix, because they are so quick.  They always end up being a big hit.

Veggie Pizza:

Fruit Brownie Pizza:

While making some of the brownie pizza, a bit spilled over the edge in the stove.  I think to myself, "I'll get that later."  While making the crescent roll pizza base, things start to get smoky, and the brownie blop had caught on fire.  Fortunately, it was a very small one, and all food was still able to be saved. 

HH helping prepare things with me in the kitchen...think I've got some things to teach him!  He's actually doing an impression of Kevin from the Office.

HH wrangled up the cats to put them in the basement.  I did a few final touches on our house.  All the food had to be stuff that I could just pull out and go since we are having this event right after church at our house. 

Merry Madagascar ICE in Nashville

A few months back, I told my parents to "save the date," for one of the days I would be back home.  Ben and I had went to ICE, and I wanted to share this experience with my parents.

They fly in forty artisans from China to create this massive artwork exhibit.

There is nothing that my parents would have gone to on their own.  They both had a great time.  We got a long time to talk in the car on the way down and back (three hours each way).  On the way back, I added about fifteen books to my dad's kindle app on his phone.  You can tell we are father daughter, because many of my "weird" book choices were exactly things that he was interested in. 

Until next year Nashville!