Valentine's Day...

You may or may not know I'm not big on holidays. I had to do one of those internet surveys once where they asked what your 'Favorite Holiday' was and I was stumped. I just don't have one. Valentine's day is especially hard for me. I was so excited our first Valentine's day together (Norman and me). I was expecting a classic Valentine's of candy and/or flowers. We were freshmen in college at the time and Norman was still at home after an extended weekend because he was sick (mono, I think). He called me on the phone and told me to ask his RA to let me into his room because my Valentine's present was there. I was so excited, I got Bill to let me in to Norm's room and there was my first real Valentine's present from my future husband - a book...

A BOOK! No hearts, no flowers, no heart shaped box of candy, no token of romance and love, a book! Hildegard Neff's biography, A Gift Horse. To say I wasn't thrilled was an understatement. From then on Norm bought me roses, red roses. After the first few times it became apparent that roses were the automatic default regardless of the situation or reason. Roses are nice, don't get me wrong. But my favorite roses are a coral colored rose named 'Sonia'. After we were married and money was tighter than tight Norm bought me red roses, again and I told him to stop. We couldn't afford them and frankly they were not my favorite. Well, Norm took that to mean forever and ever... Fast forward to many, many years later. My MIL was living with us and for Valentine's Day Norm bought us the same generic spring flower bouquet basket. I wasn't happy. I know we want men to read our minds and expect it, but I didn't take any chances. I told Norm that giving me the same flowers he gave his mother was not a good thing...

This year...after heavy hinting and clear and concise statements I got my favorite flowers - tulips. I keep telling Norm to read my blog and if he did he'd see the red tulip on my profile strip. I also have a red tulip in my craft room. So this year he finally got it right and I'm so very, very happy.

Another one for the books...

On February 7, we had Alexa's party at Dessert Deli. I'm thinking this is a good idea! Low key, girls get to make some cupcakes, not tons of screaming kids around and relatively inexpensive. WRONG! Well, right for the first three but oh so wrong for the last! Don't get me wrong, they did a wonderful job, the girls had a great time, I had a great time, my mother-in-law even came but I broke the bank. Worse, I have to take the blame :(

I had to have a guarantee of ten girls. So I told Alexa to invite a few more because I already knew that two wouldn't be able to come. I figured between weather, illness, other activities, family commitments, etc. it would be hard to come up with the 10. Wrong, again, we had thirteen total. I had also hired a caricaturist to draw a picture of each girl for them to take home - what was I thinking! Don't get me wrong again, they came out great. Then with all this planning (which really wasn't a lot - DD did almost all the work) I figured I'd get some great party shots - wrong, again! I got about five to six pictures taken and my battery died! I whipped out my new phone (with camera) and started taking pictures. Norm whipped out his also. Mine filled fast and refused to do more (and we still hadn't gotten to the cake) so Norm went across the street and bought a throw-away camera! (I still have to get those pictures finished and developed and I still have to download the pictures off the phones!)

So, long story - long, here's what I have for the day. The girls had a great time sitting in the back of the bakery at a long table decorating two cupcakes, one vanilla, one chocolate. The DD provided icing in bags - all different colors, decorations, and instruction in piping and making flowers, etc. Then while the girls were having birthday cake, the bakers awarded prizes to each set of cupcakes. Things like, Most Unusual, Best Use of Color, etc. When the cupcakes came out, they were each handed their goodie bags with their cupcakes.

Alexa got some cute presents and all the girls had a really nice time. (Hopefully, she's working on the 'thank-you notes' as I type.) It was a Saturday afternoon so the bakery wasn't too crowded and they had the dining room almost all to themselves.

On Sunday, Alexa's birthday, she had a gymnastics meet. We've really been trying to instill "teamwork" and responsibility to others in her and she really wanted to blow off this meet. As it was only her second meet (we couldn't get out money back) and her team needed her, we insisted she do the meet. She did very well, keeping consistent with her marks from the meet before and improving a little and she won one third place trophy for her vault. I'm not allowed to take flash pictures at meets, USGA rules. So without using a flash I'm pretty limited in taking pictures. Plus, if I could get close enough, I don't want to spook her or make her more nervous when she's on the balance beam!

We finished the day with a trip to Carabbas for her birthday dinner. Mind you, all she had was plain pasta with red sauce, but no never mind, she was the birthday girl after all!

I'm working on it...

Just a quick note to let you know I'm still here. I've got pictures to put together from Alexa's birthday weekend. Yes, weekend, not DAY - the diva must have a whole weekend and as it was filled with a lot of stuff, I'm still getting it all together. Also, I pulled a muscle in my back so I've kinda confined myself to the heating pad for the past day or so. Never fear, I'll be back!