Good Things in 2012 - February

February 1 - It was good to have our entire Foundation Group together after having a break for a few weeks.
February 2 - I had a late but productive night and work and also got several things done at the house when I got home.  I love the feeling of being productive and getting things done!
February 3 - Jessica came in town for Holly's shower.  It was so good to see her and visit tonight!  Miss you Jess!
February 4 - I had fun helping host Holly's baby shower!
February 5 - We had fun watching the Super Bowl and celebrating Candy's birthday.
February 6 - We got some pretty sunshine outside today.
February 7 - We won all three volleyball games tonight.  Still undefeated: 12-0!
February 8 - Jumbaco night!
February 9 - Equipped Disciple 2 started tonight!
February 10 - I love Friday nights at home after a long week of work.
February 11 - Chick-fil-A breakfast!  This is the consolation for having to get up and work on a Saturday.  Tonight we had dinner with Tyler and Ashley at Goodfriend Beer Garden and Burger House.  Delicious!  Michael was extra excited to find The Coop on the menu!

February 12 - Lunch with the Avances and Jacksons.  Avery had fun playing with Oscar and Izzie!

This evening, I had a nice walk with Stephanie in the brisk weather.  We made it 3.27 miles before it got dark. That's the farthest walk I've done in a while.  All this followed by bed time about 7:15!  (Yes, I did sleep all the way through the night until my alarm went off...wonderful!)
February 13 - Pei Wei special for dinner tonight - Thai Basil Chicken...yum!
February 14 - Happy Valentine's Day!
February 15 - I stopped to pick up a friend's house key tonight (so that I can get in to care for their dogs this weekend), and I was surprised with my very own, tie-dyed house key.  So fun, and it's mine to keep!
February 16 - My love surprised me with a double cheeseburger from McDonald's.  That beat the orange and crackers I had planned to eat at Bible study.
February 17 - Grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade soup with my family...what a great dinner tonight!
February 18 - Cosmic Jump!  Now that was fun!  Since it was so rainy, we couldn't take Izzy and Oscar for a walk, so we watched TV with them instead.

February 19 - Mom, Dad, and Aaron came to Watermark.  It was good to see them this morning!
February 20 - I'm not gonna lie, I hurt my knee jumping on trampolines Saturday night.  Thankfully, after a painful day yesterday, it is feeling much better today!
February 21 - I was sad to miss volleyball tonight, but it was nice to have a quiet evening at home with Michael.
February 22 - Mmmm...how I love Girl Scout Thin Mints.
February 23 - Mailing day is finally here!  It is always wonderful to get all our year-end filings out the door!  No more mandatory overtime!!!
February 24 - Yay for Friday!
February 25 - Pedicure with Mom.  I love having gift cards...thank you Dad and Aaron!  To top that off, there was a Wienermobile sighting in Sachse!

February 26 - Tonight, we had the Fitzgeralds and Dylls over for a nice salmon dinner.  It was great to visit with them.  I can't believe Lainey will be here next week!  The absolute best part of today is that little Tripp got to go home today!!!!!  Praise God for bringing him to this point!  He has almost doubled his weight in six weeks.  Lord, please continue to bless Tripp and help him grow bigger and stronger every day!

February 27 - Happy Hour to officially mark the end of busy season!  I left HH and headed to the spa for a massage.  You really just can't beat that!
February 28 - Free Chick-fil-A tortilla soup for lunch...delicious!
February 29 - Leap Year!  It always seems fun to get an "extra" day.  While we always have eleven "29ths" during the year, it is always special to get a February 29th.  It feels like a bonus day!

Spring Has Arrived!

Although it has not officially arrived, it already feels like spring is here.  I love it when the flowers start blooming in the yard!  Yesterday when I went outside to check on the progress of Michael's garden, I noticed that several of our trees and bushes were blooming.  It makes me so happy!  Coincidentally this is also usually around the end of my busy season.  Double Yay!

Vegetable Garden

Last year, Michael planted four pepper plants in the flower bed out back.  He had two jalapeno plants, an Anaheim pepper plant, and a poblano pepper plant.  We got LOTS of very yummy peppers.  We enjoyed spicing up beans and other things with our fresh peppers, Michael made stuffed jalapenos and fried pepper slices, and we gave away a lot of peppers to friends.  It was great!  After one particularly large harvest, Michael made homemade pepper sauce.

Even though I love peppers and spicy food, I am not a huge fan of pepper sauce.  Michael, on the other hand, loves it!  He also like anything he can make from scratch.  Making homemade pepper sauce (something he loves so much) was a great thing for him to do when I was gone one evening.

After the success of the peppers last fall, Michael decided that he wanted to plant a vegetable garden.  He probably would have planted more last year, but it was a little too late in the year to plant some things when he planted the peppers.  Instead, he decided to go with just the peppers and get started earlier on his garden this year.

While I was at April's baby shower today, Michael was hard at work tilling up the flower bed and planting a vegetable garden.  I got home just in time to see him plant the last plant.

We don't have a lot of space for a huge garden, but he is following the square-foot gardening technique to maximize the space that he has.  This area of the yard gets a lot of sun, and we struggled failed to keep bushes and flowers growing there last year.  Hopefully this will be a better use of the space.

Michael planted jalapenos, banana peppers, spinach, romaine lettuce, carrots, onions, broccoli, basil, and cilantro.  Once we get a little later in the year, Michael plans to add squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and okra.  I can't wait to see how it takes off.  It will be fun when we can start harvesting some of the vegetables!

Baby Shower

This morning, I went to a shower that some of April's friends planned for her.  The diaper wreath and other decorations were really cute!  After having two girls, I think April had fun getting boy things.  I didn't get pictures of the opened gifts, but she got a lot of cute clothes!

The Gift that Keeps on Giving – February (Tea)

Michael received his February shipment last night.  He was excited to have two new types of tea to try!

Nine down, three to go!

June – Hot Sauce ü
July – Ice Cream ü
August – Beer ü
September – Sirloin ü
October – Pizza ü
November – Peanut Butter & Jelly ü
December – Coffee ü
January – Jerky ü
February – Tea ü
March – Salsa
April – Lobster
May – BBQ Sauce

Cosmic Jump!

Yesterday, we went to Cosmic Jump with our Foundation Group.  When we first arrived and found ourselves surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of kids, we weren't too sure.  However, after "jumping" in and joining the fun, we really enjoyed ourselves.  It's definitely something we'd do again!

It took me a while to get up the courage, but I can still do some trampoline tricks!  Although, I am definitely not 18 anymore.  I may have hurt my knee and had a limp today.

After two hours of jumping, we were all pretty tired!

Happy Valentine's Day, Sweetness!!

Here is a Valentine's song that I wrote for you.

I hope that your day is bright and your smile is, too.

Loving you's so easy I knew that it wouldn't take long,

to tell you how I felt in a silly Valentine's song.

You're so smart, and you're so sweet,

I love you from your head all the way to your feet.

I know you feel the same so give me a sign,

And please say that you will be my Valentine.

I put this on our blog so that the whole world can see,

Oh, sweet Melissa, what it is that you mean to me!

Oh, sweet Melissa, what it is that you mean to me!

Super Birthday Party!

Tonight we got together with friends and family to watch the Super Bowl and celebrate Candy's birthday.  There were birthday decorations and lots of birthday gifts.

We had lots of yummy Super Bowl finger foods.  We were more excited about the Super Bowl commercials than we were about the game.  We enjoyed the company!

We had yummy birthday cake that Melody made, and Candy opened birthday gifts.  Happy birthday Candy!

Holly's Baby Shower

This afternoon we got to celebrate Holly and impending arrival of little Lainey!  I hadn't seen Holly in a while, and she is looking amazing!  I can't believe Lainey will be here in about five weeks.  I am glad that we got to plan a special day for Holly.

We had tea at Lavendou.  They did a great job with the service, and it was all delicious!  The tea that we had was some kind of chocolate tea.  It sounds weird, but for someone who doesn't like tea (and loves chocolate), it actually wasn't bad.  The scones were amazing!

Lindsey added some pretty flowers and yummy lemon covered almonds for guest favors.  Her mom made the cutest corsage for Holly.  It was made out of tiny frilly baby socks!

Holly got lots of great stuff for Lainey!

We had almost all the girls from our old Bible study group together for the first time in a long time.  It was good to see everyone and catch up.  Holly's wonderful SIL and one of her close friends and mentors were also there to make it a special day for her.

Love you Holly!  I am so glad that I was able to share in a small part of this exciting time with you.  I can't wait to meet Lainey!