Happy Valentine's Day II

Bruce's mom had gone to lunch with good friends on Valentine's Day, so Bruce ended up missing her. But he did go see her when he got off work that night.
But later in the afternoon, the kids and I went to see her to take her a card and some candy and visit a while.

My great niece was there. She is so beautiful and gives the sweetest little hugs. And obviously she enjoys her McDonald's ice cream sundaes.

My brother in law was dropping her off for my mother in law to sit for a few hours while he went back to work and his wife was busy at the florist shop. Valentine's Day is their busiest day, you know!

We had a good visit and before we left, my sister in law and her two sons showed up. It was good to see them too.

When we left my mother in law's house, we picked up some pizzas and went to mom's to deliver her card and candy. We watched some love stories from back in the prairie days while we ate our pizza and had a great time with her.

It was nice being able to spend some time with our moms and letting them know that we consider them to be our valentines.

Love you, Mom! Love you, Marie!

A Happy Valentine's Day!

When the children went to bed last night I put a pink table cloth on the table with a vase of flowers in the candy heart vase I found a few weeks ago, and put the kid's cards and chocolates on the table. I also left Bruce's gift bag and he left my gift box.


This morning I had a house to clean before meeting Bruce at the gym. We came home and while he got ready for work, I finished cooking lunch.


For dessert, I gave everyone someone a friend of mine posted about. Heart-shaped Little Debbie cakes with strawberry swirl ice cream, topped with chocolate drizzles.

Obviously, they liked it.

After dessert we opened our gifts and this is what I got. Of course, we already knew what we were getting because when we went out Friday night, we each picked out our own gifts.
We had a very good day and there was more to it, but I'll share about that later. Right now it's late and this wife and mama is tuckered out.

Swinging With My Sweetie

The theme for our Valentine's Banquet was inspired by a greeting card. It was really cute and we had a great time in our new banquet room for our first Valentine Banquet there.
Here's a pic of me and my sweetie pie. This was the entrance to the banquet room.


This year's skits were so hilariously funny. Brother Johnny was a former boxer being interviewed by "Hambone." It was great.


He was also a former inventor. He showed us many of his inventions. The one below is a nice hat to wear in church when you need a tissue from crying or have a runny nose.

My Pastor and his wife also did a VERY FUNNY skit. I don't think I have ever seen them be so funny. It was great.

And here they are without his hat/hair. Aren't they sweet?

We had a good time. Several people worked hours on the meal. We had our choice of steak or chicken, salad, baked potatoes, drink, and dessert. It was all fabulous!!

And of course I had a great time with my sweetheart.

I love him. <3

A Little Better

I spent another day in bed, with the exception of putting a roast in the oven for lunch. I do feel better and hope that tomorrow I will feel even better than I did today.

When I heard on the news that the sickness going around is due highly in part to an early spring and unusually high levels of pollen in the air, I decided to try some allergy medication instead of taking the usual head cold meds. I started on a 24 hr allergy pill. I take it in the morning and a few hours later I start taking Musinex every four hours with a Vitamin C every four hours also. I think it's really helped. Tomorrow we'll know for sure.

Since I've been in bed the last few days I decided to update my picture blog and organize the sidebar. If you want to view the pics, just click here and choose which album you want from the sidebar. I still have a lot of albums to add but I'll have to get to those when I have more time.

So far, no one in my family has gotten sick from me. Keeping a close eye on that though. Looking forward to this weekend and hoping I get to go to the Valentine Banquet with my sweetheart.

Hope y'all have a great weekend too. :)

A Turn for the Worse

So my cold has taken a turn for the worse. I've been in bed since just after 2:00 yesterday. Bruce went to the gym by himself this morning and is bringing me back some orange juice and Cepacol. Nothing says *lunch* like medicine, right?

I had Harrison bring me some disinfectant wipes so I could wipe down my computer keys. As I was sitting here doing that my nose started running. No tissues, no toilet paper (nearby, anyway), so why not use a disinfectant wipe? As I told friends, the lemon scent is nice and my nose has never felt so clean. ha!

I've been doing my blog reading and that's been nice to pass time. OH! Have y'all discovered pinterest yet? I LOVE it! There are so many great ideas on that site. I don't know that I'm as addicted as some of my other friends, but I do like Pinterest. Sometimes I forget to pin things I find on the Internet and then later I think, "MAN! Should have pinned that!!" If you haven't checked it out, you should. It's a great way to find recipes, crafts, etc.

Our Valentine's Banquet is this weekend. This year we decided to do two nights of the banquet. So the Young Adults class, Newly Married class, and Still Married class will be Friday night. And Saturday will be for those that couldn't make it Friday and Brother Johnny's Sunday School class. We're in the Still Married class, but we'll be going Saturday because Bruce has to work Friday night. I've been able to help some on the decorations for the banquet. It is so cute! Mrs. Amy Leonard and Mrs. Ava have had some awesome ideas, all inspired by a greeting card. I'll have pictures to share, Lord willing, next week. I hope I'm feeling much better by then and we get to go.

I think I'll go back to reading some blogs now.

Here's something to look at for a minute. :)

Reese's Cups, Captain America, and Valentine Vases

Bruce has always loved comic book heroes so when I found this shirt at Wal Mart a few weeks ago I bought it for him for his birthday. He was so happy.
He is also a great lover of Reese's cups. So when Justin found this GIANT pack of 1/2 pound Reese's cups he got them for his dad. Again...he was so happy.

When he took the first bite he said, "They finally made it the way I always knew they should." LOL By the way, this picture was taken before we joined the gym, just in case you were wondering.

Speaking of the gym, we met with the personal trainer today to set up a routine for us. I'm excited about getting started on that Monday. I do best when I have a plan and I think this will work out great.
So we're sitting at the table with the trainer and three other gym members when the trainer asks us what our goals are. He makes his way around the table and gets to Bruce who answers, "Well, I've always believed that underneath this exterior is a Captain America. And THAT is my goal."
He's so crazy. I don't know what I'm going to do with him sometimes.
~~~~~~
Now that New Year's is over and we're beginning our flight into 2012, I'm ready for the next holiday. VALENTINE'S DAY! I love that day. I guess because I have the sweetest Valentine, EVER.
After some encouraging prods from a couple of friends I decided to go ahead and put out a few Valentine decorations. I have a heart wreath I'll hang on the door this weekend. I found a cute foam "I LOVE YOU" at a store tonight that I'll go back and get later. I'm going to place it in the middle of the wreath. I think it'll be cute.
And I found this candy heart vase at a thrift store this week. I thought it was so cute. I didn't buy it when I saw it and then decided to go back for it the next day. I'm glad I did because I really like it. :)

Love, Love, Love, Love....

Love comes in all different forms. Husband to wife, parent to child, grandparents to grandchild, friend to friend. It doesn't matter how you share it, so long as it's shared. Valentine's Day is more than just me and my sweetheart. Although, without him, it would not be the same.

We celebrated Friday night by going out to dinner, exchanging gifts, and doing some other things uptown, enjoying the holiday a few days early.

This morning, the children woke up to a valentine card and a box of chocolates for each of them. Harrison was very eager to pass out his valentine cards to the family, but also eager to open his box of chocolates. LOL

Bruce took last night off from work. We had decided to pay our mothers a visit and spread the love around, so to speak. :) But before we went to see them, we stopped at one of our favorite Mexican Restaurants, Los Arcos. We exchanged cards. I gave Bruce one of his favorite candy bars. Are Reece's cups considered a candy bar? They're round. So what would they be classified under? You tell me.


Bruce has written me some of the most BEAUTIFUL poems over the years. I always look for his poems first thing and if he doesn't write one, I am genuinely disappointed. He did write me one for Valentine's Day and it was so sweet!


After lunch we visited with our moms. We took them a Valentine card and some Calla Lilies. I thought they were so pretty. We had some nice visits. When Bruce and I got home, he got in bed to rest before going to work tonight, while I picked up Hannah and Harrison to take them to see their grandmothers. So all in all, I think our mothers had a hard time feeling too lonely. I am sure, though, that their sweethearts were on their minds all day.


These are the pretty calla lilies we got our moms.

I love you mom! I love you, Marie! Y'all are the best moms ever!! We had a good time visiting with you and hope you had a good time with us too! :) Happy Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Date

Bruce has been working six days so it was nice to have him on his normal schedule this week. We decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a few days early. We went to the Outback for supper and to exchange gifts, hung out in Gastonia for a little bit, stopped at Wal Mart to pick Harrison up a few things he needed, and ended our night at Krispy Kream. If we make an effort to go to Gastonia, we're stopping at KK's! And the kids always love to see us come home with a box of doughnuts for them. By the way, he bought me a bottle of some of my favorite perfume, Happy Heart, by Clinique, which also came with a new makeup bag and lots of makeup. YAY! He also threw in some other things. ;0) Thanks, babe! I loved my gifts!!

ME
and my Valentine!

We had a very good time, even though he was so tired. You can still see how sleepy his eyes were. I love my Valentine. I am truly thankful for him. He is a blessing in every way. He keeps me laughing and can always make me smile. I had been so excited all day, knowing that we were going out. I've missed my Friday night dates! I love you, Bruce!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We took my mom a few things she needed on Saturday. She has been very sick with bronchitis. She really hasn't gotten over it from last year. She's had some serious dizzy spells and I've tried to tell her to stay down and take it easy, but she doesn't cooperate very well. LOL She's doing ok, although she does need a lot of prayer to get better.

Love you, mom! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The newest update on Becca is that she was fine at 4:00 this morning. She had been opening her eyes on command and even followed her mom with her eyes as her mom was leaving the hospital room. But this morning, around 7:00, one of her lungs collapsed and they had to put a tube in. She takes a couple of steps forward and then one back. But thankfully, she is making some progress. Thank you for the prayers that have gone up on her behalf and please continue to pray for her when you think about it. She's not out of the woods just yet.

Valentine's Banquet, 2010

The theme for our Valentine Banquet was Winter Wonderland. We had a good time with a LOT of good laughs. It was great!


Pastor Goodman gave a good sermon on LOVE and then introduced our talent for the night. We always have a skit or something going. This year we had.....


...the Joebob Brothers, who sang to us.


And also the Bluegrass group that sang some funny songs.

I still was not able to get up and take a lot of pictures as I usually do, but I did get a few. I like this picture of Joel and Pam. They look playful, don't they? :)

Brother Dusty and his friend. I can not for the life of me remember her name. But she has the sweetest smile and seems like a very sweet girl.

And I love this picture of Mrs. Linda. So pretty!!

I thought this was a good one of Ted and Rebecca too.

I liked this one of my Mander and her Chris. I think this is the nicest pic of them.

My buddy Dana and her Chris looked dashing too.

And then of course, there was Bruce and me. I love him.

Jennifer, Johnathan, and baby Owens were attendance as well.

I think this is a sweet pic of Pastor and Mrs. Ava.

Kelsey and Nathaniel were decked out in their purple and sliver.

And Bradley's Melissa was able to join us. It's always good seeing Melissa.

And let's not forget Taylor and Evan.

And of course, Evan's parents, Teresa and Greg. They are so funny. I would love to spend more time with them!

Justin invited a friend he knows through Jeremy.

I did grab a picture of Brother Wayne and Mrs. Vicky before they headed out to go home.

Here are a couple of videos of the Joebob Brothers. This was so funny...


....and little bit gross. LOL

Good Doctor's Visit :)

Bruce took me to the doctor Monday afternoon. I'll admit that after talking to several people at church, including and especially Brother Ken, I came home after revival one night last week in tears, scared to death I was going to have my knee drained and worse, surgery. lol

Thankfully, this was not the case at all. The doctor said I've been taking good care of my knee and to keep doing what I've been doing. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. She also told me to put the crutches up. When you have a muscle injury the muscles become tight and want you to baby them. So the longer I use the crutches, the more my muscles want me to use the crutches. Now I'm limping along instead of hobbling, but hopefully I won't be limping much longer. If I'm not doing better in a couple of weeks I might have to have physical therapy. But I'm praying that won't be necessary. She doesn't think that will happen though.

After school today, the kids are going to the Library. There's a book that Hannah wants to get and is surely going to pass out if she doesn't get it today!! We can't be having that! But for now they are all working quietly in their studies. Well, not Harrison. He does better with his spelling words when he's saying them out loud..........apparently. :)

The Valentine Banquet is on its way. I wanted to help with the balloons and see everything come together with its final touches. But with my knee it was impossible. :( I'm looking forward to the banquet though. Lord willing, by then, I'll be walking better and will be able to get some good pictures of everyone. Our theme is Winter Wonderland.

Well, I'm off here. Hope everyone has a great day!!

Psalm 98:1 "O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous
things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the
victory."

Click Here!

Click here to see some old pictures. I hope it works!! I'm hoping to upload a lot more from when Bruce and were growing up. You click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Click here to see pictures of the Valentine's Banquet.

And click here to see more pictures of our Valentine's Banquet!

Please let me know if thsi doesn't work. I hope it does. It will save so much time trying to upload to blogger!! There's a lot of pics. LOL

:P