This may be a Hefty, Hefty, Hefty post so grab your preferred drink of choice and a comfy reading nook....
Saturday February 5th we celebrated the 26th year of life for my sweet hubby/best friend/rockstar. He is my everything.
The day was planned:
He wanted to open his gift when he woke up, so I wrapped it in two large gift bags and when he woke up I sang to him and had him open his card and gift. LOML has been talking about ice fishing almost every time we pass a pond or see ice fishing tents so he got a beautiful red Eskimo red auger for his birthday present(complete with his own Daniel Boone hat), and I could tell from the moment he opened it he was in love. He put the hat on and began talking about ice fishing TONIGHT! Hey, I'm in! :-)
Then, we get ready to meet up with some friends to go to the
UNI vs. DRAKE game:
Nolan's scooby doo candy plane...
Can't you see the little propellers moving:-) He loved it! :-)
Then our first trip to the Knapp Center...
We found our seats, and nestled in for a nail bitting game, which to my dismay Drake won.
UNI is my Alma Mater and I love it, would recommend it to anybody and wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere else! It was a perfect fit for me! I graduated from UNI almost 4 years ago and now when I see students there I feel really old, but I have so many memories in good ol' Black Hawk county. :-)
Pics from the very nerve racking game...
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| UNI missed a lot of free throws that really cost us the game. |
That's ok Scooby says, "Thumbs up, better luck next time." :-)
Then, since LOML had gotten the auger that morning the man needed a tent and a heater. So we hit a couple different places to check on things. (Home Depot, Walmart, and Scheels) All this time knowing that we still had to make it to our 6:45 dinner reservation at:
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| (the birthday boy's choice of course) |
And after much deliberation LOML purchased a beautiful ice fishing tent that we found on MAJOR sale! Now we can be fishers year around! :-) And we headed off the the restaurant... we were a little, no a lot under dressed compared to everyone else there, but they still take your money and it was a great first experience, and the birthday boy ate Imperial Longfin (pan-seared, baked, stuffed with shrimp, scallops, crab meat, and lemon caper butter)
A very happy birthday boy!
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| Complete with a candle and chocolate covered strawberries! Delightful!! :-) It was finger-licking good! |
We head home and packed up the car to go ice fishing, LOML was so excited!
Do you like the hat?
The new tent all set up and ready to go! :-)
The Auger!
We worked really hard to get through that ice! My apologies I shouldn't say we, LOML worked really hard to get through a foot of ice! :-)
Inside the tent...
To my husband...
With you by my side, everything in the world seems better. With you to hold my hand through life, I know that I have someone who sees life a lot like I do, someone who shares the same values, someone to share our crazy dreams with. :-) I know that I have someone who understands the parts of me that other people don't even know exist. With you in my life I know that I have everything.
You are the jelly to my peanut butter. :-) Sorry this song has been stuck in my head...
The next morning I woke up early to make LOML's birthday MONSTER COOKIE BARS!!!
And with some encouragement from my SIL, it was now complete:-)
Here is the recipe for you to make and Enjoy:
1/2 C. butter softened
1C. sugar
1 C. brown sugar
Mix in:
3 eggs
And 1 1/2 C. of Peanut Butter :-)
Add 1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking soda
4 1/2 C. oatmeal
Stick in 1 1/4 C. chocolate chips:
I just crush up a cup of M&M's and put them in:
Pat down lightly in a greased jelly roll pan:
Bake @ 350 for 15 min. * Don't over bake.*
Enjoy!
Playing in the snow!
We also went sledding, which was a blast!
LOML tried to smoke a pork loin, but it was so cold outside they couldn't get the smoker hot enough, so we ended up putting it in the oven and watched the Superbowl. Once we were done our cute little nephew sure was ready for uncle Nolan's birthday cake! :-)
This week has been fast, but very special to me in that I received a special piece of paper in the mail Tuesday night. I have my full standard teaching license PK-8th grade!! WAHOOO!!! (btw: this is the one you get after a 2 year initial license and you have proved to your administrators your a good teacher for the state and have meet every state of IA standard as well as your districts! :-) I was glad it is finally in my hands!:-) Yippee!! I've wanted to be a teacher because my mom was such a great role model to me and my 3rd grade teacher inspired me as well! I've wanted to be teacher for a long time. I didn't always know I wanted to teach Special Ed., but here I am and I love middle schoolers!
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| I got to celebrate with my 2 favorite teachers. I couldn't have gotten that piece of paper with out them! They are the best and I love you both! :-) Then, when I got home last night! Kirbster thought daddy's Daniel Boone hat needed to be chewed.... Can you say naughty boy.... |
Things that make me content on this Thursday night...
Visit with good friends and my beautiful one of a kind Giraffe gord! :-) It's beautiful!
My husband purchased me a BRAND SPANKING NEW VICKI!!!! (aka. a vicks vaporizor) That fog you see is steam! It is FAB and I'm obsessed with VICKS!!! My old VICKI died a couple weeks ago and I had her for almost 5 years! LOML knew how important it was to me and that I had been waking up all dried out, and I hate that feeling of first off being cold second being so dried out you can't even think.
A couple of people have mentioned to me that they like my new purse. I got it from my mom for Christmas, but I found the website so you can learn more about it and how to help women in Africa.
The hat my SIL made and I adore it!!! She crocheted it herself, I only hope to one day be as good as her, but for now here is the progress on my blanket!
So admist these negative degree temps. and snow and ice, when all we want to do is stay in the house because it's to stinkin' cold to go outside and we can't get enough of the vitamin, how do you keep relaxed? Because that thoughtless state of pure relaxation must come periodically to recharge our senses.
