Happy Birthday, Debbie!

     Happy birthday to my special sister-in-law, Debbie!! It was so much fun to catch you by surprise at work today!!  I hope that you have had a wonderful birthday.  You so deserve it!!! You are a wonderful sister-in-law and friend, and I am so blessed that you have been part of my life for 30 plus years!!!  You are beautiful inside and out!!!  Love you lots!!

In other news...

     Cool cat??  He thinks so!  I was hanging the new border in our newly painted bedroom, or at least attempting to do so, when Benji thought it would be fun to join in and jumped on the ladder.  Doesn't he look so proud of himself??!!

     The sunrise on the way to work this morning was beautiful.  This picture does not do it justice at all especially since the trees were covered with hoar frost.  Thanks for slowing down long enough for me to snap this picture, Deb!!

Snow Day!! :0)

     I don't know who gets more excited about snow days...the students or the teachers!! :0)  Today was our first snow day of the year, and it was so welcomed!!  Katie and Freddy both stayed home with Mathieu and Megann, so it was the perfect opportunity to make a giant snowman.  After the snowman making, a huge snowball fight ensued among six of the neighborhood kids plus Freddy and Katie.  This is what snow days are all about!!

No Common Theme This Week!

     A former student came back to visit me and brought her little brother, Sully, to visit as well.  He is such a cutie and so funny!!  Alexa wanted a picture of the three of us and sent me a copy, so here it is. :0)

     I have only seen Holty in a suit one other time in 15 years and that was at a funeral.  He cleans up rather well and sported a suit on "Dress Up" day at school this week for Snow Days.  The other picture is of me with our newest English teacher, Melodie.

     I enjoyed time catching up with my friend, Tara.  She left Big Lake to teach high school in her hometown after 12 years in Big Lake.  It's strange not seeing her every day after car pooling and teaching with her for so long. 

     We painted our bedroom recently, and I love the new color!! I found a new bedding set that I love and ordered some very pretty wallpaper border (which is all that we have left to do).  It's always nice to redo a room in the house!

     For whatever strange reason, Benji enjoys when Dani plays with him as shown in this picture.  She flips him upside down and pats his belly.  He always comes back for more!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

This greeting card customized with Smilebox

     Our dearest daughter, Danielle, made us a wonderful pre-Valentine's Day meal last night.  She found a new recipe in her Food and Wine magazine that she wanted to try out, and it was really yummy!  She purchased all of the groceries as well, so she had a "pleasant" reminder as to how much groceries cost; now that she's been living at home, she hasn't had to worry too much about that anymore!! :0)  She made Smoky Citrus Shrimp, and it was so yummy!!

Here's Dani in action...

The table was set for us, and she even had our favorite chips and salsa for us.

This is what the shrimp looked like before it was rolled into quesadilla form and packed with lots of yummy ingredients.

     I made this tasty dessert.  It's called "One True Love."  It is a layered dessert consisting of homemade chocolate cake (baked in a heart shaped pan) topped with a mixture of cream cheese, whipping cream, and cherry pie filling. YUM!!! :0)  It's a family favorite on Valentine's Day.  Here's hoping every day is filled with love!!

Bump...Set...Spike

     Darrell and I joined Alison and her sister, Carmen, at a JO volleyball tournament on Sunday.  We watched Alison's daughter play for the Maple Lake Irish team, and we watched the Big Lake Hornets play after Brandy's second match of the morning.  It was lots of fun to watch both teams play, and it was great to see a lot of the girls that I coached in a tournament last summer.  They were pleasantly surprised to see two of their former English teachers and rushed over to give us lots of hugs.  We had a great time!! :0)

Alison, Brandy, and Carmen

Alison, Brandy, and I posed for a quick picture after one of her matches.

 Alison and Darrell

 A couple of pictures of the Big Lake team

"Skool"

    So last Thursday was our school's spelling bee.  It was fun to gather for dinner with my school friends before the bee began.  We shared lots of good laughs and a great meal at Applebee's.  Every year during this event old memories come flooding back of winning the spelling bee at my school when I was in 8th grade!! :)

     I had to smile when I received this e-mail from Darrell earlier that day:

"Good luck and have fun with the spelling bee.  Just remember anyone can spell skool.   I love you!! J J J J"

 

"What a great mix of colors!" Alison stated when she saw this picture. 

 I didn't even think about that!!

Here I am posing with my friend, Sara.  She always has the best scarves!! :0)

A Beautiful Sight

     How cool is this?  When I left for Zumba this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see the hoar frost on the trees.  It is such a spectacular sight and one that is not seen often enough.  So I ran inside and grabbed my camera to take a few pictures of our trees covered in the frost.  My favorite has to be our crab apple tree below:

 I guess this is the closest look we are going to get to snow at the rate we're going!!

Friends + Food = Fun

     Darrell and I recently had the opportunity to meet our good friends for dinner.  It is always nice to enjoy friends and conversation outside of the workplace.  Darrell's work can be very stressful, and he always enjoys laughs with Holty (especially since some of his family members work for him).  We had a very nice dinner followed by wine and dessert.

Brenda and Holty smile for the camera.

 

 

Now it is our turn.  :0)

Holty's student teacher was our waitress, so she treated us to this yummy dessert!!   It was so delicious!!

The four of us

     My next dinner adventure was to celebrate Anita's birthday.  She invited Simona and me out to dinner.  It was so nice to catch up with her.  We enjoyed a really good BBQ chicken flatbread pizza.  You can't go wrong with Granite City Food and Brewery!! Happy birthday to you, Anita!!!

A Busy Week

Lots of fun activities were on store this past week, so here is a recap. :0)

     Last Sunday our nephew, Erik, received his Eagle Scout Award in Rochester.  It was a special occasion for him and his family.  He has worked really hard for this, so it was nice to see his efforts paid off!!  Erik is the one in the middle of the three boys/young men in the picture.

Erik presented his dad, Paul, with a medal for being a parent of an Eagle Scout.

Then Darrell's sister, Patti, had the honor of adding a medal to his many other medals.  She was one proud mama!!

Erik gave a very nice speech.

He spoke about one of his mentors, his Aunt Cheryl (Darrell's sister), and he presented her with a mentor pin.

A close-up of his Eagle Scout Award

     After the ceremony, everyone gathered at Patti and Paul's for a celebration.  Paul's family came from a couple of different states for the occasion, so we were able to get a nice photo of his side of the family.

Evan, Erik, Paul, and Patti

It was over to Heather's house on Monday night.  She taught us how to make her yummy homemade egg rolls.

Mike and Heather's friend's husband is from Laos, so the recipe is from him. These are fabulous egg rolls!!

Simona was the "unwrapper" of the pastry.  I was the "stuffer" and "wrapper" while Heather was the "gluer" of the egg rolls.

Looking so official :)

Heather's husband, Mike, was the official fryer for the occasion. 

Don't these look yummy??!!

Heather and her daughter, Victoria, also prepared a meal to go along with the egg rolls.  I brought the dessert. :)  Heather's mom and step-dad also joined us for dinner.

Three generations: Heather's mom, Heather, and her two daughters, Victoria and Olivia

Snuggle time for Grandpa and Olivia

Heather showed us Mike's Big Lake basketball uniform from the late '80s while Jill decided to don this crazy blue & gold mask!!

Next was dinner and movie night at Heidi's on Thursday night.

Alison was the only one who hadn't seen The Help, but we still decided to watch it since we all read the book.  We also prepared dinner with a Southern theme.

Here is Heidi making cheesy grits, a new recipe that she came across. 

 Deb and Alison helped with the okra and baked beans.

We opted to be healthier, so we substituted rotisserie chicken instead of fried chicken.

     However...I found a new recipe that is so yummy but not one that I would classify as "low fat."  They are called Frosted Cheesecake Brownies.  Peter and Rachel sampled them before we even had dinner. :0)

Rachel took her dessert "to go" as she was working on her homework.

Smudge went nuts over Deb's leather purse.  He was licking it and rolling all over on it.  What a crazy kitty!!

Thanks for a fun evening, Heidi!! :0)