Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Day in elementary school always seemed awkward to me.  I tried pick appropriate valentines to give people.  I didn't want to give the "I'm sweet on you!" to any of the boys and I never wanted to give them to the girls either.  In high school the pressure was always on to have a Valentine.  I'm not sure if I ever did have one but pressure remains burned in my memory.  Then college.  Ugh.  More pressure to be working on that MRS degree.  I remember dating a boy and using the phrase "I love you" and feeling strange about it.  I'm old fashioned and wanted that to be reserved for the one.  I really hoped that he was the one, but still using the phrase was odd to me.  I remember talking to my mom one day and asking how a person could know that they were in love.  Maybe she sensed my hesitation and responded something to the effect that if I was truly in love that I probably wouldn't be asking the question.  That left me with more questions than answers.  I truly wanted to fall in love and be with my soul mate, my one and only, the one who God had perfectly designed for me and here's my mom telling me nothing more than, "You'll just know".  I don't like those kind of answers.  I'm a doer.  Tell me what to do, and I'll get it done for you.  I don't like vagueness.  I'm not a good mind reader.  I'm not a game player.  What you see is what you get.  I am me.  So when I ask, "How do I know if I'm in love," I need the Top Ten List of How to Know I Am In Love, or give me a three point sermon and I'll follow it.  Little did I know that at that point my father is praying that I will get through college with out all the distractions of boys.  As graduation rapidly approached, campus became a diamond mine.  It seemed that everyday someone else was getting engaged.  I was happy for them, but wondered where and when it would be my turn.  As only God can do, my path of least resistance got me to a college for an internship where I went to a local church.  I attended there with a friend of mine from college and she introduced me to this very handsome man who asked if I would like to go out to dinner with him.  I accepted and right away I fell for this guy.  I remember calling home to tell my parents that I was going on date #3 with  a boy I met at church and they came up immediately to meet him.  On a phone call only a couple weeks later, I asked Mom if she remembered 3 years back to the how-do-I-know-if-I'm-in-love conversation and she did.  I remember just giving a whoop of joy over the phone to let her know that I knew.  When he proposed only 4 months after we met, I remember mom making a comment like, "I have no idea what took him so long!"  We were married almost a year to the day that we met.  Marriage is not perfect, in fact sometimes it's just hard work, but it is so worth it.  We have had many fun Valentines Days together.  I remember the Valentines Day of 2002, I was 4 days away from Ariel's delivery and I was huge.  Hubby gave me a beautiful necklace with a heart pendant on it that I am wearing today.  We talked about it being our last Valentines Day alone, with out children.  Valentines Day of 2005, Hubby was in Iraq and the girls and I all got flowers for him via his sister.  It's not the presents and flowers that make Valentines special, it's the thought behind it all, the special day set aside to reflect on love and the blessings that God has given us.

This morning I was served breakfast in bed by my two little Valentines.  Hubby and I were ordered back to bed by the little tyrants while they heated up left over pancakes and made coffee.  As we waited, we talked about how quickly they had gotten so big, how time goes by way too fast.  The girls and I went to the grocery store to get our supplies for our annual surprise fancy dinner for Daddy that I started long before they came along.  It's one of my gifts to my husband.  I hope he'll like it....actually, I know he will.  He always has.  He is so good to me!

Belle vs. the Radio

Hubby worked at home for most of the day today.  It was nice to have him around.  Not that he really interacts with us much when he's working, but it's just nice to know that he is around.  It balances out the times that he is away from us.  We were sitting in the same room this morning and he has his radio on, making sure that he wasn't missing anything, and it can be loud and annoying sometimes.  I honestly don't know how they stand it all the time, but I guess after listening to it for 17 years you kind of tune it out.  Something like I do with the kids, right?  Anyway, Belle is eying the radio and scowling when all of a sudden she says, "I just want to push that button and say, 'Shut up!  Mark is on a break!'".  I started busted out laughing but told her not to touch it.  Hubby is giggling himself and says, "Why do you think that you shouldn't do that?" and her reply was, "because I think that you wouldn't have a job any more and I think you like your job!"  Of course her eyes were shining and she was giggling, but she knew what she was talking about.   

An Award!

A huge thanks to my friend, Lisa at The Berry Patch who gave me the Stylish Award!  How cool!  Thanks so much, Lisa, your blog inspires me in so many different ways!

The rules are rather straight-forward....

1. Thank and link back to the person (or people) who awarded you this award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

Seven Things About Me

1.  I am married to the most amazing man in the entire world.  Being married to my best friend and waking up next to him everyday is a blessing straight from God.  We met and married with in a year, 13 years ago.  I'm such a lucky girl.
2.  I have two girls that mean the world to me.  They amaze me everyday with the things they come up with and how much they take in.  They are growing way too fast and if I think about it too much, I'll cry.
3.  I have a bachelors degree in Athletic Training from Houghton College which is what ultimately brought me to Maine.  I spent my first year of college at Word of Life Bible Institute, studying the Bible.  I'd recommend it to anyone!
4.  I have lived in 6 states.  My dad was a pastor and we moved often!  I think it gave me a big sense of adventure and ready for anything.
5.  I am an Army Wife.  Hubby is in the Army Reserve and is the commander of his battalion.  I feel lucky that he has only been on one deployment.  He was in Iraq for a year and it was so hard, but by the grace of God, we made it though!
6.  I love to cook!  Baking is so fun!  I enjoy experimenting with recipes and creating new things.  Food network is just about my most favorite thing to watch on TV.
7.  The most important thing to me, besides all of this, is my faith in God.  He has blessed me beyond belief and continues to do so.  It never ceases to amaze me.


Passing it on

I know that I have a few postings dating way back, I really am new to getting into blogging.  I don't have very many blogs that I follow, but here are the ones that I do....

1.  'Sup bros...this is the Breaus!  Laura is a friend of mine and an Air Force wife.  Her hubby is currently on deployment but she is always upbeat and she has many adventures in Japan.
2.  barefoot in barcelona  Keri was my flower girl and is now attending Gordon College.  Her blog is about her adventures in her semester abroad in Barcelona and her stories are so good!
3.  Ross Family  This one is personal to me.  It's my cousin's wife's blog.  I have yet to met her in person, but through her blog, I am getting to know her and their adorable daughter, Emma.
4.  Sylvester Family  This is another cousin, Katie, who I don't get to see often but love to keep up with her blog and pictures of her growing family.
5.  Our Family Forest  This is my amazing friend, Jen.  I have no idea how she does all she does.

That's it!  It's all I got.  4 is a far cry from 15, but it's what I've got!

Wednesday Night Mayhem

Yesterday, Wednesday, we had a great start to our day!  We had a new friend come over in the morning.  She has two little boys, one almost 3 and the other 3 months.  It made me remember how much work little ones are.  The oldest was so cute playing with mine and of course mine ate it up!  Ariel was in her glory playing with the oldest and then switching gears to croon over the baby.  She is going to be a great babysitter one day soon.  The friend left before lunch, we finished school, the girls played in the snow and we made a trip into town.  Valentine's Day is approaching much more rapidly than I had thought it would and I had to get the girls Valentines for their friends and get them into the mail.  So, summing up our great day, I'm not sure when the "grumpies" moved in.  Can adults be over-stimulated?  Oh, you thought I was saying that my kids were grumpy?  Not a chance.  It was all me.  Fast forward to about 5pm.  I'm getting supper together, hubby is running later than I thought, the potatoes are now out of the oven and getting cold, hubby walks through the door hungry, but I didn't want to put the steaks on too soon.  So, I popped the 'taters back in the oven, threw the steaks on to my George Foreman grill and then a quick e-mail check.  Went to check on the steaks a few minutes later and they were looking great.  Hubby likes his a bit more done so I took three off and left one on.  The grill starts smoking a bit and the smoke detector responds appropriately.  This is all well and good because it's not attached to anything, I can just wave it around and move it to another room.  But I didn't tend to it immediately and Ariel, fingers in her ears, runs into the kitchen and starts shouting, THE FIRE ALARM IS GOING OFF!  THE FIRE ALARM IS GOING OFF!  To which I respond, I KNOW!  Then she starts yelling, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!!!!  Seriously, who does that?  What on earth would possess someone to mimic a fire alarm?  Isn't it annoying enough on it's own?  I think this is the point where I started yelling myself.  Of course a mother yelling doesn't really calm the situation down and having a case of the grumpies didn't help either.  Ariel runs off giggling as I'm reaching for the fire alarm.  I'm proud to say that everyone is still alive this morning, but probably a bit deaf.

You're not crazy mom!

I feel like I live on that precipice of insanity at all times.  I think I like it here, not knowing whether or not I will fall over the ravine, kinda makes me feel alive!  I have a friend that is a mental health nurse and I asked her one time, "If I know that I'm crazy, I'm not right?  Because that is the thing that makes me know I'm sane."  Her reply was something to the effect of crazy people do know they are crazy.  Great!  Now what is the benchmark of knowing the sane from the insane? 

Today hubby went into work later than usual, which meant that school was put aside for games of Crocodile and hanging out with Daddy.  Some things are more important.  So at 3:30 pm when Ariel was still doing school work and very frustrated with the whole thing that I decided to inject some humor and just be silly.  She looks at me, like only tween girl can, and rolls her eyes at me.  But I can see that she is no longer in her frustrated state, she has that glint in her rolling eyes that tells me that my silliness is working.  So I said to her, "I know, Momma is crazy!"  Belle, sitting on my lap, pipes up, "You're not crazy, Momma!!!  You are normal!"  To which I burst out laughing as did Ariel.  So I asked her if she was sure and she said she was.  I then asked, "Okay then, who is crazy?" and you know she said it was her sister.  It amazes me how quickly kids pick up on humor and how easily they incorporate it into their everyday language.  I'm so glad that my kids have a sense of humor, it's a good way to cope with the tough things that come along in life.  I'm glad they can laugh at themselves, I think it will make them stronger human beings. 

Hubby is off ice fishing tonight with some of his Trooper buddies.  They have done this for the past several years and it's always a hike to their fishing local.  Funny thing is, now we only live about 20 minutes away from it.  The girls and I are going to get a pizza and have a fun girls night complete with a pajama party in Momma's bed, as they call it.  Often when he is away they want to sleep with me.  Too soon they will be bigger and not want to hang with me.  I'm going to cherish these insane days but fun PJ party nights.

Pretzels

I love to watch Food Network.  One show we all enjoy in Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  One recent episode was Bobby taking on Big Daddy Pretzel from Philly.  They had a soft pretzel throwdown and Bobby actually won!  If you have seen the show you know that he usually does not win.  My family was oooo-ing and ahh-ing at the sight of the pretzels and I was thinking they didn't look to difficult to make.  Food Network posted his recipes and after checking it out decided that it would be a fun family activity and it actually was!!!  After waiting forever for the dough to rise, according to Ariel, all 4 of us formed our snakes and made pretzel shapes popped them into the oven.  Ohmyyummyness, they were good! 

Not every time I find a new recipe or think of a fun thing to make does it turn out okay.  In fact, the girls and I were watching TLC's Cake Boss and Buddy was talking about Irish Soda Bread.  Ariel asked what it was and I didn't know, so thank goodness for Google, we found out.  Looking at a recipe it looked easy and yummy, very similar to the recipe I use for biscuits.  When all was said and done, the bread was good, but burned on the outside and still gooey on the inside.  Guess I'll have to try that again and make sure the oven temp is accurate. 

As far as the pretzels go, we all had a blast and we are looking forward to making them again!  Having something that everyone really enjoys is not always easy, but this was a hit!  Here's the link to the recipe... Bobby Flay's Soft Pretzels

A Hole In My Pants

I had a pair of gray pants that were my absolute favorite.  They were perfect.  My legs are long and the length was perfect.  There was a touch of lycra in them, which made them feel perfect.  They didn't sit high on my waist, my waist is low, and they fit perfect.  I wore them all the time.  They were my go-to pants.  I bought them at an outlet so I knew that I would never be able to find another pair.  And then it happened!  I went into the outlet that I bought them at 2 years later, and there they were!  Not only were they in gray, but in black, tan and brown, to which my wonderful husband said, "Buy them all!!".  And I did. 

Fast forward 2 years.  Now I have 3 favorite pants.  The same gray one, but newer, black and brown.  The tan is in the back of my closet because it is not my favorite, it shows too many thigh dimples, which I think is sharing way too much information.  I think I wear the black pair the most.  I have a gray and black sweater that is long that I adore and wear far too much with my favorite black pants.  I wore the black pants to Thanksgiving, to which my sister in law replies, "Oh!  You wore those last year and I cringed last year because of all the dog hair you were going to get on you!"  See, I told you I wear them too much.  I wore those black pants with a new sweater vest and white button down shirt for my hubby's promotion.  I wore them to the Christmas Party we had for the army unit that hubby is in the first of December.  When I went to put them on two Sundays after Christmas, I gasped.  There was a hole in the seam on the backside of those pants.  I can deal with holes.  It is right on the seam.  Give me my trusty sewing machine and 5 minutes and I'll make them look new again.  The reason I gasped is when the heck did that hole appear?  When I dress, it's usually in a hurry with 1000 questions being thrown at me all at once.  So, did I wear them with a hole in it to the Christmas Party?  To the promotion and the Christmas Party?  Please some one tell me that it just happened or at least I was smart enough to wear black undies so no one could tell.  But I cannot answer these questions.  So is it possible that I went to the Army Christmas Party, where my husband is the commander and I'm the head of the Family Group and people are always looking at us, with a hole in those favorite black pants in my hiney?   I remember how many times I bent over to get more information for the family members under my display table.  And the times that I picked rouge craft items off the floor.  And the time I squatted down to speak with the rep from Senator Collins office so I could talk to her face to face while she was sitting at the table.  Someone would have said something to me, right?  Right?  Would I tell someone if they had a hole in their pants? 

The pants are now fixed.  I will wear them tomorrow.  But I don't think I will ever look at them the same again and I will always check to make sure all seams are secure when I put pants on forevermore.