The holiday of L-O-V-E

I feel like we kind of made Valentine's Day a big deal this year.  I think it was because Willa got to celebrate at preschool and that got her kind of revved up for it.  Usually, aside from my love of the colors red and pink together, I'm not a huge fan.  (If any of you reading ever lived in Babcock Hall from the years 1998-2000, do you always on Valentine's Day picture those cut-outs in the bathroom that were from "the magazines"?  With the strategically positioned construction paper flaps?  I do.)  

Anyhooters...this year was fun!  On the Monday before Valentine's Day, we had a family date downtown.  First, we got coffee at Indigo Bridge, then we made stuff at Paint Yourself Silly, then we had ice cream at Ivanna Cone, and then we had dinner at Bison Witch's.  All fun stuff.  Lots of good food.  I swear Willie was having more fun than it looks like she was having.  She painted herself a little duck and also helped with Brad's pencil cup.  I think she has figured out how OCD I am about certain things, as she didn't even ask if she could help with my spoon rest.  She knows I would freak out if she painted out of my lines.  And today, she wouldn't let me play Monopoly with her, as she said I would make her play it "the right way."  Damn straight, child.  

Wednesday night, we made brownies.  And we ate a lot of frosting.

Thursday night, Brad brought home Noodles and had flowers and wine awaiting us:)  Note that he has learned that I do not think that roses are pretty flowers.  No picture, but I bought him some spicy garlic sauce from BW3s.  And some pink sea salt.  A tasty gift, but I did feel a little lame when another gift arrived for me the next day and it was this little guy that I have been wanting and wanting and he cost much more than wing sauce...

See?  Cute little guy.  Ready for a cute little plant, when I find the one that I am imagining.

All in all, it was a very nice holiday.  But Easter is my favorite and it is next.  And again, I have sworn off excess/refined sugar from Valentine's Day through Easter.  So Friday morning, I gave away the leftover brownies and have been saying no to all my favorite things ever since.  No, that was pretty dramatic but I did order black coffee at Scooters while Willa ate red velvet cupcake ice cream with M & M's on top the other day.  And today while we were snowed in all day, I may have mixed a lot of unsweetened cocoa powder with peanut butter, honey and banana and eaten it like yogurt.  I'm really blurring the lines of what is acceptable, natural sugar and what isn't.  Honey?  Really?!?  I was desperate.  Brad is giving up soda.  I am so proud of how well he is doing.  We stocked up on many flavors of green tea to get us through.  Tosha gave up meat again.  She is discovering the joys of Trader Joe's Meatless Meatballs.  We are all suffering together:)  Except Willa.  She is getting a really sick kind of pleasure out of my inability to eat candy.  She went so far as to rub my back with a little bag of Valentine M & M's the other day, singing to me about how they are made of sugar.  Mean, mean little creature.  Its fine.  I'll get her back on Easter Day.  The Easter bunny might bring her a basket with only candy wrappers.  Wrappers from reece's eggs, starburst jelly beans, and sweet tart bunnies and chicks.  I really like Easter.

Guys, here's how to please a (vegetarian) lady.

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The title of this post is indeed a shameless attempt to get to the 10,000 views mark.  I admit it.  I bet that gets googled a lot, don't you?!?  Especially around Valentine's Day.  But don't be scared, I am not about to share any faux-fur lined handcuffs

Yes, this is what (soft core) porn looks like to me:)

Just this recipe for vegan chocolate avocado pudding.  This might be even scarier than the handcuffs.  You're thinking that I have lost my mind, putting the words "avocado" and "pudding" in the same sentence.  My mind is still just as together as it was before I found the pudding recipe, whatever that means to you.  This stuff is so good.  If you have an aversion to coconut, as about half of the world does, you can leave it out.  And you can use any type of milk.  Also, I used honey in place of syrup, and really not very much of it.  Tastes so much better than any pudding you can buy in the store and its pretty darn good for you!  Please try it.  Even if you think you don't like avocados.  Which if you don't, you should not be reading my blog.  Its like saying you don't like Willa.  That's how close avocados and I are.  We may be closer, as an avocado would have hurt A LOT LESS coming out of the birthing canal.  I've also never had an avocado yell in the library that she "can't find the damn dog" in the Where's Waldo book.  But at the same time an avocado never tells me I'm pretty or snuggles with me at night.  Its a toss up.

The pictures really make us look like alcoholics. Eh.

Last weekend, I laughed a lot.  Thanks to these girls.  Girls that I have known and loved since grade school (except for brooke.  Wait that sounded like maybe I don't love brooke.  I do, but only since 6th grade.  Not that she was really horrible before that.  Well, maybe she was but if she was then she was being horrible in Worms, Ne and not Grand Island, Ne.  Get it?)  For the most part, we have stayed in a pretty close proximity to one another since high school, and made sure that we saw each other regularly.  Then, Amy went and moved to Lawrence, Kansas.  Which as it turns out is not that far away and is a great place to go on a little road trip!  

On our road trip, we ate waffles, went shopping, drank beer, played cards, drank wine, played cards, had dinner at a brewery, took shots, painted our nails, ate brownies, injured each other playing cards, talked, laughed, cried, and drank peach schnapps smoothies.  I think it was a weekend that we all needed.  

I am so, so very thankful for these girls.  Our lives have all gotten so hectic, and the miles between us has grown, but we still make time for each other.  We can still sit around in our pajamas and eat junk food and talk about boys/stress/kids/401k's/books/pretty much anything and feel completely comfortable.  I am already excited for our next girl's weekend.  I also have an itch to start planning some sort of tropical vacation.  Maybe for our 40th birthdays?!?

One very special party

Today we helped to celebrate some really amazing milestones.  I try to shy away from using the word amazing these days, as I think it gets over-used, but it applies here.  We came together with lots of family and friends for my Grandma Christensen's 90th birthday, which was today, and also to celebrate my Grandpa's upcoming 99th birthday, and their 72nd wedding anniversary.  Isn't that just the coolest?  To be married to someone for 72 years and still deeply in love and content to spend their days enjoying one another's company?  I think my grandparents' just may be my favorite people to be around.  Grandpa has the most impressive memory and best storytelling skills of anyone I have ever met.  He remembers seriously everything.  I'm positive he has told me the make and model of cars that his co-workers drove at his first jobs, some 70 or so years ago.  And my Grandma?  There is absolutely not a sweeter person on Earth.

The cousins that were present.  There's a lot of us:)  I counted the guest book and there were 148 guests that had signed in.  Quite the popular couple!

Toward the end of the party, my little lady made me smile.  She asked Brad where the presents were.  He explained that at parties for people who aren't kids, there usually aren't lots of presents but he did show her where the card basket was.  As soon as he showed her, she went to her backpack and pulled out a ziplock baggie that was full of little drawings she had made, a few paper hearts, and a piece of gum.  She put it on top of the pile of cards and went about her business.  When he asked her about it, she said "That's my present for Great Grandma."  After the party, she sat patiently by the card basket until Grandma had a chance to look at some of the cards and waited till she had looked through her baggie, then she went back to playing.  I thought it was a very kind gesture from a 3 year old.  But I'm a little biased:)  

What a perfect day.