Romance On the Town

Ahhhhhh... last night romance was in the air! Mike and I got all dressed up and headed out for a night, which honestly almost never happens.  Not the night out part, but certainly the all dressed up-night out part.  I found a fabulous dress for $14.99 at ROSS last minute. It wasn't there last time I looked, so they must have just came in. Can you believe that a dress can be $14.99, regular price? I love that store!

The Valentine's banquet was delightful.  It was awesome to see everyone dressed so nicely, and to enjoy a night out together, specifically dedicated to celebrating marriage.  The dinner was delish, although I did not eat most of it.  I "unstuffed" my chicken breast, and that was about all I could have.  It was still divine.  We dined and then danced the night away.  I will say that Mike is pretty much terrified of dancing, so we didn't do much other than a couple slow dances which is just fine by me.  It was so refreshing to spend a night out with dear friends and my love. I can't wait to do it again!

Rod & Beth, friends at our table

Nathan & Jesiree, friends at our table

Mike & I

Thomas & Amity

Amity & I

Michael & Kim, friends from Connect Group

Jesiree & I

new friends, Sarita and Elvis

great friends of our, Charlie & Amy

Mike & I

We even came away with $20 to one of Mike's

favorite restaurants!

Beyond Blessed

How are you? We're doing great, except it's been too cold in Texas for about 2 weeks now!  We are just hanging out at the house, doing the family thing while Mike waits to hear where he'll be off to work next.

So, I have a great God story {a.k.a. testimony}to share with you... We were sitting at home yesterday, hiding from the cold, when I got a phone call from the organizer of our church Valentine's Banquet.  Previously Mike and I had decided not to go for many reasons, but mainly because we are trying to be very strict with our budget.  Add to the list that I am on a VLCD (very low calorie diet) and cannot eat what is being prepared, AND we don't have any formal clothes here. Everything we own is still in storage in Canada. **sigh**  

So the fabulous organizer calls me and says that 2 tickets have been donated, and she really felt like they were for Mike and I... would we consider going?  We talked it over and the clothing issue was really frustrating both of us.  We both know that you don't have to dress formal, but we are the kind of people that if we are given the chance to dress up, we love it!  So we were both pretty excited about the blessings of the tickets but didn't know what we would wear, or who we could find last minute to watch over the kiddos (keeping the budget in mind, of course.)

Well let me tell you what! God provided everything!  We are going to the banquet! We have a free sitter and people have lent us clothing! Crazy!!  So grateful that Mike and I have learned to lay our pride aside and accept help and generosity from people when they offer. It's a wonderful blessing to both us as the receivers, as well as the givers.  Boy are we grateful!

I am so very excited about getting dressed up pretty, going somewhere elegant (Fairway Oaks Country Club), just my love and me.  And I can't wait to gush all about it!!

Smooches,
J

my newest layout, photo compliments of

Jill Calitz

Scrap Addiction

I have probably spent about 4-5 hours today (off and on) downloading, organizing and creating with digital scrapbook stuff!  I really love it but find it very difficult to carve out time to sit down and create a layout per day.  Shoot - even a layout a week, sometimes!  Then there are the super-human, bionic moms out there who have 5 kids, an awesome blog, who post several beautiful layout daily, and they still have time to be a mom, cook delicious meals, have a tidy organized home, etc, etc.  How???

If Mike wasn't home I wouldn't have been able to get this cute layout completed today, but thankfully my honey lets me indulge in my addiction, er, I mean hobbie!

I created this layout today while following a tutorial online, so it's not part of a current album that I'm working on or anything. Just a practice piece.

So? What do you think?  Pretty neat how you can't tell that it's all digital and not made with paper!  I can't wait until the day I actually complete my first album.  Truth be told I am still working on getting an album of Mike and I finished before I even start the kiddos... I am WAY behind but the good news is that I'm slowly getting organized on my new Mac and I'm getting the hang of my new version of Photo Shop Elements.  Fun, fun! Thank for letting me share another one of my passions with you.

God Bless,

J

Snowed In

I would have wrote sooner, but we've been snowed in all week!! In Texas!! This is a crazy experience for me.  Monday afternoon was a beautiful 75 degrees!  On Monday evening it started to rain, then pour. We had a pretty amazing thunder storm for a few hours, then the temperature dropped drastically and it began to snow.  By Tuesday morning we had about 6 inches of snow cover!  Since the temperatures have been so bad (averaging around 18F), the snow has stayed all week.  Schools have been cancelled, many stores closed and not many people were able to go to work.  Our whole city practically shut down! I can't help but giggle a bit because what is so abnormal for Abilene is just another (fairly mild, I may add) day in Alberta.

Mike's sister, Randa, was scheduled to substitute teach this week at a school near us and came to stay so that she wouldn't have to drive as far in the bad weather.  It was a fun week for us because school ended up being cancelled every day, so we hung out with Randa all week! We all had fun playing and spending time with her, especially Harrison and Heidi.

The pipes in our kitchen have been frozen since Tuesday night, probably since they are on an outside wall of the house.  I'm kind of getting the idea of what it was like to "go fetch the water" in the old days.  We've had to get water from the bathroom at the other end of the house for any kitchen related needs.  We lost internet from Tuesday until late Thursday afternoon.  There have also been scheduled or rolling power outages so that the extra power usage wouldn't crash the grid.  Fun times!

No, we did not go out and make snowmen with our kids.  I opened the back patio door and dipped Harrison upside down into the snow and that was enough for him. Besides - who has snow suits in Texas? Ours are still packed away in our storage room in Cochrane, Alberta!

We've watched movies, played with Play-doh, and started re-watching LOST.  You can never go wrong with LOST!  We're all getting cabin fever though and need to get out soon.  Hopefully the forecast stays above freezing for Saturday.  Then all the headache, I mean snow, will melt away.

Here's to sunnier days!! Soon!

HAHA! 

Daddy being silly with Play-doh

Harrison posing! Yes, his hair looks like a mohawk!

huge icicles

frontyard snow

backyard snow with animal tracks leading under the shed... yikes!

more backyard snow