Heart Day

That's our supper last night - heart shaped pizzas from Papa Murphys. This may have to become a tradition! They are so cute!

Valentines Day was nice yesterday. Well, the beginning part wasn't so great. Ben and David were at eachother's throats and I had to re-arrange my day so that Will could take my van to his writing class because the truck had a dead battery. But it was a nice evening.

Paul got home in the early afternoon so he got some work done on the house. Then, we cooked the pizzas and I had everyone's Valentine gift by their place at the table.. Paul got me a pretty, pretty animal-print with black lace nightie. Of course that begs the question - is that a gift for me or for him? Fortunately, he hasn't realized how fat I've gotten and he got me a size too small. So I have to exchange it. And he got me chocolate, the consumption of which has led to the previous sentences! And he got me this nice card that says on the front, "I'm just an ordinary man, living an ordinary life...except for one thing" and then the inside it says, "I'm married to an extraordinary woman." That's so Paul - he has frequently referred to himself as "ordinary." I truly don't think I'm all that extraordinary, but that's nice that he thinks I am!

We had gotten Ben a Tim Hawkins DVD so we watched that as a family last night. Oh - so funny! That man has talent! The boys are excited about going to his concert in April. Three of my friend, Tammy's, kids approached me Sunday, money in hand and asked me to buy them tickets, too. We have high speed internet and they don't so we do stuff like that for them all the time. Paul and I have talked about going to the concert ourselves, but we just hate to spend $30 for that. Besides, we've probably already seen all his material in the 3 DVDs we have! I just hope Ben will be manageable. He has a hard time with self-control when he gets tickled and I hope that's not too much for Will to keep Ben under control.

So, anyway, it was a really nice Valentines Day. The weather has warmed up, which puts everyone in a better mood (well, except for my squabbling children). I'm not so fond of the muddy muss in our alley now, particularly since it gets tracked into my house. But that's spring for you. Not that it is really spring. Temps are supposed to go back down after this Thurs. and I'm quite sure we're in line for at least one more snowstorm - probably right around the time of the state basketball tournament. That's a big deal here in central IA, and it seems like there is always bad weather that week!

Oh, I have BIG news! I got a new refrigerator! I am so, so, so, so excited! It will be delivered this Sat - I can't wait!!! It is my dream fridge that I have wanted for years. It's black, side by side doors, and has an ice maker in the door. I'll be able to chew on crushed ice whenever I want!!! We hadn't really talked about buying a fridge. But ours has been making funny noises for awhile. And lately, the doors just really won't close without a lot of effort. I've been hoping it would die for years. We bought that I think in 2000. It's just a standard-issue white fridge. We bought it off Paul's brother when it was only 2 years old when they got a better fridge.

So, anyway, Sat. night we went out to eat. We were going to see a movie, but there was just nothing really playing that we wanted to spend $18 to see. So I suggested to Paul we go look at refrigerators - even though we had not officially decided we were in the market for one. So, we went over to Best Buy. And we found exactly what I wanted. A floor model had been marked down $250. The brand is LG, which we had never heard of in appliances before, but the sales girl said it's actually one of the best companies for appliances. I told her I did not want to deal with Whirlpool ever again and she assured me that LG has great customer service. So, that sounds good. They are delivering the fridge for free and taking away our old one. Good, good deal!

Ben starts practicing for Special Olympics this week. I'm really not sure how that whole program works. But I'm meeting the coordinator for it at the school tomorrow and I guess I'll find out. She said something about running and the softball throw, so I guess that's what Ben will be doing? I don't know. Today I brought Valentine goodies to Ben's classroom and while I was waiting for his aide I was chatting with the other aides about the Olympics and they were saying that sometimes they get really short notice as to when the events are held. I hope that's not true. They also said Mr. Knutson might be out until sometime in March. Ugh. Ben's doing ok without him, but it will be nice to have him back.

I discovered a new snack, recently - roasted nuts. They're healthy and delicious, which surprised me. The only nuts I've ever been real fond of are salted, dry-roasted peanuts. But in my new organic cookbook she has a recipe for soaking and salting nuts. You let them roast overnight in a low-heat oven. Boy, are they delicious! I mixed up a batch of sunflower, cashew, and peanuts, put them a storage container and I just snack on them all day long. Wonderful!

I also discovered a more local supplier of milk in the health food store. It's from a farm in Guthrie Center. They sell their milk in half gallon glass jars. I like that their cows are steroid and antibiotic free and pasture fed. But the glass jars, while cute, are kind of a pain because I can't freeze them. So, I figured I could just buy one every shopping trip and get organic milk from Trader Joes in the regular plastic gallon jugs.

Oh, and on the topic of natural health...I will never, ever eat chicken nuggets again. I was doing some of my "organic studies" which is is comprised of visiting several websites I'm familiar with, as well as continuing my reading in "Nourishing Traditions." I ran across a picture of this pink paste and discovered that is what chicken nuggets are made out of! They scrape every bit of the chicken together, grind it up, and this paste is the result. Apparently, it smells and tastes horrible so they have to doctor it up with all kinds of chemicals and additives. But since there is chicken in it, they can rightly call it "chicken nuggets." Nasty, nasty, nasty...

Well, that's all I know. I need to get back to making tonight's supper. This week is a busy one for me. But that's good because it will make my countdown to Sat.(my fridge's arrival) go faster!