Brown Roses

I thought this was really neat. I am totally going to get some of these for my yard. Have you ever heard of a Brown rose? I think they are cool:

I also found these. They are called "Black Roses" but I thought they were really pretty:

Anyway, I thought they were nice.

Stuff...

Well... we did the heart attack on Monday and it was great fun. The Nosy Nellie that is my brother in law Greg (Best... not James) opened the door and then my sister in law came home at exactly the wrong time. She wasn't very discreet or sympathtic for the kids that were hoping for a surprise. She just stopped to chat then pushed her way through and into the house. It was a little strange. Anyway, after my in laws we went to my parents house and did it to them. It was really fun because they weren't nosy and didn't open the door. The boys had so much fun sneaking around and whispering, they got a little cold at the end but it was really fun for them.

I got to hold Jennie and Greg's babies yesterday (Mike's sister had twins late last year). That was lots of fun. Because we've been so sick we haven't seen anybody in Mike's family for weeks and weeks but I got to hold both of them at the same time. I should have taken a picture. It was super cute.

Mike has started receiving his gifts for Valentine's Week. He was a little confused the first night. I don't normally give him presents for no reason at all but yesterday he started to catch on. I did the whole thing with the candy bars and he said " That was great, I've never had one of those posters and I've always wanted one." I don't think anybody would understand the magnitude of that comment... just me. It's one of those things that only your spouse could know and I know how big of a deal that was for him and how flattered he was. (BTW Greg... my husband likes the cheesy stuff!) Anyway, it's really helping our currently strained relationship. (Only strained because of the day to day things of regular life... no worries, nothing to dramatic!) Anyway, I thought I'd give you a quick update of how things are going. Nothing too exciting... man! I'm exhausted!

Valentine's Day

I said that I was going to dedicate this blog to being prepared for the second coming... well, this entry does that, in a round about way... We have been really having a hard time the last few weeks.. just life, kids sick, jobs are stressful, and a constant need to do the laundry and dishes!!! Nothing too much to worry about (it would be nice to be included in prayers... if you think about it. Man! I had an awesome experience the other day with prayer... another time though) just the difficulties of life getting to us. \Well, because of the discouragement that seems to be sweeping through my house like poison lately I have felt inspired to express to my husband how much I love him. You can tell somebody something a hundred times and it's still the same thing over and over, just words. I have been trying to serve him by doing little things... not whining as much when he has to go to a Jazz game for his work... ahem... and when he has church stuff to do.

On top of doing that stuff I have decided that I am going to do an extra special thing for Valentine's day next week! Every day he's going to get a little treat from a "Secret Admirer!" I wonder if he will tell me about it if I say it's from a secret admirer... hmm... that is going to be an interesting experiment (I'm NOT setting him up... it will just be interesting...) I bet he'll tell me about it. We don't normally celebrate Valentine's Day because it's just such a cheesy holiday and we usually just end up in an argument! Once we even celebrated in August (6 months later) so we could avoid the crowds... we just aren't big on Valentine's day... that's changing this year! Anyway, here are my brillant ideas...

Day 1: Use the following website to send him a braille message via email from a secret admirer.

Day 2: Money for my Honey... Check out this website.

Day 3: New Shirt and Tie with a note that says "We are a perfect fit!"

Day 4: Poster Board telling him how much I love him with candy bars. (You know, "Don't 'Snicker' but I think you are a 'Mr. Goodbar.'" Kind of thing)

Day 5: A small Scrapbook that is just pictures of us and has reasons that I love him in it. Check out this website.

Day 6 or 7: I'm just not sure what order I'm going to do these things in yet but I am going to make him a hanging paper heart and fill it with candy for him to wake up to. (I'm going to do this for my whole family)

Then the other one I'm going to do will be making heart shaped cinnamon rolls and taking them to his work.

FUN huh?!?!

Boredom Busters

Okay, I know that the title of this entry is totally creative and cute... not my idea. (I am hanging my head in shame.) Anyway (Okay, no more hanging) I found this FABULOUS website that I may have mentioned before but I don't remember... anyway, it's called Sugardoodle. It's got great ideas for everything from FHE to.... hmm... can't think of a "to." Well, it's a great website and my primary kids can credit most of my lessons to it. I strongly suggest you check it out.

On this amazing website I found a fantastic list of things for kids to do. I have printed this out and I'm going to hang it on my fridge so when my kids want to turn on the TV we can find something else a little more creative for them to do... some of the things on here need parental guidance (especially with kids as young as mine) but some of the stuff they can do without me which gives me a minute to load the dishwasher or do a load of laundry. Go check it out.... right... here.