Wherein the Blogger Finally Overcomes Writers Block

    I know that there are some of you (at least a few) who faithfully check for updates on my blog. I'm sorry I've been such a disappointment to you, I hope you can forgive me! :)
    Instead of getting overwhelmed about everything I could/should post about, I'm just going to hit the high points, and add one or two pictures!
     My sister Kara stayed with us for several weeks through January, while she was a substitute teacher at our church school. I really enjoyed having her around! Even though she was gone most days, and alot of weekends, we got to connect more than normal, and she was good company on the evenings Tom had to be gone for fire dept. or church meetings!
     We celebrated our very first anniversary on the 4th of February...actually we didn't do a lot of celebrating, since we planned to do that over the weekend, but Tom did get the day off unexpectedly due to inclement weather, which made the day seem more special! The following weekend we spent an overnight in the Twin Cities, and did some shopping the next day. I love being married to this man of mine, and I hope to celebrate many more anniversaries with him!

     Shortly thereafter, it was time to celebrate Valentine's Day. Tom wasn't so sure anymore why we chose to get married so close to Valentine's Day...he said, "What am I supposed to do? If I don't buy you flowers for our anniversary, I'll be a bad husband, and if I don't buy you flowers for Valentine's Day, I'll be a bad husband...should I do both?" :) But I know the truth, and that is that whether or not he buys me flowers for every significant occasion, he's never going to be a bad husband! He's just lucky I wasn't born in February too! ;)

     I attempted to make a simple little romantic meal for us that evening, consisting of Cheesy Broccoli Soup and heart shaped garlic bread, served on my fine china. The soup turned out with a texture uncomfortably close to baby food, and the color wasn't much better, but at least it tasted ok! I tried to redeem the dinner later in the evening with individual homemade ice cream desserts, which we ate while relaxing with a movie.

         A few days later, some of the ladies from church had a belated Valentine's party...it turned out much smaller than anticipated due to sickness, but it was a nice time anyway! We each brought food with the Valentine's theme in mind. Instead of making sweets, which I figured we'd have plenty of, I went a different route:

                                               

     For the meat, cheese and cucumbers, I used cookie cutters, and for the tomatoes, I did this. I used this technique for the egg. The story behind that one egg perched in the middle of the plate is this: I was going to make a whole plateful of heart shaped deviled eggs, but after experimenting with one, decided that it required too much effort! I couldn't let that one cute little egg go to waste though, so I used it as a garnish.

    Also around that time, Tom's cousin Stephanie stayed with us for a few days. I really enjoyed getting to know her better, since she lives in far away Ontario!

     More recently, I've been thinking spring and flower beds. I ordered some seedlings and got the first part of my order last week. It was so fun to transplant the little things and set them in the sun inside my patio door. They're so cute! :) I'm in the office this week, with plenty of time to Pinterest, and dream of a lush backyard and mounds of fresh flowers. Hey, it doesn't hurt to dream, does it? :)

   More realistically however, they're predicting a winter storm for these parts tonight, with a possible accumulation of 4-7 inches. I guess I'll have lots of time to "inspect my fields"! 

   Have a lovely day folks, and hang in there...spring will come in due time!