Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Jamie and I usually don't make a big deal out of Valentine's day, simply because it's not our style, but I have a feeling Jamie has something really big planned this year.

I am getting really, really excited for Saturday night. 

So, last night I made him these!

They are funfetti with Cherry icing!

He loves them!

And then today, I had a rough day. 

I went to lunch for my student teaching, and, in a bad, rough area of the city, (38th and Emerson, for those of you who are familiar with it), 45 minutes from my house, I locked my keys in my car.

Yep. Seriously.

Luckly, one of the teachers from the school also went to lunch there, and he and another patron of that Subway were able to get it open with a wire hanger. 

Yeah, I was definitely thanking God for that one. 

And, some of the stories of where the kids in my class come from, what they have been through, and how much they are struggling were just really, really wearing on me. By the end of the day, I was an emotional wreck. (yes, part of that is from only having 4 hours of sleep. But still)

After school, I went to my parent's house, and we went out for my mom's birthday!

(Since it is after midnight, I guess her birthday was technically yesterday, but oh well.) 

We went to their favorite sushi house, and they ate sushi, and I ate hibachi chicken.  

My stepdad told the workers that it was her birthday, and this is what happened:

hahaha, good thing she is a good sport! My stepdad loved it. =)

Then, when I got home, this is what was waiting for me:

I love my husband. 

These seriously made me smile so big. 

Despite all of the bad things, today was a good day because it reminded me of just how lucky I am to have such wonderful people to call family.

I feel blessed.

♥

The Christmas of 2010

In reference to my last post...I'm trying.

Anyway, this past saturday, Jamie and I hosted the Rutan/Buckley Christmas.

It went really well, 

which I didn't really expect in all honesty. 

Last year I cried after they left.

seriously.

But, this year things went much better.

(and the big glass of wine I had right before everyone got there may have helped. Just saying.)

We had 5 more people this year than last.

It was crazy.

I made the ham, homemade mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, little smokies appetizers, and christmas punch.

It all tasted great, I was really proud of myself. 

 We had 15 people, and this is what we had to do to our great room to fit them all in for dinner.

 Shawn and Tami told everyone to wear red so we could take a family picture. This is how Shawn and Jamie dressed (completely coincidentally). You can tell they are brothers. 

 Richie brought his 14 week old puppy, who was the same size as my fully grown Minnie. 

The puppy also pooped behind our Christmas tree.

Fully potty trained, my butt.

 semi-decent family picture. 

 Shawn and Tami got all of the men matching hat's and scarves, and the women matching scarves and gloves. The pictures turned out pretty cute.

Jamie and i in front of our tree. Love him.

I guess I should finally just blog about this.

My grandpa Blankenship has been in the hospital for almost 2 weeks.

It's just been a lot to process, I haven't felt like writing about it.

Long story short, his blood thinner made his blood too thin, which caused bleeding on his brain, which made him disoriented and confused.

They took him off the blood thinner, and drilled 4 holes in his head to drain the blood.

He was on the mend, and then because he was no longer on the blood thinner, his blood got too thick, and he had a stroke. 

The stroke affected his speech. He recognizes everyone, and can smile, but his brain is not telling his mouth what to say. It could be months before it comes back, it could be never.

This has been a nightmare for my family.

The last major sickness in the family was my dad, and he died 3 minutes later.

I know this is on all of their minds, all the time.

It's on mine. My grandpa is the closest link I have to my dad.

My grandma and uncles have essentially been taking turns living at the hospital. One of them stays all night with him every single night. 

My grandma is exhausted. They have been married 58 years. This is an unbelievable strain on her. 

She is very stressed about Christmas. Christmas and family gatherings are of utmost importance to her, and she is determined to still have Christmas.  So, to help her out, I went over last night, and we held up our annual tradition of making Christmas mice. 

I spent my entire evening over there yesterday, and we worked on them.

Or really, I worked on them while she dozed on the couch, but it was all the same to me, she's exhausted. 

They are my favorite Christmas treat to make, and they taste amazing. 

If you're interested, you just melt almond bark in a double broiler, dip a stemmed cherry in it, then lay it on it's side on wax paper. Stick a chocolate kiss to the front, get sliced almonds for ears, and then use red gel icing for eyes.

She is taking some of the mice to my grandpa today. 

Hope he likes them, they were always his favorite too.

I'm going to go spend the morning with him tomorrow. 

What a way to spend Christmas, huh?

In a hospital bed, unable to speak.

♥

Dying a painful death due to homework...

So unbelievably overwhelmed.

For reals.

I have an absolutely massive project due in two days, and I am only half done.

I literally am going to have to pull an all-nighter wednesday night, stay up thursday to finish it, and then drive to school and turn it in.

And then after that, I have another massive assignment due on Sunday. 

If I get through this week, it will be a miracle. 

So, I am only taking a small break and staying on here long enough to say hello.

Jamie's Christmas party is this saturday at the Hyatt downtown.

We are rewarding ourselves by getting a room, and staying downtown for the night.

So excited.

It will be a nice really, really mini vacation.

Oh, and Minnie's sweater came in, and she is SO stinking cute in it.

I love it!

And, I had to take food to school today, and I was able to salvage my christmas tree cake and make it pretty!

It was a big hit!

Okay, I'm going to try and get one more section of this project before I go to work,

so it's goodbye for now.

Wish me luck.

♥

I'll be there....

Listening to "I'll be there" by the Jackson 5.

Oh little Michael, what happened to you?

Love this song.

Got up and made Jamie and I pancakes this morning. 

It was so nice, we never get to do stuff like that anymore. 

Then we did homework.

I am really proud of myself, I got a lot done.

Then when he got back from class, I made us lunch.  

Lemon Chicken, 1/2 a baked potato, italian bread, and a spinach and strawberry salad.

It was great.

Oh, here's my dilemma of the day.
How do you tell your mother-in-law that she has the wrong date for your birthday?
I got a happy birthday phone call this morning, and a message saying she had a present for me.
My birthday isn't for another 5 days.
So, how do I tell her that without sounding totally ungrateful? Because I really do appreciate the thought, and that she took the time to call me and everything.
I am considering taking the cowards way out and letting her think that today is my birthday for the rest of my life.

Now that Jamie is at work, I am finishing off my meal with the best dessert in the whole wide world!

Turtle Trails Dairy-free ice cream.

It is unbelievably delicious.

And has a ridiculously small amount of calories compared to regular ice cream.

Yum.

I had a really horrible day at school yesterday.

To make a long story short,

Our classroom teacher vetoed our lesson plan on forensic footprint/shoeprint analysis that I spent 3 hours and $20 creating 10 minutes before we were supposed to teach it, because she typed "footprint analysis" into Google, and it brought up stuff that could possibly lead to evolution.

Seriously.

So, my group and my instructor stood up for me, and said that they thought that was ridiculous, it had nothing to do with that, and I got so frustrated and upset that I started crying.

It really, really sucked.

So, Emily, Amanda and I went out to the Japanese steakhouse in Avon to make ourselves feel better, and then came back to my house and drank wine. 

It was a really great ending to a really horrible day.

So blessed to have those girls in my life.

Have a busy day tomorrow! 

Working 9-3, and then to Matt and Emily's wedding at 4:30!

Super excited that they are getting married tomorrow, I love those two.

They are going to do great things for God together.

Then, Jamie and I are going to The Melting Pot that night, to celebrate my birthday!!

So super excited about that.

The Melting Pot is my absolute favorite.

Well, have to go get ready for work soon, I work 4-11, and then have a meeting at midnight (yuck.)

But, I wanted to mention one more thing:

Today would have been my dad's 50th birthday.

I've been kind of bummed about it all week, but I'm really doing okay today.

Been thinking about all of the good times.

And listening to a lot of Beach Boys. They always make me think about him and smile.

Happy birthday, daddy.

Daddy holding me in my strawberry bikini when I was 1. One of my favorite pictures.

Wish you were here so we could celebrate it.

Miss you.

I love you.

♥

Date Day

Today was the first day that we have BOTH had off from work since we have been back from our honeymoon.We had a pretty average day, but it was awesome because we didn't actually have to do anything.

Sweet.

Started our day today with a new smoothie, and it was Awesome.

Jamie even liked it, and said it was the best one I had ever made. (I used Orange Juice instead of Soy Milk, which is why he liked it so much.)

We ran errands, and worked on school stuff, and hung out, and laid around and it was

Glorious.

We then used the Olive Garden Gift Card we got at our wedding (thank you Whitney) and went and had a fabulous dinner, followed by a lovely trip to Goodwill. =)

We finished the evening off with a piece of the cherry pie that I made today, which tasted Fabulous.

It was a great day.

I need more date nights with my husband. haha

but seriously, I can't wait to have another day to spend on him and him alone.

♥