Valentine's Stuff 2017

The weekend before Valentine's Day, Chick  Fil-A hosted a Daddy-Daughter Date Night at their local Atlanta area restaurants. I signed Donald and Stella up for a 6:30 time slot.  Stella and Daddy both napped late that afternoon and when Stella awoke, Daddy was in the shower. I told her it was time for her to get ready for her special date so she chose her kitty cat dress, leggings and new boots. She said she wanted it to be a surprise until she got to wherever she was going so we didn't tell her, just that she was having a special Daddy-Daughter Date. 

Donald said she was a little weary at first about the big moo cow, but when he explained it was just a person in a costume she was cool.

They had to give their name when they walked in and were seated at tables with white tablecloths and flowers. Each girl received a rose and a little sachet with a few pieces of candy.  There was even a limo service there with a stretch Hummer for the girls and their Daddy's to ride around in.

We'd eaten a late lunch so they both weren't terribly hungry for supper so they just shared some nuggets, fries and a milkshake.

Unfortunately, Stella has Wanda's trait of blinking for a photo. Donald said every picture turned out this way due to the flash. 

And of course, the crappy-lit one she has her eyes open for!

Stella also came home with a CFA cow. She was so happy and still talks about her and Daddy's special Daddy-Daughter Date Night.  I'm hoping to get them to do something-just the two of them once a month. I enjoyed my quiet house and she just ate up the special time for just her and Daddy.

So I saw this post for Valentine's Day on Pinterest and decided to HAD to do this for Stella's teachers. 

Back when school started I passed out a favorite things list for her teachers to fill out. It asked favorite places to eat, candy, flowers, etc...

So going with the Redbox-movie-and-a-treat theme I picked up bag of fancy popcorn for Stella's two school teachers and her two dance teachers.  Miss Aja got her favorite: Reese's and Sour Patch Kids. Mrs. Melissa got Swedish Fish and a Hersey bar.  Stella helped stamp Valentine themed stamps on their white bags. The other bags were just red/white/pink recycled bags I had on hand along with the tissue paper. Yes, I save it all.  Because 1. Why not when they still look brand new? 2. They are expensive. 3. I hate having to run out just to go buy a bag. 

The dance teachers also got popcorn to go with their movie code. In addition, I made lavender bath salts for her dance teachers, because dance = tired feet, put them in 4 oz glass mason jars and put them in cute cellophane bags along with a separate bag of chocolate truffles.  

I have very little Valentine's decorations. It's just not a holiday I get hugely into, but there are a few things. This wooden/tin heart I've had for many years. I love having it out year round in fact, but it was residing in my closet until I pulled it out. I made the pipe cleaner heart garland which, I think is super cute. It was also very easy and I had the pipe cleaners in our craft closet.

Stella and I did some Valentine's crafts too. We gave one lovebug to Lollipop and one of the hogs and kisses went to Daddy's office. The other two I kept to remember her hand and feet size when I look back years later.

Stella's rose from CFA. Photo by Stella.

Monday morning, Donald headed to Texas for work until Thursday evening so it was just going to be me and Stella for the week.

Stella's party went well, but I'd hardly call it a party. I had decorative plates, but that was it. I didn't even use the tablecloths provided because the kids were still eating lunch when I arrived. Three other moms were supposed to help out, but life happens and they weren't able to. It was fine because we knew this was going to be a low-key event. I did get to pick up the goodie bags from Kimberly after dropping Stella off. This party was held in the classroom versus the space room we've had the other parties in. I made brownies and coconut milk whipped cream for the special treat and brought along sprinkles and mini M&M's to top with.  Charlotte's mom, Kimberly stuffed little Valentine's themed metal buckets with Valentine stuff and Annika's mom had a few little treats that I threw in with them. The kids had decorated white paper bags that week for their Valentine's so those got passed out and the kids dropped in the Valentine cards and candy. I opted for these fruit pouches instead of candy and a card for Valentine's for her friends.

On Tuesday, which was Valentine's Day we drove down to Bass Pro Shop in Macon to pick up Lolli. She came up to visit for a few days.  Stella had ballet that afternoon so Lolli got to see Stella do that. Then we went to Jitterbugs for Stella's first performance class. It was obviously Valentine's themed and she did great. I did hear Miss Ashley say to the other girls and boys to give Stella some space, but once we came in for their performance at the end she was ok. I could tell she was tired, but Miss Ashley commented that she did really well for her first class and to be one of the youngest.

I'm really trying to focus more on experiences versus stuff for holidays instead of more random crap to clutter her room and our house. This was the first time I didn't get Stella a single thing for Valentine's Day-not even a card. But I wasn't feeling guilty about it at all. I knew my mom had her something and that she would receive stuff at school. Instead, I offered to take Stella to get either a doughnut, cupcake or frozen yogurt for  Valentine's Day. She opted for fro yo, but then didn't want to go that evening. On Wednesday, we went for a walk down at the creek with our friends/neighbors down the road. Stella really enjoyed this and since she was so good I tried to take her afterwards to get the fro yo, but once again, she turned it down.  Thursday we took Lolli to The Children's Museum. We had a picnic upstairs and Stella was super excited to show Lolli all around. Donald got home that evening and I dropped Mama off with Jessica's mom so she could get to Athens for the weekend. We were leaving for Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge on Friday, but when we returned from our trip Monday, we decided to go get frozen yogurt then. The weather was unseasonably warm and that evening we were able to eat our yogurt outside which was the perfect end to our extended weekend vacation and to finally celebrate Valentine's Day together.

Donald's 36th Birthday

Back before the holidays got all cranked up, Stella learned about the seasons, more specifically winter and how it can snow during the winter. She really wanted to see snow so Donald mentioned us possibly going North (Tennessee or N.C.) for his birthday since the possibility of snow would be greater up in the mountains. Since we'd already commited to going somewhere with The Bratcher's for Jason's birthday in February we opted to not travel  in January. We'd considered going over to Athens so we could spend some time with Michael and also go out Saturday evening for Jessica Rogers birthday, but ultimately we just stayed in Atlanta. I wanted to go to a few new restaurants, perhaps head down to Ponce City Market and just spend time together as a family for the whole weekend. 

On Friday Donald cooked supper. I was supposed to do that, but he came in from work and got right to it. So I let him.

Saturday morning was just miserable out. It was cold and windy and rainy-no, wait. It was flooding. A perfect morning to just be lazy. But we had one of Stella's classmates, Andrew's birthday party at X-drenaline. We went to that and then just down the road to La Carreta Mexican Restaurant for some amazingly delicious food.  We also went to Goodwill (Donald's suggestion) so he could attempt to find something plaid to wear for our Burns party the next weekend.  Stella loves Goodwill-a lot of things are at her level, but one of her favorites things about this place are the shoes. The girl loves her some shoes. So she tried on a few pair and clip-clopped around the place. 

For supper Saturday, I made beer and bratwurst cheese soup. So good. And weather/winter appropriate.

Sunday morning I made French toast, bacon and fruit salad for breakfast.

Donald's birthday was on Monday but we celebrated it on Sunday with dinner and dessert. We grilled the 2" thick T-bones my parents gifted us for Christmas and loaded twice-baked potatoes. I think both weekend dinners were quite manly which is what I was going for.

I originally wanted to do some sort of Oreo/Cookies 'n' Cream dessert, but ultimately decided on banana pudding which Donald also adores.  The pudding was homemade completely (not just the cook and serve box kind, thank you very much) and the whipped cream was made fresh.  Stella helped with the placement of the 'Nilla wafers. She tried to take credit for making the whole thing, but then Donald gave her a look and she confessed that she helped me.

I don't know what happened to all of my birthday candles (misplaced at a softball group function, perhaps?) but I found 2 already burned ones near the matches and those worked when we sang "Happy Birthday" to Daddy.

Sweet kisses for Daddy. I've said it before and I'll say it again. This girl's sun rises and sets for this man. 

This weekend was one of the few weekends we spent the entire thing together. That's a rarity around here. Usually, one of us wants/needs to run out for something or I take Stella to a party while Donald does something around the house, etc. But not this time. I had a feeling since Donald's actual birthday was on Monday and we spent every waking moment together over the weekend, he'd want some free time that night after work. And I was right.  The weekend wasn't all rainbows and butterflies, but it was such a blessing to be able to be together so much to celebrate our wonderful guy.

NYE 2016

On Wednesday the 28th of December, Donald and I headed down to MB for New Years.  We had an early supper at Mango Marley's then headed to Lookout Lounge for drinks and to catch up on all the local news/happenings.

We shut Lookout down at 9:15---on a Wednesday. Yeah, we know how to rock! We were pretty hungry and drunk and Donald said, "If only there was some late night eatery. Late night as in 9:15." It got dark just after 5 and we'd been there for a while so it just seemed so damn late. We headed back to our house where I proceeded to basically pass out on the chaise lounge while Donald made what we thought was pork fried rice from leftover pork chops. Turns out we had beef fried rice but didn't realize this until the next morning. Ehh, whatever. It was really good and I did none of the work. Well, I did clean the kitchen the next morning. But I didn't do crap the night before except for stuff my belly and pass back out.

The next day we attempted to eat lunch at a few different places out on Cape San Blas but they were either closed for the season or being remodeled and such. So we ended up eating at Coneheads. It wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but it was good. 

Afterwards we walked the almost empty coastline on Cape San Blas. There were a ton of dead ocean-washed trees everywhere. The water was already up pretty high and tide was still coming in so we couldn't hang out too long once we reached the point.

I ordered a few new Pura Vida bracelets to wear this summer but couldn't resist putting them on down here especially in the warm weather.

We headed back to Lookout for night #2 up there. As the sun went down it was getting cooler and cooler out. I ran home to change but came back in time to see the most vivid sunset from the deck.

Truly amazing.

We headed back to PSJ so I could get the shrimp tacos I'd been craving since the summer from Krazy Fish. We found out a mutual friend of ours from high school was in town so we went over to Larry and Lisa's to visit for a bit.

The next day it was quite chilly out. We had lunch at Castaways then headed up to Captain Bobby's to fish at his place on the intracoastal. He'd been telling Donald to come on up for a while so we finally took him up on his offer. It was cold out, but there wasn't any wind so it wasn't too bad. They had a fire burning in the firepit so I could stand by it to warm up if needed. I caught a few fish and drastically improved my casting in a short amount of time. I don't remember the last time I cast so this was good practice. It was pretty quiet out and very peaceful.

Bobby caught this Redfish right off of the bank but let me hold it for a photo op.

This was definitely the biggest catch of the day, but I think I may have caught the most. But this is what makes me happy. As long as I'm catching, regardless of size, I'm not bored.

Donald hinted at Lookout again, but I told him I couldn't do night #3 up there. So we showered and just stayed in. He picked up Crazy Beach Pizza and we watched Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

The next day (New Years Eve) we decided to put the boat in the water. It was still cold out and windy and no sun but we thought once we got out past the Cape, we'd be good. We were wrong. So wrong. We nearly beat ourselves to death for most of the day, got splashed so much and were freezing. But we did a lot of laughing so it was ok.  Finally we made it into the water access that connects to the intracoastal and our faces dried. Then we discovered exactly how much salt was on our faces. It dried and it felt as though we'd been Botox'd.

This was obviously much calmer but it was super boring for me. We did sit and eat sandwiches then ventured up the the  T where the access way and intracoastal meet.  I ended up catching the only fish of the day and that had been hours before in open water.

I finally broke the news to Donald that I was bored and really wanting to just sit and read a magazine but I didn't want to be rude. I also could have curled up on the bench seat, wrapped up with a blanket and taken a nap. Plus, we were cold and wet and I just wanted to sit down and stop rocking. Also, it was New Years Eve and we imagined it would be a long night. Finally we started making our way back to the city ramp in PSJ.

We did catch a slight glimpse of the sunset on the way back out.

Jaycie made this indoor s'mores kit for me and Ginger for Christmas. I brought it down to the beach because I thought we might use it for the weekend. We were supposed to have guests (Kelly from Mulligans and her bf) for NYE, but they cancelled on Thursday morning.  

We showered and decided to do the shuttle buses to celebrate New Years in both time zones. We parked at Lookout and met up with Karen and Allan for a bit. Then we hopped on a bus and headed to Mango Marley's with hopes of making it to PSJ faster than just doing straight from LL. This was not the case, but we did eventually make it to PSJ. We did the downtown bar very briefly then walked over to Haughty Heron for the rest of the time. They had music outside which was where we spent the majority of our time.  

We headed back over to MB around 11:30 so we wouldn't get stuck in Eastern time and risk missing the Central time zone New Years countdown.  We got dropped off at Lookout and walked in the karaoke bar around 11:45 to hear them doing the 10...9....8...countdown. I checked both my watch and phone and gave a few people around me WTF looks. They just shrugged their shoulders. So I walked back outside to find D just before the real countdown. I'd stopped drinking before we left HH so I was good to drive. We then drove home and drove the even shorter distance to Toucans for the central time zone New Year countdown. They had club music on the deck (not our scene) and a Southern Rock/Country band inside. They kept playing half of the well-known Lynard Skynard songs and it was getting old. Plus, there was this SUPER drunk (drugged?) girl just ricocheting off of everyone which was making a lot of folks mad. We decided to leave and just go back home.  It was 1:30 by the point anyway. But then the short party bus with the stripper pole pulled up.  Donald suggested we ride for the hell of it until they kick us off. So we walked up and found Karen, Allan, Sandra and Gordon (a British couple who are friends of Karen and Allan's that we'd met earlier in the evening) on the bus. They ended up getting off the bus and I offered to drive everyone home. They invited us over. But first we ran home to grab the s'more's kit, leftover pizza and drinks, then buzzed back over.  We ended up sitting outside on their back patio until 4 am. 

After sleeping late, we had lunch at The Fish House on New Years Day. We had popcorn shrimp, fries and slaw. Not exactly the typical pork, greens, beans and cornbread meals that we are used to, but super delicious. 

I'm pretty sure this is the day we finally made it down to the beach only for it to start raining about 10 minutes later. 

While at the beach I took some time each day to do some adult coloring. Since it was still technically Christmastime I thought this one was appropriate to color. 

One afternoon while D was out (possibly NYD), I did a ton of cleaning up in my emails. I hardly have time to sit down for a real extended amount of time to do that so I enjoyed this as it meant crossing things off my to-do list and purging.

Monday we did our usual cleaning/tidying up process and had lunch at Shipwreck before heading back to Sylvester to pick up Stella. We were supposed to just have supper at Don and Wanda's and then continue our drive up to Atlanta that evening but bad storms were moving in about suppertime. Luckily, Donald was able to get a meeting moved from Tuesday to Wednesday and we spent the night.  I am so thankful for this. Tornadoes actual came through Albany and parts of Worth County that evening. In fact, one passed through a few miles (maybe closer as they said at one point it felt like the roof may lift off while I was in the shower) from their house. We got to see some of the destruction on the ride up Hwy 33 Tuesday morning. 

Our trip to the beach was nice. It was good to get away and re-connect and just have some down time.  I'm looking forward to our next trip to our beach house.

EO

The I've been using Young Living essential oils for over 2 1/2 years now. As a result, my current storage situation (our tiny hall closet) was running out of room. I found this very well made wooden cabinet at Goodwill for just under $5. 

The wood was a little too orangey for me so I knew I wanted to paint it. If the shelves weren't in the condition they were in, I may have just sanded and sealed, but since they were looking pretty rough, I decided to paint. We had some leftover paint from the living room re-do so I just used that up.

This is the before but the hinges and screws got a coat of chalkboard paint.

After I got everything painted, I let it dry overnight on the porch where I'd painted it. But then a windy rain decided to blow in.....and on my cabinet doors. I was so pissed. Luckily, the inside of the doors was the side up which had water on it. Some of the paint did bubble up, but I was able to smooth it down (mostly). With a good inspection, it's noticeable, but it's hardly a problem. Thankfully!

Right now this is sitting on an old sewing table in our bedroom.  That table will eventually be taken to the beach house so I need to find a new spot for it. I haven't decided if I'm going to hang it or not. Also, clearly I didn't consider the oils special little way of peeling/taking off the finish of painted things when I did this project. My mama actually pointed this out and I basically had a "duh" moment with myself. So for now the oils are resting on white foam board that I had laying around which I cut to fit the shelves. I'd like to get some clear acrylic bins or trays, but they seem so pricey.  Right now this will work.