Cheeseballs

When I wished Jeremy a Happy National Cheeseball Day on April 17, he texted me this picture.

He's a cheeseball.

 

Speaking of cheeseballs: in years past, Nichole has contributed short stories and artwork to UVU's Warp & Weave journal. 

Jeremy and Nichole toyed with the idea of submitting pieces to Warp & Weave together and they did so this year. Jeremy submitted a short story and Nichole submitted a piece of art that went along with his story. They were both accepted so when we went to the event for them to get their copies of the journal, we found out that the picture was placed right after the story. Good job, editors. 

We celebrated Blah Blah Blah Day while we were there.

Speaking of cheeseballs, earlier in the day, Nichole sculpted a cheeseball in the shape of a bat because April 17 is also Bat Appreciation Day. It's become tradition.

She also created this art piece for Bat Appreciation Day and International Haiku Poetry Day, also on the same day. 

I love my girl and her talents. I also love my husband and his talents. I'm also happy to support them. I spent time with Jeremy's short story, helping him edit it (there was a word limit). I also gave them a ride and went to the event with them since I knew how to get there.

Bonding Time is Great!

I'm thankful for bonding time with my husband. Things have been so busy with trips and with life that we haven't been able to take much time for just the two of us. So one day my husband made us omelettes, I made us hot chocolate, and we sat down and watched a whole movie together.

I'm thankful for working and chatting in the kitchen together, too. 

There were olives in the fridge and I asked if we should have them in our omelettes. Jeremy said we should. "How many?" I asked. "All of 'em," he replied. So he put "half of 'M'" in my omellete and "the rest of 'M'" in his. He's adorable. 

It was International Men's Day that day on November 19. It was also Have a Bad Day Day. Jeremy, my man, did not have a bad day that day. It's like when I don't feel like screaming on International Moment of Frustration Scream Day. Heh Heh.

 

The next day, November 20 was Universal Children's Day and Absurdity Day. I took my child, Nichole, to a Relief Society dinner with me. I did not get any pictures at the activity. Can you believe it? How absurd.

Date Night!

Because it is an absolute must for me to see Jurassic World movies in the theater, my husband is such a sweetheart and takes me.

I, of course, wore my Jurassic Park shirt and my amber necklace. We ate pizza and had a nice chat before watching Jurassic World Rebirth and got a few fun pictures.

I did enjoy the movie but the absolute best part of the whole thing was spending time with my husband. He's my best friend. 

Croissant Day

January 30 was National Croissant Day.

My sweet husband got up early to do dishes, clear off the table, and make breakfast sandwiches on croissants for everyone.

Since he cleared off the table, I was able to try out more Christmas presents. Donut molds and a donut recipe book I got from Santa. Woohoo. I've been wanting to try baking donuts.

Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree... or Rather on the Couch

Jeremy was interviewed via Zoom for a morning show in Australia so of course he had to make a kookaburra out of balloons.

And being the birder that he is, he had to mention that it had too much blue on its wings to be a straight up laughing kookaburra so it was more like a blue-winged kookaburra and laughing kookaburra hybrid.

Have I mentioned I love my husband? He really is awesome.

Galentines

I heard of a thing this year I hadn't heard of before. Galentines. Basically Girls' Night, getting your family or friend girls together for a party/get together near Valentine's. I thought it would be great for Nichole and me to do it since we're the only girls in our family and we were due for some one on one bonding time.

So we got our treats together and started our movie and paused it quite a few times because of people coming out and interrupting as often happens in our home.

Jr. did make us popcorn (thank you, Jr.) and at one point we had another gal join us.

"So what are we watching? I just love nights like this." Then when I got my phone out, "Oh, girl selfie."

He didn't stay long, just long enough to give us a good laugh. Have I mentioned how much I love my husband and his sense of humor?

P.S. Yesterday, February 11, was Peppermint Patty Day so we had some at the end of the day. I just fell asleep before I got a chance to blog.

Lazy(?) Mom's Day

Last year, I had a glorious Lazy Mom's Day. Jet and I went juggling up Nebo Loop. Someone else took care of dinner. What a nice day off.

This year I had plans for Lazy Mom's Day on September 3. I was going to have another day off with my baby. Well, wouldn't you know it, with school starting this year lots of people are getting sick so I had a child home from school that day.

So when Jeremy texted me later in the day to tell me I needed to celebrate somehow, I responded, "I did celebrate. I did dishes, fed people, took people to and from school and bus, put away laundry, gave baby a nap, picked up library items, etc. etc. etc. What more do you expect from a lazy mom. Actually now I am resting. I'm tired."

So after I made dinner for the kids, Jeremy brought me home a Winco salad so I could really relax at the end of the day. 

That salad really hit the spot. Have I mentioned my husband is awesome?

My Sweetheart

Since yesterday was Valentine's Day, I think it is right for me to say that I have a wonderful husband.  He let me have some getting out time this evening while he took all of the kids to drop off and pick up Nichole from Activity Days.  While Nichole was there, Jeremy took the boys to a playground which they enjoyed.
I don't have pictures of the awesomeness that he showed because I had the camera and was taking pictures myself of birds and the sunset.  Lovely lovely sunset.

It was so nice to get out and to have weather to get out in.  Winter is slowly going away, but enough that we have some nice days for playground playing (and going for walks to watch the sunset and birds).

Why I Love My Husband

This is why I love my husband.  For National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day, January 14, I was making hot pastrami sandwiches while Jeremy went to get the kids from school.  In the middle of making them I grabbed the camera so I could get pictures of some of the finished sandwiches while others were cooking.

Later, I was in a hurry getting kids ready and fed and trying to eat sandwiches myself, when along comes my wonderful husband with the camera and takes some pictures to make sure I had some for a blog post about this holiday.

That's why I love my husband.  This is not the first time he's taken pictures for me to use in a blog post, either.  He is thoughtful.

I'm Thankful For...

prioritizing, knowing that it is more important to me to help my husband sort balloons right now than write a blog post about things I'm grateful for like I did on Thanksgiving in 2010 and 2011.
I'm also thankful to know I can blog about those things later.

What Made My Birthday So Great

I'll say this.  I don't intend to offend.  I don't intend to make anyone feel bad.  I know everyone's situation is different, so I'm sorry if anyone is offended or feels bad because of my post, but I'm going to say it:
I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!!

Being married to him gives me reason to celebrate.  He is my best friend, my teammate (tag team sometimes when it comes to the kids), my partner (in business and in life).  He is awesome!
We recently celebrated our 9th Anniversary.  We went to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point and had fun.


These little guys make me think of Alice in Wonderland.

 Don't touch the water.  It'll turn you to stone.

Fragrance Garden.  Smell at your own risk.  Can you spot the bumblebee in this picture?  

click to make it bigger

Ha. Ha. 
This little guy was here last time we came in 2009.  He was in a garden with a fountain, but I don't think he ever got bathroom breaks.  He was still sitting there 3 years later.  

 2009 and 2012

We found little forget-me-not flowers that made me think of President Uchtdorf's talk, "Forget Me Not."   That is one of my favorite talks.  Those flowers are so tiny, but they are beautiful... and sparkly.

We had a great anniversary together.

Now, about my birthday.  Since my birthday is often around Memorial Weekend and since May is really getting into the busy season for Balloon Guy Entertainment, Jeremy is usually working on my birthday.  Memorial Weekend every year is the Day Out With Thomas event at Heber Valley Railroad.  The balloon twisters usually work all day for four days.  This year, however, they only needed the balloon twisters for three days.  So... Jeremy had the first day (my birthday) off and was able to spend most of the day with me.
I went to the grocery store to pick up some supplies for my birthday dinner while Jr. and Jeremy started making my super rich chocolate birthday cake.  If you look at my previous post, you can see how that turned out.  Apparently, the cake recipe they used did not expect our size cake pans?  It's okay, because while the oven was cooling down and the smoke was clearing (hey, it happens to everyone from time to time- next time we'll just halve the recipe), Jeremy ran to Costco to get me a huge super rich chocolate cake... and paper towels, because we were almost out.  Told you he's awesome.
Jr. was happy because he got to watch a movie in my room while the smoke cleared.

Later, Jeremy and I worked together to clean burnt cake off the oven racks and bottom of the oven.  While we were at it, we had a nice conversation.

I took pictures of Jeremy and Jr. tending our little garden.  We didn't start any seeds indoors this year, so I was thinking we wouldn't be able to have a garden at all.  Fortunately, we were able to get some starts from a family Jeremy home teaches (the same family we gave our "garden" to last year) and we found out that with some of the other things we wanted to plant, the seeds could go right in the ground outside.  Hooray.

I watched and chatted with Jeremy as he transplanted our "pet" to a new container and her "baby" was put back in the original container.

That evening, the kids had french bread pizza then went to play at our home teachers' house while Jeremy and I made my birthday dinner together.  Skillet chicken parmigiana, cornbread battered fried vegetables, and filtered water from a birthday present from my visiting teachers. 

There was no complaining, no whining, nobody refused to eat.  Jeremy and I were able to work together, talk together, eat together, and just enjoy being together.

It was a great birthday spent with my husband.


I'll admit my husband is not perfect, but neither am I.  The important thing is we're both improving, and improving together.  And that again gives me reason to celebrate.