Something Red

Well, February is already on the way out! This year, for Valentine's Day, we didn't do very much. I ordered Brian a Texas A&M sweatshirt, that is meant for a tall man, (so the sleeves would actually reach his wrists!) a week or so before V-day, and put it away in a drawer. Then, of course, I forgot to give it to him that morning. Although he left at his usual 5 a.m. time, so it's doubtful that I'd have gotten up to give it to him anyways.

Then Johnny woke up around 7 a.m. and I fed him breakfast, and then it hit me - I had absolutely nothing for the kids. Growing up, every Valentine's Day we would wake up to one of those little red hearts with five chocolates in it, on the kitchen table for us. That was it. That was what we did, and what we got and I loved it. How I didn't have anything for my own two kids - I'm ashamed.

So, after looking around the house, I saw Brian's jar of Hershey kisses on top of the fridge. They were red, from Christmas. But they would have to do. I printed off a picture of a gray cat that said 'Happy Valentine's Day' cut out a pink heart from cardstock, glued the two together, then hot glued the chocolates around the edge. I was frantic that Galina would wake up and see me doing it.

She didn't, luckily. But, I am writing this all here because I want to remind myself of the awful feeling I had that morning. I don't want to do it again. Be prepared, right?

At any rate - it was a long day. We went out to dinner after Brian got home. Chili's. I told Galina we were going out to eat at a nice restaurant and she said, "Is it called Wendy's?" I love that little girl! Anyhow, we ate late, the kids were grumpy by the end. I was grumpy all day, and as Brian and I crawled into bed at 10:30 p.m. I remembered his sweatshirt, tossed it to him and went to sleep.

Long, long, long day.

It's snowing again here. We still have about a foot on the ground, two feet in some places. This snow isn't really sticking though. Johnny has a cold. And boundless energy. Galina is working hard on reading and writing. I'm looking for some hands-on math activities. She can now count to 30 though! Yay. She still skips 15. No matter WHAT I say or do. If I stop and say, "What comes after 14?" she instantly says, "15" - but won't count it on her own. This teaching stuff is fun - and incredibly hard. It's wonderful to see her "get" something - but by golly does it take a lot of work to get there!

We're almost through 'Charlotte's Web' and I've purchased the old-school dvd of it as a reward after we read it. I loved that movie as a child, "A fair is a veritable smorgasbord, orgasbord...after the lights go down!!" Love it. Not surprisingly, Templeton is Galina's favorite. And she must ask me every night who Avery is!

Well, I'll add a boring picture, just to validate my $2.99 a month price for this blog now :) I was trying to make it look like the spoon INSIDE was catching the snow OUTSIDE. Oh well, try, try again!