A Few February Tidbits

Making Valentines

Remember that pile of wood from last month?  Well this is what I've been making:

cute picture frames

Also, I made this little travel toothbrush thingy since I got tired of shoving our wet germy toothbrushes into a ziplock bag when we were traveling.  gross.  This thing is so much better.  These toothbrushes stay in our travel bag so I'm not frantically collecting everybody's toothbrushes each time we take a trip, (inevitably forgetting a few).   I love it!  And it was super easy to make.

Dallin had a big month.  He got a cell phone.  

 oh boy.

He's also been busy with show choir and orchestra concerts. Below is a picture of him in his show choir costume.  They do a really fun arrangement of "Hip to be Square" in their suspenders and nerd glasses.  love it.

Also, he got braces.  

 Here is his last smile before they went on.

And here is his brace-face smile that he gets to enjoy for the next 2 years.

Not sure if I mentioned, but for Christmas, I got Arthur 12 dates.  12 envelopes with a date idea in it, one for each month of the year.  That doesn't sound like a lot of dates to those of you who get out every week, but let me tell you that once a month is a huge step forward for us in comparison with last year.  And dang it, I missed hanging out with my husband!  And it's been great so far.  We can definitely squeeze one date per month in, and I look forward to it every month!!!  This month our date was "Go to dinner at a place we've never eaten before."  We had a gift certificate to a place called Vernon's Hidden Valley Steak House.  Had we known a little bit more about it, we probably would have saved it for a special occasion like an anniversary or something.  

Actually, it was a gift certificate from the realtor we used when we sold the Tasco home, so we WERE celebrating something special!  We were celebrating the sale of our first home.  (Good thing too, because when Arthur recently figured out how much we owe in capital gains taxes on that house because we kept it as a rental for a few years, we weren't celebrating anymore.)

Anyway, it was a super delicious, super fun place to eat.  It's based on a prohibition-era theme, so the door is only marked by a red light.  You have to knock on the door, and give the password to gain admittance.  The guy answering the door had a raspy voice and asked if I was a cop.  It was great!   The foyer was disguised as a library, and the raspy-voice-mobster-guy gave us instructions like "no asking celebrities for their autograph or else" (as he let us admire his nice baseball bat.)  When we agreed not to harass Johnny Depp or whoeever else might be back there, they opened the disguised door and let us in.  At which point it was just a regular restaurant with mobster decor and live jazz music. The food was heavenly, and it was just expensive enough that we probably won't go back until we DO have a very special occasion.  :)  We sure enjoyed this surprising night out at a place we'd never eaten before.   Long-live date night!