Valentine's Month!

Proverbs 5:19: "May you ever be captivated by her love."

I love Valentines Day. This year, I really wanted to affirm Billy (a.k.a. the best husband in the world) and do something thoughtful and spend little to no money.

Once again, my friend Jami, posted a genius idea on her blog: "52 Reasons Why I love You". I found these cute heart-shaped playing cards at the $1 spot at Target last year...but never gave them to anyone. So this year, I pulled out a Sharpie and wrote "I love....(fill in the blank)" on each one and gave them to Billy on Valentine's Day. It was really fun to try to think of things that I don't tell him all the time. He was so surprised! It made me realize that some of things that annoy me sometimes...(like his looooong voicemails) are the very things that I love most about him. Try it! I highly recommend it.

Billy and I have decided to try to give each other romantic surprises throughout the next month. Not just Valentine's Day....Valentine's Month! Do you have any ideas? Post them here!

SNOW! (For Real)

Nashville is actually experiencing some serious snow right now! School was cancelled on Friday just because of the chance of snow. (Hallelujah!) It started snowing Friday morning and didn't stop until Saturday morning. Not just fairy dust....real snow and sleet! It's bad out there, people. No one here knows what to do. The entire city has shut down! Church is already cancelled for tomorrow morning because the streets are no where near cleared off. Insane!

Meanwhile, Billy is enjoying 60 degree weather in Anaheim, California playing drums for the CIY Believe Tour. I miss him so much, but it's been fun to be lazy at home and watch chick flicks (without eye rolling and complaints about predictability). I did get a little stir crazy today and took a walk down to one of my favorite places, a coffeehouse called The Frothy Monkey. Here are some neighborhood sights along the way:

This is my neighbor's sunbathing snowman. I love the belly button! Hilarious!

Self-portrait...

Recording Sesh!

This past weekend, our old friend Jim Suptic (of The Get Up Kids and Blackpool Lights fame) came in town to work on demoing some songs he has been working on. So our little office turned into a makeshift recording studio. Yes, that is a toilet paper holder duct taped to a cymbal stand. We had to get a little creative with our gear! Jim is an amazing songwriter and I'm really excited to see what may happen with some of these songs. I got to help out with some of the arranging and sang on a few tracks. Super fun! Hopefully more music to come...

Cool T-shirt & Wordle!

So, it's Billy B.'s b-day tomorrow. He'll be 33! Can you believe it? It's always hard to make his birthday present really special because let's face it...It was just Christmas 5 minutes ago. This year I kept it simple with his fave candy and picture of a t-shirt I ordered for him. We are big Conan fans and are hoping that he will not have to leave the Tonight Show! The t-shirt was designed by our friend Micah Smith in support of Team Conan! It is genius! Click here to see Micah's website and order one...or one of his other really cool posters/projects.

Another awesome website is www.wordle.net. You can make & print these cool word clouds (shown in pic) with any words that you choose and edit the fonts, colors, etc. It's really fun and it's free!

Snow Day Wishes

So...it snowed in Nashville this morning. I use the term "snow" lightly. It was more like thousands of miniature fairies were sprinkling white glitter on me. And the sun was out, so I'm not even sure where the snow was coming from....further proving the fairy theory. I must say, it is nice to go outside in Nashville and not feel like you might die of hypothermia in .5 seconds. (i.e. Kansas City) but it would be nice to have some real snow. All I'm asking for is ONE snow day. One glorious day where I wake up with anticipation and see my school's name scrolling along the bottom of the morning news and stay in my PJ's the entire day and watch Gilmore Girls. Every teacher deserves that!

I've heard through the grapevine that Nashville Schools close even when there is just a chance of snow. Which means...Thursday could be the day!!! I'll report back and let you know.

Craftiness Abounds!

So my friend, Jami posted some cute, crafty Christmas ideas on her blog a few weeks ago. Me, being in need of some cheap, but thoughtful gifts, accepted the challenge and made one of them. The gigantic mess you see above was me preparing for batch #2 of my Martha Stewart Organic Bath Salts. I happened to add too much water to batch #1 and it continued to foam and foam until it tuned into the State Puft Marshmallow Man. Making bath salts is no easy task, people. Martha makes it look easy, but she has special powers and never sleeps. I'm sure she can also make these without covering her entire kitchen with baking soda and pink foam, but as you can see, that was not the case for me.

Anyway, they actually turned out to be pretty cool, if I do say so myself...

I also stole Jami's family recipe for "Martha Washingtons". Well, she actually refused to give it to me, even after I begged. So I had to Google it. These are delicious, gooey, coconut, nutty bon bons. They are also a project that creates a gigantic mess. Think: white, billowing clouds, of powdered sugar. They are well worth it, though.

What are your favorite things to make during the holidays? Do share! (Then I can steal your ideas, too!)

Girls Weekend!

Last weekend, I took a day off school and flew to KC for a girls' weekend. I was able to spend lots of quality time with good friends and catch up. I also got to visit Pawnee Elementary and see all of my friends and students there. I have so much love for the teachers and families at that school! It was a great day...and I got tons of much needed 1st grader hugs.

My friend Andrea is about to have her first baby (a girl!) in January so I was able to come to town for her shower. Jamie, Andrea, Emily & Leigh are 4 of my dearest friends from my hometown, Parsons, KS (or as we fondly call it..."PK"). Andrea and I have been friends since 1st grade! The rest of us have been pretty much inseparable since middle school. I'm so lucky to have these girls in my life! It's so cool to have friends who have such a long history of great memories together. Thanks for a great weekend, girls!