A Peek into My Valentines Week and Weekend

I had hopes of doing a post on Friday, but that didn't happen, so here's a peek into the last week and weekend

While we have been having a lot of sunny, warm, springlike weather where I live, about mid-week, clouds rolled in and temperatures dropped a little, but not enough to bring us snow. 

We got some rain off and on throughout the day, and the mountains got a couple of inches of new snow.  It was better than nothing, and I am grateful for what we got, but we need more and continue to pray for rain and snow. 

The rain ended in time for me to have a walk after dinner.  I enjoyed the beautiful sunset that I saw as I was finishing my walk and going home. 

We had parent-teacher conferences at school on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. We had a lot of parents come and very few spoke English, so I got to use some of my very basic Spanish speaking skills that I picked up in high school and college, way back in the day.  The conferences went well, and I am now finished with the LAST parent-teacher conferences of my teaching career!  We got Friday off as a comp day after staying late for parent-teacher conferences. 

We were given dinner at the school on parent-teacher conference nights.  We were able to get free street tacos at a food truck outside the school, just by showing our ID badge. The tacos were authentic and very tasty! I love street tacos! 

Our new dining room set was delivered to our new home last week.  I think it will work really well.  We are pleased that it came with six chairs, in case we want to have company over for dinner. 

When I got home from school on Thursday, this was sitting on the counter, a fun early Valentine's present from Charly!  

On Friday night, Charly gave me this little Valentine bear and a beautiful card.  I have a whole collection of the little bears because he has been giving me one on Valentines Day for years.  Charly is so thoughtful and I always feel loved on Valentines and other special days.💝

My Valentines present to Charly was some Crumbl Cookies, which he loves.  He got a big cookie in his favorite flavor and six mini-Crumbls.  

We always try to do something a little special for our children and grandchildren on Valentines Day and this year, each one got a card and a gift card to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

It was great to be off on Friday.  I slept in until 6:45 a.m..  We had to get our Honda inspected and registered so that was the first thing on our Friday "to do" list.  Fortunately, the mechanic got us in right away and we were able to mark this chore off of our list. 

Later we took some more things to our new house. After unloading the car, we stopped at Wendy's for a fast-food lunch.  I always get a kids meal when I eat at a fast-food place and I decided today that Wendy's Kids Meals are superior to McDonalds.  

We took the new Broyhill end table that we got for only $23 at a used furniture store we like, to our new home.  It is now in our family room between  our two new recliners. 

After lunch we decided to check in at a couple of favorite thrift stores, and we had a nice time browsing and getting a couple of things. 

Charly was excited to find this vintage hula doll, which he plans to put on the dash board of his car, if he can figure out how. I remember when hula dolls on the dash board of cars were common. 

After we got home, Charly went into the office to get started on the taxes, and I went grocery shopping. 

I stayed up later on Friday night to finish this excellent book, The Opera Sisters by Marianne Monson.  I'll review it in my Reading Roundup at the end of the month. 

Saturday morning, we packed our car, once again, and took some more things to our new home.  After we had unloaded our car, we picked up our 14-year-old grandson, and took him to lunch.  His choice of restaurants was Popeyes Chicken.  We enjoy visiting over chicken sandwiches.  

When we took our grandson back to his house, we enjoyed spending some time visiting with our daughter and the rest of the grandchildren.  Our almost 18-year-old granddaughter had been out with friends at a cake decorating class and made this fun cake that looks like a hamburger.  Charly and I each had a piece and it was really good!

There was also exciting news about our almost 18-year-old granddaughter.  She found out that she has been admitted to BYU to attend college. She will graduate from high school in May, then she plans to serve an 18 month mission first, and then she will go to BYU.  BYU Provo is a very selective school and not everyone who applies gets in, so we are very proud of our granddaughter, who is an excellent student, and an all-around nice human being.  

As I mentioned, we gave our daughter, her husband and all the children Valentines cards with gift cards to Chick-Fil-A and Saturday afternoon, our son-in-law texted us this cute picture of he and our daughter and the two youngest girls at Chick-Fil-A. 

Saturday was a beautiful, warm day.  After a few hours of rain earlier in the week, the spring-like weather returned. Usually at this time of year, the mountains are white with snow, but you can see there is only snow at the very top of the mountains. 

As we went to church Sunday  morning, the skies were gray and cloudy, but our worship service was warm and wonderful, with powerful music and messages. 

After church, we once again packed up the car and headed south to our new home.  Today, we took groceries from our food storage, a small bookcase and a couple of boxes of books. 

After we unloaded the car and put everything away, we took a couple of things over to Josh.   This is the view from the apartment complex where he lives.  

Sunday dinner was a new-to-me recipe, Walking Taco Casserole. It was excellent. 

We enjoyed the Walking Taco Casserole a lot.  I had Baby Spring Mix salad and blue cheese dressing with mine. 

Here's the recipe.  It was easy to make, and very delicious. 

After dinner, I went out for a walk.   There were some blue skies and sunshine behind the clouds.  It was quite breezy and cool.  This is the flag at a nearby school I walked past. 

While I was out walking, I listened to some of this audiobook, Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie. The book is excellent, especially in light of all that is going on with the Guthrie family and the abduction of Savannah's mother.  I'm about half-way through the audiobook now.  

When I got home from my walk, Charly and I watched this documentary about Bible archeology related to Moses and the miracle of parting the Red Sea.   

Weekend Gratitude:

• Seeing our grandchildren, daughter and son-in-law.
• Traveling safely to and from our new home.
• Making progress in the move to our new home.
• Worshipping at church Sunday morning. 
• Finishing a good book. 

Praying For:

• Continued help with moving. 
• My children and grandchildren. 
• Help in my classroom.
• Our nation. 

Looking Forward to:

• Two more days off this week (Monday and Tuesday). 
• Getting more things moved into our new home. 
• Getting our current home on the market. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Find something to be grateful for every day and have a good week. 

Until next time. 

😊Deb💖

"My mouth shall speak the praise of 

the LORD: and let all flesh bless

his holy name for ever and ever."

~Psalms 145:21 KJV

Mid-February Weekend

Here's how this past weekend was in my world.  

Friday, I had the day off as a comp day for putting in two 12-hour days during parent-teacher conferences.  Charly had not been able to do the grocery shopping, which he usually does, so I went out and got some needed items Friday morning. 

About noon, I went to the rec center by myself to get some exercise walking the track.    

Charly and I exchanged cards for Valentines.   We are planning to go to a play (Henry V) next weekend as a belated Valentines date. 

We got Chinese take-out for our Valentine's Dinner. Charly wanted to go in person to the restaurant, but he really wasn't up to  it.   I got Mongolian Beef, which is a favorite for me, and Charly got General Tao's Chicken.  The food was delicious and a nice Valentine's Day treat! 

This is what we woke up to Saturday morning.  Even though I am now battling the classic winter symptoms of sore throat and cough, I went out and shoveled the front walks.  I am encouraging Charly to stay inside out of the cold. He seems to be improving slightly, but the nasty cough hangs on.  He is supposed to call the doctor Monday and I am thinking he will get another round of antibiotics.  

About mid-morning, I needed to go back to the store to get the things I forgot to put on the list and get at the store on Friday.  The sun came out and melted much of the snow on the driveways, streets and sidewalks.  I thought of going for a walk, but it was still cold and breezy and I am taking it easy until I am feeling better and over the chest cold I seem to have. 

I got some laundry and house cleaning done, including the vacuuming and dusting.  I also took a little nap, which felt great! 

Late Saturday afternoon, I made a peach cobbler for our Saturday dinner desert.  It was super easy and delicious.  I got the idea and recipe from my blogging, turned vlogging friend, Kathy in Philly.  Here is a link to her Youtube channel This is Kathy's Life, where she explains how to make the cobbler.  

Saturday night after dinner, we watched a documentary about the O.J. Simpson case on Netflix.  It was quite interesting.  I remember that case, and even read a couple of "true crime" books about it. 

While we watched the show, I finished this puzzle that I have been working on for the last week.  It was a fun puzzle and a nice picture.

Sunday morning, we did not go to church because we were both sick.  I did however, get a pot roast and vegetables in the crock pot.  

I did some reading and listened to an audiobook.  In addition to making dinner, the only productive thing I did Sunday was to reorganize my puzzle shelf.  I decided to donate a few of my puzzles to the local library that has a take one, leave one puzzle table.  

I started a new puzzle Sunday, but it is a puzzle that I got at a thrift store and I can already tell that a few pieces are missing.  If that is the case,  this puzzle will will go into the recycle bin. 

The books I read Sunday and will continue reading in the coming week are The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais, Saints -Boldly, Nobly and Independent and Melania.  I hope to get at least two of these books finished in the next week.  

Weekend Gratitude:

• Getting the grocery shopping done.
• Having a four day weekend.
• Having time at home to reset and feel better. 
• Having a nice text conversation with my oldest grandson.

Coming up this week:

Monday - President's Day - no school

Tuesday - Teacher meeting and training day

Thursday - Dentist appointment after school

Friday - Appointment for recall service on the Honda

Saturday - Shakespeare play, Henry V, at BYU

That's all for this weekend.  Have a good week. 

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"There is only one happiness in this life: 

to love and be loved."

~George Sand

Gratitude on Valentine's Week

Happy Valentine's Day!  During this week when we focus on love, we must also be grateful. To do that, I am joining again with Susanne and friends over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five. 

😊 Charly has been battling a lung infection since last weekend.  I am grateful that he was able to get in to see his doctor on Monday so he could get started on the antibiotic and on the road to recovery.  He still doesn't feel great, but today (Thursday) he is sounding a bit better and not coughing quite as much.  I am grateful for that, and for blogging friends who have kept him in prayer. 

😊 Parent-teacher conferences were Monday and Tuesday of last week.  On conference days, we are required to be in our classrooms to talk to parents until 7 p.m., so we have a full 12-hour day and it is exhausting.  Overall, the conferences went well and I am just grateful that they are over for another school year, and that I have a comp day on Friday and a long four-day weekend. 

😊 We are always provided dinner by the school on parent-teacher conference nights, which is helpful and something I am grateful for. 

😊 On Wednesday, we had a modified lockdown at school due to a shooting in the area.  The picture is part of a news article about what happened.  Lockdowns are every teacher's least favorite thing, and I am grateful that this one was resolved quickly so that everyone could safely go on with the school day.   I am also grateful that the police found and arrested the shooter.  Turns out that the whole thing was caused by a drug deal gone wrong. 

😊 Thursday, the weather forecast was for a major winter storm, that would start about noon.  I was at school when the snow began and it was almost a blizzard at times.  I took this picture from my classroom window just about the time the snow started.  Within a few minutes, the roads and parking lot were covered with snow.  Wind drifted the white stuff up to several inches in some places.  I started receiving alerts on my phone about slick roads and accidents across the area.  By the time I left school, I was ready for a very dicey drive home.  I am grateful that I was able to drive safely and avoid problems, including a pretty bad accident that happened just before I got to a major intersection I turn at to get to my house.   The snow is expected to last into tomorrow, then start again on Sunday and go into Monday.  I am also grateful that I have a long, four-day weekend and won't have to get up and drive to school in the ice and snow.  

😊 Finally on this Valentine's week, I am grateful for this guy, who soul mate, my best friend and the love of my life.  We have been together for 48 years and married for 46 years.  I am grateful that God brought Charly and I together when we were much younger (yes, I was a teenager).  I am also grateful that we both had enough sense to see God's hand in our relationship, fall in love, and build our life and family together. 

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by to share my gratitude from the last week.  Have a Happy Valentine's Day and a good weekend.  

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

“Love wholeheartedly, be surprised, 

give thanks and praise – 

then you will discover the fullness of your life.”

– David Steindl–Rast