Sunday, February 15, 2015

Valentine's Day Celebrated

Valentine's Day celebrations really started out on Friday when Bill bought me a dozen roses.  Pretty!
  

On actual Valentine's Day, Bill and I spent most of the day itself working on our own fun.  We did go to Weight Watchers together and had our usual Saturday morning breakfast date at Seize the Bagel.  But then Bill went to the theater to watch some opera and I went to the car dealership to have the Jeep serviced and enjoyed a walk and reading my book while I was waiting.  Then I decided to do some shopping.  It started out just looking to buy a newer, warmer winter coat.  I found a down coat that I wanted and then figured I would just look at the dresses to see what they had.  I have an appointment with my personal shopper next weekend to discuss wedding dress shopping but have had in my mind what I wanted.  I was just too lazy to want to actually go shopping to find one though so I had planned on her doing it for me.  I found two dresses that I thought might work on the Burlington Coat Factory rack in my size and picked the one that I liked best.  And best yet--it was only $22.  I was really pleased with myself.  I then decided I needed to go look for my boots.  I went to the consignment shop that I found Chris and Bill's cowboy boots for the wedding but nothing there that fit me or that would work.  So I ended up at Goodwill.  I was really hoping to find western style boots but I did find something that I think will work.  So I will still go see my personal shopper next week to see if she can help me accessorize my dress and hopefully she won't tell me it is all wrong for me and try to steer me in another direction.  It would be so nice to have what I am wearing to the wedding all worked out already.  

After shopping, it was time to take advantage of the beautiful weather to clean up the storm damage branches and pine cones in the yard and mow.  Busy but productive day.


We had a last a last minute invitation from our friends, Jeff and Julie, to go to the Sherwood Elks Club for their Valentine's Day Dinner.  The Pranksters--a swing band--was the entertainment for the evening.  We've heard the Pranksters several times at dances at the Pearson Air Museum and really enjoy them so it was a treat to be able to listen to live dance music for our Valentine's evening out.

Bill and I will have our Valentine's Dinner on our own tonight at my favorite Mexican restaurant.  So all in all it has been a very nice weekend.
Chris had a fun day planned too.  He went up to Mt. Baker with a group of students from The Inn Ministries to do some snowshoeing.

Looked like they had a great time.  Although from seeing the pictures, it does look like Mt. Baker is as much of a mirage as Mt. Rainier is for me.  It looks like the cloud were hiding the mountain.

Tom and Maddy celebrated in Wichita by going to their favorite restaurant and they had live music to enjoy during their dinner too.

Hope that you all had a pleasant Valentine's Day weekend too!

Monday, February 2, 2015

Super Game

The Packers had such a great season.  I was really hoping this would be the year that they would make it back into the Super Bowl.  But it was not meant to be.  I was so excited for the NFC Championship Game a few weeks ago.  The Packers and the Seahawks.  My two favorite teams--one from where I grew up and one from where I currently live.  The Packers are definitely my first love though.  I am a true Cheesehead through and through.

I watched the game by myself in the comfort of my LazyBoy.  It started out so good.  Scoring early, interceptions.  The Packers were dominating and the Seahawks couldn't seem to get anything going.  I was excited but kept telling myself--it is too early to get excited.  There is a lot of game left to be played.  But once it was down to about five minutes left in the game, I allowed myself to start getting excited.  The Packers were going to go to the Super Bowl--or so I thought.  Oh my.  I don't know how they did it.  But the Seahawks managed to miraculously tie up the game in the last two minutes to put it into overtime and win in overtime.  It was truly unbelievable.  Even the Seahawk fans couldn't believe it.  My friends, Suzi and Terry, were at the game and were so excited.  They had planned their vacation around the Super Bowl.  They had plane tickets to San Diego, car rental to get them to Phoenix and a room reservations in Phoenix.  The only thing they didn't get ahead of time was tickets to the game.


I was originally planning to have a Super Bowl party regardless of who won the game.  But the way the Packers just threw away the game at the end was so disheartening.  They dominated the first 55 minutes of the game only to lose it in the end.  So I was a little bitter.  Hard to get excited about planning a party.  But living in Washington and being surrounded by 12s, it was eventually hard not to get at least a little bit excited about the game.  I heard there was going to be a 12th Man Rally at Esther Short Park Saturday morning so I planned my exercise time around it and walked from the Grant House to Esther Short and back.  And spent a little bit of time at the rally.  I did wear my Packers fleece to the rally though.


We usually watch the Army-Navy game with our friends, Jeff and Julie.  Four years ago when the Packers were in the Super Bowl, I went with them to the Canby theater to watch the game on the big movie screen.  The last couple of years, Bill and I have hosted a party for a few friends and they joined us last year.  So when we saw them Saturday night, they asked about watching the game.  We decided at the very last minute to get together at our house.  And so a party was born.  We had a great time and the game was really close.  Unfortunately as with the Packers having some poor play calling at the end of the NFC championship game, it seems that there may have been some bad play calling on the part of the Seahawk coaches.  They could have won it.  There was just enough time to get in the end zone from the 1.5 foot line.  But they called a passing play instead of giving Marshawn Lynch the ball.  The Patriots intercepted in the end zone preventing the Seahawks from scoring the winning touchdown.  Oh so close to winning.

Suzi and Terry were posting great pictures on Facebook during the game.  So jealous that they were at the SUPER BOWL!  So sorry that the Hawks didn't win for their sake.  But they said that they had a great time anyway.  I am going to visit them this weekend so I am sure I will hear all about it.

Next season--hopefully it will be the Packers!  One can always hope right?