February 2014- Love is in the Air | The Harris Family Blog

So, this pretty much sums up February (or at least the first half of it). There are ~~two~~ three things to note in this picture. The first is that my car is full of gas, which pretty much never happens. (No comments from you John…if you drove the little people around as much as I do, your car would be dirty and empty too.) Secondly, this picture was taken at around 2:30 in the afternoon, and this was the warmest it had been in days. Lastly, I was not in motion while taking the picture. I always think “IDIOT!!!” when I see pictures on Facebook or Instagram where the speedometer in someone’s car says 54 mph.

In other news, Reese has decided that now is the time to begin shopping for summer shoes. I really admire her forethought and agree that it’s never too early to begin the search for the perfect flip flop. She spent hours perusing Zappos.com, weighing the pros and cons of each shoe, ensuring her size was available, and mentally choosing the outfit she would wear with each pair. At the end of the session, she asked if we could order the shoes she’d chosen, and had me come look at her full shopping cart. This is what I saw:

Yup, that’s right. She “ordered” 25 pairs of shoes for a grand total of $1100.

At least the shipping is free.

This little cartoon pretty much sums up how John and I feel about Valentine’s Day. I think when we were first dating we may have purchased a card and a piece of chocolate because it was the right thing to do. Nowadays (is that really a word? Spell check says it is….) we don’t even attempt to go out that night, as we’ve found it’s downright awful. For me, it’s very similar to New Year’s Eve…an amateur holiday. There are couples everywhere…the girl is looking around with eyes wide, expectations great for whatever gift her date/boyfriend is hiding in his jacket pocket. And in contrast, the guy is getting stinking drunk because he has to pay too much for dinner, buy flowers, a gift and there is no guarantee that he will get “lucky”.

BUT, children love Valentine’s Day, and what’s not to love when you’re their age? You get cards from your friends telling you how great you are, and all the chocolate and candy your heart desires. (I am rethinking this…maybe I WILL like it next year).

At any rate, we spent the days leading up to Love Day checking out the various Valentine’s card options on Pinterest. Because, apparently it’s not enough anymore to buy the box of Strawberry Shortcake cards, and glue on a couple of jelly beans, and call it good. NOOOOO…in this day and age, a kid’s Valentine says much about his future…..SAT scores depend on this stuff. It’s a very competitive game, and I am sad to say that I AM THE WORST ONE OF THE BUNCH.

I am a wee bit crafty sometimes when the mood and the liquor strikes. So, we picked out some Valentine’s that required upwards of $50.00 worth of supplies and lots of quality time with the hot glue gun.

Here are my “helpers”. (Although, truth be told, I would rather do it myself;-) (See what I mean about being the worst one?)

Here are our finished products:

Our Valentine’s Night was far from perfect, but we sure tried hard. The kids and I planned to cook a special dinner, we decorated the table, we picked up a dessert from Fiona’s, and I’d secured not one, but TWO bottles of zinfandel. I foolishly began the dinner prep in the hours after school that I like to call “the descent into hell”. It’s tough to get much done in those hours, because the sweet little people want you to pay attention to them. So, long story short, I burned dinner to a crisp. We ended up calling John (who was at Happy Hour?!?) and asked him to pick up a pizza on the way home. The zinfandel sure was delicious.

How sweet are my Valentines? I sure do heart them.

Lastly, the end of February brought about one of my favorite events, albeit one that I don’t do often enough. GIRLS NIGHT OUT!!! I rounded up two of my favorite girlfriends, and we hit the town for drinks, laughter, and more drinks. A picture says a thousand words….

CHEERS!!!