Day 5 A Love Story

Sorry about my tardiness with today's Valentine's Day 5 post.  Originally, I had planned to present you with another craft, but I decided to tell you a love story that involved two amazing men.  Man 1: Tuck.  Man 2: Brenden Morrow. 
The story starts back years and years ago. My dad had amazing season tickets to the Dallas Stars.  A friend of mine was screaming at me "We HAVE to go! You will LOVE it!"  Boy was she right.  I was immediately addicted to the sport.  It was loud, it was rough, and it was amazing!  Not only was I immediately in love with the sport.  I wanted to take one home with me.  Brenden.  Oh Brenden.  How feisty and...well...amazing he was...is.  I would beg my dad for tickets as often as I could.  I was even blessed with some playoff game tickets one season.  It was the life.

A few years into my obsession, I was dating this fellow.  He was nice enough, I suppose.  One day I was leaving his apartment after having lunch. As I was walking out this tall, blonde, good looking fella was walking in. We did not exchange words.  We just starred at each other for a moment, and I continued to walk to my car and he continued to walk into the apartment.  I had already made plans to go back the next night for dinner and to watch a Dallas Stars playoff game on television.  It is about half way through the game, and I was about half way through a bottle of wine.  I am a loud hockey watcher as it is, but the combination of playoff game and wine may have made me a little louder then normal.  That is when the tall, blonde, good looking fella walked into the apartment.  All he saw was long blonde hair flying about and this tiny little woman underneath screaming at the tv.  "Let's go boys!  Shoot the puck! Yeah!!!"  He was immediately in love.

Almost 7 years after he fell in love with the loud, screaming, hockey obsessed little girl, he had a surprise for her.  (About a week ago) "Honey, I have a special Valentine's gift for you this year.  My company game me tickets to a Stars game."  Boy howdy! Was I excited!  Not only was I excited, but Tuck was excited that he would again get to see that little woman he fell in love with screaming down to the ice.  The seats were amazing.  Very close to where my dad's season tickets were. I felt, at home.  My main man sitting right next me, screaming right along with me.  And my other love skating around down on the ice.  Tuck did not even mind that I was swooning over Brenden.  He just laughed, and kissed my forehead. Now that is real love. The Stars won, 4-2.  Tuck got a little reminder of the day we fell in love.  And I had the best Valentine's present ever!  True love: a man that knows what his woman likes.  Me+Stars= Perfect Valentine's Day Gift. 

I LOVE YOU TUCK-E-BOO!!!!

Day 4 Gift Ideas

Birch Artwork, Roses, Rubix Cube, Breakfast, Apron, Bracelet, Mixer

Here are a few Valentine's Day gift ideas.  The first is a piece of artwork you can order that looks like your names have been carved into a birch tree.  Adorable!  Roses are always well received.  They smell good and they make any lady feel warm inside.  Next is an adorable personalized rubix cube.  Love it!  Breakfast in bed is always always always a great gift.

For the baker or crafter in your life, this Valentine's themed apron is a really cute gift.  Next we have a bangel with the couple's initials.  And finally, a pink KitchenAid Standing Mixer from Williams-Sonoma.  Any baker or cook would be happy to receive this for Valentine's Day!

Day 3 Valentine's Day Proposals

Bakerella

So I did a little research and something like 10% of marriage proposals in the United States, happen on Valentine's Day.  At first I did not think that number was very high considering it's Valentine's Day, but here are my thoughts on this statistic.  10% of all marriage proposals happen on this one day when there are 364 (sometimes 365) other days in the year that he could pop the question.  So yeah, 10% for one day out of the year is fairly high. 

Since 10% of marriage proposals will happen in 11 days, it is only right that Day 3 of our 14 days of Valentine's Day be all about proposals.

Before we go any further I will tell you that Bakerella is amazing!  We are using one of her photos in this post, and I just had to tell you that if you have not seen Bakerella's blog... you need to! You should go over to her site just as soon as you are done reading my blog.

So here it is, this guy wanted to propose to his lady.  His lady LOVES Bakerella.  Why wouldn't she?  He contacts Bakerella and they came up with this amazing proposal together.  This is only one photo from the proposal so go to her blog and see the rest...

No he did not propose on Valentine's Day, but this guy gets brownie points like crazy!  He really took the time to think about what would take his lady's breath away, bring tears to her eyes, something she would never forget. So to all the men out there, whether you pop the question on Valentine's Day or on one of the other 364 (sometimes 365) days in the year remember to take her breath away. Valentine's Day is a great day to pop that special question.  It's a romantic day, and I am pretty sure an engagement ring qualifies as an excellent Valentine's day gift.

Day 2 Kid's Craft

Kiddies love to do crafts.  With the younger kids I have learned that foam stickers are really exciting for them and easy for me to clean up after.  So we used foam heart stickers and turned clothes pins into magents to hold the Valentines we receive.  On the larger hearts I wrote with a sharpie words to look like conversation hearts.  The girls had lots of fun!  And our Valentines will look great on the fridge.

Day 1 Cookies

Macaroons are the hot thing right now.  I made these adorable red, tiny, and light as air cookies for day 1. I used Martha Stewart's recipe from her website.  They are amazing.  Tuck ate the entire batch except for the one I got away with before he noticed there were cookies in the kitchen. Enjoy!

The Cake Mixes

When I was 15, I had my first real boyfriend.  His birthday is around Thanksgiving and I really wanted to bake a cake for him. I cannot for the life of me remember why I wanted to bake a cake for him, but I wanted to. I will disclose upfront that when I was 15, I was not the baker that I am today.
  I setup shop in the kitchen one afternoon.  I opened the box of cake mix and put it in the bowl.  Then I added the three eggs and water.  I poured the batter into the pan, threw it in the oven, and waited.  When the timer beeped, something just did not look right.  {Or taste right}  I forgot the oil!  Dang!
Ok.  I will try this again.  Don't forget the oil!  I opened the box of cake mix and put it in the bowl.  Then I added the water and the oil.  I poured the batter into the pan, threw it in the oven, and waited.  When the timer beeped, something just did not look right, again.  I forgot the eggs!  Double Dang!
Let's give this another try.  I opened the box of cake mix and put it in the bowl. Then I added the oil and the eggs, and the oil. I poured the batter into the pan, threw it in the oven, and waited. When the timer beeped, something just did not look right. It was still batter! I put oil in place of the water!  1 1/2 cups of oil!  Triple Dang! What is my stinkin' problem?
At this point my mom was a little irritated with me, and it was starting to get late.  We went to the store since I had used all the cake mix in the house and probably all the eggs.  This time she stood right over me.  First the eggs.  Then the water.  Now the oil.  Finally, I "remembered" all the ingredients. It turned out.  I honestly cannot remember if he liked it, and I will never know why I messed up so many times.  It was an event that my brother never let me live down.  That and the giant cookie.

Ok I'll tell you about the giant cookie really really fast.

I think this may have happened the same year as all the cake mixes. My brother, younger sister, and I were all at home one evening.  I had the brilliant idea to make a cookie cake.  In the beginning, my younger siblings were all for the idea until it came out of the oven.  We did not have any chocolate chips in the house.  I decided to make a giant sugar cookie.  Don't ask why I thought this was brilliant.  I got out one of my mom's cookbooks.  Turned to the cookie section and found a sugar cookie recipe.  I followed the instructions. Then I put all of the dough onto our pizza pan, spread it out to form one giant cookie, and baked it until it was done.  It came out of the oven a masterpiece.  Then we cut ourselves a piece.  It wasn't spit it out bad, but it did not taste like a cookie.  It tasted like some strange cornbread concoction. It was strange and my brother never let me live it down.  Apparently, to brothers, your cooking skills at the age of 15 determine your cooking skills for life.  {Thank the Lord that is not true!  My family would be really hungry if it were}

A Boycott

*Note: I will not be using any names of the restaurants as I do enjoy eating at these places.  I am simply not happy.*

Today started my restaurant boycott. I am not happy about it because I love eating out just as much as I love cooking.  It is nice to have someone else cook for you, and not have to clean up after it.  However, this is something that just has to happen.  Over the last two months everytime I have eaten out (and I'm not talking fast food) my food has been cold.  Now, I know you are asking yourself why I don't just send the food back.  I will tell you why I do not send food back.  I have seen the movie Waiting.  I am not sending the food back or ever being rude to someone that handles my food. 
This all started with an order of tacos. 
 I will be honest with you I do not normally eat tacos, even though this post will make you think differently. When I say tacos in a present tense I mean soft tacos.  When my sibilngs and I were young, my step mom did not really know how to cook anything other then tacos, shark shaped spaghetti-o's, and ramen.  I always enjoyed her spaghetti-o's and ramen.  Now as an adult, when I look back on it I laugh.  She always tried to make it look like a little meal on our plates. A big helping of Ramen with some sharks as a sidedish.  Bon Appetite!  I cannot speak for the sibs, but I liked it. However, I cannot eat crispy tacos anymore.  I will eat soft tacos, but after you have eaten burnt tacos for a good 7-10 years you just cannot do it anymore.  Did you know you could burn tacos?  I'm not just talking about the shells.  I love my step mom. I love my step mom for trying.  She really really did, but man did she have the art of burning tacos down.  Someday I will tell you about the brownies she made for us, and how my smartelec older sister (who was probably 8 at the time) told her exactly what she did wrong.
So back to my point. The day after Christmas the family and I went to get some food.  My brother and his wifey blessed us with a giftcard that could be used at a variety of places.  We love that by the way.  So we picked somewhere that we do not go to often.  We are seated in a booth, which helps control the little ones. The entire family is seated and comfortable, but as for me the sun is shinning right in my eyes.  Luckily, the sun was setting rather quickly so I only had to be uncomfortable for ten minutes or so.  It took about twenty minutes for a waitress to finally come say hi and take our drink order.  Then another twenty to bring the drinks, and about ten more to come take our order. {Even though we were ready to order when she took our drink order.}  I will say it was sort of busy in the restaurant, but it appeared to me that she only had three tables.  One of which is getting no attention, one that was getting lots of attention, and one that was agressive enough to get the attention that they wanted.  After putting in our order and waiting about 25 minutes, Bowbas and Teeter's food comes out.  The waitress apologizes and says it will be a few more minutes before Tuck's food and my food come out.  Deep breath.  Ok. Right around the time the babies were finishing their food, out comes our food.  Tuck's looks and smells wonderful.  Then I look at mine and it is cold.  Not "Tuck's took to long to cook and mine got cold" kind of cold.  I am talking straight out the fridge cold. The cheese was not even melted.  No joke.  Not even a little melted. I took about two bites and decided I would just eat it at home where I could warm it up. {It was really tasty when I heated it later that evening at home.}
Two or three days later, my mom and I met up for some lunch.  My lucky mom gets Christmas Eve through New Year's day off so we met for lunch one day. I say that like we don't meet for lunch once or twice a week.  We went to one of our favorite places.  We eat there all the time. The service was typical no complaints, but here comes our food.  Our favorite.  It was cold.  Cold, cold, cold.  Cold and undercooked crab cakes, and cold soup. It was like ten degrees outside, we wanted hot soup! My mom did not want the waitress to have to pay for the meal, and we were not going to send it back.  She filled out a comment card saying that we eat here 2-3 times a month but this time all the food was cold. 
Shake it off.
Two weeks later my babies, my mom, and I went to another favorite of the family.  The service was less then average.  I decided to play it safe and order a salad and a cup of soup.  How can I go wrong here?  Easy order.  Well, the waiter forgot my soup.  When I mentioned it, he apologized, brought the soup, and insisted we not pay for the soup.  Thank goodness for that because it was horrible soup!
Then this past Sunday after church we went to the same restaurant, just a different location.  Service was great, appetizer was great.  I am sitting there thinking to myself that my faith has been restored!  We are finally going to have a nice, yummy, warm meal that I did not prepare!  But here come the entrees.  Cold tacos.  Are you kidding me?  I was so excited about trying this! Cold.  I lean over to Tuck and say "at least the appetizer was fairly filling for me."  Then I say "my lips feel funny." Oh no!  What was in that taco? Half a taco later and I have to stop eating because not only is it cold, but I think I am having an allergic reaction. The next step never happend, but I worried that something had been cooked in peanut oil for a few minutes.  My reaction to peanut products starts with tingling lips, then tongue swelling, then shortness of breath, then hives on the face and mouth.  It is no fun.  The reactions get worse each time so we try to be extra careful.  It was not peanuts but I had no voice the next day and the inside of my mouth still felt strange. Luckily, the dessert was good and peanut free!
Then today.  Oh today.  I wanted to get out of the office for lunch.  I had some errands I needed to run and I was really craving Olive Garden. The weather outside is rainy and cold so I decided to stay in the office, run errands tomorrow when it warms up some, and order lunch in from one my favorite restaurants who just happens to deliver.  They have a huge menu and I can always get what I am in the mood for.  I had a really hard time deciding what to get today.  It all looked tasty. This place gets busy during lunch especially on Fridays.  You can go in and sit down or have the food delivered. So naturally for this area, they get busy. Knowing this I called my order in at 11:15, before the rush began.  I was told 35-45 minutes.  Perfect!  45 minutes rolls around and my stomach is telling me it is time for food since I ran out the door this morning with no breakfast. Then an hour has gone by.  Ok, be patient.  It is always worth the wait. Finally an hour and 35 minutes later, my delivery guy arrives.  I feel bad for delivery people in this kind of weather so I was a little more generous then usual.  I was so excited.  Tore open the bag and to my wonder all the food was stone cold.{The mashed potatoes were luke warm.}
I marched back to my bosses office to let off some steam about the situation.  He insisted that I call the restaurant.  "This is why mediocrity is accepted because people feel awkward making complaints."  I sat at my phone for a few minutes and finally sucked it up and made the call.  The lady apologized.  She said that they got backed up with orders and she would be happy to send me a new order.  I insisted that it was not necessary.  I just wanted to let them know that all the food was cold.  She thanked me and apologized. 
Even though I made the call I am still boycotting sit down restaurants until someone with some kind of official title (like the actual chef or owner) can promise me that my food will be hot.  I do not want free food. I just want to eat a hot meal that tastes good.  I love food. I like to try different things.  Face it I am an enthusiast.  I am sad that it has to happen this way, but why am I paying for food I am unhappy with.  Don't judge me for letting this happen so many times without saying something. ; ) I do not want anyone to feel obligated to give me the food for free, I do not want to waitress or waiters to have to pay for it out of their pocket, and I do not want my food to be tampered with if I try to send it back.  Therefore, I am boycotting.