Early this morning on Valentine's Day. My dh is at work for a few hours. My teenagers are still sleeping. Ah, sweet, quiet bliss. Just for a few minutes. The pancakes are almost finished. Then we are going to church and out to lunch.






Happy Valentines Day! I hope you all have a sweet one.
My sweet daughter made me this card. Aaaahhh, so sweet.



My students spoiled me at work Friday. I received 2 heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, a Starbucks gift card and several cards. This hand-made one if my favorite.

I went to the Tucson Gem Show with my friend Tina this week. I had a total blast as usual. Don't these beads look like candy?? I should have bought a strand just to look at them! But wait, this next table had total eye candy.

I always have to spend time at this booth. This Texas couple's booth is entirely vintage. Most of it is outside of my price range. I always manage to pick up a few treasures. Tina and I had fun wondering what these rhinestone pieces were once a part of.

This is my loot. I have a few pieces hidden away that are gifts.
Afterwards, we went to lunch, of course. Then shopping at a darling home accessory store and then a tour of Tina's exceptionally home. I love her style and always walk away from her home inspired.

This little bunny is eating all the flowers in her front courtyard. He sure is cute though and wasn't the least bit frightened of us.
Last but not least, the snow on the mountains. One of the many reasons why I miss our home in Oro Valley.
We missed you Carmen!

We rang in the New Year by attending the Insight Bowl game. This wasn't just any bowl game for me. My husband, Mark, came home from work a few weeks ago and announced that my alma mater, Iowa State, was going to play in the Insight Bowl. I can't tell you how excited I was. I haven't seen Iowa State play for 25 years. I have not been back to my university since I graduated. Mark got us four tickets and my entire family had to watch me be giddy and cheer incessantly for my team. Mark and I have been married for 23 years and he is a diehard ASU fan and alum. I have attended countless football and basketball games and have purchased many shirts and ASU memorabilia for him. I loved seeing fans sporting Iowa State Cyclone teeshirts and seeing the sea of red and gold at the ASU stadium.
Before the game started, we were entertained by military parachuters landing on the field.

They first appeared as dots in the sky as spectators squinted into the sunny Arizona sky.
They started coming into view.
They each carried a flag including a United States flag, Iowa State, Arizona and NFL.
Immediately after they landed, we were treated with a fly by.

Here's Cy
Loved seeing my team name on the Arizona field. If you looked closely, you could see the Arizona State logo underneath
Our beautiful Arizona sunset.
The best part of the day, we won the game 14-13!
I hope I don't have to wait another 25 years to see my team play.

Happy Halloween! You better believe that I'm wearing my darling new charm bracelet from Saucy's Halloween charm bracelet swap. Boy have I been getting a lot of compliments!

These "wicked" charms were my contribution.
I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween.
Best Witches!

We are leaving today for New York and Connecticut for our fall break trip. Have a great week!

It was my month to host my "Annual Fall Bunco".
This was my first time preparing appetizers, drinks, salad, dinner and dessert while working fulltime. I planned our date on a school half day to allow myself extra time. There's never enough time for all the details though.
We had a blast. I love having everyone over.


I served sugared-pecan salad with poppyseed dressing.



Homemade chicken salad on crossiants.



Fruit Skewers



Kettle Chips (I had to put something in this huge bowl)



Mini Pumpkin Muffins



For dessert, Banana Chocolate Chip Cake and Glazed sugar cookies

We rented FIVE DVDs this weekend. It was my husband's birthday yesterday. We had plans to go out both Sunday and Monday. We were so looking forward to it. His sinuses and allergies had other ideas. So we stayed in, ordered pizza and watched movies. I am such a sap. I really enjoyed this movie and wanted to give it a thumbs up. Unfortunately I can't give the other four movies good reviews. I've been wanting to watch Coraline with my daughter for awhile now. My daughter thought it was "disturbing". Seriously, I really don't see the need to use overinflated balloons as female body parts, especially when they only have flowers over a very tiny amount of the overinflated balloons. This movie was rated PG! Anyway . . . I highly recommend "New In Town".