Surprise San Francisco Birthday Trip

When Brian turned 40, I did some nice things for him. A surprise birthday party with his best friends and his favorite foods. A BBQ at a cabin by Bear Lake with his extended family. When it was all over, I said, "Will you please plan something nice for my 40th Birthday?"

What I meant was that it is nice to feel like someone is thinking about you. Not like it's noon on your birthday and they stop by the store to pick up a gift and start looking into which restaurant they would like to take you to for dinner. But, the really thoughtful-thinking-ahead-it-takes effort kind of thinking.

What he came up with completely exceeded my expectations. He blew it out of the park. It was the sweetest birthday yet.

On my actual birthday, everyone was so nice to me. A friend took me to a beautiful lunch of fancy Italian at Zucca. Sophie and Katie made my favorite dessert, rice krispy treats, while I was at work. I received thoughtful gifts of jewelry, fancy lotions, anti-aging face cream (haha), books and a hipster shirt throughout the day. I even received a delivery of fresh flowers that turned out to be from my good friend who moved to New Mexico.

That evening, we had the most delicious hamburgers, fries and batter dipped mushrooms at Warren's Craft Burger on 25th Street with a table full dear friends. It was a delightful day, start to finish.

The next morning, we packed our bags, sent our kids off to school and headed to the airport for an adventure in San Francisco. I felt lighter than air once the last t was crossed and the last i dotted so we could be on our way. We hadn't taken a trip just the two of us in ages. It was long overdue. It was so fun and relaxing that by the end I joked that we should take all future vacations as just the two of us.

Not really serious about that (but, also, just a tiny bit).

We arrived at our gate at lunch time and shared a $12 veggie salad that was surprisingly delicious for airport food. It was 1pm locally when we landed in Oakland, gathered our things and took the BART downtown. After our things were stowed safely in our hotel, we walked just a few blocks over to Lombard Street and made our way down the crooked part. Then, we explored all over Fisherman's Wharf. The weather was perfect. The bay was gorgeous. We found a darling restaurant with a view of the water where we ate dinner. We returned to our hotel that evening tired and happy in time for surprise number two -- our awesome friends Steve and Heidi were joining us for the weekend!

I don't know how to express how surprising and exciting this was! I had sat next to them the night before at dinner and hadn't had one clue. I guess Brian was planning this with them for months, but to me it felt like they dropped everything and showed up in San Francisco just for my birthday. It was the best.

Friday morning, we all woke up early to eat veggie omlets from a nearby cafe and drive up to the Redwoods at Muir Park. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, stopped at a gorgeous lookout to take silly pictures, hiked all through that beautiful forest (and took lots more goofy pictures), walked along a secluded beach and found ourselves in the charming town of Sausalito for lunch. We discovered a fantastic place for burgers for lunch and had ice cream for dessert. We did some window shopping that included a Christmas store that had a tree decorated with mer-men. When I say we had a great time cracking jokes about the mer-men tree, that pretty much sums up our whole extended weekend trip. We had so much fun just hanging out, making each other laugh, and having no responsibilities and nothing on out to-do lists. It was a magical time.

In the afternoon we drove to Twin Peaks, which I didn't think was going to be as awesome as it was. It was a beautiful winding road on the way to the top with incredible houses to look at along the way. From the top, you can see the whole city of San Francisco. It was quite nice.

That evening, we headed in to Chinatown to do some souvenir shopping and to eat awesome Chinese food at the House of Nanking where the waitress barely gives you 10 seconds to order before she runs to the kitchen and starts bringing out food. That restaurant was bustling! It was an interesting and tasty experience.

Saturday morning it rained. Brian and Steve decided they wanted to run from our hotel to the opposite end of the Golden Gate Bridge and back, which was 10 miles total. I took the chance to sleep in and get caught up on some work. We walked to the same cafe we had gone to Friday morning for more delicious breakfast and to decide how we would spend our day.

I had expressed interest in seeing Wicked and Brian had expressed interest in seeing a Giants game. We headed to the theater to see how we could get tickets to the nearly sold out show. Tickets were $135/each, but there was a lottery 2.5 hours before each show for a chance to buy $25 tickets. We entered the lottery for the matinee and our names didn't get picked. But, what we realized when it was over is that if you jump in line right after the last winners are announced they sell all the remaining seats for the night for just $50.

It rained off and on all day Saturday. We walked through the city taking in the sights of the beautiful architecture (and some giant inflatable bunnies in front of city hall). We tried some street food (hummus) and went to Fisherman's Wharf for more street food -- fresh crab, shrimp, clam chowder and fresh baked San Francisco sourdough bread. We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. We were going to bike but walking was nice too. In the evening, we returned to the theater for another shot at $25 tickets. When that didn't pan out, we managed to get four orchestra seats together for just $50/each -- total steal!

Since it was still 2 hours before the show, we walked to Smitten's for the most unbelievably good ice cream imaginable. I had lemon ginger, but I think Steve's with the fresh mint leaves was my favorite.

It was my first time seeing Wicked. It was, of course, amazing.

Sunday morning, we tried out a new place for breakfast and, although it was slightly more expensive, it deserved all the high praise it had on internet reviews. It was so yummy!

We decided to take in a Giants vs. Dodgers game. Like all big city pro baseball games I've attended, it was really fun. The view of the bay from our seats was fantastic. We ate hot dogs, lemonade and popcorn. Giants won which was an extra bonus.

Steve and Heidi flew out Sunday night so, after the game, we mostly drove around the city, goofing around driving up and down all of those super steep streets and never getting tired of looking at all the beautiful architecture. We drove through the Castro District -- where rainbow flags were flying everywhere and even the crosswalks were painted like rainbows. Then, we drove to the Mission District. It had lots of murals painted on buildings around town and we ended up eating at La Taqueria for dinner.

We bid our friends farewell and headed back to the hotel for our last night, crossing the beautifully lit Bay Bridge on our way.

On Monday I woke up wishing it was Day 1 instead of the end. We had had so much fun and it wasn't over yet.

We decided to ride the Trolley Cars since neither of us had ever done it. Our trolley took us from Fisherman's Wharf to Union Square. The line to get back on the trolley going the other way was long, so we started walking and ended up all the way back at our car. This was the beginning of what would add up to about 13 miles of walking that day (so said Brian's apple watch).

We saw the sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf. We soaked in the sun at Baker Beach. We found a lovely Indian restaurant downtown for lunch when we were finally able to eat (we had to skip breakfast because we had been eating so much wonderful food on our trip we needed a little break). As we were enjoying that tasty meal, I looked over at Brian and felt a little lump in my throat thinking about how sweet he was to do something so out of this world amazing for me for my birthday. I was thinking about how many people in the world would dream about having someone like that, who would be so thoughtful of them. And, there I was! Lucky me. So, I enjoyed that feeling for awhile.

After lunch, we drove to a place called World's End, which turned out to be a beautiful hike to the ocean. We were walking along the path and Brian said, "This is kind of like the trails on the east bench by our house." And, I said, "Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing. Except this is way more green and there is an ocean next to us."

We kept taking pictures throughout the day to keep Steve and Heidi up to date on what they were missing. We had cracked a lot of jokes about "So I Married an Axe Murderer," so we had to visit the spot where the deli scenes were filmed (now a pizza place FYI). We had also joked about visiting a park that has cement slides that we found on a "Free Things To Do in San Fran" list, so we had to go there just to take a photo.

Then, it was done. We turned in the rental car and headed to the Oakland airport. I had another surprisingly delicious salad (maybe airport food is getting better?) and Brian had a pizza because he said the only bad thing about traveling with me is that I can't eat gluten so it limits his pizza opportunities.

We got home in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. It was a trip I will never forget. My surprise San Francisco Birthday Trip that included the bonus Steve and Heidi surprise. LOVED IT!

Now I need to start planning for Brian's 50th :)

The News That Cheered Me Up

At the end of March, I realized something about my third child with one of those wake up in the middle of the night "aha" moments. But, not the good kind. It was an understanding that there is more going on with him than we originally thought (autism) and when the picture came into focus for me I realized that I know too much about this to have not somehow seen it coming. Did I see it coming? When did I first see it coming? I still don't know. I wrote a post all about it, but it is so deeply personal that I don't feel ready to share.

Instead I will just say that this piece of sad news brought me to tears every day for a few weeks as I tried to adjust and reach a place of acceptance. I'm not crying now while I am typing this, so that's good, right?

It was during this difficult time that Brian broke the news to me. About a week before my birthday he revealed that -- He was taking me on a surprise trip to San Francisco!

I could not believe it! Who does that? He had everything planned, airline tickets bought, a hotel reserved right by Fisherman's Wharf. It seemed like he had told everyone I know before he told me.

He had wanted to tell me on the night of my actual birthday and then sweep me away on our flight the next day. Luckily, after seventeen years of marriage, he knows me well enough to think better of that plan. For one thing, it took the whole week to coordinate with both of our parents the care of our children while we were gone (four soccer games in five days. FOUR.). For another, there were three appointments that needed to be rescheduled because they fell during our trip. Also, I guess I am high maintenance because I had to go through every article of clothing and every pair of shoes I own to figure out what I would wear on the trip (and do a little shopping to fill in the gaps). Finally, as every adult knows, when you go on vacation you have to work double time before and after to get all of your work completed because no magic fairy shows up to do it for you while you are gone. For all of these reasons -- I am so glad he told me exactly when he did. But, there is one more: I LOVE the anticipation of things like this almost as much as the trip itself.

So, there you go. A surprise birthday trip that came as close to being swept away last minute as my complicated life and personality will allow.

My 40th Trip Around the Sun

Today is the last day of my thirties.

My pre-birthday gift was getting to take all four of my kids to the zoo. My days getting to hang out with all of them together are limited. It's so strange. Once you get them to the ages where it's not so hard to leave the house, the oldest ones are almost all grown up. We are in a sweet spot right now, but I can already see that the time is fleeting for our group adventures.

It was a beautiful day. Some highlights were seeing "Willow" the baby giraffe running back and forth like a human kid with too much energy; an elephant waved to us with his trunk; a peacock charmed us; monkeys entertained us with their funny gestures; the lions and eagles didn't have to do anything to captivate us with their regality; as always we loved the train and the reptile and small animal house; I coughed up the money for tickets to ride the carousel and loved seeing how excited everyone got about picking their endangered species (I also learned how impressive these carved animals are up close); we spent a long time mesmerized by the sea lions gliding in their glass sided pool. It's hard to sum it up. There were so many gorgeous birds and interesting animals. The kids were delighted, so I was in heaven.

Tomorrow I am 40. I am not super happy about changing from my 30s to my 40s, but what are you going to do? I am grateful to have such a full life.

 My four loves.

 These two loved being silly all day.

 Zoo 2016

 Zoo 2016

 Sophie pondering her life as a baby elephant.

 Ian was a good sport about riding the carousel.

 Isaac matched his poison dart frog.

Obviously Katie (in her cheetah ears) wanted to ride the cheetah, but she was super sweet about taking the elephant when another kid jumped on the cheetah right before she could claim it.

We took so many pictures. The kids took tons of cool photos of the animals this time. But, these are the ones I really want to look at forever. These gems of my loves. I'm looking at them now, trying to memorize the way these kids are in this moment before they change again. Love them!

St. Patrick's Day 2016

I woke up to curl Sophie's hair before taking her to her early morning seminary class and found her dressed from head to toe in green.

"Are you going to make gold coins this year like you always do?" My St. Patrick's Day loving daughter asked. When she and Ian were tiny, I started a tradition of dipping mini Ritz cheese sandwich crackers in melted butterscotch chips to give to the kids from the Leperchaun.

After I returned from taking Sophie to school, I poured bowls of cereal for Isaac and Katie. "I wonder if the Leperchaun turned the milk green?" Katie asked with excitement.

Usually I put a dot of green food coloring in the bottom of their cereal bowls before I pour the cereal, but today I forgot. I grabbed a gallon of milk that was 1/4 full from the fridge and quickly poured some green food coloring in. Just as I was finishing my secret mission, Katie popped her head around the corner and looked at me. I fumbled as I rushed to put the food coloring away and give the milk a shake to mix it.

I brought the green milk in to pour it on their cereal. "Look the Leperchaun did turn the milk green!"

After a few minutes, Katie said, "Mom, I saw you put the food coloring in the milk."

"You caught me--pretending to be the Leperchaun is a game I like to play with you," I said. Then I watched her face very closely to see if she was disappointed or if the wheels of understanding would start spinning in motion. The night Ian caught me being the tooth fairy, he was so upset. As he was taking it in, he paused and said, "Wait, does this mean the Easter Bunny is you too? Oh, no . . . Don't tell me . . . Santa!" And, just like that all of the magic was gone for him. But, he was getting pretty old. He was in the 5th grade already. I was sad for him but I was also thinking, "Hon. You gotta know."

Katie is still young at six. "Are you sad?" I asked. "No," she said. "Did you already know?" I asked. "I think I thought it, but I didn't think about it all the way before now," she said.

Crossing my fingers she doesn't think about it too hard. Happy St. Patty's Day!

Sweet 15

Written Saturday, March 5

Friday, I picked Sophie up from school and took her to lunch at "World Famous Pho" on 25th Street. That is some tasty Vietnamese noodle soup.

As we waited for our food, I grabbed her hand across the table, looked meaningfully into her eyes and said, "Fifteen years ago today, I was as miserable as I have ever been in my entire life." Then, we both started laughing really hard.

I always become sentimental the day before my kids' birthdays, thinking about their births. I usually tell them all the sappy stuff without any details of the misery--like the first time I touched their soft skin or the first time I looked into their eyes. I always tell Sophie the story about how, just a few hours after she was born, she missed me when we sent her to the nursery in the middle of the night and how I thought it was the sweetest thing that a tiny brand new baby could already know her momma from someone else.

I continued -- "I went to the hospital to have you, but my contractions stopped and they sent me home. I was scheduled to be induced on March 6, but the nurses took pity on me and told me I could come back at 5 a.m. the next morning (March 5). It felt like the best news ever! The next day was one of the happiest days of my life! Thank you for making me a mom. Happy Birthday eve!"

After lunch, I took her to her voice lesson and after that we went to see Zootopia. Katie and my mom came to the movie too. Brian was at an overnight scout camp with Ian and Isaac. After the movie, my mom announced that she was making a crab dinner and fudge (the fudge at Sophie's request in lieu of birthday cake) on Sunday in honor of Sophie's birthday.

I turned to Sophie and said, "Wow, this is turning out to be your best birthday ever!" She said, "No, the best birthday was when I turned 12 and dad bought me flowers."

That was a good birthday. She had a big boy/girl party with karaoke.

This year, she asked us to register her for a teen writer's conference in Provo that happened to take place on her birthday (Saturday). Of course, we had to say "yes" even though it meant me driving her and a friend down early in the morning and Brian driving back to Provo to pick her up at night (almost 300 miles of driving with two trips down and back).

Doesn't a writing conference sound so grown up?

I can't believe that we can go get her driver permit any day and she can get behind the wheel of a car. What!? And, she just got hired to work at Lagoon this summer.

Driving, summer job, writer conference. Where does the time go?

Happy day for her--there are flowers from her dad waiting to surprise her when she gets home.

When she was just a tiny girl of five or less, I had a brilliant idea to promise her a "Sweet 16" birthday party if she would not kiss a boy before she turned 16. I described to her a big party and it seemed like such a good idea at the time, to preserve that little girl's sweet innocence.

Little did I know she would be the queen of birthday parties. She always makes elaborate plans. I need to come up with something bigger and better for next year.

And now I record the unabridged story of Sophie's birth (with an emphasis on the miserable parts):

Fifteen years and one day ago, I was so swollen. I had gained 70-pounds and I would lose 30 of it before I checked out of the hospital after giving birth. So. Much. Puffiness. I had high blood pressure (pre-eclampsia) and pre-term labor. I had been dilated to a four for a whole month, thinking I would have my baby any day; having hours of contractions every night that always stopped right before they got down to two-minutes apart.

There have only been a couple of times in my life when I have been as completely spent physically, mentally and emotionally as I was that day.

It was a Sunday and at the end of the day, when the contractions started, I told Brian to take me to the hospital. He said "no" because I was being ridiculous. I was being ridiculous. I was scheduled to be induced Tuesday morning. It seems so irrational now, but in that moment I was filled with desperation and I begged him to take me.

They admitted me and hooked me up to the monitor to confirm that I was indeed in labor! But, an hour later the contractions stopped. I resigned myself. I was defeated once again by those elusive contractions. I was so beaten down. Brian said, "don't worry, it's just one more day." The nurses could read the look on my face I'm sure. Even though they sent me home that night, they promised that I could come back at 5 a.m. to be induced. It was only one day earlier than planned, but I could not have been more thrilled. I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders. Isn't that silly? One day.

We have a video that Brian took of me the next morning as we walked into the hospital. I am grinning from ear to swollen ear. I couldn't wipe that huge sincere smile from my face for anything. It was truly one of the happiest most incredible days of my life.

16-hours of labor, 2.5 hours of pushing, a vacuum and a team of nurses compressing hard on my stomach at the last second to force her shoulders out plus one post delivery emergency D&C and a multitude of stitches later, I had a precious baby in my arms. Despite the trauma of the delivery, it was more joyous than my wildest expectations. So much bigger than anything in my life up until that point. Being a mom is the best. Yesterday, when I reflected on that huge amount of misery I felt getting this beautiful girl here, I thought, "It really is a miracle that we had three more kids!"

I am so glad we did. I love these guys more than anything.

Why Women Still Can't Have It All

This morning I read an in-depth article by Anne-Marie Slaughter (2012) titled "Why Women Still Can't Have it All." It was a very interesting read to me even though I didn't 100% agree with everything she said.

The take away for me is that our whole society needs significant attitude changes before women can truly have equal opportunities.

I don't agree (necessarily) that we should adjust school schedules to align with workday schedules. That sounds an awful lot like communist Russia that offered free 8-5 preschool for all so that women could be liberated. I don't want to live in a place where kids are whisked away at birth and placed in government sponsored institutions. However, I do see how this would be a huge step forward for women who work full time.

I am so blessed to have a flexible schedule and to work part time. I briefly considered applying for a full time job a couple of years ago (the prospect of employer sponsored benefits was so tempting) and I could not figure out how that would work with the kids' school schedules. That's because it doesn't work. There is no way to add up a 40 hour work week that aligns with the kids' school schedules. I calculated the math a bunch of different ways. My sister in law took a job last year that was counted as full time even though it was 35-hours per week. She was able to get home in time to greet her kids off the bus (they are the last stop on the route and don't get home until 4), but she still had to hire someone to take them at 7 a.m. and get them ready for school every morning to make it work (she got off early on Fridays since her kids have early out). Then there was also summer break to figure out.

While I don't necessarily agree with sweeping changes like that, I do agree that the attitudes of our society at large need serious changes. She talks about the fact that if a talented employee runs a marathon, they are seen as disciplined, hard working, willing to push through distraction and exhaustion even on days when nothing seems to go right in the service of a goal far in the distance and as an exceptional manager of time to be able to squeeze it all in. And she asks, Do employers make those same assumptions about a talented working parent?

She also makes a point about a devout Jewish man who left work early on Fridays to complete his travel before sun down and strictly observe the Jewish Sabbath (from sun down on Friday until sun down on Saturday) and how everyone in the office admired his dedication to his religion. Yet, would they award the same admiration to a working mother who left the office early on Friday and strictly devoted her Saturday to her children?

Great points.

I'll be honest--the article did bother me in some ways. I felt like she was saying, in order to be in an extremely successful leadership position (which she strongly advocates for men and women equally), twelve hour work days plus weekend work is required. I'm sorry, but if that is my life ambition and I am married to someone with that same life ambition, why do we want to have kids? And, if we do want to have kids, who is going to raise them while we dedicate ourselves to these schedules? Our nannies? And, if all of these nannies are needed to support all of these men and women equally in their career goals, what about equality for the nannies and their career goals? It doesn't make sense to me. I do think parents should raise their kids.

What becomes tricky is when both parents work and it comes to figuring out how to divide up the household and child nurturing responsibilities with some equality. Apparently my relationship is in the dark ages when it comes to this. As I stated in an earlier post, the reason we aren't really caught up to mainstream 2016 thinking has to do with our religious beliefs and the way we were raised. Maybe some women my age in my religion find it fine and good for their husbands to provide while they run the home and family. Maybe they find this fair and fulfilling and maybe they don't. I don't know. I do know that it makes women vulnerable. I also know that in my life I need to work. And, I don't mind working, I just wish I had known that I was going to work so I could have negotiated a different contract (so to speak, we don't actually have a document where our expectations are written down) in the beginning because it is very hard to change our habits at this point in the game but we need to find something that is more fair.

The article was interesting because, in it she states that many men and women of the millenial generation are changing their attitudes about sharing responsibilities at home. However, she reveals the damaging attitudes of our society at large that hold women back--some subtle and some not so subtle.

Speaking of attitudes, I reflect back on my life and I feel like I have always received conflicting messages. Growing up, I received a message that I was equal to men and that I could accomplish anything I wanted to in life. I also received a message that the most important role I could fulfill in my life was to be a fully dedicated full-time wife and mom. It is really hard to reconcile the two.

For example, I became very close to my female doctor, Machel, who delivered all four of my babies. I remember when Sophie was born, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to her for dedicating herself to a demanding medical career (she did this while raising six kids). I kept thinking about what her talents and hard work meant to me and so many other moms. What would we do without the Machel's of the world? At the same time, I felt strongly that I should give up working to be home with my new tiny infant (and the ones that would follow). But, what did that mean in terms of sharing my professional talents with those outside of my immediate family? From the beginning, it has been a confusing road.

I really admire the mom who I babysit for. She and her husband have worked their schedules to ensure maximum mom and dad time with their kids. Her husband goes to work at 5:30 a.m. so that he can pick up his kids by 4. She goes into the office at 11 a.m. so she has lots of morning time with her babies, even though it means she has to stay late. Because of this, their kids are only with a babysitter for five hours a day.

In addition to this awesome schedule they have worked out for their kids's sakes, her boss also allowed her to bring her first two kids to work with her for the first six months of their lives. The third baby was born during her busiest time of year, so I started keeping him when he was two-weeks old (sad for her, but so fun for me). Why can't women with office jobs bring their nursing infants to work for the first months of their lives? It would be amazing if more employers allowed that.

Those kinds of attitude changes I completely agree with.

Happy Valentime's Day

Katie writes notes to me daily declaring her love for me. It is very precious. For the past two weeks, there have been a lot of "Happy Valentime's" from her too. This makes me smile. I remember when I thought the word was "Valentime."

Brian has been in L.A. this week and today he is running the L.A. marathon and texting me photos of the course along the way. Last year he was working in Washington in February. So--for the second year I got to celebrate this holiday focusing on my four wonderful kids who have my heart in every way.

It felt so strange to only have two kids handing out valentines to their classes this year. It was quite the handful the year there were four. So many little cards to fill out and so many different classroom parties at the same time and me not knowing which one to volunteer for. They are growing up! And, I am trying to savor these winding down moments of their childhoods while I still can.

Yesterday I read a blogpost by a single gal in which she talked about the fact that many people are alone for this holiday, even people who are in relationships who feel alone. She expressed how she sees it as an opportunity to romance herself with naps and yoga classes and Thai food and things that make her feel special. I thought that sounded like a great idea, even for people who aren't alone and don't feel alone.

Yesterday was so productive. I woke up at 5 and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I got up and did four hours of much needed housework and got my shower before it was time to start running the kids around to their various activities.

I took Sophie to rehearsal--she is in The Little Mermaid. I ran to the grocery store. I took Katie to a kid yoga class and dropped Ian off for his team photo. Then, I picked Sophie up from rehearsal and returned to watch Ian play basketball -- all before 1 p.m.

After I fed everyone lunch and took a little downtime, I mustered the energy to go to Costco (it takes courage to go there on a Saturday) and Wal-Mart and I came home ready to romance myself in the best way I knew how.

I gave all of my kids special Valentine's I had bought for them. I painted Katie's nails. We read together and snuggled together. Then, I opened up some Chicago mix popcorn and we watched Cast Away. I am amazed by Tom Hanks' performance in that movie and especially by how he was able to transform his body for the role. When the movie was over, I retired to my bed with Katie by my side and Isaac sleeping on a little mattress at the foot of the bed. I am excited for Brian to come back home, but I sure love getting to sleep with these two when he is gone because they love it SO much. Isaac declares that the nights he sleeps in my room are the best nights of sleep of his life. And, I love seeing that sleeping princess next to me as I drift off to dreamland.

This morning, I made my traditional heart shaped Valentine waffles with berries and whipped cream. The kids had gotten up before me and had eaten bowls of cereal so I might have decided not to make the waffles except that I had already prepared to make them gluten free and I am romancing myself, remember? So, I made those waffles and I enjoyed them. A lot.

Brian sent me two dozen roses. They are so pretty -- peach, pink, light purple and white. They smell as good as they look. So . . . it's been a pretty great Valentine's Day so far.