Pete and Paco

A couple weeks ago Josh came home and told me he'd thought of what he wanted to do with the rest of his birthday money, and he really hoped I wouldn't say no.  I tried to think of what he could want, but was completely surprised when he told me he wanted to get a gerbil.  What??!!  No!  Why?  (Yes, I can be a bit of a stick in the mud).  After listing out all his reasons (mostly wanting Shane to feel more comfortable around animals), assuring me that he would do all the work, and me realizing he was not gonna give up on it, we went and got the only gerbil they had left at Petsmart.  He turned out to be antisocial and a biter, so the next week we took him back and got Pete and Paco:

Cute, though admittedly mousy-looking.  They are little buddies, and spend their days chewing on things, running around in their tubes, and building piles in their house.  Josh has been good to his word of taking care of them, and I will admit I have enjoyed them, especially cause this little man loves them

Back to his Roots

One of the reasons we chose this apartment was because it has an indoor heated pool.  Between maintenance on the pool and Shane being sick, we hadn't made it there until this week.  I asked him if he wanted to swim in the pool with his cow and his pig and his cups and pulled out his suit and "gold shoes" (Crocs) and his face lit up as if to say "they still exist!"  There are even steps for him to hang out on like there were in Dominica.  Now if only he would actually let me put a floatie on him...

Here's a better view of the whole thing.  It is really a nice area and there is a locker room attached.  I got all reminiscent of our island days, except instead of applying suntan lotion before we got in I was applying layers of clothes after we got out ha ha.  And of course, we were missing old island buddies we used to see there all the time.  

♥ Our Valentine's Day ♥

This year was probably one of my favorite Valentine's Days.  I thought this year instead of trying to get a babysitter and brave the crowds to go out, it would be fun to have a nice dinner at home- one of us making dinner, and one making dessert.  It worked out so well and we had such a good time that I think it will become tradition.  I made Shane some heart-shaped pancakes for his dinner (he clearly wasn't appreciative of us interrupting his next bite with a picture ha ha.  And yes, he still hates to feed himself... sigh... a battle I just don't have the energy to fight right now...)

While he played and I gave him a bath, Josh was busy in the kitchen with our dinner.  He decided to make homemade ravioli because he knows I have been wanting it (it is not readily available gluten-free).  There he is rolling out his pasta dough, I was quite impressed. 

After he'd put them in the ravioli press.  He told me after he'd brought home the ingredients and was looking at the instructions again, "Hon, I think I bit off more than I could chew!"  but he did a really good job.

And he made a yummy antipasto salad to go with it. 

After we put Shaners to bed we got to sit down to a nice dinner with just the two of us. Candles, Martinelli's, Frank Sinatra... it's a good thing Josh knew how cheesy I was before we got married! (Josh got me that cute frame behind us.  It says "Family" in the middle and each picture has a little phrase on it like "through jungles" or "in blizzards".  I thought it was pretty thoughtful, especially since I didn't think we were getting each other anything.  Whoops!)

We ended the night with a chick flick and the cinnamon rolls I made.  Can life get much sweeter?  Now I just have to find something to top his dinner creation for next year!

Winter Days

So I'm pretty sure that winter is nobody's favorite season (anyone?).  For sure there are things to complain about.  I never want to paint the image on my blog that everything is rosy, and we all know that's not true for anyone anyway. But something I realized in Dominica is that happiness is not dependent on your circumstances, it is something you create.  So I try to find joy in all the good things, and somehow all the not-so-good things start to fade away.  After being stuck inside a few too many days with a 2 year old who is recovering from a cold that turned into a double ear infection, I decided I needed to try this a little more actively today, and it worked.  With that said, here are some of the good things winter days are made of...     

finding new ways to entertain yourself,

 curling up on the couch with a blanket and a good book,

 warm bowls of soup for dinner,

 and clean babies fresh out of the bath and into warm pajamas.

 Thanks for sending these Grandma Dettinger (and the box!)  Do you think he liked them a little?

Happy Birthday Josh!

Josh turned the big 2-7 on Thursday.  With another day off school and the roads mostly clear we ventured out to Birch Run, a town about 20 minutes away from us with tons of outlets.  Josh picked out some basketball shoes for himself from me, and got a Fossil watch with some birthday money.  And I got a few more maternity tops ;)   

We didn't hardly even tap all the stores that were there, and we are excited to go back... in the spring.  It was COLD!  That night I made him teriyaki chicken (his request) for dinner and I made my first attempt at his mom's homemade chocolate cake.  It was delicious, but more like brownies than cake because I am pretty sure I was supposed to use a smaller pan...

And it ended up being a good thing I decided to make dinner at home instead of going out because that night Shane came down with a little fever.  So, Josh got some lovin from our extra cuddly boy.  You know the boy's not feeling good when he doesn't even want cake and ice cream!

Happy birthday Josh!  Hope you had a good day!

Our First Blizzard!

We got our first blizzard today and call me crazy, but I actually really enjoyed it!  We knew it was coming, and they rescheduled Josh's clinic for yesterday so we didn't have to be anywhere or do anything and we could just hang out at home and watch it come down from the warmth of the house.  Here is a view of the storm late last night (Josh saved this for me cause he knew I might want it for a post- I knew I kept him around for something ;) ).  Yep, we were pretty much in the middle of it.

It really started in the middle of the night, and in the morning it looked like this out our window.  The biggest thing was the crazy wind blowing snow everywhere.  I'm sure Shane thought there must have been a lot of gassy birds out there ha ha. 

Yeah, we weren't going anywhere if we wanted to...

Later this afternoon it cleared up so we bundled up and went out to play.  Here is Josh making his way out to a good spot with Shane.

Playing in the snow was the best part of the day, especially cause we had a little breakthrough and not only does Shane now appreciate the value of gloves, he will now touch the snow with his hands!! (I'm sure the gloves might have had something to do with that...)

This opened up a whole new world for him and he had SO much fun with his daddy.

They built a teeny snowman, watched the snowplow, threw snowballs, and Shane got so brave he even suprised us by trying to put it on his face.  Too bad my camera died before he started doing full on body slams in the snow!

He was having such a good time that we were out there for at least an hour until we convinced him to come in for dinner.

An attempt at a self-timer family picture right before the battery died. 

Thanks for a fun day boys!  And thank you apartment maintenance crew, for doing the shoveling and plowing for us! (well, tomorrow anyway, they sure have their hands full!)

Hooray!!!

We are celebrating around here tonight because we just found out that Josh passed that huge comprehensive test he was studying for over his break and took last week!!!!  We have been talking about and praying with Shane for weeks for daddy to pass his test, so when we told him tonight that he passed it he started doing his happy dance and saying "That's so exciting!" 

So how do you celebrate in the frozen north?  You get ice cream of course! 

It is such a relief to have this done with and know that Josh is one step closer to becoming a doctor.   This test basically gives us an idea of how he would do on the boards right now, and he will take the real boards in May or June.  For now, he will spend his extra time this semester studying for them and trying to make his score as competitive as possible, and enjoying this little victory:)   (Here he is learning how to scrub into surgeries- don't worry, they encouraged them to take pictures :) )

    We're proud of you Josh!