Over the River and Through the Woods (not to Grandma's house) Out For a Romantic Dinner

Jim and I spent a quiet morning at home and then went out for a cozy Valentine dinner at The Redding Road House in West Redding. Afterward, we drove through the beautiful Connecticut countryside. Beautiful old white colonials, churches, meeting houses, farms, ice laden streams...it was the perfect way to spend the day.
And were off.

They sat us right near the fireplace which had a blazing fire going.

One of many old white churches that we saw on our after dinner drive.

Baa

One of many old white colonials. Loved this festive fruit!

A bunch of wild turkeys ran across the road...their must have been 30 or more of them.

A patriotic chicken coop. Right up my alley.

A farm that raises Black Angus cows. They were so curious of us.

It's 5:30 and we are home again. Jim is right next to me and we are settling in for the night. No heart shaped box of chocolates, no flowers or even jewelry could top our day together. Just the two of us going down the road less traveled. Hope that you enjoyed your day too!

V Day

I love this holiday. No pressure and all about the love. You can make a big deal of it or not and either way it's all good.
We are taking Zach out for lunch today and will deliver his Valentine in person. I sent off John and Cassies last week and Kate will get hers tomorrow. When the kids were little we used to make them. Red construction paper and paper lace doilies cut out in heart shapes . The kids would write sweet messages on them. After Jim's Mom passed away we found our homemade valentines amongst her things. So sweet that she had saved them.
One of the girls at work (so madly in love with her new husband) decided that we should have "love week" last week. We all wore red, pink & heart scrubs Monday-Friday. It was a cute idea and even tho I felt it was kind of a "young" thing to do...I went along. I brought in a big plate of my traditional Valentine cookies on Thursday (heart shaped sugar cookies sandwiched with creamy pink buttercream and dusted with confectioners sugar).
Tomorrow I will make my Valentine one of his favorite meals and give him his Valentine. He has been my Valentine since 1979 and I still have the silver heart locket that he gave me all those years ago.
However you are celebrating the day, I hope that it is fun and full of love.

Big News...No Surprise

Zach LOVES college! He LOVES being at the University of New Haven and it is evident in many ways. He found many of his first semester classes very interesting. It was wonderful for me to witness his enthusiam and excitement when he came home for weekend visits. I am bursting with happiness for him! He received this and gave it to Jim last week when they got together for lunch and a movie.
Zach, I am so proud of you. You are doing things the right way. I am thrilled that you are so happy and having success with your classes. I love you.

Christmas 2010

So I decorated the blog for Valentines Day and am now posting the Christmas pictures. Shameful. The first pictures are of our trip the week before Christmas to see my Mom. We go up every year at Christmas time. My Mom always takes us all out to dinner at Clancy's. This year it was just the three of us. We had a great day!

Over the bridge. Cape Cod here we come.

Opening up my fancy PJ's.

Mom/Nana

New Ugg slippers. I love them!

Out to dinner...

The view from our booth.

So much fun! Thanks Mom!

We always go out for dinner on Christmas Eve. We went to the Redding Road House again this year. Yummy food, festive atmoshere. The perfect place to spend a snowy Christmas Eve.

The kids in their Christmas jams. Jim and I had them too. Cuddly and fun!

Christmas Morning

Zach was the first of the kids to wake up.

Everyone's up and waiting to come downstairs.

Tired after a fun Christmas Day.

We headed up to Camp Spofford the day after Christmas to spend time with the Kyte side of the family. I was too busy visiting to take any pictures, but managed these two.

Our room.

You knew this was coming...some things must be said. Hang in with me til the end. XO

On my second day of work one of the women asked me what religion I was. Bold question for the new girl. Bold answer. I told her. Now whenever the subject of religion comes up someone always says, "you are one of those born agains... right?" Yes, I reply, right. "What does that mean" a woman asked me yesterday. I sent up a quick prayer for God to guide my words and I did my best to explain it to her.
These interactions made me realize that I would just like to put down in my own words what I believe.
I believe in God, I believe in the Holy Trinity not as a concept but something real, I believe that the bible although written by man, are God's words, I believe God sent his son Jesus to earth not only to show us how to truly live, but to rescue each one of us. I believe he buries the need to be rescued deep inside of every person. You know...the part of you that is longing for something, but you just don't know for what. You think it's a new car, or a new house, another baby, or your son to get into a good college, your husband to get his dream job, or a higher salary. And you get these things and the longing just comes back. Well, he rescued me and now just as he promised, his Holy Spirit is a part of me and that empty-longing place is filled up. Really. I did not come to this early on, I was 41 years old when I finally went down on my knees and truly believed. I lived the better part of my life as a "surface" believer. I thought I was saved but always wondered why I had no desire to read the Bible or go to church. I would see people in church raise their hands during worship or be moved to tears over the Pastor's message and I wondered how I could get myself to feel that way. I wanted to feel it so badly, but never did. God did not give up on me. He kept pursuing me and putting me with people and in situations that finally led my heart to truly believe. It was the most amazing moment. I finally "got" it.
A person said to me once, how could I be sure "your way" is the one true way. I am sure because of the change within me. I am changed, deep down changed. Oh my gosh, I still struggle, everyday. I mess up the relationships that mean the most to me. I say things I shouldn't. I think things that I shouldn't. The difference now is I am convicted to try harder, and I do. The difference now is I can actually feel contentment, and it is real. I know all of this can sound pretty radical. But if your reading this you must be someone that I know and love, and I would never steer you wrong. I don't have all of the answers, in fact I have alot of questions too. Silly things like how did all of those animals get to and fit on the ark? Serious things like why do so many people live a life of suffering and here I am living this life. What about earthquakes and hurricanes and terrorist attacks? There are so many things that I do not understand. I will just have to wait and find out, and that is what faith is about. I believe God reveals only so much to us here on earth... but one thing that I know for sure, this is the way, HE is real.