Valentines Day-The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good:
Camden really liked Valentines day-mainly because it is another holiday that you get candy. He made Paul and I the cutest Valentine-it's the quintessential 1st grade looking valentine-see for yourself:

I especially like the Rainbow-I'm sure my mom could find a card that I made her with the same one :)

We also made Valentine cookies, because who doesn't like sweets!

Then there was a great deal at CVS on Madagascar 2, so with my coupons, ECB's and the sale, I got $20 of Proctor and Gamble products and the movie for $13. So I think I did pretty well ;) On Friday night, we all watched the movie together while we ate pink frosted cookies.

The Bad

So, Paul and I find ourselves amusing, and thought that instead of doing your typical Valentines night out, we would go out, have some fun and make a bit of a mockery of the "Hallmark Valentine date." So, the plan was to head to Sonic, where Paul was going to splurge and let me pick anything off the .99 menu I wanted, then head to Garner for some Go-Kart racing, And then after watching my hunky lovebunny race cars, go cool down at the DQ. We were calling it our "redneck" Valentines date. The fun of it was to see what kind of people actually took their dates to these activities on a Valentines Day. But....

The Ugly:

Our babysitter never showed up!!! Later on we learned that her daughter had gotten sick, so she and her husband headed to Greensboro and ended up taking her to the hospital as the pneumonia worsened and she'd been kept overnight. Unfortunately, she did not bring our phone number and apparently didn't know about 411. So, we waited, and waited. I thought "Maybe I told her the wrong time? Maybe there's a wreck?" She was supposed to come at 6:00, so by 7:15, we were pretty sure she wasn't going to show. So....I ran and picked up some food for us, and we ended up watching "Mama Mia" on pay per view. I didn't even try to find another sitter cuz I thought it would be pointless. The movie was alright, but I think it would be much more enjoyable on stage. Luckily, we go on date nights regularly, so while disappointing that we didn't go out on our 10th anniversary/Valentines weekend-it's all right. Besides, we have the awesome cruise to look forward to!!! And that's better then any date night :D

Anniversary Mystery

Last night I hear Paul printing and cutting and playing on the computer in his office. "Don't come in!" he tells me. "I'm working on your anniversary present." I'm thinking, really?? What is he doing? Well, this morning I found out. He leaves for work, telling me, "Have fun playing with your present!" So I get out of bed and come downstairs to find:
Oh my. I had to solve the clues to get the combination to open the box.

So, here was the first clue:
Camden was very excited to help me, and the first task was just up his alley. In fact, he actually did it or me ;) "Banker" is one of his favorite games. He likes to trade money, asking if he can have 4 quarters for his dollar or a $1 bill for his.

Well, we got this one pretty easy and were ready for clue #2:
The URL is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuHfql-d0MM
Haha very funny. Paul got Wrestlemania I-V over the summer and this is his and Camdens favorite match. And the number is pretty obvious :)

So, now we were ready for clue #3:
This one threw me. I totally forgot how to play this-in fact, I had to google for directions. And then I redid it several ways (in the game do you include the M.A.S.H. in the count? and on the spirals, do you count 3? or all 5? Anyway, since there were only 4 numbers, I figured if one didn't work I could try another one :)

So, after a walk down memory lane (who didn't play this on the playground in 3rd grade?) I was ready for clue #4:
Again, had to use google. Without the internet, I would have been hopeless. But the answer didn't seem right! Whose jersey number is 00? So I took some time to make sure that was true, and what do you know, that was his number!

So, clue #5:
I do like sudoku, but it took me a few minutes to get this one. It's still pretty early ;) Camden was hovering around me looking over my shoulder while I did it...which made it hard to concentrate :) He must have picked a medium one because it wasn't easy, but I was able to figure it all out.

So, now the final clue, clue #6:
So I put this in my CD player and the player stopped at song #7...what was I to do? Then I thought, well, I've used my computer so far for most of the answers, so I'll use that (thinking that the songs would show up and I could cheat...) But, since he had compiled the CD, there were no titles. I listened to them all long enough to figure out the title and finally, at track 18, there was the song (well, he kept saying "One..." so I assumed this was the title:D I'm sure I was supposed to listen to the hour and a half CD throughout the day, but I don't have that much patience!

And there it was! All 6 numbers! So I opened it up...and there was a piece of paper?!?!
Paul has planned a cruise for us for our 10th anniversary to the Eastern Caribbean. We'll be sailing out on June 1st. And the best part? I think that this will be the first vacation that we have ever gone on that I haven't planned! Not that I don't enjoy planning, I just have never been "taken" on a vacation :) I am so excited to take a week long vacation with my husband! (although Camden immediately asked when he would get to go on a cruise...) So, time to renew those passports and Bon Voyage! And Paul, love ya babe!!! It's been a great 10 years!!!

I was doing so well...

I was blogging so well at the beginning of the year, but it was easier because we had Christmas and Camden was tracked out. Well, Camden is back in school, and I'm back to my routine!
Camden had a bit of a rough transition after 6 weeks with his awesome mom, but is doing much better now that they are doing an earth science unit :) Camden now wants to be a geologist when he grows up. He spends his recess time collecting rocks and is amassing quite a collection! He has made a "museum" in his room-I'll have to get a picture of that to post! I also might have to find a rock tumbler for him to use since he has some cool rocks from doing gem mining a couple of times. He also wants to be in the science fair, so we are busy thinking of cool ideas. he wants to race his cars and see which one goes farther ;) So any ideas for a first grader, let us know!
Parker also had a rough transition back to school after Christmas break, and hopefully this week will be better. I think he might have had a bit of a cold, but he has just been very uncooperative lately! It's challenging when there is really no way to reward or punish him for his behavior...if he could just tell us what he wanted, life would be much easier!
Paul is still loving his job, and still has one, thank goodness! Things are getting scary out there! He really enjoys the work he does and the feeling that each day he is genuinely helping people. He had a fun 33rd birthday going to the Miami/Duke game that went into overtime. We went to Ginza, a japanese hibachi steakhouse for dinner, which was a lot of fun. Camden loved all of the fire :)
I am back to going to the gym, working every once in a while (like tomorrow) and getting this house back in shape (seems like I'm always doing that!) I've also been on facebook, getting slowly sucked in :) I often update my status, so you can see what I am up to ;) I'm enjoying the warmer weather, it seems to make people want to do social things :)
Well, I promise to post pictures too, just thought I'd give a little update for everyone!