Valentine

It is Valentine’s Day.  Dave and I don’t get too sappy about it anymore.  In fact, my favorite Valentine from him was one he sent me a few years ago.  Not romantic to most, but if you knew what a huge soccer fan he was, (this song is actually sung by Totenham supporters and their love for their team) you would know why it means so much to me.  I shared it last year, but it is totally worth sharing again.

We “celebrated” this morning with pink donuts for my Valentine‘s.  Nerf footballs for the boys and a new stuffie for Emmy Lou.  Nothing for Dave or me.  We need our dishwasher repaired…along with a few other things in the house so that is our “gift” to each other.

The boys and I brought a donut treat to my dad while he’s at the rehab center.  Stayed with him for awhile after he got out of therapy and now, I am in for the rest of the day.  It is so cold here! I’d rather cozy up with a movie and not go outside again today if I don’t have to!

Happy Valentines Day!

Two Teenagers

Today is Drew’s birthday.  I am officially the mom of TWO teenagers now.  How is that possible?  I don’t feel old enough to have two teens in my house! We woke him with our traditional rendition of “Happy Birthday” the way my mom used to sing it to us.  Dave went and got him Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and he’s opened a few little presents.

He pulled out the advent calendar piece for the day….which was a yellow duck.  Drew doesn’t know it but Dave plans it that way so that when the duck appears, it is like a Happy Birthday message coming from my mom.

It is Friday, so he’s off to school in a few minutes, but tonight, he is bringing some friends to a New Jersey Devils game to celebrate turning 13.  He is so excited.  Last year, he went to a game with my dad the night before his birthday and wound up on The NHL Network! He finds himself on that jumbo tron all of the time…I wonder if it will happen again tonight?!?!

Happy Birthday Drew!! You give us so many reasons to smile 🙂

National Donut Day

This afternoon I read that it was “National Donut Day.”  Just another “National Something or other Day” I thought.  I even joked with Dave and the kids because we didn’t have a donut today to celebrate!  Doing a little more research into this though, I realized that Donut Day is not a new thing.  This year marks the 77th year of National Donut Day and there is a long history behind the day – or rather days because it turns out that sweet, round treat gets to be celebrated TWICE a year —  November 5 and the first Friday in June.

Started by The Salvation Army,

The idea for Donut Day began on the battlefields of France during World War I when Salvation Army workers served coffee and doughnuts to soldiers in the trenches. Rations were poor so the doughnut idea was conceived as a means of bringing the soldiers cheer. Doughnuts were not the reason Salvation Army workers were in the fighting zones of France. Those men and women were there primarily to give spiritual aid and comfort to the American soldier and his allies. They were there to be a link with home and family.

Though that world war has come and gone, Salvation Army workers continue to care for and comfort thousands of people each day who battle hunger around the world and here in the Chicagoland area. By supporting Donut Day, with a  donation or through volunteering, you help The Salvation Army keep its food pantries, meals on wheels, senior citizen feeding programs and childcare nutrition programs alive and well. If you can give a few dollars or a few hours of your time, you will help provide 1.5 million meals to the hungry in Chicagoland.

I figure that anything that gets the word out about hunger in America, has to be a good thing.  It does have me thinking about donuts though.  My favorite is Dunkin Donuts Chocolate Glazed.  NOT the frosted one.  Just the plain, chocolate cake donut.  I very rarely buy them because I cannot resist their temptation, but I indulge in one every Christmas morning when we gather at my dad’s house for Christmas breakfast. If ever Munchkins are brought to school and those tasty little chocolate ones are in the box, I have a very hard time saying no!!

Now I am reminiscing, but my favorite donuts ever were homemade ones that my Aunt Ellen made when I was younger.  I was visiting her in Alaska and she made them from scratch dipping them into sugar before serving them. We ate them warm.  I have never had one that tasted the same since!  If she lived closer, I am sure I’d beg her to make them for me more often.  Fortunately – she doesn’t live close enough for me to be tempted.  I will have to wait until she visits again to ask her!

Sun-shiney Birthday

Yesterday was DJ’s birthday.  After an emotional roller coaster of a day,  The rain had caused massive flooding around our area. Whenever we celebrate a family member’s birthday, they get to choose where they want to go for dinner and everyone goes without complaining!  He chose Buffalo Wild Wings.  The closest one to our home is about 30 minutes away.  We got in the car early, around 5:30.  We have to head out on Route 22 which, is a nightmare on a regular day, but with the rain, it was a mess.  There were streets flooded and lanes merging into one.  We got to a point that we were at a complete standstill.  For THREE AND A HALF HOURS!!!  We didn’t even move two miles.  There was no way to get off the road.  Nowhere to turn around.  I am not normally a claustrophobic person but it was terrible! Not only that, after an hour into the ride, I had to go to the bathroom.  So did Drew.  We finally got out of the car, while Dave and DJ sat in that mess.  We ran into a Dunkin Donuts that was on the side of the road and went to use the bathroom.  We came out and they hadn’t even moved a car length!  We were all getting snippy with one another and poor DJ wound up spending his birthday in the car.  When we finally got close to the area the restaurant was located in, the road was closed!!!  We could not even get there.  Instead we were detoured off the road onto another highway.

We got to a diner in our own town at 9:00 at night, grabbed a bowl of soup and headed home.  I felt badly about it all night.  He doesn’t like sweets at all, but I thought for sure we’d at least get to all sing to him in the restaurant to celebrate.  What a letdown.  His presents were going to be picked up on the way home.  He is umpiring for the local baseball teams and wanted his own equipment.  The plan was to get it on the way home since he needed to be there to try the stuff on and it was on the way home on Route 22.  So, he didn’t even get his gifts.  😦

Tonight, it is my birthday!!  My night to choose dinner. It wasn’t supposed to work out like this.  There were supposed to be soccer practices and baseball but due to all of yesterday’s rain, the fields are all flooded and therefore canceled.  Lucky for me!  The sun has been shining all day and it is nearly 80 degrees.  My mom and dad had always told me that it never rains on my birthday and I honestly can only remember it raining once in all of my 44 years!  I am sure there were other times, but statistically, there have been far more sunny days than not.  It was predicted rain all day, but I told everyone, nope.  It doesn’t rain on May 1st! Sure enough, it was a gorgeous day.

Even if it hadn’t been, my day would have been lovely.  My class and their parents went out of their way to make it special.  They brought me beautiful handmade cards, cupcakes, a gift certificate to take more classes at Viva Z, and a coffee mug that is signed by all of them.  Students dropped by all day long to wish me a happy day and our PE teacher and his last period class serenaded me from outside of my classroom windows with an awesome, “Happy Birthday.”

My amazing Kindergarten co-workers treated me to lunch and lemon bars for dessert and to wind up the school day, my dad and DJ came to school with donuts for all of us to celebrate.  It was a super, sweet, sugary, sun-shiney day.  I loved every minute of it and it isn’t even over yet!