Well on the official Valentine’s day I had planned to make dinner and give Dave his little gift.  After the night before I knew I couldn’t beat his meal, but it was fun anyway.  He played golf in the morning later that evening we a nice meal of French Onion Soup, Cornish Hens, Dave’s favorite twice baked potatoes and steamed broccoli.  I made some yummy peanut butter brownies for dessert.  I’m working on a post for these recipes so check back and hopefully I’ll have them added soon.

My table wasn’t nearly as pretty as his.

I made a little valentine for Dave.  See our photos for the book inside the box.  I also gave him a gift certificate for the first 3 months paid at Massage Envy.  He’s never been there but if the massages are decent it’s worth the membership so he can go often.  I’ll let you know what he thinks.

That’s all for now.  I’m off to Canton OH tomorrow and hopefully taking some of this sunshine with me.  Have a great week!

I had the most wonderful Valentine’s weekend.  Dave and I have been very out of sync since moving to Memphis.  His crazy schedule and my travel makes for limited the time together, much less romance.  Dave went above and beyond bringing it back on Friday.

I was sent off for a couple hours for a pedicure and shopping Friday evening.   I knew something was waiting at home but I didn’t know what.  I pulled into the garage to see a note on the door.  It read “After being pampered a bit, go to the place where Jack and Jill can get a little wet.  I hope you are ready for a little game and I hope you don’t find my rhymes too lame.”  I walked through the door to see…

He quickly stopped his chopping and joined me on my run around the house.  At each stop I was greeted by a sweet gift wrapped in pretty pink and another clue.  Each gift was preparing me for summer until I got to the end.

Side story…The second piece of jewlery Dave gave me was a ruby ring.  It is white gold with a ruby in the center surrounded by diamonds that he designed himself.  We were not engaged yet but were dating seriously.  He gave it to me and said that the ruby was my heart and the diamonds his hands.  He said that no matter what happened or where I was, this ring was to remind me that he would always be there to love me.  Kind of takes your breath away huh?  My valentine sparkle this year was to give me a set for my rubies. I couldn’t get any pictures of the beautiful gift that I liked so here are a couple I stole off line…

Yes he went to Jareds  

After my fun scavanger hunt I came back downstairs where I was treated to my new favorite drink, a raspberry martini à la David.  Look at him all sexy in that pink shirt adding the extra sweetness to my glass…yum sugar rimmed glasses!

He had pulled together many of things that have been our favorites or “our thing” over the past few years.  With this in mind, our appetizer was chips and dip reminisscent of our Ruby Tuesday dinners during school where this was a must at each visit.

I munched on these and sipped my yummy drink while Dave finished off our meal.  I was then escorted to the dining room that was set for 2 all in red and white.  He used a couple of things that we had in the house but most of it he had to buy to ensure he had the right colors all the way down to the red chargers!

I wish I had taken a close up of the unbelievable food!  Again these are all things that mean something to us…salad with my favorite sweet garlic vinegrette dressing, filets with a red wine mushroom peppercorn sauce (reminisscent of my favorite meal last time we were in Vegas at Mon Ami Gabi) topped with a slice of goat cheese; grilled BBQ shrimp skewers (like those I love at Shugs in Hartsville) and a soft warm salty baked potato to complete the steak house effect.  Honestly this meal was better than any I have had at a fancy steakhouse.  Unbelieveable and all made by my dear husband!

Finally dessert…He’s learned over the past few years that I have a sweet tooth and love them all but chocolate is my favorite.  So in honor of my indecisiveness and all those “I wish I could order them all” comments here’s what I was served…

Hot chocolate molten cake, berry tiramisu and chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  He added the ice cream and made fresh whipped cream himself along with making the plates pretty.  Needless to say we have leftovers in the fridge

His card made me cry and the night was so much fun.  It was all beautiful and delicious!  Now that he’s shown me he knows how to cook I don’t think he’s getting out of it Thankfully he really enjoys it so long as there’s a grill around.

I hope you’re Valentine’s Day  was as magical as mine.  I’ll post pictures tomorrow of my portion of our love filled weekend.

All my love,

2. I always follow recipes the first time. I like to know what it’s supposed to taste like before I attempt to be creative.

3. The Today Show is a must during my morning routine even if it’s only on in the background but I really don’t like the extra hour they’ve added.

4. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have roots.

5. I never eat popcorn without a side of chocolate (it kills the purpose of those 100 calorie bags).

6. I didn’t have pets growing up and now I can’t get enough of my puppies. People tell me their role will change when I have kids and I feel sad for them if that’s true.

7. When Dave’s not home and I can’t sleep I watch reruns of King of the Hill or teeny-bopper shows on the Disney channel.

8. My favorite season is fall but I dread the coming of a cold winter.

9. I love all holidays and tend to go a little overboard for them.

10. I want to cry over a place when I move because it means I’ve made good friends and have loved my time there.

11. Speaking of crying I need a good one now and then. You know that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Debra puts on a sad song and cries? I do that a few times a year but with a sad movie.
12. My favorite place on earth is east Tennessee. I feel myself relax just driving that way and I long to change planes when I see one leaving for the Tri-Cities airport.

13. I love just being with my husband more than anyone else no matter where we are.

14. I love to read and almost always have a book with me.

15. I hate bananas and coffee….I can’t even stand the smell of bananas and can taste even the slightest hint of either flavor.

16. I speak Spanish fairly fluently but my grammar is terrible. I wish I had someone to practice with all the time. It’s true that if you don’t use it you lose it.

17. It is a dream of mine to learn to fly. It freaks Dave out though so I’m trying to convince him that it’s safe enough and to think of all the fun places we could go!

18. When I’m in the car (as a passenger) for more than 30 minutes I can’t keep my eyes open. Poor Dave has had some long drives with no company.

19. I’m terrified of spiders and swear I have this odd 6th sense when one larger than a nickel is in the same room as me. I make Dave hunt it down and can’t think of anything else until I know it’s gone. But I also have this weird fascination with them when they’re contained even though they still give me the chills. This fear has increased since I saw a recent TV show about the brown recluse that lives in this area.

20. I LOVE sweet tea and love living in a place where I can get it anywhere!

21. I’ve never been able to stay mad over anything for very long and tend to be the one to give in just to make the peace.

22. My current favorite thing to procrastinate with is Photoshop and digital scrapping. I’ve updated my website too in the last month which is a miracle…then the battery died on my camera and I’ve lost my charger so my posts have dwindled again…I’ll work on that.

23. I dream just about every night and almost always remember them.

24. My mom is my best friend and I rarely go through a day without talking to her at least once. I wish we lived closer.

25. I am a procrastinator, which is why I’m writing this right now instead of tackling my to-do list.