A Quarter of a Century!

I'm sure you've all been on pins and needles wondering what I did for my birthday. Well, let me tell you. The first thing that made my birthday such a fabulous day is that I didn't go to work. That would have been enough for me, but I also got to spend the whole day with my mom. We started the day off by going to the Draper Temple open house, hence the picture to the left (not a great representation of the temple since my mom said she was trying to get me rather than the temple . . . go figure!). It was a snowy and gloomy day and the gray temple doesn't look as beautiful as it could with green grass, bright flowers and a blue sky, but my mom and I wanted to document the event. Plus, I wanted Emily to know I wore her coat :)

It was so beautiful inside. This was my second time going through a temple during the open house; the first being Nauvoo. I can't believe all the specialized craftsmanship and detail. Hand-carved carpet? Amazing! I included two pictures of my favorite rooms in the temple that I got off KSL's website.

My (emily's) coat matches the fire hydrant! Yeah!

This is the baptistery. I love how the font stands alone in the middle of the room. I also love the fact that there are windows in this room. Most of the other temple's baptisteries that I've been to don't have any windows.

This is the brides' dressing room. I LOVE the carpet in this room. You can't really see it in this picture, but the wall sconces on the sides of the mirrors were absolutely incredible.

So after we saw the temple we went to The Gateway and had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. I got the Greek pizza. It was pretty good if you like feta cheese and Greek olives. Anthropologie was our last stop of the day, where my mom bought me a couple articles of clothing, including this great blouse below. It's really kind of a spring-like blouse so I may have to wait until I wear it. Anyway, it was a great birthday. I don't feel any different, but I did notice a couple of new wrinkles :(

Valentine's Day and an Anniversary

A date on Valentine's Day? Nope. It was girls night at my house. I had some friends and some friends of friends come over on Valentine's night. 10 girls, no boys! We had a great dinner, karaoke and dancing.



Melissa sent me a Valentine's Day email with these cute kids so of course I had to put them on my blog. I don't mind bragging that I have the cutest niece and nephew.




Yesterday was my grandparents 66th wedding anniversary. We all gathered at The Wellington, the assisted living place where they reside, and had another great dinner. The best part of the dinner were the deserts my mom made. She made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, chocolate covered Oreos, heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting (some were half-dipped in chocolate, yum!), and rice krispie treats drizzled with chocolate. Can you believe it though? 66 years! My grandpa is 93, but they may be able to make it to 70 years.


Well, as you can see, I had a great weekend. I think the best part was that Kate came home from school for a few days. It felt so natural when she was home; almost like she had never been gone. I miss her already, as I do all my siblings living away. It's great living at home because when anyone gets a break, they usually come home to visit so I get to see them. Anyway, tomorrow is my birthday. What am I doing? You'll just have to wait to find out!

Is this going on the fridge?

My brother, Jacob, emailed this to me. I usually don't propagate forwards, but I thought this was funny and think everyone will get a little laugh. I don't know if it's real, but let's pretend.

A first grade girl handed in the drawing below for a homework assignment. After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note from her mother to her teacher:

Dear Ms. Davis,
I want to be very clear on my child's illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This drawing is of me . . . selling a shovel.
Mrs. Harrington

The Month of Love

I love February! I always have. I don't really know why, but it probably has something to do with the fact that I love Valentine's Day. I just think there is something so nice about having a holiday that is associated with love and big red hearts, smack dab in the middle of winter. Love is always a worthy thing to celebrate and it doesn't even have to be romantic love. It can be any kind of love. When I was little I use to make handmade valentines for every single person in my class at school. I guess you could say that underneath the heart-shaped doilies, red construction paper and craft glitter, I was telling my classmates that I loved them. I am, of course, being a bit facetious.

Today, as a tribute to the first day of February, I wore red to church. A red turtleneck, a red and white striped skirt, and red shoes. I had a couple of people comment on my outfit and I told them that it was February, as if that explained everything. Red is a must in February. I've toned down my festive outfits since I was little though. Had I been 10-years-old, I would have been wearing this stellar outfit:


Check out those awesome leggings! I think I was wearing red converse shoes as well. Kate and my sweet Grandma Zurcher are in this picture with me. As you may have guessed, February holds a lot of wonderful memories for me and hopefully more to come! Happy February!