Happy Valentine's Day

     Lately Nursing school has been taking up more and more of my time, which means my amazing husband has found himself filling in my shoes more often than not.  He's been wonderful about it, and I've really been impressed with just how quickly he willingly took on my share of the load so that I could devote more time to my studies.  That being said, there's definitely been a huge learning curve, for both of us, and what would this blog be without a funny story or two (or more) of my sweet husband navigating his way through this new uncharted territory?
     Just about every pay day, y'all have read my stories of misadventures to the commissary, and you've heard (and ignored) my pleas to remind me to not bring my husband to the store with me in the future.  Well the other night, I decided to be smart and send my husband to the store by himself.  He asked me to go with him, but I declined because Monkey needed help finishing her homework, and I still had some homework of my own to take care of, so off he went to the store alone.  Five minutes after he left I got a phone call.  It was J, telling me that the commissary was closed (it was Monday, of course) and that he'd be headed to Walmart instead.  I thanked him for the head's up (as this would mean he'd be gone longer than expected) and hung up the phone.  About three minutes later my phone rang again.  It was J again, asking if Rouse's would be better than Walmart.  I told him it really didn't matter to me.  Rouse's is a tad more pricey, but it's locally-owned so I let him decide, and got off the phone in order to help Monkey with her homework.  Another 5 minutes went by and my phone rang yet again.  It was J.  He wanted to tell me he chose Rouse's and what would I like for dinner?  I told him I'd leave it up to him since he was cooking.  I told him I really needed to concentrate on my homework now that Monkey was finished with hers.  I reassured him that I trusted him to make these choices alone, and then I got off the phone.  Ten minutes later, it rang again.  Guess who?  J wanted to know if I wanted tacos for dinner.  He'd just grab some ground beef, since we had most of the other ingredients at home.  At this point I should have said "yes that's fine dear" and left it at that, but I was trying to finish up some stuff on my computer and I was not thinking clearly, so I said something bout having a burrito for lunch and not really wanting Mexican food again.  Then J started asking about various types of meat I may be interested in, and I lost my patience, asked him to figure it out, and got of the phone hastily.  At this point I realized I wouldn't get much studying accomplished, as Monkey was finished with her chores and getting bored, so as I got out the craft supplies, I called my sister because she had asked me to call her earlier that day.  As I'm filling her in on my husband's antics, I hear a beeping noise on the line.  J again!  I put my sister on hold only to have my husband ask me if I preferred flaky biscuits or the Grands.  Apparently he had settled on breakfast for dinner, and just wanted to hear my voice telling him that was a good idea.  I told him to stop calling me and just come home and start cooking.  I hung up, switched back to talking to my sister, and decided I would never send him to the store alone again.  That notion was only confirmed when 5 minutes later there was another beeping sound in my ear.  I didn't answer that time, and he finally stopped calling.  I think he missed me, because he came come with a King Cake and a bag of Hershey's Kisses with Almonds :-)
     As much as I pick on him, I am going to miss my husband this weekend.  He's going to his mom's so that Monkey can enjoy the Mardi Gras parades.  I stayed behind to study for my OB/Peds final exam.  The house is very quiet without them here.  Of course, this means my husband is getting out of Valentine's Day.  Somehow he manages to do that every year.  Oh well, it really isn't that important of a holiday in my opinion.  If it were my birthday or an anniversary, I may be more upset.  I was really more upset that I wouldn't be able to make special snacks and crafts with Monkey than anything else.  I did make up for that a bit, though, with these cute lunches and by helping her make some special goodies bags for her Valentine's Day party at school.

Heart Chef's Salad (Kinda)
 

     Okay this one didn't quite come out the way I wanted it, but it was still a yummy lunch, so I'm including it.  I laid out a couple of slices of ham, topped that with a layer of sliced Monterrey Jack cheese, and finished it off with a layer of salami.  I log-rolled the whole thing, and sliced it into little rounds.  I positioned two rounds each on a toothpick.  They were supposed to look like hearts when I did this, but I didn't quite get it to work at 0530.  Unless you turn your head and squint, that is.  I shrugged it off and placed the toothpicks on a bed of lettuce and spinach and added a few diced tomatoes and slivered almonds.  I included a bit of Italian dressing, some strawberries, a few Wheat Thins, and a NutriGrain bar.

Cupid's Lunchbox

     For this lunch, I simply cut two slices of bread and a couple slices of ham using a heart-shaped cookie cutter to form the sandwich.  I added a cheese stick with a sweet message written in permanent marker on the wrapper.  Next I threw in some celery sticks and a few crackers.  The final touch was a pair of Cupid's arrows that I made by threading blueberries, orange wedges, and strawberries onto a wooden kabob.

 DIY Lunchable: Valentine's Version

     I know I use this idea a ton, but it's just so versatile.  I cut two types of cheese (Colby Jack and Monterrey Jack) into heart shapes.  Next I cut turkey pepperoni slices into hearts.  I added a bit of blueberries and strawberries I had cut to look like hearts.  I also included some Ritz crackers (not pictured) for Monkey to make cracker sandwiches with.

DIY Mini Pizzas: Valentine's Version

     This is another one I've done before, but by cutting the pepperonis into heart shapes it makes it a special Valentine's lunch.  Included in this box was an English muffin cut in half, shredded Mozzarella cheese, turkey pepperonis cut into hearts, homemade pizza sauce, Wheat Thins, blueberries, and strawberry cut into hearts.

     I love making these special lunches for Monkey, and I hope one day she looks back fondly on the memories and sees that her Mommy just wanted to do something a little extra to make each day special for her.  Speaking of little somethings to make someone's day special, let me show you the little goodies she packed for her Valentine's Day party at school yesterday.

Aren't these goodie bags cute?

      First I found some cute goodie bags at Walmart.  Monkey picked out her favorite design.  We brought them home and filled them with the following goodies:

     First I printed off some hearts that said, "You are all 'write' Valentine!" on white card stock.  I let Monkey decorate the hearts while I punched two holes in the hearts to thread a cute Valentine's Day pencil through it.

     Next I printed off labels that said, "Your friendship blows me away, Valentine!" on white card stock.  I cut two slits in the label, and Monkey helped me thread Blow Pops through the labels.

   
     Then, I printed out these cute Valentine's Tic Tac Toe boards onto card stock, cut them out, and placed them inside snack-sized Ziplocs with ten Red Velvet M&Ms, five of each color.  Lastly, I added a label for each of her classmates to the outside of the bag.  You can skip this to make it easier on the teacher, but Monkey has a crush on one of the little boys in her class, so she wanted to make sure he got a specific bag.

     The baggies were fun to put together because Monkey was very involved, coloring, organizing, placing, and making sure each of her friends got a personal little Valentine from her.   The time we got to spend together making them almost make up for the fact that I won't get to spend time with her at the Mardi Gras parades....almost.    

Valentine in a Box

    I know it's a little early, but since J already got his package, I thought I'd share our Valentine's Day goodies we sent off.  I had a lot of fun putting this one together, and J seemed to enjoy digging into all the fun stuff inside.  First I got one of the large flat-rate boxes from the Post office, and then I decorated the inside by lining the box with some pretty scrapbook paper I found on sale at Walmart, like so:

  Next, along the flaps I wrote, "I have loved you 2,529 days".  I found a cool website that tells you the exact amount of days between one event and the next.  You can check that out here.  All I did was type in the day we started dating and the date I planned for him to see the box (Valentine's Day) and voila!

  Next I cut out little hearts and big hearts from construction paper, and I had Monkey decorate them with glitter glue.  On each one I wrote, "I love you like..." on the front and something super cheesy on the back.  Here's all the cheesiness laid out before I glued them front to back:

    Monkey and I had fun coming up with the different ways we love J.  Some examples were things like, "I love you like Sheldon Cooper loves his spot" or "I love you like Flash loves running", etc.  J's favorite was, "I love you like Gollum loves his precioussss", which reminds me of this awesomeness:

   Next, I began to add different treats with equally corny messages attached:

     Of course, I added the little message hearts that are a Valentine's Day staple.  And finally, what would a care package be without some homemade goodies?  I did a few pink cakes in jars, and I added some icing to the package.  I also found a recipe for plain biscotti, because they ship well, being a hard cookie, and J isn't one for super fancy, complicated recipes.  So I thought these biscotti would be the perfect fit.  Here's the recipe from Allrecipes.com:

Biscotti
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1 TBS baking powder
1 TBS anise extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, beat together oil, eggs, sugar, and anise extract until well blended.  Combine flour and baking powder.  Add to egg mixture, stirring to form a dough.  Divide dough in half.  Shape each piece into a roll until it's as long as your baking sheet (or close enough).  Place each onto a cookie sheet.  Press down to 1/2 inch thickness.

Bake 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.  Remove from baking sheet to cool on a wire rack.  Once cooled, slice each into 1/2 inch slices.  Place slices, cut side up back onto baking sheet.  Bake 6-10 minutes more on each side.  They should be slightly toasted.

Enjoy!

     I forgot to get a picture of the entire box once everything was in there all nice a cute, but J sent me one after he dug into it a little.

     I asked J to send a picture of himself with the box, so that Monkey could see he had gotten it.  He obliged with this:

 Monkey said he's guarding his box from anyone else who might want to eat his goodies.  I guess...

I Need Sleep

      I have thoroughly enjoyed the past few days.  I've been able to sit around the house with Monkey, playing games, dressing up, painting, coloring and overall just having fun with my little girl.  Because J's gone off training again, we've had a bunch of much needed Mommy-daughter time.  I have to share a few pictures I took this weekend of my little Monkey dressed up in my wedding dress.  These are a few of my favorites:

And my personal favorite:

   She told me that she was a princess and that the headband in her hair was, in fact, her crown.  She makes me smile :-)  I got this idea from Pinterest (of course).  The original "pinner" suggested displaying these photos at your daughter's wedding.  Let's just say that when I mentioned the idea to my husband, he didn't have the same heartwarming reaction I did.

J:  "She's not getting married!"
Me:  "So you want her to be alone for the rest of her life?  What if she finds someone who makes her happy?"
J:  *sigh* "Okay fine, but no military guys."
Me:  "You know little girls grow up wanting to marry their daddys, right?"
J:   "Crap."

   I considered telling him to get out while he still could, but I decided to let sleeping dogs lie.  Anywho, because we've been so crafty lately I decided it's time I take a minute to showcase what my MOnkey's been up to.  So get ready for some really lame pictures that I will probably pin to my own board and then stalk to see if they get any "re-pins".  (Don't judge me, I become an insomniac when J leaves, so I have time on my hands.)  So here are Monkey's Valentine's Day crafts, better late than never:

Valentine Butterfly

Kitty made from hearts.

Evil bunny made from four big hearts, and one small heart for the tail.

Happy Heart People

Flower made from nine "petal" hearts and two "leaf" hearts.

   I've also seen a ton of these cute paintings made from footprints and/or handprints floating around Pinterest, so here are a couple of ours:

Footprint fireman. Monkey had fun painting the "fire" around him.

Hand and feet tulips.

     So enough about what Monkey's been up to, it's my turn :-D  I recently discovered that I love Nutella, which of course, is a little late in being discovered, but never the less, I've been looking at different recipes I've seen with Nutella involved.  I've yet to make any of them, but I will.  Today I woke up energize, so I decided (in the spirit of Mardi Gras) to make a King Cake filled with Nutella.  Then the moment passed.  I got busy cleaning and playing with Monkey, so when she asked for cookies, I was no longer feeling the whole pulling out the flour and sugar and butter and eggs.  Luckily, my mother-in-law always brings me little things that I can use around the house like paper towels, laundry detergent, or Betty Crocker's sugar cookie mix, so I got a little creative and made these:

     What started out as a kind of Nutella sugar cookie, ended up as more of a Nutella Thumbprint cookie.  Whatever you call it, it was yummy, and easy!  All I did was follow the instructions for the sugar cookie mix, then added enough Nutella to make it that pretty shade of brown, or until it was sweet enough for my sweet tooth.  After scooping the batter out onto a greased baking pan, I made a well in the center with my thumb and added a scoop of Nutella to the middle before baking for about 10 minutes.  Monkey was eating them before they even had time to cool.  I finally had to move her little step stool to the opposite side of the kitchen.

  I'm sorry I've been a bit obnoxious with the pictures tonight.  I know it's a bit off my normal bit where I complain about my clueless, lovable husband and our misadventures together with Monkey, but what can I say?  My muse is out in the wilderness, preparing for battle.   Well, one thing's for certain, if he doesn't come home soon, I may end up doing something insomnia-induced that I may later regret.  Like adopting a new pet, or making a life-size model of Buzz Lightyear out of cardboard for Monkey's upcoming birthday party.  You know, whatever pops into my sleep-deprived mind.  Now I'm heading over to Pinterest to pin away ;-)