Happy Belated Valentine's Day

Unfortunately, Levi had the stomach virus on Valentine's Day, so we had to celebrate Monday night, but it was just as special as if it had been on the actual holiday. Levi cooked up quite an adventure this year and I must say he's gotten really good at planning for special occasions in the last year or two. 

I had told him that this year instead of a gift, I wanted us to take pictures of different things that could look like letters (fences, trees, etc.) and spell our last name with them. I saw these done at An Affair of the Heart and they're really neat (but expensive!). Well, somehow Levi thought I meant different actual letters around town, so he planned the following surprise that turned out to be great.

Levi told me we'd be going to a different location to get each letter's picture and at each location, I would get something having to do with Valentine's Day. Here's where we went:

W - Betty Lou's FloWer Shop where he gave me a rose

I - MIchelangelo's where he was going to get me chocolates but I wanted chai :)

L - The Spirit Shop (the L is for liquor on their sign) where we got wine

K - HallmarK where he had me open the glovebox in the car to find a card

I - HastIngs where he got me a book for a gift 

N - Sweet Basil Thai CuisiNe for dinner

S - We went home where we watched one of my favorite movies MuSic and Lyrics (but took an S picture at Native Roots Market just because the one on their sign was cool)

I've got a keeper :)

Levi the EMSA EMT

It's official! Levi got a call from EMSA this last week and has decided to take their job offer. After months of waiting for something to happen, we're both excited and scared about this new chapter in life. Things are easy right now and it's hard to change. This new job will mean long hours for Levi and nights on end of us being apart. 

Even though the new job will be a tough transition, we both believe it truly is God's will for Levi to take it. The day he got the call from EMSA, the following verse came to his mind:

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. - Proverbs 15:22

He hadn't studied the verse lately, but we believe God put it in his mind to explain how He would make His will clear to us. For as Levi asked person after person their opinion on the job situation, each one said he should take the job (despite possible future opportunities with the Norman fire department).

So here we are in a somewhat unexpected whirlwind of transition. After months of false hopes about firefighting jobs, etc. we weren't expecting much to come of Levi's interview with EMSA. Nevertheless, we're excited to start this new chapter. Please continue to pray for us as we figure out how the new schedule (Levi working Thurs-Sun NIGHTS) will affect our lives. 

Surprise!

Last Friday was Levi's birthday and I planned a double-whammy surprise day for him. After work, we drove to Edmond where we met both of our families for dinner at Outback. He had requested Outback for dinner (but had forgotten) and he had no idea why were driving so far north for dinner. I'm sure he figured it out when we pulled into the Outback parking lot in Edmond, but he was still surprised. After dinner my parents presented him with a coconut cream pie (his favorite and also a request that he had forgotten).

When we left dinner, Levi thought the surprise was over. Actually, it was far from it. Lately, we had been talking about going to Maker's in Bricktown so on our way back to Norman I suggested we stop there to get drinks. Luckily, he was all for it. When we got there and had to walk past several empty tables to get to our waiting friends, he was really confused (again, he wasn't expecting another surprise). When we finally reached them, he was super surprised and ended up having an unexpectedly great night.

Overall, the surprise planning paid off and the day was a success. I finally feel redeemed after he found out about the surprise party I threw him in high school before it happened. Now what will I ever do next year?

Organizer's Heaven

I deserve a spot in Real Simple on the page about what new great uses there are for everyday household items. That's right, I had what I call a stroke of brilliance last week when I decided to use an acordian check file to organize my recipes.

You know how you get recipes from people that are just written on scraps of paper and then they end up in a pile or box of some kind in your kitchen? Well that was happening to me. I was actually keeping them in the pocket of a binder, but there was no way to organize them. To make matters worse, I had a stack of 11 Everyday with Rachael Ray magazines taking up more counter space. I kept these issues even though I didn't love all the recipes in every issue. With my growing collection of recipes, it was time for an organization intervention.

The acordian check file has turned out to be the perfect solution. I'm able to make each section a separate food category and just slide the paper scraps scrawled with recipes right in! Also, I spent an entire evening going through each Rachael Ray magazine and cutting out recipes I wanted to keep. I know that now that my system is in place, it will be easy to do this each month when the new issue comes in. And as a bonus, I've cleared up some counter space! To say the least, I am elated by this project: