Wednesday, February 20, 2008 ;
6:27 AM
Feb 13
Wed
Had lunch with the ladies from church at the Hoovers'.
Brought kids to library in the morning first, then to the Hoovers'. She had lots of pink silver and red Hershey's Kisses decorating her table, and she made beautiful placemats for all of us (below).
If you enlarge the image and look closely, it says "Happy Valentine's Day" but the special thing is, she used the verse John 3:16, which is about God's love for us to make up the word VALENTINE in the center. I love it. So pretty, and so meaningful.
Nice chat with the ladies too. They talked about the storm that was going to be brewing in the afternoon.
True enough, just after I got home, a huge snow storm began. It was Wed and dh was due home early for Bible class, but he called and said he was still on the I-15 cos the stoem's just like a blizzard, poor visibility and huge gales of wind kept blowing his car off course.
And guess what? Bible class was yet again cancelled due to the storm. My doors and things in the backyard made lots of noise as they were swept and banged around. The screen doors especially disturbed my sleep. Although the front screen door had a latch and the back screen door had magnetised closure, both kept flapping open and shut due to the strong wind. I can also hear ds2's Little Tikes car having a life of its own in the backyard, crashing and moving into things.
(The next day, it was my turn to be blown about. Although it wasn't snowing when I went to pick ds1 up, my car kept being pushed to the other lane. Especially the parts of I-15 when it was just the mountains beside, my car wobbled shakily. And mine was the newer and bigger Corolla compared to dh's Paseo. I thought it wouldn't happen to me. So I had to drive slower too.
At one part when the whole car was blown and i had to turn my steering wheel lots, to bring it back into the correct lane, I was comtemplating rolling down all the windows to reduce air resistance. My whole top part of the car was shaky, left and right that kind of movement. Scary. I did keep the windows down, and it didn't wobble so much, but then the wind was strong, it was loud, and it blew a lot of dust into the car. Both ds complained loudly that they had to keep their papers and books down too, they were flying about.
So up the windows went again. And we just endured the wobbling till we got home. No wonder so many pple drive Hummers and Dodge trucks here. I noticed those huge jeeps and trucks do very well in ice, and strong wind.)
BACK to WED:
After the ladies' lunch, ds2 napped at home while ds1 and I got down to making valentines for his classmates. The teacher sent home a list of all the classmates' names (14), including those who attend Mon/Wed/Fri (ds1 attends Tues/Thu). Because they were having a V Day party on Thursday in school.
I printed a round earth with children of different ethnic groups and nationalilties holding hands, standing around the earth. That would be the cover. Ds1 helped to cut and address the cards to his friends. He also signed off his name and drew arrows for each card.
Below: on the inside of the card, I had the world map, and showed where we came from and where we are going to next, and also said "Friendship knows no boundaries" and basically, about how ds1 enjoys having friends from all over the world. That he'd miss them a lot when it's time to leave too.
Below left: for the teacher, we put homemade hot chocolate (recipe courtesy of Jennifer Crill) into a jar and ds1 decorated it with stickers, ribbon and a note telling her "You warm my heart".
Below right: a heart-shaped pearlised balloon for each friend.
Below: Nathan, one of the Hoovers, came over with a gift for both ds and valentine cards for them and even dh and I. So sweet.
The Elder also called me to say he left Valentines for the kids on my doorstep too. His wife got it for the kids. So lovely. It was so beautiful I had to take pics before I let the kids eat them. They're gingerbread chocolate houses (below).
Feb 14
Thurs
Valentine's Day party at school
They made a "post office" out of boxes. Very fun, you could open it and do stamping and be the mail carrier. (below left)
They also decorated their own mailboxes to receive their valentines. Each box had a slot for their valentines to be deposited in. (below right)
Below left: The party goodies and snacks. I didn't contribute this time. This is not my specialty, since in Spore the kids hardly celebrated it that much, it was the couples. So I learnt how the kids in schools celebrate it here. Apparently for every level, every class, each kid will make/ buy something for all her friends/ classmates.
What was ds2 doing? He didn't want to eat any yummy cookie, he was busy playing with all the blocks and animals with the other kids' siblings (below). :-)
Below left: all the valentines that ds1 received. He opened the box in the car.
Below right: the box he decorated. He's not very good at decorating is he? aiyoh. I tried to refrain from saying anything abt it.
What about my own Valentine? haha
I got this (below). A box of Krispy Kreme donuts. I love it, they're yummy. And dh said he got it free. Dory had got some free before (she's in UK) and I told her I had never had that chance! Apparently, dh drove through at the right time. He was about to pay for it when he was wished "Happy Valentine's Day" and he got it free.
The donut toppings even had heart shapes. hehe. Of course dh liked them himself. And ds too. So we all tucked into it after dinner and they were all gone. (Did I mention I put on 6 kg since I came here? Ya, thanks to all these, and Ben & Jerry's, Haagen Daz, all are a permanent fixture in my freezer now) :-(
We also agreed to celebrate it with the road trip we were taking in the weekend that followed. Not very romantic, but it was good family bonding time.
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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