Free puppy!

Anybody want a cute, little (very destructive) mini Schnauzer puppy named Ziggy (Monster)?

But be warned, looks can be deceiving......

19 years and counting.....

Last Monday we celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. Our gift to each other? 19 blissful years of great memories.....okay, just kidding.....we actually purchased ourselves a new barbeque grill. I really think this is more of a gift to benefit me because I'm hoping my husband will now make more of the dinners around here. He said to me a couple of weeks ago, "Ya know, I really enjoy grilling, but I need a new grill." I'm so there, babe! For now, I'm going to let him think it's more for him.....but don't tell. He'll never know my real plan.


So.....because we got a grill, I wondered if Todd would still get me "a little something" for our special day. But first, here's a little background on us.....whenever it's somebody's birthday, or our anniversary, Valentines, Mother's/Father's Day, we are always very sneaky about how we give each other gifts. We rarely just say, "Here's your present, honey," and hand it to them. No, that is taboo around here. We like to "surprise" each other by having the person find it when we awaken in the morning. Of course, this morning was no different.

I had a card and a package of dark chocolate truffles waiting for him in his truck for when he went to work. Keep in mind, this is very easy for me to accomplish the night before, because he inevitably falls asleep most evenings slumped over in various positions around the house. :) (I might be in trouble for that one)....Oh well.....Anyway, like I said, I wondered if he'd leave something for me to find in the morning when I woke up.

When I got up on Monday morning, I wondered if he was still home. I quietly peeked in the kitchen and noticed him putting together my present. In true Jones fashion, I tiptoed to the bathroom and hurridly got in the shower, so he wouldn't know that I saw. Yeah, I know, it's a little pathetic, but it's how we do things around here. I guess I could have rushed into his arms, smothered him with kisses and thanked him for the lovely present, but that would just be weird and really, it would ruin the surpise that he so thoughtfully planned.

While I was in the shower, he left for work, and when I got out, I found this on the counter:



Aren't they beautiful? I'm not usually a "flower" kind-of-a-girl, but on this day, I loved every last one of them. And for some reason, I was very glad they weren't red. I absolutely loved the pink. They were different, ya know? And it's been a looooong time since I've received roses. So they were a pleasant surprise.


Todd called me an hour or so later so we could talk about our little "surprises" to each other. He told me he had wondered if I'd stuck his present in his backpack and he even looked there before he went to work. But it wasn't there. We've got to keep these places sneaky, ya know what I mean? Then he asked me if I saw him putting the roses out that morning. Darnit, I hate lying, so I had to say I did. He was still surprised that I saw and we laughed about how we never come face to face with these things. Just a funny little quirk about us, I guess.


Then I said, "The sentiment in the card looked a little rushed." ( and a little familiar). Apparently he had snuck in to grab one of the generic cards I had on hand in our closet. At least he knew where they were kept, right? He laughed and said, "Oh, you mean compared to your dazzling, homemade card." Of course that's what I meant.......

Please tell me you can tell the difference? :) But hey, I'm not complaining. What he said was sweet and I'll take it any day of the week (or once a year....whenever!) JK!

I tried to scan in a picture of our wedding announcement, but alas, I couldn't get it to work. So just picture us a little younger, our faces a little thinner, him with more hair, me with less wrinkles, me still short, and him still tall, and you'll get the idea of how we used to look. :)

Happy Anniversary, honey! I would be lost without you. I love you!

Brandon turns 13

Well, it's official. We now have 2 teenagers in the house! Brandon turned 13 years old yesterday! He is such a sweetie.



And here he is with his long-awaited present....an ipod. I don't even understand how to work these things....kids are definitely smarter than me these days.

And what birthday wouldn't be complete without cake and ice cream.....all chocolate of course, as per his request.

I even made him blow out his candles.....all 13 of them. And he got them all on the first try. :)

Happy Birthday Brandon! You are an amazing son and we're so glad you're a part of our family. WE LOVE YOU!

Jacob's Kindergarten Fieldtrip

Jacob had a fieldtrip last week to the Living Planet Aquarium. My mom and I decided to drive out and meet the class there. It was so fun and the kids were so cute. Jacob couldn't wait until the day arrived and the morning of the trip he woke up at 6:00 to make sure he wouldn't be late.

Here's a picture of a huge toad.....or frog......some amphibian of sorts......and it was trying to hide.

A few of his classmates....

A picture in front of the fish......

And here are the cool penguins......

I loved the stingrays......they were totally awesome.

More penguins......oh yeah, and "peace."

Hiding in a cave......

It was a really fun fieldtrip. I'm glad we went.

Basement Pics

We got our basement finished before Christmas. Well, at least the walls and carpet. We still haven't decorated much, but since then, we've completed all plugs and lights, which is so nice.


Here are a few before pictures.


Believe it or not, we actually had oak strips on our walls. Real oak. Ugly oak, but real. As you can see, it was supposed to be some sort of cool pattern......but we think it was really somebody's way of recycling the wood. "Hey, let's put these oak strips on the WALL.....just for fun." Very strange! But it was a great conversation piece. (Notice the cable strip; it was a nice touch and added quite a bit more for conversation's sake).

This is what it looked like after we started to remove the oak. They were glued and nailed to the wall underneath.

And here is what we discovered in one section. Yes, those are mirror strips. Another recycling project, do you think?

This is all the wood in our backyard, which will be recycled once again.....for firewood. It has sat all winter, unfortunately, so it's lost its pretty shine.... :) But once it gets chopped up, it will make for some warm fires.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of our back stairway. I don't know why I didn't take one. This is an old picture from a couple of years ago, when Jacob had fallen asleep on the bottom step. It's the only one I could find to show what it looked like. Sadly, it was actually worse than this. The bottom half was very ugly, brown paneling.....and the top half was a 70's style, swirled paint design. This picture just doesn't do justice, but hopefully you'll get an idea of it's grossness!

This is the brown paneling now stacked in our garage. Still very disgusting. It literally had scratches from top to bottom from some large-clawed creature that must have inhabited this house before us......

And here is our NEW back stairway. The hand railing isn't painted yet, but for now, I'm just glad it's up. Do you see our little Ziggy at the bottom peering up?

One corner is sort-of like the office part.....

There aren't any oak strips now.....Yipee!

So, like I said, it's not all decorated, but we love, love, love the coziness of this room now. It is perfect for our family and it was worth every penny! :)