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- Well – welcome to February in south western Pennsylvania (I initially wrote January – what month is it again?!) We have officially experienced every season this week: we had a super windy day (spring), a super sunny, warm day (summer), a super rainy day (fall), and a snowy day (winter). Wednesday, it was 70º and sunny – my children kept asking when we could get the pool or sprinkler out.
And then it snowed 48 hours later.
We soaked up every single moment of that 70º day that we could though! We spent pretty much the entire day outside – eating lunch outside, doing some school outside, playing with the stomp-rockets that Braelynn got for her birthday – it was the most amazing, wonderful day. And it got us all super hyped for spring and summer to arrive. (It IS still February – I have to keep reminding myself of that.)
But, spring seems officially within reach! And we are READY for it! - This week seemed the perfect time to take our annual swingset photo though (which, go figure, I always seem to take this time of year – why not in the summer? I have no idea). So, if you’d like to go back & see past versions of this same photo, you can do that here: #391, #336, #281.
- Braelynn and Leander have still been fighting off the colds and coughs they picked up last week, this week, so getting outside was truly the highlight of our week.
- Oh, and I guess Valentine’s Day was this week! I had gotten a bunch of heart-shaped balloons that I blew up and laid out for the kids to find Tuesday morning. They officially got showered with gifts (I don’t remember ever really getting “gifts” for Valentine’s Day! Maybe something small from my Grandparents, but that was it!) I gave them each a small gift, Derrick’s parents had sent gifts home with us from the last time we were there, my Mom stopped over and gave them gifts – needless to say, they got a bit spoiled!
We celebrated Tuesday night with a fancy, candle-lit dinner – steak, lobster, shrimp, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. I made a chocolate cheesecake for dessert and Derrick declared it the BEST dessert I’ve ever made. We’ve slowly been eating it all week and he admitted that he has found himself day-dreaming about it at work during the day. And now that I’ve really got your interest piqued, the recipe is here! - SPEAKING OF DERRICK (duh) I’m officially (finally) allowed to say that he has accepted a (pretty big) promotion at work!! It’s been in the works for a few weeks, but he signed paperwork on it this week – so it’s official!
Derrick has worked at Shred-It ever since we moved into the Pittsburgh area (right before Braelynn was born – so 8+ years ago). He started out as a driver, then advanced into the office where he took the position of “dispatcher”. And now, he will be moving on again to become the “Dispatch Supervisor” for the entire district! In other words, he’ll in charge of all of the dispatchers across the area (from West Virginia up to New York). It’s a really HUGE promotion and he’s SO excited! We all are! - We bought a new stand-up freezer this week – because we needed somewhere to store a quarter cow that we bought! Someone Derrick was working with was buying part of a cow, and it was a really good deal – so we jumped on it too. We now have a big freezer in our basement – full to the brim with steaks, ground beef, and roasts!
- We’re still adjusting to having our dining room back – we keep finding ourselves walking into the living room to get something out of the china cupboard or look for school stuff. It’s crazy how our minds so quickly adjusted to things being moved around! We are LOVING our new dining room though (and have worked little by little all week to adjust things around and make them work for us) and I am LOVING my new office space! We moved a lot of stuff around last weekend and this week and so far, it has all been AMAZING.
- Last week I posted my favorite roller coaster images and my favorite portraits from 2022 on my blog – this week (in honor of Valentine’s Day), I posted my favorite engagement/elopement images and my favorite wedding images to my blog! Those posts are always SO MUCH WORK to put together, but I love going back and re-living all the memories of the incredible year I’ve had!
I’ve also been hard at work all week designing our family yearbook (another massive task that I undertake each year). I’m a bit behind on it this year, but I’m still determined to keep going! I knew that 2022 was going to be a challenging year to put together – mostly because I have an EXORBITANT amount of images I want to include – but I’m up to October! So, fingers crossed, I’ll have the initial design done by the end of this weekend (then I just have to double-check everything, process everything, format it correctly, design the cover, and then WAIT for a good sale to come along! Our family yearbooks are MASSIVE and if I paid regular price would be over $500 – the company I order from does 40% sales about once a quarter though, so I just wait for that sale to roll around to actually get it ordered!) So, fingers crossed, our yearbook will be ready to order by the end of next week & I haven’t seen a big sale come through since before Christmas, so it should be coming soon!!
