Cafe de Valentine

summer to me brings happy thoughts. even if i do live where it will most definitely reach 110 degrees at some point in the next four months. i thought i would share my anticipation... warm summer nights a tan bbq's late daylight vacations (this years will be weekend trips, but still) lazy afternoons car washes star gazing sunshine yard work homemade ice cream baseball ry enjoys a late, cool night out back with our dog and a cigar. i enjoy a good magazine in the sunshine on a "cooler" day. each summer since we've been married we've taken a long summer vacation, the last two years to idaho. this year with ry being so new at his job he can't really take vacation yet. we look forward to maybe a long weekend trip to the beach or maybe camping up at the lake (yes i agreed to go CAMPING) my rule is there has to be some sort of hole to use as a toilet. girls dont squat. it ends up in our shoes. we hope ya'll are anticipating the season as much as we are. if you li

we've been up to a few things... some decor, some major structure... some just plain fun. we invested in a new kitchen table. we got a killer deal on it and we LOVE it. we can actually have more than four people sitting at the table now. the table will actually open bigger than that! we love the guy who we bought it from, he is local and he does bar stools and dining tables. "Lou Rodman's Barstools and Dining Tables" is the name of his place and we would HIGHLY recommend it if you're in the market for either of the above. tell him the valentine's sent you. a week or so again we had dinner/dessert/game time with some great friends and it was the first time we had visited their new home and ry & both commented on nicely it was decorated it. we both asked where they got a few cute decor items and they shared they came from DD's discounts. i had heard of the store (kind of a ross type place) but i had never been there and i had no clue they had such cute h

how do you handle hardship? how do you handle the news of hardship? i have realized that a lot of different people handle this differently. how should we handle it? is there a right and wrong? over the last few months i feel as though i've become aware of many heartaches around the world. some are close to me and some are completely unrelated. there was a week back in january (i had a post about it awhile back) where i was a little scared to answer the phone. i knew it wasn't going to be good news. i finally just got to the point where i would "grin and bare it". I've recently discovered that the blog world is often used for those going through "tough times" to update those around them with their status and ask for prayers and support. i have begun following MANY blogs of people are enduring great hardship. i feel like there are days when i finish making my blog rounds and i feel heavy hearted and rather "depressed". then i realize how thankful

so i haven't posted anything on here in over a month. it's not because we haven't done anything or that we've been so busy we didn't have time to write, it's just that nothing seemed interesting enough to make it on the blog. i feel like this blog has become all about what we're doing around the house, and i enjoy that because it's our big project for right now. however i'm not sure how much ya'll enjoy reading about the house. as far as the house goes, we are having the much awaited concrete done this week. i'm so ready for the yard to be "company ready". we have big plans for the summer BBQ's and such. my husband has spent the better part of every weekend in his yard. he loves to mow his lawn, plant more in the flowerbeds, decorate with bark and rocks. our yard really looks good. i'm proud of my hubby for the amount of time, energy, sweat, and blood that has gone into our yard and house. we had a busy last week. while the