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Valentine Wishes

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! It was a busy one here at the Shields household! I spent almost all day cooking for the first Valentine's Day being married. This is the kitchen as I was finishing up said cooking (lucky for you, you can't see the full pile of dirty dishes in the sink):

And pictures of the cake I so lovingly slaved over for my sweetheart! The first pic is the bottom layer, (the strawberry glaze is between the layers). The second pic is [obviously] of the finished cake.

And this is MY cake!!! (I was warned about Scott's cake baking abilities, so I took it upon myself to bake one.)

These were brought to me by my hubby!

This is the meal that I slaved over for hours!!!!

And finally, this would be what we DIDN'T get:

:o(

This is where we spent our morning; at the car dealership trying to figure out a way to get this car! Well, it's more like we didn't want to find a way to afford it. The Northwest wrestling coach is looking at the car too. We're really hoping he'll buy it so that we can stop beating ourselves up over it. It's exactly what we want, the dealer made his first offer within a couple hundred dollars of where we wanted to be, and we know that it was very well taken care of by the previous owner. But the fiscally responsible one in the family (that would be Scott) concluded that we just shouldn't do it. Now if any of you want to chip in to our car fund, please let us know and we'll tell you where to mail the check! :o) :o) Either way, that's one Valentine's wish that didn't come true…

Ah well, the rest of the day more than made up for it!

I hope you all had a great day!

P.S. Please keep the victims (and their families) of Northern Illinois Univ. in your thoughts. Why this happens I don't know, but it's a real pity that people think they need to hurt others in an attempt to help themselves.

UPDATE!!!

I worked today! 'enough said! :o)

Seriously, we haven't updated the blog because there's nothing new to tell. A couple of weeks ago we went to St. Louis. We visited the Science Center, Imos, and took in a Blues game (they lost).
Thank you to the Bolton's for letting us crash at your house. And another thank you to Brett and Lori for allowing us to crash your weekend with family! [Brett-it was great to meet your parents! Now I know where the humor comes from!!!!]

Then we drove back through a horrendous snow, sleet, ice, freezing rain, snow pellet storm. That evening we hosted a Superbowl party! It was great fun, and even greater food, had by all!!! (Mmmmm... Puppy Chow!)
And for those of you that haven't heard-the Giants won. :o) [The camel knew!]

According to a top-secret source in Mexico (Jerry), First National Bank was robbed a couple of weeks ago; it apparently made page 3 news. I guess that just shows how slow the economy is: when a bank robbery doesn't net enough cash to be front page news!!!!

Finally, to the "angry ucm student"; what exactly does an Industrial/Organizational Psychiatrist do anyway? Explain to the factory's paperwork that it should feel validated by being filed???

I guess I should finish by saying that "no news is good news"?? Believe me, when something interesting happens we'll let you know! For now; stay safe, stay warm, and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!