1. Evolution & 2. Love

1. Evolution of the Valentine Monkey

A few weeks ago I stumbled across these cute little monkeys and decided they'd make simple, cute Valentines for Clara to give to her friends. I didn't exactly consider I'd be making 20+ so it took longer than expected. Plus, it took a few tries before they looked monkey-ish. I hadn't found my bumpy pipe cleaners at the time of my first attempt to construct the monkeys but figured it wouldn't matter. However, in the following photos, left to right, top to bottom, you can see how the monkey evolved here in the Penrod home. The first one I made looked like an Elmo/devil/monster. I thought, This guy needs something. I tried changing the eyes. But then he just looked like a space age Elmo/devil/monster. Then I realized the ears needed to be bigger and red to match the rest of him. That and the bumpy pipe cleaners helped, but it still wasn't exactly right. I changed the eyes because without the small, beady eyes, he looked less mouse-ish. The final product still didn't look like the ones online so I went back and realized I think the reason they looked so much like monkeys is because they are hanging by each other. So I tried it with mine and behold, the monkeys. Too bad we didn't have two to give to everyone...2. Love on Valentine's Day Eve

Let's be honest, Jason and I don't really date. Time, money, babysitter, exhaustion and laziness are factors. But last night we planned to go out to celebrate this day of love. The initial plan was to go somewhere fancy, but I thought it'd be more fun to have a simple dinner and then go shopping or just spend some time talking. Funny how when you're married you spend so much time together but there's never time to just sit and talk. We didn't have any exact plans as to what we were going to do, which made it a little more fun. We ended up going to Smeeks to get some little treats for Clara. While there, we got our photos in a photo booth. Can you believe Jason had never done that before? Then we ate at La Grande Orange. I had never been, but have been wanting to go and it all worked out perfect, actually. We were already in the area, we parked right away (tiny parking lot, so this was a major bonus) and they had food options that worked for both of us. See, Jason did not want to eat there considering their primary menu items (pizzas {he likes pizza, just not the "good" kind :)}, salads), but obliged to go since we were already nearby and he knew I wanted to eat there. Lucky him (and me, because then I didn't feel guilty for coercing him to eat there), their special last night was strip steak. The atmosphere made it easy to relax and have a nice visit about us, goals and dating. My food was great, his steak was delicious and very reasonably priced (especially considering the quality) and we both left fat and happy. Oh, and in love.Happy Valentine's Day.