Keep the home fires burning....



We finally have heat in our basement. We love it!
Now we have a warm place for our kids (or any other company) to stay.

A little cheesey???


It was our 4th anniversary. Gene and Suzy went with us to Paglaia's (pronounced paw-lee-ize, NOT pag-lee-ize)Pizza in Iowa City to celebrate. (It was delicious, by the way) This picture was Suzy's fun idea. Romantic, huh?





After we'd finished our pizza, I mentioned that ice cream sounded good. So Gene said we should go to Whitey's Ice Cream. Said we could walk because it was "only 4 blocks". Did I mention it was a frigid and windy night? Well, we walked 4 blocks and we still weren't there. Typical father fashion, he kept telling me, "it's only a little farther". Again...did I mention it was freezing cold? But....the ice cream was worth the cold walk. It was delicious. I had strawberry yogurt.



Suzy looking very cool, don't you think?




mmmmmm....yes, I ate the whole cupful






I set the camera on a shelf and got a group shot! Not bad.
We had great fun celebrating with Gene and Suzy.

Happy Feet!
Anyone who really knows me, knows that I really don't like to shop. But when I do go, it's always when the really big sales are on and I know I can find quality products for drastically reduced prices. So...I told Kevin I was going to Younkers while he works out on his trainer.
Well, about 3 hours later......


I came back with 7 pairs of shoes. They were 75% off original price...and they are all leather.
(Deb, see your photographs hanging on our wall? They look great! Thank you.)





And here are my new shoes. I finally found a red pair of shoes. All of the shoes are "squishy" inside and are so very comfortable. I'm convinced one should shop for shoes when one's feet are tired. While in the shoe department, I was wishing all of my daughters could have been with me. We would have had such fun!
(I did catch Kevin looking inside my closet and had a look on his face that said, "Where on earth is she going to put all these shoes? ")

We decided to go for a walk along Lake MacBride yesterday afternoon. Sun was shining and the temperature was decent (mid-thirties), and we had gotten 4 more inches of snow the night before.


Kevin leading the way. You can see the lake off to the left.





Junk in the trunk??? Seen along our way




We're heading down toward the lakeshore to look at fossils.





We found this poor guy in the rocks. He looks friendly enough, but he has such a stone face. I think his name is Peter, at least in Greek.


Here are some of the many fossils we saw....

Valentine's Day breakfast at the little French patisserie...(Trey and Kari gave us a gift certificate to Croissant Du Jour last Christmas....Thanks, Trey and Kari)

Our little table by a sunny window. This fruit pastry had a buttery crust with almond flavoring.

It was as delicious as it looks. (Britt, when your family comes this summer, we'd like to take you and Dan out for breakfast here. I know how much you love your French pastries.)

Oui, c'est moi. I am drinking coffee. This is the first cup of coffee I have ever ordered in my life. It was wonderful.

And here we are at our little table. Each table was set with a fresh red rose in a bud vase for Valentine's Day. We'll be back!

It was too nice outside on Sunday afternoon to stay inside, so we went for a walk on one of the trails along the river.

Kevin spotted 3 male bald eagles. We saw one dive for a fish and take it back up into the treetop to feast.




This is the price we paid for the luxury of watching the eagles.




There were a few ice jams. Pretty cool to look at.




I know many of you are probably tired of hearing about the flood, but every time we go for a walk, we see signs of the flood that are new to us. Look at the waterline on the pole. Kevin is 6 feet tall and that line is probably 12 feet off the ground. Notice the trail map on the wooden panel is mud-smeared.

Who's peeking in our kitchen window?


Early one morning, this doe was seen behind our back yard.



Yes...we're still holding to our Saturday morning tradition.

Our version of almond croissants is a favorite of ours. We take refrigerated crescent rolls, spread almond paste on them, roll them up and bake them. Then while still hot after removing them from the oven, drizzle icing on the "croissants", then sprinkle sliced almonds on top. Clementine in the side bowl, and Kevin's beloved French vanilla cappuccino.
We love our Saturday mornings together...we have our breakfast in bed, take as much time as we want to share conversation, have our reading and prayer time, then get up whenever we want to, to accomplish what needs to be done that day.




We just purchased a vent-free gas fireplace...we're very excited about it because we will finally have heat in our basement because it gets so cold. Kevin spent a long time trying to get the blower installed, then realized that the store sent us one that is not compatible with the insert we bought. Frustration seems to be the pattern when making purchases at home improvement stores. Just a delay we're dealing with now. But we hope to have it installed within the next week or two.

We could not go to France, so...
France was brought to us.
Our friends from France invited us to their home for French cuisine...real French cuisine. It was a wonderful dining experience, and a wonderful time with friends.


First, we were taken to the fireplace room for an aperitif (there should be an accent over the e in aperitif, but alas, I have no way to do that on my English keyboard). Stuffed endive leaves, grape tomatoes, pistachio nuts, pretzels, and champagne. While savoring this aperitif (French for appetizer), Sophie and Remi showed us a slideshow of their photos taken while they visited NY over Christmas.






Ines and Apolline also enjoyed the aperitif.




This sign greeted us as we walked into the dining room.




The table was set so elegantly. Sophie made each of us a single loaf of bread.




The cream of spinach soup. (I had dropped a few grains of rolled oats into my soup bowl, I see)




The next coarse was pork roast, stuffed with prunes and apples; and rice.




Doesn't that pork look delicious?




"Hmmm...what am I missing out on?"




Remi and Sophie explained the festival of the 3 kings. This is the almond pastry that Sophie made from scratch (it was fabulous!!!). She hid the little figurine of a king inside one of the slices of pastry after she cut it. She then brings the cut pastry back to the table and offers everyone a piece of their choice. (See the video below.)




Sophie found the king in her piece of almond pastry, so she was queen for the remainder of the evening.




Here she is offering the slices of pastry...no one knowing which piece holds the king figurine.
It was a fabulous evening...the food and the fellowship. Thank you (Merci), Sophie and Remi.