In with the Cool Kids

Probably the highlight of the last couple weeks has been feasting on our newly purchased Dino Buddies.  Apart from that, we had Valentines Day and I got accepted to both of the CSU schools I applied to.  Merilee has been baking some delicious stuff too.  I try but fail in my effort to not eat any of it.  Actually, I don't really try that hard.

So for Valentines Day I didn't buy Merilee anything.  It was our first Valentines Day together (last year we were broken up) and I didn't really know what to expect.  I've never had a significant other around this time and I didn't feel like doing the whole "buy a box of chocolates, flowers, teddy bear, balloons, and a fancy dinner" sort of thing.  It's nice and all, but it's expensive.  I told Merilee that I liked what my sister-in-law Melanie does.  On the 15th she buys discounted Valentines Day stuff (like plates etc.), and on the next family dinner they have, they do a "we love our family" sort of celebration without having to pay retail.  I like that idea for when we have kids. 

So I decided to make a box of chocolates for Merilee.  I've made fancy things out of cardboard before for class projects, so why not a box?  We had a recipe for turtles in our cookbook, so I could make those too (they're her favorite).  I also got little wrapper things for them to make them real fancy.  I probably would have broken down and bought some flowers or picked some if we didn't already have some from the week before when she passed her tests for her CDL.

So the week of, I didn't have any time to make the box because of my big homework load, which meant I only had Friday to do it.  I was even then limited on time after working out and doing some home teaching.  So, it didn't turn out exactly as I had imagined it, but it worked.  Maybe I can make her a better one next year.

The chocolates didn't end up exactly as I had hoped, at least initially.  There was a typo in the recipe.  It called for two tablespoons, instead of two cups, of half and half.  So in the picture you can see the fist sized candies that resulted from the chocolate not being completely liquified (I didn't want to burn it by increasing the heat so it just stayed clumpy).  When she got home and I gave her the box, we ate one then decided to try breaking them and melting the chocolate down again with more half and half.  The result wasn't photographed but let's just say that it worked a lot better.

That week I heard back from San Jose about my admission status.  I wasn't expecting to hear back from anywhere until April, so I was pretty surprised and excited because that meant that I might not have to wait to hear back from my other schools too.  Merilee didn't want me to get my hopes up because she thought I would stress more about it.  I didn't go around announcing my acceptance to the world because it's my back-up school and I pretty much knew I was admitted before I did the application.

The real excitement happened two days ago when I got an email from Cal Poly about my acceptance there.  I got in to my top school and didn't have to wait until April to find out!  Now everyone is sad because Merilee is moving away, but whatever.  She's mine people!  See this face?  All mine.

So things are wonderful and exciting here at our house.  We're enjoying our time alone together before we start making babies.  I'm very much looking forward to the new adventures that are in store for us in San Luis Obispo.  I'm so grateful for all the blessings we have, and for all those that have supported me and Merilee get to where we are today!  We'll miss you (but not until August), but hope you'll visit!