Award Night

I am a little behind with this post but it was a great night that I think Jason would like to be able to remember. A couple of Saturdays ago, Northwestern Mutual had a recognition dinner at the Glen Oaks Golf and Country Club. That day for me started out pretty good. I got to go out and get a new dress, get my nails done and get my hair done.
That night was all about J. We got to mingle with all of his coworkers and their wives, eat some amazing food, and participate in an award ceremony. Jason was recognized for his drive and his willingness to take risks and do what is necessary to grow his business including hiring his first full time staff person. He was also recognized for taking an effort to stay educated. By October this year he should have his CLU (Certified Life Underwriter) and CFC (Certified Financial Consultant) designations. This not only looks good on the business card but it is good for his clients for him to know more. Each designation is like it's own masters program.
Going made me feel a lot more confident about Jason's work as we go through this rough economic time. Despite the squeeze on the economy Northwestern Mutual reps are doing well because they are standing behind a great company. The company only invested .2% of it's money in real estate. So despite the fall they were still able to announce a 6% dividend to be given to the policy holders.
The whole night was mostly just fun. Dressing up, eating food with fun people, and listening to someone talk up your husband is a pretty good time.
Again, another thanks to Jenny for watching the kids for the night.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year just might have been the best Valentine's Day yet! I had a great time making Valentine's bags for Jason, Charly, Carter and Jenny. We absolutely were adding Jason's sister Jenny to our Valentine's Day because she has been so awesome with coming over and watching the kids so that we could go out. None of our day would have been possible without her. She even took care of a sick Charly and folded my mountain of laundry. Who could ask for a better sister-in-law?
Our day started with Jason and Jenny heading downtown to run the YMCA's red flannel race. This was pretty exciting because we got 7 inches of snow yesterday and the 5 miles was really cold. While they ran I stayed at home and made the house and the kids all clean and also whipped up our tradtional Valentines Day fruit pizza. I made one for Jason when we were dating and it has been an essential part of Valentine's Day ever since. Everyone dug in before I got a good picture of it but it did say I LUV YOU.After they got home we were just kind of lazy around the house. Taking care of Charly as her fever got progressively worse. At about 1:00 I got a delivery. I have to say that they are just about the prettiest roses ever! About that time Jenny got a delivery too (from her awesome brother Jason) with roses and lilys.Then, Jason took me out to dinner at Flemmings where he had gotten reservations. Needless to say we definitely went way over on our budget. Flemmings has to be one of the most expensive places to eat here in Des Moines. It was really good food and we didn't even eat half of it. They messed up our order at first and they ended up giving us a $25 gift certificate. For Valentine's Day they also were giving all of the ladies a red rose which we took home to our sick little girl. She really didn't get to appreciate it until this morning when she was feeling better but I think she felt special to have her own flower.
After dinner Jason and I just walked around the incredibly busy mall where we stood in a very long line at Cold Stone. It wasn't too bad though because it ended up that our good friends the Summers were standing right behind us in line and we had a good time talking a laughing with them. We didn't make the line any better though because Jason decided we would just use the whole $15 gift card that we got at Christmas to buy 2 quart size ice creams which we took home to everyone. It turned out to be good though because we had a treat to give the missionaries who came over to help Jason give Charly a blessing so that she would feel better. When we got home she looked aweful and her fever that had to be well over 103. Needless to say the day was great and Jason will be staying home with the kids today instead of going to church. But I do think that Charly is doing better this morning.

Spaghetti Time

Now is there a rule in the kid rule book that says that you must wear your spaghetti? Well, the last time we had spaghetti for dinner Carter decided that just wearing the noodles was not quite fun enough. He had to wear the bowl too.
You know how there are moments in every mother's day where you can either laugh or scream. This was definitely one of those moments. Luckily for Carter I was having a good day and Jason and I were laughing hysterically.