Valentine's Day

I've been meaning to post about our Valentine's Day for a few days now, but the past week has been so exhausting and last Monday I started to get a sore throat.  So, here I am now, just posting about Valentine's Day!

Chad and I started a tradition to cook chicken and mushroom fettucine alfredo for our Valentine's meal and continued with that this year.  After our Valentine's weekend in Jackson, we decided that on actual Valentine's Day, we would stay in and continue this tradition and just enjoy being at home together.  When I got home from school Monday, Chad was still at work, but had come home on his lunch break (lucky!) and fixed our table for dinner, complete with flowers and candles!  It looked great!  He came home a little early (again, lucky!) and we decided that we would skip the gym today and just go for a walk outside because the weather was so beautiful, spring-like!  So, we went for a long walk then came back and began cooking our dinner.  We cooked the pasta, made the salad, and cooked French bread, using many of our serving pieces we received as wedding gifts.  We were so stuffed after dinner that we decided to open gifts.  Remember, Chad had already gotten two of his four gifts so he opened the last two after dinner.  I gave Chad Vineyard Vines shirts, a Vineyard Vines belt, and a book.  I bought him the wrong book though so we have to swap that!  Oops!  Even though Chad took me to Jackson shopping, where I found lots of spring clothes and gave me flowers, he still ordered me a pair of Tory Burch flip flops!  I was so excited!  Now, I just need a pedicure one day soon so I can start wearing them! 

We debated which movie to watch for a little bit.  We couldn't decide between You've Got Mail and The American President.  The American President won.  About halfway in, we decided it was time for our dessert, so we paused the movie and set up our ice cream sundae bar, complete with chocolate and caramel syrup, sprinkles for me and cherries for Chad.  We made delicious sundaes and ate them while we finished The American President.  It was fun and relaxing just to hang out at home and put everything else aside and just be together for Valentine's.

Valentine's Weekend

Happy Valentine's Day!

Isn't fun to celebrate holidays?!  I LOVE it!  Chad and I kicked off Valentine's weekend by heading to Jackson (MS) Friday when I got off work.  He planned the entire weekend for me, and let me tell you, he did GOOD!  He didn't tell me where we were going until early in the week and still didn't tell me all of the plans until later in the week.  We got to Jackson right at dinner time and went to dinner at Bonsai, a Japanese steakhouse.  Chad and I love hibachi grills so this was perfect.  Bonsai was awesome.  It had the same great food as a regular steakhouse, but you got TONS more food!  I think the rice amount was doubled and I got around 16 shrimp!  It was delicious.  I could not even come close to eating all of it.  It makes you feel guilty about leaving those delicious shrimp though, but Chad took one for the team and finished them off for me.  He left more rice than I did, which could be my favorite part of the entire meal.  After dinner, we did a little shopping.  The weather was great so we just parked and walked around the outdoor mall in Flowood.  We closed the mall and headed to our hotel for the night to rest up for Saturday.

Like I said earlier, Chad did good, so he left all of Saturday open for me to go shopping!  We got up and got going to be at stores really when they opened because there were so many places to go.  The weather was gorgeous so we parked once again, this time at the Renaissance at Colony Park, and walked around.  It was a perfect day to be outside walking around... and shopping!  I am already in spring mode, so finding spring clothes made my spring fever even higher.  We love Five Guys so we took a lunch break there, which had a line out the door by the time we left.  Everywhere was packed because the weather was just so great.  We spent the afternoon at the Renaissance before heading back to Flowood to finish our shopping and make a quick and painless stop at Marble Slab for some ice cream cones.  The ice cream was delicious, but who knew that only one person was working and it would take close to 40 minutes.  After finishing our ice cream cones and a little people watching, we headed back to Starkville. 

We finished our Valentine's weekend with a fashion show of my new clothes, popping some popcorn, and watching a movie.  Oh, and I forgot, Chad opened present 1 of his V-day presents!  He opened one Saturday, one today, and will open his last two presents tomorrow!  The good news is, as much fun as we already had celebrating, we still have VALENTINE'S DAY tomorrow!  This was just the beginning!  Stay tuned to read about our Valentine's Day!

Life As We Know It

Well, not too much is going on in the life of the Hammontrees down here in Starkville.  We are just staying in our routine and looking forward to warmer weather.  It's the time of year now, where I quit wearing coats thinking that will make the weather automatically warmer... it's a mind thing, right?! 

Our days pretty much follow suite every day, I get up early while Chad continues to sleep and then right before I leave, Chad gets up and makes my lunch for me.  Every day!  This is awesome.  I hate making my lunch and always have; I'm not sure why, it doesn't take much time and I pack the same thing every day... turkey sandwich on wheat bread, a pack of 100 calorie cookies and 100 calorie chips and water.  Never changes.  But, luckily for me, Chad does do this every day!  Today, there was a nice surprise in my lunchbox though!  Chad wrote me a note saying he loved me and hoped that I had a great day.  My students were quite impressed with this as I exclaimed happily and shared my surprise.  I try to tell the boys these things so maybe one day they will turn into gentlemen, along with chewing with their mouths closed, holding over their trays while they eat, not drinking all of their milk in one sip, etc.  This is what we call... Mrs. Hammontrees Etiquette lessons at lunch.  Who knows if they are really listening to me or not!  After school our routine continues.  I am usually home before Chad so I will start dinner and then clean, start laundry, or read for a few minutes until Chad gets home.  I don't really "sit" well, so I am always on the go doing something.  After dinner we just hang out and talk about our day, maybe watch an episode or four of The Office until time for the gym.  We love going to the gym together and try to every day with the exceptions of Wednesdays.  Wednesdays I don't get home until late and then it is almost time to leave for church so gym time does not really fit in then.

This weekend was wonderful!  I was out of school Friday due to weather so Chad and I slept in and made some heart healthy pancakes and boiled eggs for breakfast.  It was great!  The night before we had a feeling I would be out of school so we ran to Red Box and rented three movies just in case I was out Friday.  We watched one Thursday night and saved the other two for Friday.  After breakfast, we read for a little while and then watched a movie.  We went to the gym that afternoon and then came back to relax some more.  We ate lunch around 4 and then read for the afternoon before starting another movie Friday night and ate oatmeal around 8 for our dinner.  We had a very lazy and relaxing day and loved being able to go to the gym in the afternoon instead of at night.  Saturday, we slept in and then went to Tuscaloosa for the day.  We were in the mood for a little Chick Fil A, Outback, Target, TCBY, Barnes and Noble and much more so we headed out Saturday morning.  We spent the entire day in Tuscaloosa and had so much fun!  Chad and I love taking trips, even day trips, just to get out and about together.  Sunday, we got back in our routine and went to church, La Terraza for lunch and then spent the afternoon making football shaped sandwiches and cookies for the church Superbowl gathering after church.  We had a blast this weekend and are looking forward to our Valentine's Weekend Getaway this weekend!  Chad is planning it all so check back soon!

I am ready for spring so I thought if I posted a picture of us in West Palm Beach last spring, spring might hurry up and get here! :)  Isn't that how it works?