Happy Valentine's Day !

We've had an interesting week.  I went to Bible Study Tues. morning and happened to sit by a woman looking for matchbooks she could decorate and put M & M's in for little Valentine gifts.  I told her I had a machine (the Big Shot) that cuts things like that out that you then just fold up.  I told her I could cut some out for her and get them to her.  She was thrilled.  After Bible Study, we talked more and I found out she LOVES to make cards - and other interesting things about her!  I think I've found a new friend!  She came over Wed. and we got her matchbooks made.

Yesterday and today Bill has had our tax appointment and his mom's in Algona - not fun.  We had snow this morning - 2-3" - then a sunny day at about 12 degrees. 

We usually don't go out for a Valentine's Day dinner due to the lack of nice restaurants around here (and sometimes the weather) so I picked up a couple of nice frozen lobster tails for tonight.   Having only boiled lobster tails maybe four times ever, I have to Google how long to cook them every time.  This time I found a great site and picked up some tips that really helped!

It said to salt the water (1 1/2 t. salt).  I don't think I had done that before.  The best tip was to put a wooden skewer through the tail before cooking to keep them from curling up.  That worked great!  It said to let them drain a minute in a colander.  Then I used kitchen scissors to cut the under side the whole length of the tail, took a fork and grabbed the meat at the tail end and pulled up.  The whole chunk then came out in one piece through the slit! Very nice!

Bill had a baked sweet potato with all the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon & melted marshmallows, and I had a baked potato.  Then I had looked up a copycat recipe for the cheddar cheese garlic biscuits like Red Lobster makes.  They were easy and not too bad.  

I had some red chargers for holiday meals so I got a couple of those out and used them with our white plates, lit the candles, turned on some nice music and we opened some Door County wine.  Very nice, relaxing dinner at home!  Hope yours, whether in or out, was too.   We realized this was our 10th Valentine's Day together already.  I said time flies!   (when you're having fun) 

Winter Continues

I had never heard of sun dogs until moving to Iowa.  With the super cold temps. this winter, I've seen a few.  Most of the time it's hard to take a good picture of them since they're usually not real close to the sun.  This week, they were especially pretty one night at sunset.  Not the best picture since I just took it from inside the house!

Yesterday the roads were good so we were able to go north to Blue Earth (MN) to watch our niece play basketball.   She usually does the tip off at the beginning of the game.  (below - Ryanne in the dark uniform #33)  Unfortunately, her team lost but it was fun getting to watch them play, and Ryanne does a good job!  Bill's mom went with us and brother-in-law Dave's dad and significant other came from Omaha to see the game so it was a nice size cheering section for Ryanne!   After the game, we all went out for supper before we headed home.  

Ryanne, #33

We got 1-2" of snow overnight and this morning.  It's 17 degrees now at 4:15  and the sun has been out, but going to be well below zero again the next couple of nights. 

 

Tahitian Dancers !

Back when I was 5 I think, my parents went to Hawaii for a Dairy Queen convention.  They brought back for me a little Hawaiian doll in a box and she was wearing a grass skirt.  They also had videos of the dancing at a luau they went to.   So when Bill and I went to Hawaii on our honeymoon, getting to finally see a luau in person was a highlight for me.  

The first night on board the Ocean Princess, still docked at Papeete, Tahiti, the local dancers put on a long show for us with several costume changes!  Loved it!   This one was inside on stage in the lounge.

At every island where we would get off the tender, there was always a little group playing local music and usually a couple of girls in costume dancing.

at the dock at one of the islands

One of the last nights on the ship, dancers from the island of Raiatea performed on the upper deck also changing costumes and there were even little ones dancing!  These Tahitian dances were my favorite part of the trip, along with the beautiful water and scenery!

This guy was very good, full of energy and always smiling so I wanted to have my picture taken with him.   See all the sweat?!

They sold these beautiful and fragrant (gardenias!) flower crowns before the show - for only $5!  Mom got a lei and I bought a crown (good for bad hair days!).

 

Flowers Everywhere Along With the Scent of Gardenias!

Flowers were everywhere in Tahiti.  Our tour buses were decorated with flowers, the glass bottom boats, the breakfast buffet, the hotel lobby counters, tables where they were selling jewelry, most women's hair and even a bathroom vanity in a hotel! 

glass bottom boat decorated with palm branches

our tour bus with flowers in front window

these were everywhere and given to us several times, they were a type of gardenia

Many times we were given a flower to wear behind our ear, and I was even given a flower crown on one of the islands.  The girl that gave it to me said she liked to give it to those who wouldn't be ashamed to wear them.  I liked to wear the flower crowns since my hair did not do well in the humidity!   And they smelled sooooo good!

she gave me a flower crown like the one she has on

So many flower pictures . . . had to pick just some of my favorites. And the best part was that if you wanted to buy flowers they were very inexpensive!!  Here, you can pay $10 per gardenia bloom (we did for my wedding bouquet) but in Tahiti, we bought a whole bunch for $8!!   Leis and flower crowns were only $5!

LOVED THIS in a bathroom in Bora Bora

Tahiti Cruise - Ocean Princess

This blog post shows you the cruise ship (Ocean Princess) we were on and our cabin.  I don't have any good close up pictures of the ship.  On most of the islands, we had to "park" out in deeper water and take the small tender boats to the islands.   Our cabin was on Deck 6 which is the same one that the you see the tenders hanging from in the second picture.

The rest are pictures of our cabin.  We had a balcony which was really nice.  Most days we would be coming in to a new island about the time we were getting up so it was nice to open up the sliding door and go in and out to see the new island and scenery as we were arriving while getting ready for the day.  Same way in the evenings, we left islands around 5:00 so we were leaving as we were getting ready for dinner.  Our seating was at 6:00. 

desk with mirror

balcony with 2 chairs & table

door to hallway with bathroom on right and closet, refrig., safe on left

Back to Beautiful Tahiti

It's just been super cold and windy here lately so not alot to blog about.  Thought I could go back to showing pictures of beautiful Tahiti until things warm up a little here!

I started going to our church's Bible Study on Tues. mornings and am enjoying that.  While I did that this morning, Bill and Tim met with a farm manager in Spencer re: cash rent for some of our fields for this next year.  Tonight Bill and other firemen went to Emmetsburg for more training.  Tomorrow Bill, Tim and a couple other guys are headed to Des Moines to the anuual Iowa Power Farming Show.  It's huge with 1840 booths on 7 acres (indoor).

Here are a few more pictures of the Intercontinental Hotel in Papeete, Tahiti where we stayed two nights before boarding the cruise ship.  Our room was very nice.

view from our balcony

 

the open lobby with chandeliers made of shells

 

the pool area

night view - so pretty