Happy birthday!

My wonderful hubs turned 29 yesterday, and we spent the day snowed in. I have several pictures, but I've misplaced my camera cord. I'll add them when I find it.

We had big plans for the day-a trip to Chapel Hill and a evening full of friends and birthday cake. I was so very disappointed when I found out that snow was in the forecast. I really wanted his day to be special, and we were looking forward to seeing our friends.

But we went for a walk Friday night as the snow began to fall, which was just lovely and peaceful. It was really nice to be able to relax yesterday as I just finished report cards this week. I was thoroughly exhausted, and Joel probably slept a total of 20 hours the entire week. I can't even describe how wonderful the hot cocoa was after our hour long walk in the morning, and my afternoon nap on the couch was pure bliss.

I baked him a birthday cake with homemade buttercream icing. It fell apart when I took it out of the pan, but he didn't mind. We had beef stew and biscuits and watched lots of TV. I gave him a video game earlier in the week, but yesterday I gave him some HOT running shoes, and some new legal pads (he does not enjoy writing in a journal) and his favorite pens. He went for a long walk at night while I had some time to journal and read my new book:

While yesterday was relaxing, today has the makings of extreme productivity. Joel was really upset yesterday about not being able to go to the gym, so today he walked partway there until a friend could pick him up on a road that's been cleared. I tried to give him some advice on dealing with not going to the gym daily, but he wasn't really interested. I mean, once you have a couple of days without the gym, it's easy to go entire weeks without seeing a treadmill! It just takes practice.

Anyway, his dedication to the health has given me lots of free time to get little things done that otherwise would have been neglected. It's amazing how "quality time" (read: Lilly's Pizza dinners and DVDs of The Closer,) always wins out over cleaning out the fridge, reorganizing the cabinets, and dusting.

Schools are closed tomorrow, and I have dreams of making curtains like this for my classroom:

Maybe I'll go for another snowy walk. Or start a novel. Or try to make edible bread (so far, I've been unsuccessful).

I love days off.