Another Valentine's Day...

So another Valentine's Day is just about over and done with :-)

DH actually gave me this lovely plant the day before my colonoscopy to cheer me up while I drank 'the evil brew'

This year, I took DH out for breakfast at our favourite local cafe. We breakfasted well; my Eggs Benedict was delicious as was DH's omelette. 

After breakfast I got a little Valentine's gift from DH...

I love fresh raspberries but at $7 per punnet, they are just an occasional treat...and I got 2 !

Naturally I wanted to sample those raspberries as soon as we got home...plus, blueberries, blackberries and a chopped up banana...yum!

My hair appointment yesterday had to be postponed when my hairdresser had a family emergency to attend to, so late this morning I headed off to my rescheduled appointment.  

Our next outing was at 5pm...my little great niece, Lucy, was celebrating her 5th birthday with a pizza dinner at a local cafe. This was the family party...I believe there will be a kids' party next weekend! 

There were 15 of us, so lots of people were left out of the photo! Lol.

Blowing out the 5 candles...

DH and I gave Lucy a musical jewellery box with the little ballerina who pirouettes around when the box is opened...and some 'diamond' jewels made just for little people. It was a great hit and I'm sure that the little ballerina is exhausted as she seem to dance constantly through out the evening! Lol 

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my last post. After an evening of drinking rather yucky stuff, the routine procedure next day was a 'cinch', lol. Everything was okay and my doc wrote in his report that '...this is a reassuring result for Maria.' And so the next one will also be in another 5 years...sweet! :-) Talking of sweet...

I rarely eat sugar these days but I must say that the lemon jelly that was allowed when on the clear fluids part of the preparation, certainly made drinking the yucky stuff, a lot easier. 

A bit of this and that...

In the last few days I have...
Been taken out to dinner by DH to my favourite local restaurant, Des Alpes, for Valentine's Day. This lovely little restaurant is owned by Monika and Nick who are originally from Switzerland and the food is absolutely delicious...always!

As we were leaving Des Alpes, we were given a flower for me and chocolates for DH :-)

Went to a Knit and Natter at Gabby's beautiful shop, Yarn Over on Saturday morning and then in the afternoon, DH and I travelled up to Pacific Paradise on the Sunshine Coast for my great niece Lucy's 4th birthday. The little party was in a small park just near my niece's home.

DD2 taking photos of the cake...

 Close up of the cake. Little Lucy asked for a Barbie Cake...(that girl, Barbie, just keeps going on and on doesn't she! lol)

My niece trying to light the candle with the strong breeze that was blowing...

The candle stayed lit for a few seconds...just enough time for Lucy to blow it out and 'make a wish'.

Then on Sunday, Lynda, Cheryl and I headed off to Ormeau (a township on the way to the Gold Coast) for the first get together of Sunday Stitchers, formerly known as Stitchers Inc. We are all bloggers and we all love to stitch! The Ormeau Community Centre is our new venue and it is a really lovely place...
Some of the ladies are doing a Paper Bag Quilt Swap and yesterday they did a Show and Tell session with their first rows...

 I've borrowed some of Maree's photos from the Sunday Stitchers Blog.

In the next photo Cheryl is holding up the border section of a quilt top that I see regularly as Cheryl has been steadily working on this quilt at our Sisters of stitch afternoons...

I'm knitting there in the background. Looking at the photo I realise that the colours in the knitting are similar to those in the blouse I'm wearing! 

Susan working on some stitching here...another lady who loves purple! lol

The group has decided to run a Birthday Fat Quarter Gift each meet up for members who have celebrated a birthday since the last meet up. It was Lynda's turn this time and we all brought in a fat quarter each for her...it was fun looking at all the different fabrics in her new stash...

It was a great day stitching, chatting, laughing and eating. We are all grateful for the organising that Maree has done on our behalf.

You just never know where love is 'lurking'...

One of the local radio stations is running a competition to coincide with Valentine's Day. People are asked to send in 'how they met' stories. Once I entered a similar competition, telling the story of how Mr Next Stage and I met. The company running the competition liked my story so invited us to 'tell our story' on A Current Affair. We were also offered a chance to feature in a Valentine's Day feature in the Courier Mail. The short story is that we declined both offers; the reason being that you just never know how the 'story' will go and we had to consider our families and their reactions.

But you've probably guessed that that introduction was all about that I'm ready to share our story here on the blog. It is 11 years ago now, this very month.

I know many people who talk very disparagingly about others finding partners on the internet...some people get quite heated when discussing this subject...but that's how we met. It was not a dating site I must point out.
One day DD2 suggested I join a site called Schoolfriends.com.au. I was not really interested but had a bit of a look at the site and found some  classmates and some former students who had registered with the site. Suddenly I was very interested and sent messages to these people. I had a wonderful time catching up with all these people. A few weeks later, I even found an 'old boyfriend' from school days. We sent so many emails in just a short space of time and we organised for a phone call. Hah hah...nup! that wasn't ever going to work! lol

A little while later I saw a familiar name on the site...would he remember me? I was 2 years younger than him in a school of over 900 students...When I was in Grade 6, I thought he was pretty special. Throwing caution to the wind, I decided to send him a message to say hello. After all we went to the same school, I taught 2 of his daughters when I was on a contract to their school, my DD1 went to high school with 2 of his daughters and finally, his cousin had been my friend for nearly 30 years. So our paths had wound around close to each other for a while. He didn't remember me but wrote back filling me in on what his daughters were doing then. He also said that he was single again, like so many people . Romance was the fartherest thing from my mind...but when he found out that I loved theatre, we'd found a common bond. He asked me out...

This is us at our school's 100 years celebratory dinner. Our music teacher is sitting behind me.

He took me to a performance at the  Arts Theatre and we talked in the courtyard before the show and then at intermission. He was so easy to talk to and with. The next time we went out it was my 'shout'. I initiated that outing because I found as the weeks went on since the theatre outing, that he was starting to intrigue me. We went to Earth and Sea restaurant...we talked and talked...we had so much in common...then we noticed we were the only ones in the restaurant and that the staff had been putting the chairs up on the tables... (I must add that on a Sunday night this place is closed by 9.30 at the latest, so it wasn't that late! lol)

Not long after we met, I went along to a family celebration for the  DH's brother when he turned 55.  He's the one in the middle. This was the first time I'd met his family. My future SIL, Mary, in red, 'told me to run while I still had the chance'...I think she was joking! 

Yep! Something had happened that night... and the rest is history. This history included challenges caused by children and various insecurities...but we faced all that together. We met in the February and later in the year, my new special friend went to PNG for a tour of duty. I house sat for him, taking care of the pets, the house, day to day issues with children etc...and when he came home...DD2 and I stayed. I'm still here! lol

When the future DH came home from PNG, I arranged for a former colleague, Kevin, to take me out to the airport in his beautifully restored 1929 Buick and back home again of course...it was quite a surprise for the  DH!

 DH loved my nephews as much as I did...when possible, he would watch them play football.

 When I first met him, he would not miss golf on Sunday for anything...and I accepted that and just did what I wanted to do. But then, the odd Sunday he didn't play but instead joined in what I was doing either on my own or with the girls...
That's why one Sunday before he went to PNG, he went up to Warwick with DD2 and I for a baptism. DD2 was the godmother for her friend's baby.

 Yep! I reckoned he was (and is!) the one.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!