Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, late! We had a very exciting weekend. We went to Johnson City to spend it with Cathie and Brian. Saturday we went to the Fossil Site in Gray, TN. It is so neat! We all really enjoyed it, if you get a chance to go, it is worth it. The museum was much better than I thought it would be. It had some good hands-on stuff that Billie especially enjoyed. In the summer they actually "dig" so it might be a little more fun to go then when you might see them in action. Although it seems to be a very pain-staking slow process, so I don't know how much action you can see while observing paleontologists digging. But, nonetheless, it was great and worthwhile.
Saturday night we went to what Billie called "The Valentine's Ball." It was a wonderful dinner at Cathie and Brian's church. We had a wonderful meal and got to visit with church members that Matt has known since he was little. We all got dressed up and it felt special. Billie did have a "ball" and she said it was the best night of her life when we were leaving. We were worried she might have found it not as "ball-like" as she thought it was going to be, but evidently it was close to what she had anticipated.
On Sunday we went to church and shared pictures of the boys with their Sunday School class, which is always so fun for us. We got a nice message both in church and in Sunday School, too, so we got a lot out of the morning! We went to Abingdon, VA in the afternoon and got to walk through the Martha Washington Inn, which is an old mansion/hotel that Martha Washington actually stayed at. It was used as a Womens College at one time, too. After that we went to The Barter Theatre and we saw the musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." It was so good! We all absolutely loved it, especially Billie. I can't even tell you how well done the entire thing was. Billie had a lot of fun with some of the actors, one in particular, that were mingling in the audience before the performance started. They were mimes, really, and very good entertainers. Before the second Act began, they came out with Egyptian-like costumes and Billie and one of the actors did and Egyptian dance together. Billie just thought that was wonderful and when the curtain call came, she waved specifically to the young woman that she had danced with and was tickled pink when she waved back to her. Afterwards, we went down to the stage to say hello, but her "girl in pink" had already left the stage. She got big tears in her eyes and almost lost it, she was very tired, but managed to keep in control of herself. She was very disappointed she didn't get to talk to her favorite actor, and did not have any interest at all in the two stars of the show that were directly in front of her and more than willing to talk to her. I hope she didn't hurt their feelings! She was pitiful. The drive back to Johnson City she was so tired and fighting sleep so hard she about drove all of us grown-ups crazy! She was just jabbering and making noise only to keep herself from falling asleep. We all expected her to drop at any second, but she didn't. We had a wonderful dinner that Cathie made for us of lasagna and salad and fresh homemade bread and after dinner we headed back home to Knoxville. We had such a good weekend, but we were pretty tired once we got home. Billie was out of school today for Presidents day and managed to sleep in until 9 this morning, which is very unusual for her. She was exhausted, obviously.
Matt treated us to a night of Fondue to celebrate Valentine's Day on Thursday. We celebrated early since we had weekend plans. He got fresh strawberries, pineapple, pears, oranges and bananas and made a creamy dark chocolate for dipping. It was so good and fun! Billie had fun telling her friends at school about it the next day.
Friday we had a special treat, our friend (and Billie's soccer coach), Laura, took us to a movie. We let Billie go to my moms house for the evening and we saw "Taken." It was so good. I guess it scared Matt, though, because before bed that night he double checked the locks on all the doors! He never does that! HEHE It was sweet, he didn't want any one coming in and getting his two girls. Too cute. The movie was scary, but it had a good ending. Any teenage girl or young woman needs to see it.
So today I have been putting the finishing touches on my paper for Life Span Nutrition that is due tomorrow and Matt has been learning a new update to a program that he uses for work. Billie cleaned her room and now is watching "Little Women." We are making today productive since we played all weekend long! I think that catches you up, since it has been two weeks since my last blog! I am sorry for that, but with school it is hard to find the time to blog. Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day and have a wonderful week!