Will you be my Valentine?

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I won't yet reveal what I got my sweetie, since he doesn't know yet. We're going to try for Indian food this evening, our favorite! I say "try" because of our difficulty one year of being able to get into a restaurant, ANY restaurant, so we had to settle for waiting in a long line at a Souplantation (which is fine, you know, we love souplantation, it's just a very ordinary every day kind of place that we frequent A LOT. Like yesterday.)

What I was struck with this morning was the excitement on all the children's faces over valentine's. They were clutching their bag full of little valentine cards and little valentine candies. I remember being that small and being so excited for Valentine's day. I always remember how my parents tried to make it special for us kids too, with a card and candy or a gift. How I always loved that. So I tried to make it special for Rachel also, I got her a heart-shaped box of conversation hearts (her favorite this year) and a Hello Kitty card (ditto), and a set of hugging valentine's teddy bears. I hope she likes them.

I also am trying to remember back on all the many Valentine's Days over the years. I remember Valentine's dances, I remember Valentine's dinners, I remember a fun Valentine's party for Rachel and her preschool classmates. I remember some Valentine's balloons my parents had at home, and how I loved playing with them. One really interesting memory I hadn't thought of in years- my first real boyfriend was junior year of high school, and our first date was the Valentine's dance. He brought me a white rose, I think out of nervousness that a red rose was too much for a first date, but he was so nervous he gave me a card with the flower and didn't write anything on the card or the envelope. Somewhere, I know I saved that card. It says everything without saying anything. I'm not even sure if he worked up the nerve to kiss me that night.

Can you remember those days? Being so young, so nervous.

I prefer the days now- now I'm so excited to see my sweetie and give him his present and see the look on his face, and hopefully he'll love it. I can't wait for him to come home, I truly miss him when he is gone, and I'm just grateful to have him by my side every day to share all of life's adventures with me, the good and the bad. And for the record, I have saved everything he's ever given me. One valentine's he gave me a heart-shaped box of chocolate. I have the box, and now I put little things in it from him (I ate the chocolate- Durh!). Even though we just got married, our 5 year anniversary is this time of year, also. If it weren't for being single on Valentine's day, we never would have found each other.

So I wish you and yours a very happy, loving Valentine's Day.

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