Valentines

I love holidays, I really do. When we were first married I planned this Easter egg hunt for Huz. It had 12 clues, each hidden in a plastic egg, each plastic egg hidden somewhere in the house or yard. At each egg/clue there was a gift. I made up rhyming clues and a long rhyming poem to start the whole thing.

I WAS SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

I could hardly stand it. I told him that I had a BIG egg hunt planned for him. He didn't act nearly as excited as I felt, so instead of being deflated, I carried the excitement for him! Don't get me wrong, he was excited, just not as excited as his lovely wif. (By the way, that's not a typo, I call him Huz, he calls me wif.) So, I continued to let the excitement build until I just. couldn't. stand. it any longer. On the night before Easter I asked him if he wanted to do his egg hunt. I waited until it was midnight so that it would technically be Easter. We obviously hadn't been married for long because he said, "no, I can wait 'til the morning."

I said, "Well I can't wait! Get your shoes on!"

And ever since then, he's learned that questions like that aren't really questions, and he's learned how to appropriately respond to those "questions."

Wow. I'm way off track. So, like I was saying, I love holidays. But each year they get pushed more and more to the sidelines. Holidays have taken on new meanings, as they tend to do with each year bringing more life experiences and new meanings to things. So, where once I was extreme, I'm probably closer to opposite that now. When Saturday rolled around and Huz wanted to take the girls to see Gnomeo and Juliet for Valentines Day, I thought "great! Done!" And I was going to leave it at that. In fact, it was more than I had even thought of doing.

Until Monday morning when all the girlies wanted to wear Valentiney shirts to school. ??!! Thankfully, with four girls in the house, there is more than enough pink around and we threw some Valentiney outfits together. Sweet, I thought. Done.

Not so. When Huz met us at gymnastics, he had bought each of the girls a donut (a favorite of theirs) and brought them a stress ball (from work). What?!?! Is this the same guy that used to say on Christmas Eve at noon that he needed to go get gas and would then be gone for four hours to Christmas shop?

To make matters worse, he had also bought a picture of Jesus for our house. (the buying of the picture of Jesus is not the worse part. It was the fact that he had done something and I hadn't) We have one that matches our piano and hangs above it, but at this house the piano is in its own room and so we don't get to look at Jesus all the time like we used to. It was a very thoughtful purchase. We hung it in what may seem like an odd spot, a little indent by our bedroom. But, it's the perfect place. We see it coming in and out of our room, the kids see it as they come down the stairs, we can see it from the loft upstairs and from the kitchen, dining and family room. So, it's in a great spot. In fact, last night as I took Two upstairs to bed, she paused at the top of the stairs and smiled and said, "I like to see Jesus." Perfect.

I came back down the stairs to find he had bought us caramel apples. And, as if that weren't enough, when I went to bed, there, sitting on my nightstand was a travel guide to Ukraine. It was so thoughtful of him, all of it. And I felt like loser of the year.

So, in an effort to redeem myself today, I have destroyed the kitchen and neglected my kids while I have attempted to create a lovely post Valentines Day meal of heart shaped meatballs, heart shaped rolls, chocolate caramel cookies, cinnamon rolls and pink and red layered jello. Now I can rest easy tonight knowing that I celebrated the day the right way!:) haha