Valentine's Day Recap

My Valentine's Day went pretty well.  It started rather oddly though.  I awoke to a rather strange rattling noise coming from the front of the house.  I nudged Big Guy and told him to go see what his son had gotten into.  He listened for a minute and then said he knew what it was and it wasn't Little Guy.  He also said I needed to get up first. 

So, I stumbled from our bed, made my way into the kitchen, and stepped into water on the floor.  It wasn't anything too terrible though .  Big Guy had gotten up earlier and set the coffee maker to brew some coffee.  Unfortunately, he had forgotten to put the top down and it sprayed some of the water on our floor.  After we fixed that problem, I went into the family room and was greeted with an adorable teddy bear and chocolates. 

I received a small box of assorted chocolates from Big Guy and a large Kiss from Little Guy, a 7 oz one!  We played games and watched TV and were generally happy relaxing together.  Little Guy went into the front room and played Lego Star Wars until he decided he wanted to play with actual Legos.  At that point, I had to put the brakes on relaxing. 

Big Guy and I told Little Guy that if he wanted to play with Legos, he had to clean up the floor in the front room.  Little Guy took us at our word.  With in five minutes, he came running back into the family room, telling us that he had finished.  Big Guy and I exchanged glances and then Big Guy went back to check.  Withing moments, he laughingly called me to the front room. 

Little Guy had indeed picked up the floor - and covered the sofa and his car table with his toys.  After I finished laughing, I told Big Guy we needed to do something about this.  So, a portion of our Valentine's Day was spent cleaning the front room. 

After we finished, Little Guy watched the Star Wars movies and played with his legos.  When Big Guy finished playing his video game, he went in there and "helped".  It was adorable.  I asked Little Guy what his dad was doing and got the response, "He's building!" Even more adorable, Big Guy and Little Guy came out to show me the "cool" space ship Big Guy had made. 

While my Valentine's Day may not have been red-hot and sexy, it was definitely a sweet day...  More a nice shade of pink. 

This is dedicated to the one I love

It's that time of year again, time to honor the sexiest, most handsome, sweetest, most mysterious and generous man I know...  Tall, dark and handsome, he's hard to resist.....


You know w ho I'm talking about...


Naveen Andrews!

OK, not Naveen...  He is cute, but he doesn't hold a candle to the man I married.  Big Guy. 

When I met hi, I never could have guessed the kind of relationship we would end up having.  This is probably a good thing.  Had I known the insanity that would come with a blended family, I may have run screaming into the night.  

He's an incurable romantic and tries very hard to spoil me rotten   And he always makes me laugh.  More often than not, an argument between  us will end up with both of us giggling. 

And I love him madly and wouldn't change anything. 

Happy Valentine's Day love.  I still find you sexy. 

Let Me Call you Sweetheart Blog Hop!

Today's blog entry is part of the "Let me call you sweetheart" blog hop sponsored by The Frugal Housewife!  This is my first blog hop, so I am very excited!  It's sort of a pre-Valentines Day bash.  It's interesting to note that celebrating February 14th as a day of romantic love was unheard of before Chaucer (of Canterbury Tales fame) got a hold of St. Valentine and turned it into the hearts and flowers holiday we see today. 

Now, I've been married for the past 5 years and 11 months and Valentine's Day has definitely changed in meaning and likely will the longer I stay married. It's gone from the swooning, sweep-me-off-my-feet holiday to more of a "I still find you sexy even though I've seen you at your worst" kind of holiday.  Of course our anniversary has also changed over the years from a "Yay, another year married" to a celebration of "Holy crap, we survived another year despite the forces moving against us".

The key to this all though is that Big Guy and I make a point of celebrating these holidays and celebrating them together.  I think that our attempts to romance each other, even after 6 years of marriage, a child, and 3 moves, only strengthens our relationship.  It's one of those things that you have to work on in a relationship.  There are going to be days where you are unhappy, cranky, or just don't feel sexy and you'll still try.  If you have a good partner, most of the time they will pick up on the fact that you just aren't feeling it and will work to help get you in a better frame of mind. 

Fighting against your own blahs is difficult enough on your own, but it's worse when you and your significant other go through it together.  That has happened to Big Guy and I on occasion and we refer to it as our "downward spiral". It's the opposite of feeding off positive energy and we feed off the negative and just get worse and worse.  Luckily, after 6 years, we've learned to recognize when it starts and we will look at the other person and say: "Wait, stop, we're heading into our downward spiral."  Generally, that's enough to snap us out of it and work on finding the positive.  Noticing the beginning of the spiral, though, was no easy task. 

We did work hard at it and we learned to notice the clues in our therapy sessions.  And, let me tell you, in a blended family, marital therapy is invaluable.  We learned to communicate better and that helped us deal with issues that came with the ex and kids. And through all of that, we worked on making sure we still romanced each other. 

Some of the things we did weren't terribly romantic on the surface but were insanely romantic in context. One of the first Valentine's Day's we had together, we were dirt poor.  Those were desperate times, living hand to mouth and we had no way of getting out of it, but that day Big Guy came home with a heart-shaped pizza.  It was, for our budget at the time, a massive expenditure.  For my first Mother's Day, we were still dirt poor but Big Guy wanted to make sure I knew that he felt I was a good step-mother to his kids.  He brought home a case of Wild Cherry Pepsi.  Those were and still are big things to me. He worked hard to get something that we would enjoy and expressed his appreciation.  Always find someway to show your significant other you appreciate their efforts and find some way to make it something that speaks directly to them.

Valentine's Day isn't just about hearts and flowers, it's about being with and appreciating the one you love.  So, I love and appreciate you Big Guy.  Thank you for being there for me; for rubbing my back when I'm cramping, for letting me puke on your feet on election night, for standing next to me and seeing more of me than even I have seen during the birth of our son...  In return, I have rubbed your back as you puked, dealt with intestinal issues with you, and allowed you to slough off on your dish duty.  They may be the messy, gross times, but they are the times that are indicative of our love.

And I still find you sexy. 

Next Stop on the Hop - Lola's Diner!  Thanks for visiting!