Happy Valentine's Day!

I have always considered myself a hopeless romantic. I would rather read a clean romance novel, or watch a romantic movie than anything else. Barry always hates it when I read a Nicholas Sparks novel... I stay "gooshy" for days! I sometimes think that I did myself a disservice by reading so many; I came to have a slightly skewed idea of real romance. Barry is anything but a romantic, and I used to get really upset by this fact. I always wanted some big, grand jesture like in the movies, but I have come to appreciate that it is really the small, everyday simple things that count. I appreciate the he will jump in and help out with the housework, like the laundry, dusting and vacuuming. I love it when he cooks dinner... chili dogs, or take-out! I love it when he brings me a Sprite, just because he thinks I will want one. I appreciate it when he lets me warm up my cold toes on his warm legs! I am thankful that he takes the kids to their activities, and brings them home again, even when it's early in the morning or late at night. I love how protective he is of me, and how he works hard to make sure the kids show respect to me. Barry is a big home-body, so I really am thankful for those times when he gets out of the house with us.  And even in the heat of the moment of an arguement, I appreciate how logical he can be (even if it ticks me off at first that he is not as emotional about the issue as I am). I love how he makes me laugh to get me over being mad at him. I love it when he will go grocery shopping with me and push the buggy. I appreciate how forgiving he is of me, especially when I have messed up... again! I appreciate the fact that he goes to a stressful job everyday to provide for us. I really love that he is the one teaching Kayti how to drive, and relieving me of that stress. I am thankful that he never gives up, even when there are times that he would like to throw in the towel.

Barry and I have been celebrating Valentine's Day together for 17 years now. During the first few years of our married life, he was the manager of The Great American Cookie Company in the mall. He would work crazy hours during Valentine's Day, and usually come home dead tired, and only want to go straight to bed. He would always bring home some small token of his love, though, for which I was always grateful. He doesn't like to buy flowers... he hates wasting the money on something that will die, but he has surprised me with them on several occasions. One year he bought me gold hoop earrings... still my favorite pair. I started a tradition with the family years ago; we have a special Valentine's Day candle-light dinner together as a family. We get out the "good plates and goblets" and have red food. Barry's favorite meal is chili dogs and tater-tots, so we have had that on more than one occasion. We have also had lazagna, red beans and rice, spaghetti, and this year we did meatball subs. The kids have really come to look forward to this dinner, but this year we had to do something a little different. Barry got stuck at work tonight, not knowing when he was going to make it home. This really bummed us all out, thinking of having dinner without him, so we decided to take dinner to him. He was only able to just run out to the car and grab it, but at least we got to see him, and the kids got their daddy hugs in. He promised to take me out to dinner and a movie tomorrow night, in celebration of V-day and my birthday. I'm thinking that he has something else up his sleeve as well, because he pulled Kayti out of the car to talk to her about something. All Kayti is saying is that he asked her to baby-sit tomorrow night. Well, just add that to the list of things that I love about him... he loves to be sneaky and surprise me with stuff. After the kids and I got home we spread out a picnic blanket in the living room and watched a movie while we ate our dinner.

We hope all of you had a great Valentine's Day, and enjoyed being with the ones you love!