Romance

 
     I love cheese... but I hate cheesiness. And that is why I need to apologize to many of you. I'm sorry if some of my posts have caused you to throw up in your mouth a little bit. I know, it's gross... but so are inspirational quote books. That being said, it is Valentine's Day and I do need to be a little bit romantic. I will do my best to write a Valentine that won't make you gag... too much.

     A few years ago when I had time to talk philosophically (clearly before kids), I asked a good friend who is also a male to tell me the most romantic gesture he could think of. He said it was to take a delicate necklace and to wrap it around a single rose. I almost cried... laughing. No, that's not romantic to me at all. And neither is a 4 foot teddy bear that I would just put in my kids' room. I'll tell you that over the years I've gotten a lot of flowers from Bill (that's because we've been together for a long time, not because he gets me a lot of flowers). The most romantic flowers I remember ever getting from him was 4 roses. I'm not 100% sure but I think it was for our 6 month anniversary. We were teenagers and I was at a friends' house waiting for him and he showed up late and I was furious. And then I got 4 roses and I was confused. What was the significance of 4 roses? Apparently the other two had a mis-hap and got... well deflowered. I couldn't get too mad... after all, here he was... with 4 roses and a funny story that I can't fully remember now. But I do remember this- that they were very pretty roses and I didn't stay mad at him because dropping two roses on the ground and bringing me the other 4... well, for some reason that's romantic to me.

     Most recently the most romantic gesture I've received is... a full tank of gas. I got into my car in the school parking lot, ready to head home and there it was... a full tank of gas in a car that was running close to empty. Bill had been "in the neighborhood" and decided to fill up the tank. He also left my seat in the far back position, which kind of gave away who had performed this awesome deed. Of course, that's not his only romantic gesture of late. He's in the process of fixing our furnace- which included weeks of troubleshooting and waking up in the middle of the night to turn it back on so we didn't wake up as icicles. He has cooked us ribs, steak tips, chicken wings, frozen pizza and cheeseburger surprise... all in the last two weeks. He got me new tires and paid extra to get me all 4... because it's safer that way. He doesn't complain when I snore. He's mid-way through reading the Chronicles of Narnia to Liam (we've agreed, I'll read the series to Joshua). He lets me drink coffee out of his mug every morning. He saved us over $1200 in airfare for our first official family vacation in, well, never. Come to think of it, this is a guy I could probably stay married to for, well, forever.

     Sorry if I just made you throw up in your mouth a little bit.