Howdy Everyone! Today begins a 10-day period of absolutely no work, on account of my new job! It really wasn't on purpose; I put in my notice at work and then I wasn't able to schedule my licensing exam for as soon as my new boss would have liked me to because of an overbooked testing center, so I can't start my new job for a little while. Either way, I started working on my very first day upon arrival in Des Moines, so it will be kind of nice to have a chance to do some stuff to the apartment that I have yet to find the time for...plus, I have the time to jot some thoughts down.
Well, lately has been busy, busy! I've been working, of course, but then I also had studying for my licensing exams, which has taken every moment of my free time. I really didn't anticipate the material being as difficult as it was, but it worked out fine because I took both exams yesterday and passed! haha I can't even tell you what a relief that was! I was so nervous I was going to have to call up my new boss and tell him that I failed the very first task he gave me as his employee.
Michael has also been super swamped and overwhelmed. He’s had multiple tests per week for several weeks now. I have never seen him at such a low. He had to pull 2 all-nighters in 3 nights and the one night he did get some sleep, it was only about 4 hours. I thought I was completely exhausted for having work and then hours of studying but all the work I was putting in paled in comparison to everything he had to do. The only times I saw him was when he was coming out of his office to get food or pop some caffeine. It was pretty depressing going to bed every night so exhausted, knowing Michael was in the other room with WAY less sleep and would be going for several more hours. Anyway, his tests for the week were finally over yesterday morning and he came straight home and went to bed, while I finished up the last of my studying. After I got back from my tests last night, it was the most amazing feeling to come home to my husband, who doesn’t have another test for an entire week, and be able to cuddle on the couch together and do nothing. We watched The Office all night and played a game of monopoly. It was bliss.
So aside from all the work Michael was doing, he also managed to find a way to show me some love for Valentines Day. Last weekend, he ran to the store to grab something and when he got back he asked me to come in the kitchen to help him with something. When I got in there, he was on his knee, with a tiny vase of roses and asked me to be his valentine. What's a girl to do?...of course I accepted hehe. I'm a total sucker for cute and cheesy! We had no time do actually spend time together, so I was thinking the roses were probably about as big of a v-day celebration as we were gonna have, but on the actual day, he also had 3 dozen pink, white, and red tulips (one of my fav. Flowers), and chocolates delivered to me at work with a sweet note from “Fireman Dan”. Fireman Dan is a character that my mom originally made up when I was a kid, for the made-up bedtime stories I would always beg her to tell me. Sometime at the beginning of mine and Michael’s dating relationship, I told him about Fireman Dan and for our very first Valentines, he gave me the cutest homemade card ever, and it had a pic of Fireman Dan on the back. It was sweet that he remembered!
This pic is of the roses and tulips Michael got me and the bouquet of flowers my boss got me for my last day at work. I love all the fresh flowers!
On account of our schedules, we decided to push the Valentines date I am planning to this weekend. If you know me, you probably know I LOVE planning things, so it’s a lot of fun for me to have plenty of spare time to spend preparing for our date. Out of consideration for the holiday, I thought I would take a look back over our past Valentines Days together as a dating couple J. To tell you the truth, Michael thinks V-day is really dumb; it was even once the cause of a big argument early in our relationship hahaha!
Without asking what I think of the holiday (which it happens to be one of my favs, since I’m a huge fan of super cheesy romance), he went off on a rant about how stupid it is and how he has no intention of ever celebrating it. Annoyed that he obviously didn’t even care if I wanted to celebrate it or not, I let him know how much it hurt my feelings that he cared more about making a point than how I felt about it. It’s so funny to look back at that argument. I think all things considered, he’s done an awesome job showing me that he cares, through the celebration of a holiday that he hates. So in order to show him that it doesn’t have to be “a holiday made up by card companies, for the sake of making money”, I’ve always given him homemade gifts, which could never be found in the Card or Seasonal isles of stores. I think I’ve done pretty good too J.
For our first V-day, all of the pics I have are saved on an external hard drive at my parents' house, so I don't have any to post, but it was a really nice day! I woke up at around 5am and Michael's room mate let me in their apartment so before class, I cooked him a breakfast in bed, consisting of heart-shaped pancakes, eggs, and bacon. He was so tired because it was so early, that he basically ate none of it, but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?? I also gave him a scrapbook I made with pics of the two of us going all the way back to sixth grade, when we were in the youth group together, and a shell necklace that I had made him.
The story behind this necklace: for my graduation present, my parents rented my friends and I a beach house. At the time, I happened to be dating one of Mine and Michael's mutual friends, Matt. At some point over our trip, Michael, Bethany, and I got away from the group and went shopping at some beach shops, where I bought Matt a shell necklace. Apparently jealous, Michael told me not to bother, because Matt would never appreciate it like he should. So, I thought it appropriate that Michael have one of his own beach necklaces from me, only his was better because I made it J. He did love that necklace. In fact, he wore it until it was too old and messed up.
Later that night, he showed up at my dorm with a really beautiful bouquet of multicolored flowers that he had designed with the florist. It was definitely not the traditional V-day bouquet; it was fall colors and beautiful! He had chosen a bright orange-ish rose for each month that we'd been dating, one of some other kind flower (that I obviously cannot remember lol) for each day in addition to the months that we'd been dating, and then some random small flowers that were just there for looks. He didn't know he had to make reservations in order to eat at any restaurant on that specific day and the wait at every place was like 3 hours long, so we ended up just walking around the park and got Marble Slab ice cream. It was a sweet first Valentines!
For our second Valentines, I made Michael a sugar cookie bouquet and a stuffed bear, with a heart patch that I sewed on his foot, with "Happy Valentines Day, 2009" stitched on the patch. He got me a giant stuffed dog, a huge box of chocolate, and some chocolate covered strawberries that he made. For dinner, I had made reservations at a really expensive and fancy steak restaraunt in College Station, but when we got there, the service was horrible and we ended up leaving before we ever even got to order our food. There was just no sense in paying $40 a person for dinner, if we were going to get the same service as we would at McDonalds. We ended up going to Chick-Fil-A for dinner (which was pretty much "our place" in college lol) and then went to Grand Station and played video games, black-light put put golf, and lazer tag. The night ended up being alot more fun!
For our third V-day, I made Michael a heart-shaped cake, that I decorated with buttercream roses. This probably doesnt sound like a big deal, except that I had no idea how to make buttercream roses. I taught myself over a tutorial I found on Youtube. It was not fun, my friends. I only had a handful of roses on the cake, but it took me HOURS. Then, when I finished at around 1am, I set the cake on the table while I cleaned up the kitchen, throwing away all the piping bags and frosting, and as I did this, my room mate's stupid dog took a huge chunk out of a section with lots of roses. I was livid. My roomie offered to help, but it's not like she knew how to make the roses, so she went to bed and I went to the store to get more frosting and proceeded to spend several more hours trying to cover up the hole in the cake haha! It turned out looking flawless and Michael loved the cake!
This was the year that he got me a gift that I thought was very true to him. He ordered me a bean plant that had "I love you" printed on the beans, so when they sprouted, you could see it. It was really awesome and I loved it! For our date, we met up with some friends and went to an Aggie baseball game. It wasn't a big event, but it was alot of fun!
For our 4th V-day (omg, I did not even realize we dated for that long before getting married!!!), I have no idea what we did haha! I have no pics and no recollection whatsoever! It's possible that we did nothing because Michael was living in SA while I was finishing school at A&M, but I really doubt that. Anyway, this is precisely the reason I'm recording all of these memories on my blog. Most of you probably couldn't care less about what we did for all of our V-days, but I really want to look back and be able to see all the fun times we've had, even if I can't remember them on my own hehe.
I'll repost after the Valentines date that I'm planning, should be alot of fun! I hope everyone was able to be with the ones they love for the special day! Time for me to get to cleaning and running errands!
