big red hearts and fluffy teddy bears

Just a little over a month from now we will be celebrating the most glorious day of the year. That day is Valentine's Day and I am already preparing. I bought supplies to make V-day cards today and I am so excited, I just want to send them out right now!!

V-day has always been a big deal to me. In elementary school I would spend weeks before the big day browsing my mom's Current Catalog trying to decide what valentines I wanted to order. Yes, I ordered my valentines from a catalog instead of buying them from the grocery store like most normal 8-year-olds. Seriously though, check it out. They've got quality stuff. I'm pretty sure I ordered
<----THESE animal puzzle cards one year.

Then in maybe 8th grade I remember staying up all night to make those roses made out of candy kisses for all my friends.

In high school, I think it was senior year, I worked at Cookies by Design and Valentines is a HUGE day for them so I went to work at 11:00 AM and worked until maybe 2:00 AM (this was day before Valentine's Day) decorating cookies all day long, and then I went home and spent hours putting gifts together for my friends (Darce, remember that cheese I gave you in a cup that said "Did you know that your body is 90% water....and I'm thirsty!"??) And I sent the boy I had a crush on a cookie bouqet from my work that said "happy valentine's day...you're a knockout" and it had a cookie person in boxing shorts and two boxing glove cookies. I love this holiday.

And then in my third year at BYU Jessica and I worked together at Great Harvest and we got SO decked out to go to work on V-day...I have never been so festive in my life. My boss told me to "go home right now and change" but I ignored him and to this day I still don't know if he was kidding or not. That night we had the first annual "Lovefest" which was a huge success.




I have been reminding Russ for several days now that Valentine's day is coming up soon so he better start thinking about what to give me. "Wait, we have to get presents for Valentine's?" he asks. Boys can be so _____(insert another word for dumb here). "DUH don't you remember you got me a present last year???? Remember how I spent the whole night baking and decorating cookies and then you showed up with beautiful roses and a present for me...REMEMBER???" I say. "Yah, but we are married now" he says as if that is supposed to answer my question. Today he started showing a hint of annoyance at my constant reminders but I just don't think he comprehends how big of a deal this holiday is to me. And maybe he never will, but not for lack of me trying to convince him. "Oh, but Rosie will be here on Valentine's day (his sister is coming out to visit us that weekend)" he says, as if, for some magical reason, that is going to get him out of having to plan anything or get me anything. I know he'll come up with something spectacular though. He always has a way of surprising me.