Be Mine

Valentine's Day is the anniversary of J and My's first date, just as friends - the night that made me start to think differently, romantically, about him. Even then, J was creative and romantic, leaving me little clues about the surprise date and making me mix CDs as a gift.

This year, our Valentine celebration started on Saturday night when J and BB surprised me with a gourmet dinner when I got home from work - candlelight and our wedding CD set the ambiance and a box of dark chocolate hearts and a card from BB topped off the beef & bell pepper kabobs and pasta salad.

Our celebration continued Sunday morning when I surprised J with his Valentine gift, this little DIY number here:

When I saw this on Design Sponge, I knew it would delight J. Get it? Delight! (Somewhere someone is saying "ding!") Anyway, it did delight him. And I got to use tools to make it, which empowered me. No seriously. That wasn't just to say empower. I got to use pliers and a screwdriver and a saw. I am woman - watch me saw.
Then I decided that BB needed a Valentine outfit and after scouring his closet to no avail, I cut a big heart out of some white fabric (leftover from our bedroom curtains!) and quickly stitched it onto a red t-shirt and voila! Instant boyish Valentine attire.
We went to church and then to lunch with friends, and then we embarked on a marathon shopping day for BB - he needed bibs and socks and pajamas, as he is exploding out of his current pjs. Literally. As in I found a hole in the foot of his pjs (where his big toe pokes) when I put him down for the night and the next morning there was a hole in the other foot too! Exploding! So we shopped and then made a stop at a park to feed BB and enjoy the mid-70 degree weather.

We then continued on our marathon shopping trip, until I suddenly realized that one of my earrings was missing. One of those earrings in that picture up there. My 5-year anniversary gift.
I panicked.
J didn't.
We both prayed silently to ourselves and started searching the store we were in, the car, calling the other store we had been to, and then J and I both remembered we had been taking pictures all day. We looked through the pictures to try to see when I was and then wasn't wearing the earring, and lo and behold, in one park picture I had them both on, and then in another my earlobe was bare. Okay, so the earring was at the park. The crowded public park where so many Tucsonans were out enjoying the mid-70 degree weather. The park we were 30 minutes away from, and the sun was setting. J called his parents and sent them over to start the earring search, with flashlights in hand. We prayed and drove, and God gave us some perspective. It's just a thing. A fancy, sparkly, special thing. But just a thing. We laughed about the irony of losing it on Valentine's Day. We got to the park and started searching. J and J's dad strategized a methodical approach to our treasure hunt. More praying. After 15 minutes of crawling on my hands and knees staring at the ground as the sun disappeared (interrupting a (very) nearby couple's Valentine celebration), I saw a little sparkle buried in the dead grass and pine needles.
We rejoiced, and thanked the Lord!
And then we went home.
Thus endeth Valentine's Day.