Valentine's Shenanigans!

The past two days have been an absolute blur, but because I'm a nerd, I took a TON of pictures (it started driving T nuts after awhile...haha). And you all get to share in the love with us!

So starting on Saturday morning, T woke up to these cute little things posted all around our house:

I have an absolute love for post-it notes, and I got these ones from one of my good friends for my wedding. I don't know if you can read them but they all basically start with "I love you because..." Also, I was driving T nuts by telling him "Nope, you haven't found them all." And so he would go desperately searching around our tiny mobile home trying to find them all. It was pretty funny. Eventually he did find them all!

I don't know if you can see it but in the second picture above, the lower row in the middle, it says "I love you because you love pizza almost as much as I do." Well, we LOVE Papa Murphy's pizza, and when we saw this as an ad in their window, we had to get it!

Oh yes, heart shaped pizza. LOVE IT!

T gave me my gift around lunchtime, and he bought me "Ever After" and some sweethearts candy. I have always loved "Ever After" and in high school, I used to watch it probably 3 times a week. When we got married, it got left at my parents house and I haven't seen it since. So he did the awesomely husband thing and got it for me. When I told him "Well, now you know you have to watch it with me," he said, "Yeah, right." (He ended up watching it with me on Sunday though. haha)

Later that night, we had an activity that we have been planning for our job. Basically, we threw a Valentine's dinner for all of our neighbors, and these were the tables we decorated.

It was a crazy event. We started at 4:30 and we didn't get out of there until 8:45. Needless to say, T was little a sad that I was tired by the time it was over, being Valentine's Day and all. (Regardless, I found the energy later...hehe.)

After the dinner, I decided that it was time to give T his present. I had been holding it off from him all day and it was driving him crazy. I had it wrapped and left it on our kitchen table and he had to stare at it all day. It.was.fantastic.

This is going to be a little bit hard to explain, but this is what I did for him. A little background though: the only wedding pictures we've got hung in our house are my bridals and it drives him nuts that he's not in any of them. Well, I got one printed and framed it, and I also framed our marriage license. I stacked them in the wrapping so the picture was on top of the license, and this little note was the first thing he saw when we opened it up:

This was going along with my "I love you because..." notes. Then he lifted up the picture and this note was on top of the license.

This is what it looked like all together.

So that was Saturday. Whoo! One day down. Now on to Sunday:

T was really excited about this part. For any of you that know our family pretty well, T is the chef in our family. In fact, his favorite part of cooking is baking, and he bought these cute little heart shaped cake pans. He decided that he wanted us to make cakes for each other for Valentine's Day and since we didn't have time on Saturday, we were going to do it on Sunday.

Before we got started, we cleaned up the pan and it had this label that had super sticky goo holding it on, and so being the totally awesome wife that I am, I stuck to his back. I made him into CUPID! Isn't he cute with his little heart wings!

(PS. He glared at me after I took this picture)

After all was said and done, and about 4 hours of baking cakes, we had two, double-layered, heart-shaped cakes. This is the cake I made for T. It was a devil's food cake with fudge icing, and then the Triforce (from the Zelda games) in the corner in frosting. T was pretty excited about that one! ;)

And this was the cake he made for me. He swirled pink, red, and white cake batter together, then put red raspberry jam in between the layers, covered it in strawberry frosting and put real strawberries on top. Yeah, his cake beat the crap out of mine, but maybe that's why he's the chef!

Needless to say, we're going to need a lot of working out after this weekend is over with all the junk we ate. haha.

I hope you all had a great V-Day! We sure did!

So Arrest Me.

I have officially broken all laws of my culture.

T and I bought a Christmas tree, and by all that is good and holy, yes: we. put. it. up.

ALREADY.

I love Christmas. Deal with it.

Thanksgiving will come and go, but my Christmas is just around the corner!

A Poem.

As of midnight tonight, I will be single for about a month.

As of midnight tonight, he will be absorbed by the world of Northrend.

As of midnight tonight, I might actually get something accomplished this month.

As of midnight tonight, I could also lose a couple of pounds.

As of midnight tonight, I will lose my husband.


Tonight, T is going to pick up the next expansion in the World of Warcraft series, Wrath of the Lich King. He and a couple of buddies are going to wait in line for it to be released at midnight.

Some wives think video games are the worst possible thing for their marriage, and that might be true. For me, I figure that I will at least always know where he is at night.

I love my husband, the geekiest geek, and the man of my video game dreams.

Marriage Lesson #67

Never tell your wife that she snores, even if she does.

It will never turn out good for you.

Your wife is perfectly perfect, the sleeping beauty of the planet and there is no possible way that she could do something as absolutely hideous as making atrocious noises while sleeping.

No. Possible. Way.

So don't say anything. Lesson learned.

(PS, if you can't tell, T learned this lesson the hard way last night.)

HAS IT REALLY BEEN A YEAR???

TOP TEN THINGS I'VE LEARNED IN THE LAST YEAR OF MARRIAGE...

(With a few interspersed pictures for your entertainment.)

(1) Laundry does not get done by little gnomes like I thought it did. And sometimes, husbands do not tell wives when they don't have any more socks that were supposed to be washed by the little gnomes, and thus the husbands end up having to wear their socks multiple times until it is time for the gnomes to wash the wives' clothes, and at which time, the wives get angry with the husbands for not letting them know, and an argument ensues. Darn those little gnomes for starting arguments.

(New Year's Eve, 2003)

(2) Husbands fart. And it's gross. And then wives get angry with husbands for not excusing themselves and for it being gross. And then they move on.

(3) A recent lesson I've learned: it's awful to have a period right before your anniversary. That's all I'm going to say about that.

(Preference, December 2003)

(4) In no case, under any circumstance whatsoever, do husbands and wives EVER get fat after getting married. We look as *perfect* as the day we met in high school, and wives are always as beautiful as they were on their wedding day. In fact, to prove this point, I am wearing my jeans from high school today and they are in no way cutting off circulation to my thighs and my butt always looks absolutely fantastic. Always.

(5) You don't have to spend every. single. moment. together. In fact, I wouldn't even recommend it. It's not that I don't love my husband, it's that I can't handle his geekiness for more than oh, 10 hours a day, and he can't handle me be anal-retentive about everything. It's okay to step away and be alone. I love you, honey!

(6) I finally have more freakin' room in my freezer now that that stupid cake is out of it.

(Engagement pictures...The caption here is: "Red, I can't sit like this anymore...I just don't bend that way. Can we be done now?")

(7) You really don't have to fight naked like everybody told us to when we got married. (Yes, it's more fun...) In fact, you don't really have to fight at all. Honestly, there aren't many things in life that need to be fought over, so just apologize and move on. For example, there are going to be financial woes...but you love each other, and so you'll make it work.

(8) Birth control is a necessity. Add it to the expenses list. For those of you secretly wishing that we'll have an "oops" baby (...ahem...Erin...), it's just not going to happen yet. You'll just have to wait for baby Red a bit longer.

(Messing around during engagement pictures.)

(9) It is perfectly okay to take charity from the friends and family around you. Take the couches. And the bed. And the table. And the washer and dryer. TAKE IT ALL! (You'll need it...) (And thanks Mom & Dad, and Ruthann)

(10) And most of all, cry. It gets you what you want.

Lastly, here is my ode to T, in celebration of this glorious day that we both spent at work. Joy.

Love you, sweetie!

MY HUSBAND IS A GGGOOOODDDD....

And no, that isn't a reference to our bedroom.

Even though that's true too, but we're not going to go there in this post.

When I say that I am a very, VERY awful cook, take my full meaning. My menus normally consist of something along the lines of grilled cheese, tomato soup from a can, macaroni and cheese from a box, and pancakes (also from my second man, Bisquick). My husband is my soulmate in that regard. He basically saved my dietary life.

What I'm getting at is that my husband, T, is one of the best cooks I know of, and thank goodness, he belongs to me. We had friends over the other night, and he made these absolutely adorable desserts!

Sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting with limeade concentrate mixed in, topped with fresh fruit.

Raspberry chocolate cheesecake shooters.

The best part about last night was the following conversation, which took place before our friends got there:

Me: "Hey, T. What do you want me to do?"

T: "Um...." (uncomfortable silence)

Me: "Can I help with something? Do you want me to cut the strawberries?"

T: "Well, you know, it would really be best if...maybe I need to...could I maybe do it myself?"

Me: (obscenely large pout) "...hmph."

T: "Well, really, sweetie. I need to learn to do it myself."

Me: (silence)

T: "I'm sorry!"

Me: (silence)

T: "Come on, now..."

Me: (silence)...."Okay, then can I take pictures???"

T: (silence)

...I am SO in love with this man.