Category Archives: husband

holidays, husband, memories, relationship thoughts

Valentine’s Day: LOVE

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Believe it or not, Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. To those who think its just a “Hallmark Holiday” I say, “Bah humbug.” I’ve liked Valentine’s Day since I was a kid. I liked Valentine’s Day when I was single. I like Valentine’s Day now that I am married.

Me and my husband -- Valentine's 2010
Me and my husband -- Valentine's 2010

I remember that in Kindergarten, on Valentine’s Day my parents gave me a card/book with cherry heart lollipops. I honestly wish I still had that book! I can’t tell you anything about the story any more, but I remember getting my teacher to read it to the class that day. (Come to think about it now, I think I’ve always liked to “share with the class.” Hence blogging.)

The other day, I asked my niece if she was looking forward to her Valentine’s Day party at school. If she’d get lots of cards from her classmates. Her response was, “Like always.” I had to laugh to myself. I miss those little cards! I always liked the many ways “Denise” could be spelled, and there was something nice about having all your classmates have to think of you for a minute in the form of those little cards.

In high school, Valentine’s Day 1997, I attended my first concert ever. Bryan White — whom I admit I had a huge crush on at that time — was playing in Waco, TX. A girl friend and I had floor seats for the show, and I jokingly would say I had a date with Bryan for the night. It was an amazing night, and I have to say it was definitely THE night my life focus changed from being small-town Texas girl for life and setting my sights on Music City and the music business.

College days came and so did an “ok-ness” with being single. I had great Valentine’s in high school, but being single and NOT having roses in the office waiting for me all four years? Was almost worse than being picked last for dodge ball in elementary school. However, in college, there wasn’t the pressure or finger pointing of “single” or “dating” that there was before.

An excerpt from my LiveJournal on Feb. 14, 2002:

I am so content and happy with my singleness. I don’t need a man to validate me as a person or anything. I am me. I like me. Yeah, maybe it is “Singles Awareness Day”. Fine by me! I am aware I am single. And I’m okay with that.

I have the bestest friends. In real life and on the net. You guys just keep me grinning like mad. Most of you I’ve only know for a few months, but already you’ve helped me through some rough times. You’ve laughed with me. You’ve cried with me. You’ve done more than was necessary. I love you all from the bottom of my heart. How I got so lucky to get to know you, I’ll never know. Nor will I question it. I am just thankful for each and every one of you. Happy Valentine’s to you…

In 2003, I wrecked my truck the day before Valentine’s Day, and in 2004 I got my belly button pierced. You can’t say I don’t have eventful Valentine’s Days sometimes!

Three years after celebrating my singleness, on Valentine’s Day 2005, my now-husband and I said “I love you” for the first time. Quit dancing around it and said it. At least we picked an easy day to remember!

Now married three years, but due to work, my husband and I have only spent the last two Valentine’s Days together. And that’s okay… doesn’t make the day any less special. I know we should tell those we love that we do love them every chance you get. But there’s something nice about having a day set aside to really focus on that fact. To tell everyone — our “significant others,” our families, our friends — that we love them. That we care about them. That we are glad they are in our lives.

To everyone who reads this… Happy Valentine’s Day. May you love and be loved deeply.

(By the way, to those who think this holiday was created to sell cards, history tells us it was celebrated as far back as the Middle Ages… long before Hallmark cards. So. PBTHTHTHTHTHTH)

faith, holidays, husband, optimism

An unexpected angel

DSCN0615-1Yesterday, I wrote about having the Holiday Doldrums. Today, I write about an unexpected burst of Holiday Spirit.

It was a frustrating beginning to the day, when a bid to get some much needed funds to cover a few bills hit a brick wall. We attempted to sell a couple of my husband’s old keyboards to a used music store, only to be turned down cold. We left feeling frustrated, angry, and admittedly a little depressed. On to Plan C. Whatever that may be.

We went from there to a place in which we needed the Christmas spirit.

See, my husband is a Mason, and his lodge puts together gift baskets for the widows of Masons who have passed away. We had a basket in our backseat, and two keyboards in the truck bed. The cab of the truck filled with a feeling of… well, anything but Christmas.

We arrived at the widow’s condo, and we went to the door. Both fighting to find the Christmas spirit to bring to this woman who would either welcome us or send us on our way immediately. We had no idea what to expect!

I know one thing for sure: we certainly didn’t expect to leave her home with smiles from ear to ear, and the feeling of Christmas in our hearts. I felt like a Christmas Angel had just swooped into my life in that half hour we spent visiting with this most delightful of women.

She told us of how she’d lost her husband in 2005, and how the first two years after his passing she felt her own life over. How she cried every day, missing him deeply. Then, one day, how she decided she needed to live, and has since joined a cards club, and a gardening club. How she has so many friends, and how she goes all the time.

Then she explained how she’d had a car accident earlier this year, and how four of her five doctors told her she’d never survive her injuries. But then how her primary doctor told her she could survive… and the next day she was out of bed walking around the hospital. She told us of how she doesn’t use the wheelchair nor the walker in her living room, and how she is determined to eventually be off oxygen completely.

She was filled with such life. She was filled with such determination. She was filled with such a positive glow.

How could we not leave her home feeling like WE were the ones to have received a gift. An intangible gift that you can only see in our new moods and demeanor. Things suddenly didn’t seem quite so bad. And those keyboards? Well, they’re back in our garage, to be dealt with at another time. Instead of lamenting our “loss” of not selling them, we’re saying thank you for our many, many blessings.

We found our Christmas spirit in a very unexpected angel. And I am so very thankful.