Maybe February Doesn't Suck Afterall

I used to say that there was nothing good in February.

Why did we even have this waste of a month where it's cold and we're so over winter and all the holidays in it weren't worth the time.

Of course there's groundhog's day, which is still stupid, but whatever.

But there was also my birthday.  And Valentine's Day.

It's interesting to watch the progression of your life with the 20/20 vision of looking back.

I woke up on my 30th birthday and can only describe how I felt with a word like: exhilarated.

Because I knew, I just knew that my 30's were going to be tenfold better than my 20's had been.

I just turned 35 and the contentment and security I feel in my life are something that I cherish.  Because I know what it is to not have that.  People joked and asked, how old are you now?  23?

And I would smile and say, I'm not afraid of my age, my 30's have been tenfold better than my 20's.  Please don't make me be in my 20's again.

The side effects of being with The Man are more than I had ever realized they would be.

February is kind of fun now.

Even on my birthday this year, when I had an early morning class, a full day of work, and an evening class, I still felt excited that it was my birthday.  He and the kids had celebrated with me the Sunday before, with gifts and a surprise of lemon brownies (candles and all) when I walked in the door after church.  The Man had read on facebook a random post I had written about "someone should bring me lemon brownies for my birthday," even though I never suspected it to actually happen.

It's okay to celebrate your birthday on Superbowl Sunday, when no one makes you watch the Superbowl.  We still made dinner and lots of dips and treats, and then had a family movie night.

(The tripod present?  Not a tripod.  An iPod dressed up to throw me off.  The box?  A tripod.)

But even on the day of he sent an edible arrangement to my work, and met me for a late dinner with The Circus after class and told me he had set up a photography lesson for me, with my new fancy camera from Christmas.

The small gestures just fill me up.

And that chocolate covered pineapple?  Love.

We never do much to celebrate Valentine's Day, it's a holiday I've always detested.  But I think that may be because I've never had anyone who really made me feel like I wanted that day to be special.

Even now Valentine's Day is mostly a family affair for us.  

A special candlelight dinner at home.  With The Circus.

And I love doing it for them.  And for him.  

Because they fill me.

I've found the past year or two that I like to think of little things for The Man and The Circus to surprise them with.  It's never anything big, because truth be told I still like to keep pressure off of this day, but it's fun to have an excuse to do something little, even cheesy, for them.

We don't have kids today, I leave this afternoon to drive them to their dad so we did our dinner last night.

Cherry 7-up floats with chopped strawberries in them, mini heart pies with strawberry and cream cheese in the middle (here), Navajo tacos (one of The Man's favorites), and lots of candles. 

And lots of kids, as we had extras over.

But all the kids helped prepare it, even the friends, and  it was cheery and happy and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate it.   

This morning we jumped on the band wagon this hairdo for Cali and Tayler:

And I set out pink tic tacs for the girls, and red tic tacs for Sean to say Happy Valentines just one more time before they headed to school for the day.

Last night, after dinner, I tied a note that said "Break me off a piece of THAT" to a giant Kit Kat (printable here), and put this note (even though it's not actually National Nude Day, I used it anyway) and a print out copy of this ecard

 in a pretty little box, along with a rather inappropriate store bought card that had a little vibrating action to it and when it was all sealed up in the box and envelope, I had Cas slip out and put it in The Man's car so he'd find it first thing.  

He took the truck this morning.

I seriously suck at surprises.

I expect tonight after taking the girls that The Man and I will sit on the couch with a bowl of ice cream and watch something along the lines of The Big Bang reruns, and that's pretty perfect in my book.