.My Valentine.

I love Valentine's day. I always,always have. I am a hopeless romantic. (I don't like chick flicks, though!)For the last several years Jim and I have gotten away for a Valentine get-away. We don't tell anyone where we are going, drop the children of at my parents and enjoy two to three days together in our mystery location. We also started incorporating my favorite kind of date ever into that trip - a Barnes and Noble date with Starbucks! Our get-away is something I always look forward to. (One year we ate at a hibachi and got the surprise blessing of the man sitting next to us paying our full bill. We did not know him at all.) We started the tradition after getting hired at camp. Our anniversary falls in the summer, and we had only celebrated one anniversary before beginning our camp ministry. There is no getting away for even an evening during the busy, camp season. So Valentine's day was our special time.

I have been sad this month realizing that where we are at the moment does not afford us this opportunity to get away together. At the same time I am really excited about the possibility of being able to get away on our anniversary this year due to our changing ministry! (Too bad a cruise does not fit into Dave Ramsey's plan! {wink}) I still wanted to make Valentine's day special for us, and I have had a few little ideas up my sleeve. Jim has now gotten sick, though. He caught whatever I have had for the last week. I am now feeling much better finally, but my poor hubby is sick in bed as I type. So any romantic plans I had are out the window! But I plan to still make this weekend special and dote on my family and enjoy some much needed quality time with them. It's not quite how I planned it, but that's okay.

That leads me to a rather funny story about our first Valentine's day together as a married couple. I really like to do holidays up big, so I went over the top for this day. I bought a new outfit and Jim several gifts and cologne. I also purchased decorations for our bedroom - candles, roses, a new CD, and heart streamers and such. A little ridiculous looking back now, but we were newlyweds. We were just getting ready to settle into our evening together when we get a knock on the door. We opened the door to find my sister, Jim's sister and a few of their friends wanting to watch movies with us in order to get off of their college campus for the evening. Needless to say that Valentine's day was much different than I had anticipated it to be!



This photo is probably three years old now, but it is one of my favorites. I love the security of being in my Valentine's arms. I wanted to do a new photo for this year, but I don't think that will happen. Marriage has not been exactly the fairy tale I thought it would be. It takes more work than I had anticipated, but it has been so worth the work, the misunderstandings, the learning to live life side-by side. And now looking at it I am glad it is not a fairy tale marriage - it is real and raw. I have grown up in our marriage and changed, and we have melded as a couple. There is no one on earth that I would rather spend my days with. There is not another man that I would want to pick up dirty socks after or pack lunches for. No one else can make my heart skip a beat the way he does, and no one has ever looked deep enough into my eyes to see the real Tiffany like he has and does. And the amazing thing is he loves me, despite what he sees and at times because of what he sees. I have never once questioned his love for me. He treats me like royalty, like I am precious, and he makes me feel those things. He cherishes me, and he really, really gets me like no other human. My daughter as well is so, so blessed to have a daddy that treats her like a princess. She will never need to wonder about the love of her heavenly daddy, because her earthly daddy is a wonderful (no, not perfect) example to her. And Scotty will learn from his daddy's example as to how to treat his wife. I have no doubt that if Scotty follows in his daddy's footsteps that he will have a vibrant, dynamic, Christ-centered marriage.

I don't want to bore you to tears, but I want to honor my husband in every way that I can and this is one way I can do that.

Song of Solomon 2:16
My lover is mine, and I am his.

I am taking a break from my blog to focus on loving my husband and children this weekend. Have a truly lovely Valentine's day!

How will you celebrate?