So Happy Valentines Day!!!

This Valentines Day feels especially amazing. I don't know if its because the sun is shining gloriously in every single window in my house. Or if its because of the unseasonably warm weather and the feeling that Spring is just around the corner, even if it isn't... it still fees that way.

Or if its because I have these three beautiful children that shower me with love on a daily basis, even if I'm grouchy, and yell too much, and make them mind, or don't make them mind, depending on the day.

Or probably because I've never been more in love with my husband than I am today, and tomorrow that love will have grown impossibly more.

It's crazy really. That I'm here with Zach after meeting the guy in second grade, living out our school years together, watching each other in terrible awkward phases, setting each other up with several different people, and then dating for four years before deciding it was time to get married.

Whew.

We have quite the history.

This month actually commemorates being together for TEN years. Holy Smokes.

Yep, he asked me out right after my 17th birthday, on AIM Chat.

I know. It was pretty romantic.

And then he made me pick out my own birthday present. Which was the worst. Can you imagine me trying to make a decision on my first date.... EVER.

Oh he was also the first real date I ever went on.

And then we met this other couple for dinner at Applebees. Classic High School. Where I was so nervous and sick that I couldn't eat anything because I was pretty sure I was going to vomit.

And I didn't talk.

I know. Me? Not talking?

So bizarre.

And then later, I continued to get more nervous and started this convulsive shaking thing. I don't even want to talk about the pits. Because, they were um... the pits.

Oh my word. Worst Date Ever.

Zach even told my best friend that he didn't think I liked him and the date was a disaster and he probably wasn't going to ask me out again.

Ten years, seven cars, four moves, three kids, one cat come and one cat gone later, here we are.

The good news is, I don't pit out anymore, the bad news is I also don't ever stop talking! :)

He is the best man.

The Best.

And I never would have even got to find that out if he hadn't had the courage, or curiosity, or whatever it was that made him ask me out a second time. And then a third. And then again after that. And then eventually to marry him.

He loves me for me. No matter what I look like, or what size I am, or if I'm wearing make up, or haven't showered in a week. He loves me even when the house is a mess and the dishes are piled in the sink and I'm in the middle of the living room surrounded by mountains of clothes, screaming children and a liter of tequila. (Ok, that was an exaggeration.... Kind of.)

He gets up with the girls in the middle of the night. And then again in the early hours of the morning so I can get just one hour of peaceful sleep.

He always drives. And always fills the car up with gas so that I don't have to. He takes me shopping and forces me to spend money on myself when I can't bring myself to.

He believes in me as a writer, and puts up with my ridiculous dream, and listens to babbling, and lets me use him as a sounding board, and the other week he actually asked me if "I was working?" while editing some pages, which might not mean anything to anyone else, but for this stay at home mom with a useless college degree and a dream that is taking her nowhere, that meant the world to me.

He hates that I don't make any decisions. It drives him crazy. But he still takes me out to dinner, even if it means driving around Omaha for an hour just deciding where to go.

He makes holidays special, every holiday. Even this one. Which really, seriously, if he would have just brought a card home today I would have been thrilled.

But instead bought me the best gift: Scrabble Flash. So much better than cards or chocolates. Bought me a gift from "The Kids." Planned an amazing evening out to dinner, and had the girls spend the night somewhere to give me a break.

He is the best father.

And the bestest husband.

And I hate to be so mushy. I was actually just thinking how irritating Facebook is on Valentines Day. Its like Geesh. Give it a rest.

But I couldn't resist an opportunity to brag about him. Even though he will never read this. Not in a million years. And if he did he would never admit it to me.

What can I say? It doesn't bother me. I love him way too much for that.