Valentine's Day #8/2

A few weeks ago, Dan and I celebrated our eighth Valentine's Day together. Well, sort of. Last year was actually the first year we were together on Valentine's Day. Love long distance! The first one was my fault though, I worked on Valentine's Day in high school. Had I known we wouldn't celebrate another one together for 6 years maybe I would have figured out a way to take it off.

We've never made a big deal out of the holiday. Similar to other holidays, what we really wanted most was to be able to spend time together, presents didn't matter all that much. We still usually sent each other something small...candy, a card, maybe some cheesy valentine's thing. My last year in college I really wanted Dan to get me an Edible Arrangement-so much so that I sent him the link to the groupon for it and drove to the middle of nowhere to pick it up because even I thought a $15 delivery fee was ridiculous. I sent him Star Wars cookbooks in exchange (thank you Amazon prime 2-day delivery!) One year I made an impulse purchase at CVS to send in his package-red plastic handcuffs with some stupid saying on them. Have to say I regret that one seeing as they are still in our apartment.

Frequently we'd end up getting each other 2 cards-one meaningful card and one funny one. Last year I think we may have actually just gotten each other real sentimental cards, it was our first Valentine's Day together after all. We did everything we were supposed to do-Dan got home early from work, we both dressed up, he bought me chocolate, I bought him lingerie (yes that is a present for him, not me!), went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant...I'll let you fill in the blanks.

This year, lets just say we're over that. Dan got home later from work than usual (damn all those people trying to get to Valentine's dinners), we dined on fine Thai takeout from a place down the street, lounged around in sweats, got each other funny cards, bonded with the cat, I bought him new pants for work, he bought me some jewelry because we got a card in the mail saying it was on sale and I told him I liked it, and had a very elegant dinner on tv tables while watching the Olympics. The highlight of the day for him was probably the fact that I woke up early to make him cinnamon rolls for breakfast, but even those were from a can. One of his cards to me was about bacon, the other one was fifty shades of grey themed, my card for him basically told him to look me in the eyes instead of a foot lower. There's a lot of comfort in not feeling the pressure to make Valentine's Day, or any other day perfect like there might be for newer couples. We still make certain not to let our relationship fall out of focus, that was a major topic of discussion during our marriage mentoring, but with all the craziness that is going on in our lives right now, spending time together is still the most important part of celebrating the day of love.

Something Old, Something New...

To prevent myself from basically repeating last year's Christmas post, I'm just going to skip over the remainder of the holiday season and mention that Dan and I are seriously considering taking our honeymoon over Christmas next year. We adore our families and are so grateful that we get to see so many relatives and spend quality time with them during the holidays....but its A LOT. Competition is back on between me and Dan/Tim and Sam to see who has kids first and gets to say "we're hosting Christmas at our place, this is the time you come, this is the time you leave...if you don't show up we won't be seeing you". It was particularly stressful this year as my grandmother did pass away on December 1st...so not only did we spend a ton of time with my mom's family in a very short time frame, there was definitely sadness lingering over our family celebrations. 

Moving on...I started my MBA classes on January 8th and so far so good...I've been scrambling to finish reading/homework assignments on 4 out of the 5 days I've had stuff due but with my schedule I shouldn't be too surprised about that. I'm definitely improving though! This week was also the first week that I planned my wedding instead of paying attention for most of my marketing lecture, I think its a pretty good record overall too. However, I freaked myself out in the middle of class when I realized that even though I have everything I'm planning to wear for the wedding except panties, I don't have something old or something borrowed from the rhyme! I could wear underwear I already own...but that's kinda weird. And probably not going to borrow that from someone so its time to get creative! Melissa and I started throwing ideas back and forth immediately...thankfully grad school professors don't really care as much about texting in class as those at UR did. 

Right now my thoughts are that I'll wrap a rosary around my bouquet...I think I have 4 that I've inherited from various uber-Catholic relatives. Something borrowed is a little trickier though. I think most people borrow jewelry but I ordered earrings and a hairpiece that match my dress and I'm not planning on wearing anything else. For now I've settled on borrowing a handkerchief from one of my parents, although I also talked to my mom about her garter. My [now] uncle caught it at my parents' wedding so I may just have to email my aunt and see if its still around somewhere. My guess is no, though. I also just came up with the idea of maybe making a garter out of a piece of my mom's dress since she's thinking about just getting rid of it. I wasn't planning on wearing a garter actually because the whole garter throwing piece totally weirds Dan out so I figured it was just an expense I didn't need, but I'm open to it. I'm a little superstitious I guess of wearing something for my wedding that belongs to someone who's marriage didn't work out, but I'm not sure I really have an option with Dan and I both having divorced parents. So if anyone has other suggestions...or something I can borrow let me know :) 

Other than that wedding planning is going pretty well. Dan just picked up his tuxedo since he's going to give it a trial run at Winter Ball at the Union League Club at the end of February (I might be wearing my wedding earrings and maybe even my shoes to that too and it'll be in the same space as our wedding--almost a dress rehearsal?!). We did our tasting and are about 90% set on our menu although Dan and I can't agree on a second cake flavor. We settled on guest presents, finalized our guest list for the most part, and addressed the majority of the inner & outer envelopes for the invitations. I got my 5-month countdown reminder email from theknot.com which was a scary/exciting experience. Also received my bachelorette invitation...there are some definite dangers to your maid of honor having known you since you were 2-the picture on my bachelorette invitation was proof of that! 

I'm still at the point where on a daily, or hourly, basis I alternate back and forth between feeling overwhelmed and thinking I must have a death wish to feeling like I've got it all under control. Its been a little slow at work for the past couple of months which is probably the only thing working in my favor right now. Its giving me plenty of time to wrap up last minute homework, browse reception decoration ideas, and search for a new apartment! We're signing a 2+ year lease on Sunday for a condo in the South Loop and we're thrilled to be making the move! Dan's more excited than I am-although it comes with a higher rent, it will probably cut off 30-45 minutes of his daily commute by avoiding traffic on lakeshore drive. Moving 2 months before the wedding is a pretty scary prospect, but we are planning to do it over Easter weekend (sorry family, no Princeton/cornfield this year!) when Dan has 4 days off work so that will help a ton! Memo for those of you attending my bridal shower: non-breakable gifts are appreciated :)

Another Friday night of doing homework and running errands stretches out before me so that's all for now!