photo by Carrie Jo Pinckard at www.texturephotogalleries.com

Hopefully you have remembered this, but today is the day we observe and demonstrate the proof of love.  Romantic love.  In other lands, today is the day of love and friendship.  But here, we adore that special someone.  And if there is no special someone at the moment, you can buy the chocolate on the shelves for yourself, too.  Celebrate friendship instead.

For the last ten observations of Valentines Day, I have had a someone special.  Our first Valentines Day I planned to surprise her in the largest classroom building at the University of Kentucky.  Alone, I awaited her at the bottom of an enormous staircase with a bouquet of flowers.  A sorority of girls were selling cupcakes and they lined the staircase like bridesmaids.  We waited for the bell.

The gate opened and the students began rushing by.  In moments, Ashley stood at the top of the steps holding an enormous plate of sugar cookies with icing and all sorts of decoration.  They were for me, surprise.  We met in the middle of the traffic as people gave us enough room for a big embrace and a kiss.  The sorority girls ahhhed and gave us cupcakes.

This story came up yesterday as we passed our 8 week old back and forth.  He is developing saliva and doesn’t know that it should be swallowed and not left to run down his face.  He hollers incessantly and we leave a shop vac running to confuse him that he is back in the womb.  His record breaking puke was yesterday, and I caught it in the face, my shirt, my pants, everything.  The little 11 lb guy has taken control.  There are plenty of moments where Ashley and I have to remind ourselves that life is not chaos.

She is the girl with cookies.  I am holding flowers.  We love each other very much.  And I had better get off here and do something nice before she wakes up and the kid starts hollering.  I make it sound awful, I know.  But I sure do talk about it a lot.

A big special thanks to Carrie Jo Pinckard for our first family photos.  http://texturephotoblog.com/

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