My marriage is traditional in the sense that I do the vast majority of the household cooking.  When Floyd knows that I am going to be coming home later in the evening, or don’t have a lot of time to eat let alone cook, he is great about jumping right in to help out and whip up a nice meal.  So when these needs don’t arise and I find him behind the stovetop, I am pleasantly surprised.  This morning I woke up to freshly made pancakes.  I hadn’t asked for it, and wasn’t expecting him to do any cooking. 

We all get overwhelmed in our work and social lives.  Meal time is a treasured few minutes you can talk about your day and catch up. *Not having to prepare that meal all the time is a welcome gesture.  And I’d encourage all guys to step up to the stove from time to time.  Even if it comes out a little burnt or doesn’t taste quite the same as when your spouse makes it, I’m quite sure she’ll appreciate the effort.  I know I do.

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I will be the first to admit that all too often I take my husband for granted.  I think after enough time together, you just get “used to” having your spouse around.  That said, I still literally thank God every night for Floyd, my family, and the many blessings I’ve been given.  But there are times when I gush more about those blessings than others.  Today is one of those days.  Today, Floyd reminded me how much I *keep falling in love with him year after year, why he’s my best friend and soul mate.  Before I hurried out the door for work, I found the following note sitting on the kitchen table.

This fall, we will have been a couple for 10 years.  I can only hope that I still find notes like this once in a while in another 10, 20, 50 years.

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At the risk of sounding much older than I am, I had a lovely pre-bedtime with my husband last night.  We often lay down to “go to sleep” and proceed to watch TV for a half-hour, he’ll play a video game, or we’ll read.  Last night, he pulled out a crossword puzzle book.  First, he started a puzzle and I helped him figure out the clues he didn’t know.  Then I did a puzzle, and he helped me finish it.  It was nice just to remove the distractions and spend a little time doing something together before we fell asleep, and I actually slept better last night than I have in about a week.

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What a delight!  I must be in a bragadocious mood the last few days.  But my good boy is knocking my socks off!  Sunday while I was at work, Floyd sent me a text.  “Guess what I did today?”  I wrote back, “I don’t know!  You tell me!”  He proceeded to say, “It’s so beautiful out that I finally took the Christmas lights down!”  Woo-hoo!! One of my favorite things is having him do these lovely chores without me having to ask, or as is sometimes the case, asking more than once.  I told him when I came home, “You know, I was thinking about saying something to you about getting that done.  But I’m so glad you took the INITIATIVE!”  So now we can actually go into spring and not still see out icicle lights hanging from the roof and back deck.  I am pleased as punch, and saying, “Thank You” for a job well done is the least I can do to show my sincere appreciation.  So thanks, Floyd! Love you!

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It’s a classic song.  For me, my Floydie is a funny, wonderful Valentine.  He made dinner reservations for us at Galleria de Paco last night, and we had a fabulous meal and enjoyed each other’s company.

Us at dinner

Earlier in the day, he’d gone out shopping to find a gift for me.  It was good to have some alone time so I could crack away a little more at my thesis.  (I’m currently in the final class for my Master’s degree.)  I figured he’d be gone an hour or two, we’d have lunch, and spend the afternoon and evening together.

Around noon, he sent me a text message saying he was still shopping and didn’t know when he’d be back.  Bless his heart!  He was gone a total of over four hours trying to figure out what to get me!  He ended up getting me two cards, some chocolates, and a gift certificate for an hour-long massage.

My Valentine's gifts

It was very sweet, and I was more impressed at the time he took really trying to determine what I’d want.  He also bought an outfit for himself to wear to dinner that night, and he looked SO GOOD!  That made me just as happy as any gift he’d ever give to me.

Floyd all dressed up

And after dinner, he took me to the mall because while he was there, he noticed one of the department stores was having a huge shoe sale.  I’m a self professed shoe-aholic.  So I came home with an adorable pair of tan slingbacks– just the icing on our Valentine’s evening out!

My new shoes!

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For the most part, Floyd and I agree on what we like and don’t like to eat.  But there are a few dishes that are sticking points.  Number one is fish.  I like to eat and make fried fish and parmesan encrusted tilapia.  Number two is meat loaf.  I enjoy a good meat loaf from time to time.  Floyd is not a huge fan of any of the aforementioned dishes.  So, I RARELY make them.  But from time to time I do.  And when I do, he eats it.  But there’s usually a little complaining thrown in there about why I made it when I know he’s not so fond of that particular food.  I think I should be allowed to prepare these meals– once every couple of months– since *I like them.  And after all, I’m doing the cooking.  Isn’t that alright??

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Tonight, KWWL will continue it’s special series on “love stories.”  And at 6 p.m., my report on “young love” will air.  For the story, I caught up with a former classmate named Sierra. 

My kindergarten class picture... Can you guess which one is me?

Before the interview, we hadn’t seen each other in about 4 1/2 years, when we were both bridesmaids in a wedding.  It was so awesome to get caught up with her and to meet her boyfriend.  As part of the story, my mom sent along some old photos of she and I in school and growing up together.  As I promised Sierra, I won’t show the one mom sent of me in a ballet costume and her wearing a duck suit!  Ha!  But it was so fun to reminisce with the old pictures. 

Ironically, it reminded me of my wedding to Floyd.  That’s because my mom put together a really cool scrapbook with pictures of Floyd & I, both during our relationship and long before we met.  I hadn’t seen many baby photos of Floyd before then.  There were some really cute ones in there!  I think it’s neat to take a look into your partner’s past and learn more about who they were and what they looked like before you knew them.  Of course I know a lot about Floyd, but those images gave me a unique glimpse into him.  And there was something special about his smile even as a little boy that reminded me of why I love the man he’s become.

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It’s no big secret that EVERY relationship, especially marriage, is a give and take.  We make compromises, sometimes big and sometimes small, to keep one another happy. 

My husband is a huge trivia nut.  We have Jeopardy! for the Wii and just about every Trivial Pursuit board game that’s come out in the past decade.  In fact, I got suckered into buying the newest one during our most recent trip to the store.  So if there’s a trivia night that comes up, my husband wants to be there.  He found out a few weeks ago that his school was sponsoring one last night.  We were pretty stoked to participate, since it’s been a couple of years since we’ve gotten to do a trivia night.  But after looking at the calendar, he realized it was the same night for a concert we had tickets to.  At first, he wanted to worm his way out of going to the concert with me so he could do the trivia night.  I said, “This is one of YOUR favorite artists.  I don’t want to go to it by myself.”  He eventually agreed, but was still a little bummed.

Fast forward to last night.

Toby Mac in concert, on stage with his Iowa native guitarist Tim Rosenau

We had a nice dinner out, and when we got to the concert it ended up that our tickets were FRONT ROW seats.  I can’t recall being in the first row seats for any event, EVER.   The bands put on an awesome show.  I had gotten to interview guitarist, and Iowa native, Tim Rosenau earlier in the day for a story that aired on KWWL.  (See it here)  We sang at the top of our lungs, danced, and had a fabulous time.  After that, my husband barely had a thought about the trivia night he’d missed.  And now, it sounds like there may be another school trivia night later this year.  Sometimes we make small sacrifices to please each other, yes.  But in the end, you can often look back at what you opted to do instead and think, “I really didn’t miss that much after all.”  And in fact, this go around, we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

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Downtown Waterloo covered in snow

Are you sick of snow yet?  I’m getting there!  This winter hasn’t been that bad, all things considered.  But enough is enough!  My husband had been waiting all winter for a snow day, and this week got two in a row.  He’s been an awesome “house husband,” getting caught up on laundry, dishes, cleaning, and cooking supper last night.  I talked to him on the phone this afternoon and asked him to print something off of the computer, and he said, “Okay.  And I was going to ask you to take me to dinner tonight because I need to get out of this house!”  I truly am sympathetic to his cabin fever.  It’s hard to think about what my day would’ve been like if I weren’t out running around chasing the news of eastern Iowa.  I’d probably feel pretty helpless–literally stuck!  I’ll be happy to oblige his dine-out request, especially since he got up early to  help shovel a path for me to get out of our driveway this morning.  That’s love!

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