Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope everyone had a love filled Valentine's day!

Shawn proposed to me on Valentine's Day 13 years ago. It was such a cliche day for a marriage proposal, but that's probably why I wasn't expecting it. For those who don't know the story, it goes like this:

We met on December 22nd and a whopping 7 weeks later had picked out a ring and were ready to make the plunge. Shawn was (is) a perfectionist, picky, and not one to make hasty decisions, so his family knew he was serious. He sent peach roses to my work, picked me up at the end of my shift, and announced that he was going to make me a nice dinner. His parents were out of town, so we had their house for the evening. He was so nervous and impatient that instead of making me dinner, he took me on a romantic stroll through the Jack-In-The-Box drive-thru. Some women would have turned and ran at that point, but I apparently saw through what was major faux pas on his part.

We got back to the house and ate our Sourdough Jacks and Curly Fries by candlelight and then decided to head for the hot tub. Now we're talkin! So we're in the hot tub talking "and stuff" and the rubber ducky that was always in the hot tub was getting caught in the current and kept bumping into me. Finally, I picked it up and set it on the ledge...Shawn kept putting it back in the water. After about 4 rounds of this, I finally noticed something attached to the ducky's neck. A plastic bag. What? I looked a little closer and noticed that there was something shiny in the plastic bag. It took for what seems like forever to realize it was a ring. I fumbled in the water to get the bag off the duck and I couldn't really tell you what Shawn said. I don't know if there was a speech or if he just blurted out the words, but I do know that he tried putting the ring on my index finger. He was so nervous.

So obviously, I said yes. We worked for the next year at planning the wedding and were married February 27th, 1996 on the beach in St. Thomas. Valentine's Day still holds a special place for me and we still have the rubber ducky. Because V-Day is so close to our anniversary, we usually don't do anything special, just a gift card or something.

Yesterday, in the midst of our quarantine pajama party, Ian and I did some crafting. I used to have all the time in the world to make cute paper crafts and have a large, expensive collection of stamps, punches, paper, embellishments, etc. I've gravitated more toward the electronic versions of these things now, but our general family/friend network still expects hand made cards for Christmas and birthdays. I have to admit I've fallen a bit short in the past few months. Once Ian is no longer insistent on using my paper cutter and fancy scissors, I'll get back into it a bit.

In the pictures below, you'll see that I was hardly worried about the ramifications of a baby with markers. He's still learning control...and that the inky part goes on the paper and not in his grip. His PJ's were half off on a sale rack and he'll grow out of them in a few months so...go for it kid. I don't have the energy to stop you!

Picking out the perfect stamp

He did a great job once he figured out which direction the marker part goes

He did a pretty good job drawing an arc...and I'm still convinced he's left handed!

Card making battle scars... Hang Loose Dude!