My blue eyes sparkle even more...

Yes, it is safe to say that this Valentines day (even though I'm highly anti-valentines day due to the crappy hype of it all) was one of the best. (I mean you can't top Tommy giving out Valentines and you being the only girl that got one from him, that's high up there.) However there is a new contender for this place in valentines day history... Yes, Matt. How brilliant of you to think of him instantly. Is it because he's my boyfriend that you thought of him? Thought so. Crazy. ;)

Valentines day dawned like them all (normal days that is). Besides for the ice/snow that covered the ground in the morning the day turned out pretty great. I had a plan for Matt's car, covering it in magnets that said 'i love you'. (yes, the i isn't capitalized. Why? Because in a relationship neither the 'i' nor 'you' is any better than the other.) I totally almost got caught by him. He was out having a smoke and I thought he wouldn't have been up that early. (he lives across the street from me). As I opened the door to plaster magnetics all over his vehicle I stopped short with the view of him standing in front of his apartment building. Crap! Thinking he totally saw me I ducked back into my house and waited. Finally I got to the car, which I had to scrap the ice off just to get the magnets to stick. Then it was off to drop Caleb off with his many goodies for his classmates, then off to work. I got a text message exclaiming that I totally 'rock!' and that he's leaving his 'magnetic love notes' on all day. How sweet! :)

The day goes, he calls to make sure that we're having lunch a 'short one' around 1ish. Then the odd things began to happen at the shop. Pete, in the middle of helping a customer, comes up to me kind of in a huff telling me that I need to run to Johnson's (our engraving materials supplier) to get the materials that we NEED for today. I'm like okay... at this point it's 12:30. I'm thinking why can't this wait until I'm back from lunch. I reluctantly agree and put on my coat and head out the door. The drive is nice. I'm feeling PMS-ish and feeling like I really need to get away from people for awhile, for some reason I should be happier being that is valentines day and I do, infact have a date. However, one cannot totally control the hormones of the 'week before'.

I get to Johnson's and tell the receptionist who I am with, she breaks into an odd smile and calls to the back to bring up the materials. THEN... starts talking with me like I'm an old friend! I'm thinking... what the heck is wrong with this woman!? Did she get so overwhelmed with Valentines day that it's gone to her head??? She's never this friendly. I immediately think of telling Pete and Jamie and what a kick they'll get out of how she acted. Crazy woman! The materials arrive and I'm spared a futher conversation that was headed toward dominos and how the superbowl is their biggest selling day and etc.

I get back to the shop, it's now about 12:45. I look around to see if Matt has gotten there yet. No sign of him. I walk into the shop and start to put my jacket away when I look back at Pete and Jamie at the front. They're exchanging odd looks and looking back at me. 'What's going on?' I ask. Then they break into a play act of Jamie getting stabbed by Pete's Swiss army knife. Hilarious and the usual stuff that happens here, but it's odd all the same. I roll my eyes and head over to the engraver to start the jobs that 'need' to get done today.

As I'm starting the engraver Jamie comes over to me and starts talking about how she hates Valentines day. (one thing that you should know about the engraver; it's really hard to hear things happening in the shop behind me, and usually when people come up to me if I'm working on the computer I look up and am greatly startled. The noise from the machine itself and the fan that's right next to it drown out a lot, if not most, of background noise. Conversation dwindles and Jamie stays by me, then she starts talking about this woman and how she wanted banners for this weekend, but she wanted this special stand that we didn't have. And how Jamie didn't want to order it because the woman was a bitch and bollocks like that... I'm like...'what? Why are you telling me this???' I hear some rustling behind me and assume that it's Wendy or Sue unpacking something from UPS. Then, Matt appears, Jamie smiles, and the shop is relatively quiet. Aside from the blaring engraver and fan. He motions for me to look at the production table and there... in all their glory were my favorite foods that he had spent the past hour driving around and picking up to surprise me. The whole shop had been in on this! As it turns out even the woman at Johnsons knew about it and was asked to distract me for a few minutes. It was insane!!! I loved it! Being someone that often dreams of surprise parties and such and never having them happen this was fun to experience. I had thought that the whole thing might've been a set up. But then I thought why would they tell the Johnson's lady and boxed the whole thing to my crazy imagination. But no, it was all true.



The set up as I looked at the table and Matt's huge smile and nervously shaking hands (he's adorable) was this: wine glasses filled with strawberry shake, a pottery bowl full of French fries and a smaller bowl filled with ketchup. (this is my favorite comfort food). Next there were hot wings. And then a pizza in the shape of (gag, and awww!) a heart with my favorite toppings. Of which (the red pepper) wasn't available to put on the pizza and Matt had somehow persuaded the place to cut up and put on the pizza because it was valentines day... He's great. I really couldn't believe my eyes.

I'm happy. Not because he went to the trouble and the thoughtfulness to surprise me, but with him in general. We fit so well that it's crazy. Things work out, we work them out, we try, we give, we take. It's amazing. I think he's amazing.



Thank you Matt for a great Valentines day. I hope there are many more!

And the grand finale? Wretching into the toilet...

Yes, I was sick... Actually sick-queasy- for a solid week. I took Monday off (as stated in my last post) and felt great, but still felt queasy throughout most of last week. I found that if I kept my stomach full that it didn't feel as bad. Thursday morning dawned and I went to work. The day just kept on getting worse and worse. My stomach cramped up and I felt more and more like I would be hurling myself to the back of the shop to the open mouth of the toilet. Here's one thing... That would be gross... Work toilets disgust me. Maybe fore the one and only reason of none proper toilet etiquette is followed upon the boss use in the mornings or whenever she goes poo. Instead of being humanistic and leaving the fan on, she leaves the door wide open and insists on spraying the foul odor with an even fouler smelling lysol spray. It's enough to make one gag and wonder how much of a bad atmosphere this is to work in. I nearly lost it out on the production table last Thursday upon smelling this stank. Awful. Simply awful.

I left shortly after noon on Thursday and spent the rest of the day in bed. Matt came over and read while I slept and ran to the bathroom as my stomach failed to hold anything down. That night wasn't the best. And as Friday started I knew that I wasn't going to make it through a day of work. I dropped off Caleb at Daycare/Preschool and headed back to my bed. I don't even think I put on make up or other clothes than my jammies... I don't even think I put on a bra... Sorry, too much info. I slept until about 2, got up and headed out for last minute things for the game night that night. That lasted about an hour and then I was back in my jammies, back in bed until Matt got off of work. We cleaned the house, made supper and a snack for the party. The party was awesome! I love my friends dearly. We had a great time, I felt great, and laughter was in the air.

Saturday morning... Back to feeling like crap. So I stayed in bed most of the day until bluer set up that night. Sunday, my first normal day where no queasiness occurred. Happy day!

Surprise me God... Day one... Kind of

As my small group embarked on this journey last night, (book in hand), I started to ponder it's meaning. The deeper meaning of asking God, 'Surprise me', is to further include Him in your daily life, to see Him in the small mundane things. I think I've already accomplished this. I know He is there in the busyness of my life, ever watching how I handle situations, always over joyed when giving Him thanks. But nonetheless I gave this a shot. Even though, quite frankly, I think I'm already there...

This morning was a quite one, that is until I placed my new Sigur Ros CD in the player and headed out of St. Paul on Hwy 5. There's something about driving right under an airplane that is totally out of this world. Especially the big ones. It seems to shake my whole being. It's amazing. Continuing on through my drive. Sigur Ros's 'Glosoli' brought tears to my eyes. For some reason I had envisioned a long wait (living life if you will) before being able to see and be close to my creator, my Lord, my King. And then being able to run to Him with wild abandon. It was a truly beautiful moment.

Today was probably a terrible mess. Yesterday I called in sick and upon getting to work this morning I found out that Pete and Jamie had also called in sick, not only today, but yesterday as well... So for the past 2 days the shop has only had 3-4 workers in it. Today was a mess, but I didn't really let anything get to me. One can't when the boss seems to lose her head over every little thing. I just step above it, clear my head, and hope that someday soon she'll realize that her skitzo behavior is costing the shop valuable business.

Another thing that God revealed to me was how blessed I was yesterday to have taken the day off. I fell in love with life again. Things went beautifully, along with it being such a beautiful day. I went out to lunch with my boyfriend and then headed out to the rosedale mall to exchange some jeans. It was great! The whole day went beautifully... I bought paint, headed over to my favorite art shop (wet paint) and found that my drawing pad that usually goes for $15 was on sale for $8! I bought wine at the wine thief, which by the way is a beautiful wine shop. I love Solo Vino but it's good to find an alternate shop. Anyway, upon coming home hands full of paint and canvas, I glanced up at the mail box filled with small bubble mailers. The CDs that I ordered last week! Yay! I started painting and listening to new music. Followed up by spending time with Matt and all his geekiness about guitars. I loved it. :)

It was a beautiful day. A much needed day. Thank you stomach and my heavenly father for allowing me to have it to myself.

I've never wanted to be in a band more... with this name success is imminent.

It has become our spot, our little cozy place of refuge from life, kids, schedules. A secret get away. Even though the mannequin that greets you at the door often, if not always, catches me off guard out of the corner of my eye. I swear that someday I'm going to take it out in a fury of thinking that it's actually someone standing there.

We were here to discuss trips, get togethers, the norm for busy people. A call to mum, a call about the house, the calendar spread out over months. Free days were sparse and taken up fast. The pen, seemingly to have a mind of it's own, cautiously marked out dates inspired by conversations, thoughts and ideas that were suggested. The calendar closed and the thoughts returned back to the mindset that our short escape from the world was close to being over. *sigh*

"I love you."

The smile that crept across the face for those random words... Priceless.