Technically we're not spending Valentines Day apart, but really we are. Dominic's flight doesn't get in from Florida until 8:30PM on Sunday so if it's on time he won't be home until nearly 10:30. I'm not this big Valentine's day fan or anything but it's still nice to take a day to appreciate your husband and celebrate love in general. We decided to go to dinner last weekend instead, just a little Olive Garden nothing fancy and then he surprised me on Wednesday with TWO bouquets of flowers. Those flowers smell just delish right now and everytime I walk by them I think of him, such a cleaver man my hubby. Plus, after a little not so subtle hinting he picked up a new Willow Tree figure for me...the Je'Taime one. For those of you who don't know Je'Taime is French for I love you and it's engraved on my engagement ring. Perfect gift, right!
And what did I get Dominic? A card...this card:
HAHA! He was wonderful and I was...all about me! This might just be our relationship in a nutshell ;)
In my defense, I am building him a baby from scratch and he thinks that Valentines Day is about women anyway. I know most of you know how we met but I recently found a little momento that brought back some memories and since I've got the time I figured I would tell the story from my perspective (Dominic's is a little different)
We were both attending our first day of school in 6th grade. This was the year you go from elementary schools to middle schools and have different teachers for different subjects. The school was broken up into pods with about 150 kids per pod. Of course we were in the same pod which happened to be a 6/7 split pod. Somehow Dominic's schedule was messed up and he was put in the 7th grade classes instead of the 6th grade ones so he came into Mrs. Tomko's class a little late. Most of the class knew each other since we had been together since 3rd grade or even sooner but there were a few new comers...ie Dominic.
Even in 6th grade this guy stood out, I know he was over 6 foot tall already. I was a completely loud obnoxious girl who was probably completely over confident and not really adept at showing someone I was interested. I'm sure I made fun of him and teased him horribly, at least that's what he tells me. I 'went out' (I say it like that because I didn't really go anywhere but I called them my boyfriend) with a few boys and got into teenage girl trouble plenty of times.
Eventually, Kevin Sampson decided that enough was enough and Dominic and I should 'go out' since we obviously liked each other...this lasted all of a lunch hour. We did manage to stay friends and FINALLY started dating in 7th grade. I still remember the first time we kissed in the back of the band room. We were on the stairs while waiting for the bell to ring so we could all go home, quite romantic. We carried on like this for about a year, neither of us dating anyone else.
8th grade meant a new school and new pods. The class we were in which typically stayed together gets broken up this year so we were now in different pods. The details escape me but we broke up over something trival between 7th and 8th grade. Being the teenage girl I refused to ask a boy out but made an exception for Dominic because I really wanted to get back together...he declined! Yes people, he turned me down!
I spent my days hanging out with the Fab 4 and eventually, in 9th grade, Dominic went to O'dea...far far away from BJHS or BHS for that matter. We still stayed in touch and saw each other at games or get togethers occassionally but didn't really date. We even went to a dance at O'dea our senior year, I think it was the Valentine's dance which is appropriate since this is Valentines day after all.
Soon, we were off to college, again in completely different areas of the country. I stayed close to home at Central and he went across the country to Cornell. It might sound crazy but we stayed in touch, calling each other every few months and hanging out during holiday breaks. We shared boyfriend/girlfriend drama and eventually found ourselves single at the same time again. By this point I was at Vanderbilt, still far from NY but much closer than WA. I made a trip up to Ithaca for my spring break and spent the week there. We reconnected but since Dominic was free from football and a girlfriend he was less than excited to get into a relationship....again I moved on although I was pretty bitter at this point.
We didn't talk for at least 6 months, which is the LONGEST we had gone not talking since 6th grade. I was about to graduate from Vandy and was headed back to WA for my integration clinical in Tricities when I decided to call him up. He seemed quite surprised to hear from me but we agreed to get together. Timing was finally right. We hit it off wonderfully. I spent many hours driving back and forth across the pass (feeling like I was back in college again) just to see him.
After graduation I moved home and the visits became constant. I was job hunting and was considering a position here in Modesto but refused to move without him. Don't get me wrong, there was no pressure for him to come with. I just said I won't even consider the job unless you're willing to move too. I had an RN job up in WA that was less than ideal but i could have made it work until something in midwifery opened up. He saw the potiential and decided to take the chance.
Those first few months were incredibly hard. We both made a concious effort to stick it out and I can't even tell you how lucky I am that he did. I realized I was ready to marry him after my family came down and we spent a long weekend in Sonoma. He proposed over a delicious homecooked meal of lamb and mashed sweet potatos, just thinking about that meal makes me hungry.
It's hard to believe that path got us here today. The momento I came across was a 4 leaf clover that Dominic found and gave to me at lunch in 7th grade. I laminated it so it wouldn't break (thank goodness) and kept it all those years. It's framed on the bookcase and everytime I look over and see it I think of the journey we took to get here.
That journey was rocky, sometimes it was amazing and other times it made me feel like i couldn't breath...but it all got me here. With baby g kicking away and an amazing man who takes care of me and loves me better than I thought someone could. So even though we're not 'together' on Valentines day, I'm certainly feeling more loved than I was on any Valentines before.
After a little jaunt up to Lodi to pick up out wine club shipment from D'art (we ended up being 2wks early so now we have to go back) we got back home. I put Dominic's sweater on in the tasting room because it's actually been chilly here in Central California, he turns to me and says in all seriousness, "that looks a little big on you" It took us back to the middle school days
One of the great things about the magazine is that it has lovely little side dishes and salads that coordinate with the meals, here's the fried mozzerella we made.
The finish product
I had settled in for the night at this point and was enjoying my strawberry
