The Perfect Valentine's Day

For most, Valentine's Day or for all terms and purposes "V-Day" seems to be expensive dinners and expensive gifts. Nate and I are totally not that kind of couple, not that they're bad, but we would really just rather save our money or put it towards our house or retirement. Sometimes though we get so caught up in the "saving money factor" that we end up doing nothing for specials days and it can be kind of a let down.

So this year for Valentine's Day I decided to try to do something nice. My first thing was remembering that it was coming, which I did, yay for me. I got together with some ladies in my ward and put together what they called "The 14 Days of Love." Each lady brought something that their hubby liked and then we combined them all and each lady went home with a special daily gift to give there hubby's up to V-Day. It was a fun idea and there was tons of cool stuff like heart shaped hand cuffs, and chocolate body paint, massage rocks, candy and cookies (I wish I would have taken a pic, it was a pretty sweet idea!). In the end though, it was a lot more work then I thought it would be. When V-day finally came, the bag was still full of the inedible stuff.

One would probably think that we spent V-day vigorously working our way through all the fun "toys" but I don't want to scare anyone away from my blog by going X-rated so instead we did this...

1. Slept in until 11 which is huge for us! We never get to sleep in even on weekends. It was wonderful to stay up late and wake up late for once!

2. Caught a flight to Berlin, New York, LA...we had a couple of gigs we had to rock out on Guitar Hero World Tour. We played some serious face-melting solos!!

3. Four hours later grabbed some lunch at one of our favorite places to eat...Edo Japan. We can eat there and have left overs for 20 bucks! "Two Bento Boxes please!"

4. Off to a total chic movie, "He's Just Not That Into You" (we had free passes). I know, totally cliche V-day activity, dragging the hubby or boy friend to a torturous girlie movie. I'm my defense, it kinda looked like a couple movie, funny for the guys and romantic for the girls...no such luck. Way too much dialogue and character development to be a guys movie. Nate was a good sport though and struggled...ahem, slept...through it. I did promise him a dose of guy stuff after the movie though--and no, it's not what you're thinking.

5. NBA Skill's Competition - This is where I yawn...excuse me. Hours of testosterone charged giant men slamming balls through hoops while doing crazy tricks! Dream come true...well, not completely but I do like sports and it was nice that Nate got to do something he really liked on our special day.

Although it seems like things were all planned out, nothing was. We flew by the seat of our pants embracing adventure when it came. haha It was so nice to have one day to not do anything productive but build our relationship. It felt like we were dating again. So fun!! Best Valentine's Day ever!

25 Random Things...

I thought this was kind of a fun idea. There's a tag going around facebook called "25 Random Things about me..." I decided to do and it was fun. I learned a lot about some of my good friends and I think they learned some interesting things about me. So, for all of you that aren't on facebook (shame, shame, seriously though, you should check it out) I brought it to my blog. So, without much ado, here is 25 random things about me...

1. Growing up I always wanted to live in another country someday...never thought it would be Canada, I'm not even sure I knew it existed.
2. I was adopted three days after I was born.
3. I've been tagged multiple times in "25 random things..." for the past week but until today I couldn't figure out how to make a note.
4. I've cruised through the Caribbean three times and LOVED it!
5. I have two bad habits that I can't seem to permanently break, biting my nails and picking my lips when they're chapped (gross, I know).
6. I love animals but never want to have one.
7. If I believed in reincarnation, I would come back as a professional athlete.
8. When I read a book it plays out in my head like a movie.
9. I have a hard time distinguishing between fact and fiction mostly because I read too many fiction books and watch too many movies.
10. I want to write and publish a novel of my very own and I actually have a few I'm working on right now.
11. I didn't vote for Obama but am happy he won.
12. I hardly ever play video games despite that my brother makes them for a living.
13. The biggest regret I have in my life is not going on a mission.
14. I hate tap water, I only drink bottled water which makes for sacks and sacks of empty bottles which totally makes my hubby crazy!
15. I could sit and just watch people for hours and hours. My fav memory of this is leaning on the back of the couch with my old roomies at BYU-Idaho and watching all the people go by.
16. I am super-duper afraid of sharks. I tried to conquer my fear once by researching all the different things I needed to know about sharks and I think I actually made it worse. It hasn't made me stop going in the ocean but I'm very cautious about when I do and what the conditions are.
17. I guess that brings me to another fear, deep open water and scary weird sea creatures. People keep urging me to get my scuba certification but I'm not sure if I would have enough courage to use it.
18. I absolutely love LOVE food but I can be a little picky about it sometimes.
19. When I was kid I thought I was giving a roly poly or potato bug a home when I stuck it up my nose. I ended having to go to the emergency and get it flushed out because I'd pushed it up so far.
20. My dream car is a Volkswagen Touareg.
21. I love names, like people's names. I think it really says a lot about who that person is or will be.
22. I love going to the dentist or doctors. I just don't find it super scary like most people seem to do. I would rather just figure out what's wrong so I can fix it.
23. I love eyes. I always notice whenever I meet someone new what color their eyes are.
24. I desperately want to have a kid with red hair. I love red hair esp my husband's color. I think subconsciously I knew I was supposed to marry someone with red hair because the only serious relationships I ever had have been with guys who had red hair.
25. I'm kinda an all or nothing type of person. I jump into things with both feet and hang on for the ride. Unfortunately that means I learn most of life's lessons the hard way...

Extra after thoughts:
26. I totally stole this idea from my friend Jaime.
27. Chuck Taylor's are my ultimate favorite shoe and my goal is to one day have them in all colors!
28. I heart short hair and want to cut mine off again.
29. I forget EVERYTHING! esp if it's something important that I need to use that day. There is a direct correlation between an objects importance and the likelihood of my forgetting it i.e. the more important it is the higher the chance I have for forgetting it at home. Tested and tried!
30. I have so many thoughts running through my head all the time that I often think I've said something out loud and didn't actually.

Bonus 31. I love my husband. He puts up with all my long-winded narratives and my crazy whimsical notions I get from reading too many fiction books. He is my bestest friend! Luv you!

#6 amendment: maybe a horse, like if I ever lived on a ranch or something...
#12 amendment: ahh, okay so I love guitar hero and rock band! best games ever!!!
#22 amendment: so I sound like I have Munchausen Syndrome which I don't. I never go to the doctor and hardly ever feel sick. Just wanted to clarify that point...