"True Love" Only Takes 5 Year

Love takes work.  In our case, time and communication

I just found this post that never got published, written almost 1 year ago:

My family always tried to make a big deal over birthdays and special holidays.  Even if we had nothing, we sacrificed to get a super nice present for whomever the lucky person was.  It was a time to spoil someone who rarely received anything.   Gift giving was huge.  I don't really know why.  I mean, we understood that presents weren't everything, and it's the thought that counts.  Anyway, Mr. Medic didn't grown up that way.

Bring these two paradigms together and what do you get?  Unmet expectations!  And you can bet almost 100% of the time it's my expectations that aren't being met.  Let's take Valentine's Day for example...here's how it usually plays out:

In the fantastical oooey-gooey-chick-flick part of my mind I think to myself "self, wouldn't it be so cute and romantic if Mr Medic surprised me with gorgeous flowers and breakfast in bed...an announcement in the local paper professing his undying love...a horse drawn carriage ride through the bustling streets so everyone can gawk and be totally jealous?"  Come on, a girl can fantasize right?!  Sometimes I don't even have a specific idea in mind.  I think the surprise of anything he were to come up with that is thoughtful and caring would be amazing.  I don't want to have to spell it out for him.  I want the grand idea to come from his own genius noggin.  

I'll set these fantasies aside hoping he'll magically obtain some mind reading super power, and go about doing my best to make it a special day for him.  I heart attack his study area, concoct heart shaped food items, make a card and write a sweet love note.  (In MY defense I have been learning to tone my spending down quite a bit by finding things I can make, given the current poor-college-student lifestyle.)

Not to throw him under the bus, but from what I can recall Mr Medic hasn't done anything for the last few V Day's.  I know he loves me, and I don't need a cheesy card to tell me that, but it is nice.  (Now in HIS defense, he has learned to do very well for Christmas gift giving.  He goes all year asking for a couple bucks cash back when he does the shopping or stows away any loose change he has, and will get me something super amazing.)

So alas, I'm usually left feeling gypped, and Mr Medic feeling like a loser.  I pout, and he feels frustrated that he doesn't know what to do because nothing ever seems good enough for me.

Now here we are almost one year later-today (2-14-13):

I am proud to say that today was the best Valentines we have shared thus far.  Why? Because I got over my fantasy of Mr Medic reading my mind and told the poor boy exactly what I wanted.

A few days ago I let him know that I really wanted chocolate covered strawberries for Valentines Day. We openly acknowledged (aka communicated with each other ) the monumental event (me telling him my expectations) and how I also succumbed to not wasting my time or our money on much for him, because he doesn't really care.

Here's how the day played out because of that-

I woke up to Twodles saying "we're makin' bre-fast for ya mom!"  which was a delicious sausage egg mcmuffin...heart shaped of course.

Later, I quickly whipped up a little card for Mr Medic (thank you Pinterest) and paired it with one of his favorite candies from the grocery store.

He came home from classes and errands with 2 white roses (one from him and one from Twodles and Goob) I like to pretend I don't like flowers because they just die, but really what girl doesn't like a pretty flower?

He said he picked white because they looked cool.  I'd like to think it represents my purity!  hahaha

He also picked out the best extra dark chocolate and hand dipped some strawberries for me which we all devoured.

I am so glad that I just opened my mouth and told him what I wanted.  Instead of being crabby that my expectations weren't met, I was happy and even noticed the littlest things that make me love my forever valentine so much....

-he picked all the cheese off 3 pieces of pizza and carefully placed all the toppings back on, just so I could enjoy dinner dairy free
-took interest in the things that I enjoy, without being prompted


-he did all the dishes AND made the dessert I've been digging lately >>> (thanks Kristina, find her recipe here)


-he helped me make the day special for a few others, without complaint <<<<













I'm only regretting one thing today- that I didn't tell him what I expected or wanted a long time ago!

Happy Holidays

Picture overload....

1) Annual Christmas tree hunt

This year was much better than last year, only mostly (we didn't get to enjoy the company of ANY friends or family) BUT Twodles was much more into it and actually had some fun!  

Isn't he so super cute?  He did that all on his own!

My little cuddle bear

I've got the greatest boys in the world

A hunting we will go.

Behold...THE tree!

Proof of fun happening

Can't pass through St. Anthony without stopping at Mr Medics favorite dive, Big J's

In all its glory!

The tree all decorated and the boys in matching PJ's , thanks to Grandpa B

2) We were invited to an ugly sweater/white elephant Christmas party so we had to take advantage of the awesome photo op with Mr Claus earlier that day.

Both boys enjoyed this authentic-looking Santa

"Mom, I'm SOOOO tired of you taking pictures of me in this ugly sweater & turtle neck!"

Our tiny town was all out of decent ugly sweaters for adults, so we settled on making the boys suffer!

3)  I pinned countless activities and food ideas for the holiday season, in hopes to make it a fun filled December, but I think I only got around to two.  The original idea behind this first one was to have a wrapped Christmas themed storybook for every day in December.  Two problems:  One, we are too poor cheap to buy books, and two, by the time I realized I could check some out at the library every other Pinterest-loving-Mormon-momma had probably already scoured the shelves because I couldn't find a single age appropriate one.   I settled to try and find at least 4 that we could read either every Sunday or Monday night...aaaaaannnnnnnnndddddd, that happened ONCE!  I'm lame!

Santa left a Christmas story for us to read for Home Evening & some yummy cookies
(Thanks neighbors for helping make that happen!)

The single December food creation in all its glory!

Twodles loved the Christmas Eve morning breakfast surprise

4)  Because we were going to be home Christmas Eve and Christmas morning for the first time since being married, I was all about finding our own family traditions.  

• We usually always open one present on Christmas Eve, which is PJ's, but this year we opted against getting the adults any, and I was hoping to find second-hand for the boys, with no luck.  
• We added a new tradition of opening one additional family gift which will always be either a game to play or a movie to watch.  This year I finally gave in to Mr Medics all time favorite more spiritual based Christmas movie request and bought "Mr. Krueger's Christmas"  
• Mr Medic treated us to a new Orange Chicken recipe for dinner (we may stick with a "non-conventional" Christmas Eve meal theme) 
• We played with our Nativity Set instead of reading from the Bible (more Twodles friendly for now) 
• We left Santa some treats
• For the first time ever played the "Santa" role!
• I made cinnamon rolls for our Christmas breakfast (not from scratch, just used pillsbury crescent rolls and did bite size in the mini cupcake pan)  Maybe next year I'll buck up and do the real deal.

He's the only one to get the Christmas PJ's this year.  He threw a fit at first and said they were scary,
but I distracted him enough to get them on him and he soon forgot about not wanting to wear them.

Leaving treats for Santa, and of course following the "one for you, and one for me" rule (hence the full mouth)

Sweet boys in Christmas PJ's (good thing I already had some that worked for Goob)

Santa was nice to Twodles this year.  All but the dinosaur were second-hand steals!  

5) Christmas morning delight.  This is our first year to do the "Santa" thing (which we have actually been debating even doing.  We'll see how we feel about it next year)  It was fun to see Twodles confusion/excitement/overstimulation.

Christmas morning awe!   

"Santa ate his tweat"

Dr kit, just like daddy

Grammy to the rescue!  Woody was the ONLY thing Twodles wanted for Christmas.  

Family photo op, and as much as it looks, no we did not drug Twodles

6) Holiday events not pictured-  

• We did a service project at the assisted living center next door.  Twodles, myself and a good friend were able to help a senior couple married for a gazillion years do a couple household chores.  They were the most amazing couple and were so sweet and I hope I can be just like them when I grow up!  
• Along with Santa we met the Grinch or as Twodles calls him "the Brinch" and Twodles was mortified of him.  His hands were exactly like from the movie, long and hairy and he moved them around just perfectly.  Twodles was so scared, he thought they were spiders.  When we tried to get a photo with him, Twodles burst out screaming and crying.  It was quite hilarious.  Needless to say, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" with Jim Carey is one of Mr Medics favorite Christmas movies so we hesitantly borrowed it to watch as a family.  Twodles was a little wide eyed at first, but eventually warmed up to it.  
• I helped Grammy make some neighbor gifts and we over-produced by more than 100.  They were super cute, and I'll be posting about that separately.  
• We went to Mr Medics work party for the fire station, which I spent most of the evening alone because he was on call.  Even though I was at a table with almost complete strangers, I didn't mind much.  It was awesome free food, and a night without kids!
• I organized a fun Christmas craft with some ladies from church (Ah-ha, that makes 3 Pinterest successes, go me!)
• I missed singing my favorite Christmas hymn in church "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" :(

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS!  

Let us always remember the true meaning of Christmas-our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

Thankful

I actually utilized one of my pins...yay for me!

BEHOLD OUR TREE OF THANKS

I went to the craft store, picked out a couple scrapbook pages, and then used their die cut machine to make the little circles.  I did check out their willow bundles, but at $12 I couldn't bring myself to put them in the cart along with the two boys.  Once I got home I used a hole punch so they could hang.  Still stumped and a little bummed that I didn't have any branches, I decided to take a look outside to see what I could come up with.  $ FREE.99 is always nice, right?!? And not to shabby if I do say so myself!

Each day we tried to add one new thing we were thankful for.  Twodles came up with quite a few all on his own..."Jeff" was one of them.  We missed a lot of days, but it was nice to have a reminder of all that we are blessed with.  

Because I am paranoid of becoming a hoarder and I don't like to keep things, I'll make a list them here so I can ditch the clutter:  

• my wife's long hair
• The Prophet
• work
• family close by
• a home to live in
• milk
• good health
• the gospel
• father/son errands
• Grammy
• my blanket
• nap time
• warm showers
• daddy
• fresh fruit
• Goob's hair
• grandkids
• Goob's cooing
• kisses
• the right to vote

Can you tell who said what?  We even got a few put on the tree by Grammy.  

So many things to be thankful for!

This is Halloween

Before having kids I swore I would never resort to bribery...and I never really needed to until now!  Yes I am that mom who bribed my kid with every imaginable thing to be desired by a child, trying to get him into the costume I handmade.  When bribery wouldn't work I threatened him!  hahahaha

There were days when he liked wearing it....

And days when he absolutely did not...

One of the very first times I was able to get him in the costume, keep it on, and actually enjoy it a little was by distraction.  I had him in some jammies that had animals on them.  I told him that the animals would get cold if they didn't have their jammies on over them.  Then I distracted him like nobodies business while slipping him into it.  It was quite the process to say the least.  

But, you bet your bottom dollar that I could never get him to sport this awesomeness...

I considered myself lucky when most of the time this is how he ended up....

Can anyone guess what he's watching?  It's his pretty girl, Audrey (from The Lorax)

We did a practice run the weekend before Halloween.  Brown bear and The Lorax

This is about the time I started getting desperate for him to wear a mustache.  At the above mentioned practice run, people kept asking if he was a pumpkin.  Are you kidding me?!?!?!  A pumpkin...really?  I didn't spend so much time hand making this costume with no pattern (which I've never attempted before) just so he could be a pumpkin.  So, I concocted another smaller mustache out of the fleece that could be taped to his face, instead of put around his head with elastic.

Usually Grammy has been around when I bribe/threaten to try and get him to wear the costume and mustache, but this time Mr Medic was home.  It was a sheer nightmare.  I admit now that I was being a touch ridiculous, and at one point Mr Medic asked "is this for him or for you?"  He was screaming, and I may or may not have started acting like a bit of a two year old myself.  I could get him to kiss the mustache, thinking that would help him develop a bit of a "relationship" with it, but he never would put it on.  

Then Mr Medics mom gave me the brilliant idea to paint it on!  HELLO, why didn't I think of that!  Of course as soon as that problem was solved, one more arose and now the kid wouldn't wear the hat with attached eyebrows!  So, we went to our church activity with a mustache, but no eyebrows!  Grrrrrrrr  Thankfully for Halloween day we got all the kinks worked out...mostly.  

My first attempt at an orange wig was....creative, to say the least.  I am from a poe-dunk town, which means there are no orange wigs anywhere, so I made one from 3 witches hats that had a string of orange hair attached.  Not only did I already look like frumpy-Audrey-after-two-kids,  but as Mr Medic so lovingly pointed out I looked more like Ronald McDonald's sister... 

Trick or treat story time at the Library!  (Don't laugh TOO much)

So I opted for spraying my hair instead, which for some reason felt 10x "prettier" than the wig...

Trunk or Treat crashers! 

Twodles had fun, but was a bit weary of the moving skeleton hand...the need for sugar prevailed!

Truffula tree and brown bear

Thanks to parent tax, I'll be enjoying some of that later!

And, for those who haven't seen the movie-shame on you/get over the "political brainwash" and just watch it.  here are some reference pictures...

Twodles first love- Audrey

The Lorax-speaker of the trees and Truffula tree (my personal fav)

Brown Bear and Truffula tree

Hope you enjoyed one of the best holidays of all year, and didn't have as much fuss as I did in making it all come together!  

P.S. How do you get you kids to do something that's not of huge importance, but more just for your own kicks?