My Funny Valentine.....

My favourite Valentine's Day occurred when we lived in Petawawa the last time. We had made plans to go to the mess, but those were cancelled when Dan had to leave to go on a mission to rescue Carmichael, the regimental bearskin rug, from the rival artillery regiment. I might have gotten over this much sooner, had Dan not told me he had only made plans with me in case his rescue plans with Tony and Jeffie fell through. Unfortunately for him, he was standing at the top of the stairs when he told me this, and I had an irresistible urge to give him a shove. Fortunately for him, I resisted the urge. Ever since then, Valentine's Day has been a low key day in the Bobbitt household.

I expected this Valentine's Day to be even more low key as Dan is deployed. It may have been low key to me, but not to our 7 and 9 year old daughters! The first words out of each of their mouth's were "Happy Valentine's Day." Of course, this really should not have been surprising to me as Libby believes both Valentine's and St Patrick's Days should be national holidays. They both went off to school, dressed in their Valentine's finest, bubbling with excitement over the upcoming celebrations. Connor, of course, was not so excited, and went off to school grumbling that probably no one would give him Valentine's any way. How shocking that he actually came home with as many as his sisters. They all had a great day, and the girls were spinning from the combination of red dye, sugar, and excitement.

I had a really nice e-mail from Dan this morning, and then went out with a friend for coffee and shopping. But then, I got a wonderful surprise. At the end of the day, I received a beautiful bouquet of long stem red roses. Elizabeth's eyes were big as saucers as I opened them, "Mommy those are the biggest roses I've ever seen." My husband really is a sweetie. He never misses a big day when he is deployed (in fact I got my Mother's Day flowers in January, but that is another story). The roses really are beautiful and they almost made me forget that other Petawawa Valentine's day. Almost, but not quite.

"Where you used to be, there's a hole in the world,which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime,and falling into at night. I miss you like hell."
~ Edna St. Vincent Millay