The 9th Time's a Charm

We finally got it right. This being our 9th Valentine’s day together – it’s about time.

As I write this paragraph it baffles me how Rob and I ever managed to get together and then stay together. We are polar opposites. Where Rob is calm and measured, I am erratic, impulsive and excessive. And it shows…especially around holidays such as Valentines day. Whereas Rob doesn’t even like to acknowledge commercial holidays, I like to use these opportunities to shower him with excessiveness – food, drink, presents and mushy Hallmark cards.

After many years of me disappointing him by my unnecessary overabundance, and his disappointing me by his statement of inattentiveness, we’ve finally found our balance.

Instead of buying a card, Toby decorated a piece of red construction paper with stickers and erratic crayon marks. Instead of a gift, I made Rob his favourite: strawberry rhubarb pie. Except there was no rhubarb. And I forgot to mix the inside ingredients together. And then I undercooked it. So he was presented, rather unceremoniously, with a disastrous looking strawberry-like-cobbler and a rather ugly piece of paper.

But Rob genuinely appreciated my attempt at normalcy, “Wow, Lyss! THANKS! You have TOTALLY exceeded my expectations!!!”

(wait a minute…was that a SUPERLATIVE STATEMENT coming from my calm and measured husband??)

I was a bit taken aback by his overzealous appreciation. And slightly humbled to think how opposite my reaction would have been to a similar gift…but hey, it’s nice to know I finally got it right…