Romance

As a single girl, I pictured my future Valentine's Days with my special someone filled with romantic gestures, intimate dinners at fancy restaurants, and large bouquets of roses. Surely life with someone to love would be all romance, all the time. I would often find myself longing for those days, praying that God would bring the right guy into my life soon.

After what felt like an eternity (which I now see was a very short period of time), God gave me the desire of my heart by not only opening the door to do missions work in the UK but also introducing me to the man I was meant to marry during that fateful trip.

Our courtship was filled with as much romance that could be possible when you're more than 3,000 miles apart most of the time. Late-night Skype conversations, a cute stuffed animal we named Skype, and a lovely bouquet of Valentine's Day flowers were some of the highlights. What we lacked in face-to-face time was made up for by the romance of a whirlwind, long-distance relationship.

Then, we got married, and those dreams of romance didn't quite pan out the way I'd thought they would. That's not to say there wasn't any romance; the romance was present but in a different form from what I'd pictured. This is not to say that Dave is not a romantic husband. No, not at all. He still finds ways to surprise me and sweep me off my feet on a regular basis.

I first realized just how different my dreams were from my reality on Monday night, probably considered the most romantic evening of the entire year. Dave had made our dinner of chicken fried rice, and we'd sat down to watch a documentary on charter schools in Harlem. We sat comfortably together on our love seat as we watched the film. As the credits rolled, I realized just what romance looks like for me.

• Romance is making dinner for your wife because you want to give her a break from her daily task.
• Romance is finding things in common to enjoy together, even if that means you're watching a documentary about the education system in a city far away.
• Romance is feeling comfortable enough to sit in silence, without the need to fill the void with your voice.
• Romance is knowing that simply being with your spouse is the best Valentine's Day gift you could ever receive.

Our holiday may not have been romantic in the Hallmark sense, but it had the perfect amount of romance for me. I wouldn't trade the time spent with my husband for the largest bouquet of roses in the world.

What a Weekend!

As an introvert, I knew that this weekend was going to really stretch me. Starting Thursday night, I had a social engagement planned for each day through Sunday. Yikes! I'm pretty drained right now, but I had quite a bit of fun over the last few days.

Some of my coworkers and I decided to spoil ourselves by going to The Cheesecake Factory on Thursday after work. I will never say no to a chance to have a slice of Kahlua Cocoa Coffee Cheesecake. (And the company wasn't so bad, either. Ha!)

I realized on Friday just how much I enjoy putting on special events. A group of us planned and hosted a baby shower for my work friend Sarah. I had so much fun working with my coworkers to put this baby shower together. There's something about the adrenaline rush I get when it's time to put our plans into action and have a party.

The planning committee with our guest of honor, Sarah

On Saturday, I was able to attend the wedding of a childhood friend, Jen. My family has been friends with Jen's family for as long as I can remember. My mom used to watch Jen when she was just a two-year-old, and now she's married! Because there is some universal law that states Dave must have another obligation when we're invited to a wedding (really, this was the third wedding I've attended solo because he's either had to work or take teacher certification tests), I went to the wedding with my parents and Nate and Kim. Jen and her husband Matt are really involved in a church on the west side of Chicago, so the wedding was in the city. It was a very nice ceremony and reception, and it incorporated a lot of their personality, which I love to see at weddings.

Jen and Matt love Chicago, so the tables at the reception had themes based on different neighborhoods in the city. We sat at the Chinatown table and had these cute fortune cookies as our favors.

The reception was in a really old building with these wooden trusses instead of the newer steel beams. I loved this "retro" design.

I love this picture of Kim and Nate!

Mom and Dad at the reception

Today was the final extroverted event of the weekend: teaching Sunday school! It was my first week leading a small group after observing for a couple of Sundays. The kids must have gotten the memo that I was really tired because they ran me ragged. Hehe! I was so happy to have a quiet afternoon and evening to recover from this crazy-busy weekend.

Blizzard 2011

It's almost three o'clock, and Dave and I are still snowbound. There's a snowplow in our parking lot, but it hasn't moved since one. Is it stuck? Is the driver taking a long lunch? Whatever the case may be, we have nowhere to go, so we're quite content in our cozy apartment with the late afternoon sun keeping us warm.

I'm always amazed by how quickly the weather changes around here. On Monday, with all the talk about the upcoming blizzard, I found it hard to picture as the sun shone brightly that day. Less than twenty-four hours later, we had heavy snow and whiteout conditions. The evening commute that took Dave ninety minutes on Monday took four hours in the middle of the storm. I have never been so happy to hear his key in the lock!

While the blizzard roared outside, we snuggled up under blankets and attempted to watch TV. Our computers were turned off after multiple power outages. Dinner was leftover chips and guacamole because I wasn't sure the power would last long enough to make a proper meal. The lights flickered, and the TV went off and on multiple times, but we managed to make it through the evening without an extended outage.

We woke up this morning to a ghost town. The always-busy road next to our complex was empty, with the exception of the occasional snowplow or brave soul. Here are some pictures of what the blizzard left us.

This road, usually full of rush hour traffic at eight in the morning, was empty today.

Our balcony was sheltered from the snow and northeastern winds, but we still accumulated a few inches.

Our total accumulations were impressive (16 inches in our town), but even more impressive were the drifts that formed. This drift was outside the door of the building next to us.

If anyone in our complex was planning to go out this morning, they would have been very disappointed. Some cars were completely buried!

This is the view from our building's front door. The maintenance crew did a great job clearing paths for us, but the snow was still piled up against our front door.