true love.

So I am 29- officially entering the last year of my 20's. Last year for my birthday S got me a cd from one of my favorite movies, Pride and Prejudice. I was a little disappointed, considering how sentimental he had been previously in our relationship, and how much work he had put in trying to do something special. I tried look at the big picture, such as how S does so much for me every day, and how for his family birthdays are no big deal- while for my family they are HUGE. Nonetheless, this year, I was keeping my expectations low and focused on simply enjoying my birthday.

Stupid S stunned me once again. I came home and chilled for a bit, after a really great day at work (while still managing my class's valentines party!). S rolls in right after 4:00 which is about 2 hours earlier than he usually gets home. He has in his hand some mysterious packages that is dinner. He puts the food in the oven to reheat, and takes me upstairs to show me the first of three presents he has for me- the trifecta he calls it. Upstairs I literally stop and just stare at what he has for me.

I consider myself a pretty laid back person. Generally I don't care about the state of the house during this constant construction, unless we have people over. However, I have started to find my limits to this chaos. One of the things I cannot stand is having a room we have cleaned, organized, or finished get messed up again. It breaks me.

Lately we have felt a push to finish things and there has been a lot of improvement in the general appearance of the house. The downstairs is almost passable. The dinning room and living room are pretty much done except for the floors, and since I attacked the kitchen and bathroom, it has been almost nice. However, S and I are really too much alike, and my motivation to fix the bathroom and kitchen until our final remodel, motivated him to start a more permanent pantry, rather than the metal shelf we had propped up against the side of the fridge. Soon my metal shelf is moved to the dining room to make way for the new construction- dirtying an already cleaned room- and I start to freak.

Now S has a list of projects a mile long- literally. And as much as that shelf was killing me, I couldn't bring myself to be so selfish as to mention how much this was killing me- considering how hard he works. But I thought it- a lot.

So imagine my joy at coming upstairs and finding a pantry that S built for me. He stayed home from work and made this for me, knowing how much it meant to me. It was incredible! Truly. It made me tear up, but I kept it together, because he had two more presents to come.

Dinner in the oven was none other than Taco Villa, the best taco place in the state, according to my family. I had once tricked S into driving all the way to St. Cloud to show him this legendary place. He remembered, and drove 2 hours to get me the best birthday supper in the world! (Nothing is more sentimental to my family than food, and boy is this place special to me!)

The third present was 2 tickets to Death Cab for Cutie's April concert. We both love this band, so we are super excited to go! All in all, it was just too much. Each gift showed such thoughtfulness and planning, that I just couldn't really speak. I spent most of the night just staring at the man that I am lucky enough to share my life with!