Happy Valentine's Day!

My husband and I have now officially been together for ten years today. TEN. That's a long time! We did not intentionally have our first date on Valentine's Day, it just sort of happened!

When we first met, walking our respective doggies, I was dating this idiot guy, so I didn't pursue my now-husband in any other way than looking for him EVERY SINGLE TIME I took my dog for a walk. I was enamoured of the Mr. literally from the very first time I met him. It was late October in 1999. Each time I saw him we had very good conversations - always very enjoyable, always funny.

So, the way it all went down was I went to Florida to visit the idiot-guy that I was dating for New Year's Eve. Had a miserable time. Seriously. This guy made me just miserable! Came home and immediately found out that he had not only been cheating on me with like 2 other women, but also found out that he had a FIANCEE in Maine. Creepola! Whatever with him. I didn't even shed a tear. I called him, told him what I thought of him and that was the end of it. We had dated a grand total of 5 months. Ugh!

The very next day, I decided I would never ever date another guy that treated me badly. I had done that for a long, long time and I seriously decided I FINALLY deserved better. I was 34, for pete's sake! Enough of the bad guys, already!

Over the course of the next month, I would run into the Mr. while I was out walking my dog, and again, I'd have the nicest time chatting with him. I never really wanted to say goodbye! Luckily, he was not dating anyone, and I FINALLY worked up the courage to ask him if he'd like to go with my housemate and me to a local restaurant. That was in February of 2000. Turned out he was leaving the next day for a dive trip to Mexico! Get this - he was going there to dive with giant manta rays, hammerhead sharks and WHALES! How cool is he? Anyway, he was going for like 10 days and said he'd call me when he returned. We exchanged phone numbers.

Tick, tick, tick, the days went by. The day arrived when he was coming home and I was just beside myself awaiting his call! It was KILLING me waiting to hear from him! That was a Friday. Then Saturday came and went. Hmmmm. Then Sunday arrived, and I told myself that he'd surely be calling on Sunday...

Well, Sunday morning went by, then Sunday afternoon came, and I couldn't stand it one more minute! At about 4pm, I picked up the phone and called him! When he answered it was more than obvious why he had not called...He was SICK! He had caught a terrible cold on the way home on his trip! I was SOOO relieved that there was a good reason! We talked for a couple minutes about his trip and then he told me he'd give me a call when he was feeling better.

The next day, late in the afternoon, I was out walking my dog and just happened to be walking by his house as he was coming out with his sister! We all said hi and then he told me that he had JUST LEFT ME A MESSAGE at my house! He had asked me out to dinner! Oh, MY! I was leaping and jumping for joy inside, but on the outside I tried to be very cool and collected! I, of course, accepted his invitation and we had our first date that evening! It just happened to be February 14th!

The funniest part of the date was when he arrived at my door to pick me up. We both simultaneously cheered that the other one had hair!! Up until this point we had only seen each other outside during the late fall and winter! We were both always wearing hats!

Here we are ten years later!

We have traded our winter hats for mask and snorkel hats, as you can see! And, yes, we both still have hair!