Happy Valentine’s Day to My Sweetie

Happy Valentine’s Day!  We really don’t make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day or our anniversary in this house.  There won’t be a romantic night out on the town for us this year, instead we will have steak, asparagus casserole, and roasted cauliflower while we dine in front of the TV.  Then we’ll have CAKE.  We {heart} cake.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share our story.

I met my sweetie at the YMCA in February of 1993 in aerobics class.  We had attended the same class for a while, but I really never paid much attention to the guy who used three risers on his step and who always came in a little late.  Then one day in class while we were running laps around the gym, we started racing.  After class while we were putting our steps away, Mr. SP got my phone number.  He called that night to set up our first date, a hash run.
 
If you’ve never heard of the hash, it’s a running group with a drinking problem.  A “hare” lays a trail with chalk marks and flour plops and then the pack follows the trail and tries to catch the hare.  At the end of the run there’s song singing and beer drinking.  If you don’t like beer like me, then you have to pour it on your head. 

It snowed, cancelling our first date hash, so we decided to go for a drive on the parkway.  We got to the parkway and it was closed due to the snow.  We then drove to a nearby city for lunch and Mr. SP must have been desperate after that because he took me to see the Ice Capades.  I know now that he must have really enjoyed my company because I doubt very seriously if he’d go see the Ice Capades with me in 2011.

We enjoyed each other’s company from minute one.  We ran Hash runs and Mr. SP tried to teach me how to play volleyball.  He played on a travel league and thought that I’d enjoy it.  (NOT)  When it warmed up in April, he introduced me to biking.  I fell in love with it instantly.  We biked about 2,000 miles per summer until a few years ago when a local doctor was killed on one of our routes.  At that point, we switched our focus to tennis. 

We went on our first trip together in April of 1993 to see the Biltmore in Asheville.  I’d love to go back!  We both love to travel.

We were engaged on November 1, 1993 and married on July 2, 1994. 

We went on an inn to inn bike tour in Vermont for our honeymoon.  Mr. SP’s brother had our “Just Married” jerseys made for our trip.

It didn’t take long for my Chicago city boy to become a country boy.  Notice how nicely he learned to stack hay.  I wish my dad were around so that we’d still be doing that.

We have had FUN in our 16 years of marriage!

We did Hash runs for years.  A tradition for Valentine’s Day is “The Red Dress” run.  Everyone wears a red dress.  Doesn’t Mr. SP look stunning in his?

We stopped hashing a few years ago when it got a bit too wild for us.  We’ve heard that it is calmer now, so maybe we’ll go back.

We like to do things together but we both have our own hobbies.  Mr. SP loves to built things.  He’s made some neat things over the years.

He made our nephew an airplane:

He made a boat:

He made our little cousin a rocking horse:

He’s inventive, too.  The door lock stopped working in his truck, so he made a new one.  (You might be a redneck if….)

Mr. SP loves music and plays both the guitar and banjo.  He drives an hour every Thursday night each way for his weekly lesson and jam session.

Mr. SP is the most positive and enthusiastic person that I know.  He will help me to do most anything that I want to do.  His glass is always half full where mine sometimes feels half empty.  Mr. SP rarely complains.  I moan and groan about all kinds of trivial things and he’s nothing but positive.  I need to be more like him.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my Mr. SP.  You are one in a million and I’m lucky that you are my valentine.