First Valentine's Together

This year was the fourth Valentine's Day since Tad and I have been together, yet it was the first we were able to actually spend together, which made it very special :)

Neither of us have very much money right now, so we agreed it wouldn't be anything formal or very pricey, but we wanted to do something more than just hang out and eat mac n cheese. Last weekend, in talking about some friends' plans, Tad said "hey, just so you know, we do have plans for next Sunday." "Great!" I said, "What are we doing?" and in what are becoming famous words of his, he said "It's a surprise." That was really fun, because I got to look forward to another surprise date, for the whole week.

I had just enough money to buy him a really cute card, and I told him not to worry about getting me a gift. I was thrilled to just to get to spend the day with him. But he has this tendency to not listen to me on things like that :)

Saturday night I called him and he said he was at Gamestop running an errand. I asked what he was getting, and his response was "I may be picking up your Valentine's present." I thought this was a bit strange, wasn't quite sure what he'd be getting me from Gamestop, but I went with it. Later that evening he said "oh, by the way, your Valentine's gift is Guitar Hero World Tour." "Oh, ok," I thought, "A gift for both of us to enjoy, I can handle that."

Well, as I said, he's a sneaky one and likes surprising me. When we arrived at church the next morning, I moved to get out of the car, and he grabbed my wrist. "hey," he said, pulling something out of his pocket, "Did you really think I'd get you a video game for Valentine's Day?" and put a beautiful silver bracelet of little, interlocked hearts around my wrist. (Side not, he did actually buy the game, it was just a convenient cover for him, haha)

After church, we stopped by his place to get a few things, and then came back to the condo for lunch. We made a frozen pizza, and then baked a "Cherry chip" Betty Crocker cake that Tad had bought special for the day. We enjoyed our food while watching a Star Wars spoof with Anja and James. That finished just in time for us to head off for our surprise plans. Tad announced that we were going to Boomers for mini golf and other activities. Mini golf was our first actual "date", we went to Boondocks the first weekend we saw each other after we became official. That made it special to me.

We had fun. Boomers has two mini golf courses: a Western themed one, and a "Story book" themed one. Tad beat me 63 to 77 (par 53, lol) on the Western one, and played one handed on the story book course as a handicap for me. I beat him 57 to 69 (again, par 53). We turned in our clubs and went for a ride on the ferris wheel, followed by two rounds on the go carts (on which we pretended we were playing real life Mario Kart, hehe).

Opting to not get wet on the bumper boats, we left Boomers just in time to catch the start of half price appetizers at Applebee's. Being a special occasion, I got a strawberry lemonade, and we shared honey bbq wings and mozzerella sticks.

I was bushed by the time I got home and to bed, but I had such a wonderful day. I'm so blessed to finally have him here with me. We had a great "first" Valentine's Day.

On the ferris wheel with my Valentine

My God is with Me

The Sermon on the Mount, but particularly Matthew 5:10-12, is my hope and my comfort right now.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousnesfor theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you"

It's been a rough few days, but God is always with me, and I praise Him that more than any time before when faced with suffering, I am clinging to Him. All things have a purpose for God's bigger plan. Not all things are pleasant, some hurt us quite a bit, but the outcome is all for good.

I am blessed to have one roommate who shares in my convictions and stands with me on this. I am blessed to have a family who loves and supports me and comforts me when I find hard times. I am blessed to have a loving boyfriend who cares for me and does everything humanly possible to make me feel better when I feel hopeless.

We think we have come up with a compromise that will last us until our lease ends. After that, hopefully we can find someone else with similar values.

Continued Prayers Appreciated

Did not go as planned. I feel about as low as I can get, and I don't know where the resolution is going to come from.

Right now, I just want to be far far away, curled in a ball.

Prayers Appreciated

I'm having trouble with one of my roommates. She's been seeing a guy about a month and had a guy sleep over Wednesday night. I am completely not ok with this (which I thought was clear), but when I confronted her about it, she wasn't very receptive. My other roommate and I need to talk to her about it again and be more firm that she can either not have him over, or find other living arrangements.

I HATE conflict, so this is really hard on me. I would appreciate prayers of strength (emotionally and spiritually) for me and my roommate as we confront her and deal with this, and that her heart would be open to changing her behavior to respect our boundaries as roommates.

Wait, He's Still Here?

It's been just over a month since Tad moved down here to San Diego, and I think we may be starting to feel a sense of normalcy about it.

This is a whole new experience for us, largely (at least in my opinion) in part due to the fact that we see each other for a few hours, and then separate. Obviously this is much healthier than spending every waking second together (like we had to on visits), but it felt weird at first. Any time he'd leave to go home, I'd start feeling like he was leaving town...and then he'd come back the next day, weird! lol

Making his new life down here has definitely been a stretch for him. He found a job several weeks ago (praise the Lord!) as a game tester for Sony (can you think of anything more perfect for him?) and has since been trying to find a different place to live. Living with two 60 year old men, as a 23 year old, he's found, is like living with your parents, except you don't know these people who are telling you what to do. The house hunt is still on, but he's had some good leads, so hopefully something will turn up soon.

In the meantime, we've been quite enjoying each other's company. He's spent quite a bit of time hanging out with my family here at home, we had a game night with Raelene and Nate, dessert night over at his aunt and uncle's, dinner out at Fudrucker's to celebrate the new job, surprise date night to Applebee's for half price appetizers, and fun hanging out at the free "Aztec Night" events on campus for the start of the semester.

I'm thoroughly enjoying having him in town, and look forward to our relationship getting more "normal" as we learn to relax a little, knowing that neither of us is going anywhere :)