Compare and Contrast

A lot can change in a year.

Last February...

I was living alone in a strange little garage apartment, and I liked that... until February. That was not a good month. I hate February always, but that one was particularly bad. Lauren was out of the country... and I missed her. I was too busy to hang out with friends... or they were too busy to hang out with me... it's unclear and unimportant at this point. Of course, there were lots of wonderful people who were around and supportive. Susie and I had some bad day student teaching stories to share, because, by February, the honeymoon period was definitely over with the 7th graders. By February, I was, you know, getting kids suspended (yeah, I'm hardcore). In order to stave away the gloom, I started reading lots of blogs, including my now sister-in-law's. Which is really what led to this February being so much better, because that's what threw Mike back into my life.

This February...

I'm living in a cute little apartment with my best friend in the whole world. And, I'm going to make us some adorable curtains... eventually. I don't have time to get bored since I'm teaching the entire spectrum of high school English (if I missed anything in my own high school education, I've learned it this year).

This February, I got to enjoy the true spirit of Valentine's day... meaning I wanted to buy Mike everything in the world and make him cookies with little heart sprinkles. He, by the way, is the king of doing adorable things.

First off, we started things on Friday night by exchanging gifts and going to see The Lightning Thief. I got him an iPod cover and some tie hangers, and he got me a book and some chocolate (which is, you know, perfect). Saturday we spent a lot of our gift card money, which was very fun. And, Sunday was great. For breakfast, Mike made me heart-shaped M&M pancakes and I made him some tasty potatoes (thanks Lauren!). Then, we snuggled up and listened to a good chunk of Catching Fire. We went to church (yay for church), and then we came home and he showed off his culinary skills some more with...

Shrimp appetizer.
Lobster.
Steak.
Roasted broccoli.

Yeah. He doesn't mess around with the being romantic stuff.

And it doesn't end on Valentine's day. This very week, he sweetly agreed to come with me to my 3 day professional development conference in July... at the Utah Shakespearean Festival! Hooray!

I never would have guessed last year how much better this February would be, but it's a pretty significant improvement. I'm pretty excited about it all.