Valentines Day Memories

Spencer and I shared 4 Valentines Day's together. Two of them were spent hundreds of miles away, and we were lucky enough to share two of them together.

For our very first Valentines day, in 2008, Spencer sent me this cute frog!

 We had been dating for 5 months at this point. He knew that I loved frogs and knew that my second favorite flower was a rose so naturally this was such a great gift! =) I remember him being very excited about it because he found the perfect gift. If I remember correctly he bragged about it on Starbright before he sent it to me!

Year two he decided to let his creative side show. Valentines Day of 2009 Spencer wrote this poem to me titled "Love". He e-mailed it to me, and even though to some it may not have been much, it meant everything to me. It was perfect! He definitely topped the previous year. I'm a sucker for personalized gifts!

Valentines Day 2010 was a special one. It was our first Valentines Day actually together in person and it's one to remember! Spencer and I went ring browsing at Jareds, Kays, and Morgans Jewelers. We had talked about marriage here and there, but ring browsing made it so much more real! Little did I know he had already asked my parents for my hand in marriage, and he already knew that he was going to use his Mom's previous wedding ring to propose. He just needed to get my finger sized so he could get the ring resized. 

Ring browsing definitely started out as a huge bummer. We started at Jared's and I didn't see anything that I liked. Their selection certainly didn't speak to me. We then moved on to Kay's. I saw a couple of rings that were okay, but didn't immediately pop out at me. But then we went to Morgan's and after explaining what type of ring I was in to (tension rings!) I found a stunning ring set that I fell in love with!! Spencer said that he really questioned if he was doing the right thing by giving me his moms ring because he saw how much I fell in love with the set that I just saw. I'm personally very happy that I got his mom's wedding ring. It was beautiful, perfect, and exactly what I wanted. Plus it had a deeper meaning to it. Spence had mentioned, though, that for one of our anniversaries he wanted to get me the ring set from Morgan's =) 

After browsing rings, we started our tradition of going to Olive Garden for Valentines day. As you can imagine, that's a popular place to go for a date on that specific day, so we waited in line quite a while, but it was completely worth it! We had a great time. Spence and I didn't go out to eat often, so one thing he always insisted on when we did is to go all out. To get a specialty drink, an appetizer  salad and/or soup, breadsticks, main meal, and dessert. We always left stuffed to the max with left overs to last us days, but I will never forget it! 

Valentines Day 2011 was spent in the hospital, naturally. But we were able to celebrate about a week later. We made it a day to go to Fred Myer Jewelers and picked out Spencer a nice wedding band. We then continued our tradition of going to Olive Garden and having a nice meal. It was so nice to do this after he was discharged from the hospital. He was feeling pretty well and was able to do a lot more than normal. Another day to remember!

Valentines day 2012 was my very first Valentines day without Spencer. I set up a Card exchange with 5 of my girlfriends to help get me through. I made them all a small homemade owl with conversation hearts in exchange for a Valentine from them! I got some cute homemade cards and gifts. When my mom came home from work, she bought my sister and I potted roses and some chocolate. 

This year was my very first Valentines day entirely on my own, and it was a little tough for a couple of hours. Before I got dressed and ready to head out for the day I had a small pity party for myself. My heart just hurt. But I decided to go and have a nice lunch at Olive Garden to carry out our tradition. I've always wanted to go for their soup, salad, and breadsticks during lunch time and so I decided that this was a great opportunity! It was my very first time eating at a restaurant by myself, but it wasn't half bad.  It was a bit emotional at first, being there without Spence, but after swallowing back a few tears I was okay, and actually remained okay for the rest of the day. 

I then made my way to Orem to visit the cemetery. 

As always, it was just so peaceful. I am very thankful that it was such a nice day. It wasn't too cold or windy. It was beautiful compared to what it has been. I drew on his headstone, as per the norm, and placed a couple of decorations there. I sat on Spencer's headstone for 20-30 minutes just thinking. Enjoying the calmness and the quiet. I shed a few tears and did a little talking as well.

So I guess overall my day wasn't half bad. I considered buying me a huge box of chocolate, renting sappy love movies, and sitting on the couch having a big snot fest... but decided better of it. I've been doing too much of that lately (watching sappy movies that make me sad), and wanted to go and do something!

Proud of myself for what I accomplished today =)