Love Ya. Mean It.

     Now please don't be jealous of my glamorous life because at this house, we are hopeless romantics.  For our special Valentine's evening, we took kids to scouts, put clean sheets on their beds and had a fancy dinner of Progresso soup and an egg sandwich.  The hubby has to be at work at 5am, so he headed to bed by 9:30.  We are just a house full of excitement tonight.  If you're green with envy right now, it is completely understandable.
     But I'd like to say one more thing about this night, it's all OK with me.  Now fancy dinners and date nights are fun with my hubby, that's for sure, but tonight wasn't anything to sneeze at.  We giggled and cut-up trying to get sheets on the beds.  We sang so the dog would howl and were terribly entertained.  We discussed odd drawings by the first grader and looked puzzled at each other.  We debated with the sixth grader that no, he is not dyslexic, and yes, he has to do his homework.  We talked about crazy work people and how a five mile hike is a long way.  And then, we gave each other a peck on the lips and said, "Good night, love you" , and we meant it. 
     We've meant it for a long time.  We've meant it for 14 and a half years of marriage and 6 months of engagement and 3 years of dating before that and 3 years of close friendship before that.  It's not a perfect, flowery, mushy, silly love which seems to be the thing on Valentine's Day, and don't even get me started on how stupid I think the phrase "soul mate" is.  This "love you" is the kind that laughs together at dogs barking to I'll Fly Away.  It's that kind that giggles at ignorant seductive comments that are anything but seductive while putting Safari sheets on a kid's bed. This "love you" is the one that through years of laughing and fighting and having babies and raising babies and praying and paying bills and buying houses and going to work and doing laundry and watching TV makes you look at that person and think, I'm so glad I'm doing all of this with you.  Do notice the word "fighting" in there.  We haven't done it all without many a heated discussion along the way, but when it's all said and done, one thing hasn't changed.  I'm so glad I'm doing all of this with him.
    There are other things about this "love you".  It's the kind where I look at the clock and think, Oh good, he'll be home soon or when he looks at our schedules and says, "Oh yay, we have Thursday off together."  It's this "love you" that makes me smile when I get texts at work that say "Good morning, Sweetie" or just coming in after a long day at work and getting a big hug.  There's other things about this "love you", but well, I better stop there with a wink and a smile.  ;)
     So it's now 1 in the morning, and I'm going to go climb in bed with the snoring hubby.  And after I hit him with my elbow to make him roll over out of my ear, he's going to wake up just a little.  As he rolls on over, he'll say, "Good night, Sweetie. Love you."  I'll say, "Love you too."  And we'll mean it.