the greatest thing you'll ever learn...

is just to love, and be loved in return.

we broke away from our usual valentine's day routine this year,

mostly because our oven wasn't working and couldn't bake our

yearly heart-shaped pizza.  instead, we capitalized on the many gift

cards we received for christmas and enjoyed a SUPERDATE.

we pretty much hadn't had a proper night on the town since we moved

into our new house, but this night was special.

first, we went to dinner at the olive garden.  used to be one of our

faves, but now i feel as though i could make literally anything on

the menu (if my oven is working) for a lot less (money and calories).

that's beside the point.  the point is, we had a great time.

from the restaurant, we made our way to wise guys comedy club where

we burned dinners off by laughing our you-know-whats off.  the comedian

did a little magic, but mostly made us laugh until we cried.  definitely one of

the best we've seen.

after we got our laugh on, richard proved that he loved me by taking me to

see the vow.  he really wasn't looking forward to it at all, but i'd been

counting down the days.  we snuck our pretzels in, and enjoyed the movie.

its no notebook, but it was romantic enough for me.

the superdate took place the saturday before valentine's day.  we may love

each other, but we do not love all of the crazy people who make restaurants

a zoo on the actual day.  richard took care of dinner - we still had pizza!  he

picked up a pie from our new fave in our new neighborhood, the pizza runner.

we ignored the laundry on the back of our couch, and we ate while we watched

the surprising video gift i gave him (not really, i give him the same thing every

year), and a redbox.

richard reminded me over and over that night why i fell in love with him in

the first place:

he looked at me like i was beautiful, despite the fact that i was sweaty and

gross after working out.

he gave me gardening gloves because he knew how excited i am to start

our first ever backyard vegetable garden.

he chose a redbox that he'd vetoed  many a time because he knew i'd read

the book and really wanted to see it.

he didn't get mad when i fell asleep half-way through a movie that he

never wanted to watch in the first place.

he remembered what my favorite donut is and got it for my dessert, which

is impressive since i can't even remember the last time we had donuts!

oh, my man, i love him so!