Marriage Monday!

Marriage Monday at C H R Y S A L I S

The topic is Valentine's Day and I have decided to share my most memorable one. A first confession, I don't even remember which Valentine's Day! So much for that part of MEMORABLE!

My husband Doug readily agrees that he always needs to be prompted in order to remember to remember special occasions. Sometimes I will purchase a bouquet of flowers and then say to him as I smell them, "You are so sweeeeet! I love my flowers." Like my son's wife always says, "Everyday is Valentine's Day for us." I do say the same for my marriage relationship too.

BUT about three years ago (already), Doug totally floored me when he planned out a special evening and night for us on Valentine's Day and all without "prompting" from me. I will never forget it. (My daughter Marie helped him.)

He called me to say, "I'm on my way home, be ready to go for a car ride." (I love going on car rides.) He said to pack an overnight bag for both of us. "Oooooo!" So I did. He got home from work, showered, we left and began to head North.

It was snowing so hard that evening that we could barely tell which side of the road we were on. I kept my nervous mouth shut, tried to remain as happy... and loving as I could under the scary circumstances. I didn't want to spoil the night with fearful outbursts!

Big ol' trucks would zoom past and blow snow up all over our car and each time I thought for sure that we were going to die. I quietly wondered where and how far we would have to be traveling.

A long hour and a half later we turned off onto the Talkeetna Spur Road then he began searching the highway for the right roads leading to the Talkeetna Chalet Bed and Breakfast and the room (Denali) which he had reserved for us.

Wow, Doug, how cool! He does not do stuff like this so I was quite impressed (except for the heavy snowfall highway ride). We found the right place despite the heavy snowfall. I got out of the car so relieved to be there and in one piece even!

We checked out the room and even found chocolate-dipped fresh strawberries in the refrigerator! We decided to begin our evening together with the hot tub! We walked out the door, across the deep snowy yard, took off our robes, and climbed into the hot tub.

Big, beautiful snowflakes fell and melted on our faces as we looked up into the sky. This felt so good! After about an hour we were relaxed, hot and ready to get out. We reached for our robes and found them all crusty with snow and frozen! BRRR! We kept laughing and sinking back into the water before finally braving the cold, grabbing our robes and running back to our room.

After showering, getting dried and comfy we began to search the full movie shelf. We wanted one that would be fun/romantic to watch. I saw a Jack Nicholson movie and said, "Oh he is so funny, let's watch this, About Schmidt - it's says something about retirement." (We were interested since Doug had been talking about his eventual retirement, we hoped soon.) Doug didn't care, "Whatever you want to watch is fine with me" (his standard reply to the question). So, I put the movie in and we climbed under the warm covers.

The movie wasn't funny. It was sad. Soon we thought - "it is depressing." We continued to watch it. Soon his wife ----died! I laughed and looked at Doug and said, "Oh dear, not too romantic is it?" Too late, we were commited to finding out what would happen to Schmidt in his retirement years.

I believe this has been a great adventure and wake up call to many Americans as to what is important in life and why we should cherish every moment of it. ~A movie watchers comment.

It ended up being a good movie to watch together; a good reminder to value each other and the times that we still have together. It was sad, but it made us thankful that we were still able to be together. We were reminded of the more important things in life; how we need to value our husband-wife relationship; value the joy of our children. We did not want to forget that it is these things that bring lasting satisfaction in life. People should not waste whole lifetimes only pursuing financial wealth (although that is necessary) but to keep chasing after a wealthy trust in each other, a lasting relationship, and even the joy of keeping a rich love relationship kindled with each other and our family. These are far more important than riches. The emptiness of the end of a relationship via death is coming and we should value what we have together now.

Even if I can't remember the exact year ---I won't ever forget that evening together and the values that were impressed upon our hearts.

Thanks so much Dougie, and thanks for the "About Schmidt" movie, Jack Nicholson (a favorite actor of mine). Jack Nicholson's new movie "The Bucket List," is another good-values instilling movie! I watched it at Century 16 recently with my daughters Marie and Kim.

Be sure to visit e-Mom for more Valentine's Day related stories and information from other blogging friends.