grateful.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. Andy and I were together, which is not something we take for granted. Last year at this time, he was still deployed. That's sort of crazy, when you think of how quickly the time seems to have passed this year.

This year we are on a new budget- in honor of our first child arriving this summer, me quitting my job (in less than two weeks), moving with Andrew to Fort Benning, GA for the Captain's Career Course (in less than three weeks) and then me planning on stay-at-home motherhood for a while. How's that for laying it all out on the table? Anyway...as a result of this new budget, we decided to go easy this year on gifts for each other and on plans for the evening.

When we got home from work, we exchanged cards and our "little somethings." I gave Andrew chocolate covered strawberries from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and some chocolate covered pretzels (that I pilfered from work). He gave me Ghirardelli's Dark Chocolate with Raspberry Filling squares (my fave) and a voucher telling me that the new Sophie Kinsella novel, I've Got Your Number, which was just released on 2/14, is being delivered this Saturday! That boy knows what I love!

After our gift exchange, we headed out to a "crappy" Mexican restaurant in town. We chose it for our dinner date because I had a $25 gift certificate there, which was better than having to use all of our "Eating Out" budget at our favorite Mexican place. Plus, it had okay reviews on Yelp.

We were seated right away (no reservations required for this classy joint) and just as quickly changed our minds about the place. Although the atmosphere wasn't anything to write home about, the table next to us had just gotten their food. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing!?!" Their plates were probably 20 inches in diameter, the food looked delicious and their margarita glasses were the size of small watermelons. We had come to the right place. Andy had a HUGE beer to start, which was so heavy he could hardly lift it. I ordered the avocado chicken tostada, and he had a combo plate with a chicken chimichanga and an enchilda. Andy ate every bite on his plate, and I came close to doing the same (eating for two, holla)! It was so tasty! We sat back, stuffed, finishing our drinks and smiling. It was the best Valentine's dinner we could have hoped for. Little did we know it was about to get even better...

Andrew eventually called our waiter over to ask for the check. At that, the waiter leaned in to our table and said, "I want to tell you that the couple that was sitting to the left of you just paid for your meal. They told me to tell you thank you for your service, and they hoped you had a happy Valentine's Day." We looked at each other stunned. "Wait, are you serious?" 'Si. It has been taken care of.' We looked over to thank the couple, but they had already gone. Their random act of kindness could not have fallen on a more appreciative couple that night. Andrew, still in his ACUs from work, sat back in shock. No one had ever done anything like that for us before.

A gal, sitting next at the table next to us with her family, leaned over and was like, "That is so cool!! You guys are lucky!!" That's when it hit me. I started digging in my purse and whispering maniacally to Andy, "We have to pay it forward!!!!!" I pulled out our $25 gift certificate and thrust it at the girl, "You have to take this! We were going to use it for our dinner, but now we're paying it forward to you!" She was beaming. She even broke into a little speech: "My son actually has something to say, although he is really embarrassed. (he was shrinking under the table at this point) His teacher told him that there's something you need to say any time you see someone in uniform. Go on, son! Say it!" Her son pulled himself up from under the table, looked Andy right in the eye, and said, "Thank you for your service to our country, sir." It was all I could do to not burst into tears at the table.

When we got to the car, Andy couldn't stop saying how uncomfortable he felt, how embarrassed he was. I told him I didn't think he should be embarrassed at all. If anything we should feel proud that those people in the restaurant tonight were the people whose freedoms he was defending every day. They were the people he fought for when he was deployed. They were good people, who cared about other people and who took the time and effort to spread the love on Valentine's Day.

That generous couple gave my husband and me the perfect reminder this year. They reminded us to be grateful- grateful that we got to be together this year, when so many families were forced apart because of training and deployments; grateful that we live in such a fortunate country; grateful that we can afford to give back to our country; and grateful that we are surrounded but such exemplary fellow Americans.

I am incredibly proud and so incredibly grateful.

you little lurker, you.

Did you know that today is National Delurking Day (or maybe it was yesterday)? Anyway, it's the one day a year that I'll ask you come out from behind that warm blankie and cup of coffee and comment (until I start begging for parenting advice)! So...go on...leave me a comment to let me know you're there! What are you waiting for?? PS- if you have your own blog make sure you add a link to your comment. I'd love to read your stories, too!

If you don't formally follow me, you might as well click "Join This Site" at the bottom of the blog. Then you can use Google Reader to keep track of all the blogs you like to check daily in one place! It's very tech savvy and a total time-saver.

Finally,  if you've got just another sec, would you click on the button on the bottom of my blog that says Top Military Blogs (it has an American flag and militaryblogs.com on the bottom)? And then would you hit the boost button on the next page? Thanks a mil-spouse! *If you blog, you should add your blog, if you haven't already!*

pretty great news.

Hey, guys! I just realized that I forgot to tell you some pretty great news...

We're having a baby!

I'm 15 weeks and 2 whole days pregnant. Just started the second trimester. I'm the lucky gal who had a real breeze of a first trimester- no morning sickness, normal weight gain, sprinkled with tons of tiredness, a couple of killer headaches and a rash on my face (reaction to new pre-natals). The second trimester has been good so far...a few more nagging headaches, weird upper back pain and joint pain in my shoulders, elbows and wrists and a popped-baby-bump to boot.

Our baby is the size of an avocado. The baby is healthy- we got to have 2 sonograms so far (the one above is from 12 weeks) and we got to hear the heartbeat (but they didn't calculate it). I'm healthy. Andy is healthy. And we're all really, really happy!