Melissa said, "Dating your husband is fun!"

There have been a lot of things about my situation that has really well...sucked, I can think of no eloquent word that really sums it up properly, it has just sucked.  There have been a couple things that have been kind of good though, one I will ponder here.  Currently Danny and I do not live together.  This unusual situation has brought forth an arrangement that usually does not happen after almost 15 years of marriage, we get to date. Danny either comes over a couple times during the week or we go to the gym and work out together.  Friday night he comes over for dinner here and Saturday night is usually our formal "date" night.  Now do NOT get it twisted.... I would MUCH rather be at home with my husband every day, but there is a certain excitement to our relationship now.  I get very excited on the days I know I will see him. I look forward to it all day.  If it is a date night and we are going out to dinner or a movie I think about what I will wear (though I do not have many clothes still, and he is has seen everything), but I still really think about what he will think is pretty.  I take more special care with my makeup, I pick my earrings carefully. I do all the things I used to do when we were dating.  When he comes to pick me up I am so usually ready and waiting for him.  When we are out, we hold hands or he holds my arm (now grant it, a lot of times that is to make sure I do not fall over when stepping up a curb or just walking in general).  I love being close to him, we have great conversations.  When he takes me home he walks me to the door and kisses me.  That kiss means so much more now because I do not get one everyday.  That kiss is not just a peck we do as an afterthought because that is what is expected.  That is a kiss I cherish because I do not get one everyday.

Throughout my ordeal I have tried to focus on the positives.  Sometimes it has taken a lot of searching to find those positives, but this is definitely one.  Danny and I will have been married for 15 years in April, we dated for 2 years before that.  Before all this happened we still had date nights, but didn't always hold hands.  We still kissed, but often it was those absentminded pecks that almost really don't register in our minds and are done more as a reflex than a reflection of love. We had conversations, but often they were about menial things, now we talk more about things that are more important to us.  I get butterflies waiting for him to pick me up, and my heart sinks when he gives me that goodnight kiss.  I appreciate every single minute I spend with him, whether we are just taking a nap beside each other or watching a movie.  That kind of shot in the arm to a relationship like ours has been a good thing.  In our marriage it is "just us." In the movie Sex and the City 2 a couple are talking to Carrie and Mr. Big and ask them when they are going to have children, and they say they aren't, that it will be "just us."  The other couple look horrified that they dare have a marriage that would not include children.  I have had one of those marriages for 15 years.  I still pray everyday that children will be in our future, but I am 33 and Danny is almost 37, there is a REAL possibility that our marriage will be "just us." We have to maintain a strong, fun, fulfilling marriage if it does end up just us two forever.  

These circumstances have shown us what we mean to one another.  The card Danny gave me said that he knows how hard the last two years have been for me and I have been an inspiration to him and it has made him love me more daily.  I cannot tell you how much these words meant to me. I told him in his card that these two years apart has shown me how much I love him and how much I can't wait to be next to him again.    So no matter what this experience has given us a shot in the arm of romance, and that ain't so bad ya know?

In case anyone was wondering, I made Danny a bouquet of chocolate and graham cracker dipped marshmallows.  They were really fun to make and Danny said pretty yummy too.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.  Remember you never know what will happen in your relationship, so remember to still "date" one another, trust me, it's pretty fun.