I really REALLY love my husband.

First of all, our Internet is down right now, so I'm writing this from the Blogger app on my phone... we'll see how it goes...

So, yes, I do realize that the title of this post is really stating the obvious. Of course, I love my husband. I loved him yesterday, I love him today, and I'll love him tomorrow. After all, that's what I agreed to in our marriage vows. But sometimes I feel an extra surge of love and appreciation for him. I know love isn't necessarily a feeling, but isn't that love feeling nice? Don't you like when it strikes? I know I won't have that feeling every day (I've already learned this from experience), but I hope to always value that feeling, to work hard at creating space for that feeling, and to give Levi more opportunities to have that feeling for me. Lord knows I don't always make it easy.

Yesterday morning was a tough one for me. It was the fifth consecutive day of being woken up by jackhammers at 7:00 in the morning right outside our bedroom window. Closing our windows hasn't really helped... those things may as well be made of paper. Plus, it gets really hot when we close them. And on top of the jackhammers, I don't sleep very well these days even when it's quiet. Most nights, I wake up about every 20-30 minutes. I usually have to go to the bathroom (God bless this little girl who sleeps on my bladder) and flip over... with my mountains of pillows. My back hurts, my shoulders hurt, and what I wouldn't give to be able to sleep on my stomach or back again!!!

So, I was at my wit's end on Friday morning, listening to those jackhammers tearing up the sidewalk as Levi somehow managed to fall back asleep. I wanted to be somewhere far far away. I actually spent a good chunk of that morning crying over the fact that I didn't live in San Francisco yet (specifically, Mill Valley) and that I didn't know the next time I'd get to visit. I felt homesick for a place I'd never lived. I felt frustrated and fed up and TIRED.

Levi only had one client scheduled for later in the day, so our plans had been to spend the day doing mountains of laundry at the laundromat. That was the last thing on the planet I wanted to do that morning. What I wanted was to ditch my life in Long Beach and hop on the next plane for San Francisco. But I figured I could settle for a cup of Peruvian sipping chocolate and some pain au chocolat. This may not sound like much, but it actually required a trip down to Costa Mesa... we don't know anywhere to get sipping chocolate in Long Beach... and I won't eat pain au chocolat here. Nobody gets the pastry right, and the chocolate is always too sweet.

So, my sweet, loving husband who really needed some clean shirts and underwear happily opted to spend his morning down in Orange County indulging his wife's silly need for chocolate. It may not sound like much to anyone else, but it meant the world to me. I really needed that time (and that chocolate) on Friday morning. And Levi's willingness to cheerfully sacrifice his own needs to make me happy definitely gave me all the love feelings.

And you know what? We had SUCH a good day. By the time we got to the bakery, the pain au chocolat had JUST been placed on a cooling rack. There aren't many things as delicious as fresh, warm pastry with a healthy dose of bittersweet chocolate. My mom even joined us for breakfast. That afternoon, I ended up hanging out at the salon in the lovely air conditioning while Levi did his one client's hair, then we headed home to lounge around in bed with the ceiling fan on, feeling the baby kick and playing Radiohead on headphones for her for the first time (she was going crazy for 15 Step in there). In the evening, we took a walk to get some cold drinks, and we watched Jeff, Who Lives at Home with all the lights off and all the windows wide open.

We never ended up doing the laundry, but sometimes the laundry can wait.

Be Mine

Levi and I celebrated Valentine's Day by going out to breakfast (just like last year... apparently, it's becoming a tradition). We decided to go to Madison Square & Garden Café in Laguna Beach... only to find out that they're closed on Tuesdays, even if Valentine's Day falls on a Tuesday. Instead of getting upset when we showed up to a closed restaurant, I just laughed. Don't quote me on this, but I might be learning to roll with the punches a little bit. We'll see.

Anyway, we went to the restaurant next door instead (The Cottage Restaurant). It was supremely mediocre, but we didn't care. I knew Levi had a little surprise planned for me afterwards, so it really didn't matter.

By the way, when I say "breakfast," I mean our first meal of the day. We didn't get down there 'til 1:30 because I slept 'til 11:00...

Anyway, this year, I decided that we should write haikus for each other for Valentine's Day. I text messaged mine to Levi at breakfast. Super romantic, right?!

After breakfast, Levi grabbed a blanket and basket from the car and took me on a little picnic.

How cute is that basket?! Levi lined it with the tablecloth from our wedding and decorated it with paper hearts that he made. I'm in love with the hearts. I think they need a place of honor in our home.

The inside of the basket was decked out with paper hearts too.

Our picnic view:

Levi packed a cheese plate for us with stilton, pecans, apricot preserves, mini croccantini, and dark chocolate raspberry hearts.

He also packed two mini bottles of prosecco... complete with straws for sipping. He knows me so well. :)

After our snack, we laid on our blanket and listened to this week's This American Life podcast. It was so relaxing and perfect.

We decided to go out for coffee before heading home. On our way, I saw a garden full of poppies and a street called Poppy Street. It made me smile. I love seeing poppies and thinking of my sweet little baby. It's sad and comforting all at once.

We found out that my sister was headed to the same coffee shop at the same time, so we decided to order her coffee and surprise her with a pretty pink tulip... that I posed spastically with.

The drive home consisted of me singing my heart out to Ben Harper's cover of Sexual Healing and Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On... it is Valentine's Day after all. :)

Things I Really Like Right Now

1. wearing tights again

2. my new scarf

3. lemon rose tea from Peet's

4. gingerbread lemon cupcakes

5. Wolfie's new fake cough

6. setting goals and meeting them

7. the fact that we still don't have a comforter for the king size bed we got in July (just a quilt and two thin blankets), and our house is freeeeeezing. The only way to stay warm is to snuggle together in the middle all night. I kinda don't want a comforter...

8. the super sparkly shoes I just bought to wear to Camilla's wedding in TWO WEEKS

9. the fact that Camilla's wedding is in only two weeks!!!!

10. our Sunday tradition of church followed by the French omelette at Pain du Monde

I think he's trying to kill me.

With that super cute face of his.

I'm in love.

Wanna know what makes my heart melt?

Levi wearing our nephew!

Adorable.

P.S. I'm selling some REALLY cute Anthropologie sandals on eBay. They're brand new, in the box, never been worn. Check them out here.

It's important to keep an accurate record.

Sometimes Levi writes down things I say so that we can laugh about them later. For example:

"I want a dolphin SO bad, and you haven't gotten me one yet, and I don't know WHY!"

This Week.

This week has been one of the happiest I've had in some time. Levi and I got to spend a ton of extra time together, and we made good use of it. We didn't slip into any stupid, pointless arguments. We didn't have any conflicting agendas. We both wanted to be together, and we both wanted to just enjoy ourselves. It was pretty great.

My alone time this week was pretty great too. I've been feeling really guilty, anxious, and overwhelmed about how I spend my time lately. These feelings never get me anywhere. They don't motivate me to a place of productivity; instead, they paralyze me into doing absolutely nothing. I hate when I get to that place. That didn't happen this week. I made great use of my time. And instead of sitting motionless on the couch, staring at some mindless television show once all my work was done, I made a point to actually enjoy my spare time. I did yoga. I read. I flipped through magazines. I cooked. I felt inspired, happy, and satisfied.

See?? This is what happens when the kitchen is completely clean for the first time in three months. I can only imagine what next week will bring if we clean the rest of the house over the weekend...

Weirdos

My friend, Colette, shared this with me the other day:

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

- Dr. Seuss

Here's to a happy life of mutual weirdness with my own weirdo!

i love my little family.

my family is so cute.

lily is always good for a cuddle.

gretel is always good for a laugh.

and levi is good for all of the above and everything in between.

there's no one else i'd rather share this little apartment with.

coffee shop love

what do we do to celebrate a nice tax refund?

go out to coffee, of course!

lest we forget...

here i am - finally at the end of our cambria mini-moon photos. i miss it as much as i miss our mini-moon in san francisco. it was perfect - relaxing, peaceful, fun. in my expert opinion, traveling is the secret to success in a marriage.

this post is going to be mish-mash style, starting with some photos and ending with some memories.

favorite memories of our trip to cambria:

fresh air

STARS!!!!

trees

sunsets from the jacuzzi

delicious food in teeny tiny portions

mediocre coffee

the local band at the hotel bar

hearst castle

contraband pb&js and parmesan fishies in the hearst castle movie theatre

huge hotel breakfasts

plant shopping

antique browsing

ollalieberry pie à la mode

the hotel kitty

the plant kitty

the cemetery kitty

sunshine

cambria twists

succulent gardens

our violet called violet

wind storms

green pollen everywhere

a bird in our bathroom

the hawk

sleep

rest

quiet

love

we say "i love you" with cheese

levi wanted to do something sweet for me last week, so he surprised me with a cheese plate and framboise at home one night.

it probably sounds silly, but cheese plates are romantic to me. they remind me of our honeymoon where our tradition was to share a cheese plate and wine before dinner every night.

levi was really cute about this cheese plate in particular. he went to whole foods on his own one morning and chatted with my favorite cheese lady. they came up with this little number:

smoked gouda topped with adriatic fig preserves served with glazed pecans and mini croccantini

divine.

i skipped dinner that night just so i could refill the cheese plate.

the myerses' first v-day

since we've never really acknowledged valentine's day before, we turned it into an all-day affair. we had to make up for lost time after all!

i think if i had to choose a favorite meal, it would be breakfast. maybe. or dinner. no breakfast. NO! dessert! well, don't make me choose! but i really do like breakfast A LOT, so we started our day with a delicious breakfast at pain du monde at fashion island.

(we just like that wall.)

we went all out with a macchiato AND orange juice. and we shared a chocolate croissant as our appetizer and an omelette as our entrée. it was so yummy.

(you know a chocolate croissant is good when you both have chocolate on your faces in public but carry on happily eating anyway.)

(our omelette should have been called the jasmine omelette - it had goat cheese, sun dried tomato, spinach, mushroom, basil, and avocado. delicious.)

(mmmm. baguette toast.)

after breakfast, we walked around fashion island enjoying the pretty day. we visited anthropologie (duh!) and a few other shops. then we went to the pet store to say hello to all the puppies. of course, i met a beautiful little 8 week old french bulldog puppy who i fell in love with. she was so sweet. she really wanted to come home with me. but at $2,900, it's just never gonna happen. i asked levi if we could visit the animal shelter and try to find a dog, but he said no. he sounded like he might be warming up to the idea of a dog though. we'll see. i don't want to do it unless we both want it and the timing is right.

anyway, next up was chocolate time!! we visited teuscher where we stupidly thought that we could each get a dark champagne truffle (my absolute favorite). boy, were we wrong!!! i'm sure they sold out almost immediately that morning.

it was really hilarious to see all the men in business suits frantically picking out chocolates on their lunch breaks. ohhhh, men. they crack me up.

after a little more wandering, we left fashion island and headed over to kean and SusieCakes. as soon as we walked into kean, we saw my mom and my sister!!! it was so random. we got a big table and hung out together for awhile.

levi shared a mini raspberry cheesecake with my mom and sister, and i unsuccessfully tried to eat a shot of cream cheese frosting with a spoon... it really needed the cake.

(unattractive action shot! haha!)

after saying goodbye, levi took me to my surprise of the day - gnomeo and juliet in 3d!!! i'm the total nerd who loves 3d movies. i know they're not for everyone, but i'm like a child when things pop out at me from the screen. i totally reach out and try to touch things. i love it! the movie was really cute... definitely not amazing, but it was enjoyable.

we ended our night with dinner at home - framboise in champagne flutes our neighbor gave us for our wedding and domino's cheese pizza topped with salad. so random, i know, but i really like salad on top of my pizza.

it was the perfect valentine's day. simple. fun. and not one teeny bit stressful.

i love my valentine.

an impromptu date & the perfect cupcake

on saturday afternoon, the sun was starting to go down right when levi was on his way home. it was gorgeous. i felt super antsy as i waited for him because i wanted us to enjoy the last bit of sunshine together.

the second he parked our car, i grabbed his hand and we took off for a walk to our neighborhood coffee shop. i felt like we were chasing the sun as it fell from the sky.

beautiful sunsets make me feel close to God.

after we said "good night" to the sun, we picked up a cupcake and took it to the coffee shop.

this is the perfect cupcake. it's a chocolate raspberry cake with raspberry buttercream. you can taste the fresh raspberries throughout the entire thing. it is amazing. frosted should really keep them around permanently.... maybe you should call and tell them that! ;)

after coffee, we started walking home. on our way, we passed a restaurant. the food inside smelled so good that we decided we should get a table and have dinner.

we capped off our evening with licorice laces and magazines at barnes & noble.

it was such a fun night, and i love that we didn't plan a single second of it. we were just living in the moment, and it happened. this is something we're trying to do more often. the other night, we had a little talk about trying to live more spontaneously between now and the time we have children. if we don't get good at spontaneity now, it'll never happen when we add a few babies to our family.

so i guess you could say we have a plan to be spontaneous.

it's a start.