'wish me love a wishing well to kiss & tell'

So Valentine's Day, eh? Went off without a hitch at my house. Hope it worked out the same for those of you who took a little stock in the day. That hunk of gloriousness I call my husband surprised me and came home a day early so we could spend Valentine's Day together. This was lovely, of course, and was richly rewarded, even if I didn't yet have someplace to stow our kids for the night, and it was too cold outside to grill the steak I planned to make him so I had to blow the dust off the George Foreman grill.

(fyi - that freakin' George Foreman makes a mighty fine steak!)

We exchanged lovely and heartfelt cards before the boys got home from school. I bought the first card I read (at the Walgreen's!) because it was absolutely fitting to my husband's personality and his little jokes. I can't say how long it took my husband to pick out the card he gave me, but he told me it made him laugh, so he knew he had to give it to me. I gave him the one on the left. Sensible, yet cute. He gave me the 'Sex is GREAT!' card. This is our line of greeting cards, btw. Don't I look hot as a blonde? Who knew the Tool Man wanted me to lead him around by a collar? Certainly not me, the woman who thinks she's a 50s-era housewife who busts double entendre all over the place.

I know you're wondering, so I'll let you know that yes, there was a present. A little something for the two of us that the Tool Man picked up someplace other than Walgreen's. Someplace where they like to look at your driver's license when you walk in the door and the inventory can often by found for less online, but when you're looking to get it on with your wife and/or significant other, you're willing to drop the bucks down on.

So, all in all, it was good. Very good. I apprieciate all the nice comments from people on the last post, including those of you new here. Hope you'll come back from time to time.

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On to other business. Last week, the lovely Lori and the equally as lovely Scarlett each tagged me with a meme, asking me to list five material wishes and follow those with five spiritual wishes. This, of course, made me get all "Hmmmm. Think. Think. Think. Tap forehead. Tap. Tap. Tap," for a few days, but I think I finally got my list narrowed over the weekend.

Material wishes:

1. My quest has been and will remain this until I either find them or invent them - a sexy yet supportive bra and a pair of sexy yet sensible shoes, neither of which you even realize you're wearing because they are just THAT comfortable. I hope this miracle happens in my lifetime.

2. A giant, spa retreat-worthy bathroom, complete with heated tile floors and heated towel bars, a whirlpool tub, and a huge shower enclosure with several shower heads placed at different (and, um, delightful) heights. Oh, and I want the walls to be soundproof, the counters to be covered in vases filled with lilacs, and music wafting from speakers in the ceiling. Bliss. Basically, I want bliss.

3. Someone to come to my home every week or so and give me a spa treatment after I've locked myself away in the above mentioned bathroom. I want the works. Facial, manicure and pedicure. They don't have to talk to me if they don't want to, and I don't want to feel icky about that, thinking I've got to fill the silence with small talk. However, if they wish to tell me about some new invention they're working on called the "It's Like Two Tiny Cherubs Cupping Your Knockers" bra or the "You've Got To Be Freakin' Kidding Me!! These Magical Things On My Feet Are SHOES?!?" shoes while they're working me over, I'd be all ears.

4. Our house remodeled for a bit more room for all the material things that currently makes me crazy to have in my house, yet have resigned myself to because I'm raising two growing boys and one slightly older model boy who can't seem to part with his various items of memorabilia for hobbies and/or sports he's never had any real interest in. Ahem. Of course, I'd like the entire house paid off and the attached garage to house two paid for, newer model vehicles (Only vehicles. Enough with the boxes and junk already, thanks).

5. To travel. Anywhere and everywhere. I want to go all fashion model poses in front of the Eiffel Tower, complete with the beret and kicky red heels (I suspect the invention of my magical invisible sensible yet sexy shoes will be bankrolling this trip in the future) and massive bouquet of balloons that I'll let free to waft through the glowing Parisian night sky. I want to drink coffee while old men tell me about their lives as I look over the bright blue sea in Greece. Walk where members of my family walked in Scotland and Ireland (where I may also probably - aka "without a doubt" - stalk Bono). Take an observation boat out to the Statue of Liberty. Plant my feet in the sand on the west coast. I may have to take a free spirited lover in order to see this wish play out. My husband grew up traveling, and sadly has no real heart for it any longer. So, of course, my free spirited lover must have hefty material bank accounts. Or be Bono.

Spiritual wishes:

1. To truly believe that by asking for forgiveness, I've been forgiven. At the core of who I am and what I believe, I know this is the case, but being able to let it go is a stumbling block.

2. To be able to feel comfortable enough in myself as a Christian to share that with others. Right now, I shy away from opportunities where it seems a door is being opened because I feel that, just because I believe something, I don't know enough to back it up.

3. To explore the idea of fasting and spiritual gifts on a deeper level. I've participated in a few 24-hour fasts as part of a prayer room experience my church has done and, in retrospect, I don't know that it's necessarily the fasting part that has been enlightening so much as how entering into a room, alone and free to worship as I wished for my time, was so magnificently freeing to me. The experience also, at times, broke me. I felt gutted the moment I knelt at the cross and offered up my prayers or asked for forgiveness of my sins, and it is that feeling, not the feeling of pushing aside any hunger or what have you, that has, at times, been the most enlightening to me as I try to figure out my way on this spiritual journey I, quite admittedly, struggle with.

4. To be open to the idea of praying with others or praying out loud with others. While I have no qualms about praying for someone, I do so privately. Yet, in doing so, I feel like I'm squashing a connection I could be making with other very powerful believers who could be helping to further me with this particular wish. I've had people pray for me - both on their own and by actually surrounding me in their words and arms - and, while it may sound "odd" or what have you to someone, I firmly believe I've left those experiences feeling lighter. That having someone pray for me was a means of shouldering some of the burden I could no longer carry because I was finding it too difficult to hand over whatever it was that I needed help with on my own. I find that my lack of Biblical knowledge puts a roadblock up when I'm with others and we're praying out loud together. I don't think that's really supposed to be how I feel.

5. To feel as connected and open to the experience during the message portion (and beyond) of church as I do during the worship portion. I love worship music. Love it. I love watching talented people offering their praise through music. It is a point in church where I can, and often do, close my eyes and sing without thought other than that particular moment. I don't care who sees me or what they think (though they shouldn't be thinking anything about me in church, eh?), because at that moment, church is everything I want it to be. I wish that same feeling was there as I sit and listen to the message.

OK. That's the wish list. I'm not sure if any of these items are available for purchase at the Target, but I'll check this week when I go to pick up some more hair conditioner and nice buns.