Vintage Valentine's

I recently rediscovered my collection of Valentine's Day cards over the years. Believe it or not, the oldest cards in my collection are from my pre-kindergarten class! That's.... about 28-29 years ago 😱 As an adult (with my own pre-k age child!) it's easy to wonder why in the world I kept these. I actually know why in the world I kept these. Each of these cards stood out to me for a reason and that's precisely why I saved them.

1. Barbie

This first collection is comprised of Barbie valentine's. I was a huge Barbie fan once upon a time. Loved the clothes, accessories, and play sets, but was never a fan of the actual doll herself. I preferred stuffed animals. These three cards I kept precisely because I liked Barbie. 

Barbie cards surprisingly have not gone out of style. They are still handed out in classrooms today in the year 2023. But these three? Vintage. Definitely vintage. The one on the left was my favorite. 

2. Cute

The second category I saved was the cute category. Bears were my thing back in the day 🧸. They still kind of are, but I've been mostly converted to penguins 🐧. 

The two cards on the bottom are from preschool! They both have names on the back and I even know exactly who those people are. One was from a boy. After preschool, we didn't go to school together but our schools were in the same district. We ended up at the same college and hanging out with the same friend circle. One was from a girl. We actually ended up going to high school together and graduated in the same class. Both of these people are still friends with me on Facebook so they have potential to read this blog 😝 although I have a feeling they won't remember. 

3. Sparkly

I couldn't resist a sparkly card. And clearly, that is the only reason I kept these cards. 

The top center was a power ranger card. If I turned it over, the card itself is very blasé. Literally the only reason I kept that card was for the pink power ranger sparkly heart sticker on the back. I don't remember who Todd is at all. Sorry. 

On the bottom, we have N'Sync, Britney Spears, and someone doing an extreme sport. The actual sport is called skysurfing. I didn't even know that until I just looked it up...now...decades after receiving that card. Britney Spears was never my thing. I knew her by name but that was about it. Of all my mix CDs and music tracks, I had one song she wrote. I didn't even recognize her face in 5th grade when my bus driver showed me a picture. 🤷🏻‍♀️ N'Sync was also not my thing. Knew a couple of their songs...but never had one on any of my CDs. 

4. Repeats

The only reason I kept these is because I had so many of the same/similar designs from multiple years. I guess the dogs are kind of cute, but I think I kept the duplicates from sheer chance of receiving so many of the same design.

These are in fact from five different people. 

5. Magic Eye

Magic Eye was a big fad when I was in school. I used to love checking out the books from the library and holding them really close to my face (and smelling all that library-book-weird-smell that some books from the library have) and then moving them further away until my eyes saw the 3-D image bulging from the page. It took me a long time to finally see my first one. You had to really master the eye focus as well as the speed to back the page from your face. But when you saw it, they were the coolest thing ever.

Turning these into Valentine's Day cards was pretty genius. I will say that the little ones on the cards never worked as well as the ones in the books. 

6. Glow-in-the-Dark

Who doesn't love a cool glow-in-the-dark card? These just happen to be planets, which I don't particularly care for, but the glow-in-the-dark texture and feature was what captivated me. Luckily, these planets are still planets according to today's science. 

Sadly, nobody's memorizing "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" anymore.  Nine pizzas has just turned into nachos. Or if you're into Dr. Seuss, Mallory Valerie Emily Mickels Just Saved Up Nine Hundred Ninety Nine Nickels. 

7. Teachers

Very rarely did we ever get cards from our teachers. I only saved three anyway from the 20+ teachers I had from pre-k until 5th grade. 

The top card was from my 4th grade homeroom teacher. I wonder if she picked that card on purpose for me because she knew I excelled at math. I'll never know, but her handwriting was beautiful. 

8. Friends

These three cards I actually kept because of the people who gave them to me. Nothing particular about the cards really appealed to me. I guess they do all have dogs in common, but that technically wasn't the reason why I kept them. 

These three cards were given to me by three friends who meant a lot to me in my elementary school days. One of these girls was my "first friend." I don't remember how we met or became friends, but I remember being friends with her by 2nd grade. The second girl and I became friends in 2nd grade because we were in the same grade. She had skipped 1st grade so we ended up classmates. She moved the same year I did, except she moved out of state completely and I just transferred schools within the district. We reconnected in middle school/high school periodically but our lives had moved on to different places. I remember being friends with the third girl but I don't remember specific details of our friendship. I know we were on the same Destination Imagination team for at least one year. There may have been two but those memories are foggy. 

9.

I honestly can't remember why I saved this card. The only reason I can think of is that it was one of the extras I had from one year. My mother wrote my name on this card so I'm assuming she must've written it on my other cards that year. As a parent now, my initial reaction would be, "Why in the world is the parent writing the child's name on her Valentine's Day cards?" And that reaction would be completely reasonable and expected. My four-year-old can write her name. I'm pretty sure I should have been able to write my own name 24+ times on little slips of paper.

But the reason why I will choose to keep this card now and forever is because it has my mother's handwriting on it. I'm glad she wrote my name on it instead of writing my name myself. As weird as it is, you don't think about these things until you think about these things. Had I been the child who had signed my own Valentine's Day cards, I wouldn't have this memento today. 

Forever Valentine

This is our 7th Valentine's Day together as a couple. Technically, I sent him a quick-sketch Valentine the year I was halfway around the world, ironically living in a very cold city with snow and ice for six months of the year. I spent part of it at an airport during an overnight layover and gave up a few hours of sleep to send him some messages. 

Without realizing it, I misnamed my own bear.  Kudos if you know what his name is supposed to be.
We joke that this was the beginning of the end of my love for bears.

He sent me a cute drawing back.

I got a heart! And...this was the beginning of my love for penguins.

I turned our goofy drawings into keychains 🙂

How did you guys meet?: We first met at a friend's birthday party. We briefly met each other and then that was the end of it. So we thought. I ran into him by chance a few months later at a friend's apartment complex, and then we figured we may as well be real friends so we friended each other on Facebook. :) 

First date: Unofficially, we had dinner together with just the two of us 9 years ago. A friend was supposed to join us, but he couldn't make it last minute. I asked him if he was okay just having dinner with me, and he said he was okay with it if I was. 

Officially, I flew to Houston the summer I came back from China and we had our first date as a couple. 

How long have you been together? 7.5 years!

Married? 6.5 years!

Age difference?: 1 month and 20 days

Who was interested first?: Me

Who is taller? He is.

Most patient?: He is.

Most sensitive?: Me, although he can be about certain things.

Loudest?: Probably me. But I think our daughter actually wins this one.

Most stubborn?: We're both pretty stubborn....but probably me.

Falls asleep first?: It depends on the night. Most of the time me.

Cooks better?: Me.

Better morning person?: I've exponentially gotten worse as a morning person and he's gotten quite a bit better. But I still function better in the morning.

Better driver?: We're both pretty good.

Most competitive?: Me?

Funniest?: We're both pretty funny in our own ways. Who do you think?

Where do you eat out most as a couple?: I can't remember the last time we ate out as a couple...😢

Who is more social?: Me.

How long did it take to get serious?: a few months? 

Who picks where you go to dinner?: We both do. 

Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong?: He does. 

Who wears the pants in the relationship?: We both do about different things.

Who has more tattoos?: Neither.

Who sings better?: Probably me.

Hogs the remote?: We're good at sharing.

Spends the most?: It evens out in the long run. Neither of us really spend much. 

Did you go to the same school?: Nope.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled as a couple? Romania!

Who drives when you are going somewhere together?: He does.

My forever Valentine 💖

    

Valentine's Day 2020

We don’t do big celebrations for Valentine’s Day normally. In the past, we’ve gotten BOGO Cane’s for dinner, a gift here and there, but mostly just spending time together. We’re not really the couple who “has to get the other something for Valentine’s Day.”

I went grocery shopping this morning with my daughter. As we were checking out in the self check out section, I got some glances at the customer behind me as I loaded our bags one by one from the bagging area to my cart. He had scanned a card, a small box of chocolates, and a small plush toy. They were all sweet gestures and I’m sure his significant other is going to find them adorably cute and be happy to receive them, but that’s not what our Valentine’s look like for the most part.

After five and a half years of marriage and one (nearly two) kids, there’s hardly time to make a dedicated trip to the store to buy a card, chocolate, and a plush. Most of the time, I can’t even leave the store with everything I need anymore unless I write down a full list AND remember to bring it with me. (Yes, you won’t believe how many times I make the list and then fail to bring the list.) Also, between the two of us, we have a giant stash of plush already and really don’t need or have the space for more. Here's a few glimpses of what our plushies do on a day-to-day basis.

They make great sound proofing for door crevices because all parents know how desperate we are for our children to sleep so we can get stuff done, rest, or simply have some coveted silence in the house for a bit. This was my attempt at practicing piano without waking her. 

Back in the day when our little munchkin fit right in with the plushies. 

So instead of focusing on gifts, chocolate, flowers, or stuffed animals, my favorite part of holidays is the card. I don’t remember when it started, but I began making holiday/special occasion cards for my husband by hand probably 2-3 years ago. I’ve always had a creative crafting side beneath the rest of my academia focus, and certain people make fun of me for my (liberal [arts) and crafts] degree. Of course there have been exceptions when I’ve gone out and bought cards because it was the easier and faster choice, but I actually have a lot of fun making them as well. It has gotten exponentially harder to find time to sit and make a card that involves paper, cutting, and gluing without a toddler wanting to touch and be a part of everything.

This Valentine’s Day was the first time where our card making actually coincided with each other. I was putting mine together while hubby put our daughter to sleep. I didn’t hear him leave her room so the next thing I know he’s walking through my studio and I’m frantically hoping he hasn’t seen the design of the card. We both had a good laugh about it and then discussed our plan to continue working in two separate rooms of the house while sharing access to the craft closet to gather supplies as needed. We both finished our cards and then went to sleep for the night.

I’ve made some extravagant cards for him in the past which I am very proud of, but I have to say, he has outdone me this holiday.

I'm glad jokes from our dating days have weaved their way into our marriage.

Dinner was not romantic this year. We ordered takeout pizza (which was delicious!) and ate it listening to our needy toddler and appeasing her needs (translated to English for ease of understanding here)

Pizza! Eat pizza!

No pizza. Don't want pizza.

Bread! *eats a few bites of a bagel*

Don't want bread. Give mommy bread. 

Cheese! Cheese! 

*we give her a cheese stick* *she starts crying*

No cheese. Don't want cheese. *crying profusely until we take the cheese away*

*Crawls up the counter stools to sit between us and crawls into my lap*

Pizza! Pizza! *grabs at plates and knives and cups on the counter* *eats a few bites of pizza*

End dinner. I don't think there was much exchange of any other dialogue.

Now that she's asleep, perhaps hubby and I can get some much needed alone time and sit in bed, eat some chips and salsa/guac, and watch some TV.

That sounds like a lovely way to end this evening. :)