My Valentine

I cannot comment on other posts because I am on a firewalled computer but I wanted to tell you all about My Valentine.



Her name is Larisa which in Spanish means: La - The, and Risa - laughter. Her name is actually a Russian name but being a Spanish speaker, I always like to think about how Larisa's name means such a happy thing in Spanish.



I really love her a lot! I have since she was 17 and I was 21. I remember when I came home from my mission and I was in my first sacrament meeting at church. I was sitting near my Mom's friend Patty Pate and Larisa was playing the organ and giving a talk in church about being a Laurel in the young women's program. Sis Pate said I should get to know Larisa. While Sis Pate has since died of cancer, I knew she was a wise person so I got to know Larisa, thanks Sis Pate! I have to admit, the first thing that drew me to her, besides her great organ playing and her excellent talk was how beautiful she is! She has such a beautiful face and I just couldn't resist her loveliness. So, shortly after getting home from Argentina, I asked her out. I took her to the Christmas lights at Dominoe's Farms in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We had a nice time, lots of good conversation and I liked her. We continued to date and had a great time and that summer we became serious. I was head over heels for her. I had been wondering when I would feel Love for someone after my mission and while dating her it started. We talked about marriage but she was going away to school so we did not know what would happen.



When she left, it was very sad, but shortly after she arrived at college, she began writing me every day. We both wrote every day and it was great because while we were both uncertain, before she left how things would turn out, our love continued strong with the great letters. We also called all the time. I can't tell you how much that cost, except to say that that was before calling plans and I know I was spending about 150 to 200 dollars a month on calls to My Valentine. It was totally worth it however to talk to Larisa and at New Year's time, on New Year's Eve, I asked Larisa to marry me and she said yes. Then we spent the next 10 months fending off naysayers to our marriage, until we got married in November of 1989.

We have always had so much fun! We travel, most always motivated by Larisa. We have been to so many fun places: Louisville, Moab, San Diego, Switzerland, Spain, England, Poland, Interlochen, Ireland, France, New Mexico, Arizona and a host of other beautiful and interesting places. If it had not been for Larisa we would not have gone to these places. We play games: Pinocle, Bridge, Spades, Nertz, Siedler, Stadte, Carcassonne, Bohnanza, Stoneage, Tikal, Dominion and we have one several videogames together: Castlevania, Contra 1-5, Life Force, Mario Brothers, Gradius and others I cannot remember. We love music: pop, classical, rock; in fact Larisa attended Def Leppard at Michigan State University when Ethan was intrauterine. It was awesome! We like to exercise - running, racquetball, tennis, scuba??, and we have done the Air Force marathon together 4 times and the Salt Lake City marathon once.

We like to work together too: cleaning the house, working on our garden, working on our yard, shoveling snow, cleaning up after the kids. We like to watch TV together; some of our favorite shows are currently Survivor, Amazing Race, The Good Wife, Wipe out (you might call us Wipehards :-)), Fringe and Larisa's favorite, The Bachelor. I really appreciate the fact that Larisa likes to watch some of my kind of Movie - action and science fiction. I also watch lovey dovey movies but I really appreciate that Larisa watches Con Air (edited) or State of Play (a conspiracy movie) and she appreciates them. It really means a lot that she watches Fringe with me because I like it a lot.

She is the first person I think of when I wake up and the last person I think of at the end of the day. It makes me happiest when I make her happy. It makes me saddest when I make her sad or we are mad at each other. I try to make her laugh because it makes me so happy when she is happy.

She is a great mother to our children. They are such great kids and I have to say, I owe it all to the wonderful upbringing she gives them. I try to do my part, but the majority of their time they are under her influence and it being as good as it is, it helps them and they are growing up very well.

I still find her very beautiful, she denies that status - being beautiful I mean, but I have to say, she is more attractive to me now than when we were young. Spontaneous expressions of love still come to me for her because she is such a great inspiration. The last few days I was thinking what I could do that would be special and it came to me that with all the snow, it would be cool to make a message in the snow. I got a never used bottle of Burgundy food coloring, put it in my garden sprayer and made a big heart with my footprints in the snow and sprayed the inside of the heart shape with water mixed with food coloring. I could not make a great message, but I hope she got the message from the heart I made for her. I cannot help myself in these kind of things, I just love her.

Happy Valentine's Day My Valentine Larisa, and Happy Valentine's Day to all of our Blogger friends! Show your Love by your actions today to all your Valentine's!!