Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I love Valentines Day!!! Not really sure why, but I've always loved it, even before I had my own special someone to share it with. Maybe it's just that I love pink and red, or maybe I am just a girl who loves any excuse to celebrate, but even in college before Matt and I started dating when I was surrounded by girls who hated the day if they didn't have a boyfriend, I still got excited about it and loved all the balloons and flowers and pretty hearts that were left for other girls at the dorm desk. What can I say, I'm a sucker for romance. Nine years ago, Matt and I had been dating for 9 days and I wasn't even sure we were "doing" valentine's day. I made him chocolate chip cookies and a homemade card and wasn't sure if I should sign my name "love, Sharon" or just "Sharon." I don't even remember what I decided on. But I do remember sitting and working at the desk in my dorm lobby and seeing Matt walk in with a vase full of light pink and white roses and being giddy that I was one of the girls getting flowers and that I was totally in love with the boy giving them to me. And here we are 9 years later and I am so blessed with an amazing man who loves me unconditionally (and I don't always make that easy) and who I will love and adore for the rest of my life. OK, yes I'm a bit sappy, but my sweet husband flew to IN today for two interviews coming up tomorrow and Tuesday and I miss him like crazy!

So, being the romantic that I am, I love planning fun things to do for Valentine's Day. We've done different things different years, but this year we had a date night planned and decided to cook dinner together. And it was YUMMMM!!! I love good food, and this was some GOOD food. We began the evening with avocado soup topped with shrimp and homemade salsa. It was fun to try something new, but ended up being a bit rich for my taste. Then we followed the soup with a salad of spinach, red leaf, tomatoes, cucumbers, pecans, dried cranberries and Gorgonzola cheese topped with a homemade honey mustard dressing. Mmmmm. I love Gorgonzola. Since we had several courses to make, we kind of made one course, ate it, and then made the next one. Our dinner ended up being a three and a half hour event, but it was fun to just enjoy working together in the kitchen and taking our time. So, for the main part of our meal, we went all out and had asparagus sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and garlic powder, Angus Blue Cheese burgers topped with Gorgonzola cheese (found these at Costco and they were amazing!), Shrimp Scampi made with fresh lemon juice, butter and fresh parsley (so good!), and our first and probably only attempt at lobster tail. I had lobster at a restaurant a long time ago and at the time I really liked it, but I was not too fond of this one. I think we may have overcooked it slightly, but I also think I just don't like it as well as I remembered. But it was fun to try it. After the main course, we were both pretty full, so we did the dishes and talked for a little bit before having coffee and dessert. We splurged on dessert and got a piece of cheesecake from the cheesecake factory to split and had the best coffee ever (Stewarts Decaf Cinnamon Coffee Cake) to go with it. Delicious! I will certainly be needing my boot camp class tomorrow, but it was SO worth it. :)

Here are the pictures of our fun night:

Matt splurged big time and got me roses, a balloon and chocolate. And he has brought me fully over to the dark side in the chocolate department. When we got married, I was a milk chocolate girl all the way. Now I don't really even like milk chocolate. Kind of feels like just a lot of sweet and not enough real chocolate flavor. I just recently discovered Ghirardelli 86% dark chocolate. It's creamy and delicious and one square has less than two grams of sugar. That makes this girl happy!!!

I love this man so much!