Lunch love.

Sometimes there are things that happen that are so Mom-errific that all you can do is beam with pride and chuckle. And also blog about it.

I put my first love note in Alex's lunch box last week, smiling ever-so-smugly to myself as I thought "I am SO nailing this Mom thing." *high five self* You know, because he's been in school nearly two months and I'm just now putting a note in his lunch. In my defense, he eats hot lunch every day--so technically it was the FIRST time I packed his lunch. Winning.

When we got home that day, we started our daily ritual of going through his folder to talk about his day, what he learned, and look at all his papers. Then, with an ear-to-ear smile he said, "Mom! I got your love note and it made me so happy. I even wrote you back!"

He pulled the note out of his folder and unfolded it carefully--with such pride in his work--and handed it to me as if was the most precious gift in the world. And to be honest, it was.

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This was my original note.

He wrote "Alex" on the top

and "Dad" by the heart.

This is the rest of his reply on the back of my note.

It's hard to see it all, because he wrote in pencil and my marker bled through the backside of the paper, but at the top he wrote "Deeaal" which is such a hilarious capture of his personality right now. EVERYTHING is dealmaking with him. Sometimes he doesn't quite get what a "deal" is and will use his mad negotiating skills to get to bed 5 minutes earlier...and he thinks he "won." It's so funny.

My heart parts were ALL OVER as he shared with me what and how he wrote me back. You can see he also wrote "Alex," "Dad," "Mom," and drew a heart and a smiley face just like I did in my note.

What a Mommy milestone. I got my first love note from my boy and I'm so proud. Saving it foreverandeverandever, then end.

Where it all began.

In honor of Throwback Thursday, I thought I'd share a glimpse into how it all began with Alex and Harper's Mommy and Daddy.

We're that couple. We met at work. It was awkward and secret and totally not how any relationship should probably start, but it makes for some great stories and even better memories.

Our first actual conversation was totally staged. And recorded. The company we both worked for was filming and photographing a product for an upcoming ad campaign, and instead of hiring models, they used real employees as "background people."

I knew he was going. He knew I was going. We both knew everyone wanted to set us up. AWKWARD.

Then, to make matters worse (better?), the photographer randomly "posed" us together as a couple chatting in the background "because we looked right together." So there's that. We probably should add him to our Christmas card distribution.

Totally normal first date, right?

Story time.

Five.

Today is a great day of celebration: the VeeDubs are celebrating 5 crazy years of wedded bliss!

And while normally I am very tongue-in-cheek, not-so-seriously-sarcastic and adorably humorous about expressing the love I have in my heart and girlybits for my husband, I'm finding that today I just want to have a rare moment of genuine sincerity and hard core truths.

There is a love capable by humans that, quite frankly, I didn't know/believe existed until I met Joe. It's so deep and rare that it's almost unexplainable and unfathomable. And I'm not super sure that over the course of the last year(ish) that I've been all that great about truly expressing that. Because if I'm totally honest with myself and also the Internet at-large, this last year has contained far more than its fair share of suckage. It has been largely shitty, and he has carried me through all of it. All of it.

But then I slap myself right smack in the face and am reminded of all the good and all the love and all the memories and all the the moments. We laughed and traveled to new places. We held hands as our healthy, hilarious son blew the candles out on his 3rd birthday cake. We worked hard and built a home. We watched friends and family celebrate joyous occasions in their own lives. We lived.

And that's really what love is about, isn't it? It's about buckling in, holding on for dear life and riding the highs and surviving the lows--and coming out the other end stronger and better for having done it together.

There is no one else I would rather do this life with. My God, I am lucky.

Some people are just meant to be together.

Allow me to set the stage: it's 9:30ish and some change at casa de VeeDub this evening. Joey is sprawled out on one couch, rocking his finest pair of fish pajama bottoms and a tee shirt that may or may not have been washed in the last week. He's on his eleventieth episode in a row of "American Pickers" and is also halfheartedly flipping through the pages of the most recent HOUR Detroit.

Similarly, I am sprawled on the adjacent couch, nomming on my Camelbak jug filled with water only because my body is so desperately deprived of nutrients and agua due to the fact that I've fed it nothing but wine, champagne, vodka and Chex Mix for the last week. I'm in a similar getup, though I would never be caught dead in fishing sweatpants, so mine are of the classier Victoria's Secret variety. I'm also well into my seven hundredth game of euchre on the iPad, cursing at my virtual partner for calling hearts on nothing but a 9 and Q. What a whore.

Anyway, Joey musters all the energy he has left from what you can deduce from the above was an incredibly exciting and riveting evening to roll over and announce to me that Sunday is a BIG day.

"Babe, you know that Sunday is like, a HUGE football day. Like, all day."

Please note that this is my queue to read between the lines and instead hear, "Babe, I'm not doing anything on Sunday. So don't try any of your funny tricks on me. No Home Goods. No DSW. No 'family adventures'  to the aquarium because it's Sunday and you have a coupon. I'm only doing football."

Message received, good sir. But little does he know that my plans for Sunday include much, much less activity than his. And so, I reply with:

"Babe, I hope you know that I might not even shower on Sunday."

Elation fills his face and he replies with the same genuine love and adoration he had as he spoke his wedding vows to me some four years ago:

"I love you so much right now it's not even funny."

Like I said, some people were just meant to be. We're those people.