Every approaching holiday, minus birthdays, starts out with the same agreement.

Beau and I each agree to not buy each other anything.

We say things like … “Let’s not do anything for Valentine’s Day. Nothing.” Both parties are content with the decision.

It was an even easier decision this year seeing as Valentine’s Day fell on a Sunday, and we had church commitments. We declared the day to be a family Valentine’s Day.

Only one problem … one of the members of the agreement picked up a little something at the store for her love.

A little something … no more than $12 total (card, candy, movie) … No big deal.

When she, or I, gave the “little something” to her one and only Valentine, he said, “I thought we weren’t getting each other anything.”

I said, “I know, but this is really nothing or my idea of nothing.”

He said, “My idea of nothing is NOTHING.’

I just couldn’t help it. I couldn’t skip over the card that said how many more memories I wanted to make with him. I couldn’t skip over some of his favorite candies or “Monty Python’s, The Search for the Holy Grail” on sale for $5. Come on, that’s really nothing.

It’s OK though. Beau’s getting my oil changed and my car washed today. He really is a man after my own heart. He may even pick up his clothes off of the footboard of our bed and put them in the clothes hamper.

The day of love was pretty much hijacked by my children … a day of their choice.


We ate at the wonderful Mr. Johnny Carino’s, or carbohydrate central, where we overloaded on bread and pasta and giant-sized croutons.

The spicy shrimp and chicken … uh, yum.

Pure exhaustion occurred after the meal of white bread, white pasta, and white sauce.

I offered to trade in the rest of the day for a nap, but Beau was the only taker on that one.

We headed to the movies to see “The Tooth Fairy,” but ended up seeing “Percy Jackson and the Olympians – The Lightning Thief” against Beau’s better judgment. We really knew nothing about it, but it was rated PG and K Belle said she had read the book. We thought it may have been a little scary and it was about the Greek gods and all. La Petite Belle said that it was about other gods that weren’t real anyway and that “The Tooth Fairy” had magic in it too. Good point. We went with Percy.

It was alright. There were some parts where I even jumped and wanted to cover my eyes, like when Hades and some crazy six-headed dragon showed up. And, I thought the whole going down into the underworld might freak the girls out, but it didn’t seem to.

Was it wrong to think that them seeing even a lighter version of what Hell is like might actually be good for them? Probably so.