Nothing says love like a meat thermometer!

Project 365 * 4
Day 410

     Tomorrow marks fourteen years that Matt and I have been together. Fourteen years ago today, I won him over with a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies. The way to Matt's heart. Cookies. After I got a shower this afternoon while Tobin napped, Addy and I hung out in my closet. We tried on shoes. We looked at clothes. We went through my special box of stuff. That stuff includes countless letters and notes and cards written between Matt and I over the past 14 years. One note in particular struck me today. It was a letter from Matt for my birthday. It was from our first year together. I was turning eighteen. And he was still seventeen. In it, he said that he had no idea what to get me for my birthday, so he asked his mom and sister for advice. They told him we hadn't been together that long, so he shouldn't over think it. He should just get something simple, since we weren't that serious. Matt said he didn't know how to reply. He didn't know what to think. He wrote that he had strong, serious feelings, and then he said, "no, not even strong feelings, I love you. I KNOW I love you."

     Reading that sentence today, fourteen years after it was written, still brought tears to my eyes. Matt was seventeen when he fell in love with me. Fast forward to tonight. One of Matt's gifts to me for "Valentine's Day/Anniversary of Us", was a meat thermometer. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to cook. But I obsess about chicken. I am very afraid of serving under cooked chicken. As I was washing dishes tonight, Matt brought me the thermometer to wash and said, "nothing says love like a meat thermometer." And while he was joking, it's the little things like meat thermometers that show a person how much you love them. He knows I needed and wanted one. One that can be calibrated to ensure exact temperature readings. The one I had before had no zero, and it couldn't be calibrated. (I'm pretty serious about cooking chicken thoroughly. Can you tell?) It's the little things like meat thermometers that say to me, Matt's in it for the long haul.

     Thankful for my sweet love. Thankful for his constant, steadfast love for me. Thankful to be celebrating my fourteenth Valentine's Day with him. Thankful for our sweet date night. Carry out. Wine. And Sleepless in Seattle. "It was like...magic."