In honor of Valentine's Day

In honor of Valentine's Day (a day we as a couple don't really pay that much attention to), let's talk about Frank and enjoy some pictures that are in no particular order:

How we met: we met in Greek and Roman mythology class at BYU in the fall of 1987.  It was not a class that I would normally take but I arrived to school mid-semester and so my class options were limited. I noticed him in class but we didn't meet until a study session at the library.  We had to memorize a variety of Greek and Roman stories and pictures of various urns and other art.  We had to know the stories behind the art.  I arrived at the study group to find Frank there (the only guy) and a bunch of girls from class looking at the slides of the artwork.  As each piece of art would come up on the projector, we would discuss the story and facts that we needed to know.  A particular urn came up and no one knew the facts about it so Frank went into a long story about the urn and people were taking notes and listening carefully.  At the end, one of the other girls says, "Are you sure?" and proceeds to tell the correct story about this urn which was about 2 sentences long.  And when she said it, we all remembered and realized that her (much shorter) version was the right one.  At this point Frank says, "oh yeah, that's it" and we move on.  He wasn't even the slightest bit flustered that a whole group of us caught him telling a huge lie. He just grinned. I found it quite funny for some reason, probably because I thought he was cute.  Luckily he is not a pathological liar but he can BS when he feels it's needed.

After the study group, I left the library and he came up behind me and asked if we could study together sometime.  I said yes and we were inseparable after that.

Dating: For our first official date, Frank asked me to go play racquetball with him.  I ended up getting a very upsetting phone call right before we were supposed to go out so I canceled our date with no explanation.  I figured I would never see him again.  Instead, he showed up at my apartment and said that I had sounded upset and he wondered if I would just like to go for a walk.  We walked and I told him my problems and it was amazing.
We never did go play racquetball.

Cooking:  I remember Frank cooking me an amazing turkey dinner when we were dating.  This was a fraud.  He hasn't cooked all that much in  our lives, though he does on occasion...but never a big fancy meal.  His meals include breakfast for dinner, pancakes, cheese sandwiches and he also does all the barbecuing.  Luckily he isn't a picky eater because I don't really like to cook either...so he is usually grateful for whatever I make and rarely complains.

There are a couple of times that he will cook whatever I ask him to cook: mother's day and my birthday.  He has made fried chicken numerous times, scratch birthday cake and many other meals for these occasions.  The kitchen is always a disaster but the food is tasty.
And of course, we all know about his wonderful ability to make pie.  He will make me a pie pretty much anytime I ask.

Married life: We will have been married for 29 years this coming May.  I was 21 when we got married and he was 24.  Like everyone, we've had ups and downs but I can say that he is a very thoughtful and kind husband.  He is quick to apologize.  He doesn't hold a grudge or remember my mistakes.

Our first year of marriage was rough for me.  I got pregnant right away and was sick as a dog. I remember yelling at him after I came home from school to find that he had eaten spaghettiOs in the house! How could he be so thoughtless?  The whole house smelled like spaghettiOs and it made me so sick.  His response was to put a blanket on the lawn for me to sit on while he aired the house out. Aw.  Good reaction Frank.

One time I craved corn dogs so badly.  He went after work and school to the store and bought a huge 12 pack of corn dogs for me.  Of course by the time he brought them home I had moved on and thought that corn dogs were perhaps the most disgusting food on the planet.  He took it all in stride.

I remember sometime after our first year of marriage, talking to someone about how hard it had been and he looked a little surprised and said, "I thought it was great".  I felt a bit bad for having a bad attitude but it just shows how frank is...I was the cranky, sick, angry one that first year and yet he just remembered the good stuff.

Quirks:  Frank has blanket issues.  I cannot for the life of me find a nice blanket for our bed that we both like.  They are always too hot or too cold or too heavy or too light.  My aunt made us a quilt for a wedding present and he always ends up using that quilt even though, after 29 years, it is out of style and pretty beat up looking.  If I put a light blanket on the bed, he puts an extra one on top.  If I put a heavy blanket on the bed, he tosses it off and uses something lighter.  I have bought so many quilts, blankets and covers for our bed over the years in an attempt to have a nice looking bedroom that also works for him.  I have not yet succeeded.

Frank is a project guy and always has been.  He keeps busy.  This is not a guy who sits and watches tv on a weekend. When the kids were young I found weekends to be really hard because he always wanted to accomplish a ton of stuff and I just wanted a break from the kids!  And, let's be honest, it's hard to accomplish a lot when you have little kids. At the end of the weekend, he would be in a bad mood because he didn't get as much done as he wanted.  Luckily, he mellowed a bit and the kids grew up.

Romantic side: I don't think of Frank as a "romantic" type of person...he's just too practical for that.  But he has just enough romance in him to pull out some really great gestures over the years.  He built a huge "40" with lights that he put in our yard on my 40th birthday, he has taken me on a lot of vacations, he has thrown me birthday parties, he's written some nice notes and cards and he comes through with See's chocolates, which he knows I love, even when he had to have them shipped across the country to do it.  He's good about paying attention and then surprising me at Christmas or my birthday with something I noticed or liked months before. I love that about him.

I'm glad Frank is my valentine now and for the last 29 years!