Together

February 14th brought with it some excitement as well as some stress. Justin has been working incredibly hard and I am so proud of him. I have to brag about him a little and share that he even received the award, "Rookie of the Year" at their recent employee appreciation banquet because he has done so well since starting with the company. He has been extra busy lately as he is managing the start up of new security personnel at a new site in Manchester Township, NJ.  Because Justin is the security operations manager, he is responsible for making sure this new site takes off without a hitch. Therefore he needs to be there when the transition takes place which is a pain since its not exactly close by. The official start time for his security personnel to take over... midnight on Valentines Day. Go figure, right? While it was disappointing, we initially just anticipated a Valentines Day spent apart. He would stay overnight in NJ, nearby the site so that he could be present to oversee the transition, and I would stay home. However, by February 13th, that plan had officially changed. He left the decision up to me and I have to say it really wasn't a difficult one. Would I like to drive 2 hours to NJ and stay overnight with my husband on Valentines Day?  Of course! I went knowing he would get called away and that our time together would be limited. But a little bit of time together, was still better than the day apart.

Justin left around 6am that morning to go to work and had a full day of driving from Philly, to Newark and eventually to the new site in Manchester Township. Meanwhile I spent the day at home and received a beautiful display of red roses courtesy of my thoughtful husband. :)

By 3pm, I was on the road headed to NJ to see Justin. I planned ahead of course, and packed a bottle of champagne and 2 glasses. It was Valentines Day after all! I also made a stop at Carlinos for something near and dear to Justin's heart...CHEESE! He absolutely loves it. So I got his (and my) latest favorite. It might be the best cheese I've ever had.

I arrived at the hotel before Justin. As I gave my credit card information, I couldn't help but notice that on the receipt it said "WANTS ROOM DECORATED."   Now I am the one that made the reservation and I know that I didn't make any special requests... so once again my thoughtful husband must have been up to something. When I saw the 'decorations' I had to laugh. Justin was definitely being so thoughtful in trying to make our Valentines Day special despite the circumstances. However, I think he may have forgotten that we were staying at the Comfort Inn, and not the Four Seasons. :) 

The plastic rose and paper heart doily on the bed were clearly not what he had anticipated. But we did get a good laugh out of it and enjoyed the heart of chocolates! :)

We went to a nice dinner together at Tiffany's (the only place we called that didn't have an hour+ wait).  After dinner we shared some champagne and watched The Bachelor before he headed back to work.

the block of cheese is hiding behind the envelope :)

Thankfully our prayers were answered. The transition went smoothly and Justin was able to head back to the hotel a little after midnight. 

In the morning we each enjoyed a complimentary breakfast before Justin headed back to work and I headed home. The drive home was long, but I couldn't help but smile and thank God yet again for blessing me with such a wonderful husband. While it wasn't the way we would have expected to spend our first Valentines Day as a married couple, we were very thankful to spend it together.