To my Valentine

When I met my husband, our relationship was like wearing a pair of tight shoes. It was often uncomfortable, as we got to know each other. Now that we have been together for 24 years, those shoes have been broken in and are comfortable.

We were watching a new television show a while back the called "Meet the Newlyweds." Of course, it was a realty show involving several newlyweds and of course the focus is to see how well these newly married couples know their spouses. I laughed thinking about those early years of ours when we were still getting used to each other's habits and that these couples have a long ways to go to get to where we are in our relationship.

There are many habits we each have that are no longer changeable - we have learned to live with them, no matter how annoying they may be - because we know by now that we are too old to find a "new pair of shoes" to try to break in.

My husband has come to put up with my stubbornness and that I don't want to sit and watch sports on tv with him. (It took him awhile to get over the fact that I "tricked" him by saying I enjoyed sports when we first met. Heck, a girl has to do what a girl has to do to get a man. Besides, he has kids that are just as sports fanatical as he is; I'm only needed to provide snacks to eat while they are watching the games.)

And I have come to put up with his piles of things - newspapers and dirty socks - and even pick them up now instead of leaving them lie to see how long it will actually take him to pick them up. We love each other a lot but have a crazy way of showing it - we laugh with each other and make fun of each other.

He enjoys making fun of my height - something I can't do a darn thing about - but I get back at him about the "basketball" he seems to be carrying around with him under his shirt.

He laughs about my "blondness" (only because I pay my beautician to make me blonde) and I get right back at him with gray hair jokes.

He knows though when to stop the jokes - when he is hungry.

"We make a perfect pair," he told me just the other night. "You cook and I eat."

I know we will be together forever and ever. I know this because I have now slipped into a warm pair of fuzzy slippers. Can't find a relationship much cozier than that.