life is like a pan of (quirky) cinnamon rolls

though i've always thought valentine's day to be over-rated, i'll never forget our first. bryan called a week or so earlier and asked me out ~ never mentioning that it was valentine's day. being in that fun stage of dating where he was still a little nervous around me i responded, "so, are you asking me to be your valentine"? cheesy, yes, but it still makes me smile to remember him stammering over his next words. "yeah...um...i guess so".

we had met 3 months earlier, and though i was smitten from the start, this was the night that sealed my fate. it wasn't a spectacular date~ hiking on a cold, dreary day (though the conversation was great...) and a pre-fixe dinner at a bed and breakfast (dinner. just dinner. no breakfast...) ~but it was a spectacular night. somewhere between bites of steak time seemed to stand still for a moment as i realized that i was falling. in. love.

on the long drive home i began to think of him as my future husband, and it made me giddy.

i imagined though that marrying this small-town, home-schooled boy would make for a pretty predictable life; so over the next few months i began to pack up my adventurous dreams and plan to settle down. buy a house, grow some roots, have some babies....

but ain't life just like a box of chocolates? 5 moves, 3 states, 3,000+ miles, 3 jobs, and 2 kids later, life is sweet.

almost as sweet as my valentine's cinnamon rolls. and true to life, our life, they didn't come out quite as planned.

they came out better.

*i only made the dough of the above recipe (in my bread machine). the filling was just "eyeballed" butter, cinnamon, and sugar, and the icing ~ cream cheese.