Ten Things You May Not Know About Valentine's Day:

Love it or hate it, Valentine's Day is here.  Mark and I don't really make a fuss over Valentine's Day...mostly because, since I've been at home with the kids, we'd rather spend our money on other things.  But, I do have a great Valentine's Day story from our first one together...

Our first date had only been a couple of weeks before Valentine's Day, so we didn't have much time to prepare.  Mark found out that my favorite flowers were irises and tulips, so he had a beautiful bouquet of those sent to me at work.  A little boy in my class that had a little teacher crush on me, was insanely jealous and could not stop asking about those flowers.  That was pretty cute.  In classic Mark style, he told me about all the places he thought about taking me for Valentine's Day, but that we were not going to for one reason or another...I guess I should be impressed that he thought about it??  Instead, we had Taco Bueno.  I can't remember exactly why, but I think it had something to do with the fact that there was a ton of snow on the ground and all the nice restaurants were booked.  Anyway, we did get each other a couple of gifts.  In fact, we got each other the exact same gift.  We got each other the DVD Lost in Translation (the first movie we saw together) and a Starbuck's gift card (where we also went on our first date).  The funny thing was, we also got each other the exact same card.  Interestingly, it wasn't even a Valentine's card...it was a card from a totally different card section...with a picture of a shooting star on the front, and blank inside.  Anyway...we were totally amused by that, and hopefully you are too, or I just wasted a good 3 minutes of your time.  Count this little story as number one on the list of things you may not know about Valentine's Day.  Here are some more:

2. Cupid is associated with Valentine's day because according to Roman mythology, he was the son of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty.  Cupid was not really all cute and cuddly.  He was kind of a punk and liked to make mismatched people fall in love and enjoyed the chaos that ensued.  Shame on you cupid.

3. During the Middle Ages men and women drew names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine.  They pinned this name on their sleeve for one week...and this became known as "wearing your heart on your sleeve."

4. Remember those sweet and loving Romans?  In a way, we have them to thank for Valentine's Day.  Good ole' Claudius the Cruel was a little peeved that men did not want to leave their families to come fight for him, so he cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.  But dear, sweet Valentine, a priest in Rome, secretly married couples.  For his super secret marriages, he was beaten to death with clubs and beheaded on February 14.  (nothing says romance like a beheading.)  Later, the church, not wanting to celebrate the pagan holiday that began on the 15th, came up with their own love holiday and named it after good Saint Valentine...which is why you now have to cough up tons of cash every February to prove your love.

5. According to legend, while imprisoned, Valentine fell in love with the jailer's daughter and sent her a love note signed, "your Valentine."  So, really, when you ask someone to be your Valentine, you're asking them to be your imprisoned priest/martyr.

6. According to the above story, Valentine witnessed to the jailer and converted his entire family to Christianity before he was killed.  The jailer's daughter, whom Valentine fell in love with, was named Julia, and was blind.

7.  In the Middle Ages it was believed that birds chose their mate on February 14.  So, it became the official mating day.  I bet you didn't know there was an official mating day, did you?  You're welcome.

8.  I've been reading about Valentine's day all morning, and while all of the above are supposed reason why we celebrate this holiday, it appears that no one really knows for sure...and no one can really prove any of the stories about St. Valentine.  So, basically, we're all being scammed.  But, I guess "Happy Official Mating Day" doesn't sound as poetic.

9.  According to the French, the word "Valentine" comes from the french word galantine which means lover or gallant.  See, no one really knows what's going on here.

10.  Doves mate for life, and are therefore the official bird of Valentine's day...really?  Did they sign a contract?  Do they get money for this?  I doubt it, but I found it on the internet, so it must be true.

And one more thing that I did not know until today (and it has nothing to do with Valentine's day!)   Ella is the happiest girl, and I am the meanest girl.  I know this because she told me when I put her down for a nap.  Happy Valentine's Day to me!!

I hope you have a great day filled with lots of quality time with those you hold dear!  Happy official mating Valentine's day!  Now, go put your bird houses out...nesting will soon begin!