I know it isn’t quite Valentine’s Day, but it’s on my mind. My guess is because I was at the store yesterday and it was a mass of red and pinks. I think I passed three aisles of chocolates, cards, stuffed animals, and random products that were supposed to pass as possible gifts.
That got me thinking about my favorite Valentine’s gift. Before I take you back to the mid-1990’s, let me share some backstory.
My husband and I have been married 21 years, and since the day he wanted to ask me out he’s been teased about his vocation. For 20 years he was a programmer, but recently he’s moved into training clients how to use his employer’s products. It’s a noble profession, but when he asked me out, our families were on a joint camping trip.
He arrived with a disk in his shirt pocket.
He’s never lived that down, but his nerdy ways have not only provided for us, he’s bailed me out more than once. Just last week he resurrected my website, a project that took eight hours and was caused by a plugin.
But I digress.
Us, during our engagement.
We had a Valentine’s where he put his programming skills to work and surprised me. I noticed he’d been on his computer more than usual, and didn’t say much when I asked what he was up to. The day arrived, and he handed me, yep, a disk.
He set the program up for me and it was a compilation of our times together. It was animated and showcased that camping trip, his proposal, and our prayers for our future. I loved it. I knew the time he put into it, and I knew customized romantic gestures were out of his comfort zone. The trouble was, he is a perfectionist with his work. He notices every detail in the back end of website design, and he’ll find something to tweak in all his work. No one else would notice, but he does. It’s often why there were times he doesn’t go to bed until 3.
He was so disappointed with it, he destroyed it. As an author, I understand. To him, it was a rough draft and he felt he could do better. As a wife, I was heartbroken. I loved his heart and how much work he put into it.
These days he will surprise me with flowers, always giving one from the bouquet to our daughter. We usually go out to dinner, sometimes with the kids. But my favorite memory will be of that computer program documenting our love story.
My second favorite memory is greeting my now-husband at a campground, where he was wearing a pocket shirt that had a computer disk inside.
How about you? What’s a favorite Valentine celebration you enjoyed?
Have you read any romances with a nerdy hero or heroine?
Julie Arduini loves to encourage readers to surrender the good, the bad, and ---maybe one day---the chocolate. She’s the author of ENTRUSTED: Surrendering the Present, as well as ENTANGLED: Surrendering the Past. The last book in the series, ENGAGED: Surrendering the Future, is coming soon. She also shares her story in the infertility devotional, A WALK IN THE VALLEY. She also blogs every other Wednesday for Christians Read. She resides in Ohio with her husband, two children, and chocolate stash. Learn more by visiting her at http://juliearduini.com.
Hi Julie, how cute:) Love the creativity your husband put into his gift for you.
We have never celebrated Valentine’s Day in any way traditionally- instead, we tend to head outdoors for some time together, mountain biking, paddling or hiking. I do remember getting take out pizza and sitting by the lake one Valentine’s, that was great and probably the most ‘traditional’ way we celebrated.
Blessings:)
Hi Julie! What a delightful story. Do not really have a favorite Valentine celebration, since we celebrate at home with steak dinner and dessert. We exchange cards and a gift of favorite chocolates and an Amazon gift card. Twice we moved on Valentine’s Day. Happy early Valentine’s Day. Best wishes.
We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. But this year, we’re having our teeth cleaned that day. How romantic is that!
What a sweet story!!!
Hi Julie! What a great story! My husband is a software engineer, so I completely understand. We’re both nerds! One year for our anniversary, we bought each other a digital item we’d been wanting in a computer game we played together. LOL
We don’t usually do a lot for Valentine’s Day as far as anything traditional. But we will probably get something nice to eat this year. We found a new restaurant with some amazing steak fingers!
Thanks for sharing!
oh my goodness, this could almost me my story also. a few little changes. my husband is a computer quality control, software tester, etc. He has helped me so much with my own computer, especially when mine died. He helped to retrieve everything. I have a lot of special things on it and a lot of patterns etc. for quilting. We are now married for 34 years and his job really has supported us all for all that time. Oh and he is happy when he accomplishes something on the computer. Happy Valentines.
When my husband and I were engaged, he was in the Air Force, stationed in Taiwan. I was amazed to receive a dozen red roses from him for Valentines Day!!! I thought, “Wow! He definitely is a keeper.” Well, that was the only time he’s gotten me flowers for Valentines Day :-) It so happened another fellow was sending his sweetheart roses, and Jim got the idea from him.
We usually make cards for each other, but don’t do much other than that. This year we have a meeting of our Community Emergency Response Team on Valentines Day, so I’m baking heart cookies to take.
Our anniversary is on Valentine’s Day, so we tend not to celebrate either in a big way. For years we took a cruise with good friends of ours, one of which had a birthday in February. So it was a joint celebration. Now that we don’t live in Florida, cruising is not quite so convenient. Many years we bought something for the house to celebrate the date. My favorite purchase is our grandfather clock.
I love this!! My hubby is a nerd, also. Computers and programming are his language. We played computer games together when we dated. I tease him quite often about being a geek! I couldn’t imagine not having his knowledge to lean on when I’m playing on my laptop. :) On valentine’s day he always gets our girls a rose, it is so sweet.
My husband is a computer geek, he likes to fiddle with them. My son and one son in law are computer programmers. My other son in law can build anything he sees. All are a blessing and handy to have around. We don’t usually do much for valentines day.
What a sweet post! Our tradition is to make soup and open faced, heart shaped sandwiches, and eat by candlelight. When our children were young, they would decorate a shoebox for their Valentines. Then we would open them after the meal.
I love the lake and pizza idea, I can picture that in a book! Very romantic, Wemble!
Hi, Renate! Moving doesn’t sound fun (my moves were Labor Day!) but steak dinner and dessert sounds wonderful!
Sherri,
That’s funny! It would be bad if I suggested chocolate after, right?
Valerie,
Thank you! He is a keeper.
Melanie,
Yep, you get it! I remember one of our dates was going to a computer expo, and he’s been my assistant at book signings. :) Steak fingers sounds delicious!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Lori! This year he really showed his love when my website crashed. He spent hours and hours trying to find the problem, and then restored everything. His work is a lot of long hours, but I tell people when he keeps whistling, I know he still loves what he does. That’s a blessing.
Margaret,
I definitely can relate! After we married he wasn’t sure how crazy he needed to get for the holiday so I think by our third or fourth Valentine’s, he threw a sweatshirt at me and said it was on sale. I know that was actually a compliment because I was so practical back then. But as time went on he admitted he felt pressure to buy something because his co worker did. Ah, romance!
Merrillee, Happy Anniversary! That’s a great idea to buy something for the house. I hope you have a wonderful day!
Susan,
That IS sweet. It’s easy to tease our nerds, but they are such a blessing to our lives.
Hi, Diana!
One of my husband’s favorite hobbies is building computers. That would be absolute torture for me. It really is fun for him. I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day!
This is so romantic! I love it. Enjoy your special meal and candlelight. What a special tradition.
Love nerdy stories! I don’t really have a special valentine’s story as my hubby made it clear he didn’t “do” v-day while we were dating.