Flutter flutter, flippity flop.

In honor of Valentines Day month and some red roses that arrived at my door today I thought I would talk about the stages of love. The first and shortest stage is when you first meet someone. Those first few weeks where your heart races every time you see them and your cheeks get red and you can't focus on anything but their lips. Your hands touch by accident and a tingle goes up your arm and you can't stop giggling. I remember this stage so clearly with Chris even though we were only 16 at the time. He would bike over to my house and we would take walks and talk for hours and hours. The next stage comes fairly quickly down the road of love. This stage is when you only have eyes for him and him for you. You are hopelessly devoted to being together. Usually this stage is cemented by some sort of formal statement that you are together as a couple. I guess that happened for us when Chris gave me a diomonique promise ring for Christmas. I wore it proudly and thought it was the most beautiful thing ever (I saw it in my jewelry box the other day and had to giggle at the cloudy stone and apparent rust on the band). Chris traveled to Russia around this time and sent me letter after letter expressing his love for me and I kept a journal doing the same. I remember crying every time I received one of those damn letters and feeling like my heart was breaking. He was gone for 3 months and to a 17 year old that was an eternity! Next comes the stage of no return. This is when you know that you will move on to hire level signified by a real diamond on your left hand. Chris proposed to me when we were both 21. We would sit for hours discussing out future together. How many kids we would have and where we would live. After we got married and got through the initial newlywed period we hit the next stage. We bought a house and started a family. With the birth of each child our love changed and became stronger. Three kids later and I still feel the flutter of my heart when I see him, I still miss him terribly when he is gone and I still love to talk for hours to him. I look forward to figuring out what stage comes next in our long and winding love affair. Whatever it is I imagine it will be magical and make my heart go flippity flop.