Sparkle: Mr. B

Before we get started with today's festivities, I would like to welcome anyone stopping by from Pink on the cheek. Lauren is a serious blog idol of mine and I am so happy to have you. You have joined me on a good day! I am bragging on my man today in true Valentines day fashion.
If you would like other options to get to know little ole me, and what I'm all about you can read about:
one of the days I spent paying it forward with Random Acts of kindness, or you can see some of my budding photography work, my Happy Mail Mission or heck you can even
read about the hot mess I can be.
So without further adiou....

Mr. B

Let me start by saying that if you don't like corny stories or your name is Roger please click off of this blog post right now. Thank you

Seriously, Roger.. Go away. :)

Now that I only have my hopeless romantic friends left with me I will start.

I have been referencing Mr. B a lot lately.

If you haven't guessed by now or I have been unclear about who he is, he is my boyfriend.

I have been wanting to write about our little story lately because I obviously have no problem putting the details of my personal life on the Internet or probably because he is pretty fantastic and I want to brag a little bit. Since this week is all about love {or so the red and pink aisles at every store, and every blogger in the world tell me} I figured there is no better time than now to share some of my Mr. B story.

Now, I told him to go away because if he knew I was writing a whole post about him he would get himself all flustered and object to me putting it on the internets. I'm more of an ask for forgiveness than permission kind of gal though so here goes...

Mr. B and I met in 2011 at a baby shower.

Pause for reaction.

Yup, my friend from elementary school had a baby with his friend from elementary school and they threw a co-ed baby shower that we both showed up to.

I was actually in a relationship at the time with someone that was I was NOT compatible with. at all. I lived an hour away from my friends and family to be in that relationship and made the trip down only for that day to see my sweet friend.

When Mr. B showed up to the shower I did a double take. He walked up, said hi to Melissa and then went over to his friends without so much as a glance in my direction. Rude.

Besides a little small talk and playful jokes about how his shower gift was what I wanted to get from the registry and how his wrapping job was quite impressive, we didn't say much to each other during the party.

A few hours later everyone parted ways. I drove back to my apartment and wouldn't really think much about the present stealer again for another 6 months.

In the next 6 months I went thru an ugly break up and and an even uglier process of getting my life back together after being stuck in the alternate universe that is the East Valley of Arizona. With the help of my fantastic family and really great friends I picked up all of the pieces and put myself back together again. I lost a bunch of weight, I started having more fun at work, and I started hanging out with my friends much more. Life just got more fun. I had no idea.

One of those friends just happened to be Melissa. A girl I have known since 7th grade who knows how my brain works better than I do sometimes.

She just gets me.

She knows what 'm thinking before I say it out loud. We are that kind of friends.

She had a new(ish) baby and an apartment I could go to and just relax, so I would go visit her on my way home from work and occasionally on the weekends.

On one particular night I had to leave earlier than normal in order to get up for work early the next day. As I was on my way out I passed a handsome stranger walking up to her apartment.

So naturally the teenage girl in me sent the "who is that and why do I not know him" text to my friend.

She responded with "That's Roger, You met him at the baby shower, dork"

I began to grill her for details about the man candy that I just passed by.

{Let me interrupt for just a second and say I apologize for using that term but I know he is still reading and will DIE when he see's it} moving on.

She gave him my phone number and vice versa and we started the lame-o text pre-dating.

{{ let me interrupt AGAIN and tell you that he is not a huge technology lover like me; he uses his phone to check ESPN and to play games. that's about it.. No Facebook, twitter, instagram, ext. }}

At first he would average a good 3 days to send a text back to me.

That drove me NUTS. I would get so frustrated and start thinking that he just didn't like me. So I stopped texting him and trying to get his attention.

And of course the 3 day hiatus resulted in sweet messages from him, and thus began the vicious cycle over again. Rude. How was I to resist when I get heart melting messages? Exactly.

I would think about him all the time and eagerly wait for the next time I would talk to him.

After what seemed like forever of texting back and forth he asked me on a real live date.

{If only he knew how creepily accurate this quote is. }

{via}

I was so excited. I spent my days at work that week telling my friends that I had a date that weekend and they would Ooo and Ahh with me like girls do.

I spent a good hour deciding what to wear. Fussing that my hair didn't look good and ferociously texting Melissa telling her how nervous I was to hang out with him.

We went bowling and to dinner.

From the first date he made me laugh until my cheeks hurt and I just felt comfortable around him.

After that it was a whirlwind of awesome dates.

Arizona State Fair. Complete with a terrifying Ferris wheel ride for him and bomb funnel cake.

Super cross.

Baseball games

Snowboarding

It was fantastic.

There is a whole bunch of really cool stuff that has happened from then until now including a trip to Las Vegas, Arena football games, Mr. B meeting my mom, and a taco festival but, I really wanted to start writing this to give that wonderful man the props he deserves.

He really is a great human.

As you know, I ran a 5k, and not a day went by where he didn't tell me how proud of me he is and how great of a job I was doing with the training process.

He is always asking about my next big idea for my blog and gives suggestions on how to accomplish my goals. He made a list of the things he can help with for my 50 in 555 list.
He made me cupcakes for reaching 100 followers on this little blog of mine.

He doesn't hesitate to tell me the things he appreciates about me and on the other side of the coin we talk out the ugly things too. He makes sure I don't sell myself short.
I seriously could talk about these things all day.

Now, I am kind of a habitual, sweep bad things under the rug and pretend like life is gravy kind of gal, but he forces me to pull out the mess and deal with it and I cannot explain how much I appreciate that.

There is not a thing that I could tell him that would make him think any differently. That doesn't mean I actually do tell him everything
{ I am, after all, a girl that likes to please everyone}
but I know that I can and when I do I can trust that he is going to be honest with me and do everything in his power to make any situation better for me. He makes me smile and laugh and I am a better person because of him. He is different than any other man I have ever met. He can be completely strong for me one minute and the next can touch a place in my heart that I have hidden for a long long time. I trust him in that place. He makes my heart do weird things and even when I want to be mad so badly he makes me laugh and not sweat the small stuff.

{via}

I thought that I would be able to describe how I feel about him really easily in words on this little blog of mine but even after all of that I still don't think that I gave him all the credit he deserves. I really am lucky to have that man in my corner.

Roger, I am sure you are still reading this because, while you are fantastic, you are nosey.

I appreciate you.

I am thankful for you.

I love you.