February 14

Dear Danilo,

Thank you for the lengths you went to to make me feel special on Monday. You are a good man.


Love,
Brittney

Clouds

The other day a young woman who is very near and dear to me was showing me a text message she had just received from her fairly serious boyfriend. In the message I could just taste the sweetness of newly found love and hopes for a future that they dream of taking head-on together.

It took me back a few years to my dating and engagement period with Danilo. I felt like life had become sweeter than a fairy tale because I had found in him my definition of happiness. Like many engaged couples, we looked forward to those nights when we would go home together instead of him dropping me off at the end of the night. He would be part of the rest of my future, and no challenges that came our way would be too great because he and I would face them together.

the night after we got engaged on Salt Lake Temple grounds

dancing...

shower thrown by our friends in "adultos solteros"

Our wedding day: picking me up with rings in hand to go to the temple!!

Do I look happy?

I remember during those times a few people who good-naturedly told me to "just wait" until I came down from the clouds. Gary Thornley, who I adore, and who let me travel with him and his darling wife Marilyn to Mexico just a few days after Danilo and I had set a wedding date, got to hear how wonderful Danilo was on a daily basis. One day he elbowed me and said, "He may be all that, but he'll still leave his socks on the floor."

Gary and Marilyn Thornley (my Mexico pictures are in storage)

So the challenges have come. They have come in the form of car repairs and flooded carpeting and ten days on, two days off and learning that some situations cause our personalities to clash and that we were raised in different homes and that we don't agree on when Gracie should be potty-trained.

But as I sat there, text message in hand, and thought of what to say to this darling girl who sat next to me with happiness and love and excitement written all over her face, I thought to myself, have I come down from the clouds?

Maybe temporarily, from time to time, when in the thick of a challenging situation, but as I looked at her, I realized while I have amassed more experience, there isn't a whole lot of difference between the Brittney of today and the Brittney who fell madly in love with Danilo not so many years ago. We are still that same boy and girl who set out to make their dreams come true together, and we are doing it. None of the challenges have been too great when we have faced them together, and he is still the one I want to face them with. Because those ten days on, two days off are bringing Danilo closer to being able to provide well for our family, and that little girl who I want to start potty-training at 2 1/2 and Danilo would have trained were it up to him (wink, wink, many tell me they'd like to see him try) has brought more joy and fulfillment to our lives as husband and wife than we ever could have anticipated.
Oh, and did I mention that amidst the challenges there have been good times too? Such, such good times, so many that I started a blog to keep track of them all!

Happy Valentines Day Danilo!! I am so thankful to be living out this dream of ours with you!

Thank You Letter

Dear Cher of Love, Actually blog,
Not knowing how and when we were going to celebrate Valentines Day this year with my husband's insane work and school schedule, I did a Google search to try and find a way to do something special. I wasn't sure what I wanted, but hoped I'd find it. The Valentine's Countdown you posted was everything I was looking for!! I used probably a little more than half of your ideas and then made up some that were unique to us as husband and wife. My very favorite night was dancing to our wedding song. I teared up at the thought of how much we have experienced together and how my love for him has deepened since the last time we danced to that song. Some other favorites were

writing love letters to each other and mailing them for real



the heart attack on our bedroom wall



And the five-minute massage was a total hit.


I can say that our relationship sweetened over the last two weeks because we said and wrote and did things for each other that took time and effort motivated by love and were receiving it from each other every day in return. It was exciting and fun and love-inspiring.


Thank you so much!

Brittney Collado




And because Gracie grows faster than we do, I better get some recent pictures of her on this post, too!