Lovey Dovey

Love is defined on google as:

•         an intense feeling of deep affection (noun)
• .      a person or thing that one loves (noun)
• .      feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone).(verb)

These definitions make love seem so easy and simple. As if everyone should do it with little to no difficulty. Is it that easy and we just complicate it? Things are black and white for me in life. I don’t really live in the gray too often. However, love is one of those gray areas and I agree it should be. It should be a bit more complicated in order to make it special when you give it away.

I love BabieCakes…here are pictures of her and all her fluffiness……

                                

BabieCakes was the first pet that I was solely responsible for and safe to say my first love. The responsibility for a living-breathing animal is big for me. I do not have children, which means until that changes she is my fur baby child. The unconditional love that an animal shows is the purest of love, none other compares (well of course there is the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, but that’s a completely different post all together).

I made the mistake of watching Marley & Me a few nights ago and I asked Jarret, will I cry? He was very vague and said “yeah some tears may be shed.” He lied. It was full on Kim Kardashian ugly cry. My nose was plugged up, I couldn’t breathe, puffy eyed, and I woke up the next morning looking like I’d been on a drinking binge. It was a great movie!! I loved the story of the growing family and how the dog was the start of the family, but good Lord the story of the movie may not have been worth the tears. BabieCakes got some extra love that night and she was over it and me. She sauntered off tail in the air. If you follow me on Instagram (shelly_lenz) you know how much I love this furry butterball and how she makes me happy.

 I love my Mom, Dad, and Sister. Here is us…

Love for your family is ingrained at birth. I don’t believe you every really stop loving your parents, but I do hear stories of people that have a strained relationship with their parents. Hearing those stories tug at my heartstrings. I would never discount or presume to know what those people are feeling, but I definitely cannot relate. I have what could be described as a wonderful relationship with my parents and sister. Please don’t misunderstand there are times its better I don’t see them or talk to them because I am upset, but no matter the disagreements or arguments I love them for who they are. The beautiful thing about families is they grow! The addition of my brother-in-law, sweet nephew and Jarret’s family has made my heart so full it’s hard to put into words the amount of love I carry with me. Imagine that part in How the Grinch Stole Christmas when the Grinch’s heart grows and breaks the measurer, that’s my heart.

I love Jarret….and saved the best for last….

                                 

I am not going get too mushy or too personal on this particular love of my life.

The little quote next to our picture rings very true for me. I hate to say I’d given up on being in love or finding someone to love, but it was an idea that I was letting myself become more and more comfortable with.

I prayed for Jarret. Of course not him specifically, but a man like him. A friend of mine mentioned one time how she prays about the qualities she wants her in her future husband. This blew my mind. I had never thought about praying for specific qualities in a man. So I got very specific, picked three important qualities and made it part of my Adoration Prayers (for readers not Catholic ask me about Adoration and I can explain). It was years before I ran into Jarret after this “man prayer” and of course when we actually started dating it’d been 6 years since the last time I saw him and 16 years since we graduated high school. God has a sense of humor doesn’t he?? Didn’t I say I wasn’t going to get too personal?? The point is this. I’ve waited a long time to give my heart and love to someone. By gosh it was going to be someone special and God did not disappoint. Loving someone should make you feel, be and want many different things. I also have learned it’s not always rainbows and hearts. I look forward to see how my love for him grows/changes as we continue down this crazy road of life.

Because I don’t want this post to be so serious here are some of my other loves. The love of Harry Potter, Star Wars, food, books, Parks and Recreation, peanut butter, Game of Thrones, ice cream!! These loves are what make me special and connect with other people. While I’ve brought it up, I cannot stress enough if you are not watching Game of Thrones, please seriously consider it. I love this show so much that I will shamelessly plug it in a blog post not related at all.

Okay back to what I was saying…..

I understand people fall in and out of love all the time. I understand love is harder for some than it is for others, but in the end Love Is All You Need. I'm sorry I couldn’t write about love and not reference one of the most famous Beatles songs. #beatlesforever. No matter how complicated love can be imagine if we showed a more simple act of love toward those we come in contact with like a kind word, a gentle smile or a small wave. What a world this would be!?! Everyone is allowed their bad days. I have them and those are the days I need to try even harder to just be kinder and more loving! I laugh at myself because when I say these things it reminds me of the movie Miss. Congeniality when all the contestants give the answer “world peace” and how disgusted Sandra Bullock’s character is with such a generic answer. Hey, those pageant queens may be on to something!

-LOVE to you my friends.