Bigger In Texas

Continuing the trend of the most romantic things my Hubby has ever done for me is something he did when I was about 5 months pregnant with Tracey Ann.

That being said, of the first five months of my pregnancy, Hubby and I were apart for more than 3 of those 5 months.  When we found out I was pregnant, I left four days later to study a graduate program that took me from Greeley, Colorado, Tuscon, Arizona, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Austin, Texas for 3-4 weeks at a time... and Hubby was along for none of those placements.

For a first-time, emotional, hormonal, pregnant mother, it was not ideal.

When I went to my placement in Austin, Texas, it was my final placement, and the last component of my graduate degree (with the exception of a comprehensive national exam).  Hubby was still in Colorado, and I had a few friends in Austin, and several in Dallas, so it definitely wasn't the worst place to be... but we were both ready for my graduate obligations to be done and to enjoy the remainder of my pregnancy together in Colorado.  The week days throughout these placements went by semi-quickly, but the weekends away from Hubby were very hard.

One of my friends in Austin was Kelley, a friend and sorority sister from undergrad, and maid-of-honor in our wedding.  She was finishing her PhD at the University of Texas and it was a very chaotic time in her life, but she was making time to spend with me when she could.  One Friday night, about halfway through my time in Austin, she had completed a big accomplishment of turning several chapters of her dissertation, and we had arranged a Texas girls night.  The plans involved dinner at one very Texas place, and then dancing at another very Texas place.  Then, on Saturday, we were going up to Baylor to attend a Baylor football game with another friend of mine (from graduate school), Obinna.  Hubby was going to be hunting all weekend, and I was excited for all the events of Friday night and Saturday.

I was very excited for the time with Kelley, and I even made a point to take a nap, because I knew how hard she had been working and how much she needed to blow off steam, and I didn't want my pregnant-ness to keep me from being a anything short of a great friend for our girls night.

We had a great dinner, and went to a fun dance place.  She was in touch with several friends throughout the night that she said might join us for dancing, and she checked voicemails and texts a few times to check in with them.

We were having a great time, and then, around 10:00pm, I wandered outside to get some water from the car, and she said that she just got a video from her friend who was going to meet us, and we needed to watch it.  I thought it was random that we were watching this random video on her phone in the parking lot of a Texas dancing bar... so I looked around to make sure we were okay to be doing this... and standing behind me was my wonderful Hubby -- not in Colorado, hunting, but standing in this Texas dancing bar parking lot.

Little did I know, he had been planning this with Kelley for weeks, and the video we were watching on Kelley's phone was a video compilation of his journey from Rifle to Austin to see me.  It was to the Blake Shelton's song, "Austin," -- a song that still makes me tear up to this day because of Hubby doing this.

Hubby arriving in Austin made that one of the best weekends of my life.

I loved having that time with Kelley before he arrived.  I loved that he conspired with one of my college best friends to pull off a surprise.  I love that he, and Kelley, and I got to dance at that Texas club, and then went to Kelley's favorite late-night snack spot.  I love that Saturday was spent with he and I going to meet Obinna at that Baylor game (although I would have loved if Kelley could have joined us -- she had to get back to her work on her dissertation... she was never going to go to the Baylor game).  Before we drove to the Baylor game, we went to a baby store in Austin and bought our child a Texas outfit, and discussed at length if "Austin" should be included in the child's name as either a first or milddle name for either a boy or a girl.  After the football game, we got back very late to my housing quarters in Austin, and Hubby felt our baby move for the first time.  It was one of the most amazing weekends of our marriage, and I still fall more and more in love with him every time I remember it.

Even my hubby's romantic gestures are bigger in Texas.