....... . . . . .Semi-Charmed Kinda Life

Shayla shots

2009-11-09T22:15:00.004-05:00

This is how Shayla eats her breakfast every morning... with all her friends stuffed in her high chair beside her. She now insists on feeding herself, she will not let me help her at all. She LOVES her little animal friends. Too funny!

18 months old

2009-10-29T16:41:00.002-04:00

SHAY is 18months old today!!! I don't know why, but this seems like a milestone age. It is exciting. She really is a "big girl" - More toddler than baby. I love it. She is super sweet! She gives kisses and hugs on demand. There is nothing sweeter than Shayla Sugar..... Did I mention I love this age? She is speaking alot, still not all of it understandable, but she has a wide vocabulary. It is easy to teach her stuff, she's like a little sponge.

The other day, I put her in the laundry basket and tied a belt to the end. Then I would shout "ready, Go" and pull her. Everytime I would stop I would teach her those two words and by the end of the game she was saying "eeedddyy GO!" It was so fun! Jon taught her how to give a high-five. They learn so quick!

She is also copying what she sees us doing. That can be good, and that can be bad. I was in the kitchen fixing her lunch and I spilled something on the floor. I had a rag already down there, so I used my foot to wipe up the spill with the rag. Shay is just standing beside me. I go back to fixing the food and I see her take her foot and push the rag around over the floor. SOOO CUTE!!

She loves to read. I read her the same books over and over and over again. She loves it! Sometimes she "reads" to me. She will turn the pages and take my hand and rub them over the words and pictures. Toddlers are so smart!!

She is a cuddly baby. She loves her stuffed animals. Every morning, and after every nap, when I go to get her from her crib, she is hugging her three stuffed animals. When I pick her up, we have to get the stuffed animals (Minnie mouse, Pooh, and a teddy bear), and take them with us to the den. It is an armful, but she LOVES them. In fact, every morning while she is eating her cereal, she has them stuffed into her highchair beside her while she eats. She has NO room for herself, but she just smiles and looks at them. They are her little friends. Is your heart just melting yet?

She is still going down for two naps a day, but I think she will soon cut one out. She only sleeps for an hour or less, she stays in there for two hours or more. She sits in there and plays. I listen to her through the monitor. She talks and squeals and laughs. It is soo cute. I need to get a recording of it, I know ten years from now it would make me smile. I love those sweet sounds. It also gives me lots of free time.

PS: HAPPY 29TH BIRTHDAY HILA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LadyBug Shay

2009-10-25T18:38:00.000-04:00

We took shay to a church "Trunk Or Treat" tonight. It was so fun! She is so cute in her ladybug costume. She left her hat thing on the whole time. She had a blast walking around.

My beautiful girls. Alysha wore one of dad's ODU's, just so she would have an outfit. Some of her homeschool friends were gonna be there and they were dressing up too. :) That was the best we could do on short notice.

SWEET!!!

BRACE FACE

2009-10-21T18:40:00.004-04:00

My baby girl has had her braces on for two years............... this week she got them off. Here is her before picture:

Here is a picture of her Brand New four thousand dollar smile. Isn't she pretty? It was a big day! Her teeth look great...as they should for that obscene amount of money they charge. I cannot imagine having lots of kids and lots of braces to pay for. Ouch! She is now living in "Retainer Land". She already hates those things.....

A day at the Park

2009-09-30T17:12:00.007-04:00

This was shayla's first time at the park. She was so cute! She was shy at first, but she warmed up to it!This is Shay and her future boyfriend, Lane. He is three weeks older than her.

Standing at the top of the big kids gym, looking down at mommy.

She had a blast, until the very end, when she fell and hit her face. She cried, but she was not hurt. It was so a fun day.

Shayla's first sprinkler adventure!

2009-09-22T22:15:00.006-04:00

Friday night we decided to have family fun night. We decided to get out the sprinkler toy and see how Shayla liked it. She has a BLAST!! She was so wet and covered with grass and dirt by the time it was over. Sissy got out there in her bathing suit and played with her, while I took pics and daddy controlled the water. :)

Check out those dirty legs.
She just walked around the yard for an hour, laughing and having a good time. She would fall down, and then get right back up and keep walking. She never stopped moving. I hosed her down before we went inside, but the tub was still full of grass and stuff. She had fun getting dirty. (This was Friday two week ago, since mommy and baby have been very sick all last week. I now feel all human again. ) "Firsts" are so fun!

shayla shots

2009-09-04T15:14:00.000-04:00

USCG Day 2009

2009-08-15T21:12:00.007-04:00

This year Jon and one of his other shipmates headed up Coast Guard Day. He did a good job. It was a lot of work and it all turned out really great. There were over 200 people there! This is a pic of Jon presenting a plaque to the previous and current OIC's.

This is a picture of Jon and his current OIC.

Jon giving his speech. He did great!!

My girls, sitting outside under the tent. It was so hot outside! Shay did really good.

MaaaaaaMeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

2009-08-10T12:28:00.002-04:00

Mommy. Shayla says that all the time now. I do love to hear her call me in the sweet little sing song voice.

Shayla loves sheets. When I wash sheets, she gets them out of the clean clothes basket and just lays down on them and sucks her thumb. It is so cute!!!!!!!!!!

She likes to hold it while she sucks her thumb. When she gets tired she will do this with just about anything... a dirty sock on the floor, any cloth she can hug while sucking her thumb. I have given her the pretty little "Lovey" blanket things and she wont hug them.... she prefers Jon's dirty boxers... figures right?

I Love this age. She sits in my lap, she is talking all the time (although unintelligible), she is so sweet. She gives kisses and loves all over ya!! Oh man, I love this sweet girl!!

Walt Disney 2009

2009-08-01T08:27:00.003-04:00

We just got back from a week at Disney. We hit Epcot, MGM, Magic Kingdom and Typhoon Lagoon. It was pretty awesome. Shay stayed with her meemaw and we took my niece CC with us. Those girls had the best time!!!

The high light of the trip for me was meeting Mickey Mouse!! When we finally got into the back room to meet him, I got a little starstruck. I mean, It is is MICKEY!! No joke, I got nervous. It was pretty cool, like meeting a movie star - (except it was some person in a costume.) Jon gave Minnie a kiss and the whole room made the wooooooo sound and mickey put his hand over his mouth, like my hubby was kissing on another woman. It was so funny. So she kicked her foot out in the picture, must've been a good kiss.

The teenagers - looking cool on the way to a park. Aren't they styling?

a little vacation

2009-07-11T16:34:00.006-04:00

This is not a baby anymore.... look at my toddler.
The picture below is shayla in my laundry basket. Alysha tied a belt to it and pillow-ed it up and she pulls shay around in it. so cute!!

I am going on vacation. Well, the girls and I are going to a condo on the beach for a week. Jon is going to California. Of course, he is going to a school for the USCG. Not a vacation for him.

I am going to relax and tan. I am hoping Shay will LOVE the sand.

We will not have internet access.
No checking my email.
No facebook
No blog stalking

whatever shall we do without our technology?

see you next week.......................

My honeymoon weekend - part 1

2009-07-05T22:32:00.008-04:00

FRIDAY:

We headed back to Florida from Alabama.... no kids. I was driving my new-to-me 2005 Ford Freestar that we purchased right before we left (I will blog about that later). Jon in our Honda.
We decided to stop at a few places along 19 that we never get to because we are either in a hurry or because of the kids. First we stopped at Fanning Springs state park. I have always wanted to go there. It costs money, so we just got a map and walked around the Fort Area, but one day I would like to do a family fun day there, swim in the spring and lay out on the "beach". lol.
Then we stopped at this winery I have always wanted to go to. Unfortunately, they had just closed. :( Oh well, at least we tried.

By now it is five o clock and we are hungry. (remember we left late cause I had a hard time leaving the kids... it was lunch time before we left. ) Since we have lived here, there is this restaurant that Jon talks about. Apparently, whenever they get underway, they always stop and eat at this place... it is the Burger House. It is only open weird hours, so it NEVER open when we are traveling by. This time it was!! I was so excited!! I took a pic from the truck.
It was good. It is a little mom and pop h-burger place. Much better than any fast food place could be. Really greasy. Jon and I sat outside on a bench and ate our greasy burgers and fries and had a great time. How relaxing not to have a schedule. No where to but and nothing to do, but enjoy each others company.

We got home after six o-clock. We decided to look up the local fireworks displays and see when they were scheduled. The one in Inverness was that night, so we decided to go. We just got up and went. No diaper bag to pack, no teenager to wait on, just us. We just got in the car and went. It is amazing how I was not worn out from the trip when all I have to worry about is me..... this pic is from my camera phone. pretty good!

Saturday, we got up and went to the first Saturday Festival they have every month in Dunnellon. I have lived here three years and I have always wanted to go and never have. It was really fun, not much to it.... kinda like a big antique yard sale. I did get some great Birthday week presents - cheap. We had a really good time, just walking around holding hands, looking and talking. Then it was off to walmart to buy the food for our dinner. We got steaks, baked potatoes, and the stuff to make a Greek salad. We grilled out for the 4th and really enjoyed an intimate dinner - just us.

Two pieces of turtle cheesecake. Yummo!!

We were sitting down to eat and Jon jumps up and goes to get the camera. He comes back and takes a picture of his food. I just watched and I asked him why he did that. He answered, "For your blog". OOOHH yeah, i got him trained..... for the record, he has never read my blog once. But the sentiment of it touched me because he knows that keeping the blog is important to me. What a sweet man! It really is the small things in marriage that we do for each other that speaks volumes.... don't ya think?

I almost took a picture of my food, just to show the personality differences. My plate WAS NOT pretty. I hulled out my mashed potatoes and mix them all together. I am not all about presentation.... his looked like it does when you are served at a restaurant. That is so funny.

I have really enjoyed our quality time - just us. This is just part one... I will blog Sunday soon... it includes a sea world trip and a Nilla Wafer visit.

PRE - 7 year anniversary honeymoon

2009-07-04T00:10:00.001-04:00

I am home without my babies. It is just me and Jon for a whole five days!! I left them today in alabama with my mommy. It was hands down one of the hardest things I had to do - leave them behind.

Our anniversary is not until August 10th, but this is technically our celebration. Simply because we will not have a babysitter that day. We will celebrate that day as a whole family. This weekend is a private celebration, just Jon and I.

Tonight we went to a fireworks show and tomorrow we will grill out steaks and Jon will make his famous greek salad. :) We are also going to the first saturday festival in Dunnellon - something I have always meant to do since we moved here.

HAPPY FOURTH TO EVERYONE!!!

shay 14 months

2009-06-27T09:19:00.004-04:00

My piggy is growing up so fast!!

She is not a baby anymore, she is a toddler

Some cool things about her are:

1. She walks everywhere now. She is all over the place!

2. She eats the food we eat. This is the awesome. We were traveling to dothan the other day and stopped at Mcd's for food and Shay had her first happy meal. (I know, SO unhealthy!) Still so cool that she can sit at the table and eat whatever I cook or eat.

3. She copies everything ya do. this is good and bad. For example, alysha thought it would be funny to stick her tongue out at her while shay was eating. So, of course, shay sticks her tongue out - with food in her mouth. Bad big sissy. One the other hand - when I feed her something hot, I blow on it first. She copies me and puts her finger near her mouth and "blows", while I do it. Haha!!!

4. She talks and communicates so awesome. She repeats things we say. Alysha hurt herself and said "ouch". So shayla started saying that and repeating "ouch" over and over that whole day. She "sings" with her toys that have music with words. When they sing the alphabet, she "sings" along and it is pretty unintelligible until she hits G. The "G" is perfect.

Ck out that belly.
Shay and Alysha share a room. We have a curtain covering the crib side of the room. That is so Shayla cannot see alysha laying in the bed. Shay will lay in bedfor over an hour playing, but only if she does not see us. Once they see ya, they want out. She managed to get the curtain and poke her head through a hole. hilarious.

One year ago today.....................

2009-06-27T09:18:00.003-04:00

........... I was the passenger in an awful car accident. We were driving along 231, heading back home from a day at PC when a little old lady in her BIG old Cadillac decided to shoot across the street to the median from a side road. Unfortunately, she could not see us because we were in the inside lane.... long story short, the driver expertly swerved to avoid t-boning this lady - which saved her life -and we went for a little joy ride. We went airborne for what seemed like eternity, but in reality was only seconds. We landed on the concrete and the sound of the crunching metal will never leave me, it was awesomely horrific. We proceeded to flip three times and stopped facing oncoming traffic on the opposite side of the road. It sounds like I am talking about a story I heard on the news, not something I lived through. It is surreal. The driver and I are blessed to be alive and with our families, all in one piece.

I will not go into detail about the rest of that awful day because I do not like to relive it. Although there is one memory that always stands out in my head. I am strapped to a stretcher laying in the median and there is a girl holding my hand. She was in the car right behind us and saw the whole thing. We are waiting for the police to use the JAWS to get the driver out, her door was crushed shut. (did you know they actually tape your head down to the stretcher?)Anyway, the girl says to me "Man, you guys were in the air for a LONG TIME." Yeah, we were....

So, here I am in the picture below in my traction unit. What is wrong with me? From that experience I walked away with two bulging discs in my neck and WHIPLASH. I have been in physical therapy this whole year. I have had acupuncture, craniosacrial massage, therapeutic massage and chiropractic care. As of June 1st, they suspended it for two months, to see how I would do.

I learned ..

You have neck muscles that go all the way to the middle of your back. when I say "my neck hurts", I mean all the muscles starting at my shoulder blades and up to my neck, all the muscles on the top of my shoulders and all the muscles in my chest, down to my "tata's". It is awfully painful.
what referred pain is. When they work on my muscles, I have pain in other parts of my body.... referred pain... nice.
whiplash is a real injury. It is an unseen one, so you really get no sympathy. Kinda like a paper cut, it really hurts, but nobody feels sorry for you. I am in pain everyday of my life in one of the many muscles that surround my neck, but because it is not "visible" my family does not really understand. Now, if I had sling or a cast... then that would be something.
It is very easy to re-injure yourself after you get injured. Two or three times I have gotten better only to over-do-it a little and be back in ultimate pain again. Then I have to up my physical therapy to three times a week.... it totally sucks.
I learned how to sit, stand, drive and hold my baby. When you have an injury, your body changes to fit that injury. So I have to constantly think about how I sit, stand and lay. Basically, posture. If I dont sit a certain way, I start to ache after ten minutes. When I go to bed, I sleep on my side with a pillow between my legs and a pillow under my arm. That is all to keep my neck and shoulders in line. When I don't I wake up in the night in terrible pain. I mean, it is a constant thing to think about your alignment, trying to "retrain" your body to adjust itself. But it has become a way of life for me.............

How am I really doing now? Not so good. I am doing therapy at home, that is basically all that happened when they suspended it, cause I am still in pain everyday. Of course, it is nothing like the pain I was in for the first six months after the accident - nowhere near that level. I just HURT in some of those muscles at some point every day. I have three things I can do to relieve it

I use "wet heat". Apparently it is not good to use heating pads.. something I learned in therapy. I have the kind of pad you heat up in the microwave, and it is cloth, so you wet it.
I take a hot shower. That is a quick fix, it really only relaxes my muscles. They tighten up to the point that I just cry sometimes. So, a quick hop in the shower will help.
I get Alysha to massage it. She has become an expert at massaging out the knots. That is my biggest problem and causes all my pain. The KNOTS. Alysha has gotten really good at massaging them out - unfortunately she thinks it is gross. My muscles get so many that it tightens up to the point that I cannot handle the pain. Which is what my therapist always took care of it.
When all else fails, I get in a hot bath. That will relax them even more. But I only do that once a week, it takes to much work.

That is me sitting in the traction unit. It is supposed to pull my neck up so that my discs will pop back in place.

more tubing photos....

2009-06-26T10:36:00.006-04:00

I found some cool photos of us tubing down the river... I did not know jon took these. I forgot he brought the old camera.

This is an otter. I did not enjoy seeing a big animal in the water, really really close to me - harmless or not.... Hey, Hila, do you think it will bite me.... (private joke, but OH SO FUNNY)

That is me in the pink tube, alysha in the green and another little girl that went.
Me and alysha
Jon rode in the boat with his shipmate.

Fun on the River

2009-06-21T15:36:00.001-04:00

As I posted previously, we are trying to make up for lost time and do some of the fun local stuff before we move. So, we got together with one of Jon's shipmates and Jon, Alysha and I went floating down Rainbow river. It is a big thing around here and we have never done it. Sometimes I wonder what in the world we have been doing for the last three years we have been stationed here....

It was fun. It is a four hour float. That is another reason we took the boat, in case we got tired, we could all get in and speed down the river. I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It is a clear river, more like a spring. You can see to the bottom. I just lay out on one of the floats, Jon tied me to the boat and floated and suntanned for hours. There is a natural current that just pulls you along, at a nice leisurely pace. After two and a half hours, we got tired so we tied all the floats to the boat and Jon drove us to the exit. We had a blast!!

There were two casualties: Nick ran over his phone, before we even got in the water and Jon took his phone on the boat and it got soaked. (I was the only one with sense, cause I left mine at home.) Still, we had a great time.

This is Jon and his friend Nick tying up all the tubes and floats into Jon's Little jonboat. Jon is still pretty bad off since his shoulder surgery, so he got to ride in the boat, while everyone else floated. :)

This is me and Nick's girlfriend, sitting on the tail gate waiting for the men to get it all tied down.

This is all the girls. Look how tan Alysha and I already are. We look like sisters in this pic!! We took this right before we left.

Traditions and memories of the Nilla/Bean

2009-06-17T16:15:00.002-04:00

On a whim, while Hila was visiting, we decided to get our pics made together, since it had been exactly ten years. What a great new tradition and what a fun memory.

HILA AND JULIE
1999

HILA AND JULIE
2009

Ten years later
we look pretty good
if I do say so myself.
I look really tan (which makes Hila seem Mighty whitey). I think it was the lighting.

Goodbye to Shayla's best friend

2009-06-16T22:07:00.007-04:00

We said goodbye to another of Jon's shipmates. This time it was our really good friends that we hung out with all the time. His wife and I were preggo at the same time and our kids were less than six months apart. This little girl is so sweet!! I just loved her. We really miss those guys. Here are some pics of Shay and Alaina's last time hanging out:

That was Alaina trying to steal Shay's bottle, so Jaime is giving her one.

Check out their matching outfits. That was totally a coincidence. Alaina came over with the outfit on and I told Jaime that Shay had that exact same outfit, so we decided to dress them the same. Fun!!
That is me and Jaime. It is lonely without them here, we had such a good time together.
Jon and Phil. They have been stationed together and in the same section for the last three years. They got stationed in OHIO. This was Jon's best friend here, so it is just not the same. We are ready to transfer out... ...

80's party

2009-06-14T21:42:00.008-04:00

While Hila was here on a visit, we had an 80's party!! It was so fun. As adults, we just do not have fun, for-no-reason parties. It was awesome!

The food was: pizza rolls painted green in honor of TMNT, fig newtons, oreo truffles dyed pink and orange, reese's pieces, charleston chews and some TAB soda. There is also chips, dip and a strombli in the pic, but those are not 80's related, just for sustinence. (FYI - Tab soda is nasty.)

My hubby was dressed up as Mark Harmon from the movie Summer School. His Shipmate was Don Johnson from Miami Vice. HILARIOUS!!
This is Alysha, shayla, Me, Hila and Christy. I think Christy gets the award for the best outfit, but Hila gets the award for best 80's hair - she crimped it!! Ck out Lysh's leg warmers. (you can double click to make it bigger.)
We are the original 80's chicks. Alysha and I went to the Key training centers and bought our out fits for about $6.00 each. Accessories and all. The other couple that came did the same thing. We all really got into this party!! We played the 80's game (in the food pic) and watched Karate Kid. The girls beat the guys in the 80's game. Then we played Apples to Apples until like 1:00 a.m. It was so awesome. The only negative --- the other couple's dog threw up on my floor at the end of the night. Yuck!

A day at the spa

2009-06-09T19:10:00.004-04:00

For mothers day this year, I got a full day at the spa package. It was a "special Princess" package. Special because they changed it up and formatted it to fit me!! It was all Alysha's doing......... she is awesome!! My package included a facial with pore extraction, a spa pedicure, a spa manicure with paraffin dip, shampoo-cut- and style, and Lunch.

First, I had a facial, which I have never done before, but I absolutely LOVED!! I was nervous about the "extraction" part, but I have pretty clear skin so she did not have to work on my face. No little black heads on me... heehee. It lasted an hour and included a massage of my neck and upper shoulders. Wonderfully relaxing.

Next I went to my spa pedicure. It was nice, I have actually had one of these before, but she really took her time and I enjoyed it. Sometimes our feet need some pampering.....

Next I had a manicure. She only got halfway through before she had to stop, cause it was lunch time and my lunch had arrived. They have it catered from a local restaurant. They have a little cafe table set up and they had my food all laid out with place settings and cloth napkins. It was neat, all prepared for me..... the princess.

After I completed my turkey wrap and pasta salad, it was off to finish my spa manicure. First she did my paraffin dip, which was just OK. I did not like it so much. It was HOT. You dip your hand in this hot, hot, hot wax and let it dry(I say hot 3xs cause you dip it three times and each time hurts more than the last.). It dries like a latex glove on your hands. Weird. It was like watching my hands morph into some alien hand. Then they stick your hand in a plastic bag. They then take your plastic bag wrapped hand and put it in a soft cloth fingerless glove. So your sitting there like flipper... haha. Like I said, it was just O.K. It peeled right off after ten minutes and it made your hand slimy. Anyway, she finished my manicure and sent me on to the next department - my hairdo.

My hairstylist was awesome! She shampooed me and then gave me a scalp massage. I got sorta a new cut. She gave me lots of layers and side bangs. Basically she left it all long and layered it up! Here is a pic:

:) That is shayla after sissy put it up in a bunch of different pony tails.

This is me. Not a great pic. Doesn't really show my hair that great, but that is all I have uploaded. oh well....

How does your garden grow?

2009-05-26T13:46:00.006-04:00

I planted all Annuals this year in my three little bed I have out back. I LOVE gardening!! Before Shayla I would be out there all the time. Now I just do not have the time to do it. I have definitely been blessed with a green thumb, like my aunt sara.

This is Jon's watermelon he planted. They are growing nicely!

GLOW ceremony

2009-05-24T22:01:00.000-04:00

This is Alysha's end of the year ceremony for her GLOW group. She got ten pins this year for her sash. What an awesome job, lysh!!

my one year old - The Monkey Pig

2009-05-21T14:13:00.004-04:00

Shayla is an amazing little thing. She loves to laugh! Sissy can make her laugh out loud. Some new a cool things about her are:

She has eight teeth - 4 on top and 4 on bottom. Unfortunately she has started biting. Not hard, but just chomping on stuff, including us. haha. She also started grinding her teeth. Awful noise, but what can I do about that?

She is "walking" all over the place-- -- ON HER KNEES. She just goes all over the place on her knees. She does not even crawl that much anymore. How funny. I am so used to seeing it, it does not phase me. When I take her to the nursery the women always say how funny it looks. It is hilarious to watch apparently. I firmly believe she is just too lazy to get on her feet.

She is talking pretty good. When she sees Jon she says daddy. (it comes out daaadeeeee). She says momma, but only when she is upset and crying. She says hey/hi ALOT. She has play phones she puts up to her ear and says HI. She wakes up cooing in the morning and I can hear her thru the monitor saying HEY! When I go get her, I open the door and she is standing looking over the rail at the door, waiting for me. Of course, she says HEY again when she sees me, toooo hilarious! (Jon claims she said "hey daddy" one day, but that has not been confirmed.)

She LOVES to read. Her favorite book is the Ten Wriggly Wiggly Caterpillars. It has pop ups and everything. We have a nice nighttime routine where I read with her then lay her down. She is so sweet.

She still hates the car seat. She does not do well, even on short jaunts to town. Makes going places rough for mommy, just cause I do not like to hear her whine or fuss.

She will not eat her veggies. Peas are the only thing I can get her to eat. Kdarling gave me the great idea to put sugar on the sweet potatoes and I did manage to get her to eat those. Although I will say I have taken alot of flack for doing that even though it really did work. (who wouldn't like veggies dipped in sugar?) In my defense I put only a little bit, and I always say "Kristy told me too". So, Kdarling, you are in trouble with my mommy. hee hee. She did eat some collard greens at Aunt Grits house this weekend, that was cool. She loves fruit, especially bananas. She can eat a whole banana in one sitting - which is where the MONKEYPIG nickname came into play.

I put her in the pool this weekend and she loved it. I got a baby Kruiser float that had a top and she just sat in there and chilled out for an hour. She did not mind the cold water at all.

just because

2009-05-11T21:54:00.000-04:00

A week before mothers day, I got some beautiful flowers. I love flowers that are "just because". I don't want flowers on valentines day or any 'commercial' holidays. I think they mean more when they are for no other reason than I love you and appreciate you. *(disclaimer: I got these the day before my hubby was scheduled to have surgery. When he is facing going under the knife he tends to get sentimental. He thinks he is close to death so he gave me flowers. )