365 Days of Gratitude: Cliftons selflessness

Today Clifton and Andrew had something special planned for me and Toria since we all work opposite schedules tomorrow (boys work night, girls work day. boo). They left the house and while we were waiting for them to get everything set up Me and Toria baked cupcakes and cookies to deliver for Valentines. We had no idea what they were doing for us but one guess was a scavenger hunt. At one point while we were waiting the boys texted us and told us not to peek. Obviously this made my curiosity go into overdrive. So I ran to Andrews room and peeked. Shame on me, I know. First I didn't see anything, but then I noticed some bags. So I casually looked in one and saw chicken and bread. Yeah they were gonna make us dinner; that was a given. I left the room without really looking in the other bags because I figured they were all dinner supplies.

Two hours after leaving the house, the boys finally got back. I blurted out that I peeked and Clifton got so upset. He stormed out of the room and said I ruined everything. He worked so hard and was so excited to see my face when he surprised me with whatever he had planned and I had completely spoiled that for him. I felt horrible. I realized then that I have been pretty selfish in our relationship. I put my curiosity and own wants before him and his feelings and he made me notice that today. I mean I feel like we have been equally giving but that's not true. He is always more willing to do anything for me than I am for him and it's not because I love him any less. I am just more selfish, and he is and always has been incredibly selfless. We talked and worked things out and after some crying and apologizing he gave me a piece of paper. This paper had a clue on it. Yep, Toria and I were going on a scavenger hunt; called it!

Each clue was for either me or her and they all led to significant places in our relationships with the guys. First time I met Clifton. First time she and Andrew decided to be official. The place we went when Clifton got his first speeding ticket. Andrew's first ballet. There were 12 clues, 12 places, in all. We loved the work the boys went through for us and the scavenger hunt was insanely fun, but after two hours we just wanted to spend some time with our babes! After quite a few clues we were led back to my house. It had already been two hours and we felt certain it was the last destination so we were getting excited (and super hungry) to see what the guys had waiting. We were driving by my neighbors house when we saw that Cliftons car was gone. Great. Our hearts sunk and we did not want to go to anymore places. We just wanted to make out with our men and eat some dinner!

Toria and I walked through the door and were so surprised to see Clifton and Andrew standing there in the middle of a rose-covered floor. I can't even say how happy I was and how genuinely surprised. It's really hard to completely surprise me but Clifton pulled it off brilliantly. Toria and Andrew exchanged their gifts and Clifton gave me his. Big gulp. Yep, I decided not to really do anything for my babe. I figured I do lots of cute and caring things for him anyways that I'd just let Valentines be my day. Wow I'm a jerk. Especially since Clifton wrote me a love poem. BIG DEAL. When we first started dating he promised he'd give me a love poem for my birthday but it never happened. I was informed then that he was terrible at expressing his feelings and didn't like to on paper. I casually brought it up a few weeks ago but totally didn't expect anything. I had already been disappointed that he broke his promise and accepted the fact that I would never get a love poem from the most important man in my life. I read the short poem and almost started crying. When I asked Clifton why he did that he said he promised me he'd write a poem. It was the sweetest thing in the world.

After all the gushing we finally ate and man was it good. Since I don't have an actual table, we used the coffee table and sat on floor pillows; it actually was a lot more intimate and romantic and I loved it. It wasn't awkward at all having another couple with us either. For some reason I thought it would be. After dinner we had root beer floats and watched Charlie Browns Valentines. We all ended up falling asleep. It was a tiring and wonderful day. I love Clifton for going all out for me and making me feel special. I'm grateful for how selfless he is.