It’s almost Valentine’s Day.

As a girlfriend, it means you’ll get sweet, romantic gifts from your boyfriend.

As a wife, it means you’ll get flowers or candy and hopefully a card from your husband.

As a mommy and daddy, it means that you’ll get to stay up until 1 a.m. making your kids Valentine’s day cards for 20 something classmates. (Multiply that by 2 and you’ll be making 40… but you can’t forget friends from other classes, past teachers and other staff members so bump that number up to 60…)

Oye.

As I sat here at midnight creating an R2D2 Valentine mailbox, creating Jedi cards, cutting out flowers, threading pixie sticks and hot gluing them all together, I had a conversation with myself…

“Self, why, WHY are you such an overachiever?  You could have went to Target, let the kids pick out a $3 box of cards, handed them stickers and a marker and let them go to town.  But NOOOOOOOO, you had to overachieve (again) and make a grandiose production of creating a fabulous presentation.”

I’m not sure why exactly I do this.  I’ve done this for every project since I was… tiny.  I get maddening brain storms in the middle of the night, a night or two before deadline, and I work furiously to make it happen.  But not just any kind of project… I’m the type that has to go above and beyond expectations.  I put my heart and soul into the project.  I’ve been made fun of, ridiculed and harassed (lovingly) by my family and friends who like to hate on my overachieving abilities.  All I have to say to that is : “Don’t hate!”  ;P  LOL!

I’d like to thank Jose Zepeda for putting up with my craziness and indulging my craft.  He helped me make the R2D2 Valentine box after much pleading, begging and fit throwing.