Penny for your thoughts...

And so it began. Lots and many years ago, when Lew and I first started dating, that innocent comment resulted in our first kiss. From that point on, pennies have become a silent "I love you" in our relationship.

Whenever we go shopping, after receiving change from a purchase, he hands me a penny. In cards throughout the year - Valentines, Mother & Fathers Day, Birthdays - there're always pennies included. At Christmas, we each try to find a more unique way to present the other with our own number of pennies; he gives me one for each month of the past year, I give him one for every month we've been together.

But best of all, are my bedtime pennies. Some people get rose petals. Some get peppermints. I get pennies. Every night when I go to bed, there are two pennies under my pillow. Every single night. Even when we're away from home and sleeping elsewhere, there's a penny or two under my pillow. When he's going to be out of town, he puts however many nights he'll be gone worth of pennies under my pillow before he leaves. The only times there haven't been pennies is when he's been so bone tired, he falls into bed and forgets, which is extremely rare, or when he's absolutely disenchanted with me, which is rarer still. My heart sinks to my feet when the space under my pillow is empty. But even when I don't always live up to his expectations, there have been pennies.

Twenty-five years later, that's a boatload of pennies!! I have a scrapbook of mementos that's very heavy with some, the rest I save in a big ol' plastic pickle jug we inherited from Mickey D's when Jim worked there. Several years back, the first time I got practical and wondered what I was going to do with all those pennies, I started counting and wrapping them. Ended up with over 5,000! Wanting to somehow put them to good use without losing the special sentiment of them, I began buying U.S. Savings Bonds for my grandkiddies. I now have several tucked away in my safe deposit box - I call them my love bonds.

So, as I've reminded my son many times over the years... save your pennies.