Valentine’s Day can be a day of love, hugs, kisses, candies and chocolates, but English teacher Leslee Justice has quite the opposite of those experiences, ranging from overindulgence to awkward surprises.

“The first year we were dating, my husband went all out,'” Justice said. “He went and bought every cheesy Valentine’s thing he could,” Justice said. “I think he spent $200. It was a bear and roses and pink, purple and red everything, and after that, I told him I don’t expect that every year even though it was sweet.”

Justice said her husband now thinks outside the box to make Valentine’s Day sentimental, and sometimes cheesy in a different way.

“It’s not like one of those big holidays we celebrate,” Justice said. “Before our daughter was born on Feb.  17, my husband went and got a heart-shaped pizza from 575 while I was nine months pregnant.”

However, Justice said her past experiences with Valentine’s Day included some unexpected moments.

“Whenever I was a sophomore in high school, we had these big romantic ideas about what Valentine’s Day is going to look like,” Justice said. “I opened my locker and in there was a stuffed turtle from this guy who had been courting me.”

Justice said the funny thing was that she actually had a boyfriend at the time so the gift was a huge surprise.

“He had asked my best friend what my favorite animal was and for some reason she said turtle,” Justice said. “She had no clue what my favorite animal was. So there’s this huge stuffed turtle I had to carry around school for the rest of the day.”

After this exciting yet awkward experience, Justice said her friends quickly turned the episode into a joke with her.

“My nickname in high school then became ‘Tortuga,’ which is turtle in Spanish,” Justice said. “I had to carry around this huge turtle all day.”