A most magnificent mantle

It's finally here, it's finally done and I am so, SO excited!  After the search for the wood, all the searching for a carpenter, and the long wait, my fireplace mantle is finally finished!  Would you like to see it?

First, a reminder of what the fireplace looked like before:

Here is the big, beautiful fireplace; it's just missing something...

The giant cedar plank I found on craigslist.  Someone was selling the planks for $100 each.

I had the plank for over a year before we found someone to make the mantle.

And now, after a three day creation/installation process, here is the result:

Isn't it incredible?

So, after the final coat of shellac was applied to the mantle wood yesterday morning, I spent a couple of hours cleaning the floor on my hands and knees, to get all the installation dust and dirt up.  Once the floor was clean, my son and I went down to the garage and (finally!) brought a rug in, then moved the final furniture into place.  (We carried up a sofa and two chairs that have been in the garage for the past two years, just waiting for the messy projects to be completed to be brought in.)

After two years of living in a living room project-in-process, it finally looks like a living room! I still have to hang pictures on the walls and do a few small things to get the room absolutely complete, but it's probably 90% there now, and it feels great!

This is the first room completed to the point that we've brought in a rug, and somehow the addition of a rug just makes a room feel finished to me.

So enough talk, here are a few more pics of the new mantle:

We had a big storm last night, and it just felt so cozy in the living room with all the candles lit.

I splurged on this great vintage blow mold duck I found at a consignment store for $16.

Then I ordered a light from Amazon so I could light him up.

I think he's the perfect lake house mascot.

My son gave me these beautiful flowers last week for my birthday.

The vases and vintage fairy lamp are from Goodwill and antique stores.

I have been a bit enthusiastic with my lake house duck theme, but I tried to keep it to an appropriate level...

Everything on my mantle was purchased secondhand and inexpensively.

The wooden duck is from an antique store, the duck vase (can't wait to fill it with flowers!) was from a thrift store and little duck candleholder came from an estate sale.

Note the beautiful worm holes in this mantle wood.  

Here are my candleholder and bunny from Goodwill, the vintage egg vase is from an estate sale.

The daffodils and forsythia are from my yard.

Happy spring!

So there you have it.  All done.  I was so happy with my beautiful finished mantle I even forgave my contractor, who did a wonderful job and gave me exactly what I wanted in the end.

And now I have the perfect focal point for the room, a giant mantle with plenty of space for photos, candles and flowers.  It's so much nicer than what we have back at the home/house.

It's just absolutely perfect.

Incidentally, my husband is not here this week.  He's coming tomorrow night, and I have not shown him any photos of the finished mantle (or room) and he's not allowed to see this blog either.  I really cannot wait to see his reaction.

Thank you, God.  With this room almost complete, I am super motivated to get all the others finished quickly.  Now on to the next one!

How hard is it really?

In a post a couple of months ago I mentioned our struggle in finding contractors to help us out with the house here in west Tennessee.  After peeling wallpaper in the hallway last March, we had small portions of the walls that were damaged, necessitating wall repair.  By May I had exhausted every possible resource I could find: multiple contractors ignored my inquiries for an estimate, one told me I lived too far away, one came and gave me and estimate and then never showed up or returned my calls.

So my husband and son ended up refacing the walls themselves, and I have to say, they did a perfect job.

That experience confirmed that we never want to work with contractors again around here unless we absolutely have to.

The problem is, now we have to.

I guess technically, we don't have to, but one thing I've wanted since we bought the house was a mantle for the giant stone fireplace in the center of the living room.  It just feels kind of naked without one, and I really want a place for candles, flowers and photos.

So I bought a long, thick slab of cedar wood from someone on craigslist and began to search for a carpenter who could form and install the mantle.

I hit all the same roadblocks that I did with the walls, and was stuck.  That is until the house next door to us sold and a new neighbor moved in.  He just happens to be a contractor.  "Do you know a carpenter who could make us a mantle?" I asked when we first met.

He let me know that he would love the project and could do it over the winter.  (This was last fall.)  In February I knocked on his door and asked if he was still interested.  He said he was, and he could come give an estimate between 10am and noon on Saturday.  At 1:30pm he showed up and gave us an estimate.

"I can do it next week," he informed me.

The problem was, we all had to leave the next day.  It was Saturday, and my husband was having a knee replacement on Monday.  There was no way I could be here.  I won't be back for two weeks, I told him.

"Ok," but if it's not Wednesday I can't promise when it will be," he said.

I let him know that when I came back in two weeks, I'd be here for a long time, and would be very flexible to work around.

So two weeks later I came back.  And I was here for four weeks.  I didn't hear anything about the mantle.  After the third week, my husband texted him, would he be able to do the project soon?

No response.

After three days, my husband went over and knocked on the door.  When he returned, he said our neighbor could do it "probably Thursday or Friday."  (This was the Saturday before.)

Great!  I was finally going to get my mantle!  This was great news, as I was planning to drive home again for the weekend Friday evening (which is now today.)  My birthday is Monday, and I don't really want to spend it here at the house alone.  I'll be at the home/house for a few days, since I haven't been there in a month, to take care of some things there before I come back.

"I told him you would reach out to him on Wednesday, the night before," my husband said.

So on Wednesday I sent a text.  "This is your neighbor, just checking in regarding the mantle.  My husband said you might do it Thursday or Friday?"

No response.

(Something "funny:" when my husband gave me his number to put in my phone, and I went to reach out to him, my phone showed I had texted him before.  Apparently he was one of the contractors I had reached out to requesting an estimate for the walls.  I never had a response to that text either.)

Thursday night I got a text.  "Doesn't look good for tomorrow.  I'll try for Monday."

*Sigh.*

I responded, telling him I had to leave town Friday evening.

"I'll try to do it Friday.  Try." was his answer.

Ok.  So maybe I would get the mantle today?

If I was getting a mantle, I had no idea what time he MIGHT be coming to do it.  So I set my alarm for 6:30am, just to be ready.

Well, to wrap this up, it is now 2pm on Friday.  I have been sitting at my kitchen table all day, killing time all day waiting to hear something about a mantle that is apparently not happening today.

No text, no call, no knock on the door or anything.  (He does live just next door.)

So I decided posting about my frustration was something I could do to kill some time.

But really, what is the chance that I was here for four weeks straight and it couldn't get done?  Or that he FINALLY gave us dates and then couldn't do those either?  Or that he would reschedule to do it on my birthday?  (Absolutely no way would I stay here on my birthday waiting for it to happen, to potentially spend another day just waiting for a text!)

But more than him being busy, the frustration is regarding the lack of communication.  I mean, how hard is it to send a one line text?  When you have to wait days for a response that requires you planning your schedule around, it would be nice to hear something, even if it's not the response you're hoping for.

Even now I'm not sure if I leave, I might get a text that he wants to get started.  (Unlikely I know, but Murphy's Law almost guarantees it.)

The worst part of it?  This is one project that neither my husband or myself want him to do.  This mantle will need to be drilled into a stone fireplace, and there's just no room for error.

Being dependent on people that don't treat you respectfully is frustrating.  But here we are.

There are so many worse problems, I know.  At least I'm not in Ukraine.

I'll end with a couple of photos.  Like I said, it was a hard week to show progress in photos of projects completed, but this helps show why.  Here is our living room a week ago:

Amidst some furniture that got dumped there awhile back, when I came back from my thrifting and estate sale-ing weekend I had stuff all over the place.  I had to sort and clean everything I bought, as well as figure out where it was going.

But here is the living room, as of Wednesday (I had to clear it out so the mantle could be installed - or so I thought):

A bit different, no?

The yet-to-be mantle at least inspired me to deal with some things that had been piled up for a while.  So I guess it wasn't all bad...I guess.

But a response to a text on the day that it's sent - even if it's super short - it would be nice.

I mean, how hard is it really?

"Small" changes

For the last two weeks I've been working on some projects in the house that are not particularly exciting, and that didn't provide any very interesting pics to share.

I finished painting the very last (!😄!) sections of dark molding in the house (deglossing first, then five coats of white paint): inside a closet, part of the entrance hall and a bathroom window.  I told you; exciting!

I also brought some furniture out of the garage - some sanded-but-yet-unpainted-shelves, a daybed that still needs to be put together, and a cabinet that's waiting to be cleaned and filled with games.  No photos there, either (yet!).

I finished painting the bathroom walls, but still need to caulk the molding, touch up paint the molding, clean the vanity hardware, reinstall the vanity cabinet doors and work on a little wall paint project I've got in mind.  So no pics there either (yet!).

So, since none of those efforts are ready for their close ups, I thought I'd share a few "small" changes of late.  (The "small" is in quotation marks because, while these may appear to be small changes to others, they were BIG in their psychological impact on me!  Sometimes when you're working on what feels like an endless project - and it's hard to see progress - the little changes mean a lot.  They are what keep you going through all the tasks that lack obvious payoffs.)

Anyway, here goes:

Small change #1:

Here is my husband's former "office."

When we first moved in, he needed a desk so he could work from home while here.  He borrowed this kitchen table from the garage (we found the desk chair at an estate sale) and made this bedroom a workspace, surrounded by house project boxes (of course).

Here is his new "office."

Once the foster kids went home and I painted the room they stayed in, I put this marble table (found on craigslist) in the corner to become the new "office" or workspace for any future guests who rent the place and need a comfortable spot to work.

I'm a huge fan of marble tops - because of their elegance and ability to withstand hot laptops/hot coffee cups/cold water glasses, etc. - so I bought this table that was not designed to be a desk.

(I also liked that it took up a little less real estate than most desks.  Most people working on a laptop don't need an enormous desk.)

Since the table wasn't intended to function as a desk, I ordered some clear risers to put under the legs to give it a little more height.

This is the clean, elegant look I was hoping for.  And practical, too!

Small change #2:

Curtains!

This window molding went from having dark stain to white paint, and I found the perfect curtains at WalMart.  They are floral and cheerful and just what I wanted.

I 💗 these little colored glass swans I found at a thrift store.

(They are perfect 1970's colors too!)

The kitchen window sill (sadly) isn't deep enough for plants, but my little swans fit perfectly.

It's the little details that make a house feel like a home.

The dining area got new WalMart curtains too, and it's closer to looking finished.

WalMart just happened to have curtains (well, a valance) in exactly the colors and style I was looking for.  (And of course at the right price.)  When does that ever happen?

Since I want to celebrate the vintage style of this 1970's house, I've tried to collect some vintage things to style it with.

I found this wonderful "Bible" at Goodwill and it was perfect - there will be a lot of scriptures on the walls of this house!

I just stuck this on the wall temporarily (on a nail that was already there), but I think it's going to stay here.  What perfect verses for these crazy times.

So a few "small" changes; but they filled me with hope that more and bigger are just around the corner!

And of course my husband and son rolled into town last weekend and made numerous trips through the kitchen without noticing anything had changed.  When I finally asked if they noticed anything new, they both looked around the room(s) puzzled.

"Curtains?"  My husband tentatively ventured.

*Sigh.*

Well, maybe it was more important for me than for them, and that's ok.  As my son observed, "There is a lot of stuff everywhere Mom.  It's kind of hard to notice in this mess."  He had a point.

All of these boxes of stuff will soon be organized.  The big changes are on their way!

Who knew?

Full disclosure: this post has absolutely nothing to do with any topic even remotely related to this blog.  But because I'm in the midst of finishing some projects, and on the cusp of having LOTS of progress to post (though nothing at the moment), I figured I'd share something curious that has kept me entertained.

Over the past few months, while I was home (not The House of Goodwill), I observed something I've never seen before.

I was reading one morning in December, sitting in my living room, when I noticed my dog was fixated on something going on outside the window.  What was it?

Shiloh was watching a blue jay on the patio.

If it's hard to tell what the blue jay is doing in this pic, it's eating.

And while this may appear to be a small birdfeeder, it's not.

This is a bowl of...cat food.

Did you know blue jays like cat food?  I didn't.

Here's the blue jay again in February.  He's a regular at the cat food dish; in fact I often see multiple blue jays around the bowl.

I guess the cat must be sleeping.

Is it just me, or this a bit of a surprise?  And this isn't just regular cat food, this is special (expensive!) cat food created to help cats who suffer from urinary tract problems.  (The reason the cat mostly lives and eats outdoors.)  My guess?  That it wouldn't be as tasty as the grocery store, byproduct-filler-variety cat food, as it's more of a "food as medicine" type of kibble.

But what do I know?  I'm not a cat.  Or a blue jay.

And it seems the blue jay likes it even more than the cat.

So we have to place the cat food bowl in the center of the patio table, so the dogs can't reach it.  (Apparently ALL animals love this urinary tract problem-fixing food.)  If it's anywhere on the ground, it becomes dog food.  But if it's anywhere higher, now it's bird food.  (And there is an actual birdfeeder full of seed just a few feet from this dish; where the blue jays USED to eat.  Now they mostly ignore it in favor of the cat bowl.)

Now that I think about it, the only creatures I haven't seen in the bowl are the squirrels.  And that's definitely good, as the squirrels are always eating the food for the birds.

*Sigh.*  And this is not cheap, as the cat's food must be purchased from the vet's office, since it's a prescription food.  These blue jays are costing me a small fortune!

Oh well.  At least they're keeping me entertained.  And the dogs too.

As to the cat, well, let's just say if cats had their own feline police, mine would never make the force.

And if this little anecdote has a moral, I guess it's that many animals seem to highly prefer food designed for other animals.  So I guess animals and people really aren't all that different.

And urinary tract problem-fixing cat food is extremely appealing to blue jays.  You can wow someone with that little factoid at your next party.  

You're welcome.

A visit that made my day

Last Monday I came by myself back to The House of Goodwill to start work again.  (My husband and son had to stay home for ongoing rehab due to the knee replacement.)  The day I arrived, it started raining for three days and didn't stop.

The flooding was amazing.  I was glad our house is up on a hill!

Here's a photo of our neighbor's dock, which is right next to our property line, that I took last summer:

Here's the same dock, two days after the rain started:

Just in case it's not clear, the whole thing is underwater!

The water rose above the railroad ties that are currently serving as the (disintegrating) shoreline in our yard.  (The water has since receded back to normal level.)

Anyway, since we had our kayaks sitting under a shelter not too far from the water, I walked down the hill to tie them up.  I didn't think the water would reach them (it didn't) but wanted to make sure they were secure just in case.

As I went outside, I was blessed by one of my favorite Pine Lake occurrences: a random dog visit.

At home in the suburbs, it drives me nuts when dogs are let loosely free to roam.  Here, in "the country," I love it.  Why?  Well, I suppose partly because all the dogs around here are nice.  If they weren't, I'm sure I'd feel differently.  (At home in a way more population-dense neighborhood, so many people come and go that I don't know all the dogs.  A couple of weeks ago a loose dog attacked one of my dogs while we were walking; my dog was ok but it was a little scary.)

Though just as I say "all the dogs around here are nice" I realize I had never seen the dog that randomly showed up in my yard.  I thought I knew all the dogs around here, so I have no idea whose dog it was, but boy, was it nice!

It saw me, ran over, got petted, and did mad runs of excitement.

My new friend did a property inspection; he probably could smell my dogs and wondered where they were.

Is this not the SWEETEST face??

The face matched the personality!

My new dog friend accompanied me down to tie up my kayaks.

Here is the dock of our neighbor's on the other side of our yard.

Totally flooded!

Apparently the dog loved the taste of muddy water...

I have always loved the overwhelming enthusiasm and unbridled joy of dogs.  I can walk outside to get the mail, and upon my return my dogs greet me like I've been gone for ten days.  Everyone should be loved like that!  

I was missing my dogs, and this dog's visit was just what I needed.  He walked me back up to the house, and was apparently hoping for a longer visit (inside):

Who can resist a face like this?  I went in to get him a treat, which he took back out to the yard to enjoy.

And then - believe it or not - he was back! 😉

More, please!

Regretfully, I had to shut the door and say goodbye.  I still haven't figured out where he came from.  But when I'm here by myself, if I go for a walk, chances are good I'll be joined at some point by a dog (or dogs) who will join me on my journey.

I often will be sitting on the porch and see a Golden Retriever (or some other dog) cruising through the yard.

My dogs (who have spent their lives on leashes and behind fences) never know when the thrill of the random dog visit will brighten their day and give them something to bark at.  We've seen dogs, deer, foxes, herons and a few little cats.

Ah, the country life!  There's nothing like a friendly visit from a dog thrilled by your presence to brighten up a gloomy day. 💗

A new year's resolution

I thought I'd share today about one of my new year's resolutions that makes great use of thrift resources.  What is it?

It's about books, and what I'll be reading this year.  I love to read!

Like most everyone else, I've learned over the years that the more specific I make my goal setting, the better likelihood I have that I'll achieve my goal.  

I've come to love the week around New Year's Day; as a child, I always felt a strong sense of sadness as soon as Christmas Day was over.  The end of Christmas meant a return to school, and a whole 'nother year to wait till the next Christmas - nothing but a let down.

But now, as an adult, the Christmas season is so busy that the day after Christmas signals a time to slow down and enjoy the post-holiday peace, and I love New Year's as an opportunity to think through what I hope to achieve and change in the coming year.

A few years ago, I started setting goals for the number of books I wanted to read.  I love to read everything, really, but over the years I've spent enough time reading magazines that they started to eclipse the time I've spent with books.  So I wanted to up my book reading goal.

So I set a number last year - I think it was twenty-five books to read - and I fell a bit short.

So this year I decided to do something new and different.  This year, I decided to not only pick my number to read for the year (20), but also to also pick the books out in advance.  I have bookcases FULL of books I've picked up at Goodwill, thrift stores, etc. that are all waiting to be read yet (hence, the goal).  So how much fun was it to travel my bookcases choosing my books for the year?  So fun!

I picked the number twenty since I narrowly missed finishing twenty-five last year, and that was listening to a decent number of them as audiobooks (lots of painting last year).  I wanted to read twenty actual books this year, and that gives me a goal of just less than two per month, which seems achievable.  (It also leaves a little flexibility to throw in another few if I come up on something I just really want to read right away.)

So without further ado, here are this year's books:

So, I tried really hard to pick a diverse group with lots of different categories.  There's an extra book in there (the "Gone With the Wind" book on the bottom - it's more of a coffee table-type book so I'll read it but I'm not counting it as part of my twenty).  I also have one other that my son is currently reading; I like to read something and pass it on to him so we can discuss it.  (He's dyslexic, so I look for things I think he'll like to keep him reading.  We kind of have our own little book club; another reason I wanted to leave a little space for extra books.)

With a few exceptions, these are all books I've picked up at Goodwill, etc.

I've got:

-One book in Spanish (Aproveche su Dia)

-Two spiritually-themed books (How to Think about God and 90 Minutes in Heaven)

-One animal book (Alex and Me)

-One political book (An Inconvenient Book)

-One history book (7 Events that Made America America)

-Two classics (The Last of the Mohicans and The House of the Seven Gables)

-One psychology book (Dissociative Identity Disorder)

-Three books to learn from (Invent it, Sell it, Bank it, The Martha Rules and How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner

AND

-some that are just purely for fun! (The Glitter and the Gold, Camino Island, The Madame's Business, etc.)

So it's weird, but this pile's got me so motivated and excited!  Something about collecting them all in advance makes my goal seem more concrete, and makes me want to read extra.

How much of a book nerd am I?  Well, this is how I start every day.  EVERY DAY.  I get up, make the coffee, and read a couple of chapters.  If I have to be somewhere early, I just get up earlier to fit it in.  If the weather is amiable for being outside, I read outside (with a cat on my lap).  If it's cold, then I'm inside (with a dog on my lap) and some nice background music.  I hate to get up and frantically rush around; I like a nice quiet slide into my day.

And just to confirm how weird and compulsive I really am: I also have a Saturday book and a Sunday book.  These are different than the weekly read.  The Saturday book is always a "coffee table book" - the kind that you don't really read like a "real book" but they have a lot of great pictures, or else they're so full big and wordy you don't really want to read them every single day (but you do want to read them, if you know what I mean...like art books or travel books).  The "Gone with the Wind" book on the pile is my first "Saturday book" for this year.  It's a history of the book and movie, very photo-heavy.  It usually takes me a couple of months to read a "Saturday book," only on Saturdays (of course).

On Sundays I only read the Bible, or a Bible-study type read.  "Aproveche su Dia" is my current book ("Seize your Day"); I read one chapter each week.

So there it is.  And somehow I'll still find a way to filter some magazines (and of course, my vintage "Ideals") in.

How am I doing so far with the new plan?  Well, after two months I've read two books and I'm nearly done with two more.  So on track.

I find most of my reading material at Goodwill, and once I've read it, it goes on the shelves at The House of Goodwill to share with future guests.

After all, does it get any better than to sit by a lake and read?

I mean, really?

So much more than good will

This is not a post about thrifting, but really, it's actually better.  Much better!  It's about unexpected blessings.

This year, on Valentine's Day, my husband was scheduled to have a knee replacement surgery.  I had to leave the House of Goodwill to come home for it, as well as a few other commitments the week before.  Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much this year from Valentine's Day, but not a big deal, really.  We decided to celebrate Saturday night with a steak dinner and a movie at home.  (Our son cooked the whole thing; he will do anything for steak.)  It was great!  We had our Valentine's dinner.

Then Sunday was the Super Bowl, than we spent all day Monday at the hospital.

Anyway, I told my twenty-one-year-old son he didn't need to come to the hospital.  After all, it would just be a day of sitting around and waiting, and there wasn't anything he could do there anyway.

"Could you just empty the recycling containers in the kitchen?"  I asked him, before we left.  "And walk the dogs, since I'll be getting home late."  (We usually walk the dogs together.)  "Sure," he replied. 

Note here that I had a massive mess in my kitchen by Monday morning.  I had been running errands on Sunday between church and the Super Bowl, and by the time it was over I didn't feel like doing dishes.  There were leftover steak dinner dishes, homemade guacamole and chips dishes (what my son made for the Super Bowl) and lots of others.  It was significant.

So fast forward to Monday.  I did spend all day in the hospital (minus two Goodwill runs while my husband was in surgery - and were they good!  But more about that in another post.).  By the time we came home, it was about six pm.  I was sure my son had walked the dogs; the dogs wouldn't let him forget that.  But I wondered if he had remembered to dump the recycling bins?

So we walked in the house, me with my arms full of Goodwill bags.  And what did I discover?

Well, not only had my son dumped the recycling (as I'd asked) but he also took all the trash out.  (Which I didn't ask, and he never does.)  He had also walked the dogs.  But there was more!  My kitchen, which had earlier been an epic disaster, was perfectly clean!  All dishes were washed and put away.  He'd even cleaned and organized the countertops.

But wait, there's more!

He had gone to the store that day and bought me a dozen pink roses for Valentine's Day.  Then he went into my vase collection, picked a few out, and spread the roses between four different vases, putting them all around the house.  There were roses in the kitchen, roses in the hall, roses in the living room, and a single rose upstairs by my bed.

This is not the first time my son did this for me with the roses.  He did it once before this year, the night before I was starting a really long work week.

But there was more!  He had also bought a "Welcome Home" balloon for my husband:

But there was more!  On the way home from the hospital, my husband said he wanted to pick up ice cream from Andy's that night.  He was going to stop when my son took him to the drugstore to get his prescriptions.  But he didn't need to, because:

My son had already picked up Andy's as a Valentine surprise.

There was ice cream for both my husband and me in the freezer.

But there's more!

As I was trying to pick my jaw off the floor (still stunned about the dishes), I noticed a table with presents.  My son had two presents each for my husband and I, and a card to us both.  Wow!!

I really didn't know what to say.

So, the point of this post isn't just to share about my Valentine's day (maybe a little) or to share how amazing I think my son is (though he IS).  It's to share this:

My son in this story (my only child) was adopted six years ago, when he was fifteen-years-old.  I liken that experience to jumping off a cliff; we (and he) really had no idea exactly what we were getting into.  We just prayed and did it.

I imagine a lot of people think of adopting a teenager (especially one you've never met!) as a high risk proposition, and I certainly understand.  I think many people imagine lots of anger, holes punched in walls, and drama.  (Based on many people's comments - and warnings - before we did it, this is definitely true.)  I'm sure there are many of those scenarios.  I can't say it didn't cross my mind.

But while our adoption wasn't challenge-free, there were WAY more joyful moments that hard ones.  I can't speak for others, because I know of other adoptive families who struggle, but wow, was it worth it.  (I know lots of biological families who struggle too, for what it's worth.)  This adoption has brought so much happiness to all of us.

When I was twenty-one, I never did anything like this for my parents.  Not because I didn't love them, but just because I was too busy taking them for granted.  It just never crossed my mind.

Adopted parents and children don't take each other for granted.  When you wait a (very) long time for a child, you enjoy every moment that you have together.

When we adopted our teenager, I never imagined this.  I'm still amazed.

I have witnessed the power of God slowly transform the life of our son.  He is a caring, loving person and I am grateful for him every day.  Life can be so hard.  Which makes the unexpected blessings along the way even better.  It was a wonderful Valentine's Day this year indeed.