heart day

Valentine's Day met us cold. Our power went out yesterday around 3 in the afternoon and it finally returned sometime noonish today. Last night we kept the house warm with our woodstove! I never knew this oldy but goody stove, which comes with the 1950 home package would be such a lifesaver. We went and got some wood and well...memories flooded in from childhood. The smell brought me back to the home I grew up in. We had a woodstove in the upstairs and the downstairs of my old house. I remember going every summer to get firewood up in the woods. I remember my dad chopping it and us kids stacking it.

So by the morning the fire kind of went out and our thermostat read 50 degrees. burrrrr- but all in all it was ok...especially when I noticed Chay's little surprise for me- a neatly wrapped Valentine gift sitting on the counter. The way he wraps his gifts is almost more fun than the present itself. He takes so much time- the gift was wrapped in the free newspaper stuff we took from Albertson's last night to help start a fire. He decorated the outside with flowers cut out from a store ad- and a "finding nemo" sticker the hospital gave us last night to entertain Kenzie. (Don't worry- I thought Julia had an ear infection but she doesn't) anyway- it was just sentimental wrapping- Chay really knows how to show how much he cares.
He bought me the prequel to the Da Vinci Code "Angels & Demons" (the illustrated version) I opened the first page and read the first paragraph and said, "oh great...another 'I won't be able to put this down' book". It was so thoughtful of Chay.

I drove all the way into his work today with the girls to surprise him. He called me several times that day acting a little bored so it made the surprise all the better. It was quite the adventure getting to his work with far away parking, construction, stairs, big stroller, narrow escalators, Mexicans offering to life the stroller up and over the escalators...let's just say when I finally reached the 10th floor of Chay's building I was a little winded. I greeted him with a red bag of cubicle desk goodies and his three darling girls of course. He later told me in the car ride home "when I first saw you it was really strange" how romantic. It is good to see where Chay lives his other half of life. He has great co-workers.

Well anyway- I love Valentine's Day- another reason to celebrate how blessed we are to be surrounded by loved ones. Good night...my Valentine wants to watch a movie...so I better go.