Happy Valentines Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying their special day dedicated to recognizing L O V E! :)

We have had a great family day.

This V-day was a little extraordinary. We don't ever exchange gifts on V-day. David and I rarely exchange gifts for b-day or Christmas. We always do for the children only, and at that very sparingly. Valentines is usually home-made cards and special meal together.

For the past 10 + yrs, we have been in some type of financial struggle where either David is out of work, or in the hospital for his kidneys...one thing or another keeps us strapped. Money has always been something they we did not have a lot of. I'm not complaining because sometimes the more money one has, the more headaches one can get from that too! I feel that we have been VERY blessed!

This Valentine's, God truly blessed us with a nice tax return. Usually when we get a return, we pay off bills we have accumulated the yr prior, and then we don't have anything left. This yr, we did not get that much more than usual, but we have been so much wiser with our money than in the past years. We did not have a lot of huge bills. We had 2 credit cards that we paid off, paid some other debts that we needed to pay, gifted a portion of our money received to help others in need.

The difference this time...David splurged and surprised me with jewelry! The man never buys me jewelry!!! I've not had diamonds since our 10 yr anniversary. :)

He got me a beautiful diamond heart necklace. It is so dainty and beautiful...I love it! Then he shopped for the children who gave me matching earrings...they don't have diamonds in them, but the design matches. :) J said each earring represented each one of them.

Also...a BIGGY!!! He bought me a dslr camera!!! I'm STOKED!!! It is an older model. The Canon 10d, with a 50mm f./1.8 mark II lens. He got an AWESOME deal on it at ebay! I never expected to get an slr this soon and I'm so very grateful...

I feel kind of bad because I thought I was splurging on my hubby by getting him season 9 of "Everybody Loves Raymond". His favorite TV show. He wanted to do something special for me for Valentine's Day. I'm totally overwhelmed!

God is good! We are completely debt free, and have been able to give to others in need too. :-D At lunch we prayed together and thanked God for the very many ways He has blessed us this yr and continually.

Please keep J in your prayers. She is doing really well, but last night she nor I got any sleep. She does not have a rash, but had a terrible itch episode with her back last night. The medicine did not help and we went through her crying and screaming all night b/c she could not scratch that area (incision area). I think it is mainly from her back healing internally, around the incision site, and the adhesives possibly from tape..(even tho it is latex free tape!), but her skin is just so sensitive that it drives her crazy! We both cried together and neither one of us slept. So I pray she can get some good rest tonight.

Blessings and love to you all!