My Valentine

It's been a while since I've been able to write. Part of it is because I spent all of last week in a brainstorming session. It was exhausting work, but very interesting and stimulating. It was so cool to see how a dozen people can put their heads together and completely revamp a department.

Another reason I haven't written much is because of NIU. That really saddened me, and I needed to allow that time to process. My prayers are with the families that were touched by that tragedy.

And there are probably numerous other reasons that have interfered with me writing, but none really worthy of elaboration.

But there are some things that I'd love to tell you about.

One highlight of the past few weeks was my Valentine surprise. I was having a very long day, and was getting pretty anxious to finish work and go home. While ending a paricularly negative and absorbing phone call, I felt someone grab the back of my chair and give it a good shake. I hung up the phone and then turned to see what was so urgent, only to find my son standing there, his arms full of a huge bouquet of flowers with a big heart balloon! He was standing there so proud, with a big grin on his face. Standing behind him were several of my female co-workers, all dying to see my reaction, lol! (I heard someone say they thought they were going to cry!) My jaw must have hit the floor. I took the bundle from my son and gave him a big squeeze and kiss, then at someone's thoughtful suggestion, I took him to our cafeteria to let him pick from a table full of snacks. Geez, he was so adorable. I found out later that my husband helped him through the front door, and then told him to go straight ahead and he would find me. Several people saw him coming through the building, and followed him like a little pied piper. He had a little fan club standing behind him at my desk, and he just stood there patiently waiting for me to finish what I was doing to discover him. But I was so engrossed in my phone call, I might not have seen him for quite sometime, so someone wisely shook the back of my chair to get my attention. It's so cute that people were watching over him and taking him under their wing! I do work with a terrific bunch of people.

After I got home, I also found a big huge heart-shaped box of candy, (dark chocolate!!), and an adorable piece of art that Nathan created for me at school. It was a string of hearts on a ribbon, that read "LOVE" all the way down, with little hearts and a female teddybear and a boy teddybear (me and him). It was so sweet! It's now hanging over my desk at work. He also wrote me a Valentine's message:

"My mom is very special to me. She helps me with my homework. If I get stuck on something she helps me and she is the one who corrects my homework. This makes me thankful. She teaches me ways to do my homework. She taught me a math trick to multiply with 9. Sometimes when my dad and I are shoveling the snow, she will come out and help. She says 'We all work together.' I feel happy when my mom ehlpe us shovel snow."

Awwwwwwwww! Isn't he just the sweetest kid alive??? (Proud mom here, can ya tell?) Thank goodness I paid attention in math class, LOL! Remember kids, pay attention in school! You never know when it will come in handy.

I'll write more later. There are some other things going on that I should tell you about.