Before I begin......I want to tell everyone Happy Valentine's Day and thank everyone that has wished me the same.

For me, Valentine's Day is just another day. I don't expect expensive gifts, flowers or candy. I'm not into the mushy, gushy, lovey, dovey stuff. It's just not me. I'd rather skip the whole day and be done with it.

Don't get me wrong...I don't cringe over Valentine's Day. And yes, Hubby always remembers Valentine's day so it's not like I feel jilted by this "Love" holiday. I just don't care one way or other about it coming or going.

I've never quite understood why so many women get upset if their man doesn't acknowledge them in some BIG way on this day. I know it's to each his/her own as always, but damn, come on.......if your man treats you right the other 364 days, then why make such a big deal out of ONE day a year

I am in NO WAY putting anyone down if they're into the whole Valentine's Day thing. That is their wants and wishes. I have nothing against that. Personally, I just don't understand all the fuss.

Never have, never will. Maybe it's just me

You Are a Strawberry

You are friendly, outgoing, and well liked by many people. You are popular, but there's nothing you ordinary or average about you. You a very interesting person, and you have many facets to your personality. Sometimes you feel very conflicted. Your different sides of your personality pull at you. You are a very sensual and passionate person. You are fiery... you can't help it. In general, you keep your passionate side under wraps. You are only wild in private.

I wonder if my "different sides" know about my wild private life..............

When you think you've got it bad, you find out that someone has it worse than you do.

This has been the case around me for a few weeks now. Not that I think I've got it bad but certain things that happen tend to put everything back into perspective.

A coworker of mine has a 23 year old daughter that found out a few weeks ago that she has some form of melanoma. It's been a roller coaster ride for her and her family. The initial shock, the emotions, the urgency of getting the right doctor, etc. It's been crazy and I can't even begin to imagine what they must be feeling.

From the time she found out, it's been nothing but one doctor after another just about every week. She's had scan after scan done. The results from those are supposed to be in tomorrow. She's had to have surgery to remove part of her skin and is scheduled to have the reconstructive surgery tomorrow providing the scans come back like they want them too.

Through it all, so far, they both (the mother and the daughter) have kept their humor about it, which I think is great.

My other coworker is in a tough spot right now also. On Tuesday, her husband (which also worked with us) lost his job.

So now they have the worries of the loss of income, him finding another job and whatever else comes with the loss of a job.
Their vacation plans have been screwed up which in the whole scheme of things isn't the end of the world but it still sucks when you plan for something for so long then it gets wiped out. The financial burden alone is scary enough. He'll find another job and they'll get back on their feet. Hopefully it will be soon and they won't even notice the loss of income too much.

So when I look at these two ladies lives and what's going on in theirs right now....it makes me stop and think about the things that I bitch about at times and how lucky I am that I have what I have and my family is healthy.

I put this door in my background for two very specific reasons.

When I first saw the door, I thought it was pretty. Something about it drew me like a moth to a flame. Not sure what it was but it was something.

The door brought these two quotes to mind: "Never judge a book by its cover" and "Doors of opportunity don't open, they unlock; it is up to you to turn the knob"

I try to live by the not judging thing but sometimes I find myself failing at this. I don't think I do it by choice. Sometimes thoughts just pop into my head before I consciously have time to think about them.

As soon as I saw the door, I thought, "That's a cool looking door." Then came the next thought of, "I have no idea what this door goes to or what's behind it. For all I know, this door could be shutting out unspeakable horrors from the world."

I do try my very best not to be judgmental but I am human and I unfortunately fall into the "sometimes judgmental" category. Even though I have those moments of "snap judgments", I usually tend to delve a little deeper than just the cover. The only time I walk away without digging deeper is when my instincts tell me to back off and no matter what moral code I may have, I ALWAYS listen to my gut.

The other reason for the door is the opportunity thing that came to mind.

I have to remember to turn that knob at times. It's the fear of what's behind the door that keeps me from opening it sometimes.

I’ve been trying to talk hubby into building a house for many years now with no luck. He was so against it from day one that I finally gave up and accepted it as it was.

Now….(that I have resigned myself to dying in the house we’re in) he has decided that we need a bigger house. He says that the house is too small for five people and even though the kids won't be living at home forever, they will come back occasionally and bring more people with them when they come.

That is one of the points I tried to make years ago when trying to talk him into a bigger house. I absolutely LOVE when I'm right

Anyway.....now that the decision has been made to do something different, we’ve been trying to figure out what is going to work the best for us. Whatever we end up doing, we know it will be at least two years before anything is done but I figure this is good because that gives us two years to battle out the differences in what we want and get our ducks in a row, so to speak.

We’ve pretty much figured that building is the only way we’re going to get exactly what we want in a house but we're not sure if that's the route we want to take.

Our options seem to keep multiplying and giving us more to think about . As we see them, they are............build on the land that we have now..........sell what we have and buy another piece of property with a house on it..........keep what we have now and buy a new piece of land with a house and rent out the old house...........or add on to the house that we’re in now.

The addition to the existing house seems to be one of the easiest ways to go but it could end up costing us just as much money to get it like we want it as it would cost to build a new house so if this is the case……I take new over old.

The idea of buying a new place and renting out the one we have is also tempting for the extra income but right now this is the last option on our list because we’re not sure we really want to go into the headaches of the rental business. This is still way up in the air but not ruled out.

Selling what we have and putting that money towards another piece of property with a house already on it would able us to get more for our money if we play our cards right but this would only work with the right timing. Right house at the right price at the right time. Like now, there is a house that seems right for us on a different piece of property, for a good price, but we’re not in the position to do so right now.

I think when it comes down to it, even though we’re toying with these different possibilities, we’ll most likely build where we are or build elsewhere (I think we’re both ready to move away from where we are). We’re both pretty specific about certain things that we want in the house and how we want it and unless one hell of a deal comes along at the right time, then to get what we want, we’re going to have to build our own.

Now, if we could only agree on the size of the house and where to build it, we’d be doing good.