Upgrade!

As you can probably tell by my recent posts, I've been a bit down in the dumps lately. Well on Valentine's Day this year Lou did a great job breaking me out of my slump. We don't really make a big deal out of V-day most years. We're not some of those Anti-Valentine's people or anything like that. We just like to keep it simple. Anyhow, Lou outdid himself this year...

First he gave me these:

He said he felt cheesy doing the "box of chocolates" thing, but he's never done this before, and little did he know that I have secretly always wanted a big heart-shaped box of chocolates, so I was thrilled with this "cheesy" gift.

He also made me a wonderful dinner of steak, shrimp, bread and peas - yes, he was grilling outside in the middle of February - gotta love this guy!

And here's the big daddy. He gave me my new, upgraded engagement ring! Here's a picture of the original:

It's hard to tell in this picture, but this ring was VERY fragile. It was an estate ring, and though very beautiful, very fragile and always getting bent and beat up. You can see in the picture that the left side stone is missing. The darn ring kept cracking and the stones on the side kept getting lost. Lou finally had enough and said I was getting a new ring - I didn't argue. :)


Here's the new ice:

MUCH stronger, sturdier, and sooo beautiful. The center stone is the one from my original, but the rest is all new!

He had the old circle side stones replaced with a baguette-cut, which I love.

Here it is with my wedding band

And again, but flipped the other way. I have never before gotten diamonds on Valentine's Day, and although I'm not a big "give me jewelry" person, I have to say, I was ecstatic when I saw this ring!!

My last gift came from my Mom and kids. My Mom and Dad were nice enough to take the girls for the day, so we could have some time alone (well, when Edward was napping, anyway). When Maria came home, she had a mysterious paper bag that she and Nana had been working on. She told me that we needed to stay out of our room for a few minutes while she finished our surprise. This is what she did:

Her and my Mom cut out all the hearts that afternoon.

Cute, huh?

So how can anyone feel depressed after a day like that? It was just perfect. The only imperfect thing about it were the almond-paste cookies that I attempted to make for Lou (he loves almond paste). Yeah, they didn't turn out so great - hence why there are no pictures...

Oh well, Lou ate them anyway, giving me the whole "it's the thought that count's" bit, and I was okay with that.

Anyhow, thank goodness for family who boosts you up when you are feeling down. Happy Valentine's Day, loved ones... :)