Lunchtime. Brett walks in wide eyed, his face a bit blushed, and modestly proclaimed me as the luckiest wife around. “Not many husbands spend over $1300 on their wife for Valentine’s Day,” he said with all the 80 yr. old man humor he could muster. I just laughed at him, because we don’t really do the Valentine’s Day thing, and I knew what was in the bag.

You see, today my husband bought a lens. Not just any lens, but the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 (wedding dream lens), which is a Canon “L” series lens (that said in a very pretentious voice). We have been wanting this lens for quite a while, and when a friend offered to sell it to us, we went for it.

Really..I don’t need any gift to realize I am the most lucky, more like “blessed” gal around. This I know. I have God, the most wonderful husband, and the 4 precious gifts that continue to give back to me everyday, my babies. Having my dream job is pretty cool too.

Gabriel said he wanted to check out this new lens since it basically is the same size as him…so here are his thoughts below.

“Looks a little plain…what’s all the fuss about?”

“Hey, bring that thing a little closer…”

“Yeah. Tastes alright.”

If you know me well you know I have been crazy about IKEA opening here in Cincinnati. I have been following the rumors that started about 2 years ago, and waiting, ever so patiently for this day to come. When we finally saw the press release in August of 2006 that they were coming somewhere in Cincinnati, we were H-A-P-P-Y. (We being myself, my sister, a few close friends, and THOUSANDS of Ohioians…Don’t include Brett in that WE..he thinks I have gone off the deep end, and he’s a little scared.) Then, when they announced that it would be 10 minutes from my house, (the news lady actually said that) BONUS!

You see, I was one, like MANY, MANY others, that took the long trek to get to the nearest store and stock up about once a year. I would grab a friend, (usually a sister or 2) and we would head to the IKEA near Chicago (which by the way is the BEST around). Now why would I drive all that way to visit one single store?? Well, just go have a little visit, plan on it taking a while.

So, for the past months we have been driving by and watching the growth and progress being made to the big,beautiful, royal blue and yellow building, as my kids all scream in unison, “Hi IKEA!”

It opens in 1 month. SEE YOU THERE :)