Valentine's Day 2014

Today is Valentine's Day 2014 - and I am so thankful for my wife Jean, my one true love.  A lot of people go their whole lives without ever finding true love; so, I am grateful to God every day for blessing me so much.  Through these past 25 years we have known good times and sad times, but we have always been able to lean on each other and make it through the days together.

The work I do as a Substitute Teacher has barely been able to provide for us these last couple years and to say the least, each day has been a struggle.  Our Church had to help us out last month so we could make our bills, and we're a bit behind again this month too; but, so far I have been able to juggle things a little to make the bill collectors happy.  I don't know if we can manage it or not, but I would like to take Jean out for dinner tomorrow and up to Mayville for the Ice Castle Festival & Fireworks.  She has stood by me for so long through the good and the bad, and she deserves a day of fun while there is time to celebrate life and our life together.

Then next Tuesday, we have our Doctor's appointments out to Sherman, NY and afterwards I want to take her to Peak n Peak, a local Ski Resort just the other side of Findley Lake, NY.  They have a beautiful diningroom and serve fantastic French Onion soup!  When ever we have a Doctor's appointment we try to make a day of it with a stop over there.  I just hope we have enough gas to make the journey out and around.

We have several items up for Sale right now, but so far no one has committed to buying anything, but I'll keep trying.  Any extra money right now would be a lot of help.  I've taken to writing a little bit with this blog and one other, but nothing much has come of it yet.  The kids in School all call me the Story Man because of all the stories I tell.  What I would like to do is to learn how to tell stories in such a way that I can educate, inspire, and entertain all at the same time.

I love telling Stories and if I can learn how to capitalize on this I may be able to find away out of the financial abyss we have been in for nearly 10 years.  I've developed several new skill sets with learning how to use various computer programs, with developing my abilities to speak in front of groups of young people, and learning how to tell my story.  The days of working a factory job or construction job are behind me because of my limited physical ability, but I can talk, type, and tell a story still; so, hopefully the Lord will continue to guide me down this road towards a successful career.

This week we lost Shirley Temple at 85 years of age, and Ralph White who was also 85.  Shirley Temple was a famous Child actor during the Depression Days, and Ralph White played John Walton, the father on the series The Walton's for 9 years.  His death hit me almost as though a family member had passed away having watching the Walton's for so many years.  They were both great at telling stories as actors.  Lord willing I will develop my own Story Telling style that will inspire and motivate as these great people managed.