Love Is In The Air

The past few days it's all been about "love" around our home and it's culminated today, Valentine's Day.

For starters and not to disregard by any stretch, Tuesday was Jennifer's birthday. She turned a wonderful ___ years old and grows more stunning each year. Notice how I didn't reveal her age, doing all I can to ensure brownie points later on down the road. I even did the "she's 25+" thing when I sent in a birthday greeting for her on our local Christian radio station. The DJ's got a kick out of it, laughing as they read her name. They were probably thinking that some husband who's trying to get some brownie points later on down the road did this...smart guy.

Seriously though, she does get more and more beautiful to me as the years go by. I often stop to think of how blessed I've been to have her as my wife, my best friend and my children's mother. I think of how she and I have been together as a couple longer than she lived her life single. A hint...she and I started dating when she was 16 and I was 18 so for those of you doing the math at home...it's more than 16 years.

And more than 18.

Uh oh...did I reveal too much? LOL

To think of being with one person that long, through everything we've been through together, the good times and the not so good, it's humbling to know that she still loves me and wants to spend the rest of her life with me.

And, of course, I with her.

Even though I'm well past the "love song dedications" on the radio stations I used to do back in our high school days, I still try to do those special things for her that show her how much I do love her.

You know...things like doing the laundry (AND putting it away), cooking the meals, getting up with the boy in the middle of the night and wrapping myself up in a big red bow...what's not to show the essence of love in that, right?

In all honesty, I thank the Lord for bringing us together and blessing us as husband and wife and as a family. I quoted it last year on my blog that a husband is blessed by a Proverbs 31 wife and Jennifer blesses and honors our family in all she does.

Thank you, sweetie, for always living your life in such a wonderful, Christ-like manner and loving us as He does.

The second example of love deals with something I'll wrap up with in a moment but ask yourself first...

how many Lowe's associates and customers does it take to wrestle a lodged plastic army guy from the bath tub faucet? Think on that one for a bit.

Thirdly, today is Valentine's Day and I hope you have a special someone you can spend it with. How fortunate I am to have my valentine here with me today on her day off (even though we have an appointment with our accountant in a little bit...nothing says "I love you" like spending time at the CPA's office). I'm not certain if we're going to be able to escape for a nice romantic meal tonight since the kids are around, but hopefully this weekend we'll be able to do the nice dinner and a movie deal sans the chillins.

I'm thinking she's going to want to see "27 Dresses" instead of a heart warming film like "Rambo".

OK...back to my pending Lowe's question.

I ask it and relate it to today's topic of "love" because as any of us who are parents know, we'll do anything for our children. Why? Easy.

Because we love them and I'm no different towards my kids in that regard. Jennifer and I love our kids dearly and we're trying all we can to raise them the right way, teaching them love, respect, gentleness, kindness, goodness, humility and self-control. You know...the whole "fruits of the Spirit" aspect.

So, flashback to Tuesday night, Jennifer's birthday. We'd just gotten back from dinner out at Red Lobster and we'd convinced Kaitlyn to get a bath with Jake, operating under the directive not to splash a bunch of water on the floor, not get into a fight with him and do it all as quickly and as nicely as she could.

Jennifer went upstairs to get their PJ's out and the clothes they'd wear for the next day, leaving me with the job of overseeing the kids' bath. I'd just walked into our bedroom when I heard Jake call from our tub "Dad...come in here quick. You're gonna be mad."

I wondered what was going to upset me as I walked in and saw Kaitlyn trying to get something out of the faucet of the tub.

"What are you doing" I asked, calmly and collected.

"We got Darth Vader stuck inside the faucet" she mumbled with a look of near-fear on her face. "Please don't get mad at me...I didn't mean to do it."

I reassured her as best I could that I wasn't going to be angry and to let me see what I could do. Sure enough, I saw a red plastic toy figure wedged up inside the bathtub faucet. I tried to pry him out with a screwdriver but I only made matters worse by pushing him further down the pipe.

"Oh forever more" I thought.

I got the kids out of the tub and got them dressed and then really dug in to try and get Vader un-wedged from the pipe. Try as I might, I only made matters worse and eventually realized that nothing I did (sticking a hanger down the now detached faucet, poking at the toy with a metal tube, squirting it with WD-40, etc) was going to work. For grins and giggles I checked online to see what a new faucet would be to purchase.

Over $300.

Oh boy, I thought. I knew there was no way we were going to buy something that expensive just because a tiny toy was trapped inside, especially since it wasn't disrupting the flow of water much. So, I mentally made plans to take the faucet to Lowe's Wednesday morning.

I walked into the store, faucet firmly in hand, and proceeded to the plumbing department where I met Ron. He was a real likable, affable kind of guy who, after I told him of my predicament, laughed and said to let him see what he could do with a pipe snake.

We tried and tried and tried for about 5 minutes to dislodge a now firmly entrenched Darth Vader but to no avail.

"I think this is becoming a job for the guys over in the 'Tools' section" Ron told me with a slight hint of resignation in his voice.

We walked over to 'Tools' and met up with Dale and Ed. They both grinned widely when they heard of my parental woes and suggested another sort of pipe cleaner tube that had tiny fingers fastened to the end of it.

Once again, we succumbed to the Dark Side of the Force as our attempts to free Vader were thwarted. I began to wonder if we'd ever fix this silly thing as I silently began to recall all kinds of Star Wars references, specifically Princess Leia pleading "help me Obi Wan Kenobi...you're my only hope."

Ed and Dale, both scratching their heads, looking for a solution, said "you know, this sounds like it's more of a 'Hardware' issue...let's go see Eric."

So, all four of us (by this time) along with the still-clogged faucet, meandered over to the 'Hardware' aisle to find Eric. He was a younger guy who, like me, began to espouse all kinds of Jedi rhetoric as to my predicament.

"The Force is strong with this pipe" he grunted as he attempted to free the plastic toy. As Eric, Ron, Dale, myself and now 2 customers stood around this stupid pipe, trying to devise a way to fix it, Ed started to bend a long, slender metal rod to try again to force it out. After numerous attempts to get the metal rod around the bend in the faucet, we began to see the bottom of the red plastic emerge on the other side.

Of course, it was not going to come out as easy as we'd hoped. We'd already tried a pipe snake, another snake with tiny metal grippers, WD-40, a metal rod and some needle nosed pliers.

Not to mention the grunts and groans of no less than 5-6 middle aged guys whose efforts would hopefully pan out.

Eric said "let me try the needle nosed pliers one more time. I think I can get it now."

He pulled and pried when all of a sudden...POP!!

Off came Darth Vader's head.

However, the rest of his body still lay stuck inside. Thankfully, the pliers were long enough to reach it and we started up again.

Try to picture this in your mind. 4 grown men holding a chrome plated faucet no more than 14 inches long, grunting, groaning, straining and sweating as another guy pulled with all his might on a pair of needle nosed pliers.

I realized the sudden hilarity of the moment and blurted out without thinking about it "guys, you do realize we are a living joke, right? If someone walks by and sees us all wrestling over this, they're going to wonder how many men does it take to get Darth Vader out of a bathtub faucet?"

As we began to all chuckle about this, success finally looked our way as Eric pulled to now mangled plastic torso of Darth Vader from his metallic prison. This picture shows what remains of the source of our utter frustration. It's now been sent on it's way to the Death Star in a garbage dump far, far away.

The way we all hipped and hollered and patted each other on the back, you'd have thought we won a championship in some major sport. I was extremely grateful to all those guys at Lowe's who helped me and as they said as I walked away in triumph, I became a "lifetime customer".

If I could plug them right now, I hope you all check out Lowe's for all your home hardware needs and even plastic toy removals. Hopefully your experience with them will be as great as mine was.

As I drove home that afternoon to greet the kids and show them what I'd done for them...BECAUSE I LOVE THEM...I laughed and wondered if my parents had ever gone to such lengths for me 'cause I know I NEVER brought such "joy" into their lives.

Right?