Having just had IV sedation the day before Valentines Day I was not very well but I had planned ahead as i wanted my husband to have a lovely day.

My husband is out of work at the moment and money is very very tight so we had a very small budget about the equivalent of $4 .

Our local charity shop / thrift store was having a clearout of their books, you could get 5 books for £1 (British pound). I got 10 books. I placed them in secret places around the house with a little love heart shaped chocolate and wrote some clues to lead him to them. His 1st clue was in a valentines card (homemade) .

He really loved it and had such good fun looking for the treats. I should add that my husband LOVES books and thats why 10 books was a delight to him ! The were mostly non-fiction books that I had chosen carefully to his interests and humour.

My wonderful husband had also planned ahead and realsied that due to being ill I would not be able to get up and about on valentines day so he had used his amazing gift with words to write me a story which was about all my favourite things and had lots of humourous references to things that had happened in our lives.

It was magical BUT it didn't end there , knowing that reading when you are sick is quite unpleasant he had used a microphone to record it onto the computer then put it on a CD so i could listen to the story in bed. He had really got into it and read the story with such passion and excitement, very dramatic, it lasted 15 minutes and i loved every second of it. i will cherish it forever. Despite being so ill it was the best , most romantic valentines ever!