Thoughts on Valentine's Day

 My Valentine had to leave for Boise yesterday after church because a new doctor insisted that this was to be his start- up day in one of the clinics.  He must not be a very romantic doctor!!

Valentine's Day just really isn't the same without Shawn here.  Take breakfast for example.  When we want something besides oatmeal on a school morning at our house (oatmeal is our version of cold cereal around here - everyone just helps themselves) we team up on getting the kids off to school and Shawn makes it.  In the past we have done the heart-shaped pancakes, but today I figured that with making lunches and helping with hair the first two kids to catch the bus would miss it if I did anything fancy.  Caden came into the kitchen about the time that I reached this conclusion and asked if we were doing the pancakes.  I could tell that he was anticipating an extra-special day and therefore a better-than-oatmeal breakfast, so I told him that I was making scrambled eggs and toast.  He asked if I thought we should turn the eggs pink. (No thanks.  I've seen enough farm-fresh eggs with a little bit of pink in them for that to sound or look appetizing!!)

Let me just say that I  love Valentine's Day!  It feels like a very special day of the year to me, but I'm not entirely sure why.  When I cast my mind back over the years of Valentine's Days, the first one that I can remember was HORRIBLE!!  I was in the fourth grade, and the boy I had a crush on mailed me a box of chocolates.  My whole entire family then knew about it and it was embarrassing and humiliating.  I felt completely sick to my stomach and hid them underneath my dresser and didn't look at or eat any of them for MONTHS!!  And do you think that I ever talked to or thanked that poor boy?  No way!! Maybe my good feelings about the day began when my mom had a new baby brother on V-day.  Or maybe it was in the eighth grade when my dad sent me (I can't remember if it was balloons or flowers) as a gift to the school.  Then in highschool it was so exciting to receive gifts from people, too.  (O.K, boys!)

I would have to say that to the extent that I love Valentine's Day, it makes Shawn cringe.  When I mention anything about Valentine's day, he always says, "It is such a sad day.  There are so many lonely people who don't have anyone."  He is always so sensitive about things like this... yet another thing that I love about him.

Whether it's a sad or happy day, we have some fun traditions that have evolved at our house.  Ever since we were first married I have put hearts around the walls or in the windows of our home every year.  When Kami was about six, she and Caden were helping me to hang them up during the first part of February.  I started entertaining them by making up lovey poems about them and everyone else in the family and we wrote them on the hearts.  Since then we have made up and written poems on the hearts every year.  Here is a sampling of some of the great poetry from this year.  Let me tell you, there is talent here!!!
Caden to Kami:  Roses are red, leaves are green, everyone agrees that Kami is lean.
Maddie to Caden: Caden is tough and awfully bough (we loved the spelling of buff )
Maddie to Abram:  Abram makes faces, we like them a lot.  And he makes you smile if you want to or not.
Maddie to Isabelle:  Isabelle is a princess, someday her prince will come, then she will get her true love's kiss, and he won't be a bum.
Isabelle to Shawn and I:  Mom and dad are married.  Do you know what married means?  It means you sit around and kiss.  That is all you do.
Isabelle to Kami: (phonetic spelling included) I love Kami cus she is so pride that no one can evin git thair eyes off hre that a prins cud evin kiss hre.
Isabelle was very into the prince and princess and kissy stuff in her writings.  So as you can see we've got some real budding talent here.

 Our other tradition is to make giant oatmeal raisin cookies, stack them with doilies between them and deliver them to neighbors. This tradition began, interestingly enough, in high school.  For an FBLA fund-raiser me and my good friend Marji Hill had to deliver cookies to people and wear a cupid costume.  It was very humiliating, and the humiliation was made even more poignant when our picture appeared in the local paper the next day.   I always have the kids wear cupid outfits and they love it so far - how long do you think that will last?

The excitement for the day happened right before we went out to deliver our cupid cookies.  I saw a florists van driving slowly around the neighborhood - It drove down past the house then turned around and came slowly back towards the house.  Maddie and I were in the front living room and I squealed and said, "I'll bet your dad sent me flowers!!"  We watched but the van turned into the Jonson's driveway, and the driver got out and delivered the flowers to their house.  I was still convinced that those flowers were supposed to be for me! I told the kids that we would go there first to deliver cookies.  The kids rang the door bell and stood there and stood there, so I finally crossed the road to see what was going on.  I could see the flowers through the window, and Belle was reading the tag on them "deliver to Amy Gee."  Evidently no one was home, so I reached in the door and took my flowers!! Maddie was saying, "Honestly, mom!!!"  I knew they were mine.....