In January I painted 40 Valentine tags for a friend/client. At
the time, it seemed like I’d never get all the tags done, but they were so fun
to paint and I got them done fairly quickly, that one tag led to another until
in the end I must have hand-painted about 80 Valentine tags/cards. Thanks Mary
Kay for getting me to think about Valentine’s long before I normally would
have!
At some point in my tag painting I decided I wanted to paint
my children and grandkids a personal Valentine tag as it sounded fun to acknowledge
them on Valentine’s Day. The only problem was I wanted to send a gift along
with the tags and I was at a loss as to what that gift would be. During my dilemma
two memories came to mind:
1.
When our kids were younger, we unexpectedly
received some store-bought valentine cards (the kind children pass out in school)
from my parents. Inside each valentine was a dollar bill. Although monetarily
it wasn’t a lot per grandchild, I remember it meaning a lot to me and to our
kids. It meant enough that I still remember it to this day!
2.
Del’s mom, who none but my oldest child knew,
gave 2 dollar bills to her grandchildren on special occasions. This was such a
rare bill that my oldest daughter still has hers in a scrapbook from almost 30
years ago.
Putting these two thoughts together, I decided to send the
couples some money for a Valentine treat, and give 2 dollar bills to the
grandkids. Although none of this is monetarily all that much, the whole
Valentine tag/gift took on new meaning to me as I thought about these two incidents
from our parents’ lives. So…that’s what they got and I’m sure I had more fun
getting all of this put together and mailed than they had opening it.
But now for a rather funny
story that goes along with all my other Valentine tags…
…for life is what happens when
we are making other plans…
I have 12 girls in my church group (called the Beehives). I’m
also a visiting teacher and my husband is a home teacher (titles relate to
church). So…why not make large sugar cookies, put them in a baggie, and tie them
with one of my hand-painted tags?!! Knowing part of the ending of this story,
my sister Teresa wrote:
"First of all, when talking to Dad
and Mother today…they mentioned that you had been so sick from making sugar
cookies! Sounds like you overdosed on
mint and almond extract????Hahaha!!! I
shouldn’t laugh, but who knew? Wow! I also had to laugh because you remind me so
much of me! Why is it that everything we
decide to do can turn into a BIG PROJECT???
Your simple act of kindness for Valentine’s Day not only puts you in bed
sick, but you probably had nothing to show for your kind gesture…after all
that! Oh boy, do I relate!"
The reason for her comment: I baked about 30 large sugar
cookies and 30 smaller ones. If you’ve ever baked and frosted sugar cookies you
know it’s almost a full day’s work. I accidently poured in mint flavor extract into
the frosting, so I tried disguising it with a lot of extra almond extract.
Thinking it tasted terrible, but not wanting to waste my frosting, I frosted
all the cookies thinking “although I can tell, maybe no one else will!” But in
the long run, I ate at least 7 cookies to test out my theory. I wasn’t
convinced I could give them away to the adults, but maybe the 12 year olds
wouldn’t notice!! Into the freezer they went, waiting for Valentine’s Day.
That was my thinking until the next two days “happened”. I
was sick in bed! The mint/almond frosting did me in and I was now determined NO
ONE would be subjected to those “killer” cookies.
But this wasn’t the “normal” sick in bed due to food
sickness. I didn’t put two and two together until a few more days had passed…
So back to before I knew what really happened: after 2 full
days in bed, feeling horrible, I made it to church on Sunday and to a few who
had heard I was sick, I told them my “horror” story about my homemade cookies
(I didn’t want them thinking I was at church with the flu!). I also told my
children, my parents and a few of my siblings via email.
Then Monday came along and I now had to go shopping for
something to give to those we home teach, visit teach, and to the 12 Beehive
girls. I was indecisive and took several hours only to decide on some cute
lollypops! (Remember my sister’s comments above: turning something simple into
something big?!!)
And then Monday night came. Del realized I was having “another
kind of pain” due to a hernia I’ve dealt with for many years. I had shoveled
wet, heavy snow the day before I baked cookies and it was acting up…just as it
had been hurting even during all this “other sickness”.
If you know anything about hernia’s, you have probably put
this all together. How was I to know that having a hernia pinched could cause
everything to be trapped and backed up in my system, leaving me feeling bloated
and sick and flu-like?!! After reading about hernia’s online, a light went on.
Do you get the humor in all of this?!! Oh my…I saw my
cookies as “killer” cookies. I wasn’t going to subject those to ANYONE, not
even 12 year old Beehive girls!! I had spent two days in bed thinking my
cookies had poisoned me, more time shopping for an alternative gift, and lots
of time sharing my story with others. And as it turns out, I simply had stomach
problems as a result of side effects of a hernia, which will be addressed
surgically on Monday! (I can’t tell you how funny I find this. I laid in bed
Monday night with uncontrollable laughter. To think I had blamed my symptoms on
my homemade cookies!! And as I laughed that night Del kept saying “hold your
hernia! Push it back in”! Oh my goodness!! One might think finding out you need
hernia surgery isn’t all that funny, but I do!
And sometimes even when you discover the truth it’s still
hard to accept it and remove the craziness from your prior thoughts. Even while
sitting in the doctor’s office I couldn’t help but try to figure out how to
make the cookies a part of my symptoms. This matter-of-fact doctor certainly
didn’t see the relevance of how cookies played any part of my medical problem.
And my husband did all he could to not burst out laughing!
And so…life happens.
I do feel bad though that I won't be going to my dad's to help him when he has his hernia surgery. I was making flight plans when all this other happened! Ironic, huh?! So sorry dad!
Oh my…
And by the way, the cookies still taste terrible!! I tried
another yesterday. Do I really need to throw them away? I guess I need to think
of the trash can as Cookie Monster! “Me want cookies!”
Joseph B.Wirthlin, “Come What May and Love it” October 2008
General Conference
