valentines

I love Valentine's Day! I don't really care about the romance side of it, however. I like making little Valentines and the cute decorations and making heart shaped sugar cookies. I actually had two of my nephews and one niece over last weekend to help me decorate sugar cookies. It was a lot of fun. At least I thought it was. My 9-year-old nephew decorated about three cookies, which he proceeded to eat, and then he was done. The 11-year-old decorated a few more than the ones he ate before he had enough of it. The 7-year-old stuck with me until the end. She had fun and was very creative.

Monday night, I made Valentine tags for my Sunbeams (the 3-year-olds I teach at church).

I used Papertrey Ink stamps and Memento ink on some Neenah cardstock. Then I colored them with Copics. I added a little Fired Brick Distress Ink to the edges of the tags, and then added some Stickles because you can always use a little glitter. ;-)

Then I punched holes and tied them to Mini M&Ms with bakers twine (blue is from Twisted Sugar Twine; red is The Twinery). Oh, I used Tombow adhesive.

Simple, but cute!

I'm still trying to figure out this app, so I'm not sure where the photos will end up on this post. I guess I'll find out!

things I want to remember

My bro-in-law's (LP) funeral was a week and a half ago. To say his death was unexpected and a shock to the whole family would be a complete understatement. There are some things I want to remember about the funeral, so I thought I'd make a note of them here while I think about it, and since it's convenient.

*sitting next to my 11-year-old nephew, Connor, during the viewing, talking to him, watching him play games on his Kindle, trying to solve brain teasers from a book he had

*watching my 16-year-old nephew, Taylor, sit on the other side of Connor until people started coming for the viewing. Then he got up and went to stand next to his mom without anyone telling him to. He just did it. He has a new level of maturity about him that I hadn't noticed before. I'm sad that he had to grow up and be the man in the house so quickly.

*the family prayer my bro gave

*walking into the chapel and seeing the impressive line of a dozen or so pilots on the stand. Seeing them standing there, mourning one of their own, made me cry.

*my sis playing "I Stand All Amazed" on the piano

*my sis deciding at the last minute to speak. She read a post from her blog called "Dear Taylor and Connor"

*the Bishop telling how he was in California when he heard the news of LP's death, and so he drove home as fast as he could. He said he even got his minivan up to 90 at one point, and somehow he knew LP was proud

*the Bishop telling of a girl who was watching the house next door to LP and Tammy while that family was on vacation, and when the girl went in the house, she discovered the back doors were wide open. She got scared and went to my sister's house. LP answered the door, and she explained what was going on. He told her to wait there, got one of his guns, and checked out the house. Everything was fine, however. He only took a pistol with him, but I still picture him charging next door with one of his big guns like some kind of action movie hero.

*the Bishop saying how he called LP before calling my sis to serve as Primary president, and asking if he would support her in a big calling that could take up a lot of her time. LP's answer "Absolutely."

*the rainy day, just like a funeral you would see in a movie

*the love a lot of people have for my sis and the boys

*my other bro's prayer at the graveside

*watching the casket being lowered into the ground

*the slideshow shown at the luncheon

*hanging out with the fam at my sister's home after it was over

*Gaston by my side throughout it all

*how hard it was to leave my sis and my nephews. I can't even imagine how hard this is for them. I wish I could do something to make everything better, but I know there's really nothing that I can do, except pray.

For more of Tammy's story, go to tammystimeflies.blogspot.com (Some day I'll figure out if it's possible to add links via the app)

kids say the darnedest things

8-old-nephew while we were playing Apples to Apples and no one was picking his answer:
"I wish I was playing this game with smart people instead of stupid people who don't know how to play!"

same 8-year-nephew also during Apples to Apples after he picked math as matching fearful:
Me: "Why are you scared of math? You're good at math!"
Nephew: "I'm scared that I'll never get a wrong answer and I'll never know what it feels like to get a wrong answer!"

5-year-old niece who wanted to sit on my lap while Gaston was sitting to my left and 6-year-old niece was sitting on my right knee:
"I don't want to sit next to evil [Gaston]!"

6-year-old niece just talking to me:
"I'm really more of a meat girl. I like my steaks pink and juicy!"

same 6-year-old niece talking to her gram while staying at my house for a few days:
Gram: "Do you think your brother and sister miss you?"
Niece: "Well, my sister does, because she loves me."
Apparently her brother doesn't? :)

same 6-year-old niece just talking to me:
Niece: "I wish I lived here with you."
Me: "That would be fun, but wouldn't you miss your mom and dad?"
Niece: "No I mean my whole family should live here with you."
That would be nice and cozy - the 6 of them and the 3 of us in a house that really isn't big.

15-year-old nephew a couple years ago, talking to his cousin after surprising me and giving me a hug:
"You have to be nice to her. She's the one who spoils you."

Gotta love those kids! I don't know if you'll find them as funny as do since you don't know them, but I wanted to post it anyway so I don't forget them.

Bummer news - the internet company that I had come to my house on Tuesday to finally hook up high-speed internet couldn't get a signal because there are too many trees in the way, so I'm still using dial-up. I was so excited to finally have high-speed and now I have to find a different company to go through. What a pain! I took a vacation day from work and so I kind of feel like I just wasted a day off. Oh well. There are worse things that could happen.

Oh and sorry if you are getting tired of looking at the cards I have made for the card class. I have to post pictures of them somewhere before I can upload them to the class site and be eligible for prizes. But hey, at least it's making me update my blog a few times a week. ;)