Happy Valentine's Day! You'd Have to Know My Mother to Understand!

Happy Valentine's Day to my family, my friends and all the awesome people that I have had the opportunity to meet this past 5 weeks or so, since I started this blog. I hope your day will be everything you hope for, and that you will be able to reach out and send your love to others.

The name of this Kim Anderson figurine is: Love; The Greatest Gift of All. I believe that is true. We can ALL give the gift of Love.

The year I was in 8th grade, the cheerleaders at good ole MHS were selling carnations as a team fundraiser. You could order them, and then on Valentine's Day, the cheerleaders would deliver them to the person of your choice, directly into the classroom. Needless to say, it made quite a statement and generated alot of excitement and revenue! Blue carnations symbolized "I'd like to get to know you better"...red, of course, symbolized "Love"...yellow meant "Friendship". Pink stood for "Like", whatever that is! I believe they also had green and black, but I've managed to forget what those meant. So for a whopping $1.25, you could make a statement for the day. One of my friends and I talked about sending a blue one to each other, just for kicks!

I decided that I wanted a token of love and appreciation for my mother. I scraped together the pocket change I could find, and when I placed my order, I asked the cheerleaders if I could please order a silk red rose. In my mind, how would a carnation survive ALL day? Just any rose wouldn't do. I wanted a fluffy one, now known to me as a cabbage rose. I didn't want one of those roses "with a tight plasticy" looking bud. AND I wanted the stem to have a couple of buds on it. Oh, please could I have a ribbon bow on it too? They conferred with one another (can't you just see them...they even called the florist shop!) and yes, they could do that for me, but it would be $2.50!

That year we had quite a bit of snow. In the hills of Arkansas it doesn't take much of the fluffy white stuff to cancel school for the day. And can you believe it, it snowed on Valentine's Day. School was cancelled, so the cheerleader's fundraiser fell through. However, the silk rose survived! When I returned to school there it was in all of its beautiful red splendor! I was extremely pleased to bring it home to Mother. It was a surprise to her...eventhough it was belated, and Valentine's Day was a bit uneventful due to the snowfall. I'm sure I probably made a card to go with it, though I don't remember precisely. She showed the proper amount of appreciation to me, as any loving mother would do with such a gift. And I was tickled pink with myself for bringing her joy.

As I look back, I'm so glad that in my childish mind I was able to have the forethought to give her a silk red rose. She's gone now. I loved her so...You'd just have to know my mother to understand!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Love, Rachel