Love Is In The Air

Happy Valentine’s Day!
L-O-V-E
It’s a four letter word that often gets misused or taken for granted. We’ve all over used it at one time or another… “I just love….” or even saying “I love you.” and not meaning it. Valentine’s day has always been a day I wasn’t fond of. A day to tell and show your wife, husband or significant other how much you love them. Why can’t EVERY day be Valentine’s day? Why do we have to show it once a year in February? I’d much rather my husband show me he loves me on a day other than February 14th! OK…off my soapbox now….lol! On Friday, Kacey’s class exchanged vaelntines. Once you get to 4th grade, there are no time for parties. Which is sad but true! I’ve mentioned Kacey’s “friend”, Hunter, before. They’ve been friends since…well….before birth. They were inseperable in preschool for 2 years and then when they went to Kindergarten, they were in different classes. They still played together on the playground but that was the only time they saw one another unless it was to wave across the lunchroom at one another. By 1st-3rd grade, they were playing in their own circle of same gender friends. Boys were…”yucky”. Hunter’s parents are friends of ours and his dad and Frankie have been friends since they were little. So during this time, we still saw them but Kacey & Hunter had lost that closeness they had when they were little. Then came Open House this year. We walked into the classroom and there sat Hunter with his Dad. They were finally back together again! All of a sudden, it was like they were never apart. They played together every day on the playground and when it was raining outside and they couldn’t go out, they played games together in the classroom. The only thing they didn’t do was eat lunch together. All of the boys sat at one table and all the girls sat at another. Each class gets 2 tables and they didn’t eat together. Right before the walk last year, Kacey came home so excited. Hunter had come over to her table to eat with her. That was the beginning of such a special friendship….AGAIN. This time it was a bit different though. Hunter hadn’t been around much of the last 2 years so he didn’t know what “diabetes” involved. He joined her walk team and supported her the day of the walk by walking with her for the entire time. It wasn’t long before he was sitting beside her at the table, not across from her. He was curious. The questions came and Kacey answered them with such grace. “What is a pump?”, “Why do you have to do that?”, “Does it hurt?”, “Can you still eat cookies?” and many more. Each day she would come home talking about “educating” Hunter and how happy she was that she had a friend that WANTED to know about diabetes. Why was he different from any of her other friends? Why did she feel so elated when he’d ask if she “felt ok”? Because he genuinely cared, that’s why! He wanted to learn about her diabetes so when they played together and she said she didn’t feel well then he could help her. To have a friend like that is just a gem! She said when they play, he always asks her if she feels ok or he’ll ask her if she’s been in range. These are questions that normal kids wouldn’t ask one another but two friends that are joined like this would. No, he doesn’t have diabetes but he gets it. He cares. Christmas came and they exchanged “special” presents with one another. I could see the special bond between them. They were just like they were when they were in preschool. Wherever Kacey was, Hunter wasn’t far behind. They walked together at Walk-n-Talk every day and it was such a neat thing to watch. Then…Valentine’s Day. She spent the days before making Valentine’s for all her friends but then came Hunter. She asked if she could get him something special. Then she went in her room and came out with one of the sweetest notes that I’d ever seen written. I couldn’t let this note disappear into the hands of someone else without having a copy of it for safe keeping. I took a picture of it. Was it her first love note? Was it just a heartfelt note to a friend? I don’t know! It’s such an innocent kind of friendship and love they have for one another. They’re so sweet together! She took him a stuffed dog with 3 different pictures she made him. Then I got a message from his mom asking if Kacey could come to his birthday party on Saturday. Hunter did NOT want any girls there, except Kacey. Honestly, I don’t think they think of gender when they are together. They’re ….FRIENDS. That’s what makes this so sweet and innocent. I know she will laugh later in life when she sees what she wrote and she’ll probably be embarrassed that I shared it but she’ll get over it!
Now…changing subjects…
I saw one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long while. “Julie & Julia”. It touched me in more ways and inspired me so much! There has always been a love of cooking in our house. Ever since I was a little girl, I have such fond kitchen memories of baking with my Mom and that followed through with Kayleigh. She’s become quite a little baker and her love of cake decorating is in full bloom! This movie combined two of my favorite things….cooking and blogging! I had to giggle when she first talked about blogging and I remember the feelings I felt when I first started blogging (almost 2 years ago). I blogged daily…sometimes twice a day. Over the last few months, I’ve not been as good at blogging because of my carpal tunnel. I REALLY needed that break from all the typing because it was taking a toll and I was in so much pain that surgery seemed my only option but I knew if I left the long blog posts for a bit then I could manage the pain with some meds and then come back to it once these nerves settled down in my wrist. It worked! I’m doing MUCH better with it. Back to the movie…so Julie vowed to blog 365 days and make it through Julia Childs entire recipe book of over 500 recipes. It was so heartwarming and a wonderful movie. If you haven’t seen it then it’s a MUST if you love cooking…or blogging! I giggled when she got her first blog comments. When she finally knew that someone other than her mother was reading her blog. I remember those feelings! It was nice to know that your voice didn’t go unheard in blog world.
Speaking of baking…Kayleigh has been pretty busy with her cakes lately. She got several orders for Valentine’s Day. She’s getting so much practice! She has 2 orders due this week and then she’s got 7 orders for Easter already! Here are a few of the cakes she’s done lately.

Not bad for only being 15 years old! :) She's doing fantastic!

Hope you all had a wonderful day!