valentine's day delivery

jake's school decided to make valentines for a local nursing home today and i totally enjoyed working in the school. they were so excited about making cards and gluing on heart and applying stickers. it's funny because some one donated kinda inappropriate stickers for a nursing home -- stickers that said, "super sexy," "call me," "gonna get it," and so on. so the 6th graders and i got it and thought it was hilarious, the 3rd graders on down just had fun putting pretty stickers on.

we went to the senior center after school to deliver the valentines and BOY was it a roller coaster of emotions. we started off with the memory care center. the first couple wyatt approached politely declined getting a card. when our staff rep told tried to explain that kids had decorated these cards for them, the wife got irate. she started loudly saying, "I DON'T WANT A VALENTINE. I KNOW MY RIGHTS. IT'S STILL A FREE COUNTRY." it was tough. i wanted to break down. i almost turned around to leave.

but, we trudged on and thankfully, that was the only negative encounter. every other person was so excited to see kids and get handed a card. we started going door to door and i was surprised that the staff was able to just walk right into the rooms at their leisure -- i mean, what if the resident was naked or using the restroom???

so grayson was the hit because he was the youngest and was completely uninhibited. his first question was always, "what are you watching?" or "why does this room smell like mints?" that got a laugh.

i think it was wonderful for all the kids -- from the 6th graders who thought it would be like a sorority for the elderly to the 1st grader who was thrilled that they were bowling on the wii -- i wouldn't take that hour back for anything.