National Treasure

As I've gotten older, I have found myself hoping to find more and more of my mom in me.  Sometimes that scares me just a little too.

Today I made a jar of caramel to go with apple slices for a family in our church.  They just had a new baby, and I was taking them dinner.  I'm still kind of new at this "being responsible enough to take another person's family a whole dinner."  Anyway, I only had an old jelly jar that I had washed out to send the caramel over in.  The ugly screw-on lid was bugging me.  It made my gift look less than appealing.  AND, I was already feeling self-conscious because I know Ray likes my food, but he's also a boy that likes any food... what if they didn't like my food.  I stared at that jar, then suddenly the Neighbor Jane in me came out.  I had an idea.  I cut out a circle of paper (the size of the lid) with glittery cupcakes on it.  I taped the paper on the top of the lid.  Then, I tied a bow around it.  My jar of caramel now looked awsome.  I commented to Ray that I had just pulled a Neighbor Jane Payne trick with that jar decorating.  I added that maybe I had a little too much Neighbor Jane Payne in me.  Ray remarked, "is that possible?"

I think Ray's on to something.

I want to someday bring my family as much happiness as my mom has given us.  Here is my favorite memory of her from last month when we were in Denver.

1.  THE STORY:  We go in a store so she can try on a skirt.  I sit outside the dressing rooms in a chair and wait for her to try it on.  I ask her if she's going to come out and show me the skirt.  She says, "sure."  I hear the door unlock, then hear feet shuffling.  What I see next makes me laugh SOOOO hard, so hard it knocks the wind out of me, so hard I choke on my own spit.  She gets a look of embarrassment on her face at first, then starts giggling.  Her only comment to my laughing, "It's too hard to take your shoes AND pants off."  She tries to quickly shuffle back to her dressing room, but not before I got this evidence.

I laughed just as hard when I downloaded the picture onto the computer just now.

It's like my dad always says, "she's a national treasure."