The Valentine banner

Back in January my mom handed me a bunch of pieces of wood and said, "I bought this last year at The Wood Connection, but we never made it.  You can have it if you will make it."  So I lined all the pieces up and was clueless as to what it was supposed to look like.  So I took a picture of all the parts and sent it to The Wood Connection asking for a picture of how it went together.  My mom was so excited that I got "on the line" to ask for help.

But, I never heard back.
Fast forward to February.  My mom and sisters came down to take my niece Danielle to lunch.  After we ate and got Dani back to work, my sister tried to get out of my van and my mom said, "You're not going anywhere.  We are going to The Wood Connection."  And so we drove to American Fork and went shopping.
Since my mom hurt her knee, she hasn't been going in many stores, but she went in and that made me so happy.  Then I soon remembered the crazy steps all over the store.  My mom was not happy about it and let the poor lady working there know that if she fell, she was going to have to sue them.  You have to know my mom to know that she's half kidding half truth all the time.  I could tell the worker was trying to be patient, but was losing the battle.  At one point the worker said, "If you're not careful, your daughter will make you wait out in the car."  And we had a good laugh about that since that's usually what she does. 
My mom then brought up that banner.  The worker said she remembered my post and that they really had looked for it, but couldn't find it.  My mom promptly said, "Well, then I want my money back."  And I quickly told the poor lady that wasn't necessary and I'd just make my own with it.  (And I should add here also that my sister stayed as far away from us as possible, trying to not be seen with us.  Love her!)
A short time later the manager came in and my mom went after her about the step, then about the banner.  The sweet manager said that she thought the other store had found it and she called up to check, but no one knew for sure where it had gone again.  She took my phone number and promised to text me later that night.
She did!
I was impressed.  She let me know that they still hadn't found it again, but would keep me posted.  The next morning I had a picture of the banner on my phone!
And after all that work, I had to make the darn thing.  All right, I had Maddie and Macie paint the wood, but I did the rest.  I used some paper I had on hand and I found a tiny scrap of white vinyl tucked away in my paper so the total cost for this cute project came to a whopping .25 cents.  That's my kind of project. 
And now when I look at my banner, I chuckle a little thinking about my mom and being the "greasy wheel."  (I won't use the term she used to describe herself...this is a family friendly blog!)
(And you'll just have to wait for a picture of the finished project until next year...it's packed away with the other Valentine's stuff now).