Spare a Flower?

So Katie's (the mom of the kids I watch) sister is getting married this weekend, but there was a slight mix up with the flowers so they all came last week. Now if this was just a simple little bouquet of roses one wouldn't think this was a problem, but we're talking the flowers for the entire wedding event. On Wednesday two boxes of flowers showed up at Ben and Katie's house. On Thursday two more boxes showed up at the house (unfortunately by the time they discovered the problem on Wednesday it was too late and there was no way to stop the flowers from coming.) So by Thursday there were three 5 gallon buckets with water and way too many flowers in them, along with three vases full. On Friday we discovered there was another box that was trying to be delivered but no one was here to sign for it.

Katie had no clue what to do with the flowers and was just going to let them sit on her kitchen counters so I offered to take them off her hands. I gathered up all the flowers from the house, went and picked up the ones at the Fed-ex store (Umm, a side note here, the box I picked up, which Katie was willing to just leave there, contained 16 DOZEN small pink, white and purple roses!), and dropped them off at home.

After that I went to Walmart where I picked up two dozen canning jars and some ribbon. Isaac and I had concocted a plan to put them all in little bouquets with vases and distribute them to some elderly people the next day; or he was going to distribute them because I had Kids Day all day the next day.

Isaac got to my apartment, which looked like a florist shop, and we started working on putting together bouquets. Canda (his mom) showed up a little while later and helped us get them all made and ready to go. The two left with 22 bouquets just after 1am. Along with those 22 bouquets Isaac had made a nice lilly arrangement for me to keep and they also too some to keep for themselves.

On Saturday I was lucky enough to finish up with Kids Day about an hour and a half before I expected to be done, and Isaac and the others hadn't done the flower drops yet so I tagged along. Isaac, Canda, Dustin, Heather and I took 7 bouquets to lady's house who takes care of 6 elderly people, and the other 15 to a nursing home that our Church sings at sometimes.

Over all it was a whirlwind adventure but it turned out really well and we were fortunate to use the flowers to share some love and time with people who can always use an extra smile.

The life lesson here: When life hands you flowers make bouquets.

* We didn't take any pictures of our flower delivery.

** To protect the innocent I have not posted any pictures of the bouquet makers!!!

My living room floor

One of the rose bouquets
An Isaac Original (unfortunately it was taken apart soon after)
The lillys I kept
Some examples
All back in the box ready to go