Saturday, August 12, 2006

Grandparents

I was thinking about my grandparents last night. Thinking about how they were when I was a little girl. These days they aren't the same people. My grandma has Alzheimer's and my grandpa has a lot of pain from different things and spends a lot of time medicating himself. He's also not the same since having to take care of my grandma who's mind is slowly fading.

I remember when I was little and I used to spend time with them on the weekends or in the summer. My grandpa always had a garden and I loved to help him with it. We would pick green beans and then break and string them. We also picked tomatoes and cucumbers. The best part of helping was of course getting to eat the fresh vegetables. To this day I love a good tomato or cucumber fresh from the garden. There is nothing that compares to that taste. My grandpa always had a big garden and he teased me every year about helping him pull the weeds.

My grandma was never very outdoorsy, but she did always cook us good meals. I was never going to go hungry under her watch. If we weren't eating meals we were eating snacks like trail Bologna and crackers. I miss eating my grandma's meals. It's been a lot of years since she was able to cook. It's funny because every person that cooks makes things taste differently. No two people can cook the same thing and have it taste exactly the same.

I also remember that when I was a little girl my grandma would stay home from church on Sunday nights so that I didn't have to go and sit through the service. My big sister would go to church with my grandpa and me and grandma would bake cinnamon biscuits. We would have them coming out of the oven when my grandpa got home. They were always the best tasting biscuits, especially hot out of the oven with butter and cinnamon baked right into them.

My grandma and I have a lot of things in common. One of those things being the ability to talk! We can also talk to anybody. I caught myself in a store one time making conversation with the sales clerk and realized that I'm just like my grandma! Grandma and I used to lay awake in bed at night and talk about everything. They were religious whereas my parents were not so I would lay awake and ask her questions about God and heaven. My grandma would always joke that I would be talking and then suddenly there would be silence and she knew that I had finally fallen asleep.

It's sad these days because I can't talk to grandma anymore. I try, but questions confuse and embarrass her. She likes to tell you the same things over and over, because they are all she can remember at the time. I miss my grandma. She's still here, and yet she isn't. It's hard to see a women always so full of faith, and always such a good person, suffering. I can't imagine being my grandpa. He married her when she was a teenager and they've been together ever since. Can you imagine knowing someone for almost all of your life and then watching their mind slowly go? It has to be very lonely and sad. I still love grandma, I just miss the way she used to be.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Busy-Busy

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday. It's hard to believe that I've known her since we were in highschool together. I partly became friends with her because I had a crush on her brother! I can see now that it worked out just fine. LOL! We are still friends to this day and now with her having a baby and two stepchildren we are even closer. It gives us more things in common.

My daughter got all her preschool papers in the mail this week. Included in this packet was an apple with her name and room number on it to wear the first week of school. It's exciting for us to be entering this new stage in her life. I'm working on making her a pink princess blanket to take for nap times. She also has a new pink Tinkerbelle backpack.

Our county fair is approaching in another week. My daughter and maybe my son will be entering the fair king/queen pageant. My husband hasn't decided about my son. I think he's the most adorable little boy ever and of course I just know he could win! I thought that about my daughter last year too. She did great, but didn't make the top five. It's just fun to see them do good and let everybody see my babies since I'm so proud of them.

We're having a birthday party next week for my husband's Grandpa. He's been in and out of the hospital since a stroke in early June. His health is definitely failing and I think we all wonder if this may be his last birthday. That's why we all want to make it a special one for him. He's bed ridden and very depressed. It's a hard thing to see. Hopefully a party will bring him a little cheer.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Anniversary Weekend

My husband and I just came back this week from a weekend anniversary trip. It was so nice! This is the first long trip we've ever had without our kids. 5 days/4 nights and it was a great time! We went to Virginia Beach to stay with our cousins. We went to the beach, shopping and of course had breakfast at our favorite place IHOP! The only thing we did decide to do differently next time was to not stay with someone with kids when we didn't being ours. It would have been nice to not deal with ANY kids on the trip, but at least we weren't solely responsible for them like we would have been ours.

The trip was all my husbands idea and it was such a great one! It was an 11 hour car trip which gave us a lot of time to just talk and enjoy each others company. The breakfast we shared together was super nice too. Nobody else with us, no need to rush anywhere, very nice.

Now this weekend I'm going with my mom, my kids, my sister and my nephew to a family reunion. It's a three hour trip and maybe longer with three kids in tow! I'm sure it will be fun though. We don't get to see that side of the family too often. It's only three hours away, but we just don't make the trip as much as we should.

Summer is almost over. It's sad and I can't believe how fast it's leaving us.