In Life and Death

Last week my parents came to visit!!! They were here for 3ish days and I loved it! Less than a day after they left we got a phone call that my great uncle, my papaw's last living brother, had died. My parents offered to make a way for our family to drive or me to fly. Since it's quite the haul and we didn't have a huge amount of time, we decided for me to fly with the hunka hunka baby love.

So, Ernie stayed with the big boys and I headed out Friday morning. Of course, I was glad to go to my uncle's funeral. I wanted to be there because I so loved my Papaw and it was a link to him. And, I was glad to be able to go so Dane could meet MY Granny, Grandma, Grandpa, and lots of my other favorites.

Here we go....

These are my fun cousins, Dara and Delana. My actual cousins, yep, they are the age of my kids. For 25 years I was the only girl cousin among 3 boy cousins, now we have these two little girls and we love 'em! They were HUGE fans of Dane, and I'm pretty sure he was as equally smitten.

This is my Granny, my dad's mom. In case you're wondering, she IS blowing zerberts on Dane's belly. I could tell you crazy things about my Granny. Things that would make you blush. But, now that you've seen her on all fours at the age of almost 81, I don't know that you'd be surprised.


I love this!

And this one too. I love that his head is on the same shoulder that held my head and that his little bottom is being patted by the same hand that patted my little bottom (it WAS little at one time :). I went potty right before this picture and heard her singing to him. I will always be able to hear her sing...there are SO many songs that make me think of her.

This is Jo Mama first thing in the morning. My mom. Isn't she pretty?

Switch gears. I'm posting them as I took them. There's really no rhyme or reason...I'll try to build bridges.

And I quote, "I didn't have any rolls and didn't wanna go to town to get any, so I just made these up," my Grandma, my mom's mom. Seriously, when's the last time you didn't wanna run to the store, so you whipped up some rolls from scratch?

Tomatoes from Grandma and Grandpa's HUMONGOUS garden. I wish I liked tomatoes because they look perfect. Roman would've been in tomato heaven!

This is my Grandma. In her garage. Getting potatoes out of the oven? The woman has two ovens. Duh.

After we'd eaten we were sitting around talking and started noticing some fun Grandma-isms. Someone had gone on a rollycoaster. She needed to put something in the micro (is she going to go put petro in her auto too?). One of our favs is when she warshes her dishes. She and Aunt Jo have spent many hours warshing the "r" outta this one. They assure us they say it right now. But, alunimum foil, not so lucky. Grandma claims it's heredity. Her father, my Grandma Mike, also had foil transpositional disorder. She pointed out that we all need to have a more forgiving nature, so we'll forgive her for her butchering of the English language. :)

Okay, this is Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen. Has been my entire life. Such a comfort to go there. So, Grandma grew the potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions (maybe or maybe not?) in the garden. She made the rolls from scratch. And, the Italian Beef in the bowl northeast of the deviled eggs, now THAT's something you need to try. I'll post the recipe sometime soon (code for sometime in the next year :) And, the sweet tea....to DIE FOR!!

The next few might seem repetitive to you, but oh, contrar. This is my Aunt Jeanne, my mom's youngest sister. So, she is Dane's great aunt. When Roman was born, she called herself Best (instead of great) Aunt Jeanne. That is a small glimpse into her personality. When I was a kid, I had a great time with Jeanne. She lived in the same town as my grandparents, so when we visited, we usually got to see her too. So many memories. She introduced me to John Cougar Mellencamp. I don't know if it was him or how amazing she sounded as she sang Jack and Diane. She let us play on her huge waterbed. She had fun nicknames for us all. She took time for us and we all loved her.

Pretty obvious, Dane thinks she's neat-o.

My favorite!

THIS IS BLACKBERRY COBBLER. This is my ALL TIME favorite dessert. I am a berry girl and this is the best berry. These berries are from Grandma and Grandpa's berry bushes. I can easily eat 4 bowls of this in too short of a span. Mmmm......

Aunt Jeanne and my beautiful cousin Sarah B. Sarah's starting nursing school soon. I am so glad she's found something she really enjoys and is GREAT at!!

Grandma. I should've taken a picture of her twin sister, Aunt Jo. They're the spunkiest Italian identical twins you'll ever meet. These chicklets are 76. What?! Most days they could run circles around me. So, Grandma is on the golf cart. We're heading out to pick blackberries!!!!

I have picked blackberries as long as I can remember. There are 4 verrrrrrrrry longs rows full of luscious berries.

My grandpa. He says my name differently than anyone else in the world. Grandpa and I picked a big ole gallon bucket of berries together. He's my buddy.

This is Grandma and Grandpa's pond. Fishing. Swimming. Even ice skating. Every time I go I notice the trees get bigger. Grandpa took me around the land on the golf cart...fun stuff!

I love this place.

This one is void of nostalgia. T-shirt from the airport. Made me smile and think of home in Missouri.

Such a good weekend. An extra helping of Mom and Dad! One on one time with my Granny...haven't gotten that in years...way too long! A chance to see ALL my girl cousins (little & big), my brave soldier cousin, aunts, and uncle! One on one time with my Grandpa! Lots of fun chatting with my Grandma, 2 great aunts, and a great uncle! A whole lotta comfort!

We're odd, but I sure do love us!!