Grandma Morgan

Yesterday Chris's maternal grandmother passed away.  Grandma Morgan was one of the sweetest, most hilarious people I've ever known.  She was the first person in Chris's family to love me and I've always had a special place in my heart for her.  If Dutch had been a girl we would have named her after May.

It's always hard when you lose a loved one, but this was a case of her being in a lot of pain and suffering for a while.  Even though I knew it was going to happen soon I still found myself taken off guard when it happened.  I cried and Chris held me and Dutch, not really understanding, came over and sat on my lap.

May always had the best stories.  She was one of those people who lived at full speed and had tons of stories about it.  Since her stroke six and half years ago she's had to slow down and she hated it.  But she never lost her sense of humor.  Never.

On Wednesday we all went over to say our good-byes, because they were pretty sure she wouldn't last the weekend.  She wasn't really moving or speaking at all when we got there, and she hadn't been for a while.  When she saw Dutch she just lit up!  She said his name and waved to him.  He waved and blew kisses and tried to climb into bed with her.  I will always be grateful that he wasn't afraid seeing her that way, because it brought her so much joy.

There are a million and one things I want to say about Grandma Morgan, but I think I will keep those to myself.  She was an amazing woman, with an amazing heart, who lived an amazing life.  I will miss her terribly, but I'm glad I was lucky enough to know her.

The Sun Never Sets on the Cool

A List for Tuesday

5 Things I Know About Age

1. It's relative.  For instance, my husband and sister are the same age, but she seems older.  Conversely, Josh's fiancée Dawn is my same age and I feel a lot younger.
2. It stops mattering.  Remember in elementary school when someone being even a month older than you was a big deal?  Once you hit a certain age you begin to forget how old you actually are.
3. Anyone older than you seems old, until you hit that age.
4. Birthdays are fun, but don't think that anyone cares about yours.
5. Hiding your age is stupid.

Happy Stinking Mother's Day

I don't really like Mother's Day.  I sort of hoped it would become a really cool holiday for me, once I became a mother.  Yeah, it didn't.  Because of my unrealistic expectations it's always a huge let-down.  And 99% of the mother's I know feel the same way.

So let me just tell you what you might not know: the woman who founded Mother's Day hated the fact that it instantly became so commercialized.  So I am going to tell you why I love my mothers, which is the whole point of the holiday.

My mama is the best mama in the whole world.  She's crazy (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), and collects other crazy people.  Mama doesn't judge them, she just loves them.  And that's the way she's always been.  My favorite thing to do when I am with my mom is snuggle.  Chris is not big on physical affection, but I thrive on it.  I just cuddle up next to Mama and she strokes my hair and rubs my back or my arm and we talk.  And it's nice.  Mama is also the best grandma ever.  Even though she doesn't live close to any of her grandbabies she makes a big effort to stay close with them.  She thinks about them all the time and knows each of them individually.  Mama is not perfect, but she was the perfect mother for me.

My mom-in-law Kellie and I have become good friends.  We have a lot of things in common and I think she likes having another girl around to do girlie things with.  We have similar tastes and enjoy a lot of the same things.  Kellie makes everyone comfortable.  All of my friends who have come over at various times over the years have all commented on how nice Kellie is.  Two of my sisters (the two that have met her) have said that if they needed anything they would have no qualms about calling Kellie.  She's loving and lovely.  She is an amazing Grandma Honey to Dutch and she loves him so much.  I am lucky to have a mom-in-law who is so great.

Happy Mother's Day!  I hope yours doesn't suck.

Favorite Picture Friday

I am missing my chubby little baby lately.  

He's just getting too big!

King Dutch is in the Bathtub and He Won't Get Out!

My baby boy is 22 months old today.  Here is his favorite thing to do lately:

I quite literally have to bribe him to get him out of the tub.  One day even bribery wouldn't work and he waited until the water was absolutely freezing before he (begrudgingly) let me take him out.  Chris said it's just like the book "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub" where a king won't get out of the tub so he makes everyone and everything come to him there.

Now I have to buy the book for Dutch!

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four!

Wednesday night my mom-in-law Kellie and I were just hanging out watching TV.  Dutch decided to play with possibly the weirdest thing ever: a bag of potatoes.  First he took the bag for a walk around the kitchen and living room, then he parked the bag in the center of the room.  From there he proceeded to remove one potato at a time and walk it over to the couch, putting it on the arm of the couch.  After half a dozen or so potatoes he would walk them back to the bag, one by one.  Then he would take one potato at a time and walk it over to his little table and stack them on top of each other.  Then he'd walk them back to the bag.

This entertained him for about an hour.  I really need to stop buying him toys, because he never plays with them! But who could guess that a sack of potatoes would lead to such entertainment?