Ode to Grandpa

(at a family getaway in Idyllwild)

My grandfather passed away last week. He was 97, been married to the same woman (that would be Grandma). It was scandalous, he was 28 she was 16. They said it would never last. They would have celebrated 70 years this year. He loved my grandma. He LOVED her cooking, and was never quite satisfied with anyone elses. She gave me her big mixer when she couldn't do that kind of stuff anymore, with the strict instruction of making HER oatmeal cookies for him whenever I was coming over, using HER recipe. She gave it to me, she showed me how....I still could not make them the same. (Shut up Marcie, I didn't add flax seed to them!)

(that's him and my dad pouring some cement)

He drove a cement truck in his glory days. Later became the handsomest handyman you could ever hire. His cars were legendary for looking like he just drove them off the car lot. I was always SO paranoid to ride in one, being the mess maker that I am, I was sure to leave my mark in one. You could eat off his concrete porch. Had grass that was like carpet. He was a good gardener. His garden looked like Martha Stewart's garden, all perfect. He always wanted to hear about the garden that I was planting, but I never wanted him to come over and see it. Too embarassing. My gardens grew great weeds. And after the first attempt at getting them all pulled, I would just embrace the weediness. Grandpa would be disappointed.
His hair was ALWAYS meticulous, except on that windy day, when it would all lift and start waving at you. He always smelled clean (what was that stuff he used as after shave?) and NEVER had a stubble anywhere on his face.

(yep, that's me, aren't I cute?)

He was a sweet Grandpa, quiet, but loved to tell stories. He was a sweetie. I remember still the time I was watching TV at their house and he had to come in and reprimand me for putting my feet on the wall....I guess Grandma had just scrubbed my last foot marks off of it....he even reprimanded me quietly. (I'm thinking it wasn't exactly like that for Mama when she was growing up, Grandpas become sweet when they become Grandpas, except for my Dad, he was sweet to begin with)

(that would be Grandpa pushing and Calvin in the wheelbarrow, just in case you were confused)

Grandpa loved to push my first born son around the wheel barrow. This was fun for both of them, I'm thinking. Calvin's first big belly laugh was at 5 months old and it was sitting on Grandpa's lap laughing at their dog, Buster. Grandpa loved that we named our second son "David" as that was the name of his brother that had died. I didn't have the heart to ever tell him the truth that he was actually named after 'David' in the Bible. My greatest joy was watching Grandpa watch my boys. From the time they were worms laying on their baby blankets to just a couple months ago at 9 and 11, building big lego sets on the floor at his feet. He just LOVED watching them, he couldn't hear, but he could see and he always had such a huge smile on his face at all their antics.

(Christmas 2007)

I saw him last at Christmas time when my family was all there for the holidays. My sweetie, being the perceptive one, knew that it would be the last time I saw him. Sweetie took lots of pictures, was okay with staying a long time, and even took a nap with Grandpa. Upon leaving I reached down to give my grandpa another big hug and he just held my hands and told me he loved me. I will miss him, but I feel so very thankful that I had him this long. That he loved the Lord. That he lived such a legacy. That he's waiting for us to join him with Jesus. I'm so very thankful.

Where the *bleep* are the Alfalfa Sprouts!

Four grocery stores later, I finally found the little suckers. I LOVE alfalfa sprouts. And didn't know that living in the south would pose a problem in finding them. The little boogers. You see for 3 1/2 days I've been craving a certain sandwich. For my friends birthday last summer, she had me down to her house for lunch while her daughter made us these delicious tasty creations. They remind me of a sandwich I used to get at a local sandwich shop in my hometown. But I really hadn't had one in years, it seemed, and never thought about making them myself. But today for lunch, I was determined. So for 1 1/2 hours this morning, I drove to four different grocery stores trying to find alfalfa sprouts.....of course I couldn't leave a single store without buying SOMETHING, so I now have quite the collection of grocery store bags. Anyway, thought I'd show you guys how you too can have a tasty creation all of your own.

1. The bread: You have to use GOOD bread. I always have this stuff at home. It's Arnold's 100% whole wheat bread. Yummy and soft (very important for it to be soft, otherwise it won't get stuck in your teeth).

2. I put a THIN layer of mayonaise on both peices. I'm not a huge fan of mayonaise, but realize that it might be a little dry without it.

3. Romaine Lettuce: I pile this stuff on. I'm not good at eating salads, so this is my way of having a salad on my sandwich.

4. Tomatoes: I always get the tomatoes on the vine because they are actually red and the little roma slices fall off my sandwich. I use two perfect slices. I can go through a whole tomato trying to get the perfect slices though. I'm a perfectionist that way.

5. Onion: Now this is a very important step. I'm not an onion on my sandwich kind of person. I tend to burp them all day (your welcome) plus sweetie won't kiss me as much afterwards (whatever). Anyway, this is very important. YOU HAVE TO HAVE ONION ON THIS SANDWICH! Get a vidalia onion, sweet onion, very tasty. This adds SO MUCH FLAVOR your eyes will roll back into your head. Again, it needs to be a THIN slice and try to be perfect about this slice too.

6. Turkey: I put three slices of turkey. Now, I fell in love with this sandwich in the vegetarian version. So if you are so convicted you can omit the turkey. But I need the protein, so I had turkey. And sweetie will only eat this sandwich if it has turkey on it. Geeze, what a guy!

7. Cheese: This is where you can go crazy and not follow my directions. I always have provolone, but swiss is good. I wouldn't do chipolte cheddar, but that's Calvin's favorite. Do a slice or two of cheese. Yummy! My tummy doesn't like cheese very much, so I'm only having one slice.

8. Avocado: Oh yeah baby! Now I spent $1.77 this morning on this lovely creature. But it is SO WORTH IT!!!!! It's not like I'm buying four of them, just one. I mash mine up, because as we all know, sliced avocados are slippery little suckers and fall off of the sandwich and all over your lovely shirt and pants. (as I sit here, I already have an avocado stain on my shirt, and I don't even care.) Anyway, very important to mash up avocado and smear (I love that word) all over the cheese. Yes I used the whole dang avocado on MY sandwich, don't judge me. The avocado will act as a green glue for your sprouts.

9. Alfalfa Sprouts: Maybe it's because they come in a little box. Maybe it's becuase you can't even take one out without pulling 127 out with it and making a mess all over the place. Maybe it's because they just smell like Spring to me....but I love these little treasures. Now put on as many as you can get to fit, I really squish them in there.

10. Salt & Pepper: I use this liberally all over the thing.

11. Now place the other slice of bread over the top and cut the monstrocity (sp?) in half. And just so you know, there is no way to eat this thing and be a lady about it. So just dive right in and make a mess of yourself and your shirt....who cares!

......this is mine......I'm just too full to take another bite.....dang it....that's probably .75 cents in avocado there. Oh well.

Quietness

I just read a blog post, it's actually from my favorite blog. It's my favorite, because it was my first to ever read. (Check me out I did a link!!!) But anyway, she SO summed up what I want to embrace. She's taking a break from all things electronic. Blogging, emailing, internet, TiVo, cell phone, etc. I love that. Sometimes I feel obsessed with my computer. I'll come here even before I drink my coffee, or before I let the boys know I'm up, but most important I come here before I read my bible in the morning. Before I open the curtains and say 'Good Morning' to my Lord and thank Him for such a beautiful morning. What I want to do is: Open the curtains & greet my Savior, hug the family, grab my coffee, and sit in my chair for a little 'sittin in the lap of Jesus' time. But instead, morning, after morning, I find myself at the computer. I wonder if anyone else has this problem?

I made small baby steps this afternoon. I was really going to blog and stay in and probably perch myself in said office chair, but instead I went to a friends house, had tea and let the kids play outside with their friends all afternoon. That face to face interaction really is good for the soul. And it was SO good to laugh and talk about all things important and not so important.

It was 80 degrees here today. So absolutely beautiful! Tea on the deck with friends, I'm very thankful for my small step towards quietness.

Wii are enjoying school today

So Dave's birthday present finally came yesterday. He got a Wii. We're all very excited and could NOT wait for it to come. Too bad, yesterday we had a VERY busy day and did not get the thing hooked up. Then I told them that they couldn't hook it up until after they finished their schoolwork today. So I was awakened at 5:30 this morning.....I heard noises in the house.....this is what I found.

They were up and started on school without me. Ah, the life! Too bad they are going to be gone for 3 hours today; their History of NC and Science classes start this afternoon. Shhhhhhh, don't tell them, they'll be SO disappointed.

And for the good news, Sweetie gets home tonight. He's been in Florida for five days at a Pastor's conference. I couldn't mention that before, just in case, some murderer reads my blog and was looking for a window of opportunity. Too bad, the big gun totin' man will be in the house tonight. Little does the murderous bad guy know but I know where the guns are, I know how to load them, and I'm a darn good shot too! My daddy taught me well! :o)

World's Smallest Scarf

I did it! I learned how to knit. My sweetie is gone tonight, so we had a girl's movie night. There is a mom and her three daughters that I love to have over for a girl's movie night when sweetie is out of town. We have good food and watch a really good girlie movie. But tonight I had something else on the agenda. They needed to teach me how to knit. That only took like 15 minutes. Check it out....

They said I'm a natural....hee-hee. It's too much fun! I'm already up past my bedtime trying to do more on it. I'm thinking I'll have it done by Easter, maybe it will be a cold Easter.

Slumber Party

3pm: I have 6 boys running around my house.
3:30pm: Big Brothers vs. Little Brothers in Airsoft war
6pm: I have to drag the boys in from the dark for dinner.
6:10: A civilized dinner around the dining table; on the menu: Mac & Cheese, Mixed Veggies & Applesauce (I realize I get the "Lame Mom of the Year" award for making them eat veggies at their own birthday party, gotta keep them regular!)
6:15: Dinner is over, geeze, they eat fast.
6:16: Playstation play off, and what seemed like a game of tag throughout the house.
7pm: Let the movies begin, a marathon of Earnest movies, I know they thought it was going to be awful, but they were laughing and loved every minute of it!
8pm: Rootbeer Floats, oh yeah baby!
Midnight: I try to get them to join me in a dance-a-thon (no takers)
2am: Nazi Mommy comes to life and their friends see a side of me that they didn't think existed.
2:07am: Peace.....ahhhhh

8am: Trying to get their lazy butts out of the house for a donut run.
9am: Starbucks for the grumpy Mom
9:05am: Doughnuts and milk for everyone!
9:20am: Chicken Minis from Chik-fil-A!
9:30am: Home again for another round of Little Brothers vs. Big Brothers airsoft war.
11:01am: GAME OVER!!!! And the birthday mayhem is too!

the aftermath....
The house looks like a tornado hit it. My vacuum broke. I had regular coffee this morning and I'm zinging! We've got Journey's Greatest Hits blaring on the stereo and we're cleaning like crazy. Good music is key to gettin' the house clean, ask anyone, it's a known fact.