Happy Birthday Grandma!

NOTE: I started this earlier--well, by now I guess I should say yesterday. But then I had to run to dinner group, so I was unable to finish it until now. Sorry!

Today is my Grandma Colleen's birthday! Because she and my grandpa are at the Chicago Temple for a few days, she won't see this until after her birthday, but I still want to write down a few memories I have about Gr'ma Colleen and how she has effected my life!

-Sleepovers at Gr'ma and Papa's meant a few things that excited me as a little girl:
1. We were allowed to watch TV! I Love Lucy always makes me think of Grandma.
2. We got to play with her amazing collection of bears--I still remember distinct smell of the bears that made me so happy to be there!
3. Sitting at the breakfast table drinking my orange juice from the little glass cups and talking with her in the morning.
4. I loved listening to her read stories to us because there was a certain way that she said the words that I just loved (The Tar-Baby was one of my favorites to hear her read!)
5. Even a short visit to her house meant that we could always have a cookie.

-The famous story of our "Adventure":
We had a tradition of going to breakfast for certain occasions and the first time that we went to the Bob Evans in Portage, we had a little excitement. The driveway into the restaurant is situated right next to the freeway entrance, and of course we missed the driveway. Somehow we got on the freeway and Grandma loves to tell the story of how she heard a little voice from the backseat saying, "Grandma, are we lost?" and I remember just as well her saying, "No, we're just having an adventure!" I think of our adventure every time I see a Bob Evans!

-Grandma's jewelry has always fascinated me. Whenever Grandma and Papa come over to our house or we see them at church,I love to see the jewelry that she is wearing. Whenever she wore jewelry that one of us had given her, she was sure to point it out. I always felt warm and fuzzy inside when she specifically said, "Elise, you gave me these earrings!" I'm sure that my taste in jewelry has not always been that great, but she has always been sure to lovingly wear the gifts that we gave her!

-Spring Cleaning: One of my least favorite things to do is to deep clean and I always sort of sighed when Mom told us that we were going to help spring clean Grandma's house---however, I loved doing it! It honestly was not that hard, and I loved being with my little sister and my grandma and listening to some of her favorite jazz while we cleaned the Venetian blinds. She constantly praised us and told us what a great job we were doing and what great helpers we were. I loved being able to visibly see what I was doing to help my grandma.

-Dinner at Grandma's: I loved going to Grandma and Papa's for Sunday dinner. Bread and butter is still one of my favorite snacks! I think I always loved every dish (although I thought it was so weird that we had mayonnaise on jello salad--the beloved jello salad! That's another story all in itself. It's only right when Grandma makes it!) The table was always set so beautifully and we had all the food we could possibly want.

-My grandma is such a great friend! Recently, I've really started to appreciate my grandma not only as a grandmother that loves her grandchildren but really as a friend whose advice I sincerely value. I've talked to her on the phone a lot more this year and I'm amazed by how at least my side of our relationship has matured. I loved talking to her about what was going on in my life, about roommates, school, boys, jobs, etc. My grandma is such a great friend and I love her so much! She gives me so much, and I hope that you know how much I love you, Gr'ma!!!!!


Also, I just tried to upload a picture of my grandma on here (which I stole from my sister's blog post about my grandma on another of her birthdays!) As I scrolled through Rachael's post about our grandma right now, I saw all the things that Rachael said about her and I thought, wow, I should have said that!!! I should have said THAT too! So, for a picture of our beloved grandmother and another wonderful (and probably better written--Rachael doesn't blog-ramble like I do, she actually writes) description of her wonderfulness, visit here .