My Grandmother's maiden name was Katherine Nathalie Bell. She told me one time that when she was a young girl she didn't like her name because a boy at school would call her Natty-Natty Ding-Dong. Personally, I think it has a nice ring to it...ha!
She took the train from Baltimore to Seattle to marry my Grandad when she was 19....ninnnnne-teeennnnn! She has told me that story a hundred times, but this last time was different some how. I was hanging on her every word, like it was a great love story, I was hearing for the first time. She told me how she almost missed her connecting train out of Chicago, and about the other girls she met on the train, and how when she finally got to Seattle, my Grandad was late and some other sailer tried to pick her up.
She told me how bad he felt that she had to wait, and how he took her to the hotel so that she could change into her wedding clothes, and how he went down to the barbers for a hair cut and a shave, and how he arranged their wedding in a Methodist church with witnesses she had never met.
She told me that he wore his Navy uniform and that she wore a blue velvet suit. She told me that they lived in a boarding house and shared a kitchen with the other residence and how one day she cooked a cabbage and made the whole house stink...she said one of the guys that lived there asked her if she was trying to feed the whole navy.
She told me how years later she asked a lady down the street to cut that blue velvet suit up and make three little skirts with suspenders for my mom and her sisters. She told me how sometimes she still talks to him when she passes his picture in the hall....
She's a pretty amazing lady. She's 85, she still works, she goes to exercise class, and plays cards with her friends. I'm glad I took Libby to see her. Life seems just a little bit slower inside the gates of La Casa, her over 55 community.
Trapped inside those walls, are lazy palm tree that dance back and forth in the gulf breezes all day because they have nothing better do. There's shuffle board, there's bingo..and there's people like my Grams who remember such wonderful things from a time that I'll never know except through her stories.
Here's to you Grams, I love listening to your stories...
Grace and Peace
xxxx
Strangely,I had a burst of energy at about 5:00 so Cindy Lou Who and I had a dinner date, split an apple, then went and read books at Barnes and Noble until her bed time rolled around.
These days with out him are long and my creativity and patience as a house wife and Mommy are stretched. Weighing the alternative of getting a paying job and letting someone else grow her right, I'll take what we've got going here. I miss him, she misses him, but without him we would not be able to spend days together looking for pine cones...and that my friends is a great way to spend an afternoon.
Here's hoping you get the chance to split an apple with someone your not afraid of getting germs from. It was kind of fun, and made us both grin from ear to ear.
Seems like it has been a while and it seems like we have done a lot.
Grandma was here to spend ten days or so with us. We went to parks, play lands and parties. We dropped her off at the airport on Monday and couldn't bare the thought of coming home to an empty house.
We didn't. We went back to Babs and Grandad's house to spend some much needed playtime with cousins.
We wished this one a happy birthday, because he is one now you know.
And we got hugs from Grandad, since we're missing our Daddy so terribly bad.
The Little and I have done a bit more of loving on each other since our normal is just a little bit off when he's away...
There has been a little more silliness, more raging "I can see 2 on the horizon" temper tantrums, more hip holding, more playing outside together, and more sleep- overs (where ever Mommy is sleeping that is). Which is fine, because it's not normal when he's not here.
We miss him...but I think we are going to make it. We are only on week one though. :)
I'm flying solo for a couple of weeks while the mister is off slaying dragons, fighting the bad guys, and saving the day. Okay... he's actually just working out of town, but it is a great, big, dangerous world of robots that he works in.
Today we went in search of spring, or at least the hope that winter is on it's way out the back door.
We meandered through Colonial streets, ate a leisurely lunch with Grandma, and I treated everyone to a well deserved chocolate from my favorite stop in Williamsburg.
I think that the bright blue sky was a sign of things to come.
I know that maybe even tomorrow I'll have to put my coat back on,
But for today, sitting in the sun, with my lovelies, it was off.
It was good. It made me eager for the remaining snow to melt off my porch and eager to open my kitchen door and feel a spring breeze instead of winter's chill.
