Grandpa

Last Sunday was father’s day. It will be a day that I will always remember. On our way home from church on Sunday evening I got a call from my sister that my grandpa had passed. It hit me hard. Although we are blessed to know he is in a better place without pain and with his heavenly father on Father’s day, we will defiantly miss him. I have cried quite a few tears and I know there will be many more. I have so many wonderful memories of my Grandpa.

When I picture grandpa, I will always see him in his coveralls working in his shop, I was never really sure what he did out there every day, but that’s where he was, in that giant shop filled with tractors, parts, and junk. Although it is hard to pick my favorite memories with Grandpa, most of my favorite ones happen in the front yard of their farmhouse in Bakersfield. Many afternoons were spent on the giant tire swing that he hung on the large maple tree in the yard with a tractor tire that fit all four of us girls at once. Papa would push us as high as he could, two woven lawn chairs were set up on the side of the house where Grandma would watch while enjoying the light breeze.

If we were lucky and ask nicely, Grandpa would hold us on his lap and let us “drive” the big tractors across the field. My first time behind the wheel was driving Grandpa’s pick-up truck across their driveway; my little feet could not even touch the pedals.

Some weekends, Grandpa and Grandma would take Christy, Julie, Bekah and myself camping in their old Winnebago RV; Just us, no parents.

But my all time favorite memory of my Grandpa would be his large brown leather chair that sat in their living room. As soon as he would get up from his seat, we would all run to sit in his chair. There we would sit, and wait, and giggle. Sure enough, Grandpa would come back to his chair and we would giggle some more. He would growl at us, more giggles. Then he would grab us by our feet, sometimes two of us at once, and pull us from his chair followed by tickles and of course, more giggles. The next time he stood up, we would do it again!

So many great memories of our grandpa, so many stories to tell. There was one thing that no one could deny, Grandpa loved his grandkids, and we will always remember the time we had with him.

Love You Forever

Tuesday night, Scott was at Bible Study and so I had the pleasure of putting the boys down to bed alone. Since this has been a major struggle with Brendan lately I was trying to make it as simple as possible. When Brendan asked me to read “the potty book” I couldn’t understand which book he wanted. He brought me Love you Forever by Robert Munsch. We had never read this book before, but I think he was intrigued by the little boy throwing the watch down the toilet. So he crawled into bed and I started reading. (If any of you have not read it, I would encourage you to go read it now, great book, especially for mom’s of boys.)

Being that my child is hyperactive with an extremely short attention span, I was amazed that he actually sat through the entire book. I have read this book many times growing up and have it almost memorized. As I am reading the familiar lines:

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
My baby you’ll be.

I can feel a lump in the back of my throat forming. I’ve known the words for year, but this was the first time these words had meaning, had depth. This stubborn, defiant, troublemaking son of mine that drives my absolutely crazy during the day was staring up at me with his big, beautiful, blue eyes, his little hands clasped ready to pray and I knew that no matter what trouble he caused for me, he is my baby and will always be.

Brendan,
I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always.
As long as I’m living,
My baby you’ll be.

By the end of the book, tears were running down my face. This little boy is growing up so fast, I’m not sure if my heart can handle it.

Poison Control

As a mom, you don’t “expected” it, but you know that at some point in your life you will end up calling poison control center because of something you child got into. It’s not something you plan on, but you have the number on hand just in case. I never imagined my situation from last night.
About 7:00 last night, Caleb came crawling to me from the back room where Brendan was watching a movie. I pick him up and can immediately smell that he was thrown up. He was extremely fussy last night, so we thought maybe he had a bug. I hand him to Scott to strip him down while I go search out where he had thrown up. When I find it, I also find my empty deodorant tube and chunks of deodorant on the floor. “He ate my deodorant!” I yell out to Scott, my husband’s next logical thought, “How poisonous is that?” I didn’t even think about that! So I read the label “Keep out of reach of children. If swallowed, get medical help, or contact a Poison Control Center right away.”

So while I hold a still fussy (and probably sick) baby. Scott calls the on-call pediatrician, I call poison control.

After giving the woman all the specifics on the type, brand, and specifics on the deodorant, she runs it in her computer. Luckily, I can tell by what is left that he hasn’t ingested a lot of the stick. She ensures me that it isn’t “poisonous” but it is extremely irritating on the stomach. Hence, the throwing up.

When thinking about circumstances that I might call Poison Control for something my child has gotten into, I never dreamed I would be calling telling them my child has eaten deodorant.

Shoes

We all do embarrassing things now and then. I'm not sure if it was the frazzeledness of yesterday morning, running around trying to get everyone ready to walk out the door, or my absentmindedness (not paying attention to what I was doing) or the dreaded "Baby brain" that seemed to disappear with pregnancy and I am still waiting for the return.

Whether it was one or all of these reasons, I was utterly embarrassed.

Yesterday morning, while walking to my office from the parking lot I glance down and let out a little scream! I am wearing two different shoes!

One black, one snakeskin brown.

I'm already running a few minutes late and have a ton of work sitting on my desk that I know I don't have time to go home. Luckily they are both somewhat dark (the picture doesn't show as much difference as they really are.)

I get to my desk and hide my feet under my desk, thankful that I don't have any scheduled meetings!

Caleb's 1st bday - Cupcake

We celebrated Caleb's first birthday this weekend. I will be posting all about the party with lots of pictures. bUt until I get them loaded onto my computer, I thought you might enjoy a quck (4 min) video of Caleb's cupcake at the party!

How did the year go by so fast??