Ode To Grammie

Some say death is as much a part of life as anything else. I'd have to agree with them. While dying sucks, everybody has to at some point. Sometimes it's on "our terms," sometimes it's when you're young or old, sometimes it's unexpected. Sometimes it just is.

For the fourth of July we had a pretty relaxing morning. We didn't even turn our phones on until the afternoon. Upon doing so I realized that I had two messages. Now, for me that's an accomplishment. Even more so since Jason didn't have any. Needless to say, I got the word that my Grammie, Mom's mom, had died. She was 82. Not sure when the last time she went to the doctor was. If there was a person you thought would live forever, it was her. I remember hiking around Smith Rock with her many years ago when she was in her 70's. She never had a driver's license - she just walked everywhere.

So we packed up and Thursday afternoon headed up to PA. It's quite a drive, and last time we did it was when Zach was 2 months and slept the whole time. He did not do that this time. We left just before his second nap, and he went to sleep alright. He slept for less than an hour, though. For bedtime (usually 6:30), he cried. And cried and cried and cried. It was a bummer. It was just too light out for him to fall asleep. So we had to pull over and hold him for a while to calm him down. He finally went to sleep and woke up crying about 10 minutes from our destination. It was a little rough. His naps got pretty messed up while we were there, and he had to be held a lot before going to sleep. We borrowed a pack and play, so his bed was different, the house was different, the people were different. But overall he did really well. Saturday he even missed his afternoon nap. He got a little cranky before sleep time and when he was hungry, but he really did do a great job. We were proud - he was quite the trooper.

So before we left I had actually loaded some pics to start my next post, so here they are. These are from before we left.

This is his pool floaty thing. He likes it. It sits in his room (we don't go to the pool as much as we'd like) and sometimes he likes to play with it.

We don't have an official changing table (those things are expensive!) and his basket of diapers usually stays on the floor. He just loves to take all of them out. Of course, teaching him to put them all back in is something else...

Whenever I try to take a picture of him he tries to get the camera, so most of the time he's closer than I intended. It's a cute picture, though.

I love this face. He really is the best little boy. He was an all-star this past weekend and has since started sleeping through the night again. Oh yeah - he has his two top teeth coming in now. We noticed one right before our trip and the other the day we came home. So that's probably why he was waking up.

I like to call this the "give me everything, please" face.

Got milk? Z loves his cottage cheese and actually does very well with yogurt now. I thought it would make a cute picture.

He just likes to smile :). Today we went to Wild Oats to pick up a few things. There was a lady there with four kids and Zach was just so happy to see them - he really loves other kids. He would look over, start laughing and kicking. The lady said he was a super happy baby. He really is.

When mom died I got all of her pictures, and some of them are pretty old. I actually have a box labeled "old school photos." In it, are of course, some pretty old photos. I had been wanting to copy a few and disperse them to my aunts and uncles. But since there are 7 of them, I didn't really have the time nor the money to do so (why send a pic without a frame?). But this was the perfect occasion and I thought they would really appreciate these pics. Some of them have seen them before, but it seemed like others hadn't.

These two are from April 17, 1948. We're all pretty sure this was their wedding. Grammie was hot when she was younger!

This is her and Granddad, of course. I scanned them in before we left. They have some smudges, and if I had had more time I would have liked to fix them up a bit before copying them. But a picture with a smudge is better than no picture at all, I suppose.

I had also been meaning to copy this picture of Mom I had. Not sure when it was taken - I'm guessing between 88 and 92 by the looks of her hair. Unfortunately she had a very bad habit of not writing on the pictures! So it's all just guess-work. But it worked out that I had to copy Grammie's pictures - the fam got copies of this one as well.

Here's Grammie at Christmas with Zach. She said he was the best baby she had ever seen. And since she's got 19 grandkids and 7 great grandkids, that's saying something. It's just crazy, but you don't think when you hang out with someone that it could be the last time. Life is very short, that's for sure.

But as we all know, Grammie wouldn't have wanted us moping about. That's for sure. She had a long full life, and that seems to make it easier. And we think she died pretty peacefully; she wasn't sick save for maybe the flu, from my understanding.

It was great to see everyone, though. A sort of impromptu family reunion. All my aunts and uncles were there, and afterward I realized that out of 19 grandkids, 16 were there. My little sister and brother couldn't make it as well as one of my cousins (obviously). Some people have changed a lot, and some people are just the same as I remember them. It was nice to have family again, even if only for a few days.

Here's my uncle Jeff, his daughter Julie, and my aunt Lorraine's husband Terry. It was so hot there, oh my gosh. We stayed with my other Gram, and her house didn't have a/c either. Can you imagine 40 people milling around in and about a house without a/c? And the east coast humidity...yuck. Grammie's yard is pretty big, and the coolest spot was under a shade tree. We mostly just bummed around on Friday, waiting for everyone to arrive.

Here's aunt Bev, Lorraine's daughter Marcy, and aunt Elaine.

We were joking about taking pictures and explaining who everyone was when Paul said he should get in the pic. Isn't that how it always goes? I got lots of pics of people, but not really any pics of me with them. Or with Zach. Oh well. And like I told Jason, I'll be lucky to see these people in two years, if not longer than that.

Here's one of the few with me :). Jason grabbed the camera for a few minutes.

I like this picture. I'm not sure what Maggie was telling us about, but it looks like a good story.

Zachary was a very good boy and played with his toys in the grass. He also grabbed a tennis ball to play with (the dog apparently couldn't have the colored ones). He used to not like the texture of grass and for a while it seemed to freak him out, but after a while he got pretty used to it. The yard was actually quite nice. They don't believe in sprinklers here, so with the "drought" the grass has gone to crap. We played outside a little today and the lawn pretty much sucks.

This was Saturday on the way to the cemetery.

Sometimes he likes to put things over his head, it's pretty cute. That's why I had grabbed the camera.

Grammie didn't want a normal service for several reasons. Apparently at Mom's funeral he kept saying Grammie's name versus Mom's. I don't remember. But what made it worse was the same dude got caught fondling himself in public, if I understood right. My Gram said he's no longer there, though. So we just had the viewing at the funeral home and then went to the cemetery. The dude at the cemetery talked for a lot longer than I expected, especially considering Grammie apparently didn't want much fanfare. He also said some stuff that was a little weird, in my opinion, but what ya gonna do? Then there was a dude that let some doves go. First he let two fly away, to symbolize Grammie and Granddad (he died in '88). The he let maybe 8-10 fly. It was pretty touching. Of course, silently I was wondering who the doves would become bait for. What's really funny is that we got in the car and my Gram said she liked the dove thing but didn't - she was hoping some hawks wouldn't swoop down and grab them as they flew off :).

Grammie and Granddad are buried very close to mom, so we walked over there and took a few pictures.




And what visit to Grammie's wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Ponderosa?? After mom's funeral we just had sandwich and veggie trays at Grammie's. But as Grammie loved the Ponderosa, we went there. They even had coupons to use :). It was actually very nice to have lunch with everyone. A lot of these people I haven't seen in 8 years. Unfortunately, most people sat in their own little family cliques. But I guess that's to be expected.

Here are my lovable and crazy husband and brother. I tell you what, we always seem to have so much fun when we get together. Add Luke to the mix, and it's a plain riot.

Zach didn't have an afternoon nap that day, and his morning nap had to be cut short so we could go the the viewing. After we were done eating Paul played with Zach. The windows kind of sucked and made the lighting less than desirable, but that couldn't be avoided.
I just like this one :).

This is Bethany and Rebekkah (no idea how to spell it). They are Aunt Tina's kids and are pretty cool.

Here's Tina, Maggie and Gram.
By the time I went around to take pics people were kind of tired of it - several people had already made the rounds and I figured I should too as I didn't know if and when I'd get a copy of their pics. I'd like to burn my pics to cds and send them around, but it's just over what will fit on a disc, with the videos, so I have to weed through them. This is Aunt Arlene's fam, Tom, Jackie, her dude, and Sunny.

Sunny, always photogenic with the beautiful hair.
I love this picture of uncle Tom. It makes me laugh :).

Here's my cousin Emily (uncle Randy's daughter) with her dude. We used to hang out quite a bit, and apparently a lot when we were little kids as there are lots of pics of us. There are five girls that are the same age - me, Emily, Sunny, Kelly and Leanna.

This is Eric and Uncle Randy. The last time I remember seeing Eric, Emily and I were yelling at him to leave us alone as he was an annoying like 10 year old kid. Uncle Randy's pretty cool.

Cynde's really funny :). I should have got video of this. She came back and I told her I needed to get some pics, so she said she had to fix her hair. Unfortunately the pics I took where a shade blurry.

This one turned out alright, though. Randy and Cynde are one of the few aunts and uncles that are still married. Apparently they almost didn't make it, as the story goes, but after Grammie got in Randy's face to sit down and work it out, they did. It's a funny story. It was fun reminiscing about Grammie. She had a lot of spunk, you have to admit that.

Here's my uncle Jeff. Hasn't changed in the least. Looks exactly the same, too, which is saying something as I haven't seen him in so long.

Here's his daughter Kelly. As bad as it was for me to be in the heat with no hope of a cool down with a/c, it must have been worse for her - she's 8 months pregnant!

Here's uncle Bill (Tina's hubby) and their son Joel. I remember a long time ago when I was actually taller than him. I used to push him around as my "slave." They are fond memories for me, but I'm not so sure for him... :) And don't let the dreads fool you - all of aunt Tina's kids are great (at least when I'm around :)).

Here's their other kid Ben. I'm not sure who the other dude is, but his face is pretty funny. It's obvious he was done with people walking around taking pics :).

This is my aunt Bev with I think her cousin Kathy (not sure how to spell that one, either).

I think this is another one of Bev's cousins.

Then I was taking some pics of another lady and Kathy started giving me some flack. So I turned real quick and took a pic of her. It's pretty funny, and the people at the table said they really wanted it :).

Here's aunt Bev's dude Rick. He was walking around taking pics for awhile, too.
This is my aunt Elaine. She lives in Florida. She's funny too (actually, a lot of my family is pretty funny).
This is her daughter Leanna (although she called her Leann...I was pretty sure that was her name) with Elaine's dude (sorry guys, don't remember the names).

This is Lorraine with a lady who I think is a neighbor. Don't let the face fool you, she actually seemed pretty nice. I remember meeting her before.

The last time I saw Avery Sage (I'm not one for crazy names but I like that one) he was Zach's age. He's Marcy's son, who is Lorraine's daughter. He does not like pictures, so it was my goal to get some of him. It was a fun little game.
This is my cousin Scott (also Lorraine's kid). He's super cool. Many a year ago we went snowboarding. He taught that and I'm pretty sure he still does. He's a full time employee now, year round. He teaches all sorts of cool stuff. Really neat guy, although he bugged out and didn't hang out at Grammie's afterward, so we really didn't get to hang out.

Nathan is Scott's brother. I only have one memory of him, and that was on a video of one of our family reunions. He jumped over the fence and headed up aunt Bev's hill to the barn/stable thing. Seriously the only memory I have of him :). But he's actually a pretty cool guy too, and we got to joke around at Grammie's house. It was fun - he's funny :)

Marcy's pretty photogenic too, and we decided later that she has some similar features as Grammie did in the old school photo.

When we were packing up to leave Paul was still playing with Zach. Paul's face is pretty funny in this one; Zach kept going for everything and anything on the table. This was of course after he spilled the water.

After the Ponderosa we just bummed around at Grammie's. It was pretty relaxing. There was lots going on, lots of conversations to join. You could just walk around and play conversation musical chairs.

Arlene's always got the brightest smile on her face. She just exudes cheer.

Bev was joking around about how you should pose for photos. Apparently someone said you should throw your shoulders back, stick out your chest, and turn your face like three quarters or something.

This picture makes me laugh. I have no idea what was going on, but apparently Arlene was excited and Tom was just confused. Or he disagreed, I don't know. Some things are better left unexplained. :)
And what would be a good reunion without beer? I don't really know why he was examining it so...
Here's Eric, Jackie and Sunny.
Paul and Jason just hanging out.

Leanna with her dude Wes.
I actually managed to snap Avery before he noticed I had the camera.

Bethany was a total all-star with Zachary. She loves babies and played with him a lot. She's great with him too, which doesn't hurt.

And what Morse get-together would be complete without dancing?? I remember (and have video to prove it) everyone line dancing many years back, for hours and hours. This time the dances were a little more updated, with the cha-cha-cha (you had to say that with every step), the rumba, and your standard waltz. I've got video of this (should have taken more), but it's too big to put on here. It's pretty funny, though.

More pics of the dancers.

This picture makes it look worse than it was :). I think Marcy was just in the middle of blinking. Julie (Jeff's other daughter) wasn't that boring :). But it was so hot inside - Ben and Joel were practically falling asleep. But there was food inside, so people kept coming and going.

This is a good pic of Joel.

And here's the classic Joel face that I remember. It's funny :).
I guess Ben tried to fall asleep but Joel wouldn't let him - I think he actually kicked him.

I should have taken video of this. Just not enough memory and not quick enough on the trigger. Grammie used to make homemade root beer. Some of us remember it fondly, others not so much. I just remember it tasting like yeast. Randy later said the process wasn't just lax but...I can't remember the word. It was funny, though. Point is that the system wasn't just lax, but that there really was no system. But Tina stumbled upon the last bottle of homemade root beer, so we'd thought we'd open it up and enjoy it. I counted 35 people, and Tina wasn't sure it would make it far enough.

So Tina and Rebekkah started looking for that many glasses. Amazingly enough, they found enough small glasses to go around. There were also little cool tube glasses with small little handles on them. So impractical, but really cool and perfect for the occasion. It took literally half an hour to open the thing. I guess with homemade root beer you have to do it very, very, very slowly. Open it a little, let the fizz die, then go again. I heard rumor that Randy tried it a few days prior, got impatient and lost 2/3 of the bottle :).

Just bumming around talking well into the evening.

Some of us found other things to do rather than talk. I tried to find his mother to rat him out, but couldn't. Tina took it like a man and yelled at him before he got hurt.

Before we left, Paul, Maggie and I took a walk around. We're not sure what will happen to the house. Paul has many more memories than I do, but it's still Grammie's house, you know? He hopped up in the tree as he had many years before and I took a couple pictures. It was actually pitch black out so we were pretty impressed they came out. Had I known I would have zoomed in, but it's not like I could see very well.


I took one of him hanging but I was laughing so much I cut off his head. Like I said, I couldn't see anything. When you push the button down halfway an orange focus light comes on so that's all I had to go on.

Before we left I got some pictures of Gram with Zach. He'll never be this age again.

He was a squirmer, as you can tell, but a happy little bugger.

We left on Sunday afternoon. We had intended to leave earlier, but some of the fam when to copy a poem Mom had written to Grammie several years ago. It was pretty stressful because I was so worried that Zach would have a rough trip like we did on the way up - I was dreading him crying for hours! But as it turned out he only cried for the first half hour, then fell asleep. He never actually went to sleep for bedtime until we got home. Keep in mind, he usually goes to bed about 6:30, but didn't get in bed until 9:30. I tried a preemptive strike for bedtime so he remained calm the whole way, so I wasn't too terribly upset that he didn't actually fall asleep.

This was at a rest stop. I was just waiting for him to hit the horn :).

And of course he had to adjust the temperature; it was so hot!

Well I know that's a lot of pictures, but a lot happened. Overall, and all things considered, it was a pretty good trip. Zach did really great, and it was wonderful to see everyone. Word on the street is that we are going to have a family reunion in two years. Of course on the east coast (us west coasters always get the shaft :)), but that's better than nothing. I was talking with some of my cousins and I don't know who was in charge of reunions before but everybody seems to have dropped the ball. We used to have them pretty frequently. It's a pretty big bummer. But hopefully it will pan out. I know I don't see them much (realistically it could qualify as never), but they are pretty cool and it makes Mom feel not so far away. So hopefully it will work. If not, Jackie, Julie, Marcy and I will make one up :).

So that was our trip. It's still crazy to think of Grammie being gone. That we won't all show up on Christmas to see her and be forced to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eat some cake (the question always came up as to who should blow out the candles). She taught us all a lot. There are things that I've learned, that's for sure. Some more serious than others. So here's to you, Grammie. We'll miss you. May we never play outside in a lightning storm ("You could get struck by lightning!!"). May we never go to Arnold ("People get shot there!!!"). May we always eat our fill at buffets ("You can have water at home!"). And may we always remember never, under any circumstance, to offer someone underage a sip of wine cooler. But more importantly, may we always remember the value of family and thereby keep your memory alive. Cheers, Grammie - we'll miss you.