My Grandma

Grandma went to heaven last Sunday...it was her time.  It felt like it took a very long time for Jesus to come and get her.  The past 4 weeks were LONG.  She was ready to go and said "one more day" 26  days before she was taken.  But God's timing is always best and I would like to think that there was someone, somewhere, that needed to be touched by my grandma. I sometimes wonder who that was, or why it was but it really doesn't matter.  That's just the nosy side of me, and another question to add to my list for Jesus when I meet him.  Yet I wonder, when I meet Jesus will I really be thinking of my "list" of questions?  I kind of don't think so.

My Grandma was a rare woman, one who loved unconditionally all the time.  For always and forever, no matter what.  She loved us all.  She loved my Aunt when she was pregnant at a young age and chose adoption for her daughter, she loved her children through alcoholic relationships, divorces, miscarriages..she loved her grandchildren through unplanned pregnancies, transgender changes, alcoholism, young widows, divorce...she just loved.  It is what she did, it is what she knew.  She knew to love like Jesus.  She set the bar high in how we love like Jesus...we just LOVE.  Simple and plain.  We love.

She cheered us all on in whatever we loved.  She ALWAYS wanted to hear the details.  Wanted the recipe, wanted a picture, wanted the full story.  She listened and she cared.  EVERY single time. EVERY time I called her, she was thrilled and wanted to hear all the details of the boys' lives.  Even on our very last visit to her she wanted to hear if Tommy's homecoming date was a girlfriend, if Drew wanted to go on more mission trips, listened to sweet Max sing her Jesus loves me, watched Max intently as he ate his ice cream cone.  She cared until the very end. Never about her, always about others.

I miss her already. I miss the idea of her.  I miss being able to say I have a Grandma.  I know 42 years of having a Grandma is rare, and I don't take that for granted.  I know that our boys are blessed to have had a GREAT-GRANDMA who KNEW them, I mean really KNEW them.  She knew what each one loved, she enjoyed this blog.  She loved the details of their lives.

We celebrated her life on Wednesday in Benson, it was perfect.  It was a beautiful fall day, the sun was shining, it was crisp.  The flowers at the church were amazing, there were photos everywhere, there were letters from Grandchildren posted.  Every grandchild of hers was there....nearly EVERY great grandchild was there.  (She had 19 great grandchildren, and another 16 great-grandchildren through marriages not blood so 35 total...30 were there)  Hymns were sung, letters read, sharing about her life.  It was perfect for her.  The church was FULL to the very last pew.  That is RARE for someone who is 93, typically most all of their friends have passed away and the services are small...nope NOT for my grandma...she touched SO many lives of SO many ages she packed a full house.  What a tribute to this woman I had the privilege to call Grandma.

As the family met at the cemetery, under a huge beautiful tree to bury her ashes next to a Grandpa I never knew I couldn't help but feel peace.  Such peace when you love Jesus and know heaven is for real.  Max and Alice kneeled by her urn.  Imitating what the pastor did, making a cross in her ashes.  Touching her flowers, talking quietly to each other.  I can tell you that would make Grandma BEAM from ear to ear.  Little ones were so precious to her, legacy mattered to her.

From there we headed back to her house, most all of the family, to change clothes and say our long Minnesota goodbyes.  The last time to gather at her house, there was a BIG missing piece there, no Grandma.  But the house still felt so cozy.  When we drove away I could see her waving from the porch.  She loved having family there, she always waved goodbye.  She will be forever in our hearts and one day we will see her again.  As we said our goodbyes to her at the nursing home, after all of the "Thank you's" and "Love you so much" one of the boys said "We will see you in heaven" and she pointed at each one of them and said "I better".

Some photos from our last visit to see her, they were too hard to share earlier, but now I want them documented.  They are hard to look at in some ways, seeing the sadness in our boys' faces, yet the amazing gift of being able to say goodbye and thank you to your great grandma.  And to have that assurance that one day, you will meet again.  Precious

 Listening to Max sing "Jesus loves Me"

 Max, Grandma and me

 watching Max eat ice cream, loving it

 showing us one of her old bibles...

 consoling Tommy

Max even understood....

Tough stuff...but yet beauty in watching Grandma consoling these boys of mine

My Mom's precious last moments with Grandma and her sisters...

And a few sent to me from the Cemetery of sweet Max and Alice...

Waiting

This song has been going through my mind all day. 

I'm waiting for a phone call about my Grandma. She's so ready for heaven.  I don't like that she's had suffering at the end of life. 

 I'm waiting for mom to resume and finish her chemo.  I'm hopeful her Cancer will be cured. I cannot allow my heart of mind to go anywhere else.  

I'm waiting to be able to breathe again with the pile of editing I have to get through. My computer is not cooperating fully either so it's taking so much extra time.  Looking for a $3000 apple to fall off my apple tree. (From the Apple Store lol)  Hmm money trees. Lovely thought huh?  

I'm waiting to get my house in order. There's no time right now. I'm too busy. I don't like busy at all. I need margin.  I feel like I have none. I don't like racing through my days. 

My heart aches for so many. A homeless girl at a stop sign yesterday has not left my heart. A friends son is hurting, hearing lies, scared. People are sick. Children beheaded. Friends husband diagnosed with dementia at 54. I'm waiting for heaven too. 

Drew's Collage Project for School

My collage depicts my oldest brother Tommy. He is a great role model to me and my best friend. I look up to Tommy as an example for my life and that is why I chose him to be the subject of my collage. In my collage I used all sorts of pictures and items to describe his personality. In each corner I have one of Tommy’s main “likes” or things he enjoys to do follow. Around each of the corners I have different things that relate to the topics of the corner and more towards the middle of the collage I put things that don’t relate to the corners as much, but are still a huge part of his character traits and personality.

                  In the bottom left corner of the collage the main focus is some of the main teams that Tommy follows. The main one and the first one you most likely notice is The Ohio State University, that is the main collage team that Tommy follows, he follows them in all sports and some of the main sports are football and basketball. The various materials in the corner that are direct characterization are the buckeye nuts, the picture of a buckeye helmet, and the other two Ohio State pictures. Close by to those pictures there is a picture of him and our dad at an Ohio State game, and to the right of that are some other pictures of Tommy with our family, is one of my indirect characterizations because it shows that Tommy is a great big brother, son, and grandson. Above the Ohio State stuff there are pictures of Cleveland sports teams, in the past Cleveland sports have always been the most successful teams but Tommy is still very loyal to his teams, also in the top center there is a picture of him with a USA shirt on, it is another example of his loyalty. That is another indirect characterization. Above There is basketball and shoes. The basketball is direct it shows that Tommy loves basketball. The shoes are indirect though, yes, he does like shoes, but he loves marketing, and advertising.

                  The other corners are representing his love for golf and baseball. The golf ball and golf tee are both direct representations of his love for the game of golf, also the picture of him with his golf team shows his love for golf and his friends. The baseball and picture of him playing baseball both show that he likes to play the game of baseball, and the Cleveland Indians are his favorite baseball team. In all of his sports he plays for DMCS, so that is why I put the DMCS logo on the poster. The iphone is there to show that Tommy is a very smart person, and he knows how to work an iphone very well, that is another indirect characterization. I decided to leave the background plain white because Tommy has never liked being dirty, or having his things dirty, so I left it white to represent the fact that he has never been a fan of dirty things. He likes them nice and clean. The dominant impression that I tried to convey about my brother Tommy is that he is a lover of all things sports, family, and friend related, and he is a very smart, kind, and overall awesome person to be around.

The Buckeye Game

Max and his very first ever Buckeye game ALONE with Daddy.  I think the smiles on their faces tell the story better than I could.  Oh how he LOVED it all.  Such great memories for BOTH of them.  They found Brutus, which is NOT easy and is always a HIGHLIGHT and they were able to watch Brutus join the band and play the drums.  And Max does a darling reenactment of the cymbal playing band members too.

What joy!

One of my favorite things Scott told me from the weekend.... someone told him "You know Max will probably not remember any of this"...Scott's response.."Maybe not, but I will remember it forever".  Cue the tears from me.  So true.  Memories.

Homecoming 2K14

Homecoming was last weekend for Tommy and Drew.  Tommy took his friend Courtney and went in a large group of friends.  Drew chose not to take a date and just went with a group of friends.  Both of the boys had a great time at dinner before and the dance.

Tommy's group ate at Glen Oaks Country Club.  Drew's ate at Biaggi's.  Nice friends, fun night for all.

Some photos from the evening.

Charlie and Alice were here for the weekend...these 2 loved watching the photos happen

Our Deer Hunter

Jack was excited all week long to be going on his first deer hunt ever.  Ross (our Miss Emily's husband) offered to take him for the opening of youth season.  We went to Scheels and got his deer tag and he talked non stop all week along about it.  So fun for him.

Saturday after his football game Ross picked him up....and off they went to attempt to find a deer.  Ross took him to a friends land not far away from here.

Jack tells the story best...this is copied from a note he sent to a family friend of ours.

Ok so I kind of dosed off and he woke me up by saying jack dont move there was a doe and 2 fawns 80 yards from us it walked around the pond in front of us and came about 10 yards from us then 2 more does came out of the 3 foot tall grass behind the pond and one of them came about 70 yards from us and I shot it and I double lunged it

We sat in a treestand for about 3 hours before that happens we shot the deer at about 7:10 at night so it wa almost dark I shot it with a muzzleloader with a 100 grain load.  It also had a really nice scope on it so it was easy to aim.  

I find it funny how I can hit a deer at 70 yards but I can't hit a turkey at 7 yards??

From jack

The part of the story that he didn't mention there is that his doe fell into the pond after he hit her.  Luckily she crawled back out of the pond or Ross may have gone swimming.  :)

The door bell rang around 8:30 and it was Jack....wanting us to come look in the truck.  And this is what we saw. I may have screamed at the site of it.  Not sure who was more excited, Ross or Jack.  What a great memory for both of them!

This may be my favorite picture...love how excited Drew if for Jack.