Day 7: Grandma Giggles

It is a pure blessing to still have Grandma in my life.  She turned 87 this past May.

this was her 85th surprise party

I've always looked up to her, although I surpassed her in height while still in grade school.  Of all the things she taught me, the most important has been her example of faith.  She is among my biggest Christian role models.  And there is no doubt the prayers she has said for me helped shape who I am today.

One of the strongest ladies I know, though to look at her she often seems frail or fragile.  I guess in some ways she is, as she's currently in the hospital for a fracture on her back.  Stubbornly she sat on the injury for a full day before letting my aunt take her to be checked.

Today she was moved to transitional care and fitted for a back brace.  I was able to go see her and while her spirits were high, it pained me to see her in that condition.

Of course our family is one of many jokesters, so the room was full of laughter, despite the situation.  And like the trooper she is, Grandma kept up with the banter.  She even had the nurses tickled with her wise cracks.  Each one that came in had nothing but nice things to say about her, no surprise to us.  Although Grandma joked she was paying them to say those compliments.

I don't see her as often as I would like due to our busy schedules and that saddens me.  There was a time when I had lunch with her almost daily, as I worked in the same town.  She fed me through college and was a home base while I commuted back and forth for nearly 20 years.

While I would have preferred a better reason for our get together, any time spent with Grandma (and my crazy Aunt Becky) is always a joy.

I'll close today with some of my favorite posts about her...

Grandma's Couch

Grandma's House

Grandma's Place

Cinco de Gma

Easter at Gma's

Please continue to pray for quick healing for her.  

She's looking at "several weeks" in TCU and potentially a few months in her brace.  

We've promised to bedazzle it for her though.  ;)

Day 6: Blind Date

My schedule changes daily.  Being the planning, organized gal that I am, one might think this career would drive me crazy.  But I like the surprise and flexibility of every day.  Most of the time.

Sure, sometimes a cancellation, especially last minute, can throw things off a bit but usually everything works out.  I try to face each day with the "when one door closes, a window opens" philosophy.

I do normally have a general idea of my day's agenda each morning and when my estimated end time will be.  Today, an opening saw me traveling to Henderson, not a normal area for me.  When I realized how close I'd be to where hubby is working, I decided to surprise him with a quick visit.

I found myself filled with joy all day at the thought of sneaking off to see him.

Arriving at close to the time he should be waking, I hoped to make it up to his room while he was still was groggy.  Surprising him in a sleepy stupor was part of the fun!

I knocked and waited.  No response.

I knocked again and contemplated saying, "Housekeeping" but being that he kept a privacy tag on his door, I feared that might make him cover his head with a pillow and continue sleeping.

Just as I was about to text him, the door cracked open.

Though still half asleep, his face lit up and in a mumbled, broken but excited voice, he said,

"What are you doing here?  Did you drive all this way to see me?"

My stay was short but sweet, getting there just in time to join him for dinner.  The longer drive home for me meant I had to watch my clock to ensure I made it home to pick up our boy from work.  This rainy night was not one I wanted him to walking home alone!

But it was well worth the extra miles just to spend a couple hours together.

Third shift transition the past six months has been difficult in and of itself, having slept together more than half my life.  Adding distance and several nights away is also something this couple isn't used to.  We've been blessed to not have to be apart too often in our 23 years of marriage.

Small surprises help keep the spark alive.  This was one date that brought us both joy and one we'll remember for some time.  I can still picture him smiling and shaking his head in happy disbelief as I drove away.