Monday, April 15, 2013

Grandma's

On our way home from Portland, we stopped in the Bay area to see my grandma and Uncle Jim. My grandma is old...balloons were still up from her 92nd birthday.  However, it was really sweet how she still wanted to take care of us.  While we were eating lunch, she kept walking around the kitchen, getting us drinks or napkins.  I would tell her to sit down and I would take care of everything, but she insisted.


When my boys were being a little crazy, my grandma told me, "It's OK--grandma understands little boys."  She was so thrilled to meet them and it was fun having her dote on them.  I tried to take everything in, knowing it might be my last time visiting her house.




Three days after we were there, my grandma fell and was rushed to the hospital.  She's in a respite care center and will never return home.  I feel like my afternoon there was a small gift, and I hope I always remember the way my grandma took care of us and loved my little family that day.



Thursday, April 11, 2013

Jokes on You...April Fool's Day

April Fool's day is right up there with Christmas around my in-law's house.  Last year we introduced Caden to the idea of April Fool's and he's been asking for months "when is the day we do all the jokes?"  

Caden spent the night before at his grandparent's house.  He woke-up with his toenails painted pink.  He had a breakfast of "dinner"--baked potatoes and ham along with ice cream sundaes for dessert.   When I got there, he was still pulling the pretend-spider-on the-kitchen-counter one and you should have seen grandpa's reaction!

When he got home, he was still in full swing.  Apparently he had followed his cousins around all morning and taken notes.  Within a half hour, he'd put tape on the kitchen sink, seran wrap on the toilet, soap on the sink handles and soap in my water cup.  Pretty good for a 4 year old.

The only joke Chad played on me was telling me he had worked on a buffalo that day (he's on rotation in Wyoming).  

As for myself, I sent an email to my BYU-I students answering questions about the huge end-of-semester project due that day.  I told them I sincerely hoped they'd been gathering their newspaper articles throughout the semester and had their summaries written...etc, etc.  At the end of the email I told them it was just an April Fool's joke.  I got back quite a few emails from students saying job well done--they'd definitely been tricked.  Pretty funny...and I felt a little guilty.

My only fear is that Caden is already planning for next year.