Surprise Guest, Grandparents/Ease, and a Trip

On Tuesday my sister called and said "Guess where I am? On my way to Birmingham!" It really made my whole day, especially since Nathan was planning to work later. I had them both by myself at night a week before for the 1st time, and it was not an easy night. So I was super excited she was going to be here with us! Since she has 3 little ones at home, she doesn't get to get away too often by herself.

She came up to see my Grandmother who is not doing well. Please say a prayer for her if you think about it. She has suffered w/Alzheimer's for a long time, and has gotten progressively worse since my Grandaddy passed away. She is not responsive right now and not eating or drinking for several days. It's so terrible to see her like this. She has been a picture of health her whole life, and loved to tell you how healthy she was and that she never had an ache or pain or took any medicine. She was/is/always has been a fun, energetic, silly, happy, "involved with her grandchildren's lives" Grandmama. Loved to shop and be ON THE GO all the time. She loved to take us shopping and always tried to walk faster than us at the mall and then say, "Look how fast I can walk." She also liked to try to out-swing us on the swingset in their backyard and kick the trapeze bar and then say "You can't swing as high as I can!"


(Ease on the left and Grandmama on the right)

She and her twin sister Ease (Louise) were just a mess-so silly, always singing and telling jokes and loved to be the center of attention. It's really hard to put into words everything about them. If you knew them then you know what I am talking about. They were too big for words honestly. So special and unique and truly two of a kind. This is not where I was going w/this post. My Grandmama definitely deserves way more than a paragraph or two. I'm just SO thankful for all the incredible memories I have of her, my sweet Grandaddy, and Ease. Ease lived in Dothan so she was pretty much the "Dothan version of Grandmama" and we spent alot of fun times together. The really sad thing is, losing Ease, then Grandaddy, and now almost Grandmama has been just like losing one of your best friends. We had so much more than just a typical grandmother/grandchild relationship. We were friends, good friends, and we were just always really close. When I was at Auburn, she and Ease came to spend the night w/me several times. How many grandmamas do that?! It was fun too, always fun to be around them. I am SO glad that Alyssa's children and all of our little cousins will always remember Grandaddy, Grandmama and Ease, and very sad that Hayes and Watson won't know them, but at least I have lots of stories, and I do mean LOTS of funny stories to share with them about their great-grandparents and great aunt. Also, it's so fun that all of my friends growing up knew them and they knew all of my friends. Good, good memories!!


(This is their moviestar picture as they would call it!-wish it was bigger!)

Back to our guest, when Alyssa got here, Hayes was ALL SMILES non-stop and couldn't keep her eyes off her. It was so cute. Then Alyssa started asking if she could take Hayes home w/her the next morning to surprise the kids when they got out of school. My first thought was NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I can't let her go, she's too little and she needs constant supervision! She'll only be 1 of 4 and she'll come back w/broken arms from falling down the stairs. So I stayed awake all night, literally, and prayed about what would be best for her and then decided she needed to go. She is in love with her cousins and I knew her Nana and Papa would be overjoyed that she was coming. Plus, she was going to get to ride back to B'ham with her Grandaddy and Shug on Saturday, so they would get a few extra hours with her and I knew they would love that! I know I can't protect her by keeping her right here w/me all the time, even though that's all I want to do. That's a constant battle in my mind. But God gave me a peace about it thankfully. So I got her all packed up Wednesday morning and she was super excited that she was "going on a twip" as she called it. SO big, and going all by herself! It was hard seeing her sweet little curly head w/a pink bow driving away with someone else, even if it was my sister.



I hear she is having fun, but just for the record, I am NOT getting enough updates, ALYSSA!! If she is ever going back again soon, I need to know what y'all are doing. Thank you Holley, our 8 year old niece, who called last night to tell me about church, but it's been a long time since then. As my Grandmama would say (and used to leave thousands of messages like this in college)- Call me, call me, call me, please call me, it's Grandmama, Grandmama, call me, call me, call me back!!