March 4 . . . What's that day to me?

My grandma would have been 77 tomorrow.  She was a very interesting person, and  I honestly thought that she'd be around forever.  I remember when she walked around looking at "weeds" with me to tell me what was edible.  She always cooked greens, yuck, but she also was the first person to make me a fried mushroom and dandelion.  I'm dwelling less and less on how much I miss both her and my Papaw.  Yeah that chubby little girl in the picture is me, and my best friend and cousin Shawn was in that one, too.  Shawn passed away about 16 years ago now.  Wow!  His loss is really hard still sometimes too, isn't that awesome (not in a good way -- awesome) how that works.

When I was tenish, Grandma gave me a copy of A Wrinkle in Time.  That was the book that I have based so much of even my adult reading and listen upon.  I begged for the other series books back then, and I still own copies of all of them.  Grandma was fun - she was a bit of a hypochondriac, but she was so entertaining.  It was fun to actually tell her something that you thought might be wrong with you, so she could tell  you the story about how that same thing happened to her, or how she thought she might have that, too.  Who knows now, maybe she did feel all the same pains, maybe she was in pain the whole time.  Cancer was eating her away and none of us knew it.  Her loss was so painful and is still quite fresh.  I hope she's keeping the angels on their toes and getting answers to the hard questions with my Papaw sitting by her side.  Sometimes when I look at the sky, and the sky is pretty, I wonder why I asked for a tornado painting and not a beautiful blue sky with puffy clouds.  I realize that I was probably the person that she gave the most paintings to, and it makes me really happy that she knew how much I adored her art.  I will love her Always.

Lighter note - this weekend was fantastic.  Thanks for all that came Saturday night for Jenn's/my party.  It was seriously a good time, as always.  I love that I have a great family/friend network even when I piss you all off at one time or another.  I am thankful to have all of you in my life, new and old friends.  Daughter - you are one of the most special people in the world.  Millions and Millions.

Many of you probably know this, but I've got a lot of Irish in me from mom's side.  Anyway, our pastor today had us say an Irish prayer and I want to share it, because I thought it was beautiful.

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,And an answer for each prayer.  


I love you all, and I hope you have a super week.