Sweetness

My grandpa makes me smile. He has been calling me lately at the weirdest timea just to say "hey" and that he "was thinking about me" and "loves me". Last night at 11 my phone rang and it was him. He said "did i wake u up?" and when i replied no, he said "well then its no fun". He quickly asked why i sounded so tired and then said " I was just calling to say Hey and that i love you". That was it. Short and sweet. This is the 2nd time in the past month he has called me just to say that. It makes me tear up. About 3 months ago he had cancer removed from his nose for the 2nd time. This was never life threatening but it was a big deal. He and my grandma have been together for over 50 years and they love to tease each other. Every time we get together (u can ask Adam) we all end up laughing hysterically at the stories they both share about being newlyweds with 5 younger kids (2 of my mom's brothers died when they were 4 and 5 from a car wreck). I can probably repeat the stories to you word for word but I'd much rather hear it coming from them.
I have to admit that the first time my Papa called it really freaked me out. He has never been one to call anyone..he lets my grandma call and after we get done talking he'll grab the phone, say Hi and Bye and get off. So when he called and just said " i love you" i called my mom frantically thinking that something was wrong or that he had just found out some horrible news. She called him and he said that he had just been thinking about his grandkids lately and wanted to call me.
When I was younger I spent every summer with my grandparents on their farm in Florida. My parents both worked and they would leave me up there from the day I got out of school til about a week before I went back. This meant that I spent a large amount of time helping my grandpa with their 2 horses. When I turned 5 they bought me my own horse and I named it "Tweety". Tweety was way too big for me to handle so they traded Tweety in and got me "Shadow"- a pony. I rode Shadow almost every day during that summer and my Papa trained us both :). One weekend when my parents came up to visit I decided it was time for my papa to let go of the reins and let me show my parents what I had learned. However, during my little show, someone forgot to lock Dolly and Shotgun (the other two horses) up in the other field and they came bolting at Shadow-which freaked her out. Needless to say she started bucking and threw me into the electric wire that surrounded the riding pen. I don't know who was more concerned..my parents or my grandpa. I dont remember even being bruised by that but I became very scared of horses and only got back on one in 10th grade to ride Shotgun for a show at my grandma's country themed VBS. Anyways, that whole story was just one of the memories I have with my grandpa.
Living up there during the summer also meant that I got to spend a ton of time with my great grandma, who died only 5 years ago. We would pick butterbeans, make tomatoes and rice and eat ice cream. She was Pentacostal and never cut her hair, wore make-up, shaved her legs, wore jewelry or wore pants. She didn't own a TV and loved to listen to the radio. At Christmas time we would catch her watching the TV at our house..i think Animal Planet fascinated her!
My great grandma, grandparents and cousins all live on the same dirt road, Kinzie Lane, named after the first grandchild (and probably favorite :) ME. So summer's were also spent with all of my cousins, which is why we are all still close. Most people don't get the chance to become close to their extended family but I now realize how lucky I was. It was very important to me that every single one of my cousins were in my wedding, since I literally grew up with them.
I really just wanted to write this blog about my grandparents and how much they mean to me. I just started remembering stories and got sidetracked. I actually just sent my grandpa a long email and some pictures. He is pretty good on the computer and sends me updated pictures of my cousins and pictures of his pet deer. I am so fortunate to have such a good relationship with them. I will never get tired of their 11 o'clock phone calls just to say "I love you"
This is a picture from my wedding. Left to right -Nana, Mom, Me, Brother, Dad, Papa