my new little “companion”!!!

MEET TWERP!

She is my Gramma Martha’s dog, and I have the privilege to adopt her and take care of her!  Twerp was SOOOOO important to Gramma, and I made a promise to myself and to Gramma that I will take such good care of her precious “companion” (that is what Gramma called her).

We have been having a great time getting to know each other!  It has only been three days since she has been with me, but she already fits right in, and Monty loves her.  They play and chase each other, and she follows me around everywhere.

gramma martha

Dear Gramma Martha,

You have gone to be with the Lord today.  Though I will miss you so much, I know where you are is even more wonderful than the human mind can imagine.  If I did have to imagine, I would picture your body fully healed, and you are hugging your beloved husband, Grampa Frank.  You would be laughing and smiling with my mom, and telling her to fix her hair and put on more lipstick.  You are no longer tired and in pain, but you are made whole and perfect by Jesus.

Gramma, you have not even been gone for a day, but I already miss you so much.  I will miss you calling me “Chickadee”, I will miss your cheery sing-song voice, and your constant upbeat attitude about life.  I will miss having to remind you my name is Gayle, not Linda, but I will miss you calling me Linda because I was blessed enough to look like my mother, and a lot like you.  I will miss coming to visit you, and you making a meal to feed an army and eating so much I was in pain.  I will (sort of) miss the hurt look on your face when I told you I did not want ice cream because you had already given me pie and cake and cookies and ruschki (and the meal to feed an army), but then you were always okay with it because you would eat the ice cream yourself.  I will miss you bugging me to learn how to make sausage—I’m sorry, I am not going anywhere near intestines.  I will miss you talking about your little “companion”, Twerpie, and that you would feed her an egg every morning, and said “what I eat, she eats”.  You loved that little dog, and I know she misses you, too.  I will miss making ruschki and haloushi with you.  I will miss talking about my mom with you, you loved her so much, and it was always so interesting, me, her daughter, talking to you, her mother, about her.  You loved your Linny Sue, and I will miss your memories of her and all of the wonderful things you were able to share with me about her that I would never have known otherwise.  I will miss your visits at Thanksgiving, and the fact that the boys would tease you and you wouldn’t even know it—but it was all in good fun.  I will miss the fact that sometimes you would give me my Christmas card in May, and sometimes forget that you had given it to me and sending me another one.  I will miss your garden and the smell of dill and parsley in your back yard.  I will miss your hugs.  I will miss how happy your family made you—you made us so happy.  I will miss you always being so excited to hear from me, and when I called you just because.  I will miss hearing you answer the phone.  I will miss your handwriting.  I miss that you always thought of us.  I will miss your presence and your love and about a zillion other things about you that I love so much.

Thank you for being my Gramma.  You are and always will be the best Gramma I could have ever asked for.  I wish you didn’t have to go, but I know someday… someday, I will be laughing and smiling and hugging you, and Grampa Frank, and my mom, too.  I will look for you.

Your forever loving granddaughter,

Chickadee (Gayle)

school bells! (well, not really)

I start my first class at UTD (University of Texas at Dallas, for you non-Texans) tomorrow, 7:00-9:45 PM (whew!)

I know it’s kind of nerdy, but I still feel the same way I did EVERY OTHER YEAR OF MY LIFE on the night before the first day of school: antsy, anxious, nervous, excited!

This is a new chapter in my life, hopefully it’s a good one!

daddy daughter date night

I had been planning to go to the Spring 2011 MBA Orientation at 6;00 on Wednesday up at school, but late Thursday morning, my dad called me unexpectedly and said that Janet had to work late, and would I like to go to the Mavs game that night (they have season tickets).

Being the good student I am (hah!) I decided to skip orientation (honestly, I re-read the email, and most of the things they were going to talk about, I already knew about).  Off to the game we went!

The same thing happened last year, Janet was unable to go, so I went with my dad then as well.  This was last year:

This is this year:

We had a great time!  Mavs didn’t win (boo), but it was still so much fun cheering and watching the game with my dad.  We had drinks and snacks beforehand in the No. 7, and luckily it was a 7:00 game, instead of 7:30, so I didn’t even get home too late!

As my dad says, “I only hope for one cancellation per year!” meaning of course he wants to go with Janet, but if he gets to take me once a year, that’s a bonus!   I love my daddy!

melts my heart

When I was in Indiana, I did a little pictorial tour of my Gramma’s house, so I could remember it just the way it is today, they way I want to remember it.

I was down in the basement, trying really hard to take pictures in the dark.  I rounded a corner, where a pantry/closet is, and a chalkboard that we used to always play with as a kid.  (You can see the desk there—we would play school and stuff).

When I was 16, I went to visit my Granny.  I erased whatever was on the chalkboard, and wrote something on it.

I didn’t know until I looked at the picture on my camera, because it was so dark and I could not see without a flash.

IT’S STILL THERE.

That just melts my heart, knowing every time my Gramma went down in the basement to get something out of the pantry, every time she looked at it, she knew,

“I love my Gramma!”

Still brings tears to my eyes.

not a cross

It makes me sad that this even exists.

granny

God really knows what he is doing.  That is an understatement, of course.  Last week, I went to Whiting, IN to visit my granny.  As I have mentioned, she is really sick, and the prognosis is not great.  (Warning: cheesy Gayle is about to come out).  However, as with rainstorms, there are rainbows, and there are blessings that have come from my visit.  I will share those in an upcoming post.  For now, I will just share some pictures with you.

This is granny’s house.  I was running back and forth from the tri-pod trying not to slip and fall!

Then we went to the house where my dad' grew up.  My grammy T passed away about 5 years ago, so no one we know own it anymore, but we were able to get some great pictures together outside.

That’s all for now, much more from the trip later on.  It was just so awesome to spend time with Richard, my Aunt Rita, and have the time to really enjoy a town that has so many memories.  Plus, the gorgeous snow didn’t hurt!