Life With My Soldier

I wish that everyone could have the Grandma's that I've had. They are both so different, yet would do anything for their families. I was fortunate enough that both sets of grandparents lived in the same town, so I seen each of them the same amount while I was growing up. The weird thing about them living in the same town is that my mom was born in Wyoming, my dad in Oklahoma. They both ended up in New Mexico, living in trailers that were end to end. They met when my mom's dog had a seizure (the one and only seizure it ever had) and my mom's mom ran over to ask if my dad's mom could help. My mom made friends with my dad's sister and then eventually started dating my dad. My dad and mom got married (my mom was 16), and them and my dad's family moved to Oklahoma, to find work with the oil rigs. My mom's family eventually ended up in Oklahoma too. Then my dad's parents moved to a little town in Kansas, and eventually my mom's mom and stepdad moved there too. Both sets lived there the rest of the time. My mom's side is still there, and unfortunately my dad's both passed away. Now, if that wasn't fate, I don't know what is.

My dad's mom, Grandma Shirley, was the type of person who didn't care what anybody thought of her. She was herself, no matter who was around. I always admired that in her. She was the type of person that didn't care that she couldn't carry a note, she loved to sing, and sing she did. She also didn't care that she lived in town, with neighbors around her. When she dyed her hair, she sat out on her front porch in her bra with a towel around her neck (seriously, she did that one summer when I was staying with them, I thought I was going to die!). She didn't care that people might think she was weird or crazy, that was who she was, and she didn't try to cover it up. She passed away on March 27 (the day after my brother's 18th bday), 8 years ago, and I miss her so much. She had one of the biggest hearts, and would do anything for anybody. She was a very compassionate person and I'm so thankful that she was in my life, even if for only a short time. I don't have many pictures of her and what I do have is packed away, so you'll have to excuse the repeat of this picture, and the horrible quality.


My mom's mom, Grandma Jean, is the storybook grandma. She's the one that's baking the cookies and she's forever giving all the granddaughters knick-knacks. She makes the best chocolate chip Grandma cookies ever. Whenever she makes them, the family fights over who gets them. She even has to make my brother his own tub (yes, tub) or else the rest of the family doesn't get any, at all. She's so cute, and has an innocence about her. She hilarious and she's so sweet. She got a computer a little over a year ago, and we email each other pretty much on a daily basis. I love communicating with her that way, because I get a laugh just about every time I get an email from her. She knows only the basics, and throughout her emails, she'll realize that she made a mistake, but instead of going back to correct it, she just tells me what mistakes she's made. It's so cute and funny. Here's an example from an email that she sent a couple days ago, "hi michell, i dont think you got my last email. sorrry i didnt get an e put on your name. lol i finally talked to your mom, she was telling me the sad news about sister jimmy. that isto bad. well ill see if this will go through, i hope. love ya gma" Ahh, Grandma, lol. I was so blessed that God put these two, very loving women in my life. I just pray that when the time comes our kids love their Grandma's as much as I've loved mine. Eric and I always tell my mom that she's going to have to be the Grandma Jean Grandma, because we already know that his mom's going to be the slightly crazy one, lol. Here's a picture of Grandma Jean, and then one of my mom and Grandma Jean from when they were here for my surgery.