Foxy Granny's House

I am sleeping on the couch for the second night in a row. Don't worry, our marriage is great and still intact. I am just trying to avoid the "crud" that is ailing my husband. He has had fever off and on and is just feeling horrible. He offered to sleep on the couch but I let him have the bed because I am such a sweet wife. I sure do miss my bed though. The only advantage to sleeping on the couch is that I can read as late as I want too and I am in the middle of a really good book which I can't wait to get back too.....

But I wanted to share about our little adventure this week. On Tuesday we drove out to my Aunt's house to pick my grandma (aka Foxy Granny) up. She has been living with my Aunt for about a year and a half now and recently mentioned that she would like to go and spend the night at her own house down by the lake. The plan is to eventually sell this house but it is still full of "stuff" that my Grandma needs to go through and figure out what to do with. It is a very overwhelming task for her so I was happy to go with her and help her out. I also wanted to go back to her house for one last visit. That house is in so many of my childhood memories and I am sad that she will be selling it soon.

So Tobey, Foxy Granny, and I loaded up in my car to make the hour and a half journey to Lake Tawakoni. As soon as we got into the car it started sprinkling. As we neared the highway it started downpouring and hailing. We stopped briefly under a bridge but I was determined to not turn around. I thought that it would surely get better the farther we got down the road. After about 40 minutes of driving in the downpour I pulled off the highway because the wind started blowing sideways and I could not see anything but water. So we stopped at a subway and ate lunch. By the time we had finished, the sun was shining. Marvelous! Then we saw the most beautiful rainbow. It stretched across the sky in all the right shades of color. Tobey saw it too. He has seen rainbows in books but this was his first time to see a real one and he kept saying rainbow over and over. So that was a fun thing to share with my grandma. We eventually arrived at her house. It looked very neglected to say the least. I was a little worried about what we would find inside and rightfully so. We could tell that a rodent of some sort had been in the house. There were droppings on the kitchen floor and cabinets and a hole had been scratched in the door leading out to her laundry room. In the bathroom there were more droppings and everything was askew. My grandma went upstairs while I got Tobey sat up with a movie in the living room. I was hoping that he would be so mesmerized with Nemo that he would leave the rest of the house alone until we had a chance to check everything out. I heard my grandma come down and go outside. I met her at the doorway and she had a grim look on her face. She said she had just found a dead squirrel. Apparently it had not been dead for too long or the house would have smelled horrible. I was actually relieved that it had not been a rat. We debated back and forth if we would still spend the night and finally decided that we would since we had driven all the way.

So we left and bought some groceries and then came back to the house and cleaned everything up. It did my grandma a world of good to get her little house back in order. We vaccuumed and swept and mopped the floors. She wiped all the counters down. We spent alot of time in her quilting room as she went through her many totes of fabric. I could tell that she missed her house. The house is special because my dad helped build it along with my uncles. This was the house that my grandparents retired in. After my grandpa died she lived alone in her house by the lake for about 4 years. And she got very lonely. She also started to get confused when she was driving and would easily become turned around and disoriented. So she made the decision to move in with my Aunt and she hasn't driven in over a year. It is a good thing because she is closer to all of us but she has lost so much of her independence and I can see how it has affected her deeply. I cannot even imagine what she is going through in this new phase of her life. While we were sorting through the different totes and boxes she kept telling me to take whatever I wanted. So I came away with some old pictures and some old quilt tops that my grandma had never finished which I am really excited about. My grandma is an excellant quilter. I think she could have really made some money with some of the quilts she has made. But she always said that taking money for a quilt would just take the fun out of quilting. There was really only one thing that I was interested in having but I could not find it. It being a children's book about a horse named Robert that was allergic to roses. I remember my grandma reading that book to me at her house and I loved it. I couldn't remember the name of the book but I did a little research tonight and found it at Barnes-n-Noble. The title is easy enough to remember. I will be purchasing the book soon for Tobey although the original from grandma's house would have meant alot.



We all slept in the living room that night. My grandma on the couch and Tobey and I on a mattress on the floor. Just like old times. I have spent many nights sleeping on the floor at my grandma's house. My whole extended family used to go to her house on the weekends and we would all spread out around the house. Some of us in beds but most of us on mattresses and pallets. It was so much fun and I really looked forward to weekends at grandma's house. So it was fun to do that with Tobey. He was such a good boy while we were there and he loved on my grandma alot. Almost as if he sensed that she needed some extra hugs and kisses. There is still much to do with the house but we were able to accomplish alot while we were there. At least we left it clean. The house has been on my mind all day and especially the memories that were made there. Little snippets of lazy afternoons and family gatherings and lots of love.

Here's a little list of my favorite memories many of which involve my cousins Duane and Eric:

-Sliding down the stairs and getting carpet burn

-Walking down to the lake to swim or fish. I tried to keep up with the boys but I really hated baiting my own hook and sometimes my cousin Duane would do it for me

-Catching fireflies in a jar

-Listening to my grandpa playing his guitar or his banjo

-Eating watermelon on the porch

-Walking in the vegetable garden with my grandma

-Building tents out of matresses and sheets with my cousins and playing Hi-Ho Cherrio or Uno for hours

-Waking up to the smell of bacon and sausage cooking

-Taking the canoe out and being terrified of flipping over because my cousins were crazy like that

-Going to the Flea Market

-4th of July-setting off fireworks by the lake

-And the smell. I can't even explain this one. But grandma's house had a certain smell and I could smell it in the sheets the other night. It is not a lovely scent but it is a comforting one and a calming one. It is a scent that already my heart is aching to have lost.