Beautiful Picture

First of all, I would like to say that this post has nothing to do with my parents and everything to do with my grandmother.

I may not be the prettiest thing. I know I am not considered to be beautiful. But in my mind, at a certain time everyday I am so stunningly beautiful. I see the picture in my mind. Everyday after I get home, Miles and I walk up to Grant’s school to walk home with him. This is the picture I am talking about. I see it….picture perfect… Miles holding one of my hands and Grant holding my other hand. It takes us forever to get home. Miles has to stop and pick up a leaf. Grant wants to walk on the ledge. But this picture brings back BEAUTIFUL memories. I love it. I don’t have a picture of this daily ritual…. maybe one day, Daniel can snap it when he comes home early. Gosh, believe me, it is beautiful.

It brings back wonderful memories…Probably the happiest times I ever have been as a child was when I was with my MawMaw. Like I said it has nothing to do with my parents but everything to do with her.

As I walk with my boys home from school….I think of the daily walks that my sister and I had with my grandmother. I was 8 years old, my sister was 5 years old.

MawMaw, you got ants in your pants! My sister would pretend to grab something off the sidewalk and pretend to put them in her pants. Each time she would act out like she had ants in her pants. Sometimes this would occur three times before we rounded the first corner of the block.

I walked the ledges….just like my oldest son does now. Every time, MawMaw would say Get down! You gonna fall! She didn’t mean it because I it did every time. I knew even way back then she had my back.

And there we were – A Beautiful Picture! I held on to one of MawMaw’s hands and Rachael held on to the other. Sometimes she let me hold the leash of Slinky (the dog that was 1/2 a dog tall and 2 dogs long). Yes, MawMaw had a dachshund too. I see my sister with her ash-blonde hair and me with my dark brown hair and MawMaw walking between us. She had to be so stunningly beautiful to be walking with two scrawny little girls. And she howled every time she got “ants in her pants”. And pretended every time that walking the ledge was going to do serious harm to me.

I hope my boys have special memories like that.

Like how she stayed in the bathroom while Rachael and I took our bath (age 8 and 5). I think of her when I squeeze the warm washcloth on Miles’ shoulder. He loves it… I remember loving it too.

I remember her rocking us and singing us lullabies. We were 8 and 5. We begged for more. Probably every night.

I remember countless games of "Mother May I". My sister and I cracked up every time when we made her do cartwheels. She always did them without saying "Mother May I". We really wanted to her to win...as we always favored her over each other. But even when I gave my sister baby steps and MawMaw giant leaps, my sister always won. MawMaw could not remember to say "Mother May I". Or did she?

I remember her making us whatever we wanted for breakfast every morning. We never ate the same thing - Rachael had grits... I changed it up every morning. She, then, took off to work. She found time to have a spotless house, to take care of two wild little girls, to deal with a teenager in college, to work on her feet all day, and to make special memories for two little scrawny girls.

Wow…she must have been tired.

That is her at the far right..sitting on the floor with her great-grandchildren being stunningly beautiful (Christmas 2007). Yes, she is on the floor where we would expect her to be. There have been times when I found her under the bed while cousin Laurel was trying to remember her numbers to count. That is who she is.