90 Years for a Sweet Lady

It's been 90 years on this earth for my dear sweet Grandma Phillips. I'm headed out to Kansas to visit her and celebrate her on Friday. (did I mention her name is Dorothy,how cool is that for living in Kansas?) It will be good to see a few of the cousins, aunts and uncles. Seems like the older we get the more spread out we all get and it's harder to get everyone to show up to reunions. Summer time seems to be the perfect time for reunions. My family lived in Kansas when I was young and I always forget about the coolest thing about the midwest, fireflies! I love these bugs. I totally forget about them, but as I sit with the family in lawn chairs, kicking it in the muggy, humid, outdoors, I catch a glimpse of a tiny light out of the corner of my eye. It's gone before I can get a good look at it and then one lights up right in front of me. As a child, as did every child, we'd catch these bugs in jars and watch them with fascination. You just don't have cool bugs like that here in Arizona. It will be good to visit with my grandmother and express my great love for her and see family in which I rarely see. I also love their Kansas accents, sort of cracks me up. I always think I sound "hick" until I go hang with my family in Kansas. I love it when my aunt from Texas and my uncle from Canada show up, it makes for a fun weekend of guessing what in the world they are saying!

For Grandma's gift from my family, I composed a photo book for her, complete with letters from each member of the family. Only my co-workers have seen it and they loved it, so I'm hoping Grandma will as well. (who am I kidding, Grandma's sweet, I could give her a finger painting and she'd love it) Just want to thank the family for helping me with getting their letters to me promptly so I could design the book in time for Grandma's birthday. I had fun looking through all the photos of the family at various periods of their lives and I'm amazed at how fast the kids are growing up. I love my family and am very fortunate to have such a great family.

I will be hitching a ride with mom and dad (who are now officially in retirement mode) to Tennessee where we'll spend the 4th of July with my brother, Nathan and his family. I've not seen them in two years and it will be really good to kick it with them for a few days. It will also just be really nice to see green again!