I should probably post eh?

You would think that with summer in the air (along with a few mosquitoes it seems) and children hanging up their backpacks for pool noodles, I would have a few moments to sit down and write a post or two. Well, that's what I thought anyway.

I did get to go and have a couple of fun days hanging at my grandma's. I love being down there with her and my family. There is something magical (and a bit eerie) about grandparent houses. Hubby and I slept in the room that my siblings and I shared when we were little. We played cards and watched a few movies that we had not seen since my grandfather was alive about 15 years ago. We ate at the same table and sat on the same patio.

It was great to be back there talking about our childhood, but it was very bittersweet. I have been there many times in my adult life, and rarely have these memories been so close to the surface. It was painfully obvious this past weekend that despite her adamant desire to stay in that house for the remainder of her life, my grandmother needs to move closer to us. Usually a visit from us means a scrub of the house from head to toe. Her house wasn't messy or anything, but you could tell that this time she had run out of steam with her cleaning. It breaks my heart to see her struggle with things like that.

Hubby, Sis, and I spent most of the weekend cleaning her kitchen from top to bottom. Sis and I noticed a bug problem the first night and when I mentioned it to Mom, she told me that grandma had already talked to her about it. Grandma didn't know what to do, which was odd. It gave us another glaring example of her mind failing her. She had just been going in at night and squishing as many as she could see. We took everything out of her cabinets and cleaned, then put down some stuff to hopefully get rid of the pesky critters before they get bad.

Dad worked on some things for her. He cringed when she said she needed her grass mowed. It had been two whole days since someone had mowed it for her. He and Bro put a drain pipe in her driveway. We grilled out and left her some food to eat on for a while. We all tried really hard to give her lots of good reasons to move closer to us. I can understand her desire to stay put, but I know how much harder it is going to be to over the next few years if we have to drive over an hour one way to take care of her.

The weekend wasn't all gloom and memories. We had a great time visiting and relaxing. It was really funny this weekend to see my grandma and her dog. She has this little chihuahua. The dog is a complete scaredy cat. She would starve to death if my grandmother didn't have to get up from time to time to pee. She never leaves her lap. She also doesn't handle visitors well and tends to shake when people visit. When all six of us stormed the house with our stuff, the poor dog almost had heart failure!

My grandmother got the bright idea that her puppy needed one of her "pills" to calm down. She is deathly afraid of thunderstorms and the vet it seemed had given my grandmother some doggy tranquilizers to help her calm down. That was all well and good, but about two hours later my grandmother decided that the puppy needed to go out. "It was their scheduled time." She went and woke the poor thing up and brought her in the living room.

I have never laughed as hard as I did at that little dog. She was st.on.ed off her little tail! She weaved and wobbled. She stared wide-eyed at Hubby for a while and finally went out to pee even though she leaned a little to the left and hopped on three legs.

I had a hard time going home Monday night. I didn't want to leave her in that house this time. It bothered me into sleeplessness that she was all alone (except her pup) and that she would have to take care of herself. I wish that we could convince her to move here in our complex so that I could check on her every day.

That night back at home, I dreamed of chasing gold fish in the field behind my grandmother's house. It was a bizarre dream with strange and fantastical elements. I woke up missing my childhood when those things wouldn't have seemed so strange at all. Being a grown up is just no fun sometimes!