The Time When We Babysat a Grandmother

Last summer,Katie and I spent a few days "babysitting"{her term,not ours} Gram,a sweet elderly lady from my church who lives with her daughter and son-in-law. They were going to PA for their daughter's college graduation and asked us to stay with Gram again. Even though Katie could only stay the first night, we were more than happy to oblige. We adore spending time with Gram. She loves to see us "go wild" and do things like leave dirty dishes in the sink for more than 15 minutes or make a craft involving cutting and gluing on the living room floor. To most people, this wouldn't be wild, but the fact that it was happening in Gram's daughter's house made it so.

Right after we got to Gram's house, she went down for her afternoon nap which gave Katie and I the perfect opportunity to eat lunch. Our stomachs were so thankful. Then it was time to break out the camera. I'm shocked it took us this long to take pictures{she came Sunday night}. We are HUGE fans of picture taking at every possible moment.

We also attempted 17 self-portraits but the only one that was slightly presentable had three-fourths of her face and only half of mine. It wasn't exactly whole wide internet-worthy.

I had errands to do Monday morning before reporting to the job, so we hopped in the car, turned up the Selah and went on our way. I fully intended to stop at Target for sunglasses, but as we drove s-l-o-w-l-y{so we could see the sales}past Michael's, we were both bitten by the Craft Bug. We actually did drive up to Target but couldn't resist the urge so we turned around and went back to Michael's. After much deliberation and much "I want this one. Wait,I like this one better. Maybe I should just get both. But look at this one!", we choose the flowers we wanted to make ourselves flower barrettes. Putting the unwanted flowers back was like attempting to find where on earth you got the card from that you picked up in the card aisle.

Flower barrette making with S & K

Step 1-pose with your flowers

Step 5- forget to take pictures that document steps 2-4
Step 6-repeat steps 2-5 with all flowers
Step 7- photograph the finished products

I also made a green silk headband with the yellow flowers I bought but don't have a picture of it.{Not a surprise,considering what step 5 is.} We took the cutest pictures of Gram with a white flower in her hair but since she made it very clear that those pictures "had better not end up ON FACEBOOK! If I find out they're ON FACEBOOK, I know where you live...", I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate me putting them on a blog. But they are very cute. One final statement before we move on: I'm very proud{not to mention surprised}that she even knows about Facebook.

We spent the rest of our visit watching the May 17th Conservation Committee meeting{to quote Gram "I just LOVE watching our local town meetings"},searching for the I Love Lucy dvds, eating cheese and cinnamon buns{but not at the same time}, and looking out the window 52 times a day for the baby foxes and their mama. The Great Sarah and Katie P.E.I. Trip of 2011{2012? 2013?}made tremendous planning strides thanks to our brisk walk up and down Laurel Lane. All in all, it was a wonderful time. When I told Katie the Gram and I found the dvds and that the foxes made an appearance exactly three minutes before I left, she said: "the dvds and the foxes will just give us an excuse to go back! :) "

I whole-heartedly agree.