adventures in babysitting.

yesterday my parents came to town to attend

grandma ardell's funeral.

my brother-in-law, perry, lost his grandmother

last friday.

i knew grandma, as well, and would have gone

to support their family, as i did when grandma blase

passed away several years ago,

but with the kids at home, it's not always that simple.

my mom had asked if we could "babysit pop",

as his weak legs make it difficult to get around.

i was glad that we could be of some help to my mom

so she could at least be with my sister and perry,

while i was stuck at home.  

i last saw grandma on halloween at my sister's house.

she said, "you look familiar to me."

i told her that i was her granddaughter-in-laws sister

and who my parents were.

she said she remembered both of them.

we talked about how my dad and i use

to see she and grandpa at the doctors office,

and she nodded her head saying she remembered

that, as well.

grandpa and my dad both had diabetes,

and were patients of the same doctor.

i told her that even though i was 12 at the time,

i remembered she and grandpa ardell always

wearing matching outfits, as well as their

turquoise jewelry.

when i mentioned the jewelry,

she turned her hand over to show me her

turquoise rings that she still wore.

grandma had parkinson's and had to be

put on oxygen a week ago.

she lived a very long and full life and

i'm glad that perry was able to have his grandma

in his life for so long.

most people aren't so lucky.

however, i'm also glad she could finally

be with grandpa again. 

 i think they had married in 1941--and from what

 she said in our last conversation together, 

she'd been missing him for almost 11 years now.

perry's mom, jean (emily just saw jean in this photo and said, "that's my friend!"  emily chatted away with jean that whole evening and wanted her to play with her), perry's aunt and grandma ardell on halloween.

while we were on "pop duty", the kids showed him their somersaults and twirls, and kept him bundled up in their blankets.  emily asked pop to read my vintage copy of 'babes in toyland' to them.  a book she's not suppose to touch, btw.  instead, she read it to pop, telling him about all of the characters and what was going on in the illustrations.

then aiden entertained pop by doing puzzles with him.  he'd tell pop where all the pieces needed to go.

my mom stayed for a little bit after the funeral to chat with the kids as they did their performance of somersaults, as well as emily "ballet'ing", as emily calls it.  don't tell my mom, but i think she looks old in the photo above.  mom, your wrinkles are starting to take over!

emily wanted a photo of her wearing pop's hat.

and then she wanted to take a photo of pop by herself.
at least he made it in there. :)