Going Home

We are on our way home from the good ol' town of Burley and after a few days of running into old friends, chatting with relatives, rearranging parts of my parent's home, standing in line at Wal-Mart at 4 in the morning, a tour of my grandpa Beck's and Grandma Mimi's (different sides of the family) old college, and constantly worrying about the list that I have been compiling over and over again in my head of things that need to be done when I get home, we are on our way back to the land of Moses Lake. Traveling in the car with Stephen reading his usual magazine while driving and both my babies sleeping I am taking this time to once again fret over the things that need to get done when I get home. :)
we had a fun time with family and worked in a few chores while at it. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious as usual, at Grandma Mimi's house, but once again missing a main ingredient of Papa Doodle. My uncle Al (owns a good Pizza Shoppe in Burley, seriously best pizza ever and I'm not just saying that, I actually crave it) was making fun of my little brother about this big watch that he was wearing and he said, "yeah, you're like Doodle!" and I thought that was the best compliment I had heard from him in a long time. (He's a pretty sarcastic guy :) I don't like not having Papa Doodle sitting in his chair. We were also missing Tim and Debbie and family, Kortni, Jakobi didn't come until way later and Brit and her family as well. So for the actual dinner family was quite sparse, but we had some good conversation and just sat and looked at "black friday" ads. Stephen had a great idea on Friday to take my Grandpa Beck and tour the old Albion College where he went to school in 1929-31. My Grandma Mimi also attended school there, but she was not able to go out there with us. It was fun to wheel grandpa around the old grounds and walk into the buildings and hear his stories. They have renovated one of the buildings and it is really nice, but the rest are really run down and actually quite dangerous with rotting floors and spray painted hallways. There are not working lights, but we grabbed a flash light and took grandpa into the old gym. He told us that he worked as the janitor for that building and the women's dean would always get him in trouble by running her finger along the floor and showing all the dust he missed. There was a pile of the old floor boards in a corner and I grabbed some and hope to make him a frame with his graduation picture in it. My Gpa Beck had surgery on his cataracts and can see a lot better now. Beck (who is named after Grandpa Beck) went up to him in his wheel chair and just kept saying, "hi, Grandpa," and holding his hand. Talk about tear jerker. Grandpa actually called the next day and wanted to talk to Beck, but he was napping. he told me to tell him that he had "made his day." Watching my Grandpa like that is hard. He's 98 and yes, still kicking, but when our Papa Doodle passed away, it was a shocker to me and I wasn't ready, so I hate to leave and think of how that could be that last time.... My dad and Uncle go and stay with him back and forth, and I am not there to see him change to his ups and downs on a daily basis, so I can only imagine how my family there watches it happen.
Okay, enough of a depresser. :) My nephews are all getting big, Broxton, who is a month older than Pais, has been crawling and now walking along furniture, daredevil of a guy! My parents got a big ol plasma TV that my sister, Jakobi wrestled out of some people's hands at wal-Mart and I had a crazy experience tracking down the $30 Leapster that I wanted to get Beck for his birthday. I walked right past them in the mad rush and then found one, bought it and it was the wrong one ($70, newer version) so i took it back and while in line found another one, the right one, in the return cart, but was ringing up wrong because it was not the "blitz" item, so I left disappointed, but had to return because I lost my phone, left it at the customer service counter, and decided to talk the manager into giving me the non "blitz" leapster for the "blitz" price because it was the same one and I over heard them saying that they had honored it to other customers, so in the end I did get that silly Leapster! (hand held electronic game) Holiday was good, I love to see my family and I ran into some old friends, I got to go shopping! whoo hoo! and Paisley didn't have any teeth come in, so I am counting it as a success. :)
Wal-Mart Black Friday shopping!