Wandering With Grandma

I am getting ready to spend a week in Florida. Today, I needed to deliver the baby items intended for St Joseph's NICU. My friend, Glenda Gilbert is back to work after a bit of time off work, so wanted to take the nearly 300 items to her so she could put them in her car and haul them downtown to St Joesph's when she goes to work tomorrow. I have babysat my little grandson, Toughie since he was 2 1/2 months old. When I have him, any place grandma needs to go, he ends up tagging along. He has spent a LOT of time in Joanne's buying fabric. He could ask for a yard or yard and a half of fabric from the time he was three years old. I remember when he was five, he told the lady cutting "fadrick" for his new blanket that he would need at least a yard and a half of each fabric, as he was getting bigger!

Stephanie got her driver's license on Monday. She has been solo driving for two days. She will be taking Breezy to and from summer school while I am in Florida. The fact I need her to drive her sister is probably the only reason the poor girl has her license. Kristi totalled two cars, and Danielle followed suite and did the same. Mike didn't get his license until he was home last year for Christmas. We can't afford 16 year olds running around in this traffic.....behind the wheel of a car. Jennifer and Deidre managed to avoid totalling any vehicles, so hoping Stephanie is careful. Time will tell. Today, I wanted to make certain Stephanie made it home safely with her sister before heading to Glenda's. Also, Austin wanted to stay home with them. By the time I was ready to load up, he had changed his mind. He helped me load around 8 big shopping bags and white trash bags full of baby clothes, blankets, quilts, hats, afghans, etc into the car. He asked, "You going down to Broadway to take this stuff?" I replied that I was. He has such a memory. It has been at least last summer since the last time he had to go with me to Glenda's. Considering I can't remember where I put my keys, purse, notebook, hat, etc. from 20 minutes ago, I was pretty amazed. I drove and he looked around, pointing out the convertible Nissan that he and Pappa want. He read the words on the different tractor trailer rigs and told me where they were headed. He pointed out a very beautiful two toned Hummer that he liked. We have always just enjoyed each other's company. As he was chatting with me, I wondered how much more time I will have before he is too old to enjoy time with his grandmother. I was amazed as he knew every turn to get to Glenda's and even noticed that there was more traffic on Broadway than every before. There used to be a lot of dairy farms down there. It is an area that used to remind me of being at the tip of the world, or tip of the city....but not any longer. It is the same thing here where we live: Used to be the west edge of Phoenix. Now with Buckeye so huge, it is like the edge of the city is someplace half way to California.

Well, as I pulled into Glenda's driveway, I asked Toughie if he wanted to go ring her doorbell and tell her we were there. Nope. He is a shy one. We chatted a bit, and were soon on our way. He wanted to go to the MacDonald's by our house. I asked him if I could stop at the Wal-Mart by Glenda's and check out the fabric. He is not as into fabrics as he used to be, but he said it was fine. They had some lovely fabrics on sale. I got several bolts and we had to wait for a lady buying $180 worth of fabric to use for quilting. She was talking language Austin and I totally understand. He knew she was a quilter when she was buying five yards of the fabric--what you need for the backs of some quilts. He was also going over the colors in the rainbow in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; Roy G. Biv., as the lady was buying jewel toned fabrics in all rainbow colors.

On the way home, we were talking about the first house grandma and grandpa lived in when we came to Arizona, so we drove by it. It has changed a lot. The yard seemed so huge when we lived there and the backyard, too. I told him there used to be a fence around the front yard and he pointed to one and asked if that was like the fence. We talked about how when we lived in that home, his mom was 4 years old. She went to kindergarten at a school near by. We just had Megan and Kristi, but soon Shanna came to us while we lived there and we talked a bit about foster babies and how much we loved our babies and were able to adopt two of them.

We finally made our way to MacDonalds. He had some chicken nuggets and a drink and I got their apple, yogurt salad. He wanted to play a bit so I had to go get my emergency book from under my car seat. I usually take a conference Ensign or book with me if I know I am going to end up someplace with nothing to do. I have a book that I am not particularly fond of under the seat in each of my cars. I tried a conference issue of the Ensign, but they do not hold up so well.....in my car. The book that has been in the Rondo is The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived. Three idiots wrote it. One does not believe in Satan, and one doesn't believe in God, so who cares what they think? I have been on page 16 for two years now. The cover of the book sounded interesting, but it is true: You cannot judge a book by its cover. Austin played a bit and we came home. I needed to run baby items to two ladies that live south of us and one of them helped in Austin's kindergarten class. Again, he helped me load up my car and we were off to take more baby items and get them out of our cluttered house and where they needed to go. We chatted a bit and Austin told them he is coming to the next Sewing for babies meeting and he is taking a basketball. Whether there are kids there or not, he feels at home at the Tolleson LDS Church cultural hall.

When we got home, he told me I could take the winter baby items to my storage place by myself....then he looked pretty serious and said, "Well, if you wait and I can play in the pool, grandma, I will help you at your storage. Is it pretty full up now?" He made me smile....maybe he is hoping that the storage place will soon be too full for any more fabric or baby items. It is just where I store the off season items until we can use them. It gets full and then it gets....well, never empty--we'll say less full!

I wish all of my little grandchildren were close and I could run errands with all of them. I do count it a blessing to have had Toughie, as know friends whose little grandchildren are all out of state. I have reflected on my time with my own little ones and how quickly that time came and has gone. At the time, it seemed to go on forever, but looking back, it seems almost like a heart beat to me. I don't know about next month, but today, Toughie was happy to wander around with his grandma.

I am heading to Florida. We'll see what I find to blog about. Until then, have a very happy summer with those you love.