Back in the Good Ol' USA

PK has been able to sleep in his own bed for two nights now.  He was up for almost 48 hours on the journey home and I was surpised when he got up early the first morning home.  I think his body still thought it was in Bahrain where it would have been about 2:00 in the afternoon.

We had a failed attempt to get him home five days early.  He had returned to Bahrain and was not going to be sent back out to a ship so it was decided he would be sent home.  I took this as a blessing, not only because he would be home early, but because it was right before Grandma passed away.  There was a huge mix up with the military system that tickets and he ended up coming home on his origianl date.  It was frustrating on both ends, but he is home and it is over.

He had told me to just drive by the terminal to pick him up about 1:30.  His flight was scheduled to arrive at 12:55.  I decided that we would surprise him at baggage claim.  I checked his flight information before leaving the house and his flight was on time.  We arrived in the parking garage at 12:55 and made it to baggage claim within 5 minutes.  I knew there was no way he could have made it from his plane to baggage claim that quickly, so we waited....and waited....and waited and waited some more.  I walked outside the doors to make sure he hadn't made it outside before we got in, but no sign of him.  I must have checked the arrival board and confirmed the baggage claim turnstyle number a dozen times. 

After an hour, I realized PK probably had to clear customs and that was the hold up.  After and hour and a half, I was afraid he may have missed his connecting flight in Amsterdam.  I called home to check messages, but nothing.  I knew if he hadn't made it on the plane in Bahrain he would have contacted me.  Finally, a large group of people started to form around the baggage claim area and bags started to appear.

This was very timely as Hannah started to ask why we couldn't talk about bombs at the airport.

Rachel spotted the smiley face tag on PK's bag, so we knew at least his luggage made it home.  Then as I was scouring the sea of faces, I spotted him.  He saw me and I saw him say to the man next to him, "There is my family."  He had been seated next to a retired soldier who was now a contractor in Iraq and they were walking together.  I told the kids I spotted him and they stood still for a brief second.  I said, "Go get him."

And they did.

He was tired, but home.  Once he got off the plane, he had to claim his bags and make it through customs.  Then he had to go through security and recheck his bags before coming to baggage claim to claim them again.   A long process.

The kids talked to him non-stop in the car.  We went for a late lunch on the way home.  The kids didn't want to eat before we got him because they thought he might be hungry, too.

The kids made a welcome home sign for him all by themselves.



We looked at some videos he had taken on the ships.  I thought it was cool that he saw Somali pirates because I follow the news and I am just that way.  He said the warship would send out a small boat, but the pirates would throw their weapons overboard before the sailors arrived on their vessel.

He had videos of people transferring from ship to ship via helicoptor and small boats, helicoptors transferring supplies and lines between ships to transfer supplies.  The kids just wanted to see the video of the dolphins.

We kept the kids home from school the day after he got home so we could hang out as a family.  Life seemed normal and it almost seems as though he was never gone.  I did his laundry and he caught up on some things that had to be done.  We started a family game of Risk and went to movie night at the kids' school. 

When the kids would argue or tattle, I would just step back and stare at PK until he intervened.  At one point he and I were in his office talking and Hannah came in to tell us that Aaron had hit the dog with a stuffed animal.  PK told her to tell Aaron to come here.  She ran off and we heard her say, "Aaron, Mommy wants you." 

PK had his car towed and the battery replaced as his wife may not have done a good job starting it while he was gone.  I actually cooked a real meal (salmon patties, fried potatoes and black eyed peas) and we sat at the diningroom table.  Sounds normal, but I think I only cooked a real meal twice while he was gone.

It is good to have him home.

One Week

Tonight marks one week since Grandma went to be with Jesus.  It has been a long week here, but I bet it has flown by for her. 

Precious Memories

A list of random memories I have of my grandmother...

...the way she would pull the curtain back to peek out the window to see what was going on (her pastor mentioned this at her funeral...made my cousin's husband cry).
...standing at the front door while she jerked the brush through my long hair. 
...making myself throw up before school one day so I could stay home.  She knew I was faking, made me clean it up and sent me to school.
...her sitting at the kitchen table in the morning reading her Bible, having a piece of toast and drinking coffee from her brown coffee cup.
...she worked "puzzle books."
...she crocheted.
...hearing that her time was near but being happy because I knew she was going to see Jesus.
...laying in the bed with her in the back bedroom wanting to get up.  She wanted to stay in bed a while longer, so she said one more minute.  I asked her how long a minute was so she counted out 60 seconds.  Then I asked her how long an hour was and she said, "Well, I'm not going to lay here and count out an hour."  We got up.
...the jar on the back of her stove that held the "drippins."  I know that was probably her secret ingredient in everything.
...picking beans in the garden.
...picking blackberries that she would freeze until the end of the summer and use in blackberry pies.  The crust was my favorite part because she would sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the extra and let us have it as a treat.
...her no bake cookies.
...her paper grocery sacks filled with caps from glass soda bottles that she could "cash" in.
...her razor strap.  'Nuff said.
...thinking she was really old 20 years ago.  Once in a while I would get up before her and would be surprised that she was still in bed.  I would tip toe to her bedroom door to make sure she was still breathing.
...she fought so hard in the end.
...her Aqua Net hairspray.
...she would say she could tell when I had used her hairspray because it would almost be empty (it was the 80s...I have thin straight hair...what can I say?)
...her hard candies and Doublemint gum
...she mailed me a baby blanket for Aaron when he was born.  When I opened the box, it smelled like her.
...when I walked through the door of her house with Rachel for the first time. She reached out her arms to take her right away.
...when I was 8 and my older cousin got her drivers license.  I was sitting in the back seat of my mom's car at the stoplight at First Avenue and Mill Road.  Mom was driving because Grandma never did.  Grandma was saying how she would never ride with my cousin.  I said, "Grandma, you will ride with me when I can drive, won't you?"  She said, "Why, I'll probably be dead before you learn how to drive."  For the record, she rode with me many, many, many times.
...she didn't carry a purse, she carried a pocket book.
...her chasing the dog with her broom.
...she sent my college room mate a box of Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies because those were my roommate's favorite.
...she either liked you or she didn't.
...going through her cigar boxes of pictures and listening to the stories about each one.
...the way she twisted her face and wrinkled up her nose when I would ask her who the picture was of if she didn't like that person.  Usually I already knew and asked her just to see her make that face.
...sitting with her in church, the seventh pew from the front, on the right hand side.
...playing the piano in her living room while she sang hymns.
...her pretending to smack me at her 90th birthday.
...sitting at the hospital with her this past spring.  Some moments she was there and some she wasn't.  She had one really good day and we chatted all day.  She mostly chatted and I mostly listened.  May go down as one of my favorite days with her.
...she made the trip to Georgia, TWICE!
...standing at the bus stop when I was really little.  One of my cousins rode a different bus that passed my stop.  He made fun of me because I couldn't stand down there by myself and Grandma stood with me.  After I told her, she would hide behind a tree when his bus passed.
...she sat in a chair in our livingroom the night my Grandpa passed away and wiped away tears.
...calling her from Boston during our first snow there and she said, "Well, Jody, you act like you have never seen snow before."
...her sleeping over at our house in Winslow.
...kidnapping her to help me make my first Thanksgiving dinner at our house in Winslow.
...she would bring me Zero candy bars home once in a while when she worked at the nursing home.
...her watching her stories (soap operas).
...her watching Jeopardy.
....and the Price is Right.
...taking her to her parents grave a couple years ago.  We had my kids along.
...talking to her after the terrorist attacks on 9/11.  She recalled what it was like after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  She said Pearl Harbor was sad, but it seemed far away.
...she looked so pretty at her funeral.
...after PK and I moved away and I would come for a visit she always asked me if I knew when I was going to come for my next visit.
...her jig saw puzzles
...receiving our birthday and Christmas checks.  When we were kids we got a dollar for every year...when I turned 13, I got 13 dollars, etc.
...playing Yahtzee with her.
...the dusters she wore.
...calling her Grandma Fruit Salad Duck Walker because she had a fruity looking duster and was stiff and walked like a duck (I know...I was probably in college when I started that....some kids never grow up).
...her blue sweater.
...making her get up to kill the spiders.  I don't do spiders.
...getting the one eyed mouth half open stare.
...the day she fell at the cemetery and insisted on coming home to change before going to the ER.  Nevermind the fact half her eyeball was HANGING OUT OF HER HEAD!
...I was younger and found a HUGE spider in her utility room.  It must have been as big as my hand.  She got her mop, squished it and shook it out the back door under a bush.  I never went close to that bush again.
...helping her pull weeds behind her house.  I told her I saw a snake and she said it was an old garden hose.  I asked her why it was moving.
...she touched Aaron's pet snake when she was here.  She made the same twisted face she makes when she doesn't like someone.
...her making breakfast for Grandpa every morning...it was usually bacon and eggs.
...her old sewing machine.
...her set of Nancy Drew books.  I read them all one summer.  I think I read one a day.
...how many treasures she could bury under a set of towels in a dresser drawer.
...sitting with her on the wooden swing in her front yard.
...seeing her randomly pull "greens" from the side of the road that she knew were edible.
...her telling me what kind of bird was around from the sound.
...she ate coconut straight out of the bag.

Mildred Stoneberger (1919-2011)

Mildred Stoneberger, 91, of Evansville, passed away Friday, September 9, 2011, at her home. She was born December 20, 1919, in Posey County, IN.

Mildred graduated from F.J. Reitz High School in 1939.

She was a member of Harwood Baptist Church for 56 years.

Mildred retired from Pine Haven Nursing Home.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 43 years, Ben F. Stoneberger in 1986; grandson, Aaron Lynch; brothers, Ralph and Melvin Hess; and sister, Ethel Lamb.

Mildred is survived by her sons, Dan Stoneberger (Earleen) and Dennis Stoneberger (Diana); daughters, Diana Oakley (Jim) and Mary Ball (Charles); grandchildren, Danny Allen (Jill), David, Eric (Liza) Michael Stoneberger, Donna (Jim) Farmer of Owensville, IN, Jody (P.K.) Ray of Marietta, GA, Lorie Lynch, Crystal (Brandon) Thomas and Melissa (Tim) Dixon of Johnson City, TN; great grandchildren, Adam, Aaron, Andrew, Ryan, Jason, Justin, Rachel, Aaron, Hannah, Hailey, Riley, Bethanie, Lydia, Alexis, Amaya, Darian, Gabriel, and Cayden; great great grandchild, Ella Stoneberger; sister, Helen Brown; nieces and nephews.

Services will be 1:00 PM Monday, September 12, 2011, at Alexander West Chapel, officiated by Rev. Karl Crowe, with burial in Alexander Memorial Park. Friends may visit Sunday from 2:00 to 8:00 PM at the funeral home and Monday from 11:00 AM until service time.

A special thank you to the staff of Aseracare Hospice.

Memorial contributions may be made to Aseracare Evansville, 3775 Haley Drive, Newburgh, IN 47630. Condolences may be made online at www.AlexanderWestChapel.com.

Daddy's Birthday Gifts

PK's birthday is the end of this month.  Today is Rachel's, so I haven't even thought about PK's.  Let's get him back in the country first and then we can think about celebrating.

I guess Aaron and Hannah have given it some thought because out of nowhere, we had this conversation.

Aaron:  Mom, for Dad's birthday I want to get him the Bear Grylls (from the survival show Man Versus Wild) knife we saw at Walmart.

Me:  What would he do with that (does he really need a survival knife?  he already has one he doesn't use, this is probably something Aaron wants)?

Aaron:  Treasure it?

Me:  (LAUGHING OUT LOUD!!)