"And there are no more ..."

My grandpa is perhaps the sweetest man. Growing up I remember that he almost always had a little something for us when we came to visit. A favorite of all of ours was the huge balloons that you could bounce on! We would fight over which one we would get and then he would spend what at the time seemed like a short eternity pumping them up. In the last five years he lost his wife and his sister (who lived with them and was like another grandma to Kylie, Kev, and I). It has been a hard time but something really neat has happened. Grandpa talks! I guess he never really had the chance before and is not of the temperament to fight for air space. I have been learning so much about his life ... and stuff in general ... it seems he reads a book a day and knows something about everything. About a month ago I asked him if he liked to play crib ... the next week he had the rules printed out (we had a little disagreement about those), a board, a shuffler, and he told me he has been playing online! The best part though is that it has given us something to do together ... and that he has all these great sayings like "fifteen two, fifteen four, and there are no more." Grandpa has very arthritic hands and can't shuffle(hence the shuffling machine)... it broke my heart just a little every time that his hands would automatically position to shuffle and then remember that they could shuffle no more.

I had a photographic memory this past week of sitting on my grandparent's living room floor in pink cord pants and pig-tales ... Grandma sitting on the couch watching Laurence Welks (?)... playing with paper Princess Diana dolls ... dressing her in all her famous gowns and dreaming of what I would wear when I became a princess one day.

Speaking of princesses I am the proud new momma of a sinfully soft pink stuffed bunny who is wearing slippers that say princess. One of my newer friends Connie got her for me just because she is so sweet. I sincerely can not understand how I have fallen into another incredible group of people. I can't grasp how I ended up with such beautiful, funny, fun, sweet, and caring friends ... it seems wrong somehow ... like I am hogging to many of the world's treasures to myself and that no one person should be so blessed.

The newbies ; ) were inaugurated into the unorthodoxness of Heather. Jen had us all over for a wonderful Mexican meal last night and there I was laying on the floor with Treesa (in her sumbraro ... this girl thrives on themes ... it is brilliant to witness) translating facial expressions and body language so that I would not miss out on the full hillariousness that was going around. I do struggle between not wanting to miss out on life and not ... I don't know ... I guess not wanting to make other people uncomfortable. You know when someone comes to work hacking their head off and you are just thinking what could have possibly dragged you out of bed and do you really hate us all that much that you want us as disgustingly sick as you? I am trying to trust my friends that they would let me know ... but they are all so sweet and I .. it is hard to not try and decide what is acceptable for them and what is not... now maybe if we were at a restaurant and I was laying on the floor or sitting in my chair like a pretzel they might object! It was a wonderful night ... Jen would have totally won that Martha Stewart Apprentice (except maybe for the green chicken ... Treesa decided that she would do purple ham next time!). Ohhhh... and the chocolate cake that Chris brought was magical ... until my throat started to close up a little ... must have had the ol'hazelnuts... guess I am still allergic.