{Brooklyn} Spoiled by Grammy & Papa

Every year my retired parents "snow bird" for three or four months in Bullhead City, Arizona from their home in Olympia, Washington. Which is really fantastic because they're only a few hours away from me instead of 18 hours (especially since my dad refuses to fly since 9/11). They always pay a visit to us here in Long Beach, which is so awesome now with Brooklyn. She loves all her grandparents so much. That relationship is so special!

Thanks to my mom, she insisted that she finally got a picture of the them together. I'm so bad at taking pictures when there are a lot of people around. I'm so distracted. Which is why most of the images of Brookie here on my blog are just of her. Poor girl. She's going to think it was just her growing up all by her lonesome self. I must change that! So here are my parents with my baby girl...

I'm pretty sure there is nothing like becoming a mom that forces you to recognize what a horrible daughter you were. I think back to conflicts with my mom and I'm mortified by the way I behaved. That scares me so much with raising Brooklyn. I always want to have a good relationship with her and open lines of communication. I pray that I can foster that relationship with her.

My poor parents. Every time they come to town, I put them to work. My husband works on weekends so we have very little time together, especially to accomplish projects. So my lucky parents were signed up for yet another project without permission (I'm sly like that). I have been so sick of picking up toys lately and trying to organize the chaos. It's just amazing how the toys accumulate between birthdays, christmas, and any other holiday under the sun (I pretty much never buy toys). I needed a simple solution! Enter Ikea. I just love this bookshelf with canvas bins. It stores so much and it is super easy to clean up the toys. I'm in love with Brookie's room once again. It's such a bright and cheerful place. Too bad she won't sleep in it. :(

After they left, Brookie said "Grammy spoil Brookie?" Ha! She must have overheard our conversations because yes, she got spoiled once again. And here's some proof of the spoiling with Brookie sporting her new threads by Grammy...

And we've got a twirler on our hands...

And just for memory sake, here is their visit during Brooklyn's first year. Which was also the first time she laughed EVER...and it was for my mom. I'll never forget this.

The missing candy dish...part II

(This was written by my older cousin Robby.)

I tried posting the below to your blog, but don’t have a google account.

Reply to BLOG:

What my dear cousin has failed to state is that her older siblings and cousins (of course we use to beat her up) had grown attached to this candy dish and had spent countless hours "sneaking" that hard candy that we all remember. You know the kind, red with white stripes, stuck together, but oh so delicious. My young cousin didn't have teeth during these times, therefore couldn't truly enjoy this ritual such as us OLDER kids could. As a family, we gathered together for the first time in 20 years at our grandmother’s funeral. The 7 of us told stories, laughed, cried and remembered why family was important. Our parents stood and listened to our stories, my cousin’s giggles, and lies about a snake in one of there shirts and my oldest male cousins rant on how he had the "Bunny wagon". Cousin "C" proclaimed that she had the candy dish as she smiled her beautiful smile. All heads turned to her, anger filled eyes burned holes through her tiny body, her reply "WHAT?" God love her, so intelligent, but damn is she sneaky. We all left promising to keep in touch this time, just as many families do. Our Grandmother loved family and loved having ALL of us together; unfortunately it took her passing to make it happen once again. Cousin "C's" blog and the "dangling of the proverbial carrot" although mean and evil, has ensured that we will all keep in touch, and give each of us a place to gather as family, to "sneak a piece of grandmas candy". Good job cousin, thank you.

The missing candy dish...

When I went home last month for my grandmother's funeral, my siblings, cousins, and I reminisced about our Grandma and her little house we always use to visit growing up. The one thing that continually came up in conversation was...the candy dish! Even though our ages differ as much as 10-15 years, we all remember going straight to the candy dish for a treat upon entering her house. Everyone kept asking whatever happened to the candy dish? I knew I had it at one time but I was certain I passed it on to my older brother. He's a sucker for vintage keepsakes, so I was sure he had it. He said that he didn't and no one else did either.

Well, upon cleaning out a cupboard today...I came across the infamous candy dish. I do have it! Oops. Well, it was a welcome surprise. So I'm here to tell all my family I HAVE IT! I guess you'll have to come to California if you'd like it back.