Family Matters.
Today was a good day.
I was blessed to be in the presence of both of my grandparents… they’re so silly and so full of wisdom. I got up early with my mamma and we headed over to Papaw Mino’s house to visit with him. This past Wednesday night he was rushed to the hospital for what seemed to be a stroke… thankfully it wasn’t. He has Belle Palsy. I wasn’t able to see him while he was in the hospital and I didn’t quite know what to expect – I love my papaw’s smile and his laugh… so when I walked into the room today and saw half of his face just hanging there without any movement it took me back pretty far. But I had to keep a smile on my face because he needs all of the positivity he can get. So we sat there and looked through National Geographic books, like we did when I was a kid… fantasizing about trips we dream of taking and naming the animals we would see and the experiences we would be able to be a part of… it was wonderful. My Papaw has a lifetime full of traveling… only really to Guam, Peru, Mexico and other South American countries, but his stories are the best. I love to hear him chuckle and the way he exaggerates his stories are genius. He always makes you learn something… My Papaw grew up in Lima, Peru, and I was so happy to listen to him talk about it today. I always remember him taking trips when I was younger, he would always come back with a unique gift and I would always bring it to class for show-and-tell. I remember the best one was a stuffed Piranha. Ah it was awesome. I think I carried that thing around so much to scare people it finally just broke to pieces… come to think of it, it was pretty odd. No wonder I didn’t have many friends 
I still have one of the blankets he brought us back… it’s beautiful and I will always treasure it.
It was so good to listen to my papaw talk, even though it is harder to understand him with the Belle Palsy… he has the thickest accent and I love listening to him talk.
About 2 hours into visiting with him, he became weaker and needed some rest… so we took him over to his chair and he held my hand and just smiled at me… I gave him a big kiss on his cheek and told him to behave himself and that I’ll be checking in on him tomorrow 
My mamma and I left and went over to my grandmothers house to visit with her. (Sidenote: both of the grandparents I am referring to are my mother’s mom and dad, but are both divorced and happily married to other people. This all happened when I was 2 or 3, so this is all I know and I couldn’t imagine it any other way)
So, we headed over to my grandmama’s. She is the most precious thing on God’s green earth. I owe much of who I am to my grandmother – she instilled many values in me growing up. On Thursday, my grandmama went in for a check up on her wrist because she just had surgery about 2 months ago… well they told her she needed to go in for immediate surgery on Friday on her arm to take out her carpal tunnel. My Papaw was still in the hospital at this time and we still thought he was suffering from a stroke so when this news came it just through us for a loop. But, it was finally the surgery my grandmama needed to fix her arm completely and not have to go in for surgery after surgery and it would finally take care of the pain – which is an answer to prayer. So bright and early Friday morning grandmama went in for surgery and my papaw mino was released from the hospital with Belle Palsy and not a stroke…
Doped up on the pain medicine my grandmama came home that night and had her little posse over to play her Friday Night cards… she said she might as well enjoy it while she can’t feel the pain. Smart woman. When we went over today she still looked amazing as always and wasn’t hurting like we were expecting her to… I made dinner for everyone, good ol’ country fixin’s and then we all sat down and watched a movie. She loved it. Our family is extremely close and my grandmama loves nothing more than our family being in the same room just spending quality time with eachother. Her little princesses were there (myself, my sister and my cousin) and we had some girl time – honestly I think we could all just sit around for hours enjoying eachother’s laughter and obscenities… my grandmama will put the fear of God in you but at the same time His overwhelming love.
So, today was a good day. A blessed day indeed. Days like these help me remember where I’ve come from and where I’m going… and why I do everything I do.
Now I’m going to do some laundry and watch The Office. Thank you Nashville friends for getting me hooked…
