Gramma Nina

For those of you who don't know her, this is Rob's grandma, Nina Olive Rogers Swykert. (she'd be so mad if she knew I put her middle name in there) She just turned 90 on September 21st. She was the 9th child in her family, born in the 9th month and named "nine-a", kind of neat. She came to live with us about 3 weeks ago...after a lot of moving her around in apartments, assisted living and one nursing home Rob finally convinced himself and me to take her home with us. It's going better than I thought it would. She can't be alone anymore, too forgetful. But she gets around like a 20 year old....rarely complains about her health. Mostly she's worried about being a burden on us. Rob's been taking care of her for over 10 years now, being her "maintenance man" and general go-to guy, especially after her husband Joe died in 2003. Jackson has really gotten attached to her. I guess she's not old to him because he tries to get her to play with him, he has been caught trying to jump on her....oops, sorry Gramma! And one day he was hitting her with a styrofoam sword, Rob told him to stop hitting Gramma, and you can't play swords with someone who doesn't have a sword. Rob left the room and came back a minute later, there was Gramma holding a stick in her lap and Jackson jabbing at her with his sword! (probably wondering why gramma wasn't hitting back!) She used to work in a preschool, back in the 50's or 60's and has a lot of funny stories to tell about the kids. When her memory was working she had good stories to tell about everyone...and lots of memories of growing up in the Copper Country. Rob says she and his grampa Joe were always people he could count on, he did a lot of fishing with his grampa and they were good to him when he was younger so this is time for him to pay back.

It's definetly not easy having someone come to live with us, but on the bright side, I don't yell at my kids as much; cause it's kind of hard to yell when you've got gramma lookin at you like you're crazy :) And I feel like I've got to slow down a little and sit with her once in awhile to drink tea or coffee. I think we're all getting used to her being around now and she's getting used to us. Even better, we like having her around.

Do you hear water running? cause I hear water running!

So tonight I went down to Lake Linden to visit my cousin Melanie and see her new/old house. Jackson came along because him and Melanie's little girl Anna haven't seen each other in awhile. Jenna came along too just because she likes to visit people, anyone really, she's not particular. The house is amazing by the way, it's the one that Sharon and Wil bought from Grampa and Gramma Lasanen way back in the 80's. Now Melanie and her husband Todd bought it from Wil. They've almost completely renovated the house, and in less than a month! Absolutely amazing work over there, stop by if you want to, they'll give you a tour. Anyway, Melanie and I were sitting there visiting and talking about something, Jenna was quietly playing with Anna's new dollhouse and suddenly Melanie heard water running, we walked out into the hall....no Jackson or Anna. Hmm, the bathroom door was shut.....and the sound of water was coming from in there. Guess who was sitting there in the tub? Jackson and Anna, buck naked! Water running, clothes all over the floor. And those two having the time of their lives splashing in the tubby! Melanie and I laughed so hard, sure wasn't expecting that :)