Tag: grandma

Grandma Mumsie and Fiona in Rice Lake Wisconsin

Our visit here in Rice Lake is about to come to an end. Sunday morning we leave for St. Paul for our 3-week house sitting job. Fiona has enjoyed her visit with her grandma Mumsie, as we call Joel’s mom. She’s also loved coming back to The Rice Lake Public Library. Yesterday she had fun with the American Girls Book club here. She got to make a craft – a glass vase with colored sand glued to the outside. Not we have to find a safe way to transport it without it getting broken.

Last Monday Fiona and I went over to the lake and she got to wade in it quite a bit. Grandma came out in her electric wheelchair and we all stopped for a visit in the local book store. Yes, we’re a family of avid readers!

School has also started for Fiona. She’s now in second grade and the homeschool program through the school district here is great. We have lots of fun school work to keep us busy.

I’m really looking forward to our 3 weeks in St. Paul and then spending the winter back in New Jersey. More on that later…

Memories of My Grandma

Today we drove through Nebraska. Which reminds me of my grandma since she lived much of her youth here. She was actually born in Kansas but at some point moved to Nebraska. She’s been gone for several years so I can’t ask her about it and never did find out much about her family when she was alive. Even my mom doesn’t know much and there’s no one else alive to tell me anything. One day I should try to do some research.

Today my daughter also posted on her blog something she wrote the last time she visited her great-grandma before she died. I loved my grandma very much and miss her. Fiona is the only great-grandchild she never got to meet.

Grandma lived a long, good life. She was just a few months short of 98 when she died. I have fond memories of spending the night with her, watching Lawrence Welk on Saturday nights, going out to eat at IHOP. She was a grand lady in her own way and I think I have much of her in me. Fiona got her fingernails though. :)

Grandma Arrives by Plane for Rachelle’s Wedding

Today my mom arrives for Rachelle’s wedding Saturday. We’ll be picking her up at the airport this morning. She had knee surgery three months ago and this is her first time on a plane since then. Our good friends Eric and Heather, who we’ve house sit for in the past, are kindly putting her up.

Grandma already sent up Great-Grandma’s silver. Rachelle inherited great-grandma’s silver in a beautiful felt-lined wooden box. I only wish great-grandma was still around. She would have been 105 next month. She passed away 7 years ago just before she turned 98 on January 26 exactly one month to the day after Joel and I got married.

Rachelle and I were very close to my grandma. It was very hard that I had moved 500 miles away a few months before she died. Fortunately I did get to see her one last time a few weeks before. Joel and I had been on a trip in Arizona when we decided to drive to San Diego so I could see grandma. Though by then she was becoming less coherent, I am very glad I had a little bit of time with her.

Fiona is the only one of her great-grandkids she never met. That’s the saddest thing for me. I know they would have liked each other very much. Today I will think very fondly of my great-grandma as I pick up her daughter and my mom from the airport.

Visiting Grandma in Rice Lake, Wisconsin

We arrived at Gramma’s, or Mumsie as we often call her, on Wednesday, October 6 and left Saturday, October 9. Joel and I hadn’t seen his mom in over 7 years and she’d never met Fiona. We enjoyed our stay and know we have to go back for a longer visit. We plan to go back for 10 days in November.

Fiona had a blast at Rice Lake. The lake is just down the block from where Mumsie lives. Joel’s aunt also came by to visit for a bit.