GREAT Grandparents

I’m sitting here in my car, at the local little league park.  I usually sit and watch practices if I’m not helping but todays practice is being held entirely in the batting cage.  So I brought the laptop and am chilling in the car, listening to the radio while Samantha practices.

Yesterday was Easter, in case you forgot.  Once Cheri and I rolled out of bed, we had the kids find their buckets.  It took them a little while, Samantha found Trevor’s first (but didn’t tell him) and then eventually found hers.  We had to guide Trevor a little bit but he finally found his.  Samantha enjoyed her Angry Bird Dog Tags and Trevor his baseball cards.  Now that they are getting older, I’m trying to get them into some hobbies.  Trevor seems to have taken to cards.  Samantha I’m still searching for something.  She liked the Bella Sara cards (horses) but I can’t seem to find them anymore.

We got together at my mom’s and had huge amounts of food for lunch.  Which is good, because there are quite a few huge people in our family.  Including myself.  We are a big family.  Let’s just say, my brother and I grew up with 2 cousins that are the same age as we are.  I’m the smallest of the 4.  And I’m 6’3”, 250 lbs.  Of course, that’s a far cry from the 6’3”, 150 pounds I was when I graduated high school a little over 20 years ago.  Anyways, we always have ham, and it’s always really good.  About the only time I have ham is on a couple of holidays, I’m not sure why, because I really do enjoy it.  On top of that, there are always massive amounts of side dishes.  Green bean, corn, and hash brown casseroles, deviled eggs, cowboy beans, mac and cheese and rolls.  I’m probably forgetting others but you get the idea.  Lots and lots of food.

After lunch, some of the adults and all the kids walk down the road a bit to a park right on the river.  While they are all down there, the remaining adults hide eggs with candy and cash in them.  This year we were down to 6 kids with 2 at their mom’s and 2 getting older now.  So we hide, probably 250 eggs for 6 kids.  Needless to say, we run out of hiding spots and just throw them on the ground after awhile.  I’m sure my mom finds them for months afterwards too.  The kids got stacks of candy and a couple of bucks.  Grandma always provides another Easter basket with goodies in them as well.

After that, I had to take the kids to meet their mom so they could spend the evening with her.  When I got back from that run, some of the guys were out playing horseshoes so I headed over there.  My brother and I took on my grandfather and stepdad.  When we get together for horseshoes it always seems to end up with those teams in the end.  Now I know it sounds a little unfair, I’m 38 and my brother is 35 against my grandfather, who is around 80 (not sure which side of that he’s on) and my stepdad is mid to late 50’s somewhere.  You’d think my brother and I would have the advantage, but that isn’t the case.  I always throw alongside my grandfather, because he’s good and I am a little more consistent than my brother.  The problem is, every time I throw a point, my grandfather usually matches it.  So with us equaling each other out, we have to rely on the other two.  Well, for the first time in how ever many years we’ve been trying, we finally came out on top.  My grandfather claims it takes a few games before he gets hot, something about being older now.  But I’m not buying that.  Next thing he’ll be claiming that he has trouble because he only has 1 lung.  Whatever!  Take your beat down, old man!

I love my grandparents, on my mom’s side that is.  They’ve always been a part of my life.  I have many memories of staying overnight there on school nights when I was a kid.  I remember some great holidays at their house.  They’ve always supported all our school activities and sports.  They even lived with us for a stretch while we were growing up.  The sad thing is, my grandmother could probably out walk me.  Even into her 80’s she’s full of energy and is always on the go.  It’s kind of disgusting if you ask me.  But that’s probably because I have trouble getting my lazy ass off the couch.  My grandfather played softball up into his late 60’s, possibly early 70’s.  I always said I wanted to play for that long, now here I am at 38 and I’ve been retired from softball for about 5 years now.  My grandfather battled cancer in his lungs a few years back (and won.)  And the fact that he beat cancer, just goes towards what I’ve always thought.  That nothing can take that man down.  He may not realize this, but I’ve always looked up to him.  I may have not always realized that he was my idol, but he was.  Even to this day, he’s my idol.  My only goal in life is to be the man that he is.  A great father, husband and man.

I love my grandparents, and when they are gone, it will be a devastating blow to our family and myself personally.  Of course, the larger than life persona that he has on me, he will probably still outlive me.  Which is fine, because I don’t want to live without either of them.