Life with the Grieffs: February 2016

Let's start with some happiness, or something.

we were at the park and saw a javelina just digging through the trash. We got the kids up high on the equipment, and then I snuck over and stood on top of a picnic table to get some photos.

Ella always wants to sleep with her turkey, and her face mask.

Valentine's Day was coming up, so we got in the mood and made some treats for Eli's work. Chocolate covered oreo truffles, they were suuuuper good! Ella helped set out the cups...I made them and dipped them, and Eva did most of the decorating and some dipping. Ella did help for a second with decorating, luckily it was at the end because she immediately dropped an entire can of sprinkles all over the floor.

I don't know what's going on here, because this was 5 months ago (as I write this in July), but they're clearly grumpy.

Eva's school had a valentine's day dance, which I helped set up, but by the end of the day Ella was feeling really sick and we had to skip it, so Eva and Eli had a daddy daughter date. I was so sad to miss it! But Eva was happy to have Eli to herself.

We had a Valentine's Party at Eva's school, and I can't find a single picture! But the kids had a bunch of fun doing the various stations and handing out valentines.

February was one of my hardest months to date. My dear Grandpa Forsyth became very ill and passed away. The girls and I were fortunate enough to be able to pack up and ship out once we knew it was time to say goodbye. I finished up Eva's Valentine's Day Party, and spoke to my mom as we drove home, I booked our tickets while still parked in the driveway, packed our bags and we flew out a few hours later. I decided to just pack for the next 5-6 weeks, thinking it would be best to stick around IL for at least a couple weeks with our family, and then we were already planning to bring the girls to IL in early March while Eli and I went to Belize, so it seemed to make sense to just stay through.

I had written a letter to my Grandpa when I was still hopeful he may recover, and then I revised it slightly to read at his funeral. I am including it here, since this blog is essentially my memory book. My grandparents have all played such important roles in my life and it was very special to me to be able to express this. My brother, Devan, cousins, Eli and I were the pall bearers, and we each wore one of his hats during our duties. He had a lot of hats to choose from!

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Dear Grandpa,

As your health was deteriorating and I was an airplane ride away, I wanted desperately to come see you and get one last smile. I was able to picture exactly how you would be if I visited, with you expressing perhaps 'mild discomfort'. The only explanation of course is that you are the strongest person, inside and outside, that I know. Any obstacle that you have faced, I watched you handle with grace, dignity and determination. Always a smile on your face, a smile that radiated through your eyes. I've always been complimented on my patience, my positive attitude and how I smile with my eyes, and I think those are direct traits from you (almost like being organized and meticulous... but the exact opposite.) Thank you for passing on those invaluable traits.

Many people I know weren't lucky enough to have had a Grandpa in their life the way I had you growing up, and I will always be thankful for you taking us on awesome trips in the motorhome, playing catch with me, visiting me practically weekly at my first job at McDonalds - how fortunate was I to have such supportive grandparents, who would drive 30 minutes just to get french fries. I probably had to hide my embarrassment then, but now I can appreciate it.

You always sat with me to do my homework, and I specifically remember some projects from 5th grade: my leaf project that we had a month to work on but I left until the absolute last hours, literally, and you helped me walk around the neighborhood after school, gathering leaves and then sorting through all of them once we were home, trying to remember which trees they belonged to - you encouraged me and gave small pointers as I frantically crammed them into a photo album. In retrospect, actually even at the time I knew, it was not my finest moment, as I tried to make these random leaves stick into those photo album pages, the ones with the sticky backs and the clear overlay. Big shocker, it wasn’t working well. You were so meticulous in everything you did, yet you didn't take over my disaster or just give up on me, it probably made you itch inside, but you just assisted and sat by my side. Despite your passion for labeling, you didn't seem to flinch when I haphazardly stuck sloppy labels, on each leaf, glue oozing everywhere. And throughout this whole process (all 4 or 5 hours of it, being that it was a huge project and the night before it was due) you never once expressed frustration and never gave up on me until we finished...just one tiny example of your never ending calm and perhaps your determination too.

There was also the instrument project, which I got to demonstrate for the class because it was so clever. As I am sure you would recall (since you remembered and documented everything), we cut the bottom off of a water bottle and then placed it in a cup of water, then as we blew over the mouth of the water bottle, we moved it up and down to make different notes- (DEMONSTRATE) Clearly, it’s genius and I was commended on my project and I am pretty sure I took all the credit for that one, so thanks again, but knowing you, even if I had given credit where it was due, you would have been your humble self and allowed me the glory anyway :)

And I apologize for never paying attention in math class because I knew my grandpa would just explain it better when I got home. Your patience for me was unending and when the day comes that my kids or someday grandkids are in the midst of learning a life lesson the hard way, I will do my best to channel your calm and your patience, let them make the mistakes but be there to encourage and support them. When they are excited about doing a project I will try to be like you, ready to enthusiastically participate. When they need help with something or need it explained over and over...and over again, I will do my best to understand their frustration and explain with patience, again and again and again.

All of this to make my point, your presence in my life has helped shape me into a pretty outstanding individual, (and humble too). Maybe I didn't inherit as much humility as you have, or your organizational skills, or your green thumb, or your eye on the gas gauge, but I have something to work towards. Thank you for being such a strong role model for me. I admire you and love you more than words can say.

I was so lucky, I had you for 32 1/2 years, so instead of wishing for just a few more moments with you or for that last smile, I will instead cherish our time together and smile of my fond memories: watching Wheel of Fortune and daydreaming of being a team on the show, doing a word search by your side with our highlighters, or listening to the comforting tick tick tick of your heart. Smelling Dentyne on your breath and unwrapping my own piece so we could smell like cinnamon gum together. And always rushing to you when I needed an emergency snip from scissors, since you'd definitely have your red swiss army knife in your pocket. And of course your favorite accessory (hat)

After all of my rambling, I still don't feel that I have properly conveyed how incredibly lucky I am to have you as a Grandpa. But thank you for being you. I know I speak for everyone when I say how much we will miss you. We will see you in the ice cream aisle, and in any refrigerator stocked with pop, and in the motorhomes on the road and most definitely in the garden.

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Leading up to the funeral, we put together just a couple of photos that we felt portrayed him best.

After my Grandpa's funeral, the girls and I spent quite a bit of time with Grandma and stayed over there quite a bit. Our transient month went fairly fast, spending time between Grandma's house, my mom's house, and having sleepovers with cousins and friends. We went to McDonalds more times than I care to admit, but they had so much fun playing at the playplace (we stayed for 3 hours one day). We also went to the Barrington library, the mall play area, and even got to play in the snow a few times! My grandma's house has the perfect sledding hill for their size and we even had a rare day when the snow was perfect for building a snowman.

On the days we didn't leave the house, they typically stayed in their super cozy jammies!

SNOW!!!!!

Ella's finger is often stuck inside her nose. We aren't trying to break this habit at all, we figure it'll keep the boys away as she gets older.

Eli taught them what a white wash is.

We did a make-up birthday celebration for Nana and we had a 'girls day' and got our nails done!

We celebrated Grandma Barb's birthday and then we had an epic sleepover with Jenna and Ryan.

I think they were up until 11 or so. Eva and Ryan have a secret competition of who can talk more/be sillier.

Ella is not as immune to needing sleep, and she passed out a bit earlier, maybe around 9:30 or 10.

I don't know what possessed me. They were perfectly happy with the existing toys at Nana's house and the small amount of American Girl things I had out, but something just came over me and I broke out all, and I mean all, of my American Girl collection. Food, tea sets, furniture, gobs of clothes, accessories, toys, the works. They did quite well with it fortunately, and they really enjoyed playing with it all!