Happy Birthday Nanny!

Nanny & Judah

My sweet Nanny turns 80 years young this month. I love her so much & have so many precious memories of her from childhood on. I always knew that my Nanny loved us kids unconditionally - she was always there for really long hugs & encouraging words. I don't remember her ever being mad at us, although I know that we were very loud, very messy, and probably tracked in a ton of creek sand, mud, and cow poop! Our visits to her farm several times a year, and especially every summer, are some of my sweetest childhood memories. Just a few of the things I remember about visiting her in East Texas...

*we always knew that we had arrived at the farm when we hit the bumpy dirt road - dad usually let one of us kids sit in his lap & drive that mile of rutted dirt. When we got there Nanny was usually watching for us & was thrilled to see us - her hugs lasted forever.

*I don't remember playing inside much at her house - but do have pictures of us girls dressing up in her wigs, trying out her many Mary Kay & Avon samples. I also remember her popping Jiffy Pop on the stove so that we could watch a movie on the huge brown beanbag chair.

*Mostly we spent the days outside - taking walks to the hay barn, playing chase & hide & go seek in the huge round bales stacked to the ceiling, playing in the boy scout camp across the road, and at the creek. If we were getting on the grown ups nerves they gave us brown bag lunch sacks & told us to go on a nature hunt. We'd collect sweet gum balls, leaves, rocks, spent shot gun shells from the scout rifle range, broken mosiac tiles dug from the dirt from some scout craft project, pine cones, and lots of sand from the creek sand bar... we'd come home & dump this mess on her kitchen table & she'd act so happy to see our treasures.

*We celebrated Easter almost every year there - Nanny would let us make a huge mess dying eggs, then we'd sleep on the sofa bed & try every year to stay up late to catch the Easter bunny filling our baskets (we never caught him though). After church we'd hunt eggs in the yard... Nanny always found a few rotten ones later that we'd missed. I remember hiding in the coat closet with my brothers & cousins eating jelly beans & Easter candy until we were sick.

*Lots of memories of swimming in Cow Creek & playing on the sandbar. Also, I remember taking walks to the back of the cow pasture where the cow bones were & pulling teeth out of cow skulls (how gross is that?!).

*Every Sunday we went with Nanny to her tiny Church of Christ - I can still remember the blue fold down seats & digging in her purse for peppermints or gum, and drawing on the backs of the annoucement paper (no iphones to play with then!).

*She was always so sad when we needed to leave - I always knew that she would stand out front & wave to our car until we'd dissapear down the dirt road. I hated leaving.

I so, so wish that we could be there to celebrate her birthday with her & the rest of the family. It's been on our calendar for weeks, but our little guy might be the world's worst traveler. He is still very challenging in every area - napping, eating, etc, and he absolutely hates his carseat. It would be 7 straight hours of screaming I'm afraid. We are so bummed to miss her surprise celebration!

Nanny, we love you so much & hope that your birthday is special this year. If Call, TX had an airport we'd fly there in a heartbeat! Thank you so much for all the memories & love that you have poured into us over the years. Thank you most of all for the legacy of loving the Lord that you have passed down - you will have many jewels in your crown in heaven! Happy Birthday!