Kansas

Last Monday morning Danny and I took an unplanned trip to Kansas. My Grandma gave us quite a scare and was rushed to the hospital over the weekend. We are so lucky that we were able to drop work and make it there to be with her and other family. With all of them so far away I don't get there often enough. Grandma Monie celebrated her 80th birthday a couple weeks ago and is mentally as sharp as she was at 21. She's a sassy lady and always makes everyone laugh (even while hooked up to machines)! After a week in the hospital she told me, "I think I'm going to make it through this one" and from the latest doctor's reports it seems like she's continuing to grow a little stronger every day. With her overall declining health it was really difficult to say goodbye to her when it was time for Danny and I to head home; Grandma and I were holding hands and neither of us wanted to let go. I could not be more thankful for last week with her!

We had a lot of down time in the hospital and my aunts taught Danny our family card game, Canasta. It was fun to see him with my family; he's only met them all once or twice, and for very short periods of time. One of my cousin's two year old son became Danny's little buddy. Danny had Deran saying "Go Clemson Tigers" and sporting his Clemson hat around Grandma's room (Which was probably not appreciated by his dad who played football at Kansas). Deran showed us his fish tank, which made Danny even more proud to know that they share the same hobby, and they got to watch their favorite movie together, Finding Nemo! Haha! Danny keeps talking about Deran and my aunt told me that Deran has done the same about Danny. They're too funny! A couple little small town oddities on our trip...internet was only available at the Ellsworth antique mall and cell phones get service only half the time. Salina, the "big town" an hour from Ellsworth was out of rental cars so we had a little trouble getting back to Kansas City to fly home. Then central Kansas got a big ice and snow storm, so we weren't able to drive to see some of my other cousins that we really wanted to hook up with or get to the airport. If only metro Atlanta would take a tip from the Midwest in surviving winter weather weather-- don't drive in it! Everything was back up and running the following day after nearly 10" of snow. The week before we were in Kansas we were stuck here at home for 4 days because of less than 5" of snow. God bless the dear South!