By mommie2zs in Cousins — Jan 2, 2020

Monkey's Month W/ Grandma Iowa November 2019

Monkey has gradually increased her time spent with my mom each year. This year was a whole month, but due to some medical testing Mom needed to have, Yessa and I ended up driving up mid-visit, so Monkey said it didn’t feel like she had been away that long.

On the two trips Yessa and I had; to drop off Monkey, then for the additional visit, I had time to work on some of the projects Mom always has for me, and some projects of my own.

Scanning in pictures was great fun.

This is the house we lived in until I was 3 y.o.

I scanned in the pictures my dad had carried in his wallet. He’s been gone 13 years, so it was time to collect those memories.

These are just a few of them. He carried one of those big, fat, bulging pocket wallets. Lots of pictures, lots of cards, though not a single credit card or ATM card. He carried “regular” cash and at least $200 in “hidden” cash tucked between all those cards and pictures. He was definitely a product of his era.

The “fancy” picture. Those clothes were so uncomfortable.

There were some hidden gems in Mom’s picture piles I hadn’t seen before:

And a few others for fun:

Grandma Frosty on the left, Great-Aunt Garnet on the right. Aunt Garnet just turned 97 y.o. yesterday. That’s my brother Steven sporting the mustache in the background, nephew James in the cowboy hat, and niece Patricia, and SIL Faye between them.

I was always envious of my nieces: Marci, Michelle, and Monique, for having sisters. The Christmas my brother and his wife gave Marci, Michelle, and me matching dresses, I was in heaven, feeling like I was part of the sister club in some small way.

On the mid-visit drive up for Yessa and me, we drove through Eldon, Iowa, where the Grant Wood American Gothic house is. There’s now a museum with the house, which we had not seen on previous visits.

We also stopped to see Aunt Kathy and my cousin Paula Jo popped over, too. These are the great parts of having family that still lives close together.

Yessa and I helped Monkey and Mom put up all the Christmas decorations when we were there mid-visit.

The cats didn’t mind the decorations.

When we drove up to bring Monkey home, Buster went along since we weren’t sure when we’d next be having a visit with Grandma.

In a stunningly patriotic twist, Buster and I saw a Bald Eagle standing majestically by the side of the two-lane country road we were driving on. It was by a small animal I assume it had just majestically conquered.

We had a couple days with Mom, and we enjoyed walking around at Target, looking at the toys they had loved in their young childhoods, and poking fun at the “classic toys” that were from my childhood.