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My name is Jeannie. I am a Mommy/Wife by day and a Registered Nurse by night.

5.17.2009

"For garsh sakes"

When Jason decided to steal a kid's jacket at church, it made me laugh to the point of a stomach ache and almost caused an episode of incontinence. My stomach muscles were sore, and it hurt pretty bad... It almost hurt as bad as the time I consumed an entire jar of home-made cookies in less than 1 hour flat. It's a sickness for sure. Which reminds me...when I taught English in China several years ago, we would go to Walmart to stock up on some "normal" food for the following week. One occurence in particular, I decided to buy six snicker bars to last me about two weeks. Needless to say, I got carried away emailing all of my family/friends one Sunday afternoon and devoured all six in a row while sitting at the computer. This hurt more than ever, and snickers have never been the same for me. I mean, who does that? Seriously. I really have such a fat personality. Now I DO NOT eat and play on the computer at the same time. BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN... as evidenced by this empty cookie jar...heh hem.


Although I have been hurt by many things in my life, including friends, family, food, falls, failures, etc. Nothing really hurts the way of losing someone you love dearly. My Grandma Shill passed away a little over one week ago. I was very fortunate to have grown up in the same home as Grandma, and she played a big role in my life. She was a part of our Christmas mornings, birthdays, movie watching, book reviews, meal planning and family vacations. I always thought that we were taking care of Grandma, but now that she is gone, I realize that she was really taking care of all of us. I am grateful for the time I had with her and for all of the memories that have accumulated over the years.

I already miss her love for me and all of my brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. She loved her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and even great great grandchildren. It's been hard, because I know that nobody loved me like Grandma Shill loved me, and now she is gone. I know she loved us by the way she would hold us tight and listen to everything and anything we wanted to say. She sincerely appreciated us for the way we were.

She was a supportive wife, and never stopped loving my Grandpa. She would always tell me, "I hope that you and Jason can be as happy as Bob and I were." She taught me what mattered in life, something that is easy to forget in these modern days. She would say, "Nothing is ever really yours." Think about it; the material things you own or possess can be taken away from you. You can lose people, love, consistency, comfort and human rights. Appreciate the things that you do have, for the time that you have them. We should focus on the things that are of true value in life and fail to dwell on the rest. I'm still working on this one...
She was SO FUNNY. Grandma was sharp and had a quick wit. I especially loved watching her and my dad interact with one another. I already miss that. She was a wonderful story teller and 100% herself. We were all drawn to her.

I love it when the elderly folks tell me that I look like she did when she was younger...

One time I said, "Grandma, ya know some people think that I look like you did in your younger days. If that's true, then I am definitely a shorter, stockier version, with a much smaller bra size."
Grandma replied with, "I'm afraid so dear..."
"Thanks."

I love you Grandma, and miss you already.

15 comments:

Candi said...

Wow...that jacket, the cookie story and grandma all in the same post! Not sure where to start...lets see if I can brake it down!
Stealing from little kids is not nice but way worth that picture!! ha ha ha. I love the fact that your husband is so funny!

Do not worry about coming to my party. Your grandma is ten times more important. I am so sorry to hear that she has passed away. she was a very special women that my family enjoyed. I am glad to hear all about her in this post. I love the fact that you post those pictures of her when she was younger. It is one of my favorite things to do, it view photos of old people...wait I mean old photos of people that are now aged.
Anyway, I hope you got to spend some quality time with your family and grandma before she passed.

Thank you for being such a sweet heart. I enjoy reading your comments. I hope we can meet up soon and don't worry about the cookies, you are so tiny!

Anonymous said...

Jeannie DEAR! I'm so sorry about your Grandmother. I remember in high school how highly you talked about her and I knew how much she meant to you. What a blessing to have had her just seconds away and so close:) My grandparents live next door to my parents and it's nice to have them so close too. I hope that you are doing ok. Let me know if I can do anything for you love <3 I miss our time together :) You are soo fun to be around!!

j & s said...

your grandma is so beautiful and i totally realized that all grandma's do look the same at that young age i love it! and ps. that jacket is pretty awesome can it come any smaller?? :) what ward are you guys in cause that looks like the side of the westwood church building??

mattnalisa said...

Thankfully, I am no longer looking! I started my job today! How is your new job? That is a sweet post about your grandma :)

The Blakes said...

B-I-N-G-O, Stefanie!I am in 20th ward. Woot woot! And..Alisa, I love my job. I am so glad you found one.

*Becky* said...

That picture of him in the Jacket was flippin hilarious!! Who's jacket was that?

And I'm so sorry to hear about your Grandmother! You are so sweet and I can tell the love you have for her by the way to speak of her. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family.

Hannah + 4 said...

That was a sweet post! I miss her so much! I never really realized that you do look like her. Especially in the last picture of her holding grandpa's ear! Crazy! And I love how honest she was. Although I don't know if her honestly was always true :) When my family went to go visit her once she told Hallie she was getting fat... needless to say I'm glad I missed that visit, I had just had Nixyn and I probably would have cried if she told me that!

Josh and Elisha said...

I know what you mean by having a fat personality! My family always jokes about the how us Millers have the fat personality gene. I'm really sorry about your grammy.

Chris, Mom,and Grandma said...

I think Jason should wear that every sunday!!! I think the Shills all have a big sweat tooth.. Nice post about Grandma she will be missed, Love the pictures, I would love to have a copy of a few of them.. I can't believe how much Grandma looks like Louise in the one picture, Hope we can still bring the family together sometime during the year... you are a good writer..

Jami said...

I thought this was a wonderful post...AGAIN!
1st: I hear you about going to the store to buy "normal" food in China. I would just eat american cookies ALL DAY LONG, and read in bed. Then when I would get bored I would walk down to the noodle shop!
2nd: I didn't know that you lived in the 20th ward. What the...you live close. How come we aren't best friends?
3rd: I am so sorry about your grandma. I thought this post was a beautiful tribute to her, and her life. I don't know her, but she sounds like a firecracker.

The Blakes said...

Becky, that jacket is Ethan M.'s in our primary class. Pretty funny.

Jami, good question. We should be best friends dag nabbit. We should sit on my couch together on one of my days off. Just keeping it real.

Anonymous said...

So you prob do not want the snickers pie I just made for you...now what? jeans i am really sorry about your grandma shill.You do look like her in the posted photos. I must say calling yourself "stockier" is a bit of a stretch though. Lets be honest here folks. Face the facts jeans,you are not stocky. I love you though

Anonymous said...

that other anonymous post was from me by the way. I could have been your secret admirer, but to be honest I just forgot to sign my name so... pretty smart Reina

Ericka Johnson said...

Oh Jeannie, what a great post! I laughed, I cried, then cried some more. Love the pictures.

Ty and Dani Porter said...

Grandma Shill, a great lady indeed! Its been so long since I have seen her, but I have some great memories of her as well. Hope you guys are doing good. Your blog is so cute! I love it. Tell the fam hello for me.