The Story on Morning Glory

Jeff's grandparents are wonderful. Since the first time I met them, they made me feel like family. His grandpa (Paw Paw) is a WWII vet and had about a million stories to back that up. He is a fabulous story teller, and whether it was a story about banking on Iwo Jima, the war dogs, or men in his company, his stories are captivating. He didn't mind re-telling stories either! Sometimes his stories even start with "I know you've heard this story before, but..." He is a very proud Marine. He also tells stories of his days at Georgia playing football, growing up in Clarksville, TX, and being a soil conservationist. No, I didn't think stories about soil conservation could be very interesting, but you don't know PawPaw!


The family moved his grandparents to an assisted living center about 4 months ago because it just wasn't safe for them to be in their house alone anymore. Probably about 3 weeks ago, Paw Paw had to move to a nursing home because he was just requiring more medical care than they give at the assisted living center. Since then, Paw Paw hadn't been doing very well. He was tired. On Saturday, the people at the nursing home took him to the hospital because it was sounding like he had fluid in his lungs, probably pneumonia. Turns out that he had actually had a heart attack.

Jeff and I went down to see him on Sunday after church, and thankfully we did. We arrived at the hospital at about 11:15 and PawPaw passed away at noon. I'm so glad we were there to be with him and say goodbye. The family had gathered around PawPaw's bed to say a prayer and when we closed our eyes and Jeff started praying, he was still hanging in there. By the time we said Amen, he was gone.

It's so hard to lose someone who's larger than life, full of generosity, humility, and love. Everywhere he went, people knew PawPaw and were drawn to him.

Jeff did a short tribute to him this morning on the show:

http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=45214@ktvt.dayport.com

How does this relate to the bath tub? Well, with the funeral coming up, I'm thinking that we might have a few guests staying in the guest room. Not a big deal, that's why we have a guest room and I'm glad to use it!! But that means I have to clean...not have to, but need to.

I'm not a super clean person. I don't mind cleaning, but it's usually started begrudgingly by looking around the house and thinking, shoot, this house needs to be cleaned. Jeff would probably like a house that is a little cleaner...he would NEVER say that (and will probably be mad at the accusation) but truthfully, I'd like a house that was a little cleaner! Who wouldn't!!

With the tiredness of the first tri-mester, I didn't clean. Literally. I hadn't cleaned the floors in the kitchen for so long, that there might have been a minor bug problem...maybe. Second tri-mester, I probably cleaned a little but not much. Now, I'm huge and I'm cleaning...the minimal amount. I can find lots of excuses not to clean...being pregnant is just one of the more reasonable ones...

We decided that with a little one on the way, it might be nice to have some help cleaning. You know, so Jack doesn't get attacked by dust bunnies while he's sleeping. We looked around and found a very nice lady who cleans another woman's house on our street, so thank goodness, Gwen will be coming to clean every other week starting September 7th. Woohoo!

Like I've said before, I've been working at Van Grow this summer, and when I work in the summer, Jeff and I decided that the money made then is my money to spend on whatever. Last summer, I spent it re-doing the dining room/den...money well earned and spent, let me tell you! This summer, I've been working for Gwen...at least working for money to pay Gwen! And again, I know it will be money well earned and spent!!!!!

So, my latest excuse to not clean has been, "Well, Gwen's coming soon!" But now that we're having guests and those guests are arriving before September 7th, I need to clean! I keep most things tidy, and generally clean, but the thing I hate the most in cleaning the bath tub. I hate it. It's awkward and I never feel like it's really clean! And that's a lot of effort to put into cleaning something that doesn't really look that clean when I'm done.

This morning, I had to tackle the tub. No guest would be able to get in that thing and come out thinking I'm any type of housewife!! Now, I hate cleaning the tub, hate it with a passion. I worked in Colorado at a bed and breakfast for a summer and the worst job was cleaning the huge jacuzzi tub in one of the cabins. Gross. There's no good way to do that! You have to get in it to clean it! And when doing that, you don't want to think about why it's so dirty and if there's a reason they call it the "honeymoon cabin". Thankfully, ours is just a 1950's plain ole' tub. But even cleaning a regular tub 8 months pregnant was quite a task!

I wish someone was there to video it, because I was like an acrobat with a beach ball under their shirt! I was maneuvering like no other, scrubbing until that tub shined!! I had on my rubber gloves, window open to avoid the fumes, my Scrubbing Bubbles spray in hand...I was quite amazing, if I do say so myself. I have to say, my tub shines right now. And I know that Gwen will be thanking me on September 7th.