I realized that I had not posted one of my gratitude drafts, which is why I have two postings today. 

Today I'm thankful for my grandparents.  I have been thinking about them because my husband and I go to a geneology class on Sundays. 

I didn't know my paternal grandfather.  He died when I was a baby.  I only knew my paternal grandmother slightly.  I only have 4 memories of her.  My grandmother lived with us the last couple years of her life because she was a heart patient.  She would let me come in her room and stand on a chair to look in the box that was attached to the top of her chest of drawers.  It had all kinds of things in it, none of which I can remember.  I do remember that when you opened it, it had a strong medicinal odor.  Another memory I had of her was standing outside her bedroom door and watching her hold my baby brother, Sticks, and talk to my other brother, Twist.  She loved my brothers and it was obvious to watch her.  The third memory I have of her is the paramedics taking her to the hospital after she had a heart attack.  We were at church and got a phone call from the babysitter who was watching over her.  The last memory I have of her is looking at her in her coffin at her funeral. 

The grandparents I did know were my mother's parents.  We visited them every year of my life (that I remember) in the summer.  We would leave the week after school got out in June and not come back until August.  My favorite memories of grandma are seeing her in her apron cooking at the woodstove, or down by the clothesline gathering clothes off the line.  I loved going there eating her homemade bread, homemade butter, homemade jam, and skimming the cream off the cow's milk to put on top of my slice of homemade bread with butter and jam.  This is where we ate the bread and milk for dinner (see Daily Food post).  When I was younger we washed clothes in her ringer washer and hung them on the line, had to use the outhouse - which was scary if you had to go out at night.  Grandma used to get us to weed the garden, but I was only allowed to weed the onions or carrots, since I couldn't distinguish a weed from a plant on the other plants.  :0)

My grandfather was the biggest teaser I have ever known. He was always teasing me or someone else.  I finally learned to try to get him back or make him think his teasing had no affect on me.  I think I was actually closer to my grandfather than I was to my grandmother.  Without going into details, I just want to say that he gave me some advice once, and I didn't follow it.  I felt really bad about it and it bothered me for several years, until I fixed it and obeyed his advice.  I miss him.