Two for the price of one!

There are TWO important people celebrating their birthdays today. First – Granny Meadows who turns 96 today. Whoo Hoo! Granny is in Michigan visiting the Yankees in the family. We’re reluctant to let her go on such an important occasion, but otherwise they might come HERE. I’m totally kidding. Well, sort of.  I had chubby cheeks as a child and my Aunt Gay nicknamed me “Pumpkin Puss”. The Michigan cousins used to visit every year and chase me around pretending they were going to eat me. And they talked weird. Okay, to be honest, (and because they’ve been known to read this blog), I liked them alot. They were like exotic, beautiful aliens coming to Zollicoffer and I followed them around constantly. So hopefully they won’t leave Detroit and come hurt me.

Back to Granny. Wasn’t she pretty? She’s the one on the right. I don’t know who’s on the left since my mother doesn’t label photos. It could be a sister, a cousin, Amelia Earhart . Thank you Mother, for making my blog so VAGUE.

Granny is a lot like the grannies in movies. She always had something yummy cooking on the stove, and she told the BEST bedtime stories. But my favorite thing was her books. Granny read. A lot. She probably still reads a book a day, all of them romances. She had stacks and stacks of Harlequin Romance books in her utility room. I grew up reading them because of her. Which is a good thing, otherwise, how would I know to dream that one day, I’d grow up to meet an arrogant, but devastatingly handsome man who would completely infuriate me on our first meeting, even though I was immediately drawn to him, and while I resisted the attraction, my wealthy and deceased uncle would insist at the reading of his will that me and Mr. Arrogant marry for a year in order to keep the inheritance and we would fall in love, because deep down, he really was my soul mate?

Granny is that nice lady in the back of church, the one that wears a pretty suit and heels every Sunday, and never has a bad word to say about anybody. The one that leaves her house early so that she can go by and pick up her great-nieces and nephews because their mom doesn’t take them to church. Afterwards she takes them to her house for cookies and kool-aid, knowing it will be the highlight of their week. And later, the ones that grow up to believe in the Lord, look back and know it was because she took the time to care.

THAT’S my granny. That’s the legacy of someone who lives her life with love and truth and grace. Happy Birthday, Granny Meadows, I LOVE YOU!

And then there’s this guy.

It’s also HIS birthday. But I’m disinclined to write something sweet about him. Because A) I just wrote a nice post about him on Father’s Day and how many does one guy get? B) I wrote a nice one about my Granny which pretty much drained the  well dry. C) He’s been a serious cranky butt for the last two days.

I mean, if he weren’t devastatingly handsome, I might give him a birthday smack. He has “issues” with birthdays. He doesn’t like them, wants no celebration, no parties, and if you even THINK about a surprise party, he will turn around and leave the party – guests or no guests. I don’t know WHAT his problem is.

It’s not like I’d embarrass him or anything. Geesh. Happy Birthday, Honey, I love YOU!