Happy Labor Birthday

As of early this year, I have one remaining grandparent. It’s a weird realization, still. I figure, since she’s still in my life, and since she’s kind of awesome, I should celebrate her. What better time to celebrate someone than on their birthday? So, here are some random facts about my sweet, stubborn, sassy, hilarious Grandma.

• On my 17th birthday, she told me, “This will be the best year of your life; it’s all downhill from here.” That’s what every 17 year old wants to hear. I don’t know why she wasn’t a motivational speaker.
• Every birthday for the next few years, she updated me on where she was at that point in her life. She got married at seventeen, so I heard things like, “I was married when I was your age,” or “When I turned 21, I had two kids.”
•She used to threaten to hang me by my toenails.
•She broke her toe as a preteen, because she was plowing barefoot. (As in, a plow pulled by a horse.)
•She thinks she’s boring, with no sense of humor. Truth-be-told, she’s one of the funniest people I know.
• When I was little, she would get out her old sheets and let me make forts in her living room, or help me carve out cucumbers to make sail boats.
•We used to watch the show Walker: Texas Ranger together. However, she never called it by that title. She just called it “Kick Butt.” (“You want to watch Kick Butt?”)
• I’ve probably spent more time fishing with her than with anybody else in the world.
•She thinks Bleach is a cure-all for anything.
•She treats poison ivy like the plague. If you have poison ivy, she won’t go near you.
•The woman LOVES peanut brittle, and I can’t stress the word ‘love’ enough here.

Happy Birthday to my Grandma!
And, Happy Labor Day to everybody else!