My Grandma Aune

Recently we celebrated my Grandma Aune's 80th birthday. She is my mom's mom and she's been a big part of my life. She was born in a farmhouse in North Dakota and she has a twin sister. My grandma was born second, so no one knew she existed until her sister had been born and then her mother was told there was one more in there! Surprise! (I think that's the way the story goes...if not, I'm sure I'll be corrected.)

I grew up just a few miles from my grandma. So when I was a kid, we went over to her house pretty much every Saturday. Her home was my second home. And even though I spent a lot of time there, there were always special things about her house that fascinated me. One was that she had a big coffee can full of marbles. I loved those marbles. We really didn't do anything with them, other than take them out and look at them. We may have rolled them around a bit, but we never played any games with them. I of course had a few favorite marbles that I always look through first, digging through the can, and putting them in a group over to the side.

The other space in her house that I loved was her and Grandpa's dresser. There was one drawer that I was allowed to occasionally explore. It had various trinkets and treasures, but my favorite item in there was a hairbrush shaped like a guitar. Plus, that dresser had a certain smell...cedar, I think.

One of my favorite things about my grandma is that she always liked to play with us. I remember many games of "pick up sticks" on her kitchen floor with her. She always kept me very honest while playing and would call me out if I moved a stick while trying to remove one from the pile. I got pretty good at that game. She also taught me how to play Chinese Checkers. We played a lot of games of that. Now we currently play dominoes at many family gatherings. She dominates at dominoes. :)

Grandma has always had a heart for kids. She has volunteered for years and years teaching little ones Sunday School at her church. And she LOVES babies...especially her grand-kids and great grand-kids. If there's a baby in the room, chances are that it's in Grandma's arms. When they get a bit older, she will hold them and bounce them and make cooing noises to get them to smile. She loves those babies, indeed.

My grandma has always been a big support to me throughout my life and has been there for many major milestones & events - high school basketball games (she LOVES basketball and still goes to local high school games), my high school graduation, band concerts, my college Christmas concert, college graduation, many birthdays (she still celebrates with me every year, even though I'm pushing 40), my wedding showers, and of course my wedding, sitting front and center.

One of my other favorite things about my grandma is her sense of humor. My sisters and I just love it when she starts to laugh really hard and she can hardly talk or breath. She laughs so hard she cries. And we all laugh that she is laughing so hard. It quickly turns into a vicious cycle. It's one of my favorite things.

I grew up loving staying over night at my grandma's house. My grandma is a very "put together" lady. She always looks nice. So it was always a bit jarring to see her in the morning before she had put her makeup on, standing in the kitchen in her housecoat. I loved when she would make me eggs for breakfast. She fries a really good egg. I call them "Grandma eggs." She likes when I stay over even now, as an adult. The last time I spent the night, I asked her to show me how she makes her fried eggs. I know now the secret that makes them taste SO GOOD! In fact I made one at my mom's one weekend and my sister saw it and said, "That looks like an egg made by Grandma!" Success. :)

My grandma has given me some very meaningful gifts over the years. You know, the kind of stuff you would grab first in the event of a house fire. When I turned 12, she gave me a bracelet that my grandpa gave her right before they got married. A couple of years ago she gave me a small glass doll that she got from HER grandmother on her fourth birthday (1936!) It's wearing a small cloth diaper and its arms and legs move. It's very fragile. I can't believe she still had it to give it away. It sits in a small wooden cradle she found, on my dresser. And most recently she gave me a soft-cover Red Riding Hood book that she got from her elementary school teacher. That's tucked away in a safe place so the light doesn't damage it.

I am MORE than thankful that I have had my grandma in my life for so long, and that we've shared so many memories together. I'm grateful for our relationship and bond. It will never be replaced!