Ohio weekend

[abka]

Thursday night I rode with my parents to Syracuse to see my sister and then Friday we headed to Ohio to visit grandparents and begin cleaning out there house.

The good part was that I got to see my grandparents. We had dinner with my grandpa at the retirement community which is very nice, and the people are very friendly and at dinner they all asked about my grandmother who is in the hospital. Grandpa said there are a lot of former teachers (and a lot of women, which he jokes about). My grandmother used to teach 1st grade. Even the food was pretty good. (I didn't realize those places were so expensive though, $4000 a month, and this is Ohio). So my grandparents seem pretty happy there, and they are glad they moved when they did since my grandmother has been so sick lately.

We made a couple trips to the hospital to see grammie. She seemed to be doing pretty well, grandpa said a lot better than when she came in. She should be going home this week. She was very lucid and with it, even though it was hard to move from the chair to the bed, she's pretty weak. She doesn't have alzheimers, but in the past depending on what meds she's been on she's been a little forgetful. When my grandpa repeated the same story twice in a row she even called him on it. (We usually just let him repeat the stories).

My grandparents are still pretty cute. They've been married for 56 years and still hold hands and kiss goodbye and say "I love you". They're much more affectionate then my parents are (at least in front of me). When going through the house we found a lot of mushy anniversary cards that my grandpa had written my grandmother over the years.

The big chore of the weekend was going to Defiance, meeting with the realtor, going through the entire house and cleaning most of it out, except for the furniture which we did have to divide up. It had to be done in a day and a half because all 5 of the "kids" were there, as well as a couple of in-laws (including my mom), I was the only grandchild. It was an interesting study in family dynamics, mostly everyone was very friendly and reasonable, although there is some tension between my aunts. My grandparents were concerned that everyone might fight (because money and memories are involved) but everyone was pretty nice. We also ate a lot of lasagna and pie (the ohio relatives are "pie people" not "cake people".

Loot (that's actually my dad's term):
Being newly married, the oldest grandchild, and the only one who was standing there, I ended up with a lot of stuff. (We filled up the entire back of the minivan on the way home). My grandpa wanted me to have the ornate silver candalabra that he gave my grandmother on their 25th wedding anniversary, that was the most special thing. I also got a cedar trunk that I'm going to use for the linens that Denis's mother gave us a wedding present and my grandmother's punchbowl and glasses. Then a lot of random stuff: pots and pans, a food processor, a picnic basket, a really cool samsonite traveling case (like for makeup) that was my great-grandmothers (I wish I knew enough to know what decade it's from, I'm guessing 40s or 50s), costume jewelry from the 60s, my grandfather's old watches, tie pins, cufflinks, and ties for Denis, boardgames (we now have trivial pursuit and monopoly), a nice black purse, a two-year supply of laundry detergent, tupperware, and an old-school meat grinder from at least the 50s. I may also end up with a king-sized bedframe (I have a mattess set now, but no bed proper) and my mother will have the big diningroom table, so whoever gets a diningroom first, either me or Melissa will probably get it.

We drove home on Monday, through the blizzard. It usually takes us 10 hours from Toledo to North Adams, but because of the snow it took 16!!! We only fishtailed once, but a car started spinning around right in front of us on the NY State Thruway. We drove from Buffalo to Albany, it was horrid and my sister said that 20 people died on the roads in NY that day. It was a long exhausting emotional trip and I'm still recovering. Plus I'm not really behind on schoolwork.

Comments

[mrsjadephoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update! Glad you got so much loot and made it back safely through the icky storm.

Also, I have to say that I too think old couples are adorable when they hold hands and mushy stuff like that. It's just something about the idea of people having shared so much of their lives together. It's rare.

[grumph.livejournal.com]

My grandpa wanted me to have the ornate silver candalabra that he gave my grandmother on their 25th wedding anniversary, that was the most special thing.

Wow.

a really cool samsonite traveling case (like for makeup) that was my great-grandmothers

for Mary Kay? ;)

an old-school meat grinder from at least the 50s.

Is this a deli slicer, or an actual grinder, like for making hamburger and sausage? Either way, woah.

[abka.livejournal.com]

:p no, no more Mary Kay, right now my aunt and mother are ordering for me so that I stay "active" and on my aunt's team, but I'm not doing anything

it's a grinder, they used to use it to make ham salad, but I might use it to make sausages sometime, there are some good Croatian recipes

[grumph.livejournal.com]

I might use it to make sausages sometime, there are some good Croatian recipes

Yum!