Sunday Funnies

My grandmother pictured with Tristan, April 16th, 2006

Yesterday, I received news that my grandmother passed away. We were already expecting this to happen (she's been in hospice care since early last week). I miss her already and I hope that she is in a better place (if there is one). I think that because we were already expecting this, I didn't cry near as much as I thought I would. Perhaps I have already accepted her death before it ever even happened. My dad even took the news better than expected. While I'm sure he is very sad about her passing away, he's been hoping she would go soon (she really wasn't looking good at all the last few weeks). He's been amazingly strong with all that has been going on with her and I really admire him for it. Worse part is that he is all alone with everything because his brothers have been and are still being unruly, uncivilized, and selfish. It saddens me that they can only think of themselves when their mother was on her deathbed.

My grandmother lived to be 74 years old. She loved to cook and crochet. One of her last projects was accessorizing a small dolly for Melayna. She made a bassinet, several clothes, a blanket, a pillow, and a carrying case for all of the accessories and doll. It is absolutely adorable. I can't wait until "Melly" (what my grandmother started to call her) can play with this wonderful handmade gift. My grandmother taught me how to make her wonderful chicken and dumpling soup - in fact I plan on making it within the next week or so in memory of her.

When I was about eight years old, my brother and I stayed with her for the summer. She took us to all the sites in Colorado Springs - Cave of the Winds, Cliff Dwellings, and more. We went camping and I learned how to fish (and how to clean it up - yuck!). She had lots of stories to tell me about my dad and my uncles. She was an awesome grandmother.

I regret not visiting her more. I regret not learning more of her recipes. I regret not learning how to crochet (actually, she taught me the basic chain but I gave up shortly thereafter).

Despite having many regrets, I know that she is at peace now. She no longer is in any pain or suffering. She is no longer under the stress that my uncles had put her in. This makes me feel more at peace to know that she is in much better, able hands.

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Alright, so why "Sunday Funnies"? I am not a morbid person thinking that this situation is funny. Definitely not! Inspiration came to me in the form of a little receipt and Scott's suggestion. Let me explain...

Today, we went to my dad's house where I made dinner for all of us (including my brother). Beforehand, we stopped at King Soopers to pick up all the necessities for dinner and dessert. As of late, I've been really into reading blogs. It mostly has to do with being stuck in one place (my desk chair), nursing the baby, with nothing else to do (we don't have cable or satellite, so tv is not an option). So, I read. I've been inspired by many of you bloggers out there to be a bit "greener". I'm not perfect - I use paper towels, I have cleaners that aren't "green", I use plastic bags, and so on. But, I figured if I try one little thing now, another later, and another after that, well, then I'm making progress. I first started with girlie's diapers. Because I plan to go back to work and I have no idea how the cloth diapering thing works, I opted for an "inbetween" option. At nights, we still stick to Pampers (mostly because we have a huge supply from prebaby), but daytimes we use gDiapers. It is a hybrid, of sorts. Cloth outer shell, plastic lining (removable), and a flushable, biodegrable liner. It actually works really, really well.



I'm digressing. Okay, so that was baby step one to the "greener" me. Baby step two: reusable shopping bags! I found this excellent tutorial at The Toby Show on how to make your own shopping bags out of t-shirts. But, since I haven't broken out the sewing machine yet to see if it still works, I put this project aside. The other day we were in King Soopers when I saw they sold reusable shopping bags for $1 each! That did it! So, now we have five of them.

Alright, so we were shopping at King Soopers today. Whenever you bring in your own bags, they give you $0.05 off your order per bag. After shopping, we were on our way to my dad's. I looked at the receipt to see our savings - I'm getting better about using coupons since King Soopers doubles up to $1.00. At the top of my receipt I saw this:


At first, I saw BYOB and was like "What the heck is this?" I saw the $0.10 discount (we only needed to use 2 bags) and realized what it was. Bring your own Bags! I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Scott asked me what was so funny, so I pointed it out to him. He told me that I should put it on my blog. He said that I should put funny stuff I find on my blog - just to make things interesting. I told him that doing that everyday would be too much for me. I then told him that I've seen things like "Wordless Wednesday", "Menu plan Monday", and "Photo Friday". That's when he said that I should do "Sunday Funnies". Like the comics that are synonymous with Sunday's (besides church, that is), my Sunday Funnies will be just that. Something that I can post for others to have a chuckle at. It may it doesn't necessarily have to be "laugh out loud" funny, but something that just makes you smile.

In times of sorrow, we have to take in the good with the bad. We must find solace in knowing that life will go on and there is a life out there worth living. We must take away with us the good experiences we had and know that our lives are much better knowing that certain people were a part of it. It was in this little humorous moment that I realize life can have its funny moments. Moments where you just have to smile and think "that's funny". So, it is with this post, I will attempt to post something funny (I promise to keep it clean) every Sunday. :P