el dia de los muertos ... but not really

Last week my kids and i went to the cemetery where my family is buried. The plan was to stay and read books until lunch time and then have a little picnic. Unfortunatly when we arrived there the sprinklers were on so i was only able to run over and put the flowers that we had brought on theh grave stones.

This is my great great aunts grave stone. She passed almost 5 years ago on New Years eve. Its hard to believe that it has been that long, it feels like just last week we were sitting outside watching cars go by. see thats the thing i miss most about her i think ... we could spend hours and hours in total silence. she (like me) was content with not talking and just spending quality time together. Its not that we didnt have anything to say to one another its just that nothing NEEDED to be said and that was ok with us .. we both arent that into small talk.
I always feel so sad when i think about when she died because just a short two months later i got engaged ... i wish she had been there to tell. Or there for my wedding or for my kids births. or to just hug... right now.

i also was able to drive by her house because it was on the way.

it looks a little different now than it did then. on the sides of the drive way she had grown these amazing sunflowers ... the kind that if you are a kid you feel like you are in some mythical jungle of sunflowers or you shrunk or somehting. i peaked into the back yard and it is all in direpair which kindof made me sad because she had the best "jungle" for when me and my cousins played. She used to let us all play in the mud and then hug her...shes the only adult i remember letting us do that.

sorry this one is crooked ... idk whats up with it its right on my computer but when i upload it it turns..lol
so anyways

this is my great grandma and great grandpas grave stone. my "papaw" passed when i was pretty young but i am the oldest of the great grand children so i guess that means i have the most memory of him.. and the fact that we lived just next door helps too.
every day after school i would run to thier house from the bus stop and when i got there "mamaw" was always waiting with cookies and milk or those yummy but o so bad for you honey buns you can buy in boxes of like 12. And papaw already had the tv tuned to my favorite show (which changed almost every week). I would sit there with the two of them and just enjoy some down time.

When we werent wathcing tv we were out in the yard working or just going for a ride on papaws trailor attached to his lawn mower.. i know i know that sounds really red neck but who cares it was fun!

my mamaw was an amazing gardener. that woman could grow ANYTHING i tell you! to bad i didnt get any of those genes. She also cared for the chickens and ran the house. she took care of everyone. i hope one day i can be half as good as her at taking care of everything one day.


to some people it might be weired that i take my kids to hangout at a cemetery but if you know me .. you know that i love them . they are so peaceful!!! and the one that my family is at is beautiful. not like modern cemeterys with all flat grave stones there are lots of very old one some that are sculpted there are crypts and monuments.

it makes me wonder if any of my other family goes to visit there. ... probably not.. maybe im weired but all i know is it makes me feel close to them again. it brings back memories that i had with them and that makes me happy