a rose by any other name...

as i'm writing this post i'm listening to christmas music--specifically kenny rogers and dolly parton christmas. i LOVE this cd...it was introduced to me by my grandma rose and i listen to it religiously every christmas since she made me a tape of it when i was 12! this cd makes me happy except for today when it makes me sad because today was my grandma's birthday and tomorrow is the anniversary of her death. grandma rose always knew how to make me feel special and we always had fun and i miss her very much! some random things that remind me of/characterized grandma:

* she always wore pants--she was a hard worker and did everything herself and was NEVER lazy
* she loved taking me to shop at goodwill--i learned to love clothes, shopping and thrift stores from her
* she lived on a farm and got run over by a horse
* she was a beauty pageant winner
* her favorite place to eat was a truck stop which made awesome thick vanilla milk shakes
* she had red hair until it turned dark brown as she aged
* she listened to her music WAYYYY too loud and always embarrassed me by blaring country music (which i NOW love)
* grandma had a flask hidden in every room and her car--drinking is bad--it robbed me and our family of more time with her
* she had an awesome sock collection
* her basement was like a clothing warehouse...seriously
* grandma gave me my first (only) sip of beer...i was like 6...ha!
* she gave me my first car
* she had 6 children--including a set of twins
* grandma was irish
* her father was so sweet that when she misbehaved he asked her to spank him as her punishment (he was already hurt enough by the fact that she did something wrong--this made her feel VERY guilty!--i won't try this with amelie!).
* grandma had 4 sisters
* she smoked a pipe, drank and cursed like a sailor--i learned some very interesting phrases from her while doing projects around the house
* we had a special code that we ended phone conversations with--i love you so much!--when i was little she would tell me she loved me so much it hurt her (it was a song) and it would make me cry b/c i didn't want her to hurt so that became our sign off when we talked on the phone!

there's more that come to mind but i'll stop for now. some of those things don't "sound" like great things when i read this list but they made grandma rose who she was and i loved her no matter how spicy she chose to be. i miss you grandma and i can't wait to see you in heaven! i love you so much!