AOG: Grandma Crews

Grandma Crews with Olivia and Kelsey

Today we are grateful for my mother (aka Grandma Crews).  Her birthday is today - she is 68 years young! She has been a great blessing to our family in so many ways.  Here's what the kids had to say.

Olivia - She's a good listener.

Kelsey - She makes the best pancakes and hot cocoa.

Connor - Happy Birthday!

The comment from Connor is especially funny, but not unless you know the whole story.  In 2010, my mom left to serve 18 months in Riverside, California as a missionary for our church.  Connor was 2 when she left.  The girls made a valiant attempt to make her cards every week while she was in California, and though they didn't get them done every week, they did get a lot of cards out.  About the last 6 months or so she was there, Connor wanted to start making her a card, too.  I would let him color the card, but I would ask him what he wanted to tell her and write it down for him.  Every week - EVERY WEEK - he started off with something like this:

Dear Grandma Crews,

       Happy Birthday! Happy Mother's Day!  Happy New Year!

Granted, he didn't include every holiday every week, but he always had several and "Happy Birthday" was in there somewhere.

"Sister Crews" working in the mission office

I also asked the girls what their favorite memory is of Grandma Crews, and they said, "Remember those Easter Egg hunts she'd do for us all the time?"  Any time my kids were at her house around Easter, my mom would take about a dozen or so plastic eggs and fill them with Goldfish crackers, raisins, Cheerios, or marshmallows and hide them around the house.  The kids would find them and get to eat the snack inside, and then they'd do it again.

Ben's comment when I asked him about my mom was this: "Best mother-in-law ever."  It should be noted that he loves it when she comes to help after I've had a baby.  It means he doesn't have laundry duty for a few days.  He has often told people, "My mother-in-law could live with us, and the only way I'd know she was there is that the laundry would be clean and folded, and there would be ice cream in the freezer."

As for me, my mother is one of my best friends.  I'm so grateful for all that she has taught me, the example she has set, and the relationship we now have.  She is caring, generous, and full of faith.

Mom, we love you!