To the best MaMarsh in the world

We interrupt this regularly scheduled programming for a special message from a very lucky granddaughter:

Sorry I won't be posting on my CYSA experience tonight. I had a great day today, and I will resume posting about my year of service tomorrow. Tonight is a special case. My grandma is spending the night in the hospital, so my mind is pretty much running on a single track. She is comfortable and will likely be fine in a few days, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to throw some love and appreciation her way.

10 Reasons I Love My Grandma (NOT an all-inclusive list)

10. She's on Facebook. Like every day on it. Sure, sometimes she accidentally uses the status update function when she means to post on someone else's wall, but she is treading where many a grandmother wouldn't dare to tread. Also, it is very validating to have every single one of your posts and pictures liked by someone, even if that someone is your grandma. 

9. Because of this screen shot I took of her while we were Skyping during my study abroad in Russia. She learned how to use Skype to talk to me, and she was reallllllly good at it. :)

Pictured: Champion of Grandma Technology Competition

8. She is a Disney Princess. I tell all my friends this because I believe it to be true. Grandma has always loved to watch and listen to birds in her back yard and can usually tell you the type of bird it is just from hearing its call. She also attracts animals to her house with supernatural powers (or food that she leaves out for them). She has lots of cats that live under her barn, an old crippled groundhog, several deer--once there were 10 in her yard at once--, and a momma raccoon that comes to bully the cats out of their food. ALL of these animals have names bestowed by my grandma or my little cousin. She talks to them regularly. I'm guessing she sings to them while they help her do dishes as well, but she can't let us see that. That's just for them. 

7. She cooks to please. The slightest suggestion of a hankering will get you a plate full of your dreams come true. No matter how labor intensive a dish is, as long as you're willing to run to the store and grab some ingredients, you're good to go. Last summer, mom and I just HAPPENED to buy a 5 gallon bucket of cucumbers at the farmers market and suggested to Grandma that they might be good for pickles. Guess what we had two weeks later? Sheer delight is what we had.

6. She stands by her principles. I have oft heard the phrase "I'll never darken their door again!" in relation to unacceptable customer service experiences. The best one was from the era of the Beanie Baby, when she had 2 grandchildren that NEEDED more Beanie Babies. She went to our local Hallmark store to procure said toys, but they had implemented a strict "1 Beanie Baby per customer" policy. She fought and fought to get one apiece for her DEPRIVED grandchildren, but to no avail. She hasn't been back there since. That was the 90's.

5. She loves whimsy. Every year for our Christmas get together, she has at least one treasure hunt for the grandkids to complete. She carefully crafts clues to lead us to the presents, and the clues usually have the most amazing rhymes. And by amazing, I mean they don't rhyme, and sometimes that brings us even more joy than if they did rhyme.

4. She's not afraid to ask for help. I'm pretty sure everyone that has been around Grandma has experienced this: you stand up, move to walk behind where she is sitting, and hear her say "Hey, could you scratch my back? A little higher. A little to the left. Right there; dig!" And everyone does is while rolling their eyes but smiling on the inside. Also, one of my favorite Grandma-phrases is "Hey, while you're resting, could you..." :)

3. She is a magnificent story teller. Many an evening after eating way too much but also just enough, we sit around the table and hear stories from any time period. There are the favorites that get requested very often: the time Uncle John's 4-H cake got stuck in the car door pocket, when Uncle Andy said, "We can take her!", various exploits of Grandma's friend group. The best part about them is that they get better and more dramatic every time. I've spent a day with her before where we hear some news or gossip from someone, then Grandma tells it to Mom in a slightly more colorful way, then I hear her on the phone later that afternoon telling an even MORE colorful version to a friend. Storytelling is an art, my friends. 

2. She has taught me 90% of what I know about baking. Ever since a was too short to reach over the counter, I can remember baking with MaMarsh. On of my favorites is when I would stand on a chair and just stick my arms elbow deep into the canister of flour. It was so cool and it felt really good. Grandma would let me "help"  her make dinner rolls by punching down the dough after the first rise and help her roll out the portions to put in the pan. It's wild that it's come so far that now she just, as she says, "sits in a chair and bosses" while I do most of the steps in the recipe. I love her so much for her willingness to try to make anything. There is NOTHING that we couldn't bake together, just give us one or two practice runs. Baking with Grandma are some of my favorite memories with anyone ever. 

1. She loves her family so much. She would lay down her life for any one of us and we all know it. She won't hear a negative word about anyone in her brood, and there is so much power in love like that. She bought season tickets every year I was in the Purdue Marching Band and she came to all of my home sporting events in high school. She travels hundreds of miles to visit her other grandchildren so she can have the same memories with them that she had with my brother and me. She plans vacations and rents a big house so that we can all stay together, because that's how she wants to spend her vacation. She has so much love to give her family that she adopted my two best friends as honorary granddaughters because they came with me to her house so often. I will never stop being thankful for the love and support of this woman; she's an enormous part of who I am today and that is a point of pride.

I love you, Grandma!

*BONUS: She uses amazing phrases like "Heavens to Mergatroid!" and "If I had another brain, it'd be lonely" and "I am busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest" and many more gems.