Butterflies and Birds

These are two things that make me think of of my Grandma McLain, mom's mom.  Grandma passed away on June 26th of last year. It's hard to believe it's been almost an entire year.

She's been on my mind a lot lately. I don't think there's really any specific reason.  Maybe it's because it's spring time and I think spring was one of Grandma's favorite times of the year.  She always loved butterflies and birds.  Wherever she lived, she had bird feeders. She loved the watch the birds. Mom still has a lot of feeders in her back yard and lately the birds of been very abundant. Especially a bunch of green finches. Don't ask me why they're called green as they appear yellow.. But yeah.. Something like these:

I did not take this photo, I got it online.

There are 5 or 6 of these birds that come to eat from Mom's feeders regularly.  I like to think Grandma sent them to keep us all company.

Maybe she's been on my mind because of butterflies...

I did not take this photo either.

A couple weeks ago, Jonathan found this in our bathroom:

At the time, we weren't sure how it got into the house. Now I'm pretty sure it was one of the cats.  Thankfully this butterfly survived! I caught it and let it go outside.

I think that maybe one of grandma's favorite birds was the humming bird.

I did not take this photo.

Never before had we seen humming birds in mom's yard, that is until last year, after Grandma passed away.  We all still say it was Grandma coming to visit us.  Mom put out a hummingbird feeder and there were 3 or 4 that started to come visit. I hope they'll return this summer.

Anyhow, Grandma was an amazing woman. She was 97 when she died.  She lived way longer than any of us ever expected.  I was so blessed to share some very special times with her once I moved back to Winfield after college. She taught me how to make her fried chicken and gravy and how to make her bread (although that one I may not be able to recreate, it's much more in depth than fried chicken!).  Heck, Grandma lived on her own until.... 95? 94 or 95 I'd say.  She loved her golf. She was a Tiger Woods fan.  She also enjoyed watching baseball (pre strike) and basketball.  She loved playing cards.  Up until just a few weeks before she died, she was playing cards with other ladies at the nursing home.  

I miss her, I miss her a lot.  It breaks my heart that she never got to meet Riley.  When I told her I was pregnant, she was in the hospital.  I said, "Grandma, you're going to have to stick around until November." She said, "Are you pregnant?"  She nailed it!  She was so excited. The next day when mom visited her, she was talking about how I was just glowing.

The Monday before Grandma died, I went to visit her at the nursing home with my mom.  We had the neatest conversation about where and what Grandma was doing when she went into labor with Mom (she was sitting under a shade tree darning socks on her farm).  We also spoke about how far technology has come. We were talking about the fact that our anatomy ultrasound was coming up in a week.  That night grandma went downhill and no one else really had a conversation with her again.  How lucky was I to be in on that last bit.  

Riley sure has one heck of a guardian angel to watch over him now at least. I know Grandma won't let anything happen to my precious baby. :)