"He Takes The Tractor Another Round"

This post has been a work in progress since Thanksgiving evening.  It is hard to put into words the incredible life my grandparents offered us - the memories, the lessons learned, the love shown and the examples that were set for us.

So, short of the fact that we live in Colorado, Jason Aldean's song, Amarillo Sky speaks volumes of my Grandpa Ted. So much so, that we had it as one of the song choices for the slideshow at the viewing prior to his funeral a few weeks back.  He worked so incredibly hard planting and harvesting corn and hay and raising dairy cattle, all to retire from it less than two short months prior to his death.

Grandpa Ted was one of those men who never had a bad word to say about anyone (and no one had a bad word to say about him). He loved Bud Light, fried chicken and homemade noodle & butterball soup. Thanksgiving was his favorite holiday (probably because Grandma always cooked a meal fit for a king). He loved my Grandma with all that he was and you could see that up to the very end. His family was his passion and farming was just his way of life. He was one of those men who was small in frame but could probably out-lift most men. His favorite saying was....  "Be good...... But if you can't be good, be careful." I don't think there was a single day in my life that he didn't tell me that.  My aunt told me that he probably told us girls that so often because when he was growing up he was neither.  Apparently, he was your typical hell-raising farm boy back in the day! He was a man of incredible character and always led by example. You could always see the pride and love he had for his family shining through his eyes. He was someone that I wish I could have had more time with. I had expected to have more time with him with their upcoming retirement. A hard lesson learned.... no one is guaranteed tomorrow and how quickly my Grandpa passed is proof of that.

It is crazy to think that Grandpa was as healthy as he could be and threw his last bale of hay in September but by Thanksgiving afternoon, he was singing with the angels in Heaven. Over the last couple of weeks I have gone through what October (when we lost Grandma Jeane) and November have brought our way. The challenges we have faced, the grief we have felt and the many things I have learned from it all.

I have learned how incredibly blessed I am to have been given the opportunity to not only have almost 32 years years with Grandma Jeane and Grandpa Ted (and 29 years with Grandpa Bill) but to be able to have the relationship I had with each one of them. I said it prior to losing Grandpa Ted (but while we sat in his hospice room), I feel blessed to feel so devastated at losing my Grandparents. Feeling as devastated as I have these last few months just shows me how incredibly close I was with each of them. God blessed me with a family that is so close that losing one of them is heart wrenching. I am grateful that God blessed me with my Grandma Dorothy who is still with us and healthy. I pray that her heart heals from losing Grandpa. I am so very grateful for my parents and the chance to grow up in a close relationship with them (and that my kids get to have the same amazing experience of knowing their grandparents the way I knew mine). I am blessed with two sisters who are my absolute best friends. I am blessed with a husband who has endured a lot with me and two incredible kids who make me smile from the inside out with their adorable ways.

So although 2011 has proven to be a bit rough, I am grateful for all that I have gained from it and am looking forward to a fresh start in 2012.