a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck.

well, i'm back. i wish i didnt have to leave right after the burial. i really wanted to stay with stephie, and all my family.
anyway, i dont really have a plan of what to say, so this post might be kinda random. theres a lot i want to say, but not enough ways to say it.

first, my 8 year old cousin sara wrote the most amazing poem about our grandma. every time i read it, it makes me cry. sara is going to rule the world one day, it'll be a dictatorship, but everyone will be at peace with everyone else.
heres the poem:
"I Will Still..." By Sara Hilpert
I will still bring up dessert at eight.
I will still give Rubie half the sandwich on your plate.
I will still practice my flips off the bed.
I will still try not to spill and take small sips instead.
I will still practice your faveorite song on the violin.
I will still come up after school and give you a grin.
I could do anything but it wouldn't change fact
I still have memories but I want you back!

Sara read her poem at the mass. Me and Stephie wrote Euluogys too. I won't post them, but we made everyone, including the organist cry.

On Sunday night, Halloween, we took the little kids trick or treating. We didnt stay out very long. then me and steph went for a walk. it was pitch black, and the leaves were all along the streets and it felt amazing just walking, her as the Queen Of Sheba, me as a fairy. we got a little more candy, but mainly we Trick or Treated for UNICEF. we got $14.17 in a half hour. it was nice for just me and stephanie getting to talk.

then we went back to the hotel. stephie slept over, so we could write the eulogys.
i had done mine that morning, but stephie still had to do hers.
we were sharing a room with my little sisters, and at 11:30pm they had to go to sleep, so me and steph sat in the bathtub with the halloween candy and wrote a little, and talked a lot.
stephanie had a laughing fit when i said the word FRANTIC.
we laughed about Steph's therory that Grandma popped out of the womb with the same hair cut she's alway's had.
and how she'd proably strike us down with lightning if we ever turned off the TV in her house. we laughed about the time grandma told us that God had told her we would be "volumptuous, just like JLo".
we remembered sitting in her great big bed watching the Brady Bunch and the Cosby Show on Nick @ Nite, and i remembered how i never could fall asleep because Grandma wouldnt sleep without Dr. Laura on the radio.
I remember the fashion show we had a long, long time ago. i must have been 8 or 9, and we all dressed up in her old clothes, even Chris dressed up.
I loved the smell of the old musty clothes.
I remember her buying me Etenmen's Ultimate Crum Cake and sitting at that white, round table with milky coffee.
Everything in Grandma's world revolved around coffee. Her life was like one big coffee bean.
She'd always have coffee for you. when it was hot, when it was cold, when you were sad, even late at night. and we'd always sit in her kitchen around that white table.

In stephie's eulogy, she said
"Grandma paid attention to life, and in return, life paid attention to her".