The craziest lady I knew....

Was my Grandma. November 17th, 2004 she went to peacefully be with Jesus. My grandma was pretty old for a grandma. She was more the appropriate age for a great grandma. My mom was the surprise baby my grandma had when she was in her 40's, so being the firstborn of the family's baby had its advantages.

I was definitely the favorite. Not on purpose though. She didn't spoil me in the sense of buying me all kinds of crap I didn't need. She just loved me in her own quirky way. Which in turn influenced A LOT of my personality. My ability to crack jokes to ease tension comes from her, but watch out, I also inherited my stubbornness from her and my dad. That is a dangerous combination!

When I was little she was a part of the Village Christian Apartments kitchen band. This was an independent living community, so it was a bunch of old ladies who raided their kitchens for anything that would make noise. I don't exactly remember what she played, maybe the spoons in a pizza hut cup or a broom. I know she sang some quirky songs to. My favorite was "let me call you sweetheart, I'm in love with you...". She wore a red apron over her clothes and a weird red hat. They got to be so popular that they were invited to my elementary school in first grade to play at an assembly. I got to be on stage with them! An Austin news station even did a story on them.

Another favorite memory was of Halloween one year. She wore a pair of white sweats and tacked balloons all over herself. To this day-I have NO IDEA what she was trying to be!

Whenever I would go to her house she would really only have 3 snacks: Bananas, prunes and oatmeal. At the time I HATED all 3... I still cant stomach prunes or bananas. When I would pass those up, she would offer to make homush bomush. Basically what Hungarians call "throw together soup" you boil chicken, then throw in whatever else you have on hand. It was always a mystery to see what it would taste like.

Towards the end when she got a little nuttier she would throw odd hungarian words into her sentences randomly.

She also loved Bill Clinton.....which still boggles my mind to this day. In some ways she was ultra conservative, but then she would throw out comments like "50 years is a long time to just be with one man".

In spite of all of her quirks and weird love for the Clintons, she is the one person who influenced me the most spiritually in my early years. Rather than viewing a relationship with God as an up and down-which it can be sometimes, she had a mindset of a God who was constant and always there and always loved us, and there was no arguing that! I learned a lot about being a consistent person in spite of your circumstances, something I have not always practiced.

She also came from the school of thought that "cleanliness was next to godliness" a trait I DID NOT inherit. She was always trying to teach me this concept. To this day I struggle with not being a cluttered person. I keep hearing my in my head, in her voice "just pick up one thing at a time and put it away, then move onto the next thing". Ill post some pictures of her later today. You will see her personality jump out of the pictures!