what would you write?

The weekend before Christmas I had one of my grad classes, it's a class that is about teaching writing, but also centers a lot around us as writers ourselves. One of our teachers told us to get out our paper, and then to listen as she read our writing assignment aloud to us. The basic assignment revolved around us writing a letter to someone that was on our "top people in our lives that have influenced us" list that we had made back in August, except... there was a catch! We had to write something in the letter (which, by the way, we were told that we never had to send it if we didn't want to) telling the person something that we had never told them before.


I immediately knew who I wanted/needed to write to. I had been feeling guilty since I started this writing class in August for not having written about this person yet. I got out my favorite bright pink pen and began...with tears streaming down my face here is my letter, to the woman I miss almost every day still.

Dear Grandma,
I think about you often. I miss you. I miss hearing you call me "Bail." I miss everything about you. Your beautiful wrinkly hands, the rollers in your beautiful silver and white hair. I mostly just miss you.

I wish you would have known that you mean the world to me. I wish I would have said more to you at Mayo. I wish I could have hugged you on my wedding day and danced at our reception.

I wish you could see how happy I am now. I wish you could see how much I love being a wife... just like you told me in your last breath "I know you'll be a good wife."

I know you know these things now, because I know you're still around me, but I still wish I could see you and talk to you.

You were the most amazing Grandma that I'll ever know.

I loved "baking" no-bake chocolate oatmeal drop cookies with you. I haven't made them since you've been gone.

I loved taking lunch out to Dad and Grandpa in the field with you. My favorite lunch to take was beef stew, I loved finding the bone and feeding it to the dog.

I'll never forget the last month or so with you. You were so scared and lonely, I could see it in your eyes. It was so scary being by your side, but I knew you needed it, and so did I. Remember when I gave you a facial in the hospital bed? You felt so much better, and so did I.

Or how about the final ice cream party that you wanted in your hospital room. I'll never forget the plot to give you some ice cream as the nurses turned their backs, like we were really going to deny you some ice cream at your ice cream party?!

You couldn't speak, and could hardly write, but yet I knew you loved me and were quietly saying goodbye.

I love you Grandma.

Love,

Bail

Who will you write to? What will you write that you have never said before?

Happy Birthday My Love!!!

Well the day is finally here….I am writing a blog. As you will soon find by the quality of this blog, this is not Bailey. It is Matt. Writing is not my forte so I hope misspellings and miss punctuations don’t bother you.

In case you don’t know, today is Bailey’s birthday!

If you ask her she is practically 30 now. I will not tell you how old she is because females don’t divulge that information very often, but I will give you 25 reasons why I love her so much (not in any particular order).

1. She actually married me! 6 months 3 days of awesomeness so far!!
2. I don’t need a planner anymore.
3. She can put up with enough sports to get me through most weekends.
4. Deb and Rusty (Her parents)
5. All of her family.
6. She is very intelligent.
7. She doesn’t make me write on this blog!
8. She loves me even when I am being stupid…so she loves me all the time.
9. She is strong in her beliefs.
10. She can handle any situation.
11. I have never seen anybody more organized.
12. She knows how to laugh and have a good time.
13. She knows how to cook very well.
14. She is B-E-A-Utiful!!
15. Extremely beautiful!
16. She sleeps on my arm on long car rides (longer than 10 minutes).
17. She respects me and my family.
18. She is going to make the perfect mother someday.
19. She is very adventurous.
20. She can speak fluent French.
21. She has wonderful friends that like me…I think.
22. She is successful!
23. She encourages me to do things I didn’t think were possible.
24. She makes random noises, and I mean random.
25. She is the best thing to ever happen to me!

Make sure you send her an email, give her a call, or message her on facebook to tell her happy birthday because this is the only time this year you will be able to do that! Now that I have lowered your IQ by approximately 10 points with my blogging abilities, I will stop.

I love you Bailey and I hope you enjoy your birthday! We have special plans for supper tonight that you will enjoy! I can’t wait to celebrate many many more of your birthdays with you! Happy Birthday to my wife!

oh, how i hate you mr. dentist

Ok, so that might have been an exaggeration, but I really do dislike the dentist. Last week I had the grand opportunity of having to visit the dentist for a filling. My aunt Tammy works at the dentist's office and had the pleasure of having me as a patient. Here is the not so hilarious account of my time at the dentist:

Matt picked me up from school (since we are doing the fabulous car-pooling thing now! =) and we headed up to Waverly to the dentist's office. On the way there I only thought I was going to throw up two times...not too bad for a 20 minute drive. Once we were there I slouched down into the waiting room chair and prayed that they would forget I was there...to no avail. Tammy soon came out and got me, and we headed back to the dungeon together. For some reason I ended up in the back far corner, hmm... maybe they know I need to be secluded? =)

Soon after I sat down I was given the gas...laughing gas that is. Ahh... the stuff of miracles. Many deep breaths later and my legs finally quit shaking and my hands went from white knuckles to bright pink knuckles. After anxiously awaiting the dentist he finally arrived. Mr. Dentist is a large man, he played football at Iowa many years ago, and for some reason his kindness won me over. Tammy asked him if I needed "the needle" and he said he probably would recommend it. I panicked for a moment, but as he undoubtedly saw the fear in my eyes, he quickly reminded me that I would first get the numbing cream for my gums. Now we were talking! Gas, numbing cream, and novocaine. If I still felt pain after all three things, we may have had something to really worry about.

The numbing cream did wonders. I closed my eyes (God forbid I would see the needle, I most certainly would have been on the floor!) and stiffened up as he gave me the novocaine. A few short stories later about Germany and how I know Mr. Dentist's wife and it was time for....... THE DRILL. Ugh, how I hate the sound of the drill. I wish you were never created stinking drill. It was over pretty quickly, the filling was pushed in, and I was outta there!

Ok... you can laugh now, but at least now you know why the dentist is such an ordeal for me.