Sunday, April 3, 2011

Tay

Today marks a year since Josh and I boarded a plane with the kids, headed to California to pay our respects to our beloved Taylia. 
It's funny how looking back it is the little things I miss.  I loved her Christmas Cards, the were always so creative.  I remember one year getting little file folders with random pieces of paper and memo's that were filled with their accomplishments of the year.  Another year we got their "To Do List" with some things checked off and others not.  And notes by the nots that said maybe next year, or we have just given this one up.  Every Christmas Time I looked forward to seeing what creative thing she had come up with this time...I would open the card with much anticipation and think, Why didn't I come up with this?  I was sad this year not to get a card.
After Mia was born Tay would call every year to wish her a Happy Birthday on September 3rd.  She always forgot that Mia's day was the 6th.  Once she finally remembered she continued to call on the third just for tradition and so she could be the first to tell her Happy Birthday.
Once we moved to Pennsylvania we would spend every Thanksgiving with Jeff and Tay in Detroit, until they moved to Shanghai.  I remember Tay insisting that her friend Ami and I made a ton of food and give us specific amounts of what she wanted brought, 8 dozen rolls, 10 lbs of mashed potatoes, etc. she wanted a lot of leftovers, once Thursday came and the food was put out she would say, why on earth did you guys bring so much, it will take us a month to eat all of this.  We would respond, you told us to, and she would say..."What was I thinking" She would do the same thing with apple picking and we would pick the 6 bushels of apples she requested, I was always grateful to go back to Pennsylvania and not have to help her and Ami spend a week turning those apples into tons of apple sauce and apple butter.  The next time we came she always made sure to send me home with several jars. 
The morning after Thanksgiving we would go Black Friday Shopping, I would sit and wait in hopes she wouldn't come up so I could go back to bed and she would lay in bed saying, maybe Jenn didn't get up, I will listen and if I don't hear her I won't get up.  Then one of the kids would cry and we would be up anyway.  So a shopping we would go.  We would finish our shopping go to Panera's and eat Bear Claws and take the kids and Josh and Jeff home a little something, not as good as Bear Claws, but still good.
We had a caramel popcorn tradition every time we went to Detroit.  We would get the kids to bed make Grandma Couch's Caramel Popcorn and watch a movie, play a game, visit, or watch Jeff and Josh compete at WII tennis.  When she moved to China the first thing she called and asked for was Grandma's recipe. She kept losing her copy of it.
I think what I miss most however, is our morning and evening chats.  Every Morning I would get Mia on the bus she would be getting her kids to bed and we would get on line and catch up, we would do the same that evening as I got my kids to bed and she got hers on the bus.  We mostly talked about stupid things, which kid is sick and with what, what funny thing Seth or McKinlee had done this time, what crazy thing is going on in the Ward, etc.  Thankfully most of our conversations were on Gmail chat, so they are saved and have become one of my most cherished possessions, if you can call Gchat that.  I guess it all boils down to I just miss her.

2 comments:

Joyelle said...

love you sooo much, jenn. i cant even imagine that pain in your heart and that void. she's close to you now, i am sure, still loving you as she always has. xoxo

Karen's Korner of the World said...

I'm here at work with tears ! Love you Jenn. Thank goodness someday you will see her agian...carry on with her great attitude. The world needs many more"Tays"