Dear Noah........hard to believe it has been 9 years since we moved back to Ohio

It still seems like last week and not 9 years ago. This is also the weekend 9 years ago we moved out from my grandma's house (your great-grandmother) to move into this house we currently live in. Grandma was the only one who offered us a place to stay when we moved here from Colorado....until we could get a place of our own. We came back in February and it took almost 4 months to finally find a place, and unfortunately during that time...I caught a lot of crap from family via phone calls and emails about us needing to move out and finding a place of our own to live in and move out away from grandma's house. Like what.....we were not trying? You kept all the house floor plans and real estate print outs of the houses we looked at to buy...there are hundreds! Some days we would look at 10 to 15 at a time. I finally gave up on "buying" a house and decided just to find something to "rent" as I was still getting phone calls from my mom and uncle and cousin and whoever telling me how we needed to move out. You were still having more issues back then than you do now and they were afraid you would trip grandma or who knows what.

Grandma gave us a room upstairs and we pretty much tried to always stay up there and not disrupt grandma's routines or life as much as possible. Grandma never complained. She was not telling us we needed to move out yet...but everyone else was. Funny....I don't think anyone emailed my uncle or called him up and gave him crap like they did me after he moved in with grandma and ended up staying there for 4 years and causing her lots of grief in the process. BUT whatever. Maybe everyone has learned something from all this. I know grandma was a very loving and compassionate person and always loved you more than she could say. She always sent you a card, which she did not always do so to her other great-grandkids and she would make a point to tell us not to tell anyone else about it lol.....and she always stuck money in the card for you. She called you "my little Noah"......and loved you dearly.

I am now apparently off on a tangent....was just originally thinking about how this is the weekend 9 years ago we finally moved out from grandma's house (one room upstairs that she had fixed up for us) and moved into this house. It is also the weekend we got ready for grandma's funeral 1 year ago after she died following a horrific accident that she was in, with that same uncle from above driving her car. He failed to stop at a stop sign at a busy intersection and pulled out and an oncoming car hit grandma's car on the passenger side where she was sitting. She suffered a broken neck, head injuries, broken rib, etc. My uncle was basically fine. The other people were thankfully also okay. Grandma though died 2 days later from her injuries. She would most likely still be alive and going strong if that had not happened as she was very healthy and still living independently at 91 years of age. She would often in the middle of a conversation look at me and ask, "Just how long do you think I am going to live?" lol....she, I think, was worried about her eyesight as she had lost sight in the 1 eye already...and she did not hear the best anymore...and she was worried about slowly losing the use of her legs.....she had neuropathy and could not always feel her feet...so had to finally stop driving.

You already know all this though Noah....as we would go visit with grandma at least once a week. You heard us talk during our conversations. You also worked word puzzles with grandma and showed her floor plans in your house books. I am sure she was bored out of her mind but she never let you know that. So this is a mixed weekend for me. You are now 16 years old....16-1/2...we just wrapped up school.....and I came across this photo and realized how much older you now are.....how much time has passed since this photo was taken at grandma's house while we were living there or maybe shortly after we moved out.......and then all that has happened in that time but especially even this past year.

 Today is a rainy day.....and I have a lot I can do here in the house and outside even.....but I am not sure how much I will accomplish. Sometimes it is good to just take some down time to reflect.

I love you my little man. You have grown up so much since this photo was taken.

Mom
XOXOX