The Blessing Counter: Counting two grandmothers with a thankful heart.

I'm especially homesick these days. The fact that my Mississippi State bulldogs are the #1 football team in the nation makes me want to plop right down in the middle of campus and just stay there!! (Did y'all notice I found a way to mention my team being #1 again?!)

Added to that ever-constant desire to be back at MSU, both my mom and Wade's mom have had a rough year.

Grammie with Baby Cate (Because she is not getting much attention in my blog series...I thought perhaps a few pictures of my Little Red were in order!)

Grandmar and Cate.

My Mom has bounced back beautifully from her heart issues of last fall. But even as she was in the midst of all the new routines the doctors put in place for her, a tornado hit her neighborhood damaging most of the homes and much of her town in general. It was a scary time for me and my brothers as we could not even get to her to help (Amazing family and friends jumped right in and took care of her for us -- I am ever grateful!).

And this week, Wade's mom began radiation therapy in a battle to fight breast cancer. The doctors are optimistic that they removed all of the cancer but the radiation is an extra measure of assurance. The distance to Mississippi from the desert seems increasingly far.

So it seems only right that tonight's post in my 31 day challenge should be about my precious then-not-quite-two-year-old Benjamin talking about his grandmothers:

Feb. 26, 1999 -- "Benjamin has started saying "Nanmar" and "Nammie"....what originally was Grandmar (Wade's mother...Grandmother Marsha....get it?) and Grammie (My mother....just cause I liked it!)....we'll see if the other two pick it up! He is such a loving little boy. I've been showing them pics of Marsha and Mother trying to teach them their names. And Wednesday night when Benjamin said Nanmar for the first time...I told Wade to show him the pic and ask him who it was. Well, Wade gave him the pic to hold...when I came back into the room I could hear Benjamin saying "Ooooh--weee" and I looked around (I was dressing Mason) and Benjamin was kissing the picture of Marsha! It was the sweetest thing! What a love!"

Even though the triplets grew up far away from the grandmothers, there was never a time that they did not know them. In the days before FaceTime, I would have pictures of these women sitting around their room in an attempt to teach them exactly who they were. And they knew.

Cate was no different. We talked about Grammie and Grandmar and she always knew. There was never doubt about who they were when they visited! What a gift.