MORE WITH THE MEEKS: The Queen

Oops, in the last post I failed to mention that last Friday (July 2nd) was my grandmother Jane's birthday -- all 7 of her children came in town to celebrate. This was actually a really special day for all of us. Our family was chosen for the front cover of some Catholic magazine..? All of the St. Aloysius graduates from our family had to meet at St. Al for pictures... it was pretty hot, not too sure how those pics will turn out. But..it was fun and a great way to begin the bday celebration!!

The party then moved to Roca and as luck would have it.. the A/C was out. UGH! We enjoyed dinner and LOTS of wine! The birthday girl couldn't last like the rest of us! Happy 79th Mymother (this is what we call her, rather than gma)

For as long as I can remember, we've also called mymother "The Queen." My grandfather treated her like royalty and all of her children do the same.She is a LUCKY LUCKY woman with a huge family that caters to her EVERY need! My mom says that she never recalls a fight between my grandparents growing up...hard to believe when you have 7 children running around!!

My grandaddy Jerry just passed March 09, which has been REALLY hard on my grandmother. They did EVERYTHING together. They were high school sweethearts. He went to Notre Dame on a wrestling scholarship (never would have thought this by looking at him) and she went to Ole Miss. She didn't even last a year and she was moving to Indiana to be with him. They soon got married, he graduated from Notre Dam, moved back to Vburg and they started popping out babies!

Fun facts about "The Queen":

Everynight before she and my grandaddy went to bed, she put on her lipstick. She laughs when we ask her about it but...it hasn't stopped her. True Southern lady!

She LOVES Betty Boop and Marilyn Monroe! She used to carry a Marilyn Monroe license in her wallet. She would pull the Marilyn license out and show it to people instead of her own.

Every afternoon my grandparents had "tea time" at 4pm. My grandad would come home from work and they would have coffee/tea and a snack then take a 30 min nap. We knew better than to call, the phones always were taken off the hook!

My grandad was very organized, which rubbed off on mymother (he had a label machine and made labels for EVERYTHING--he even gave all the grandkids label machines one year for christmas) All of their dollar bills in their wallet faced one way, clothes in closet were color coordinated, shoes in the closet were in labeled shoe boxes (as if the box didn't give a good enough description), desk and kitchen drawers had dividers (and most labeled), etc. You can imagine how hard that would have been to get used to, but...she loved it!

At night they would have a cocktail and peanuts at 7, followed by dinner at 8. "The Queen" would only eat whole peanuts and only a small portion of them. I can't remember how many she would get but they would count out the exact # of whole peanuts , put them in a dish and take them to their "grown up" den to eat while drinking their cocktails. To this day my grandmother still does this, just the time is different.. peanuts and wine at 7, dinner at 7:30...EVERY night. We have my grandad to thank for that. He was VERY adament about everything being done at certain times. Ex...tea party at 4, cocktails at 7, dinner at 8....this NEVER changed and he would get so bent out of shape if something interferred.

Mymother is ALWAYS "dressed to a T". My mom goes to her house every night to take her dinner (I told you that cater to her EVERY need...my mom plans her menu on Sunday and even goes grocery shopping for her....takes her dinner M-Thurs at 7:30 SHARP) and lays out her outfit for the next day. Skirt, top/cardigan, shoes, purse and jewelry. If my mom goes out of town or can't make it over, she lays several outfits out so she can get by without her. Needless to say, she is very stylish and always looks so cute! Also...mymother ONLY wears skirts or dresses. I've never seen her in any type of pants or shorts. I do sometimes wonder what she would like like in shorts, ha! When she used to go walking at the mall (I have to admit...I went a couple of times with her...NOT COOL) she would wear her skirt with tennis shoes.

Birthdays are such a big deal in our family (like most, I'm sure). Every year my dad sent Heidi and I roses to school and mymother would pick us up and take us to her house for a birthday party themed "tea party"....she would ALWAYS have us either a cake or a single cupcake and give us our presents. She made us feel so special.

Almost forgot... mymother was once on a billboard on Clay Street in Vicksburg. She was eating at the Casino one night and they asked if she would be interested in posing for the billboard. Of course she did it and LOVED the attention. We still have that sign somewhere around our house.