Happy Birthday Nana!

Today is my Nana's 93rd birthday and we all celebrated by going over to the Senior Living Facility to go swimming, open presents and have cake. I have so many wonderful memories of my Nana from when I was a little girl all the way up to now as I am a mother and wife myself. Some of the best memories I have of her is when I was in Elementary School and was sick. My mom would have to go work so my Nana would come over and take care of me. I remember lying on the couch covered with a blanket with her down by my feet watching t.v. with me and getting me what ever I needed. I remember playing UNO with her and I would win every time, now maybe she was letting me win since I was sick, but to this day she still says I would win fair and square. I remember her scratching my back, that was the best, she would just come over and start scratching for no reason except that she knew that I loved it. Up until about a year ago she would still every now and then just come over and start scratching my back, it might have only been for a minute or two but it was still the best and was always so comforting. Some memories I have of her from when I was a little older would be at her old house in Des Peres. We would go over to visit and she had the board game MouseTrap, my sister Amy and I would always play it not sure if we were playing it correctly but having fun non the less. She had a really cool bar down in her basement so we would go downstairs and play bartender. She had everything from cool mugs/glasses to a bunch of different stirrers (sp?) and it even had three different beer taps just like at a real bar (of course there wasn't any beer in them) but it was fun to just pull the handles like there was!! I also remember once I was older and out of college I would stop by to say "Hi" and just visit for awhile just the two of us and she would make a Tombstone pizza for us to share. Even if we ran out of things to talk about just sitting with her and watching the Cardinals play baseball is always a memory I will have of time with her.
I am so thankful that she has had a long enough life to be able to watch me and my sister grow into the women we are today and to be able to meet our children as they all just absolutely adore their Nana Pope!
Within the last 6 months to a year we have all noticed that the old age is really starting to catch up with her which is hard for all of us to take in. Here is my Nana who up until just a few months ago has always been so independent, living on her own and driving her self where ever she needed to go and now she is slipping. I am just so thankful that we have had all these years with her and I hope and pray for many more.
SO Happy Birthday Nana, even though you will never see this blog entry because you have no idea what a blog is or how to use the computer/Internet I just wanted to let everyone who reads my blog know how very special you are to me and how very much I love you!!