Skip to main content

Grandpa HoneyBunch


When my kids were little we would make a big deal of Grandparents’ Day.  We planned our weekend visiting and delivering tokens of our love and appreciation to the grandparents - small plants or flowers for the grandmoms and great-grandmothers, cards and a candy bar for the grandfathers. 

Only one on that list is still with us.  

I became a grandma in 2001; HB acquired the prestigious title of grandpa when he married me in 2006.  Since then we have “titled” him seven more times.

He is tickled pink (but mostly blue since seven of the eight are boys) and takes the title of Grandpa HoneyBunch seriously.

He’s built furniture, toys, and playscapes.  He’s repaired hundreds of store-bought items not meant for the rambunctiousness of healthy and curious hands. He’s hiked, fished, and roller skated.  He has cheered at t-ball, baseball, and soccer games.  He’s dried tears, fixed boo boo’s, and given advice. 

Nothing makes me smile more than to watch him go about his chores shadowed by a little man, listen to him hold a serious conversation with a preschooler, or have him drop whatever he is doing because one of the grandkids needs him.

They think he is “cool,” but then he saves baby birds, eight-foot long snake skins, or the snake itself to show them “just in case they drop by.” All I have going in my favor is an educational DVD or book, a home cooked meal, or ice cream.  

He downplays his grandfatherhoodness, saying he is just their step-grandpa, but I assure him his unselfish love, his limitless sacrifice, and his fatherly example have earned him the use of the full-fledged title. Happy Grandparents’ Day, HoneyBunch.

 
Grandparents’ Day is always the first Sunday after Labor Day, so this year we celebrate it on September 9th, 2012.      
Labels:

Comments

  1. Judy WattersSeptember 3, 2012 at 4:07 PM

    You definitely have a winner there, Raquel. How lucky those little rugrats are to have an active and loving grandpa like HB.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BiancaSeptember 7, 2012 at 1:43 AM

    He truly is a great man. You guys are the best!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finding My Muse

1)Because my muse has a wicked sense of humor and visits me at odd times and in inconvenient places, I have learned to record inspirations/ideas immediately before I forget them or they dissolve into nothing. I carry small notebooks, own a digital recorder, and have been known to text messages home. I will scribble on anything – old napkins I find in my glove compartment or old receipts. I even pop out of bed in the middle of the night to jot things on sticky pads. 2)Calendars are great places to find topics. I use important dates, seasons, and upcoming holidays to plan blog posts. I can also go back into my work calendar to refresh my memory about meetings, conferences, or books I have read that might be worth sharing with others.   3)I will sit with a good cup of coffee, pen and paper ready, and read the newspaper searching for topics, interesting characters, or modern trends.  News channels and other newsfeeds are just as good.   4)I love to read the TV and movie guides for titles and…
4 comments
Read more

The Girl Who Eats Canned Spinach

I went to a Catholic elementary school run by strict Belgian nuns, and we could not leave the cafeteria until we ate everything served on our food tray. Once a week, they served warmed, canned spinach with our meal. The spinach tasted nothing like the way my grandmother made it, but I ate it. I gulped it down in three or four bites and it amazed my table mates. I told them we ate it at home so I was used to the taste. Now, my real problem began the day I ate the spinach off my friends’ trays so we could go play outside. As soon as the nun monitoring the cafeteria turned her back, my friends ate something off my tray I didn’t want, and I ate their serving of spinach. I only did it for two of my table mates, but the word spread. On the next Spinach Day, kids followed me to my table.I was suddenly very popular, and as soon as the nun marched off to the other end of the cafeteria, my friends and an army of others who only knew me as The Girl Who Eats Spinach, begged me to take their servin…
2 comments
Read more

Facing My Fear of Guns

With the ownership of firearms comes responsibility, so I had asked HoneyBunch several times to teach me how to shoot and to help me get my License to Carry. I got my wish two weeks ago. HB and I signed up to take a LTC class. He bought me a gun, one similar to his, that would be the type we needed to show shooting proficiency, and for one whole week he tried to get me to become familiar with it, but I was hesitant. I read the booklet that came with the gun. I practiced loading and shooting it in what is called dry shooting (no bullets), and since the flyer said I would have to shoot thirty shots at different distances, I finally tried with it loaded. I was a nervous wreck. The class of twelve turned out to be close to forty people. We were of all ages, colors, and genders, and I was glad I wasn’t the only woman my age. The shooting test came first, and we were separated into two groups. Those who were proficient (or thought they were) would shoot first, and those who were novices wou…
Post a Comment
Read more