M - Happy 90th Birthday Gpa Emmitt!

Dana, Noah, Katie and I made a quick trip to McAlester on Tuesday night to surprise Grandpa Emmitt and Grandma Mary with a personal birthday greeting. After all, 9 Jan 08 was Grandpa Emmitt's 90th birthday and we felt such a milestone warranted a personal surprise greeting from four among hundreds of other folks that thinks he is pretty GREAT fella!

I called grandpa as we left OKC to ensure they would actually be around and that they didn't otherwise have a HOT date that night. Of course I didn't tell him we were already on the way. I just fibbed (a little) and said I wanted to call him a day early in case I forgot to call him on his actual birthday. During that call I nonchalantly asked him what they had going on that evening.

Indeed he was very busy...crackin' pecans and such. For those that know, this ain't a normal kinda busy. But we decided to head on down and interrupt their evening nonetheless.

When we arrived at their house we sent Noah and Katie to the door to make the first greeting. My video stinks but here it is anyway. All the family will appreciate the "Get in here...Get in here!" Did our surprise succeed? You be it did!




They had already had supper (which is a risk you run when you're the surprisin' sort that we planned to be) so we ordered pizza and just a great time hanging out in that comfy living room that is so full of love and acceptance. All you kids, grand-kids, and great-grands and so on know that feeling I'm talking about.

The kids and Dana helped grandma Mary with some kind of quilting board game (yeah, I don't have a clue) by tearing all the little game pieces apart and storing them in individual baggies. Afterwards, grandma Mary happily let Noah show off his reading skills and joined in on the fun herself. My lovely bride tried her hardest to capture the fun with my camera (I just happened to have fallen asleep by this point in the evening) and, while it's a little blurry, you can appreciate the fun that was being had by that trio.

The next morning we loaded up the mini-van and took grandma and grandpa to breakfast at Marylin's.









Marylin's a fine little greasy spoon cafe that is typical of that which is quite hard to find these days in the bigger cities. The cash register is about 10feet past the front door, there's barely enough room for two rows of about 7 tables each and the back wall is lined with a right-fine collection of old guns that may still see a little action occasionally during the appropriate hunting season. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the wait staff knew which one was loaded just in case someone tried to walk out of their with the cash register! Most importantly, boy does that 'chef' make a great breakfast! You gotta love a place where you get a real sausage patty and "over easy" means ALL the yolk is runny and not just most of it. This is a take-a-few-years-off-your-life kind of greasy and we LOVED it.

During breakfast Noah was SO excited to present his birthday card to grandpa. Since he just couldn't wait, Dana told handed the card to him so he could give it to grandpa. Grandpa and grandma just loved it and grandpa laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes.























Then of course he had to pick up the phone and tell folks about it!!










In case you were wondering about Noah's card, his innocence makes it all the funnier but here it is for you. He explains that it was the only one with fish on it so obviously it was the only one he could buy for grandpa. You'll have to click on the image for a larger view to read the message.

Cover:












Inside: