Aunt Betty

My aunt is having back surgery today. And she is likely going to be recovering in bed for a while sooooo....I am going to try to keep her entertained via blog! If you have anything funny (inspirational, silly, interesting,) to share please post comments so she'll have even more to read!

Who is she? Well my Aunt Betty is one great lady. She my mom's sister. Look Aunt B I didn't even mention that you are her older sister...wink.

She was The aunt. You know the fun one. The one who gave you the cool gifts. The one from the Big City. Didn't you have one of those? If not, you were missing out. I'll let you know what it was like. (I should say I have lots of other aunts from my dad's side and they are all wonderful women whom I share fond memories of as well, but shhhh, Aunt Betty was the FUN one.)

Okay. Growing up I lived in a very small town. Population like less than 1000. Aunt Betty lived in exotic locations like Laredo, Fort Worth, El Paso, Austin. For starters, she (and her family) moved around alot. And I would get to visit her in all of thier spectacular homes. Sometimes I would stay with her for a week at a time all by myself. It was a BLAST!!

She would always get donuts for breakfast. NOT like the kind you get at Walmart, the real fresh from a bakery kind. They would be ready when I woke up. Chocolate covered...and cut into bite size pieces...with a PAIR OF SCISSORS. How cool is that!?! Her kitchen table was wicker, with a GLASS TOP. Cool! I was always so careful. I really thought if I set my glass down too hard I would break the table.

She would always take me to fun places like...the museum, the botanical gardens, old towne shops. And once...to Mexico. To watch the greyhound races...FUN!!

She always gave us the coolest presents too. Stuff that we had NEVER seen before. Stuff we didn't know existed.

Aunt Betty used to teach elementary school and I loved to go to her classroom. How cool was it to see the behind the scenes of a school? To watch how the laminating machine works or where they keep reams and reams of constuction paper.

And I can not forget how she would read a story to me. I remember her reading the book "The Monster at the End of This Book, starring loveable furry old Grover." After she read that story to me it became my favorite childhood book. I have several copies and when I read it to Little d at bedtime I try to make it as funny as Aunt Betty did. I can't think of that book and not think of her. She also "read" Heidi to me. Except she just made up a funny story without actually reading the real story. To this day I have no idea what the real book is about.

And her little sayings. "I'm going to rip off your arm and beat you with the bloody end." Okay in print that looks bad, but when said to a elementary kid it results in peals of laughter. (And it works on kids today. I used it last summer on a kid's scrapbook workshop and made all the girls laugh.)

One trip she decided to curb her cursing. I don't even remember her cursing anyway, but for some reason on this road trip she decided to replace the word shit with the word broccoli. OMG. I thought that was the funniest thing ever! I remember laughing the entire trip home...

I also have a very special memory of her as a grown up. When I was shopping for my wedding dress I could not find one anywhere local. I even went for a weekend to San Antonio. Nothing. Aunt Betty said we could come to Houston to stay with her and shop. So we did. And mom and I went and found the dress. I had narrowed it down to two, with one being the one I really felt was the one. So the next day Aunt Betty came with us. I tried on the first one and she oohed and ahhed. Then I came out of the dressing room with the One on. She gasped and then covered her mouth. She apologized because she was afraid to influence my decision. I laughed and told her that this was the one I wanted too. She said in that case she did like that one best. It was a great memory.

When my BFF had her first child and asked me to be Godmother, I decided I wanted to be her cool aunt. Aunt Betty you were my inspiration. Thanks for giving me so many great childhood memories! May you have a full and speedy recovery and be a mobile Mawmaw once again!!