Amazing Grandma Carol

Today is Grandma Carol’s birthday. She does not want you to know that but I am telling you.

It is her day to be featured on the Pinke Post whether she is thrilled about it or not. 

Carol is my mother in law that quietly works behind the scenes for us every week. 

When people ask me “How do you travel so often for work?” 

I answer, “I have an amazing husband and my in-laws live in same town as me.”

Carol’s favorite hobby is to cook. 

She loves recipes. She reads cookbooks. 

She loves food. She loves to cook. She loves to bake.

All five things our family hugely benefits from every week.

When I travel, Nathan and the kids eat an evening meal at Carol and Eldon’s house every night. It makes evenings easier for Nathan to not have to cook and clean up the kitchen. He gets home to get baths done, kids to bed and still get some more work done before bed.
Plus there are many days when I don’t travel that Carol calls me and says “I just happen to have (fill in the blank with one of the hundreds of recipes she makes) that I need to get cooked up so do you want to come over to join us?”
I never turn down a meal offer from Carol!

Besides cooking, Carol loves baseball, primarily watching Hunter play in the summer and watching or listening to Minnesota Twins on a daily basis.

Carol also loves the family dog-child, Charlie, who started out solely as Nathan’s dog but slowly came to live with Carol and Eldon as Nathan’s corporate career became busier with travel. Charlie would come to visit Gma Carol’s house and eventually he just moved right in. 

Once we moved to the prairie, Charlie started to visit our house again. But he knows better not to leave Carol for very long. No prairie dwelling dog that I have ever known has been better cared for than Charlie. He knows it and pays his gratitude to Carol. (Eldon and Nathan get partial credit…maybe.)

Carol’s greatest love though is for her family. 

She is a hands-on mom, grandma and wife. She waited years to be a grandma and jumped right into it with Hunter when Nathan and I were married. Then we added granddaughters for her and her energy and excitement for being grandma has doubled and tripled.

Our children get plenty of Grandma Carol time, especially when she takes care of the girls a couple days week. Hunter often walks to her house after school for a cookie and a glass of milk.

Carol is a proud grandma. She is a grandma that plays with our kids. A grandma that gets down on the floor to play with our kids, bringing out all the classic toys of Auntie Lori’s and Nathan’s from their childhood. She races with Hunter, plays catch with him and makes him all of his favorite recipes which include a lot of her family’s German Russian recipes.

Carol went to business school as a young woman. She worked a banking job for ten years, wearing high heels and pantyhose every weekday before becoming a full time mom. 

When we moved to the prairie, I was pregnant with Elissa and transitioning from my office job to working full-time from home. Carol told me “I will never tell you not to work. You have a great job. I will help Nathan and you with the kids and you can do both.” 

I am forever grateful for Carol encouraging me as a mother, wife and in my career.

A few other things I admire (and at times covet) about my mother in law.

Her house is always clean. Mine is not. 

She always has fresh baked buns. I pretty much depend on her for fresh baked buns or our grocery store or frozen bun dough. 

She always has fresh baked cookies. I sometimes have fresh baked cookies. 

She always has a fresh cake baked. I have yet to make her birthday cake today. But I will.

She could entertain and throw a party any of day of the week because she always is ready. I can always depend on her to help me pull off party because she will bring anything I ever ask.

Carol’s appearance is that of a lady. A lost art I believe for many women in this day and age. Her clothes are meticulously chosen and cared for with her make up perfectly applied. Professionally I work to keep my wardrobe updated, my appearance presentable. But let’s face it, most days I wash my hair and go. Carol’s hair is impeccably fixed every day. 

My fingernails will never be as manicured or perfectly polished like Carol’s which she does on her own…both for herself and for Elissa. My fingernails are most often stubby and chewed on as I am still a closet nail biter. 

But what I love about Carol is that she is never judgmental towards me about me being different than her. 

Most recently you have not seen many pictures of Carol. 

In mid-March she underwent a major shoulder repair surgery. You can see above she has quite a contraption holding her shoulder and arm up which has prevented her from doing her weekly routine of grandma babysitting. But not much can keep Carol down for long. 

A few days after her surgery we stopped in to visit after church. Carol was directing Eldon on the final steps of finishing off a lemon meringue pie. Since then, Hunter has noticed her homemade buns were slightly different in shape. Carol laughed and said “Oh Hunter that is because they are left-handed buns!” She is a one-armed cook and baker whipping up meals and baked goods like always in her kitchen. Carol is definitely pushing through her twice a week physical therapy to get her shoulder out of sling so she can enjoy the summer at the park with the girls, walking the dog child Charlie and being a baseball fan.

Happy Birthday Grandma Carol!