Aunt Marly

I don't really know the timing of all of this but when I was born my aunt Marly was in the Army. I am not sure when she got out but I know when she did, she went to school in Fort Collins, so I am not sure if I am remembering her visiting while she was on leave or just coming down from school. But I remember a lot about her visits. She would take Matthew & I to the Children's Museum and play with us there for hours (which seemed like a couple of minutes to us. I remember we (Matthew & I) went up to FC to see her one weekend and we saw a big hairy spider, we were calling it a tarantula but I don't think that was right. Marly caught it in a jar and Matthew probably still has it in a box somewhere, we were so proud of that thing and showed it to everyone that came over to the house and every time Marly came over for a visit we would get the jar out and tell the story again. When I got older I would stop by Marly's house and talk to her for hours. She is a great friend to me who I can talk to about anything. She is great at listening and knows when to give advice. She is a great gardener and jumped at the mention of planting a community garden in her yard since my Mom's house is on a mountain and not great for gardening.

She raised my cousin Ben to be one of the most responsible, hard working, funniest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I often say that I hope my kids turn out as well as he did. And now she is doing stuff with Morgan, and that is so special to me. Morgan loves it too but it means so much more than she realizes yet.

On Sunday Marly took Morgan to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's. One of Marly's friends little boy turned four. It was a big deal for Morgan. Marly picked her up and they went shopping to pick out the perfect present (this is what a google search turned up, Morgan says it is the correct one), and then they went to the party. After the party they went to see Great Grandma Ruth. Marly told Morgan "maybe we will go see Grandma another day" to which Morgan said "I want to go see her". So they did. Morgan had such a good time she is still talking about it. On Monday I took her to the store and on the way there she told me she got to hear Marly's music (Rise Against), I guess Marly had turned the speaker's off in the back so it wouldn't be so loud and at one point Morgan asked her to turn it up (I told Marly "I am not sure she has ever heard Mary Had A Little Lamb (which she has on Max & Ruby), but she sure knows a Social D song when it comes on, and she knows she was in my belly at one of their concerts"). Then we were walking in to the store and she told me she wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese again and she would miss me. I told her I would take her again if she wanted and she said "No Momma, Marly has to take me, but I will miss you." I couldn't help but start laughing.