The Grandparents' House

We LOVE going to Houston. This past weekend we went to Kingwood to visit Brian's grandparents. They are two of the most beautiful people on this planet. Gene was a doctor until he retired a few years ago and Doris stayed home and raised 5 children and 17 grandkids. They were missionaries in Korea. I probably only know a small part of their struggles, but here is what I found out this weekend. They would have liked to have one more baby (going for the 3 boys and 3 girls), but Doris had deep vein thrombosis with her last pregnancy and they decided to stop while they were ahead. Gene told us about the procedure they had back in those days... ugh, I'm not good with that type of stuff so just thinking about it makes me shiver. If you really want to know what happened look it up. Several of the cousins and Gene had a discussion about spanking. Gene piped up and told us that his mom used to keep something to whip them with in the kitchen on her water heater (so that it was warm when she wanted to use it). Knowing Gene now, I can't imagine that she ever used it on him, but then again maybe her methods are what created such an amazing person. I wish I had a water heater in my kitchen to warm up a paddle, but these days that would probably get me arrested.

Doris is really submitting to alzheimers now. This breaks my heart on so many levels. She was a super hero. I'm totally not kidding about that either. When I married into the family she was cooking 3 meals a day for HOARDS of people, and she was a fantastic cook. If you left your room for 2 minutes she'd sneak in and find all your dirty clothes. Before you realized they were gone, the clothes would be folded perfectly on your bed (she did this for the entire hoard too). She was able to keep all the million Douthit children in line with just a single look. Both Gene and Doris have perfected the art of parenting. The grandkids might not listen to a word that their parents say, but if you tell them that the grandparents will be disappointed in them even the surliest teenager in the worst of adolescence will stop and rethink their actions. I am still studying up on how they set up this system and I'll let you know if I figure out their secret.

Anyway, many of the Douthit cousins gathered at the grandparents house this weekend (Colin, Cory, Kevin, Christian and Kendra, Courtney and Dean, Kristin, Brian and me, and Eli and Jax - unless I'm forgetting someone). Eli and Jaxon were in heaven. So many people were willing to play with them and give them everything they wanted for two whole days. They didn't throw a single fit while we were there, and they fell asleep immediatly as we drove off. No matter how many times I go to the grandparents house, I always feel a little bit like I'm in a tv show from the 50s. Everyone gets along SO well that it is almost scary. Most of the family is happy, loving, and energetic so it is a huge break from "real life" when we go there. It seems like our already ginormous family is growing too! I have a guess on which cousin will get engaged next, but we'll have to see. There are at least 3 couples in the race although I'm not sure all 3 would admit to it. I'm so glad that I married the oldest cousin and my kids will hopefully experience this enough as small children to make an impression.

Oh, on a final note. I'm SOOOO mad at myself. We are camera people so we have two cameras and a camcorder on us MOST of the time. This weekend we went to a basketball game to see Kevin play. He scored 5 - 3 pointers in the first five minutes of the game and another 2 point shot right after that. I had my camera (with a video function on it) IN MY HAND! Our camcorder was right by Brian's feet. We didn't get any of it on video (we did get still shots). I can't BELIEVE I did that, but I was having so much fun cheering with the rest of the family that it didn't occur to me until it was over. Sigh...