Patricia Ann

Ok, so first of all I am going to start off by letting you guys know, 3/4 polishes used in this post are NOT cruelty free brands. The ONLY reason I am using them in this post is because I told you guys I was going to do a post about my grandma, using her polishes, and most of her polishes aren't cruelty free.

You may have noticed the title of this post is Patricia Ann. That is my grandma's name. For those of you who may have just started following us or just haven't read yet, my grandma passed away February 3rd of this year. She was my rock, as well as a giant support for my whole family. Even though she was going to be 71 this year, her death came as somewhat of a surprise. About 3 years ago, she had found out that she had a mass in one of her kidneys. After the doctors putting her surgery off for about a year (which really pissed off a ton of people in my family, including me) they finally got her in and removed her kidney. Upon its removal, they ran tests and discovered that it was cancerous. My grandma was a stubborn lady, and believed she was going to live forever, didn't want anyone worrying about her, etc. So they thought they had gotten all of the cancer, and that was enough for her. She refused chemotherapy as a precaution to make sure they had gotten everything because she didn't want people fussing over her, plus she was self conscious and didn't want to lose her hair and what not. She had always told us, if she ever found out she had cancer or any kind of major disease, condition, etc that she wouldn't tell anyone because of her not wanting anyone to worry.

About a week before she passed away, my family had started to notice major changes in her behavior. There had already been some minor things, but they were things we sort of passed off by saying it was because she was getting older. Some of my family had tried to get her to go to the hospital to get checked out when it started getting bad, but being her stubborn, she wouldn't go. Even when they had an ambulance sent to her house.

A few days after they tried getting her help, she collapsed. My grandpa called 911 and they came and took her to the hospital. After getting to the hospital they had done tests and determined that when they did her surgery to remove her tumor, they hadn't gotten all her cancer. It was now throughout her body, in her bloodstream, chest, and brain. They kept her in the hospital for a few days, then sent her home with hospice care.

Her last few days spent at home, she was surrounded by family. Everyone important was there. We had 3 family members come in from out of state, and some from out of town. Her last moments were spent literally surrounded by her loved ones. Her sister laying next to her, holding her hand, me and my grandfather on her other side holding her hand. People at her feet, and anywhere else they could reach in and caress her arms and legs and comfort her. The sound still haunts me when she took her final breath and everyone lost control of their emotions and began to sob. I myself was crying so hard, I couldn't catch my breath. Grammy meant so much to so many people, it was so hard to see her go, even though she had went pretty fast and somewhat peacefully.

I really really wanted to not make this sad and depressing... So I will just make sure to include some stories about Grammy, that aren't so sad.

When I was little, my cousin Kelly and I were very close. Since grandma raised Kelly, she lived with her, meaning I was over there all the time. We are the two oldest grandkids of hers, and as the younger kids got older, they always wanted to stay the night with grandma like I always did, but they would usually end up going home before they went to sleep because of whatever reason. Kelly and I were practically inseparable. We would sit at the counter with Grammy, she had her own special chair and special spot that she sat at, and we would color with her, design our own fashion lines, play with play dough, make stuff, all kinds of fun stuff. We always played the most random things with her too. One time we decided we wanted to play communion. Who plays that? lol Anyways, we went to a lutheran school so we had some hymn books to sing from and we had oyster crackers and juice and we sang for Grammy and they served her the communion items. We could take something as boring as that and make it fun with her.

When it came time for Kelly and I to go to bed, we usually never did right away. We would lay there and talk, and usually ended up laughing about stuff and Grammy would come tell us that we needed to quiet down and go to sleep. Usually that never worked, we would end up getting up and asking Grammy to take us to Taco Bell or Meijer (department store like Walmart open 24 hours). I don't think there were very many times that she would tell us no. We would get to Meijer and she would tell us not to ask for anything, that we were just there to walk around and look at stuff, but we always came back with stuff. Kelly usually had a cart full of clothes, and I always had an arm full of nail polish. Kelly of course usually couldn't usually get all the stuff that she wanted, but I usually got all the polishes that I picked out because they were all usually Wet n Wild, so they were inexpensive.

One of the things that almost everyone in my family will tell you is how much she loved her family and would show us. She would randomly text or call you just to tell you that she loved you and was thinking about you. She always tried to make every situation, her situation, so she could help you solve it. She was probably the most caring person I ever met.

I really could go on and on about stories with my grandma, but this is already pretty long and I am doing really good so far at not crying, so I don't want to make myself cry. The last few days its really been sinking in. Also not to mention I haven't even talked about the nails I am doing for this post.

Here are the colors I used starting from the left: Cover Girl Boundless Color - Disco Dazzle, Sinful Colors - Sharon's Heart, Mary Kay - Pink Sand, Avon - Nail Experts UV Gloss Guard Top Coat.

I know Valentines Day is over, but I thought since 98% of her polishes are Valentines colors and I didn't get to do my Valentines post that I would just make this a sort of Valentines themed manicure. Here is just with the Sinful Colors on.

I keep seeing people using doting tools for looks and I really want a dotting tool, so instead I found a quick way to do it without having a dotting tool. Stuck a pin into a pencil eraser! Worked pretty good. Only problem I had was that I used a color that needed multiple coats to show up well, so my dots got a little sloppy. I also did some little hearts!

Its hard to tell, but I also did the Cover Girl glitter on my accent nail, but I used a different camera so it didn't show up as good as if I would have used my good camera. 

I think they're cute, I am happy with the end result. 

Sorry if I made you feel sad or feel bad for me, that truly wasn't my intentions. I just wanted to share about the situation with my grandma because I had shared what was happening with her on our facebook page as it was happening. I also would like to thank everyone so much for all the love and prayers and thoughts that everyone was sending our way as we were dealing with this terrible loss. It means so much to me that strangers would care so much. We truly do have some of the best reads anyone could ask for and we appreciate you guys so much! I hope that you guys enjoyed my fun stories about my Grammy and my nails!

xoxoLeah

Wanted to share some fun photos of my grandma with you guys!

Grammy throwing up gang signs!

Me and my gram!

My Grammy and I at my baby shower for Zeke.

Zekes second Halloween, first one to go trick or treating! Always gotta stop at Grams, cuz they always have the best candy!!

Grammy feeding Elijah when he was about a week old.

Who's grandma is cooler than this? haha She was scooping my boob at our birthday party! Thats one of the things I am going to miss most. Our birthdays are April 10th (hers) and mines April 11th. We always shared our birthday! Going to miss my birthday buddy!