Plant Food Kool-Aide

When I was younger, I got to spend a lot of time at my grandparents house.  Both my sister and I agree that forever in our minds will be the unforgettable time of being at grandma's house, sitting on the back porch, eating popcorn and fresh apples watching the airplanes fly by, with Johnny Carson playing in the background.   I am very grateful that I had so many opportunities and time to spend with my grandparents.  This is why I am such a huge advocate for Shaeler to spend as much time as possible with her grandparents.  

One memory that I never want to forget, is the time that my cousin Lacey and I mistakenly eaten plant food one night as we were having a sleep over at Grandma Henrie's house.  As a child, sleeping over at grandma's house was fantastic, especially if my cousin Lacey would be there too.

I believe I was about 5 or 6 years old in this particular memory.  Grandma had just given us our bath that we shared together, all us kids.  When you took a bath at grandma's there were always 4 things that stood out.  A) soap bar B) Wash cloth) C) a pitcher full of water and D) some fabric art decor that hung above the toilet of a grandma bathing in a bubbly bathtub and a grandpa bathing in a bubbly bathtub, to which we swore were arts of them personally.  I can hear her words echo in my ears to be sure to wash my elbows, knees and behind my ears with the soap and washcloth.  Once that was complete, we would shampoo and condition our hair.  We would take our washcloths and fold then properly to cover our eyes as grandma poured the warm water over our heads with the pitcher.  Just thinking about that moment of feeling the water pour over my head and remembering the joy and happiness I felt being taken care of  by my grandmother is so very precious to me.

So after our bath, grandma was kind enough to curl both Lacey's and my hair into the pink sponge curlers.  What a treat!  Beautiful curly hair was worth the high price of a restless night sleeping on the plastic sponge curlers, let me tell you.  Grandma had curled our hair and we were off playing in the house in our jammies and curlers.  At some point, we got hungry and headed for the kitchen to find some sort of sweet snack to sneak.  

We found a closed packet that looked like a Kool-aide packet and opened it to taste the surge of concentrated sweetness that had not yet been diluted down by water.  We licked our fingers, stuck it in the packet and were utterly surprised by the sugar rush and sweetness.  With our cravings satisfied we headed back down stairs to play. 

The next thing I remember is both my grandparents yelling at us to come upstairs and admit who had opened the plant food packet!  Neither one of us wanted to admit our transgression until finally one of my grandparents saw our guilt ridden fingers covered with the red dye.  Instantly, we were rushed to the bathroom and commanded to try and throw the plant food up or we would be poisoned.  Shocked and scared, Lacey and I knelt in front of the same toilet and tried to dry heave up the poisonous plant food.  I didn't feel sick, other than at that moment, I was sick because I thought I was in big trouble and going to DIE!  We came up with the brilliant idea to try and poop it out, since the vomiting was unsuccessful.  Our two little bums shared the seat and we sat there for what felt like hours trying to save our selves from poisonous plant food streaming through our bodies.  

With tears and humility, grandma let us out of the bathroom, with a full assurance that if we felt sick to immediately tell her and to NEVER sneak food from the kitchen ever again.  The night was long as I was not looking forward to the morning when my parents would come and pick us up to find out that their daughter had been very disobedient and was close to the brink of death.

I prepared myself mentally before my parents arrived.  I was going to take whatever punishment would follow and count my blessings that I was still breathing the next day.  My mom and dad showed up and I waited and waited for my grandma to tell the story.  She never did!

I still believe that night we really ate Kool-aide and grandma jumped on the opportunity to teach us a lesson about sneaking food.  Either the woman was completely brilliant or has a sick sense of humor, which either way, I will happily inherit both traits from her!