I also miss the days when we were all young mothers and we would schlep our children on one side of our hip and the purse and diaper bag on the other side, everywhere we went. I loved raising my children, however, you may not have guessed that if you knew me at the time. It was very stressful being a single mother and the stress showed on me most of the time. But when my kids were finally asleep, I would creep into their bedrooms and watch them sleeping for a few minutes. It was then that I knew everything was all right and even though the day might have been a huge catastrophy, my children were all tucked into bed, sleeping and looking like little angels. Each one of them has these cute little lips that when they slept, they poked out like they were puffing out on something. It made me smile to see them so content. I miss that now, even though then I thought those frantic and chaotic days would never end. Unfortunately, they do, and really too late to take in what I miss most about them now.
My dad's cousin and his wife came to visit today, from California. His name is Bobby and he calls my dad Bobby, which is funny to me because I remember only my grandmother calling him that. My dad likes his cousin, who is only 3 years older than I am. He joked around and we reminisced all day. It was good to reminisce. He knew things about his side of the family that I didn't know and he kept making fun of my dad's mom. She really was a tyrant and everybody knew it, but my dad doesn't like when people make fun of her -- except Bobby could. It was pretty funny - we had a good laugh. His wife didn't have a whole lot to say, but that's probably because Bobby did all the talking. He had a lot to say about Micah being a preacher. He thinks it's "a shame" that such a good Jewish boy would go ahead and become a Christian. We avoided that conversation because I would have had a lot to say, but I think he sensed that, so it wasn't talked about.
After they left, my mom's friend Sue and her daughter came over for a short visit. They are from England and they have the cutest accents. I enjoy listening to them, although I have to admit, sometimes I didn't catch what they said. We met them yesterday before my mom and I went to Wal Mart.
There's only one thing worse than going to Wal Mart on a Saturday afternoon, and that is if you go with a cranky kid or a disabled mother. I parked the car as close as I could to the entrance, but she insisted on walking with the walker to the front door, to get a scooter. Well, it took forever for her to get across the parking lot road as I first of all kept cheering her on like a cheerleader, and then when I was getting frustrated, I just said, "C'mon mom -- go faster. You're going too slow, someone's gonna hit you! C'mon!" I started mumbling about the fact that she wasn't ready to go to WalMart and I told her that, blah, blah, blah. She walked so slow that she was almost at a standstill and kept saying that she had the right of way, etc. As she was coming in the doorway, her legs looked cockeyed, like they were going to give out from under her and I was beside myself. Fortunately, there were two scooters available and she very carefully got on one and I on the other. The nice greeter man put her walker to the side and kept it by the doors for us when we left.
As we started driving the scooters, I said just follow me, but I had to keep looking backward to see if she was still behind me. She was, but waaaaayyyy back there, so I said to just drive alongside of me, which we did until the aisles got smaller. Then I said, you go in front of me and I'll follow you and it was at that point that she crashed into a shelf, backed up and crashed into it again. I just sat there waiting for her to get her bearings and then we were off again at the races. She found what she needed and then it was my turn to look for what I needed, so I told her to follow me. She did, but at one point she went one way and I went the other and I just gave up and figured she'd find me at the pet section, which she did eventually. We picked up the few things that were on our lists and I high-tailed it out of there as quickly as possible. This time, I pulled the car up to the door so she wouldn't have to cross the road and a nice fellow helped her into the car and put our stuff in as well. I flicked the a/c on high as I sat and took a few deep breaths, glared at my mom and she looked perfectly fine. It didn't phase her, partly because she can hardly hear and partly because she had no clue that I was beyond frustrated.
It will be a long time before I ever accompany my mom into WalMart again. I think Publix is safe because there are usually just a few people who shop there. But WalMart - nope. Not unless I take a horse tranquilizer before I leave.
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