How do you pick between your children? When more than one need you at the same time, how do you choose? That is what starts this next journey. Making the decision to help Chris when Caitlynn was just returning to school, wasn’t an easy choice. I even had Caitlynn involved in the final decision. And even as I sit here, I am not sure I made the right decision for all involved. So true one cannot please everyone.
Can our hearts be heavy and overjoyed at the same time? Yep.
I have flown to Texas to watch our granddaughters while Chris and Rachel join up with friends for a birthday celebration. I certainly miss having these four live right down the street so any time I get with them is bonus. I arrived yesterday during rush hour, so when Chris picked me up at the airport we did not head straight back to his house. Besides rush hour traffic, he said there were two accidents on I-35 causing severe backups. He has both girls with him and we stop off at Willie’s for a bite to eat. Weather is so nice and there is a huge sand box for the girls to play in, so we pick a table out on the patio. The girls play in the sand while Chris and I enjoy an adult beverage and catch up. I miss these opportunities to just talk. And watching the girls play and listening to their chatter makes my heart smile. We have a nice meal and after about an hour we decide it is probably safe to get on the freeway and head home.
We arrive at the house where the normalcy of life takes over. Girls need to get their showers going and start getting ready for bed. We enjoy some light chitter chatter and a little time to go over instructions on household items, and appointments needed to be kept while they are away. Chris needs to run to their travel trailer to pick something up, so I ride along. Rachel figures it is a great opportunity to get the pile of stuff that goes in the trailer, out of the bedroom and back in the trailer, so Chris loads it in his truck and we take off. Just a few extra minutes of me getting time with my kid!
They have an early flight to catch so it isn’t long before they head upstairs to finish their packing and get some sleep. Due to the time difference I am not quite tired yet, so I get settled in the guest room and watch a little tv.
Chris and Rachel are gone before anyone else is even up. I am awakened by two dogs and two very active squealing little girls. I am so not ready to wake up as it is only 5am at home, but the girls think differently. So up I get. We have some breakfast and head to the pool. For the first hour we three are the only ones at or in the pool. I had so much fun watching the girls show me how they can swim now. They both forgot to bring their goggles so of course that is the excuse every time something goes wrong or they can’t do something they said they could. Listening to how their little minds work is just amazing.
After about an hour we are joined by a young mom and two little boys. I have to admit I definitely judged the book by the cover on this one. The boys were 4 and 1 and very active. Mom was young, had a body to die for, and was on her phone the whole time. The 4 year old came to swim with the girls and I and we learned his name was Stafford. Cute little guy and quite the swimmer for just being 4. The 1 year old had no fear of water at all and made me quite nervous. Although mom did put a life vest on him, he just jumped in or walked right off the edge and into the pool without fear. Mom continued her phone conversation without interruption. Every time the little guy ended up in the water, mom would balance the phone between her ear and her shoulder, reach down, grab the shoulders of the life vest and hoist the boy up out of the water and back on the deck. Seemed this was pretty normal activity. As I formed my biased opinion based on the few minutes of observation, I was put into my place just a few minutes later. Mom ended her phone call and joined us in the pool and started up a conversation. Although I did not get her name, I spent the next hour really enjoying her company. The girls had a blast playing with both Stafford and Collin. What little I did learn, their family moved to Texas about two years ago and absolutely love it. They are from the east coast and never want to go back. They love their boys and are considering adopting in a few years, wanting another boy.
After they left and we said our goodbyes, we are joined in the pool by lots of others. They drift in one, two, three at a time. By now I am about done but the girls are still going strong. I exit the pool to sit under an umbrella in the shade and watch the girls. Shortly thereafter I have the girls join me for some water and a snack.
Lilah has now said hi to several friends and is anxious to get back in the water. The words are barely out of my mouth and both girls are already back in the pool. Although one of Lilah’s friends is a screamer and really getting on my nerves, I have only had to speak to the girls a couple of times about minor issues. It is just after one of those issues I realize a woman in the pool is speaking to me. (I really need my hearing checked) She is asking for the time. I go back to my chair and check my phone, turn to tell her the time only to hesitate realizing I need to make the adjustment to convert it to local time. I finally tell her the time and explain my hesitation. She tells me that her grandson, who is there in the pool was just in Arizona last week. He was at a baseball camp, and as we chat we figure out that the older of her two grandsons goes to school with Lilah and his younger brother was in school with Norah. The boys cousin also goes to the same school as Lilah and the older of the grandsons, she is a little older than Lilah. Grandma shares that she and the granddaughter have just moved here from Omaha to be closer to family.
I have enjoyed meeting a few new people, some good conversation, some sun (maybe a little too much) and even some exercise as I chased and got chased around in the pool. It is way beyond lunchtime so I give the girls the proverbial 10 minute warning.
We head home, shower up and get dressed. We head over to the girls favorite spot, Peter Piper pizza. We spend a couple hours having Linner as Norah put it. It was after lunch but before dinner so it must be Linner. Of course I buy lots of tokens and the girls go to town playing games and winning tickets. Although we try to protect our kids, and grandkids, from real world problems we can’t always keep them at bay. As the stash of tokens disappears in the cup, the girls get excited and take the cup with the last few in it with them as they play games. Up until this point I made them leave the cup of tokens with me and come back to the table to get more when they needed it. Lilah comes running back with a stream of tickets about a mile long! She is so excited to tell me what game she was playing and how she won tickets but not that many, but overly excited that it kept spitting out more and more tickets. She leaves the tickets with me and goes back to join Norah at the games, only to return with Norah in tow both wearing sad faces. Lilah explained that she was excited to show me the tickets and left the cup of tokens sitting at the game. When she got back it was gone. Now come on parents really? Do we not teach our children right from wrong? God has a way of working things out because just before Lilah came running over to show me her winnings, a gentlemen and his son had given me all of their tickets to give to the girls. Apparently they just enjoy their time together playing the games but have no need for the tickets. So the horror of having their tokens stolen, was lessened by the generosity of a stranger.
Since the girls are out of tokens, we pack up our left over pizza and turn in all of our tickets. Once we get the print out of how many tickets each girl has we head over to the prize counter. The ever dreaded never ending drama that takes FOREVER act of choosing prizes. With only a little whining we finish our prize gathering and head out to the truck. Last treat for the day we head over to Orange Leaf Yogurt. We enjoy our dessert and head home to call it a day. This grandma is pooped and it is only day one!
Day two proves almost as busy as day one. We are up about the same time, these girls just don’t know what sleeping in is all about. We head over to starbucks and enjoy the breakfast of champions, as the girls say “cake pops and milkshakes”. We have the school lists for the supplies the girls need and we spend some time at Target collecting the items we can find.
Once we finish at Target, we head over to Selma, Tx to find a Justice store. Lilah is looking for a specific backpack. Although we did not find what she thought she was looking for, we leave the store with a backpack she loves, bags of clothes, two very very happy girls, and a broke grandma! We end the day with dinner at BJs. The girls seemed to love their meals but I have to say, it was about the worst wedge salad ever. The chowder wasn’t much better but at least I could eat it. Once home we decide since we have new clothes that need to be put away, that we will straighten out their drawers. Well that might have been a mistake as we ended up spending about 2 hours doing just that. We started their laundry 
and got their new clothes put away. By this time we have enough energy left to shower and fall into bed exhausted.
Day three is a little slower in the morning as we have an appointment to be to, so I try to keep the girls calm all morning. Calm and getting ready really don’t go together. We end up running out the door at the last minute with me panicking as I have no idea where we are going. What a bad grandma is all I can think, I promise to take care of things and now we are going to be late. I plug the address in the GPS in the truck and we head out. I am able to make up a few minutes once we get out on the freeway and we arrive only 1 minute after the appointment time. It is a little run down, and although there are cars in the parking lot we see no people anywhere. GPS says this is the address, so I get the girls out of the truck and we walk around looking for people. As we are coming back around the building after not finding anyone, a mom and daughter walk up and say hello. We say hi and I ask Lilah if she knows the little girl. I breathe a sigh of relief when she says she does know her. We are then joined by another mom and daughter, all of us at a loss as to whether or not we are in the right place. One of the moms calls the leader and discovers they are inside the building, a door we hadn’t yet checked. We are here for a fitting for Lilah’s cheerleading uniform. We all enter the room and get signed in. It isn’t long before Lilah is called and they get her measured and trying on uniforms for size. She finishes up and we stand around for a few minutes. Only one mom spoke to me, she seemed to be a new to cheerleading mom. Once she found out I was grandma and not mom, the conversation sort of died a natural death. So I went back to the sign in table and asked if we were done once the fitting occurred. We were given the thumbs up to leave and did so. There was a playground not far from the building we were in, so of course we stopped by to have some fun. But about the third time Norah acted crazy, or simply let go, while I was pushing her on the swings and gave me a flippin heart attack I stopped pushing her. Of course this made her cry and whine and complain that she wasn’t having fun anymore. But when I suggested we just go home, she found some fun on the climbing apparatus and slides. It didn’t take long for it to become very hot. I give the girls a choice of going to a movie or going home to play with the neighbors. Of course Norah wants to go play with the neighbors then go to the movies. Lilah wants to go to the movies. Now what? So I explain that the movie starts soon so we would need to go now and maybe play with the neighbors later today. As we load back into the truck, the agreement between the girls is to go home and eat lunch and then play with the neighbors. The movie was totally forgotten about , not that I am complaining as The Ant Man and the Wasp is not high on my want to see list LOL. We do stop off at the grocery store on the way home to pick up some fruits and veggies I have been craving since that is mostly what I have been eating at home lately. We get home, have some lunch, clean up and discover the neighbors are not home. The girls are a bit sad but being the amazing Grandma that I am, I quickly distract them with a movie at home. As I turn the TV on, I go and switch the load of laundry, and return to find both girls curled up on the couch watching the Hallmark channel. Yeah win for me! They are so into the movie when I come into the room they do not want me to change the channel. We three curl up and finish the movie together. The girls go upstairs to play once the movie ends and I can hear them playing “will you marry me?” One of them is down on one knee with a ring box in hand, then they are dancing together around the room. Hmmm maybe the hallmark channel wasn’t the best choice.
They play and I finish up their laundry. They come downstairs asking for a snack and to watch tv. I veto the tv but get a snack out. Then ask them if things are clean upstairs. Since we spent so much time cleaning and organizing I would at least like their parents to get the pleasure of seeing it for a brief moment when they get home. They were pretty loud and crazy upstairs playing but both assure me it is clean. We snack, then spend some time outside with the dogs before I finish up the final load of laundry and we head upstairs to put it away nice and neat in the correct drawers.
As I breech the top of the stairs I almost fell all the way back down, just from the site of the landing. Oh my goodness what a disaster. And their rooms, what happened I yell??? I might have actually yelled that last question, just from my shock. You can’t even tell we spent hours up here cleaning and organizing. WOW, I guess I have forgotten how destructive kids can be. With my youngest being 15 I don’t have to deal with this anymore. SO in the calmest most loving voice I can muster I explain there will be no playing with friends, they will be cleaning with me supervising no longer helping. Even with the pouty faces they made good time, and once again the rooms are presentable to surprise Mommy and Daddy. They put their laundry away with minimal direction from me and I make Lilah pick up their bathroom and Norah the loft area before we can be done for the day.
By now it is dinner time and we are debating what to eat. Lilah wants Panda Express and swears up and down that they deliver. Norah doesn’t like Panda Express “as much as Lilah does”, so doesn’t want that. I search the internet and cannot find that Panda delivers except through things like GrubHub etc. I text Rachel and asks who delivers since I am tired, more mental than physical, but tired nonetheless. So we settle on Momma Fu’s and place our order. Lilah gets food like Panda and Norah gets food she likes better than Panda so everyone is happy. After dinner we watch more of Lilah’s apparently favorite show “Cutest Animals” on Netflix. (I will be good with never seeing another cute animal show) Then it is on to showers, pjs, hair fixed, teeth brushed and bed. In between hair fixed and before brushing teeth they were allowed a piece of candy that we had gotten as a treat earlier at the grocery store.
After I braided their hair and teeth were brushed we cuddled up and watch about half a movie before they were falling asleep and I sent them up to bed. I went up and tucked them in. As I tucked Lilah in, in the dark, I heard sniffles and asked if she was crying. I had to asked since I couldn’t see her face in the dark. She said no, so I proceeded to Norah’s room to give the nightly hug and kiss. Norah starts with the “Lilah….” As I tell her I don’t want to hear her tattling, she keeps going and I feel badly as she is telling me Lilah was standing on the stool to turn her light off and fell and hurt her arm. I finish my goodnight to Norah and go back in Lilah’s room. I question her letting her know what her sister told me. Lilah confirms the story and I explain she should have been honest when I asked if she was crying. We walk into the bathroom to check out her arm and sure enough she has scraped it up in two spots. We go into the guest bathroom where mommy keeps her oils and we put some lavender and on guard around the scrapes. Lilah is happy and feeling better so back into bed she goes.
This Mommom is so tired………………………..
Awoken again today by two little girls. I was hoping today would be a little later since they stayed up a bit later than normal last night and we had no plans for the day. But nope it is 5:30am at home, when I can rub my eyes enough to see the time. I explain to them I need a few minutes to wake up, as Norah is telling me she is sooooo hungry. I ask the girls to let the dogs outside and give permission for them to watch cartoons or a kid movie while I wake up and then I will get them breakfast. They kindly oblige and I am left alone in bed to fully wake up. When I come out of my room they are nicely watching tv together. We picked up a treat for breakfast this morning, as Norah likes to call them Papa-tarts. Papa likes his poptarts, so when we were at the store yesterday they asked if they could get some for breakfast. They are pretty healthy eaters so I know this once won’t hurt. So I ask if they want their Papa-tarts this morning, to which the tv is switched off and they both run to the table and take a seat. One wants hers heated up and one does not. They seem to very much enjoy their treat. Then its time to feed the dogs, and pick up a few things hanging around downstairs that really belong upstairs. I let them watch a tv show while I shower and get ready for the day. Then they pause their show and go upstairs to get dressed and ready for the day. They both are wearing outfits we just bought, so they can show mommy and daddy. I remind them to keep their rooms clean, and they yell down they will. They play upstairs while I watch church. So blessed that our church live streams our services, so I can participate even when I am not home. It was a great sermon today. I think I say that often. Shocked but not really, when Pastor Brian uses something I shared with him at a lunch meeting we had, in his sermon. He listens even when we are talking about nothing.
By now the girls are fighting upstairs and Lilah has come down to tattle. I go upstairs to settle the arguments to once again discover a mess. Really girls? This time they are tattling on each other, blaming each other, and saying they each did nothing wrong. As I tell them to only look and speak to me, and I explain again how much better life is without “mine”, and sharing and having someone to play with, I think they rolled their eyes behind my back probably for the hundredth time. But they pick up and reorganize as I stand there. I ask Lilah to get a book and come downstairs to read while I do my bible study, and Norah can stay upstairs and finish putting “mine” stuff away. Once she is done she can come downstairs and read, or do a workbook or something quiet.
I finish my bible study and the load of my laundry I started earlier. The girls are drawing at the table now where I am sitting, but at least they are quiet. Norah decides she is hungry now and I look at the time and sure enough it is after noon. They continue their art while I make up some lunch, which we enjoy together as we chat about who knows what. After lunch the girls help clean up, one takes out the trash and the other the recycling.
They are now upstairs “playing”. I cannot tell if what I have heard on several occasions is squealing, having fun noises, or crying, but neither of them have come down to tattle. I am not sure what sort of, or how big of, a mess I will find when I go up in a few minutes, but either way it will be corrected by 5pm when we expect mommy and daddy to come through the door. Then this Mommom is off duty!!
As expected there was a mess to clean up when I did venture upstairs. But the girls gave me no problems when I directed them each step of the way to get it ready for mommy and daddy to see how much work they had accomplished while they were away.
The girls were so happy to have mommy and daddy home. Just melts my heart to see the innocent joy on their faces, pure joy. And I love watching my son interact with his girls, I am so proud of the daddy he is. Rachel is a good mommy too!! The four of them together is really what family is all about. They are exhausted from their trip and don’t feel much like cooking dinner so we head out to eat. Chris first drives us through a neighborhood they have their eyes on, kind of a dream house of sorts. Very attainable, and if they stay here in New Braunfels, they will be looking at possibly moving into this community. The houses are beautiful, the area very nice and deer everywhere including babies!! The girls and I loved seeing them run and jump and just laying in the grass.
After a tour, we stop off at a favorite pizza place of theirs and enjoy some dinner together. The girls want a toy out of the “gumball” style machine and of course Mommom has to provide the quarters.
After dinner we head home, girls get ready for bed and we enjoy a little tv before they head off to bed. Rachel isn’t far behind them, and Chris and I enjoy some conversation while watching tv. It isn’t long before it is me that is nodding off, so we call it a night.
I awake early, so much for sleeping in, I guess my body is used to getting up early all week why change now. When I come out of the room, I am the only one around. I think others were up but hadn’t come downstairs yet. I grab a blanket and curl up on the couch and it is not too long before Lilah joins me. She is not exactly thrilled that I am going home today and even less thrilled that daddy is also leaving for work. Eventually we are joined by Chris and then Rachel. Rachel has her computer out and is catching up on work, getting ready for a meeting. Lilah has quietly talked Chris into going to get donuts, so they both get dressed and head out. It is about then that Norah comes downstairs, can’t believe she slept this late!! Now why couldn’t she do that while they were gone! Rachel heads upstairs to her office to get on her meeting. Chris returns with donuts and against my better judgement we partake in donuts for breakfast. Afterward, I shower and get ready for the day, strip the bed and put the linens and towels in the washer. I make sure my stuff is all packed back up and ready to go for when Chris is ready to leave.
Chris’ flight leaves about 40 minutes after mine so he is just going to the airport with me. Before we even leave the house my flight has been delayed and I am now leaving 20 minutes after he is. We parked the truck in the parking garage and walk to the terminal, I get my bag checked and we head through security. There is hardly anyone in the security lines so I go through general boarding with Chris. He is traveling quite a bit now for work so we are discussing TSA and what we witness while traveling and my issue with not taking just a carry on. I don’t think certain things are “liquid” that SOME tsa agents consider liquid. For instance to me toothpaste is not liquid and to me should not have to be 3 ounces or less. I also do not consider lotion a liquid, or my face makeup. So I am always afraid they are going to take it at security. Chris was sharing with me that although he now keeps everything to 3 ounces or less (because they once threw away his regular size toothpaste—paste, toothpaste, not tooth liquid) he does not remove anything from his carry on. He takes out his laptop and ipad but that is all. I ask his about his personal items and he explains he just leaves them in his carry on and not even in a clear bag. He said only once have they ever said anything and it was the time they took his toothpaste.
I clear security, put back on my shoes and belt, put my computer back in my backpack and move to the end to await Chris. Somehow people have gotten in between the two of us so he is still on the otherside of the xray machine. He gets his turn and clears the xray only to have his bag diverted for secondary screening, to which he looks right at me and mouths the words, “this is all your fault”. Haha because I asked about it it happened. He is quickly cleared with nothing removed from his bag.
Our gates are next to each other but we are early enough that we take seats at a bar and order drinks and some food to share. By now his flight has been delayed 20 minutes and is now leaving the same time as mine, but oh wait my is delayed again. By the time we finished eating my flight had been delayed 4 times and was now scheduled to leave just over 3 hours after the original time and his delayed twice for a38 minute delay. Problem is he has a connecting flight in Dallas that now he has 11 minutes to get to his next gate, oh yeah in a different terminal. He works a bit and we chat about work, and his plans both work related and personal. Do you moms ever get tired of being with your grown kids? I sure don’t.
He gets on his plane and I finish my wine slowly as I still have almost two hours to wait. A nice gentleman strikes up a conversation with me at the bar. His flight is delayed as well. We chat about our flights and where we are headed. He was originally on the same flight as I was but with the delays they have rebooked him through Dallas as he is headed to Canada. His father in law is not doing well so he is headed there to be with family. His wife and boys went up a couple weeks ago, but it has been downhill since then. I ask some questions trying not to get too personal, he shares it is a blood born cancer and he now tests positive for both leukemia and lymphoma. Two weeks ago his father in law was still up moving around and working and now unable to get out of bed. Cancer is a horrible disease. I share with him that I am so glad to hear that his wife was able to be there, and that he is supporting her not just going but staying there and that he is now joining her. I shared just a little of the fact that in my previous life I was not “permitted” to be with my mom when she passed and it is something I will never get over, or forgive my ex for. Well my flight says it is about 18 minutes until boarding so I tell my new acquaintance that I will pray for his father in law and their family during this difficult time. He thanks me and says he enjoyed our chat and wishes me a safe flight.
I reach my gate that says my flight was delayed until 6:45 (original flight was 3:46) and we will board in 10 minutes. Only catch is, there is no plane at the gate. Not sure how we will board a plane that isn’t there.
Just a minute passed boarding time, a plane arrives and passengers quickly deplane. There is a swift cleaning of the plane and we are called to board. Groups 1-4 may board now! I was surprised they were boarding so many groups at once. I hear the gate attendant say she will get us all on quickly. I guess that is one way. I arrive to someone in my seat but it only takes a moment for two people to move around and everyone has the correct seats now. I make a comment to my seat mate about everyone boarding at once and how fast the boarding was done and over with. He told me that due to the long delay about 40% of the passengers dropped off this flight. Interesting.
Headed home to see my hubby and my baby girl! I have had a great time but am ready to be home. I always tell my daughter I want to squish her up and put her in my pocket and take her everywhere with me! And I mean it.
Until next adventure my friends………………………………..