Mother's Day may be my favorite holiday of the year. Number one I had the greatest momma ever, albeit just for seventeen years. I've missed her every single day since but still grateful for every day I had with her.
Granted I've had a couple of Mother's Days which were pretty lackluster (like when Tim gave me an anniversary card by mistake) but as all my kids have grown up, they tend to spoil me more with each passing year. I certainly wouldn't earn a prize for Best Mother or runner up or top ten but think I did okay. None of them are dysfunctional and all are pretty great adults and extremely hard workers.
What more can a mother as crazy as me ask for?
I've had some bad things happen in my life but for the most part have laughed more often than cried.
I call that "Winning."
I grew up in a wonderful family...
and now I have my own wonderful family.
This past Mother's Day has been one of the best. I talked to all three of my kiddos in three different states and was spoiled beyond belief. My daughter gave me the wonderful present of a necklace with three rings on it, each engraved with my three kids' name on it.
She also bought me a vase of tulips.
Ole Jed (my husband) as I fondly call him..
gave me a dress that I will actually wear.
I was almost shocked by how much I liked it.
He also gave me a pair of sunglasses, which always come in handy living in the Sunshine State. My current ones were purchased at the Dollar Tree and are more like toy glasses. I mean what do you expect for ninety nine cents?
Massey took me to lunch after we ran a few errands. We were at the register in Yankee Candle and the guy ringing me up said "Those sun glasses are awesome, by the way, just to let you know." I told him I'd just gotten them from my husband for Mother's Day and thanked him for the compliment. We were leaving the store and got to the car about fifty feet away. I had to wait to get in my side because a young girl was getting her small daughter out of the back seat of the car next to us. She apologized for me having to wait and I told her not to worry about it. After she got her daughter out of the car seat, she turned to me and said "I love your sunglasses, they really Pop on you!"
Dang, Ole Jed done good!!
You know, more than a few years ago I wasn't sure we would make it and more than once felt like throwing in the towel and walking away from the dance.
The main reason I didn't was because we had kids together and those kids deserved to live in a nucleus family.
Ten years later and thousands of miles down the road of life, we discovered happiness again and am so glad neither of us gave up.
It's called the Dance of Life for a reason.
We didn't get through this alone.
We got through this with the Big Guy Upstairs, family, friends and even strangers. We were carried through by a collaboration of charity, prayers and love.
Once we moved to Orlando I started my writing agenda. I'd lived in the south side of Atlanta for over fifty six years and felt lost when we moved. I essentially moved away from my entire life.
I have probably written well over a hundred letters, if not more, to peeps back home. It's not only kept me in touch with friends but has allowed me to meet many more, including relatives who I haven't been in touch with for years.
The connections made me realize that life truly is a circle.
It started raining the day after Mother's Day and has rained every day since. What a buzz kill. Especially when you just got a killer pair of sunglasses.
I know we needed the rain, but did we have to get it all at once? On the up side, I now have grass in my back yard again.
We also have been coping with Ziggy, our youngest boxer, recovering from a pretty big surgery to remove four (luckily) fatty and benign tumors. The boy came through like a champ. I was actually amazed. One of the tumors (on his hip) was almost the size of a tennis ball. I was preparing myself to get another 'remembrance' clay paw print in the mail from the Vet.
The three smaller incisions healed up quickly but unfortunately could reach the huge incision and started licking it the minute he felt better. The vet sent us home with a large plastic cone of shame for him to wear. Ziggy gave that one a hard no the first time we even tried to strap it around his neck. When the wound started to pop open where he had licked the stitches until they began to dissolve, the vet put in a couple of staples and gave us a prescription for really strong tranquilizers and we just keep the boy sedated. I can't really blame Ziggy for not wanting to wear the cone. You can't see anything or where you're even going, much less eat or drink.
Then a good friend of mine from high school told me about the inflatable ring collar she used with her dog. I picked one up today and its a whole new ballgame now. When we first put it on him, he stood there for over five minutes without moving a muscle.
He's starting to get used to it, and bonus points can still see, eat and drink. I cut the zombie pills down to one instead of two just because he's such a high energy dog and don't want him to do too much until the incision heals completely.
We go back for another wound check tomorrow and finally feel like the ole boy is gonna make it just fine...if I survive the next visit to the vet. Tim usually takes him, simply because he is so strong and hard to control when excited, and a room full of strange dogs really piques Ziggy's interest to say the very least. Also it's crazy how people let their dogs bark their heads off at the other dogs in the room and go towards another one. Considering I only outweigh Ziggy by five pounds, if another dog lunges at him, there is no way I could hold Ziggy back. The last time I took him it was around three in the afternoon and the place was packed. The first time I took him it was 8AM and I was the only one there. I'm making a morning appointment for the next visit. The earlier the better.
Although I really like my job and everyone there is wonderful to me, it is beginning to exhaust me working five days a week. Number one, we have tables inside, outside and in a solarium. Number two, it is summer eleven months out of the year here in Orlando. When I have to take tables outside in long pants, long sleeve shirt, heavy apron and carry heavy plates...it tends to be one long six hour unrelenting hot flash.
I was complaining to Tim about it the other week when he just shrugged his shoulders and said "Well then quit working five days a week."
I guess I've had to work five and six days a week for so long it simply never occurred to me that I didn't need to anymore.
The past two weeks I've worked four days a week and I feel like a new person. Luckily the area around the restaurant has really taken off with buildings going up everywhere and business has more than doubled since I started, with nothing but better things to come in the foreseeable future. So I'll make a little less money each week. That isn't going to break me. Working full time will. Serving is an extremely physically demanding job, especially when you are a dedicated, borderline perfectionist of a server.
(Well maybe not that day)
And just like that...
five years later, everything is gonna be just fine.
For the first time in almost ten years we are all taking a family vacation together this summer. My family, my sister and hers and my brother as well. We always went to the Gulf Coast area off 30-A but are switching it up this year and spending a week in the Keys. None of my five have ever been and all are pretty stoked. To make it even better my brother is taking his twenty seven foot boat down and will have access to tool around all the islands and explore.
Sometimes you have to wait. Sometimes you have to wait and wait. And sometimes you need help while you wait, and sometimes you even have to wait some more.
I looked up 'wait' in the dictionary. Ironically, waiting on tables was also mentioned.
Also mentioned were synonyms for waiting.
What struck me as odd was, over the past decade we have literally lived through every single synonym.
Synonyms for waiting:
delay, hold up, interval, interlude, intermission, pause, break, stay, cessation, suspension, stoppage, halt, interruption, lull, respite, recess, moratorium, hiatus, gap, rest.
Hello?
Been there, done that, lived to tell the story.
For any person reading this who thinks life is lost, it isn't. Sometimes you just have to fight for what you are willing to wait for.
Til next time...A Happy COTTON
We also have been coping with Ziggy, our youngest boxer, recovering from a pretty big surgery to remove four (luckily) fatty and benign tumors. The boy came through like a champ. I was actually amazed. One of the tumors (on his hip) was almost the size of a tennis ball. I was preparing myself to get another 'remembrance' clay paw print in the mail from the Vet.
The three smaller incisions healed up quickly but unfortunately could reach the huge incision and started licking it the minute he felt better. The vet sent us home with a large plastic cone of shame for him to wear. Ziggy gave that one a hard no the first time we even tried to strap it around his neck. When the wound started to pop open where he had licked the stitches until they began to dissolve, the vet put in a couple of staples and gave us a prescription for really strong tranquilizers and we just keep the boy sedated. I can't really blame Ziggy for not wanting to wear the cone. You can't see anything or where you're even going, much less eat or drink.
Then a good friend of mine from high school told me about the inflatable ring collar she used with her dog. I picked one up today and its a whole new ballgame now. When we first put it on him, he stood there for over five minutes without moving a muscle.
Although I really like my job and everyone there is wonderful to me, it is beginning to exhaust me working five days a week. Number one, we have tables inside, outside and in a solarium. Number two, it is summer eleven months out of the year here in Orlando. When I have to take tables outside in long pants, long sleeve shirt, heavy apron and carry heavy plates...it tends to be one long six hour unrelenting hot flash.
I was complaining to Tim about it the other week when he just shrugged his shoulders and said "Well then quit working five days a week."
I guess I've had to work five and six days a week for so long it simply never occurred to me that I didn't need to anymore.
The past two weeks I've worked four days a week and I feel like a new person. Luckily the area around the restaurant has really taken off with buildings going up everywhere and business has more than doubled since I started, with nothing but better things to come in the foreseeable future. So I'll make a little less money each week. That isn't going to break me. Working full time will. Serving is an extremely physically demanding job, especially when you are a dedicated, borderline perfectionist of a server.
(Well maybe not that day)
And just like that...
five years later, everything is gonna be just fine.
For the first time in almost ten years we are all taking a family vacation together this summer. My family, my sister and hers and my brother as well. We always went to the Gulf Coast area off 30-A but are switching it up this year and spending a week in the Keys. None of my five have ever been and all are pretty stoked. To make it even better my brother is taking his twenty seven foot boat down and will have access to tool around all the islands and explore.
Sometimes you have to wait. Sometimes you have to wait and wait. And sometimes you need help while you wait, and sometimes you even have to wait some more.
I looked up 'wait' in the dictionary. Ironically, waiting on tables was also mentioned.
Also mentioned were synonyms for waiting.
What struck me as odd was, over the past decade we have literally lived through every single synonym.
Synonyms for waiting:
delay, hold up, interval, interlude, intermission, pause, break, stay, cessation, suspension, stoppage, halt, interruption, lull, respite, recess, moratorium, hiatus, gap, rest.
Hello?
Been there, done that, lived to tell the story.
For any person reading this who thinks life is lost, it isn't. Sometimes you just have to fight for what you are willing to wait for.
Til next time...A Happy COTTON
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