Monday, February 28, 2005

The Hunted

I'm exhausted.

I've just spent all afternoon with my parents looking at houses. I now find out I'm to be the permanent fixture on these hunts. They trust my judgement. Oh. Goodie.

They can't hear very well, so shout at each other. They can't decide for sure what it is they want, so bicker constantly. Now you put them in a small car with a real estate agent who is someone my father went to school with 50-some years ago and we have a real fun time going. You can imagine.

To top it off, I worked in the morning and they made the appointment with the agent at such a time that I had just enough time to run home, grab them, and run out the door - by 5 o'clock I was ready to gnaw off a limb, I was so hungry.

Give me patience, Lord... I still have my house... and for now, my sanity.

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Good Taste

The wedding couple came home with news. They wanted to see the mother of the groom's dress for the wedding. It was lovely. It was MY dress! I'm the mother of the bride. Can you believe it?? I got mine last July, she just got hers... identical. What good taste she has!

They went with her to exchange it for a similar, but not identical dress.

Hubby says, "What difference does it make? All us guys are in identical tuxes..." Cute, honey.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Getting Wet - Shower

Just kidding. No water involved.

My daughter and her fiance' were the stars at a wedding shower being given by a friend of his mother. It was sooo lovely. The hostest was just the neatest lady. I would like her to be MY friend, if she lived closer than 2 hours away! She was super. It was just a beautiful time - no silly games - and lots of good food and company. The kids got lots of neat stuff - so much, I'm not sure that they have anything left of the list to get for wedding gifts!

Another two hour drive home with my mother, mother-in-law, eldest daughter, and youngest son's girlfriend. I'm deaf now.

The wedding couple stayed there in his hometown to visit with aunts and cousins of his that came from many miles away to the shower.

Fun had by all!

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Down in the Grumps

Hubby comes home and immediately goes into grump mode. This I do NOT need. He's unhappy because he has voluntarily given up his parking spot in the garage to my parents, meaning he must park outside. He voluntarily gave up his bathroom - I moved all his clothing and essentials into the master bath that he will now have to share with me. (He had a bathroom he could access directly from the garage when he was dirty and he didn't have to put the seat down, etc.) My eldest son voluntarily gave up his room so Grandma and Grandpa could be there and has decided to sleep at friends' or on the sofa. BUT hubby has involuntarily given up his recliner, his TV remote and his newspaper. He is NOT a happy camper.

On top of all that, his little girl is getting married in a month and he's having trouble adjusting to that fact and the fact she'll be moving 3-1/2 hours away.

He apologized before bed for being grumpy and adding to my stress... that's all well and fine, but I feel like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. Hope this month goes fast - and gets smoother.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

They're Heeeere

My mother calls last night. We're running early. We'll be here tomorrow night instead of Thursday night. Ooookkkkaaayyy... First they were coming March 1, but daughter is having a wedding shower this weekend that my mother got invited to, so coming for that. Mom says, it will be late at night (which, it is usually a full 9 hour drive to get here) and they have stops to make.

I get up early, start cleaning and doing all the things I was going to do today and tomorrow before they came. I run into town to get some groceries - with every intent on coming home and finishing my vacuuming, etc. I get a phone call. It's my eldest son... "Grandma and Grandpa are here". Huh?WFT? It's 4 o'clock! That's not LATE! ARRRGGGHHH! My month of hell has begun well...

Race home, and try to recover some sanity. It's a lost cause. Here we go...

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Total Loss

My parents are living at a neighbor's house. They had friends who were out of town and they'd had the key to watch the house - they're now house-sitting involuntarily. They finally started eating a couple of days ago, but I think it was just the threat of Dad's doctor telling him if he didn't start eating they were putting him back in the hospital. They've not been sleeping either.

My father's sister went down this weekend to see if they could salvage anything. It was a total loss. They found my mother's inherited sterling silver silverware - but when they picked it up it was just limp. Her collector plates looked fine until they touched them, and they crumbled. The cement block that was part of the foundation also crumbled when touched. All the appliances were just shells. The second car exploded. The file cabinets my father kept all his tax records in were full of ashes.

The fire chief said it was so windy that day that the fire burned exceptionally hot. If it hadn't been so windy that day they might have saved the house.

My parents have decided they've had enough of Arkansas. They are going to move back to Iowa to be closer to me and my family - their grandkids. I'm relieved. They are so far away now that nobody can take off much time to get away and visit and they're pretty isolated except for other elderly people and that's not the best with them getting up in years. They still have friends in Iowa, too, that are looking forward to them being back.

What a tragedy. My mother keeps calling me to find phone numbers and addresses for her to let family and friends know. She lost her cellphone in the fire, so lost all numbers. Thank goodness for the i-net!

It looks like they are coming to live with us the end of the month - for about a month. They'll be here for the wedding and are going to look for a place to live. Hubby is none-too-thrilled, but what can you do? They are family, after all. Thank God we built this new house or I don't know where we'd put everyone!

With the wedding and my parents being here - I'm going to be insane by the end of March...