The Week Flew By!

I knew it would – I typed out this entry on Wednesday but never got time to post it. I will finish up the week later today or tomorrow with pictures, I PROMISE! Oh and catch up on my favs. . .WOW! I have a lot to do!

Saturday – my mom flight got here around 7:45 and by the time we packed up her bags and headed out for dinner, we didn’t arrive at the restaurant until 8:45. As luck would have it, the restaurant closed at 9pm and to top it off, the one thing that Brian and I wanted from this restaurant, they were out of. Everyone else ordered takeout and once in hand, we parted ways and brought my mom back to our house. She was so excited, the first thing she wanted to do was open a bottle of wine, which we took to the back patio and Brian lit a roaring fire in our new firepit. It was heavenly and exactly what I had been hoping for. We talked and laughed and didn’t get to bed until 1am.

Sunday – we decided this would be movie day and my aunt called us around 11:45am when she got out of church. We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie and then went back to my aunt’s house for a while. We went for a nice long walk around their old neighborhood and my mom got time to think back on her school days. She really enjoyed herself. I thought that after, my aunt and uncle might come back to our house for dinner – I had made a giant lasagna after all but no such luck. I could tell she wanted us to stay there and hang out but after the crazy day before, Brian made me promise to just do what I wanted to do – if she wanted to come along, great and if not, to just GO. So, we did. We came back to the house, ate lasagna and then camped out on the couch and watched a movie. It was fun but I felt kind of guilty all night about “taking” my mom away from my aunt that night. I am sure no one else gave it another thought except for me.

Monday – the big cookout day at our house. I was up and at it early . . .the last time we had a family party at our house, I just have horrible memories of running around in a rush, blow drying my hair as everyone was walking in the door and I wasn’t going to let that happen again. We feared it might rain on Memorial day but as luck would have it, the skies cleared from the night before and we got the highest temps we have had in a long time. Sunny and bright, we set up everything outside and pretty much it all was ready to go well ahead of our 1pm start time. Everyone arrived, got all of their food out and Brian started the grill. We found out 3 people who had said they were coming, baled at the last minute so we ended up with WAY more food that necessary – I think we will be eating leftovers until the dawn of time!

I am close with my mom’s family but my cousins are just very quiet people. I have identical twin guy cousins that are 26 years old and my cousin getting married is 23. Everyone pretty much just sat around all day long and I think at one point, the twins and my cousin’s fiancé were all dozing on the couch. They just aren’t talkers or joiners of anything we tried to do – cornhole, cards, even just talking. They just sit in a corner and pout like 5 year olds that they are being forced to spend time with their family. Regardless, my mom, aunt and I had a great time. Everyone left around 6pm and we spent the rest of the evening cleaning up and just sitting on the back porch, watching the birds and talking then coming in to watch another movie before bed.

Tuesday – I knew my aunt had to work Tuesday so no need to coordinate our day with anyone else. We took our time getting ready in the morning and then headed out for a 1:30pm eye doctor appointment I had. Afterwards, we went on a whirlwind shopping trip for a number of different things I needed – a new watch battery, jewelry for the wedding day, summer sweaters and tops for work, a few odds and ends at Sephora and a strapless bra for all of my strappy summer tops. My mom treated me to an iced latte at Gloria Jean’s as we were leaving the mall and I could tell it thrilled her to no end.

We headed home to get ready for our girl’s night out and then went and met my aunt and cousin at her house for our evening. We took some pictures of all of us – I will post them soon, I hope and then went to a local Mexican restaurant to get the night started. I had to pry information out of my cousin about the wedding – she is just not a blushy, gushing, excited bride AT ALL but as the night wore on and as the drinks went in, she began to open up more and more. It really is sad – I know my cousin is young and still has a lot of growing up to do but she just seems so emotionally stunted and the only time she can really open up herself is when she has had a few drinks. She really is just night and day between sober and a good buzz going on – you wouldn’t even think it was the same person. We headed to a trendy local restaurant for another drink and then back to my house for a couple of hours. By then, we were all laughing and talking – except my mom.

It was about this time I started to marvel, once again, about how childlike, timid and naïve my mother is. She couldn’t even gather her thoughts together fast enough to participate in our conversations and spent most of the time just watching and listening to us. It must be terrible for your mind to be trapped in your body like that – unable to use it like everyone else does, unable to function just normally. Everything moves by so fast for her and her mind has a tendency to focus on things that don’t matter at all – while ignoring or not noticing the ones that do. I talk to my mom on the phone 2-3 times a week, every week and it just isn’t as noticeable during those times as it is in person.