Just Waitin' for my Turn

My Mom and Dad came down yesterday, since Dad had a Dr's. appt. in Salt Lake and they both wanted to stop by the wonderful nursery near our house. The kids were delighted to see them - so delighted that we sat by the front door staring out the window for a good 30 minutes looking for them to arrive. Boo made sure that she wouldn’t have to take a na-night rest (last time she did that, she missed Meg coming over), and that she could stay up and wait for them to come.

Dad walked around with me in the backyard and imparted all of his garden wisdom to me, calming my fears that my strawberries would never ripen and gave me some tips on how to shade our oppressive West-facing deck. I went inside and the kids had commandeered mom into playing puzzles with them. I felt like a two-year-old myself, vying for my own mom’s attention and trying to slip a word in edgewise. I think I finally got out, “I’m doing just fine,” the whole time they were here! *This photo is of his yard last year, not mine!

We took a little field trip to Artic Circle to get the kids and ice cream cone and Dad some lunch. Who should we run into but Kaye Smith! Kaye is like a mother to me, and I love that they have retired to live out here closer to their kids. She’s a social worker and is always so calm and thoughtful, yet lets you think and figure things out for yourself w/o forcing her opinions down your throat. Her husband, Dale and their son Bryan, were our home teacher for YEARS. We loved having him come to our house. We had Thanksgiving at the Smith’s house almost every year while we lived in Virginia, and we got together often, as most of us had a Smith kid of similar age. Kaye was my first seminary teacher and taught me how to “scan” a page for a keyword, which has been invaluable to my entire education! I forgot to thank her for that, I just remembered. We studied the Old Testament and she helped us to learn something from the often difficult-to-understand text at the difficult-to-stay-awake hour. I wanted to chat and reminisce with her, but my kids needed an ice cream cone, and Boo wanted a lemonade drink and wanted me to watch her slide down the slide in the play area, and Yaks was trying to drink his cup of ketchup, etc. So, it was another brief and deflating conversation. I think I told her where I lived in relation to the restaurant and that was it.

We recently purchased a new(er) and larger car, but the license plates that we were sent were the wrong ones. I took the kids with me to the DMV (shudder), and sat to wait with my ticket in my sweating palm. The waiting area was full of men, not one understanding mom amongst them. I didn’t have any toys or food or drinks or anything! I tried to entertain them with an old picture book in my purse, and finally let them pull out all my cards in my wallet and rearrange them. Boo at one point pulled out a tampon and said loudly, “mom, will you open this?” I snatched it away from her and tried to distract her with something else, as I turned three shades of red and prayed no one saw her. They called number after number, and Yaks realized that the room echoed with his voice and took advantage of the acoustics, if you know what I mean…

They finally called us, and we scurried over to our window to state our business. We got our plates and paid our money, I had to break up no less than three fights b/twn the two of them. Fights that involved screeching and yelling. It wasn’t pretty. I was picking up Yaks, ushering Boo out the door, when I spotted something on the floor that was ours. I grabbed it, shoved it in my purse and hurried out the door. It was the tampon. UGH!

Will I look back on this and laugh? Maybe. Will I one day be able to have a normal chat with my mom at the kitchen table like I used to? Man, I hope so. Will I carry feminine hygiene products in my purse anymore? NO.