to your mother

THOUGHTS ABOUT BEING A MOTHER AND LOVING A MOTHER...FROM A MOTHER OF TWO.







Sunday, June 19, 2016

A Week Ago Mom Fell, Oh and By the Way I'm Moving Tomorrow



Okay,  the fast and dirty of it...
Disclaimer: I wrote this using my phone, please excuse, we'll anything but content.

 Mom tried to use the bathroom by herself.
She fell.
She went to Chambersburg Hospital.
She had fractured her pelvis..
She was in a tremendous amount of pain.
She returned to the Manor Wednesday.
Her pain is manageable with tramadol and Tylenol.
Mom had occupational therapy at the Manor Friday.
She stood in the hall for part of her therapy.
The concern now is that Mom is going to walk out of the Manor and hitchhike herself to the beach.
If you see the lady on the side of the road, please take her wherever she wants to go.
She deserves it.

Meanwhile movers come tomorrow to move my family and me south to be closer to both our extended families. We are over the moon excited about this. Then reality hits me...


I have one more day to pack, People. 

Friday, June 17, 2016

Five on Friday

Well, it's Friday you know...here's the cell phone pics of the week.


Our dear friend Ellen (also our realtor) and I were looking at possible houses to buy in spring of 2015. A historic home on the main street in town was for sale at a decent price so we went to check it out. We already knew it used to be a sanatorium back during the civil war. Well, low and behold on the second floor was the surgery room? Not sure what it was called but the room was decked out as it was back in the day...tiled floor, walls and ceilings...a drain in the middle of the floor...glass gurney to make it easy to wash off blood...I don't know but seeing a dead squirrel on the road gives Joseph the willies...can you imagine living in a house with a blood room? Though Ellen said it could easily be renovated into one mother of a shower room. Ellen is a master when it comes to vision.

 Emily sent me this card sometime last spring...it was soon after her house had flooded from a frozen pipe break. This just cracks me up. It's important to find the humor in life...Emily is a master at that.


 My dear friend Jen sent me this picture while she was on a retreat weekend in St. Mary's County. I kept it as the wallpaper on my phone for quite awhile. Peace, Sister, there is a Higher Power, a true Master, in control.


This is a selfie with Mom during her first blood transfusion in the spring of 2015 I believe? I took it to show Mike that Mom was doing okay. Mom certainly wasn't as upbeat as I was that day. I was excited about mastering our selfie on the first try cause goodness knows the lady was not going to sit still for a take 2.

This is Mom waiting to see Dr. Cashdollar for one of her oncology appointments. I thought she looked so festive in her scarf made by Libby that I would send Libby a picture. Back in the day, Mom always joked with Libby's kids that the Easter Bunny came at Christmas and Santa came at Easter. Libby had knitted this scarf for Mom because the little balls look like Easter eggs and the red fluffy is a reminder of the fat guy who comes in December. Although it may not look like it here, Mom loves the scarf and the memories behind it. In this picture she looks like she's saying "Why in the world are you taking my picture in the oncology reception area and how many times do I need to tell you to update your phone. That thing there is downright pitiful". Mom is a master of speaking volumes through a look.

Master on, People.


Friday, June 10, 2016

Five on Friday

More pictures from my old cell phone:

 Colleen sent me this picture. Back in 2014 Mom-Mom had taken lil Gwennie to the McDonalds playground and this was the result. Lil Gwennie's parents repeated over and over what she should tell her preschool teachers. The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. The second rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. She actually told her teachers this. She would also walk around the house mumbling this to herself, similar to how other wee girls sing Let it Go under their breath as they play.  Chris and Colleen? Parent's of the year in my book.



I was in bed. Both kids wanted me to get up. They looked so sweet I took a picture. I'm sure all heck broke loose after that and I finally rolled out of bed to deal with it.



Christmas night at Grandma and Grandpa Mc's 2014. Julie had gotten an "American Girl" (Target style) doll from Santa. They were sleeping together, so cute...although Julie's eyes are partly open = creepy.


 Naomi picks up some fun stuff from the book fair/librarian conferences/I can't keep track of all the places she goes/ so Joseph and Julie often benefit from her spoils. A couple years ago it was light up sunglasses. Julie was excited that it was dark on the ride home and wanted to wear hers...cracked me up. Kids still grab them when we are out in the dark.


Christmas present from MaMa (Maxine) and PaPa (Myron) circa 2014. This Olaf was just about as big as the girl. I took this picture to send to MaMa...Julie was sooooooooooooo excited.

Enjoy the weekend people.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Five on Friday

Pictures downloaded from my cell phone, in no particular order...

This is Bucky. He's a very-very-very good friend of my friend Don I met years ago. He pops up at random times in my life, when I'm least expecting it. These random pop-ups scare the junk out of me. He sent me a selfie just a few weeks ago. I actually exclaimed "OH MY WORD" when I opened the text. He was my phone wallpaper for awhile. Anytime I picked up my phone it was the same response. I finally changed it when someone in the quicky-mart asked me if everything was okay when I looked at my phone and exclaimed "OH MY WORD". Bucky.


 Christmas Eve 2014. Santa took a picture with my cell phone before he ate those cookies off to the left. You will read more about the cookies later. Mike's mom makes those stockings for family, friends, well, lots of lucky people. She learned to make them from her mother-in-law. Slowly but slowly (I have finally learned to knit well enough to hide my mistakes with the sewed on sequins) I am working to knit the stockings to carry on the family tradition. It's kind of neat that it was passed to a daughter-in-law and to her daughter-in-law.



 The famous frog rain slicker. Teresa passed this on to our family when Joseph was 3 years old. He wore it till the sleeves crept up his wee arms and then passed it down to Julie (sweet relief, she was JONESIN to wear it). This is Julie in her second year of wearing the coveted frog slicker, circa fall 2014. NOTE: Teresa's son James (freshman in high school next year, been taller than me for countless years) wore this slicker before passing it on to us...and who knows how many lucky kids wore it before him...Joseph wore it his first day of preschool at Bushy Park ES...I didn't take a picture of him walking in because I was so overwhelmed with joy and fear...the moment is permanently burned in the back of my retinas...I remember wee-preschooler-Joseph walking in line into school as Miss Katie (speech teacher) touched his shoulder, looked at me and laughingly said "He is so CUTE" then she rubbed his back as he walked past...I let out my breath...I knew he was in good hands.


 Mom in the hospital on 11/11/2014. She had started a new chemo and soon after I received the hospital phone call from Dad that he had woken to Mom having a grand-mal seizure. Scared, I drove to Waynesboro Hospital not knowing what would be going on when I got there. When I walked down the hallway towards her room, I could hear her familiar laughter. She was tired, achy, puffy...and somehow happy. I took this picture to send out to a few people to reassure them that Mom was okay.


Santa's cookies circa 2014 (featured in the Christmas Eve pic above). It was time to go to bed on Christmas Eve. A seven year old and five year old in our house wanted to leave Santa some cookies (a tradition known throughout, well, a lot of people have knowledge of this little ditty). In my typical Mom-of-the-Year fashion, I did not make fresh-baked cookies nor purchase said cookies for the jolly fellow who would be soon on our scene. Bless be I had met my dear friend Elizabeth a few days before...SHE had made fresh-baked crab sugar cookies. Bless be that Mike and I did not eat all said fresh-baked crab cookies in one sitting. Kids were thrilled to leave fresh-baked-crab cookies, with added Rudolph red nose gummies, for the fat man. Bless Elizabeth.