Life Changes! (Nothing to do with Dogs)

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I am due to be a grandma almost any day now.  My daughter is overdue by a few days and no matter how hard she thinks this pregnancy has been on her, it has been equally hard on me.  My daughter and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love to give advice and she hates to hear it.  I never got the memo that said moms are supposed to just listen, nod their head, and respond with nothing that amounts to actual words.  Megan is a researcher and I am a doer.  When she tells me she has researched a baby thermometer and the best one she’s found is $38 at Amazon, she does not like when I say, “in my day, I used the back of my hand on your forehead, and if that didn’t work, I would have gone to the store, walked down the thermometer aisle and yelled BINGO if I found one for under $3.00.” After you consider the place a rectal thermometer is visiting, it seems dumb to me to dress it up in finery.  Megan doesn’t like these opinions, but yet she keeps calling me and talking to me and I just can’t help myself. 

 

On top of being pregnant, she has accepted a job in North Carolina, starts in November, and now has to move cross-country with a baby, husband, and four pets.  To say she is stressed and hormonal is an understatement and I imagine Doc will be sneaking off to get a vasectomy when this is all over, so he never has to go through it again.  As the due date has neared, the calls to me are more frequent and I have taken to answering the phone with “WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW?” I just can’t take many more calls where I am supposed to just listen and keep my mouth shut.  The other night I sat down to eat my dinner and relax for a few minutes and the phone rang for the twentieth time that day.  It was after 8 pm, we had just gotten back from the boat, and I was tired and when I heard the ringing I asked John who it was and he said Megan as he read the name on the Caller ID.  As often happens in our household, I have to say, “ANSWER IT!” like they don’t understand the concept that a ringing phone means the receiver needs to be picked up in order to hear the person who is calling.  Now mind you, I had just spoken to her while out on the boat and she was calling back with the news that the doctor said the baby was going to be big.  Well, she got mad when I said if she didn’t have this baby soon so these calls would stop, I was coming to Oregon with a shop vac and delivering him myself.  Of course, that caused her to say that she just thought Grandma might be interested to know that her grandson was going to be big and I thought, but wisely kept my mouth shut, that for a smart girl she must not know a lot about how our family gene pool worked.

 

Due to the move and needing a house, I was also elected to go down to North Carolina and find a house for them.  Luckily, my friend, Rose, offered to go with me and I told her we could pretend we were on the show House Hunters and I could say, “it has to have granite countertops,” as I turn my nose up at anything else and she could say, “and it has to have an en suite,” and comment that every room is too small.  Rose had never seen House Hunters before so most of what I said made no sense, but I told her I would explain it all on the drive down.  Once again, Megan has done her research and is not shy in telling me that some house listing I sent them is not going to work because of the school systems.  Again, I opened my mouth, and told her when dad and I bought our first house the only thing I was worried about was if it had a washer and dryer.  I was willing to raise illiterate children, if it meant I could wash and dry my clothes in my own house.  This always prompts concerns about my qualifications to be a parent and I always respond that I think I did pretty great with what I was given and we always end up laughing.

 

Well, the realtor had lined up lots of houses and I was set to leave and then our plans changed as often happens in life and my beloved Uncle Bob died. He had been diagnosed with cancer in June, but no one expected the end to come so quickly.  My Uncle Bob and I connected with our sense of humor and no one would have laughed harder if I told him he had really screwed up my plans this week.  On one hand, I have a nervous, stressed out mama to be that needs to get a house and on the other hand, I have a funeral to attend.  Since I lost my pet sitter this week due to going back to her school job, I asked John to stay home with the dogs, so that stress would be alleviated. Uncle Bob teased me all the time about my love for Fudge and Vern and I think he will understand.  Hayley is having the work week from hell getting ready for the new school year and I told her to stay home, too.  Luckily, my friend, Rose, was unfazed about driving with me to North Carolina or driving with me to Indiana and I told her I would take her on a mystery ride, because I wouldn’t know where we were going until she got in the car. It’s a good friend who responds by saying, “I have always wanted to take a mystery ride.”

 

The funeral is Saturday, so with the help of a good friend and some caffeine, we are going to do both.  I talked to F and she told me that sometimes she thinks our older people die to make room for the new ones, like Megan’s little boy.  My friend, Rose, agreed and said when her sister died, her daughter had a baby and it looked just like the sister.  We both laughed when I said I didn’t see that happening with Megan’s boy, because Doc is Asian and Bob was not.  I do remember seeing the psychic, Sylvia Browne, on talk shows and hearing her say that we all have angels standing beside us. She said some of us have archangels and I was always afraid if I ever met her, she would tell me my angel was a gargoyle.  Whether you believe in angels or not, and I do, I take comfort in thinking that Bob may be looking out for Megan’s son and somehow they will be connected.  There would be no better angel to get than my Uncle Bob. Thanks for letting me share.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

So sorry to hear about Uncle Bob.  People never seem to pass on at convenient times for some reason.  Wishing you a safe trip and a successful house hunt.  What part of NC will you be visiting (that's where DH is from).  Anyway I know you must be excited to at least have Meagan back on the same side of the Country.  P.S.  I think when you announced you were going to be a Grandma I said something like we will be on baby watch around the same time.  My Niece's due date was the 28th and she just texted that they are at the hospital now ... little girl on her way!