What's new pussycat...?

My darling dear Marmie told me the other day during a lengthy phone convo that she felt I needed to find something new and exciting to do.

"You are tiring of your blog" she said.

"I can tell because you haven't been writing very much" she continued.

She knows me well enough to know that every couple of years I have a need to go on a new adventure.

Explore the great... whatever.

Learn a new trick, become consumed by a new passion, re-birth myself.

But if my truth be told I dearly love writing this blog.

And I love my readers even more.

And I and this blog are going nowhere.

I mean we aren't leaving (I know it's going nowhere...tragically evidenced by the absence of any kind of notice or contact from the Blogs of Note people, which no longer exists or maybe I've been blocked..??)

I appreciate the readership I have (more than words can convey).... however, all this writing is technically nothing more than free therapy for me.

Times when I don't much like my life I can go back and read and know that moments viewed through baby poop colored glasses are truly few and far between.

And rarely last longer than the time they took to write about them.

I can't remember what I ate for dinner yesterday, but I can look back to a year ago and remember shopping for a mother of the bride dress for Googie and Trouble's wedding all because of this blog.

Or I can remember Bear threatening to leave me and move away to go to school.

(That one is quite funny to re-read. And it's probably saved his life and limb on occasion. I find myself getting perturbed often with his non-stop eating, his kindly filling and refilling of my dirty clothes hamper, his Cheetos fingerprints all over the remote control... and his never ending request "hey, yo, could you pick me up some good face soap"...for the record, I think he may be snorting it.)

It's nice to remember how much I thought I was going to miss him...because when he did go away,  I missed him. I missed him worse than terribly.

Thanks for the visit...see you soon.


xoxo

Lisa, so nice to see you again..........

The last time I saw Lisa she was bald and toothless.


And, so was I.

This was our second chance meeting…our first, was as newborns at Wyandotte hospital, where we shared a nursery and our mothers shared a hospital room.

Our mothers never should have been at the hospital on this same day for our births. I was born a month before my due date and Lisa had complicated things during her mother’s trip to the ER where she’d gone to have a broken arm set by deciding that she was going to be born too.

The new mothers struck up a fast friendship during their week long hospital stay and when it was time to go home they each promised to keep in touch.


Sometimes, life has a way of getting in the way and the weeks passed quickly for the busy mothers. And so they never did find time to reconnect.


They were delightfully surprised to see each other again standing in the aisle of St Elizabeth’s Catholic Church, each holding baby girls dressed in white, it was baptism day.


Again the mother’s promised to keep in touch and once again they did not.


Some 40 years after last seeing Lisa at St Elizabeth’s my mom and family were planning a surprise birthday party for me. The theme for my party was, “This is your life”…and so thinking how much fun it would be to invite Lisa and what a mystery guest she would be they worked through the magic of the internet, found Lisa, and invited her to my party.


She was to be billed as “my first friend”.


Lisa was not able to attend the party, but she sent me a card and a letter. She also sent a beautiful little trinket holder, which has a home on the window sill in my kitchen.


I use it to hold my pennies from heaven.


And, to remind me of the kindness of strangers.


It’s been ten years since Lisa sent me the card and the trinket box. I kept her letter in a storage bin with some pictures and other things I wanted to save. Every now and then I would be looking for a picture or something and I would stumble upon her letter.


I have the same reaction each time I stop and think about the woman who sent it…my mystery friend.

I wondered all about her…we started out so much alike, sharing important things like date of birth and a Christening day…. Did we have more parallels along the roads our lives have taken us? Did she crush on Donnie Osmond? Listen to Grand Funk? Did she fall in love in high school? Did she marry, become a mother? Was she dreading old age as much as I?


I was curious about Lisa.


This year for our big “5-0” I decided to look her up and repay the favor.


The favor being a big smile on my face and a warm fuzzy in my heart.


Lisa had sent an article and a picture of herself with the letter. She worked at the post office then, and as luck would have it, she was still working there when I called and spoke with a supervisor about my plan.


On the day of our birthday(s) I shopped and got Lisa a silver plated compact mirror, which I had engraved to say…..


“CELEBRATE 9-24-2009”


(A good friend of mine had sent me this exact gift and I loved it so much I thought it would be a nice keepsake for Lisa too).


And I brought her a big yellow HAPPY BIRTHDAY balloon too.


The gift and the letter Lisa sent to me years ago told me that she was kind and warm. When I caught up with her again I saw for myself that I was correct in my assumption.


“Happy birthday” I said handing Lisa the balloon when she walked out of the back room at the post office.


“You don’t recognize me do you?” I asked.


“The last time you saw me I looked like this” I continued as I slid a picture of me (and my darling mother) on Lisa and my Christening day.


“You’re THAT girl aren’t you?” she asked, smiling


We talked a while. I told her how much I loved what she did for me on our 40th birthday.


She told me that she often reads the thank you note I sent to her.


She posed with me for a couple of pictures and we exchanged contact information.


And, we both laughed when we promised to meet again 10 years from now…


Sounds fun, but I truly hope it’s sooner than that.


I forgot to tell her how good she looks with hair and teeth.

(Note to self....don't wear these jeans anymore, they don't do anything for your butt.)

 

 

ALL ABOUT ME.......

I am happily married to my 6th grade sweetheart, (who I lovingly refer to as Daddio...he's a blues guitarist) and mother of three great kids.

My babies are... a son 23, a daughter, 22 and a son who just turned 19. When I talk about them I use their nicknames, Peanut (or Sweet Prince Buttercup), Googie and Bear to protect their privacy and to save my own behind, should someone they know stumble upon this blog and discover my telling all our family secrets. (Could be trouble)

My oldest son just married a lovely girl in May 2009. They had a beautiful wedding and I am looking very forward to spoiling my future grandchildren.

Living at home with Daddio and I...... A daughter, who is in her last semester of college at Madonna University. She has a wonderful boyfriend of 3 years, who I nicknamed Trouble (he really isn't any though, and he truly belongs to us already and I prove that by assigning him household chores which he, unlike my other children, does).

My youngest will begin his senior year of high school in a few short days. He is looking very forward to being a high school football/ basketball star and the heartthrob of all the underclass girls.

My kids are now testing their wings and I am not as needed as I once was. To remedy this situation and to fill up my (sometimes) empty arms I became "Mom" to a teacup Chihuahua named Jersey, a step-dog named Ruby, and another special group of children. I work full time with a Juvenile Justice Program teaching Life Skills to juvenile offenders. Many of them are in dire need of a "Mom"

I love to talk and I love to write.

I'm very old fashioned in my thinking about marriage and motherhood.

I have written three (imaginary) books..."The World According to Koby", "Koby's Way or The Wrong Way" and "The Book of Koby".

I'll let their titles tell it all.....

I am obsessed about growing older, fighting it every step of the way.

If I contemplate the alternative, well..that's not so good...so, I figure I can just wear lots of lipstick and dark sunglasses and go with the flow.

I want to die young, from old age.

Updated 7/1/2011.. Since I've written this All About Me post things have changed a bit, my daughter has graduated from Madonna University and currently works with at risk youth, she and Trouble plan to marry in September 2011.

My youngest son graduated from high school, he attended Wayne State University and this year he will move from (the many comforts of) home and study at Western Michigan University...his goal in life (at this moment) is to beat out his sister's (impressive) GPA.

Mr and Mrs Sweet Prince Buttercup celebrated 2 years of wedded bliss this past May and so far the only grandchildren I have are of the four legged variety.

Updated 8/22/2012.... SInce I've written this All About Me post update (see above) things have changed a bit.

The Sweet Prince Buttercup and his darling dear Mrs celebrated their THIRD year of being hitched. 

My how time flies.

I am still patiently waiting for some fat cheeked kid(s) to mug on...so far only the whiskered variety with bad breath are available.

My dear Googie and her sweetness Trouble married, almost a year now. 

What a beautiful wedding it was. 

I'm still patiently waiting for some fat cheeked kid(s) to mug on...they too have only a mutt to serve in that roll... oh well, hopefully soon.

The best baby boy that ever lived, my Bear is doing great, ready to start school again in a few days. He had a rough summer,  a virus (Mono) had him on his back for a couple of weeks. Thank goodness for toughness, he survived (of course that was totally due to the wonderful care he got from his loving mother) and hasn't really skipped a beat.

I am still patiently waiting for Bear to hook up to an awesome chick (and THEN do things the old fashioned way, like marriage, then sex... kwim) so that I can add him to the list of rotten azz kids who aren't making me a grand-ma. 

All kidding aside...they do me right, in every way.