Friday Evening ...

... I know, two blogs in one day. What gives? LOL!!

The day turned out pretty quiet for a while. Grandson in school, DIL at work and then on errands after work.

I had to laugh at Grandson when he got home from school. He and DIL were talking about the weekend and that he'd be spending the weekend with his Papi and Mamaw again. "Mom, I know. I have the next two days off to relax." He made it sound like he's already grown and planning his much needed weekend. Just too funny.

So ... DIL went shopping (today was her payday). She did the typical grocery shopping, then off to the discount store to get a new mop and some other goodies she wanted. She totally surprised me with a new cordless phone!!

See ...

 

Pretty, isn't it?

She handed it to me saying "Happy Birthday, Mom" ... now before ya'll go wishing me a Happy Birthday ... my birthday isn't until December!! But I was flattered all the same that she remembered my phone predicament when she saw this in the store. And that she parted willingly with the ten bucks for it at the Family Dollar store ... I feel special.

It was so nice to be able to bury the old cordless phone whose readout had long ago died. I can actually SEE the numbers I am dialing now. How sweet of DIL!! And now I know I shan't miss any possible calls for employment.

Or ... was that her motive? Get a phone for the dear ol' MIL so she can get a job and then we get her out of the house for forty hours every week (more or less). Hmmmmmmm ...

I'm hearing my Gigi's (grandmother) voice in my head ... "Now Cisa, never look a gift horse in the mouth".

Oh oh oh ... and get this!! DIL actually let Grandson go outside and play with the neighbor kids today!! They had a blast. Even Married Son (age 27) went out and ran around with the kiddies for a while, playing tag and chasing them all around! They had fun until Grandson ran into the street without looking, at which time DIL ran from inside the house (she had been watching him from the window the entire time), screaming like a mad-woman and grounded him! Okay, running into the street isn't cool, even on a street like ours that sees very little traffic. But to ground him for the rest of the night? How about explaining WHY we don't do that, and let him get back to playing. Hell, even let the other kids know "we don't let him play in the street, can you play in our front yards so he doesn't go in the street".

I think we need to cut the umbilical cord here. She really does smother him. How is he going to learn if she doesn't allow him to do a damned thing? Really!

Tomorrow they have some sort of plan. I'm not sure what it is, but I do know they won't be around for most of the weekend. Grandson will be at his Papi's house ... it seems to be a new tradition, the boy gets the weekends off.

My plans aren't many. I have some more cleaning I want to do in my sanctuary. I'm not sure what I'll do after that. But I'm sure it won't go down in history as anything exciting. Maybe work a little more on my FlyLady Control Journal (chore lists). We'll see ...

Oh, speaking of chores! I was on facebook checking out updates from friends. DIL and I have this mutual friend who was saying ... and thanks to cut and paste, I quote ...
LB: Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I think I need a night out soon. My social life has been lacking lately.
Her comments were:
LA: Mine too! My tail feathers need to be shaken! Lmao
and from DIL ...
DIL: Shit, you aint sayin anything I dont already feel! Work, kid in school, housework. It never stops!! :( But I wont be able to do much for a few weeks.

HOUSEWORK? HER?? Since when? Oh ya ... one day of housework this week (three hours tops) and she's suddenly claims it never stops??

Too funny!

Maybe my talking about FlyLady all the time is finally catching on. And she did use a FlyLady catch phrase today while I was waiting for Married Son to help me install the new phone (yes, it takes two to plug the wires in, one to feed from the bottom of the desk, one to retrieve and pull said wires) ...

Do it now! Don't wait! Get things done  ... which just happens to have been the FlyLady slogan for the year 2008.

The saga continues ...

I really need to write a book. Oh wait, I blog. Isn't that the same?

Yesterday I had to take my dad to the hospital to get his stint removed. What a long day it ended up being. Once the procedure started (after a few hour delay) it went rather quickly. Being a smoker, we were banished to off hospital campus. Had to cross a busy six lane divided highway (three lanes each direction, with a median in the middle), to the center median to smoke. Got to really take a good look at some of the old buildings in the area. Beautiful architecture!! Met some crazy people, too. And I do mean crazy. Ya, crazy as I am, they made me look like a normal well adjusted person. Gotta love what you see downtown! LOL.

Got home to find that DIL hadn't done much. Dishes were in the sink, so much for the CAYG (clean as you go) talk we had the other day. "Mom, I'll get them. Promise." Ummmm, okay. But that's only part of my complaints. Doesn't she understand it's easy to clean them before crap cakes on 'em? No having to scrape and soak. Doih. And this morning her dishes still sit there. Not the way I'd want to start my day. Nope, not the way I want my day to start ... having to look at someones dirty dishes still waiting from the night before. I'm thinking I may have to smack her upside the head with the dirty skillet she left on the stove overnight.

So, I've been doing some genealogy research for a cousin of mine and her husband that I'll call Aunt or Uncle "Normal". Found out some real neat stuff ... ship captains, shipwrecks ... high sea adventures - okay more like Great Lakes adventures, but still very dangerous and often tragic stories. Some of my knowledge of early shipwrecks has come in handy already. I'm going to have to take a trip to my favorite town of Port Huron to research some of these things further!

Knowing that I have to take a day trip, Aunt Normal called to ask my address. She's sending me a check to cover gas and meals. Cool, every little bit helps. What's hysterical about this whole thing is that after I graduated they sent me a nice card, but no check. I wasn't upset, but boy was my mom peeved! "All the checks I've sent their two kids through the years, she could have returned the favor." Geesh Mom ... give it a rest. Please. And Mom's a bit upset I've spent hours researching their relatives. I look at it this way ... we're family. So they didn't send a graduation gift. Big freaking deal. Gotta love those family fights, especially between two elderly cousins ... talk about the ties that bind and gag! LOL.

Aunt Normal also mentioned that they both think I have a real knack for this stuff. She suggested I might even want to do this for pay. Good idea! Especially since every other job offer I've had has fallen through. Anyway ... researching what it'd take to become a certified genealogy researcher will involve MORE classes, assembling a portfolio of "case studies" and presenting them before a panel of judges to see if I qualify for a five year certificate. Won't happen overnight, obviously,but I'm looking into pursuing this. I love uncovering family histories. A "picture" of what our ancestors, the common "joe" or "jane", did to survive on a day to day basis really intrigues me.

So, it's food for thought.

In the meantime, between cleaning and organizing a la Fly Lady I'm spending my weekend going over shipwreck records. See what I can find out about three different shipwrecks captained by three of their ancestors. None of which survived, by the way.

Oh, and I just may end  up smacking a certain DIL upside the head if these dishes aren't done before she leaves for work today.