Monday, May 17, 2004

Monday Morning Mirth

Before

After – hey – Claudia – your ThinkPad might need one of these!

The best thing about Mother’s Day last week, was that my Mom was still with us…

As many of you know, she beat Ovarian Cancer this past year. I am happy to mention, her sister has gotten the all clear too! She has been fighting Uterine Cancer the past year as well. WE ARE SO THANKFUL and OVERJOYED it’s AMAZING!!!

I enjoy the time I spend Up North with Mom more than ever. She’s been busy gardening up a storm. Much of it is with rocks that local farmers drop off after they are done clearing fields. So far, she’s built a circular flower bed about 6ft across and planted a *rock garden* next to her front door, which she has started to fill with all sorts of tiny goodness. She promises me pictures when they’re in their glory around July.

It is still so cold at night up there, the furnace runs.

Not too cold during the day that we didn’t spend a great amount of the late afternoon sitting on the swing. After the *chores* were done, you could find us out there, me knitting on Audrey and she reading the paper. Mom has a new puppy and it is a cheap thrill to watch the grass grow ( and this time of the year Up North you almost can!) and see her new puppy romp around the yard.

BooTwo is half Jack Russell and half Chichauha and if you look at her with your eyes sqinked, she looks like a Baby Joey. She is the successor to the beloved BooBoo, who months ago, when my Aunt was first ill, was hit by a speeding car after she got off her chain in the yard. It broke our hearts beyond measure. My Mom spent a lonely winter without her pal and we were all so happy when puppy season came round this year because we were hoping she might find another friend.

And, thanks to my sister, she did! Cat found dog at the local shelter in Greenville and now we are happily amused to sit on the swing and watch Boo leap like a joey around the place.

IMHO, a swing is much better than a rocking chair. It requires mainly just your weight to keep a movin’.

I had to have one and when we saw the Meyer’s *Fresh!* store in Cadillac had them on sale, off we went. Mom came to the rescue with her Red Chevy Station Wagon. The whole swing was disassembled and boxed but that package would never fit in my Jeep Wrangler! So the plan of attack was to drive it the 20mi. home from the store in Mom’s car, then I would break it down into digestable portions for ze Jeep trip back to the City.

Mom was waiting to pay for her other purchases when I said “See you later” – I had tied the box down and would go ahead to the house and remove all the crap from the back of my car.

I left her standing in line but before I moved away, she started turning over all the magazines on display that showed thong or button, so their covers faced backwards. And believe me, for mostly women’s mags, there were quite a few! The young woman in line behind us was open mouthed with glee!

I went to my corner store back in Chicago last night to get some milk and about half of the mags were turned around – my turn for the toothsome jaw drop! Moms are EVERYWHERE! Love them…