Clean House, Sad, Glad and Crazy

I am definitely not an overachiever when it comes to a clean house. In fact, some of my OCD friends could probably come to my house right now and they would NOT think that my house is very clean. But it's clean enough for me! And that's all that matters. I just finished mopping my floor and doing the rest of the dishes. That says it all. All I need to do now is fold clothes and I can do that while watching DVR'd Oprah shows. I'm happy.

Things that make you sad: Last Wednesday I stopped by my sister's house to pick up my kids who were visiting her for a little while and I saw my cousin Danny from Mexico. He's a Resident so he comes and goes for work and stays with my sister.

Danny's mom is my sister's half sister who she didn't meet until after the they were adults because my Tia Cuca placed a personal ad in a Mexican magazine. My mom used to go to an old Mexican theater called The Ritz Theater on Preston Street downtown (later the Majestic Theatre) and she used to stop in at a little store next door to the theater, to buy Mexican magazines. One day she was reading a magazine when she saw a personal ad from a woman looking for her family in the U.S. and she responded. That was way before I was born. My mom visited Cuca almost every year after that to make up for lost time. The last trip I made to Mexico was in November of 1999 with my mom so she could visit Cuca. She wanted to go home one last time before she died and she wanted to see her sister.

My Tia Cuca has been really sick lately and she was in the hospital. She was in a drug induced coma and she had not come out. I asked Danny about her because I heard through my sisters that she was doing better, even though the doctors thought at one point that she was going to die. He told me that she was a lot better and was even ready to go home. This was on Wednesday.

On Thursday one of my sisters called me and told me that she had died. It seems that she had a stroke. My heart goes out to her family, my cousins and my uncle.

At the same time that my sister was telling me about Tia Cuca, my other sister sent me an e-mail telling me that our second cousin was very sick, on life support, and that she was being disconnected that very night. Even though I'm not close to that cousin, and she's virtually a stranger to me, it was still sad. She was just a little older than my eldest sister who passed away fourteen years ago. They were from the same Baby Boomer generation who loved the Beatles.

After hanging up the phone with my sister a second time (I had to call her back to tell her about the cousin) I just felt grateful for what I have, regardless of all the bad stuff that happens.

And THEN! My transmission blew... Yes, just broke down. (of course this does not compare to death but I'm just telling ya all the stuff that has been happening lately) It's going to cost us at least $a lot$ to fix. Yes, wonderful! It's already in the shop as of today and about to get worked on. I just can't believe this happened.

Then, as if on cue, my Blackberry starts acting up like crazy today. The back button doesn't work. It keeps typing the letter "H" when I hit the back button. When I start typing an e-mail or a text message it keeps wanting to send the message. The SEND icon just pops up and if I don't stop it it sends it automatically. It's possessed!!

Things that make you laugh: Around a week ago my sister called me to ask if I could give her a ride to the Saturn dealer to pick up her car. It got flooded when we had a lot of rain and it had to have a lot of work done on it. So I told her sure, I'd pick her up after I picked up the kids, who to go to school close to her house. My daughter fell asleep promptly and my son was awake (because he has a nap at school) when we picked up my sister and dropped her off at the Saturn dealership.

While we were there dropping her off my son asked me where her car was and I pointed it out. He asked me a couple of times and I thought it was funny that he didn't recognize her 2007 Saturn Ion. I had to point it out specifically and even told him which car it was next to. I thought he didn't recognize it because there was another 2007 Saturn Ion the same color a couple of cars down. I explained that his aunt was picking up her car because the dealer was fixing it for her.

As we drove away he was very pensive and then he asked me very seriously, "Mommy, so they changed her red racer car into that car?"

It took me a couple of seconds to get what he was asking me but when I did get it I laughed so hard! I realized then that he was thinking of her 1991 Sundance car. For some reason that's the only car he remembers her driving, so he didn't recognize the Saturn. When I told him that they were fixing her car he thought they had given her a car a complete make-over, ala "pimp my ride." I laughed so hard and I explained to him that the Saturn was HER car and that the Sundance was another car that my nephew drives. Kids are so hilarious!

So clean house, at least clean enough for me, and I'm going to watch some Oprah in a little while. My DVR started to work all of a sudden out of the blue. It had stopped recording shows that I set up with the timer and then all of a sudden it decided to start working again the last week of April so I have a bunch of shows to watch now while I fold clothes.

"School is YUCK!" or so my son thinks

My daughter has been so patient trying to encourage my son to go to school. He is not budging. Not even the idea that the two daughters of a good friend of ours go there changes his mind.

Yesterday we were in the area so I told my husband we should drive by his new school to encourage him to go to school.

My daughter, age 7 (in a very excited voice) "You're going to school this year!"
My son, age 4 (in a flat tone) "THAT is not exciting!"

So later that evening we did drive by his school and we showed him the playgrounds, both the Pre-K (that will be his) and the older one.

"I don't want to go to school! School is YUCK!" he yelled.

I didn't want to tell him he was partly right. I don't think that would have been the motherly thing to do.

My daughter on the other hand will ask me, all interested, how many years did I go to school. I do the math with her. Kinder plus 12 years = 13 years. Plus 4 years of college and it took me 4 years to get my Master's. Twenty-One years of school! She is in awe. She thinks that's super cool!

My son on the other hand, if he could reason that out, would probably have a heart attack.

My Son Again

Son: Hey Mommy! When I was a little baby I was inside your belly and I was crawling around inside of you looking for you.

Me: You are so funny! You didn't know you were inside of me?

Son: No, I couldn't find you!

Crazy Kids

We got home Thursday night and my daughter took the keys from me and then ran ahead of my son and I to open the door. As she ran into the foyer that divides the back door from the garage I heard her yell out in pain. She had tripped and fallen at the foot of the steps. My son and I were behind her so we came upon her crying and clutching her leg. My husband was standing at the open doorway asking her what happened.

"I tripped and fell!" she cried.

My son looked at her, as he stepped over her, and said, "I don't fall down! I have magnets on my shoes."

Kids! They are so amazingly smart and so amazingly funny all at the same time. They crack me up! Never a dull moment, that's for sure.

I've been very diligent on the skirt! blog and I've been pretty happy with my last few posts. I have been sticking to a family theme a lot. I need to branch out and talk about some of the other things I'm passionate about, like city life and art, among other subjects. It's kind of strange because sometimes the link doesn't work and I can't link to websites. I don't know why. I need to ask the editor or the web master.

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