Showing posts with label MIL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MIL. Show all posts

Friday, 9 May 2008

52 blessings grateful Fridays - Mothers

Today, I give thanks for my dear little nephew and Godson -
Happy 6th Birthday 'Champion' (my brother calls him this) ...
and it is with sadness I remember my friend ~Christine~ ... I wrote this last May

Chris (37) passed away on Friday 11th May 2007 after losing her battle with life , following a brain haemorrhage 3 months ago not long after giving birth to her much awaited little boy, William. Chris joined an internet forum after her twin daughters stillborn @21weeks on 4th & 5th July 2005.Chris received much support from friends she made there. She also gave comfort to many people including myself. She had a great sense of humour and also compassion towards others.

On the 1st anniversary of losing her twin daughters Chris got a BFP - and was overjoyed to be pregnant again. She welcomed the support on her online friends during her pregnancy. We chatted often on MSN and a few times on the phone.

Chris gave birth to her son, William Earle, @35wks2days on 8th February, 2007. A very precious little fellow. It was a week or so after his birth she became ill. She has spent the last 3 months of her life in hospital.

Oh I think about her precious lil' man, -'Junior',her never getting to know him or nuture him and him not getting to know her.

Today, may we all find the time to hesitate and remember how blessed we are , may we take the time to laugh, love and cry with those we love and whom love us


Sadly this year the first anniversary will fall on Mother's day ...

I received this by email from another dear friend today ... and it was a timely reminder of giving thanks for all Mothers - Deb's own (life long foster)Mother passed away 8 years ago on Boxing day.

It is also the inspiration (mine) for my husband's Mother's day gift ... I am unaware of the author as it was circulated by email.

BEING A MOTHER

After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner and a movie. She said, 'I love you, but I know this other woman loves you and would love to spend some time with you.'

The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who has been a widow for 19 years. The demands of my work and my two children had made it possible to visit her only occasionally.

That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.

'What's wrong, are you well?' she asked.

My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news.

'I thought that it would be pleasant to spend some time with you,' I responded. 'Just the two of us.'

She thought about it for a moment, and then said, 'I would like that very much.'

That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit nervous. When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be nervous about our date.

She waited in the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary.

She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel's. 'I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed,' she said, as she got into the car. 'They can't wait to hear about our meeting.'

We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and cozy. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady.

After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Her eyes could only read large print. Half way through the entries, I lifted my eyes and saw Mom sitting there staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips. 'It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small,' she said.

'Then it's time that you relax and let me return the favour,' I responded.

During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation, nothing extraordinary but catching up on recent events of each other's life. We talked so much that we missed the movie.

As we arrived at her house later, she said, 'I'll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you.' I agreed.

'How was your dinner date?' asked my wife when I got home.
'Very nice. Much more so than I could have imagined,' I answered.

A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so suddenly that I
didn't have a chance to do anything for her.

Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place mother and I had dined.

An attached note said: 'I paid this bill in advance. I wasn't sure that I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates - one for you and the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant for me. I love you, son.'

At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: 'I LOVE YOU' and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve. Nothing in life is more important than your family. Give them the time they deserve, because these things cannot be put off till 'some other time'.

Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby ... somebody doesn't know that once you're a mother, 'normal' is history.

Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct ... somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.

Somebody said being a mother is boring ... somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver's permit.

Somebody said if you're a 'good' mother, your child will 'turn out good' ... somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.

Somebody said 'good' mothers never raise their voices ... somebody never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the neighbour's kitchen window.

Somebody said you don't need an education to be a mother ... somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math.

Somebody said you can't love the second child as much as you love the first ... somebody doesn't have two children.

Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books ... somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose or in his ears.

Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labour and delivery ... somebody never watched her 'baby' get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten or on a plane headed for military 'boot camp.'

Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back ... somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell cookies.

Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married ... somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother's heartstrings.

Somebody said a mother's job is done when her last child leaves home ... somebody never had grandchildren.

Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don't need to tell her ... somebody isn't a mother.

Pass this along to all the 'mothers' in your life, and to everyone who ever had a mother. This isn't just about being a mother, it's about appreciating the people in your life while you have them....no matter who they are.

My husband loves the idea and I know his mother will too ... bet the first question she asks him though is - was this your idea ?

Ps. I will update my Revive our heart Challenge tomorrow ... it's been a busy week and today was busier yet.


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Tuesday, 6 May 2008

Mother ...


M O T H E R
My MIL sent me this joke the other day ... maybe in reference to our almost 15 yr old who is so consistent at driving me insane with his behaviour.

The family like to joke how perfect my husband was as a child/teen ...the golden boy. He is still a Saint ... but he does forget some things.

Anyway on with the joke.

A Mother passing by her son's bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up.

Then she saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to "Mom" With the worst premonition she opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter.

Dear Mom,

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Dad and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it's not only the passion...Mom she's pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.

Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone.We'll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy. In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it. Don't worry Mom. I'm 15 and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.

Love, Your Son Jon


P.S. Mom, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my center desk drawer.

I love you. Call me when it's safe to come home.

That puts things in perspective. He is not like Corey.

Some days I feel very guilty and a bad mother. Especially to my teenager. I am mean. Being a mum is a bundle of contradictions.

I guess as a mother we have to chose to loosen the strings that tie our teenagers down and give them some slack. I KNOW I have high expectations and he falls short but I think he is pretty average.

I am not talking about his school work ... that is another post. He hates school work.

Other friends tell me their teenagers are unsettled, moody and unreasonable +++ and that testosterone has a lot to answer for ! That is an understatement.

As a mother I have to accept he thinks differently to me and I can't change him - my job is to nurture, love, FORGIVE teach and respect him.

There are worse things in life than a messy room, wearing his pants down low with his undies showing, scruffy hair and walking outside in his socks but I won't compromise on the swearing LOL. That I am taking seriously !

Some days he exaperates me so much swearing and saying no to simple requests eats all my chocolate stash I want to dig a hole and bury him ...but since he is now bigger than me it would take too long ... and I can't make him dig it himself anymore. (I pinched this from Jen)

I can't remember being like this with my mother ... though she smiles quietly when I whinge to her about him ... and tells me my brother was the same. My sister in law says her son was (is) the same.


My plan is ease off the battles ... I'll give him some time and space - a little more respect and if that fails I tie him to a post ...

I know many of you have seen this but I can't help myself


Revive our heart
Day Fifteen:
"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." 2 Pet.
3:18
My husband is very quiet ... a quiet achiever and there are things he doesn't always tell me. We haven't been to church as much since the Brothers were born . I worry about this too. This is an area we need to work on together.

Thursday, 1 May 2008

Warning ...

humorous pictures
see more crazy cat pics

I don't know if I mentioned it before but SHE DID !

My MIL lived with us (in a Granny flat) for over 6 years.Before that almost 6 months we lived under the same roof . We bought a block of land and were building - somehow we were building her a GF too.

Short story was DH finished our home and her new Granny flat .

We had interconnecting garage doors ... one day we forgot to dead latch/bolt the interconnecting door before an afternoon 'nap' while the little one was napping ...DH heard her footsteps down the hallway. She didn't catch us.

We get along well now.

Have you ever been sprung ?

Monday, 17 March 2008

7 weird or random things meme


weird - "strikingly odd or unusual"
random - lacking any definite plan or order or purpose; governed by or depending on chance
I have actually been tagged several times for this meme - Widdle Shammrock @musings of a green kneecapping leprechaun , Guera-a Roaming Aussie who is coming home and Queen Mommy@talbotstotarget

I have to list 7 weird or random things about me and then tag 7 more people to do the same.

I am sorry it took me so long.It's a bit boring,nothing juicy - may as well go put the kettle on ...
  1. I have never dyed my hair - I don't even think I have even used a wash out colour.I did use spray on mousse a few times for highlights. I am only a little grey (touch wood)
  2. I discovered using the shortened version of my name with my very common marital surname xxx- at this site there are only 14 people in the US who share my name but over 5085 using Patricia xxx.

    • There are 4,555 people in the U.S. with the first name Trish.
    • Statistically the 2762nd most popular first name.
    • More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Trish are female.

    • There are 1,635,141 people in the U.S. with the first name Patricia.
    • Statistically the 12th most popular first name.
    • 99.63 percent of people with the first name Patricia are female.

  3. My MIL shares my name Patricia (though it is technically her middle name but she uses it as her first name she usually goes by 'Pat'). What fun it was when she lived with us (yes - enough said).

    She had nothing better to do...waited eagerly for the mail person so of course she got to open all mail addressed to Mrs Patricia xxx my mail first ...if there was any doubt in her mind or she was curious.So we had a few words over this !

    Then there was the Dr mixing up our files, the same Gynae - so the cervical biopsy/papsmear invoice sent to me she thought was hers. Long story but she had them running around in circles saying she hadn't had a pap smear in years ( TMI -no sex in 20 years so why bother).She never even considered it was mine.Eventually they tracked me down - and I still had to pay LOL.I changed my name on several things after that to Trish.(ps is it weird my husband chose me having the same name as his mother?)

  4. My 2nd toes are longer than my big toes.
  5. I am a very anxious person and have extreme fears but I can't blog about them because I'm also paranoid and superstitious! I don't like the number 13 and yet my parents lived at NO 13 ... Mum just sold after 25 yrs.
  6. I can't touch type ... if I type fast I make lots of errors.I am very uncoordinated.
  7. I don't wear a watch and I haven't for years.

This is one of the hardest memes I have done - because I am not sure what is really weird about me - and what weird stuff I can share *gasp*. I didn't even have to narrow it down.

I had no idea who to tag but if you want to do it you can ...

Katie & Puddy @ A byootaful life
Tracey @ Why bother
Jano @ Sidetalk
Project Mommy
Just Jamie
BushBabe
Threetimeskewl

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

An old dog learns new tricks ... and an old dog

The last few days I have been learning a few new tricks and all about chicklets and widgets, rss and Google reader.

I discovered I do have feed burner readers (thank you to 32 people - I am honoured). I subscribed to a whole of blogs but I didn't know how to access them easily. I do now.Before it was hit and miss. I am sorry to the people I have neglected.I also re-directed my blogger rss to feed burner... at least that is what i think I did. I saw a jump in my readers on the stats yesterday too. I have along way to go to crossing the 10,000 reader milestone.

So now I am off on a mission to add more blogs to my Google reader.I have so much to learn. I am seriously thinking about changing to Wordpress ... well next year.

I have been so busy of late NaBloPoMo... and I feel my precious little guys need me more than I need to fiddle with my blog stuff. They have been into everything and while I secretly say horrid little things about them (to myself) - when they rip yet another lift the flap book or mildly important papers, steal my phone,keys, camera or wallet, bite me while nursing,climb and stand on the furniture, escape the $160 playpen, remove their nappies, throw clean washing all over the house, explore the toilet,refuse to eat & throw food at each other and on the floor, unpack the bag I just packed to go out and generally trash the house and that's just today - I still think I will keep them.

I might just keep him too ... though at the moment we clash terribly... *sigh*I am a mean mum and he is now 14 going on 40 who thinks he has all the answers. The babies adore him.

I digress , yes, we do have an old dog - Patch is now 11 yrs old. We gave him to our son D on Christmas day 11 yrs ago - D was 3yrs old and Patch was barely 5-6 wks old, with a belly full of worms (eeewww) . He was a wee scrap of a thing - 'heinz' Blue cattle/heeler dog mix. We played out the Rod Campbell story " Dear Zoo".
A boy writes to the zoo for a new pet ... and they send him a variety of animals - I wrapped small toys/plastic animals and lastly they sent him ... in basket can you guess ? and we presented the dog to him in a picnic basket.

Playing -fetch the ball is his favourite past-time but he gets puffed quicker now. I will have to find a photo tomorrow of him now. S & J love to throw the ball too ... but they only get it a metre of so.Poor Patch he gets so excited for nothing. D wanted to call him Pat (after Postman Pat... but unfortunately(yes it's true) my MIL lived in a little house/flat attached to our house and her name was *P a t xxxxx ... (almost the same as mine). LOL we knew she wouldn't appreciate it. Here 'Pat' ... yelled out !

By the way, Patch still loves her (and remembers her car - we know she is driving up the drive by the way he gets so excited in anticipation) even after 7 yrs since she/we moved.
She was his best ball thrower ever.
*The same name thing now that is a blog for another day.
Heads & Tails follows ...