Keep swimming.....

Life just never seems to slow down these days. I picked mom up from the airport, after spending a week in Colorado Springs with my baby sister, Becky, on April 30th. On May 2nd, I went up to spend the night with mom, so that we could get up and come down to Farmington to the Annual Briargate Yardsale! Kate said all the kiddos were lined up at her bedroom door by 6:30am, making sure she didn't get up and try and slip out without them, LOL! We had a great time, although it was cold! And it was windy!! We got tons of stuff, but by noon, we are so wind-whipped and tired that we opted to load up and go home. We first stopped by Grandma Vandiver's house to go potty and rest a bit, then loaded up everyone and Kate headed home in the burb with all the kiddos and mom and I headed north to Herky. I tried to hook up with Patty, so I could take mom by there and show her the apartment they built for Patty's mom, but they too, were at the sale, so that just wasn't going to happen that day. By the time we got home, and unloaded, I had a terrible headache. I am sure it was from not drinking my coffee because I was in such a rush that morning. I took a couple Tylenol and made a fresh pot of coffee and sat down to relax a bit before time to leave to go to meet my friends to see Chonda Pierce tonight! We met at Joyce's house, and I drove. Joyce had gotten us VIP tickets so we sat on the 3rd row from the front!! It was such fun, but we didn't get home until midnight. This girl was tired, after being up and at the yard sales by 7am! Monday, May 5th was reading class with my son, then Tuesday we loaded up the mowers and went and mowed mom's grass. May 8th, was Jessy's 14th birthday, so her and I went to town to do lunch with Kell at Pasta House. On Friday, Keith had me running vouchers for him, so I gave mom a call and told her, "get your hair done and your makeup done, I will be by to pick you up in about 30 minutes and you can run with me to do vouchers for Keith." When I got there, her bags were packed and sitting in the chair! We had discussed her coming down to my house to spend the weekend, since it was Mother's Day and all, but she had gone back and forth, saying she would, then saying she wouldn't. When I walked in and saw the bags packed and sitting there, I thought, hey, she changed her mind and was coming down!!! I grabbed her bags and as we were walking out the door to the car, she said, "What time does my plane leave? Are we gonna have time to run those vouchers before going to the airport?" I set the bags down, and turned around and looked at her, and said, "mom, you know we are not going to the airport today, you don't leave for Florida until Thursday" She said, "well, where are you taking my bags??" I said, "I thought you were going to my house for the weekend, since it is Mother's Day" She said, "No, I can just wait and come down on Sunday morning." GRRRrrr. I know that means I will be driving up to stay the night at mom's and meeting my family at my church on Mother's Day morning. Oh well....

We got into the car, and drove to Hillsboro to run the voucher, then back to the bank to deposit the money. On the way back from the bank, mom saw a yard sale sign and said, "Hey, let's go check that out real quick, it's right there!" So, I pulled in there, and it was a good one! While I was on the other side of the garage, looking through the clothes, I heard someone talking to mom about the Mother Daughter Banquet tomorrow. I heard mom say, well, I didn't know anything about it, but I will talk to my daughter. I took my things to the check out table and then mom and I got into the car to leave. No sooner did we get into the car, than mom said, "did you hear that lady from Herky ask me about the Mother Daughter Banquet?" I said, "I did". Mom then proceeded to tell me how no one from that church ever sat with her, she always sat by herself. Perhaps she would give them another chance. "Will you be my daughter tomorrow??" I just laughed and said, "as opposed to today mom?" So, we discussed me coming back up tomorrow morning, instead of tomorrow evening, so we could go to the Mother Daughter Banquet which started at 11am. She then proceeded to say, "I think I will just give them one more chance, and go to my church Sunday morning and see if I have to set by myself." I pleaded with her, explaining that it was MOTHER'S DAY, and that everyone would have family there, and it seemed like she had two choices. She could go to my church, be surrounded by family, all my kids were going to be there, including Jenna and Kelly, who had both asked off work, so they could be with their mom and grandma, or she could go to her church and sit by herself. Then, of course, she would go home by herself, and eat by herself.......ON MOTHER'S DAY!!! She was telling me, you go home, go to your church, I will just drive down after church. I laughed, and explained she had never driven down to my house, much less by herself. She replied, I can if I set my mind to it. I said, mom, tell me again why you won't drive 25 minutes to go to First Baptist House Springs, a church you love, a church you miss, a church you never have to sit by yourself??? She just looked at me and said, I can do it, if I set my mind to it. Right.... It was such an emotional roller coaster day. I drove home that afternoon, crying all the way home. I knew, as a daughter, I could not allow my mom to spend Mother's Day alone. I could not allow my mom to endure the hurt feelings of sitting alone in that church, much less come home to an empty house and eat a cold cut sandwich alone. So, I explained to my family, my kiddos, my husband, that I would be spending the night with my mom, then attending church with her at Herky, then we would drive down and join the bbq they had planned. Kelly was just sick, saying, mom I have to be at work by 2pm. I don't have time to drive up and go to Herky church!! So, the bottom line is, all my family, all my kiddos were going to be at Calvary Temple without their mom. But hey, I was going to be at Herky with my mom!! Saturday morning, I got up, dressed for the Mother Daughter Banquet and headed up to Herky. That afternoon, as we were sitting there in the chairs relaxing, Kelly called. After a brief conversation, mom said, what did Kell Kell have to say. I explained she was still trying to find out where we were going to church and all. She looked at me and said, "well did you tell her we were coming down to your church? I don't mind going down there, really!" I just looked at her in disbelief. It was as if we had not had a conversation at all the past couple days!! I said are you sure mom?? I called my family and told them, plans had changed and we would be at Calvary Temple in the morning!!!!! PTL