Thank You For Being There

I love my boys, and I'm fairly confidant they love me back. With that in mind, being the modern Mom that I am (haha!), I sent them a text with the following message:

I'm letting you off the hook for Mother's Day. A card would be nice, but my real gift is how wonderful you all are.

Or something to that effect. Can't check just now as my phone died. In any case, I only heard back from Bill. One of the reasons I did so was because I can remember, only too well, how hard it becomes to find a gift for one's Mother. Or, at least it was for me. And really, I do love a good card as much as anything. Boy, did I get some beauties!

And you know what? Three out of the four said essentially the same thing--thank you for being there for me. How sweet is that?

I can assure them, I am going nowhere. Unlike the protaganist, or one of them, in a novel I read yesterday called Etta and Otto and Russell and James, reviewed here.

Bruce left yesterday morning for most of the week, so instead of what I usually would be doing when he's home, I read and read and read. Drawn in by the title when I saw it on the shelf at the downtown library, it is hard to know what to say about this book, but I think I'd recommend it if you are one who can suspend belief for a bit. Etta is 82 and walks most of the way across Canada with a coyote she names James as her companion. Can you buy into that?

Saturday, following the yard mowing, I was watering my very sketchy flower garden when I saw a van pull up in front of the house. The postwoman was here at the same time, not only delivering the mail, but picking up the bag of non-perishable food we'd put out for a food drive. I think that is a clever way to collect food, however, most of my neighbors, or at least the young ones, must have felt differently. It was just us old folks that had bags hanging from our mailboxes. Anyway, the lady in the van delivered a beautiful dish garden of flowers from Matt and Tom.

Not only are they lovely, but fragrant too! Later in the day the twins and girls arrived with Dave and Michelle bringing enough food for an army, or that is what my own Mother would have said! Plus they brought more flowers and a Bloomingdales gift card. Bill, knowing his Mom, brought wine.

So much for no gifts. :)

David loves grilling, and he loves his meat. He'd marinated the chicken thighs, and filets, and massive rib eye, before coming, then fussed with it all when he got here.

In a funny coincidence, he brought artichokes to grill, wanting to make them like they do at Hillstone, a nice Winter Park restaurant. Not more than a month ago, Cheryle tried to do the same at her house. Anyway, he got all excited because I have a steamer which proved to be the trick. Before too long Charles and Scott also arrived, bringing, you guessed it....more flowers!

It was all so lovely and fun, I felt like someone special. Ginger, Dave and Michelle's dog, came along to keep Baxter company.

Although we ate inside, because it was hot, it began to cool off just a wee bit. I'd asked Bill to bring the corn hole, but sadly we did not get much play time in because of the looming darkness.

At least we did not have to throw it across water! Then, with the torches burning, the music playing, and the pool light changing colors every few seconds, we had some good laughs and fun on the patio. You know what? It was still hot, prompting both David and myself to jump in the cool water. Whew--that felt good!

Michelle asked me about dessert earlier--what was my favorite? Of all things, I told her eclairs. I'm not sure why because I rarely eat them, but boy was it tasty when I got around to eating it for breakfast on Sunday!

Having slept on my hair wet, it looked like crud, but I was in no mood to fix it. A ponytail and hat had to suffice for my market day. I wish I'd stayed home and gone swimming. Slow and hot, all day long, in spite of my mega fan. When I say slow, I mean slow--$23 in sales by 3:30 in the afternoon. OUCH! Finally a couple came by, helping me almost reach $100. Naturally this brought thoughts to my head--can I really make it through the summer again? Probably.

Hill's Happy Hour was fun, but I was so hot and tired from the day, I'm not sure I was very good company to our friends.

How hot was it at 6 in the evening? 90 degrees!

How tired was I on Mother's Day? So tired that I was in bed by 8:00!!! Jonathan called, but I did not answer because, to tell you the truth, I was grumpy. As to the 8:00 bedtime--do not judge us! Some people take naps, some fall asleep on the couch, I say--let's go to bed and sleep!

After all that great sleep I felt like a new woman yesterday morning. Because I had about twenty minutes left on my parking meter, I walked across the street from the library to Lake Eola, to see what I could see.

Teenagers perhaps?

Baxter and I will be holding the fort down until Thursday evening when both Bruce, and Nancy arrive. You know what Bruce will be doing (working); Nancy, she hopes to be swimming, biking, and in general on vacation at the Pecks. Let us hope the weather is good.

Always there for my boys,
Gail