I had a guest last week. Sandy, Doug’s (my ex) mom came to see me for her birthday. She arrived on Thursday the 17th at the ungodly hour of 8AM and we went to my house so she could look around. We ran some errands, had a great lunch with Carmen and Paulie and decided to hit the road that day instead of waiting for morning. Yep, we took off for McMinnville, OR. Why OR you ask? Well to see Jennifer of course. Jennifer is Sandy’s granddaughter. This was Sandy’s b-day gift to herself. A trip to see her wonderful Jennifer, and I was extremely happy to be invited along. We drove for about 6 hours and decided to crash in Medford for the night. In the morning we raced to McMinnville. Originally we had planned to just do the full day drive and see Jennifer and her family that night, but I really didn’t want to have to drive 10 plus hours in one day if I could avoid it. When we arrived in OR it was around 2PM and I asked if I could call Judy (Jennifer’s mom) to see if it would be ok to grab Jennifer from school. She was really sweet when I called, since I caught her early. So we went to Jennifer’s school and picked her up as a surprise. She was really excited to see us. I got to meet her best friend, Freya and we headed back to Judy’s house. This is the first time I have met Judy and the rest of her family. We arrived at their house and there was a ton of family hanging out. Judy and her husband John. Lori and her four boys, Michael, Trevor, Jojo and Matthew. Then the rest of the kids started coming home. Rebecca (a weekend visitor from Portland) Jonathan and Jessica (the twins) and finally JD. A lot of activity from the get go. The house, according to Judy, is always busy. Seemed fun to me, but I can imagine just needing down time sometimes. We hung out for a few and then packed Jennifer up for a few days in the hotel with us.
Friday night was easy going. We had dinner and then went to see Holes. Great movie, we all enjoyed it more than we thought we would. We were in bed early so we could get up in the morning for some much needed SHOPPING. We got up early and had breakfast then headed to Salem for the mall. We had a blast. We hit every store, shopped and shopped until we were too tired to continue and then headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. When we got there Sandy decided to just stay in. I took Jennifer to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner. We had a nice time, just the two of us talking and eating. She is a wonderful person. Very kind and thoughtful. We went back to the hotel (we brought home leftovers KNOWING Sandy would be hungry when we got there) and curled up in bed to read and watch TV. Jennifer decided to sleep in my bed. I thought Sandy was being generous letting me have Jennifer for the night but at about 2AM with Jennifer kicking me and making her way to sleep at the foot of the bed, I realized Sandy merely wanted a good nights sleep. LOL. Jennifer and I woke up sleeping diagonally across the bed; me at the top and Jennifer at the bottom…kids are fun, eh.
In the morning we went out for a light breakfast and then to buy a few things for Easter dinner. Judy and her mom Carolyn were cooking Easter dinner for us. We arrived a little early. When we got there everyone was already there. Carolyn and her husband Chuck, Judy and John and all the kids. It was awesome. There was a ton of food, and Easter eggs hidden everywhere. Unfortunately, there was a little mix up about Easter baskets and Jennifer didn’t have one. Easily taken care of though, I put her in the car and we went to Safeway to build her one. It was really fun. We grabbed up everything in site and made the basket right there on the check out counter. We went back to the house and I played video games with Jonathan (he whooped me). Then I played some chess with Jonathan (again, he whooped me, the kids is Smart!) We had a really nice dinner and then sat down to play Yatzee with Jennifer and Jonathan. OK, he didn’t whoop me that time, but only because it is a game of chance…then we all took a trip to Lori’s house in Newberg. We hung out for a little bit visiting with the kids and such before heading back to McMinnville.
That night Carolyn and Chuck had offered their home to us so we spent two nights at their house instead of a hotel. It was really nice of them. They have two pups named Rusty and Frankie, Dachshunds, who took some time to warm to me, but eventually became all cute and more friendly. On Monday, while Jennifer was in school, Sandy and I got a chance to hit some of the little antique stores on 3rd Street before picking up Jennifer and Freya from school. We went back to Judy’s for a few hours before heading to 3rd Street Pizza for a school meeting about a trip that Jennifer and Sandy are taking to NY this summer. We had a really good time at the pizza place and then headed back to Judy’s to play Scrabble with the kids. I could only get Freya and Jennifer to play with me though. When it got late and Sandy and I took Freya home and headed to Carolyn’s for the night. Carolyn and I really hit it off, she is a riot!
Early in the morning, Sandy and I hit the road for home. It was hard leaving. I had had such a great time. Sandy and I drove all the way to Redding to see her ex-husbands sister Les. I had planned on maybe staying the night there with them but being only 3 hours from my bed, I just couldn’t do it. I hung out for a couple of hours and jumped in my car and raced home.
I was so excited to be home. It is so nice to climb in your own bed after so many nights in other ones. My plan was to go to sleep early and sleep late. The early part happened that night, the sleeping late, nope, no way. Sandy had me on a whole new schedule and I was up at 7AM (ugh!) I am still all wonky with my sleep, heh.
So now I have Sandy coming back to me today and we are going to have dinner with my family. I have to get her to the airport at the painful hour of 5AM, so as you can imagine, tonight will be an early one.
Finally, I am moving to mom’s on the 6th. I have yet to pack a damn thing, but I have all the details of the move pretty much nailed down. Tomorrow friends and family are coming over to help pack a bit, which will help. Then I have a week to get everything in order which should be fine. I am really excited about this move. I get to be with my family and just take some time to relax without the stress of paying $1,100 in rent…thank god for family!
Kisses
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