Grandchildren are more fun than children because...

...before I go there, I need to precede THAT story with a couple of stories about Melissa. Because all mom's have a story to tell. Something that our kids said or did that we hope NO ONE ever finds out. Then WE tell the story...

(NOTE – these are TRUE stories. How could you make up something like THIS?)

When Melissa was in pre-school, believe it or not, there were parent-teacher conferences.(I always thought it was more like day care/fun time. But NO....) She was probably four years old at the time. At the end of the conference, I made a comment something like “I'll bet kids this age tell lots of stories. Has Melissa ever said anything funny?”...Her teacher's response was “I was hoping you wouldn't ask”. I should have excused myself at that point. But again, NO, I had to hear what she had to say. I guess during class one day Melissa told her teacher that “My dad takes pictures of my mom with no clothes on...” and wouldn't stop talking. You can IMAGINE my embarrassment...no matter WHAT I said, I was guilty (even though it WASN'T true)...if I denied it, I looked guilty, if I admitted it I was guilty. Where in the WORLD would she come up with a story like that? Needless to say, I laughed all the way home, and called Donny as soon as I got home. (Of course he had to tell the story at work, and whenever I would call, whoever would answer would ask “do you have your clothes on?”...HA HA. We never COULD figure out where she got THAT idea....

Story #2 – It was Father's Day, and of course on Father's Day, dad's play golf. So Donny was up and out early. I was working on a cross-stitch for MY dad for Father's Day. Some really nice poem called “What Makes a Dad”. Well, I had about an hours worth of work left to do on it, and I had a 3 year old and one year old running around the house getting into everything. A little stressful. Got a little upset, yelled at the kids and got THEM upset. But I wasn't mad at THEM, I was mad at their dad for playing golf when I had something I needed to do (even though it was Father's Day...)Then I felt guilty. So I sat down, hugged them both, and crying said “I'm sorry. I'm not mad at YOU. I'm mad at your DAD. You know, we're going to get an apartment, just me, you and Nick. Your dad is never here anyway...blah blah blah.....”.
Fast forward to the end of that day. We go to Donny's parent's for a cookout for Father's Day. The whole family (all seven brothers and sisters and his mom and dad) are sitting in the living room, talking, lot's of noise....THEN Melissa runs up to Donny and says “guess what dad? Me and mom and Nick are getting an apartment!” Of course all talking in the room STOPS and everyone looks at ME. Donny says “What is she talking about????” My response? “I don't know....”

The moral to the story? I learned to NEVER say anything in front of Melissa that I didn't want repeated! (Her aunt used to take her shopping for Christmas, and before they would go, she would call all her sisters and say “Hey, I'm taking Melissa shopping, anyone want to go?” because they LOVED to hear Melissa's stories. It never changed, did it?

OK. Now that you know that I wasn't a perfect parent, I can tell my story about my grandchildren...

Nick called one day last week around 5. “Mom, can you go help Mere. She is really sick and can't take care of the kids.” I told him to tell Mere to leave the front door unlocked and I would be right over.

When I walked in the door, Mere was laying on the couch moaning. (She had the flu AND strep throat...VERY sick)...she went right to bed. The boys? They were running around, having a GREAT TIME....without a stitch of clothes on...(both of them!).

Drew ran into the kitchen and said “Look Pamma, I'm doing the dishes for mommy”.
Of course it was a nice thing to be doing for his sick mommy, but I needed to get clothes on both them. That was my first course of action....

In the kitchen, there were remnants of McDonalds on the counter. I wasn't sure HOW long they had been there, but probably since the morning, so I threw it all in the trash. Then I filled up the sink and proceeded to do the dishes. I heard something behind me, turned around, and MAX WAS EATING OUT OF THE TRASH!
NOOOOOOOOOOO!

He had what was left of a McDonald's hamburger in his hand chomping away....with a BIG smile on his face. Like – what's wrong Pamma?

When Nick got home, I shared the story with him. He said “Can you imagine if Children's Services would have walked in on that scene?” I said “Mere would have said TAKE THEM.” She was THAT sick....and if you are a mom, you've been THERE.

Now I want you to know that I did ASK Mere if it was ok to put this on the blog – and she was laughing and said “I don't care.”

Fort would have just POSTED IT. Thank goodness this family has a sense of humor....

Have a good day...indoors if you are in the midwest. The ice storm cometh, and snow is on the way! I am SO ready for spring....

(OH - to answer the questions why are grandchildren more fun than children? Because you realize that in the big picture, some things are just plain funny. So you laugh a lot more and take a lot of things less seriously. Grandchildren are the BEST MEDICINE in the world!)