Mother's Day at the Lazy B

It was kind of a wild weekend here at the Lazy B. Saturday morning we got up early and started working on the house. One of the Fortney boys came over to help, and he was a big help. Still, things went a little slow. The big thang was that we got the water hooked up to the new part of the house. Around noon, I took the Fortney home and then made lunch for Toby. It was about this time that I noticed wet sheetrock on the backside of the bathroom. Oops - water leak! Toby fixed it and we went back to eating. Wait! Do you hear that? Of course, Toby does not hear certain ranges of sound, and this was one of them. I followed the sound to the water softener. Yep - water leak! After working on it, Toby turned the water back on, but it was not flowing well. Then it did - yeah fixed! Then the water turned BLACK! Oops - softener problem! We spent quite a bit of time on this little problem. Finally, we got the water back to normal, and we went back under the house to work on the ducts. Things picked up and ran better (we are really getting good at this) until we ran out of needed supplies. By this time, I was worn out anyway. We decided to call 'er quits and watch the Kentucky Derby. Then we cleaned up and kicked back with some supper and a movie.

Sunday we had a plan to go to WF to see our mothers on Mother's Day. We got a late start because we had company after church. Several times the last few days Toby had asked me to make his mom a Mother's Day card. When we were on our way to WF, I remembered. Oops. For my mother, I tried to write a post, but never got it finished. The following is what I did get written before I lost half of it to cyber-space and gave up.

I write a lot about my dad, but then I was a daddy's girl. I write little day to day things about my mom, but I don't tell many stories about her. With Mother's Day coming up, I have been trying to come up with a good story about Mom. It's not that I don't have millions of stories or that we are not close, but for some reason the stories just don't flow like the ones of my dad. He is an icon in my life. Mom, well, she is steadfast, stable, secure, and all the things a mom should be, but maybe that does not make for exciting stories. Dad was awe-inspiring, my hero, and a bit fear invoking. Mom is my friend, partner, and sometimes partner in crime. If Dad was about discipline and education, Mom was about joy and laughing. The times that we laughed so hard that we cried are too many to tell. Dad and I laughed together, but Mom is the one who brought the fun into the house.

We took our moms to Chili's for supper. Jesse took a couple of photos of us before the manager came out and took this photo. We got tickled at Mom's expression. Jesse said it looked like we beat Grandma. So we took another photo with instructions for Mom to smile this time. When we looked at it, Mom asked, "Too much?" We laughed. Back at Toby's Mom's apartment, I was walking Mom to her car. There was a downhill slope to the lobby and dining room that Mom did not notice. She did a little mis-step. I threw out my arm (the way mom's used to do before seat belts and child car seats were invented) and caught Mom across the chest hollering, "Whoa!" Mom said, "Just stop me before I hit the dinning room." And we started laughing.

And there you have the stories I would have told on Mom in a nutshell. We laugh at all sorts of crazy things, but you really would have to have been there - even then, you might not have understood. Mom always said that one of the big differences in my brother and me was that Craig was always serious and cool while I would throw my head back and laugh and enjoy every minute of everything. Thanks Mom, you taught me that. I am your daughter.

This morning things went really crazy. Some noise woke me up about 5:15 AM. I sat up in bed wondering what the noise was when my my "crazy woman thang" hit me and blood ran out of my body. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom to find Jesse in the shower (the noise that woke me) saying, "Gee Mom, I'm naked!" I just stood there trying to wake up and figure out what to do and why the heck was she in the shower so early! Eventually, I got cleaned up and fixed up and the bed stripped down. I got coffee and figured out that Jesse was up early because she is leaving on a grand adventure today. She asked me to find a specific t-shirt that was "not in her drawers" so it might be in mine. I was tearing through my drawers and Toby's drawers with sweat pouring off my body when she found the shirt in her own drawers. I turned the air conditioner on and sat down to drink my coffee. I told Toby I might cry. He said the dogs were missing. Hmm, they had not been there to greet us when we came home last night and now they were not around this morning. All sorts of thoughts went through my head. But I thought maybe they had gotten under the house since there had been a storm last night. Sure 'nuff. Jack the red heeler, came out quickly when we called, but Zoe the great Dane was stuck. She had managed to get way back behind the ductwork and could not get out although she would put her front paws over the duct and tried to turn her body sideways. She was stuck. I had to change into my "under the house" clothes and go in after her. I had to crawl way back under to get her to come to me and go around the ductwork. Jack the Nipper came under to help in his own doggie way. He nipped me on the chin, I jerked my head away, and whammed it on the floor joists. As I crawled out from under the house, I told Toby I really was going to cry now. But I didn't have time. I poured myself another cup of coffee and jumped in the car to get Jesse to her destination - meeting up with the Diva's daughter and another friend. They should be on their way to Hawaii as I type.

I had a nice quite time with the Diva after we got the girls off. Since we had had such a busy weekend, my house was a total wreck and needed some serious cleaning. I know myself well and decided to stay off of the internet until I got things cleaned up. It took me most of the morning, but thangs are looking much better around here. Now I think my wrist may be broken. It hurts to move my fingers a certain way. I may cry yet.