Happy Mother's Day

It started off strangely. I woke up feeling refreshed. My neck didn't hurt. I felt like I slept on the right pillow and comfortably. I opened my eyes and saw that only Jory was in the bed with me. Happy Mother's Day, Yash! A nice rejuvenating sleep is the way to start the day.

Where do I go from here? Do I start when I called Mijo asking him what he wanted to buy his mother for Mother's Day a few days before? (I got a late start. Easter coming so late in the year completely threw me off.) I was ready for him to say perfume, a dress, some crap from Bath & Body Works, instead he hit me with "I want to take mom to Red Lobster for lunch." Okay, now I needed to find a Red Lobster and send him a gift card. Now he tells me this with Jory hacking like a banshee in my ear. Next year, Mijo will be 13 and will have to be a bit more proactive in the planning of Mona's Mother's Day gift. I can't get to Red Lobster, can't remember which store sells gift cards for restaurants and stuff so I figure I'll call the restaurant have them charge the meal on my credit card. I told this to Mijo and he informed me that he wanted to pay for the meal too with the money he won in a contest. I love this kid. I told him, I'd cover his mom's meal, since he told me she wanted lobster for lunch, and he could pay for his, his brother's, and his sister's meals.
We also had a discussion about being responsible with carrying around a fifty dollar bill in his wallet before the Mother's Day lunch. The he informed me, he wanted to get her a cake from Maggie Moo's.

After a horrific time on Maggie Moo's website where every cake offered had some type of chocolate in it and Mijo gets headaches from chocolate, I called the store and things turned around. The person at the store told me you could order any kind of cake, but you usually had to call the store to do that. Uh, shouldn't that be on your website? I ordered the simplest cake that the whole family could enjoy, after some input from Mona who overheard some of Mijo's plans, set a time for Mijo to pick it up under his name and I was done. Yippee!!

Sunday morning, I called Red Lobster to make sure everything was okay and I was told they couldn't take my credit card number over the phone due to credit card fraud. Are you kidding me?! Are you telling me this when my nephew is a few hours from arriving at the restaurant? I explained the situation to the waiter. I'm in LA, my nephew is 12. He talked to his manager, got back on the line, and told me I'd have to fax a copy of my Drivers License and credit card to him. Okay this was fine, but where was I suppose to find a place where I can make a copy and fax at 10AM on Sunday, on a Sunday that was Mother's Day. Does he know church starts at 11? I said okay.

Thankfully I had already found similar pink dresses for the girls to put on and something for Jory to wear that I didn't have to iron. I quickly got them dressed, did their hair, even though I could tell Oma was not feeling Rowan's hairstyle. I threw on my sweaterdress (thank you God for creating the person who created them) and ran out the door to Thrifty's. I knew I could make a photocopy there.

I made my copies, then I saw the manager. I asked him if he knew a place where I could fax my one page photocopy. He walked me outside the store and showed me the stores which sent faxes, but being 10:30AM on a Sunday they of course weren't opened. We walked back in the store and he said, I'll fax it. Thank you God! I prayed it would go through with no complications and my prayers were answered. I gave him the seventy-five cents for my copies, thanked him, and quickly called Red Lobster to make sure they received the fax and everything was okay. And it was. SCORE! I called Mijo and told him all systems go, ask for Jeff, then I drove home to pick up Oma and the kids.

We were slightly late for church which meant we had to separate in order to find seating. Rowan made a bee line for Happy while Baby and Jory squeezed into a pew in the front with me. Service was good, then they broke in with a Mother's Day tribute. Every woman with a mom there, stood up and said what she loved about her mother. One of Happy's daughter ended her speech by saying that she heard other kids say when they were teens they wished they had another mother, but she and her sisters never did.

So when it was my turn, I said, I wish I did have a different mother. One named Oprah. I made the analogy that my mom is like a piece of hard chocolate candy. She can seem stand-offish, not friendly, but if you break through you'll get to the gooey carmel middle. You get passed my mom's shell and she's lovable. I said, she stood her ground and you never had to wonder where you stood with her. I got a few Amens off of that one. And I praised and thanked her for being such a rock star when she found herself surrounded by three grandkids and how great a grandmother she is.

Side note, I loved my Grandma, she rocked my world. But I only saw once every two years or so and I am so glad TTT will know their grandma intimately, in ways I never knew mine. Their relationship with their Oma will be completely different than mine was with my Grandma because their grandma is just down the hallway from them.

At the very end of the speeches, my mom asked if she could speak. She talked about what a great, wait this is my mom we're talking about, what a good mother I was and how I have this open heart and she could have never done what I did. To which I said, amen. She then went on to say, she never could have taken in other people's children.

Really mother?!?! Not shocked or surprised, but I am amazed and how her brain and her heart don't speak. She loves her grandchildren like there's no tomorrow, yet her "I don't support adoption" brain can't gel these two worlds together. I made a note to myself to talk to her language after church and I was grateful that Jory was sleep and the girls weren't paying attention to their Oma's speech.

Then it was time for the kids to sing, Jory woke up but his heart just wasn't into it. So their performance of DC Talk's version of In the Light was soft and sort of lack luster. But they did get 99% of the words right. Yippee! And I enjoyed their singing and videotaped it.

Jory went back to sleep as the minister began and the two girls started acting fussy. The baby wasn't happy Jory was in my lap until she noticed something on the wall behind us and started trying to bother it. We were in a tight space, but when I noticed my cousin felt the best way to sit in church was with his legs spread I didn't feel the need to apologize for Layla's heel digging into him as she kept trying to move about. Rowan kept complaining about Jory being on her. Then she and the baby both said they had to go to the bathroom. Are you serious? Both of you?

I looked to my left, then to my right, there was no one near by who could hold Jory while I took the kids to the bathroom. I sent Layla to her Oma so she would take her, but it seemed like Oma sent her back to the front of the church, so my aunt kindly took the girls to the bathroom. Then ten minutes later, they had to go again. Really?!?

I really wanted to hear what the pastor was saying, but it wasn't happening and I was started to feel frustrated. Then it came to me, this wasn't my season. This wasn't my season to hear every word Pastors say. I've got little kids who need to be taken to the bathroom, who get fussy in church, complain about not having enough space, who need to be held on occassion, and all too soon this season will pass. All too soon, the Irish twins won't need me to take them to the bathroom. All too soon, I won't be able to hold my ailing baby boy in my lap and gently rock him. This is our season. So I went with that and changed my attitude.

The sermon concluded and now Layla was asleep on the side of me. Two sleeping babies and Oma was the first person out of the church. Luckily, John, Happy's husband, was near and picked up Jory and my aunt picked up Layla, while I hustled to the car to bring it around to the front of the church so they could continue to sleep. As I was going to my minivan, Mona's words were proven true when I heard my cousin say, we're going to a buffet in Norwalk. Norwalk?!?!? I heard we lived in Los Angeles. A place that has tons of restaurants so why are we driving to the edge of the universe to eat at a buffet on a Sunday, when every other church in the city is out, and on Mother's Day?

John and my aunt put the kids in the car with Rowan lagging behind. Thirty minutes later, we were in a caravan heading to Norwalk. As we pulled into the parking lot, there were lines of people standing in a line outside of the restaurants. This was not going to be good.

My cousin rushed me inside to order since his girlfriend was already inside. I discovered inside, where people were packed tighter than a can of sardines, that first you had to pay for your meal, then you got a number to wait for your number to be called. I ordered, saw the total, and said, "Oh, I"m not eating." Come on, woman, I'm on the detox cleansening regiment and if a hot, cheese oozing burger from McD's with the smell of their french fries enticing me didn't break me, your restaurant sure won't. She informed me I wouldn't be allowed inside to the eating area if I didn't pay. I love my mother, but I'm not paying $15to watch other people eat and drink water. I paid for my mom and Rowan and left.

When my mom heard it was going to be at least an hour wait, she wanted to leave. But I didn't want her to leave. I know she says it doesn't matter, but I like her spending Mother's Day and other holidays with her sisters. She's very blessed that they live so close. I would love to spend a Mother's Day with Mona and not just hear about her day over phone lines.

I did suggest to my cousins that we go to the Italian restaurant catty corner from the buffet place. The Italian restaurant was also having a buffet, for a cheaper price, and there were no long lines over there. Plus everyone loved pizza and pasta. They laughed. I think they thought I was joking. I was dead serious.

Jory woke up and so he, the Baby, and I walked to the donut shop to get snacks to tied them over. Seven dollars later. Rip off! Everyone had chips and a drink to share. We waited, waited, and waited. I got in the car and found the books Oma informed me were in the car. Read a little, then thought if I can't go in the restaurant, Jory's too sick to eat, why am I sitting here? I told my mom we were leaving but since my aunt had room for two in her car, I gave her a carseat and told Rowan to hop out the car, which caused the other two to cry. I told Jory and Layla they could go to McD's, which softened the cries. Lucky for me it was next door so with cheeseburgers in hand, they quickly quieted and ate.

Minutes after getting home, Jory barfed his burger on the ground. Please God, please let this be a 24 hour thing. I was glad that Jory was in good spirit and wasn't channeling his grandpa ie "I'm sick and dying" per usual. Nothing ends a Mother's Day like cleaning up your son's vomit.

And when Oma came home a few hours later and said that the food was horrible, I was very glad I was doing my cleanse and got to skip out on the meal. Well, my mom is never a fan of any restaurant, but if my uncle who will eat anywhere and anything says it's bad, then it's bad. For the first time in a while, I let the kids entertain themselves while my mom and I talked. We've come a long way, once upon a time there was just the two of us and now it's just the five of us.

The perfect way to end the day, a blessed way to end the day, talking to my mommy, while my kids could be heard in the distance. I am truly a blessed woman.