I'm moving!

That's right kids! I am finally moving out of my parents house, now there is nothing wrong with living at home with mom and dad getting that out of the way. They are fantastic and have let us live in their house, eat their food and use their facilities for over a year now and it is so time to be out on our own. Again. I had a conversation with my brother the other day about living at home. I loved living at home before I got married. Zero rent and all the utilities taken care of. What a sweet deal! I got married and moved into a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, one car garage condo in West Jordan and loved it. Well things got a little crazy and we couldn't afford it so we moved into a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment in Midvale. I had our beautiful baby boy while living there, and then the place flooded. My washer decided that it wasn't going to do a small load of laundry. Oh, no it was going to wash the carpets in EVERY ROOM. The complex was great about it, they came right out and started the clean up and the process of drying out the carpets. While this was going on we stayed at my parents house while they were in California. We get back into the apartment and they missed the closet. I don't know if they didn't see it, or if it disappeared, or if it's just one of those magic closets that only we can see. They missed it and it's full of black mold. They decide to blame us for that and long story made into a slightly shorter version, we moved back in with my parents. Getting back to the conversation with my brother, I tell him that it's not embarrassing to live with the parents in his shoes, 23 and single. It's slightly embarrassing to have to move back in with them after having moved out and have vowed never to be those people that move in with the parents because it's just to hard. I had to swallow a lot of pride to ask my parents, they were very willing and I need to clarify that living with them is not embarrassing, it's having to admit that I needed help that embarrassed me. I am very proud, and am working on it. And now we are moving into a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom 2 car garage fenced back yard, finished basement, beautiful house in back in West Jordan and I can only thank my parents for letting us get a handle on things and wait for this blessing that literally fell into our laps. This place even has a fire place and a horse shoe pit. Now I need to learn to play. For the next two weeks we are moving things into our new house slowly and on Valentines day we will officially be moved out and on our own. Again.

Bad news.

Today I found out that my Grandma Doris has Leukemia. This is so hard for me to share and I beg your patience and allow me to just go on for a while so I can maybe wrap my head around it and get a handle on myself, I just don't know how to take it or what to do. This explains why she has been sick the last while, long while. She never really fully recovered from her second heart surgery and has fallen a couple of times, such instances have left her anemic and just so weak that a hospital stay and rehabilitation was required for what we all typically have, the common cold. Now having her move in with her son doesn't seem like such a bad idea in theory. If they had only been nice to her while she was well and had a real relationship with her then instead of trying to cram one in now. If only. They all had a meeting in which Doris wanted my Mom to be in attendance, they not so politely reminded her that we, my family, are not family. Our only real connection was that of my Fathers brother, my Uncle Rolf and his daughter with my Aunt Susie. Well both my uncle and cousin have passed on and so there is no real string attached. That was so nice of them to point out what is clear in their eyes every time I see them. They talk about all of us as a nice big happy family when in practice we are the outsiders looking in. Earlier today I seriously wished that when my Grandma Reid died that we never would have started going to this so called "family dinner" and never gotten to know any of them. I would have seen them at the two above mentioned funerals, and that of my Grandma Keddington, but that would have been all. I wouldn't feel what I am feeling at this moment and I wouldn't loath the people that didn't value the life of my Grandma Doris. I know that is an outrageous statement for me to even think. I love her and I am grateful for all of the things she has taught and given me. She was the grandma that came to my baptism and to my confirmation. She was the grandma that loved me as a grandchild should have been loved, with out question or consequence. I am proud to say that I know her and have shared in her life these many years, now they seem few in number, but have been wonderful. Now she is not dead of course but the cure for leukemia is a bone marrow transplant and they are not going to do one on a 80 something year old woman who hasn't been in good health for some time now. I don't know. I just don't know.

Um, are you serious? And, how do I get it to stop?

On Tuesday and Thursday I watch my neighbors child(ren). Sometimes I have just one, same age as my son, and sometimes I have all three plus my own. For all of you math wizards that comes to four kids, the two older girls come after they get out of school for about an hour. Well today I had two of the three, and mine, and I ask her before she goes off to kindergarten if she needed lunch to which she states she did. So I make sandwiches for everyone and as I'm giving her the sandwich, made with love, she walks out the door and I'm thinking she is eating it on her way to school. Well, when Jimmy went to work a few hours later he found said sandwich on the dive way. She threw it on the pavement! If she didn't want it she should have said so! Not throw it on the ground, how is that acceptable behavior? I know she is in kindergarten, but come on now. I don't want to deny her food if she needs to eat before going to school, but I don't want to waste it either. I should have made the sandwich and right away thrown it in the garbage. I was so insulted and mad and from now on I am going to tell the mother that she needs to be fed before she comes because I don't have a money tree for them to just litter food on the sidewalk. Is that rude of me?
The second issue is while the little boys were playing the neighbor was chasing my son into a corner grabbing his shirt and throwing him to the floor. I was so shocked that I thought I saw something that didn't happen. Until it happened again. I went over to the boys and told the neighbor kid that we don't play like that and to go play with the toys, but when my back was turned he did it again! Three times for those of you counting. I have no clue how to address this with the parents because I don't want them to think I am one of those overprotective mothers that think everyones kid is after hers. That is not the case. I get after my son when I see him treating anyone unfairly. I don't know. Maybe I just need to not watch them. It messes with my sons nap times and if he is just going to get a beat down when my back is turned I can take him to play group elsewhere and he can have the interaction with a bunch of kids whose parents are in attendance. Ah, but then I am putting the neighbor in a bind having to find another means of babysitting. His family was doing it all before and well, they may have to do it again. We will see how Thursday goes, I will keep y'all posted.

Allow me to be a proud Mamma for just a moment.

Yesterday while I was in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast, I heard Xavier grunting a little in the front room. I thought he was stuck somewhere, yes it happens, or that he was pooping. Again. Neither one was the case, he was climbing on Dustin's wooden rocking horse and finally got up on top of it and was rocking away! It was a very proud moment in that before that moment when he decided he could do it he would come grab my hand and take me to the horse and sort of jump while pointing and grunting something that I take as meaning, "Put me on the horse silly lady, don't you know that's what I want?" He climbed back down before I could grab my camera and showed me how he climbed on the horse, and for a second time he rocked away. It was awesome to see him climb all by him self and very depressing at the same time. Although he needs me to feed and change and bath him and rock him to sleep, he no longer needs me to play up down on the rocking horse, my little guy is growing up.

How hard is it to use an iTunes gift card?

The answer you may be wondering is very very difficult, that is if your name starts with Melissa and ends with Shaeffer. That's right kids I, Melissa Shaeffer, had the most difficult time trying to use this gift card that I almost wanted to scream. I did kind of snap at Jimmy, but who knew that you have to click on redeem and then enter the number that is under the scratch off with coin part, and then download your crap? I would have known that if I would have read gift card, yes sad enough for me, it is printed clearly in idiot proof English and has clear step by step directions as to how to use said card. I just happen to be of the persuasion that I don't need directions and can figure it out on my own. Well I was mistaken. This has been a sad and tragic story of a girl who learned that if you take the time to stop and read the print that is there for the benefit of the user, not just there because someone needed something to do on a random Tuesday at work, then you can get things done in a minute instead 30. Seriously. It happened. Stop laughing, well who am I kidding I'm laughing my self. So take a lesson from me, we will call this one Lissa lesson number one, reading the directions. More lessons to come I'm sure.

My Grandma Doris

So as many of you know I have this Grandma who really isn't mine. Follow along carefully. She is my Fathers brothers mother in law. That makes her my cousins Grandmother and not really any relation of mine. What happened is when my Grandma Reid (my Moms Mother) died they started inviting us to their family dinners once a month. It started to feel as if I had a Grandmother, my Grandma Reid had Alzheimer's in a very advanced stage while I was growing up. I remember visiting her in a nursing home and her funeral. My Grandma Andersen didn't like me, not an exaggeration, but a statement of fact. Many of you also know I along with my brother were adopted and that is the sole reason why she didn't like either one of us. She let me know it a couple of times. So along comes Doris, my Grandma Doris, she loves me she comes to all of my functions growing up and all that wonderful stuff that you get your Grandparents to be part of. She had heart surgery to replace a leaky valve and then had to have a follow up surgery to replace the replacement because that one started leaking as well. The second surgery was the beginning of the end I'm afraid. She never fully recovered from that and then her lung started to fill with liquid and twice she has had to have it drained. A procedure that I do not wish on anyone. From that she slipped a little further and little by little her strength went. Over this Christmas holiday she got really sick and ended up in the hospital again. We went to go see her and it was all she could do to talk to us with out giving herself away. She herself told my Mother that she feels she is lower than a snakes belly and I really don't know how to take that statement. She left the hospital yesterday to put in a 20 day stint at a rehabilitation care center. Then when those 20 days are over she is being forced to reside with her son and his family. They are meeting today to clean her house out as if she is already dead and buried. It hurts my heart to know that all they care about is who gets what instead of reflecting on what an amazing woman she STILL is and the fun times they shared. I refuse to let them get me down. I am going to see her in the rehab home in just a little while and to be honest I am terrified as to what I may see. My Mother and my Aunt Susie both agree that she at best has 6 months left, and that makes me sad. I am still not completely over a few deaths and am still mourning some and to add another to that pile is not something I want to deal with at the moment. So here then is what I am going to do, I am going to go visit my Grandma Doris and tell her all the wonderful things her Great Grandson has been up to and I am going to take things one day at a time and cherish the time that I do have with my family. That my friends sounds like a plan.