A Sandwich Girl

"Mom, I could really use your help," my daughter Jessica kept telling me. She is in the process of opening a used bookstore in the general Seattle area and trying to keep up with the needs of her family. So, this past week, I flew up to spend three days with her and her family, with plans to go to Colorado for our turn with Mom the end of the week.

Once again we sacrificed sleep to get me to the airport very early Monday morning to see if I could possibly get a seat on an oversold flight. Once again it paid off. I got to Seattle early in the morning. My poor Jessica was over the edge stressed. I'm glad I made it there in time to help her. Her bookstore looks great and seems ready for business to me. But there are scores of details that I know little of that still need to be done. So I spent most of my time there with the three kids. We cleaned house, played games, cooked and generally tried to have fun catching up with things. Jes and hub Chris have spent tons of time on the store so the kids and home have suffered a bit. But hopefully things will level out as soon as things are up and running. Jes and I spent my last day, on Wednesday, reupholstering a chair (one that once belonged to my grandparents). It is a wild print, to go with the store's color theme. It turned out so well that Jes was thoroughly pleased. Hence, so was I. You can see it here. See also a picture of Gemma and Miles around a Monopoly board. The three kids and I were all in jail at the same time. We thought that was a kodak moment, so here it is! Peyton is the youngest. You can see her here posing to show off her missing front tooth. Only you can't see it; you'll just have to take it on faith that it is indeed missing.

"Mom, please try and visit here with us more often," Jessica asked of me. Since her family will be pretty tied to home with the store, that is our only option for seeing one another. I wonder how to manage both bonding with my far-away children and caring for my mom. I don't want to miss either opportunity but I need to figure out how to do both things. It is a worry to work on.

Very early Thursday morning I stood by for another over-sold flight to Denver. I made that one also! Perhaps this is the way to do standby; just get up at 3 am and head to the airport. There are apparently enough paying passengers who chicken out at the last minute to provide some space for us standbys. Hooray. Layne also got on his very early flight from home so we met up in Denver. Our luck changed there as we missed flight after flight into Grand Junction. We finally separated and arrived on two different flights, much later than we were hoping for. But we did arrive! From there our friend Elaine Conlon drove us to Cedaredge. Wow, what a trip.

On Friday Mom turned 93! My sister Maryanne and her hub Bob stayed for her birthday celebration, then headed for their home that night, late. Mom seemed pleased with the friends who stopped by, and the dinner we served, especially to her tastes. She is a lovely woman. She looks different now. Something is going on with her eyes, which you may notice in this photo of her. She frowns from eye strain. I'm going to try and get the problem figured out over the next three weeks that we are here. Otherwise, she seems to be holding as far as her physical condition goes. As usual, it is a joy to be here. The place and the people warm my heart. For the next few weeks, my world is here.

I am indeed a sandwich girl: a slice of children on one side and a slice of mom on the other. My filling is being squished!