Family | Peaches Prattlings

{September 6, 2016} A good caregiver

PSM always wants to make sure I’m ok, take care of me. This morning, he got it ten fold!

I don’t know if I’ve told you, but I suffer frm migraines. I used to get them a lot more often, but now when i get them, they happen fast, I mean fast. I had just gotten up to say good morning and it hit. I had a shooting pain in my head and i couldn’t see or stand up straight. Ouch!

PSM knew exactly what to do and ran to the bathroom to get some Excedrin Migraine and water. Then he led me back to bed, cold compress and pressure where I needed it. I drifted back to sleep for a bit, then when he checked on me asked if I was hungry, amazingly i was.

I was in luck, omelets are a specialty, so an asparagus and cheese omelette with toast and hot tea were on the menu. Let’s just say yum! I was feeling on the mend.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing together on the couch before he headed to the airport. It’s not easy dealing with someone who is out of sorts, thank you.

{August 28, 2016} A nice memory was triggered

Tonight I played gin.

I know, you’re wondering how I played a drink, ha ha. No, silly, I played a card game, some of you might know it as gin -rummy.

Rummy is a, card game played with seven cards, gin -rumy or just gin, is played with ten. http://rummy.com/ginrummy.html. It’s a great game, it takes skill, planning and a lot of luck, you don’t know what hand you’re going to be dealt to begin with and you have to build off of that, then you don’t know what cards are coming next in the deck or what your opposition is going to play.

Last night I had the pleasure of playing again after a long time. My opponent was an 11 year old, PN. She was good, her mom DTN, taught her recently. She was the champ the games to my two wins.

The nice memory for me was being taught by my grandma M, my mom’s mom, and we would play for hours. There were weekends I stayed with her, we would play until 2am!

She was amazing, she knew cards played, what I had put down, She would look at me and say “are you sure you want to play that?” She amazed me!!

I’ve played over the years with different people and I’ve enjoyed it and last night it brought back good memories of my grandma. Sigh…

{August 23, 2016} Happy birthday

Today is a very special day.

Today was my mom’s birthday and her first cousin, JFS, who always said my mom was her 20th birthday present, I was always tickled by that.

I’ve told you stuff here and there about my mom, now I’ll tell you some more, and if I repeat myself, sorry. I guess that would be a compliment, telling you the same great stuff about her!

There was no one like her, that’s for sure. One of the smartest people I knew, could do almost anything, and knew everything, her flaw… She couldn’t add any variation of 8+5, that always baffled me, and her, as you can imagine.

She had a love of art, she could Spend hours in a museum looking at every painting and reading every single placard. It was great and exhausting! We loved a lot of the same artists,admired the same techniques, the brushstrokes and it was fun and interesting to hear her take on certain pieces.

She was great at playing trivial pursuit, especially geography, literature and science, she couldn’t be beat. She loved playing thinking games like Otello and Scrabble and we would play Boggle for days.

She was a foodie, loved to experiment with meals, : what’s for dinner mommy?” “Poison”. Oh, ok. and what she came up with was usually fabulous. There were times she could be down to earth with her pallet, pb&j, pizza, breakfast for dinner.

Travelling with her was both fun and frustrating, there were planned walks, most things were educational, a good thing, but boring to a 13 year old! She made sure we got something out of every experience.

One of the funny things… we would drive through the tunnels heading into NYC and she would comment on how dirty the walls/tiles were and would we, GES and I love to clean it and we would roll our eyes at her and as we got older, tease her about it. When GES and would ride through the tunnels in Boston, she started doing the same thing with her girls and now, when we’re all together, the girls say something about cleaning the tunnel, the tradition lives on.

I could go on for days about my mom, but what will I talk about next year?

My mom as gear, she taught us what it means to be a mom, the good and the bad and we learned. I saw her in me with my kids, my sister does with her kids, especially those things we never thought we’d say! My daughter told me ib taught her how to be a step mom, which meant the world to me and i see how my sister is raising her kids, can’t deny it, don’t want to!

She is never far from our thoughts. GES… let’s get those decorations from the barrel up!

Happy birthday mommy. I love you.

{August 20, 2016} Bad Moms

I’m a bad mom, my sister’s a bad mom, are you a bad mom?

If you have the opportunity, go see this movie! GES and I both wanted to see Bad Moms and today was a good day for it.

We met at a theater in between us a while before the movie, walked around and talked, it was nice.

Then it was time for the movie, we got some popcorn, candy and drinks, exact movie watching food. We settled into our seats, reclined and settled in for 20 or 25 minutes of previews, I’m not sure if I could tell you what they were!

Mila Kunis is the lead, she’s the perfect mom, or so she thinks, two kids, husband, job, gets the kids where they need to go, everything is perfect…sure…now she’s the feed up mom

Christina Applegate is the stay at home perfect mom PTA president for the past six years and a tyrant. Jada Pinkett Smith is the judgy mom, Annie Mumolo is the very clueless mom, Kathryn Hahn is the single, and let’s face it, slutty mom, and Kristen Bell is the frazzled stay at home mom.

They want it all, but they are just human and can they really do it all? Ever worried that you’re a bad parent? Screwing up your kids lives? Been told, by your kids, that you suck, you don’t know what you’re talking about? Normal, yes, I said you’re normal.

I love my kids, but I remember days looking at them like they were aliens. I remember the day I got my first eye roll, the sigh, the I’m never going to be like you. I freaked out here and there, but no need, normal.

And that’s what this movie is about, women finally remembering that they’re people, human and allowed to cut loose, have a moment, let the kids go without brushing their teeth once, doing their homework on the bus, being, well…a bad mom. That makes you human.

So…are you a bad mom?

Go see this movie and find out!

{August 17, 2016} Happy birthday SDL!!!

One of my most favorite people in the world is celebrating her birthday today…SDL!

SDL and I met in 1998. OMG, really? We’ve known each other for almost twenty years!! Can you believe it?!

We met when SDL was working on her undergraduate degree and I was starting my graduate program at Georgia State University. We took quite a few classes together and ended up becoming friends.

There was a.period of about five years thar we saw each other once or twice but then one year we reconnected at a going away party for her coworker who was my neighbor’s son and it was back on! And we’ve been friends ever since.

We’ve hung out, gone out, stayed out, traveled together, taken care of each other, I used to take care of her furry babies and plants when she’d travel, man, there are a lot of plants!

She was there for me through some really bad times and good times. I ask remember the day she stated talking about the adoption process and everything in between to the day Miss A came home. I even got a speeding ticket taking her and DJL to the airport for that trip!

I mentioned taking classes together, they were art classes. This woman is an amazing artist, you pick a medium, she’s excelled at it! Pottery, sketching, oil, acrylic, you name it…I was even lucky enough to receive one of my favorite pieces of hers as my 40th birthday gift! Talk about photography, I remember that she was one of the last people I knew who liked to develop their own film. So incredibly talented.

She’s an amazing mother to watch, I love seeing her with Miss A, the relationship is incredible, tender, firm, loving, silly and wonderful.

I love spending time with my friend, she is a trip, steadfast, opinionated, goofy, smart, funny and true. I look forward to the next adventure with this woman.

Happy birthday SDL, rock it!

{August 16, 2016} Happy anniversary dad and LaLa

I missed telling you about a special anniversary this weekend! Shame on me!

Dad and LaLa just celebrated eleven years together!

They met through mutual friends and hit it off. He had been going out and meeting people but no one clicked until LaLa.

I remember when he first told me about her and then when they started dating and then it was on, museums, theater, opera, trips, you name it, they’ve probably done it.

They’re similar in some ways and very different in others. Dad likes to plan a trip by getting the plane tickets, hotels and going. LaLa likes to plan in more detail, which works for him, it’s all taken care of!

They are similar in being fabulous grandparents. There are four on Lana’s side and two on dad’s side and they are grandparents to all six. LaLa was around before EJS and MGS were born and dad was around before Lana’s two grandsons were born. I think I told you that EJS couldn’t say Lana’s name, so it became LaLa and stuck. The cool thing about that…LaLa means grandmother in Chinese.

They love coming to Boston to see EJS and MGS, play games, spoil the grandkids, that’s their job, after all. And when they travel, everyone gets postcards from wherever they are, we all love it.

They don’t live together, but spend just about every weekend together and it seems to work, they have their lives together and individually, which is nice.

LaLa met us and became part of the family almost immediately, we took our first trip together, BK, before kids, to Las Vegas eleven years ago and we’ve been doing a family vacation every year since that and is been nice to all get away together.

You never know what is going to happen when your parents start dating again, will they met someone nice, someone who accepts you and wants to fit in with your family, not try to take over or monopolize your parents time and that’s what is been like with them, they have adjusted and blended and become part of each other’s families.

Happy eleven years Dad and LaLa, here’s to the next eleven. We love you.

{August 14, 2016} Welcome home EJS!

And we’re all very happy she’s home!

EJS has been at sleep away camp for the past three weeks, I think MGS has been a little lonely without her big sis, but she has has a lot of personal, one on one time with mom and dad, let alone Papa, LaLa and Auntie J…

GES, ACS and MGS left this morning to pick up EJS from camp. And from the pictures GES texted it looked like a very happy reunion indeed!

They got home, I met them there, got hugs, caught up and hung out until B&SM and M&C O’F came over to have pizza, salad, home made cookies and welcome EJS home.

After dinner a little play and everyone went home, GES and I sat in the car and talked for a long time, it was nice to have some one on one time, doesn’t happen very often. We even made a possible for next weekend.

Home and now talking to you and I have to crash soon, alarm is going off way too early!!

{August 7, 2016} A car show and a cookout…pretty good day

I got to sleep in a minute, it was nice.

I got a little work done and headed to GES’. We went to a car museum which happened to have a car show happening today.

The museum is on the Larz Anderson Estate, http://larzanderson.org/. Very interesting history, it’s the home of America’s Oldest Car Collection. There were Electrmobiles, Porsches, BMWs.

Outside there were Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferrari, a McLaren and so many more. It was a lot of fun, especially watching the folks at the exit waiting for cars to leave and gun the engine and take off down the street.

After the car show we went into Brookline for one of ACS’ favorite pizza joints from when he lived there.

Then back to the house to hang out for a bit until we headed across the street for dinner, all sorts of goodies on the grill. Good food, good conversation and lots of laughter.

Now, home, packed, talking to you and ready to head to the airport in a few hours. For another great week!

{August 6, 2016} A better day and a homecoming

MGS is definitely on the mend, happy about that!

We all are! Apparently she woke Papa up at 6am because she wanted to take her medicine, good girl! Then they all went back to sleep, well, Papa and LaLa did, MGS went down stairs and watched tv.

I ran some errands this morning eventually when I got up, after I convinced the cats to stop trying to wake me every hour starting at 6am…then back to GES’ to hang with MGS, dad and LaLa.

Then I headed to the airport to pick up GES and ACS. Now, when I was leaving, LaLa asked MGS who I was going to pick up and her first thought was EJS! “EJS? Oh! I get to see my sister!” So cute!

I picked up my sister and brother-in-law from their trip from Iceland and Copenhagen, they had an amazing time! Sounds fabulous! We might be following in their footsteps, who knows.

They brought all of us treats and what did I get? Some fabulous seasoning and…she fed into my addiction…a bag! Wahoo!

MGS is better, welcome home GES and ACS.

{August 4, 2016} Happy birthday daddy!

Today is a very special day! My dad’s birthday!

Have I ever told you my dad’s name? I don’t think so, so here it is, it’s DWS. Ha ha, what did you think, I was going to reveal someone’s ‘real’ name?

My dad…what’s so special about my dad? Well, what haven’t I told you? Well, he’s the best dad on the planet, sorry everyone else, that’s just the way it is.

He’s funny, not just when he tells a joke, but when he gets a joke, it’s awesome! Especially when he thinks it’s funny, he laughs so hard and heartily, it comes from his gut, sometimes laughing so hard he cries. Performers at comedy clubs love him and call him out after the show, his laughter is infectious. We have a very similar sense of humor and laugh at the same things, we love a lot of the same literature, music, movies, art, we can spend days talking about anything.

He taught my sister and I so much growing up, we learned so much from him and our mom. We learned love and patience, sometimes, and tolerance and acceptance. We learned what joy there is in a good back scratch.

Not only is he a great dad, he’s an amazing grandfather, or Papa to EJS and MGS. To see them together is a treat, he’s silly, goofy, generous, endearing, spoiling, you name it, he’s just that good!

We learned how to be good parents and I learned how to be a good grandparent. What could be more special?
He’s a confidant, a friend, a pal, a buddy, a co-conspirator, a hero, a teacher, an inspiration. Do you know the phrase ‘Anyone can be a father, not everyone can be a dad’, that’s who he is, a dad, our dad. And I fully admit, I’m a daddy’s girl, always will be! GES will tell you the same!

Now, if I tell you the three of us share a similar sense of humor, you might not believe me, but just check out the cards that GES and I sent to dad…the same goofy card!

Today, I started my day by sending him a text of me singing happy birthday and I got to come home early from Chicago so I could hug him and tell him happy birthday in person!

Happy birthday daddy, I/we love you!

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