Sistah Pat

My, oh my!  You guys are the greatest.  Thanks for all the understanding during my day-long rant yesterday.  If you hadn’t guessed it, yesterday was the 12th anniversary of Laura’s death and it’s a difficult day, even after all these years.  Do you know what Resurrection Lilies are?  Some people call them Magic Lilies or naked ladies.  They pop up in the early spring as a clumb of leaves and then die down and disappear.  At the end of July, they re-emerge as a single stalk that pops out of the ground and shoots up to a height of about three feet within just a week or so.  At the top of the stalk, five pastel pink lilies bloom.  I was in my garden, cutting Resurrection Lilies for a flower arrangement when I got the news about Laura.  Her death was entirely unexpected.  She was handicapped and required a lot of care but we were not prepared to lose her.  Every year, when my lilies start to emerge, it all comes back to me.  I suppose we all have to deal with grief in our own way but I have such powerful feelings when those lilies start to bloom.  I want to pull all my loved ones close and treasure them. 

DIL called yesterday and said she just couldn’t deal with anything and wanted me to keep Holly.  That’s one of the things that set me off.  She has three beautiful children and she ignores them and chooses to mourn the one she lost so many years ago.  It’s all I can do to keep from shaking her.  I’m going to close the book on this chapter now and let it go.  You are such kind and supportive friends and I truly appreciate all of you.  I didn’t mean to burden you with all this but writing has always been excellent therapy for me.  I wrote when my grandmother died, I wrote when my father died, and I wrote when Laura died. It helps me to lay it all out and then read it and sometimes I gain some real insight into what’s going on behind the scenes.  (Aha!  Maybe I should do this to try to figure out why I’m fat!!!!)  Before I let go, let me say just one more thing…I am a very happy woman!  I have a family that I love with all my heart and I’m so fortunate to have them.  I have a job I love and many, many good friends who enrich my life and I usually find joy and entertainment in everyday situations.  It’s not like me to get down in the dumps and it doesn’t happen too often.

When I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday, they had flip flops on clearance for $.75 so I bought ten pair in assorted colors.  I got some flip-flop glue and some trim and Holly and I decorated flip flops all evening.  She was so funny!  I’m lining up beads and trim just ’so-so’ on mine and she’s glueing like a maniac with no regard to any kind of color coordination or overall style and loving every minute of it.  She made flip flops for herself, her mother, her best friend, and me.  I can see myself walking down the street, chatting with the neighbors, with beads and ribbon and all kinds of crap falling off my flip flops.  (”Ummm, Patty, where did you get those shoes?  They’re……….nice….. (cough, cough).”

After we decorated flip flops, We went out and sat in the spa and watched the bats swoop down from the sky and touch down on the surface of the pool just long enough to skim the surface.  I guess they’re getting a drink?  They pass over every evening just at dusk.  I imagine, somewhere down the road, there must be a big old house with an attic full of bats.

Finished with the spa, we came in and I gave Holly a manicure and pedicure (gotta have those toes glistening with fresh polish to enhance the flip-flop look!) and then we went out and curled up in the bedroom in the RV.  I think all the grandkiddies think of the RV as their own private playhouse.  Holly was on her best behavior all evening and was so sweet and eager to please.  Of course, she’s always that way if I can give her my undivided attention because that’s what she wants and needs.

DH and I have been talking this morning.  It’s been a long time since we went to our place in Florida  (spring break, as a matter of fact), and the grass is probably chest high.  I really enjoy going to our little cabin in the woods and we were discussing when we can get down there.  Cripes!  It looks like it’s going to be Thanksgiving!  I wanted to go down by myself and cut the grass before school started back but DH wasn’t comfy with me going by myself.  We always spend a couple of weeks down there for Christmas and he suggested this morning that we plan a cruise as a Christmas present for the boys.  We took them on a cruise a couple of years ago and they loved it!  Sounds good to me!

I need to clean house all day, get the rest of the plants in the garden and work on laundry.  I don’t think we set an actual day to get together with Rick and Pam this weekend so I’m going to call and make sure we can do it tomorrow.  Right now, I’ve gotta get to work!

7:00 - Drumroll, please!  Can I get a “Hoo Rah!”  All the plants are in the ground!  Or the pots!  The pool is clean!  The spa is clean!  Sistah Pat is dirty!  Downright gross, actually…I’m running a bath and I’m going to scrub up.  DH has hamburgers on the grill.  He knows I won’t eat them so he didn’t even ask.  Funny thing is…I would have taken one.  Haven’t eaten all day and I’m getting pretty hungry.  Now, for that bath!

9:15 - I have been sanitized for your protection!  I have a white paper banner stretched across my chest to prove it!  DH, (he does have his moments) grilled a boneless, skinless chicken breast for me while I was soaking in the tub and had it ready when I emerged, complete with a side of fresh watermelon and a Clementine tangerine (courtesy of my good friend, Sistah Pam).  Now, I can play around and look for a cruise.  We’re probably going to take the boys and go on one when we go to Florida over Christmas.  Talked to my mother today and asked her if she’d like to go down with us over Thanksgiving.  She went last year and said she loved it.  I love it but I don’t expect anyone else to.  I love it down there for reasons that are not obvious to all but Mom assures me she really wants to go.  We bought a little over 9 acres in Florida about 8 years ago.  It a rural piece of property.  Madison is the closest town and it’s 12 miles although there are a couple of gas station/convenience stores about 5 miles away.  It’s heavily wooded and very private.  When we bought it, we hired a guy to bring in a backhoe and clear a path for us to be able to pull the old RV onto the property and clear an area of about a half acre.  Next came the electric, and finally, a well.  Over the next couple of years, we went down every chance we got and cleared more of it.  The plan is to build a little tiny retirement home.  I have no intention of doing lots of work after I retire so I wanted a place that was little but very luxurious.  We got to talking about how we would handle it when guests came to visit and decided to build two small cabins for them.  That way, when the kids or grandkids come to visit, we can say, “You’re staying in the cabin up there on the hill.  It’s all ready for you.  Enjoy!  We’ll see you tomorrow!  Oh, yeah, don’t forget to clean it when you leave!” 

Eventually, we got tired of driving the old RV down there and just left it.  We’d go down every chance we got, stay in the RV and continue working.  Over the years, we’ve cleared as much as we’re going to and have about 4 acres of untamed woods left and the rest has been “tamed”.  DH and I, with the help of a couple friends, built the first cabin.  (Yes, chickies, I can do roofing, drywall, ceramic tile and decking.  I even have my own personal hammer which I spray painted pink so none of the guys will use it.)   The first cabin has a very large upstairs with a half bath.  It has a king size bed with a down comforter.  The entire back wall is windows so we have a lovely view of the woods and the deer eating my fruit trees.  The downstairs has one big room, a bathroom with a shower and a small kitchen.  The upstairs is done but the downstairs still needs the ceramic tile floor done, and work on the kitchen and bath.  We have TOTAL privacy and most days we don’t see anyone.  We only have a little over 9 acres but most of our neighbors have 70 or 80 acres so everyone has plenty of room.  On one of our visits to Hawaii, we stayed at a little house that had a clawfoot tub in a flower garden for bathing.  It had a tankless hot water heater and you could run hot water all day long and never run out.  I decided I wanted one for the cabins.  We found a pretty nice old clawfoot tub and I refinished it, DH built a nice deck and shower around it and I surrounded it with trees, plants, and flowers.  I covered the overflow valve and now we can lie out there under the stars and take long hot soaks with a never-ending supply of hot water.  I just turn it on and let it run over the sides and into the flower gardens.  I love going down there.  The sky is always what we refer to as “Madison Blue”.  I have a huge hammock that we run between two live oak trees and I could lie there all day.  Nightime is so quiet and we go to sleep to the sound of crickets and a view of the moon with all the windows open and wake up to a beautiful sunrise. 

Our neighbors are wonderful people!  They always respect our privacy and are super friendly without being overbearing.  Everytime we go to Madison, my stress level decreases exponentially.  Don’t get me wrong, we work hard down there, but it’s a labor of love.  Laura Engall’s had her little house on the prairie and I have my little cabin in the woods.  All this dieting and exercise getting to you, Chicklets?  The key is under the birdhouse on the front porch.  Don’t forget to turn out the lights when you leave.