I was reading my past few blog entries and realized that the last real one was in March, just after my 27th birthday. Then there was my leave of absence, which lasted for over two months, and my return from absence, which was a joke, since our laptop broke not too long after. All that to say, soooo much has happened in that time frame. I can only remember the high points and low points due to a medical condition I suffer from called “Mommy Brain.”  And even those are too much to keep track of sometimes!
Because of the amount of time that has transpired since my b-day post, I think I’ll update in segments, beginning with the month of April. I will do my best to give you the Reader’s Digest version, but don’t hold your collective breaths, ‘cause I tend to be long-winded!
Apart from the circumstances surrounding my leave of absence, the only major event in April was the arrival of our very first visitor since we moved to Scotland in early September. But this was a welcome event, unlike the other one, especially as the visitor was my mommy! (Hey, I don’t care if I’m almost 30, she’s still my mommy.) 
She blessed us big-time by buying all (or nearly all) of our groceries during her three-week stay, not to mention taking us out to eat numerous times, and treating her grandsons to ice-cream, doughnuts, and other various sweets. Need I mention how sad my boys were when she flew back home to Minnesota? ;-) Nah, they would have been sad to say goodbye even without the extra sweets. She would often wake up with them and get them their breakfast, take them out into the garden and blow bubbles or play chase, give ‘em tickles, watch movies with them, etc. Once, when we were on the bus to Dundee to do some shopping and exploring, they both got up on her lap, which is especially rare for our little Noah, since he pretty much only snuggles with Mom or Dad. I just had to take a picture (or two, or three) of them sitting with Grandma on the bus.
(Noah's the one on the right; Gabe had his face hidden in every pic!) 
While she was here, we did everything from the mundane, daily, or mandatory (like doctor’s appts.) to the really cool/different/fun like getting to see William Wallace’s sword at the Wallace Monument in Stirling, or eating bergamot-flavoured chocolate, among others, at a chocolaterie in Edinburgh called Plaisir du Chocolat.
Her visit also coincided with the American Mother’s Day, May 14th (the UK celebrated “Mothering Sunday” on the 26th of March), so as her gift, I took her to high tea at The Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews while Jeremy watched the boys. We stuffed ourselves like Thanksgiving turkeys with cute little sandwiches, scones w/ clotted cream and jam, and a selection of delightful French pastries, not to mention all the tea and coffee! As is fitting with the Thanksgiving theme, I would have had to unzip my jeans had I been wearing them. Fortunately for my woulda-been-real-sore tummy (like I would have unzipped my jeans in public!), I wore a dress that day. Here's the pic our server took of us after our meal:
We did so much more worth mentioning; suffice it to say I had a wonderful, memorable time with my mom, and I, too, was very reluctant to send her back home.
So, that encompasses all of April, even stepping into May.... but since this post wound up being mostly about my mom, I wanted to end with this:
I know that not all of us can say we have great relationships with our mothers, but as Meg Ryan says in the movie French Kiss, “Even people who hate their mothers love their mothers.” While I can’t speak from experience, I hope that this is a true statement for most, if not all of you.
With that, I leave you with a question: What is the best memory you have of your mom (or something along those lines)?
God bless you all today!
~Elizabeth |
