Funny girls

Not knowing when your mom is going to fly in the door in a frenzy of "letting you in on her life"..... is sorta like opening a roll of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and not knowing when it's actually going to pop. You can rip the whole foil thing off sometimes and NOTHING happens.... other times you barely touch the thing and it pops open at you. Today, I found myself, KNOWING my mom, and in a way... going to the utensil drawer and getting out that spoon to start pressing on the unopened seam... ready and almost willing to be a part of the pop.
In all my calculations... I figured she probably went to bed at 8pm last night.... and was pretty wound up thinking about the trip and navigating Chicago, as she's on her way from just outside Milwaukee. My brother offered her his GPS, which she was trying to tell me about over the phone last week and kept calling it his "GPA". I think it was his way of feeling like he did a "good job" of sending her off. So knowing her, I imagine she either had trouble sleeping, or woke up at 2 or 3am, NATURALLY, and thought... what the heck... I might as well leave. (Funny thing is, as early as I'm guessing, I'm still probably an hour off). So this morning I was thinking... 1 hour to the border, 3 hours thru Chicago... 2 hours to Indi, 3 hours and she's here... plus the time change.... NOON arrival.... Not a minute later. But when I just called her (the spoon part) to find out where she was....she was all flustered because she had a "nightmare" in Chicago, and even though she was home free on I 70, her GPS was telling her that she needed to get off at 35 in a few miles. She said she had 120 miles to my house and she wasn't going to listen to that thing. I asked her if she was able to share her "nightmare story" or wanted to share it later when she got here... and she said.. "no... I can't talk... I'm going 75." =)

WELL, while I was writing about this and chuckling to myself at how predictable and funny she is, I hear a stir coming from outside my window and when I peeked out the window, there's my 8 year old daughter outside in her pajamas. As I walked into the stairwell, my 9 year old son is in the entryway with the pool skimmer ready to walk outside in his bare feet. Mind you it's March and very wet outside. I ran to my youngest son's room as I began to put all the pieces together and when I looked out his window there was a large assortment of books, the "robot claw", and stuffed animals all out on the roof. Basically the Columbus zoo on wheels was at my house and clearly I was unaware of it until that moment. As I am peeking out the window, realizing what I needed to do, there to my horror is my neighbor walking down his driveway with a cup of coffee, watching the "better than TV" morning drama across the street for free. I told him, all hell was breaking loose as my husband was out of town and by the way......I was about to crawl out on the roof... hoped he was having a good day too. I sat my bottom on the wet roof and gathered the animals, book and blocks and threw them into the window one at a time as he watched with glee... and then I told him I was going to go back in the window now... I'd see him later. I don't know what look I had on my face when I came in that window... but when I declared..."Family meeting on the couch downstairs NOW"... there wasn't a child who didn't flee to the couch for dear life. I sent the neighbor boy home, shut the garage door, locked the front door up and went on take hold of a very "teachable moment".
The truth is, if you look at my life, and my mom's life in parallel... we're both funny girls. I guess we can't help it... it's in the gene pool. Maybe my 9 year old was right about needing to get out the skimmer.