Sad With a Side of Inappropriate

Last week my sister and I attended the funeral of our cousin Kelly. Sad, yes. Sadder still that her mom is the one that has cut the rest of the other 8 siblings out of their lives, so it took a funeral in order to see them. My mom had a childhood that, I imagine, was BEYOND Dickensian. She was the youngest of 9 kids (Helooooo Irish-Catholics!) and they had less than nothing. But Kelly's mom, to hear the rest of the siblings tell it, was the Most Favored Nation.


That's all fine, but I have cousins that I would really like to reconnect with. Like my incredibly decent cousin Brian (who I thought was the Bees Knees at age 7) and his wife and kids. And my Uncle Dave, Kelly's Dad is - and I mean this quite literally - the nicest man in the world. Seriously, I personally challenge you to find and introduce me to someone nicer and sweeter than Dave Steffel. I personally guarantee that it will not, ney, CANNOT happen.

At any rate, these aforementioned decent and nice people were mourning the loss of their sister, aunt and daughter and along comes The Gold Digger (music, please). My uncle's far inferior second wife, WITH A CAMERA. Let me say this again. She had a camera AT THE FUNERAL. Snapping pictures as if it was actually a wedding. I don;t even know where to begin on this one.

Granted, we have a few hermits in the family that only turn out for funerals (not even weddings). And, true to form, Uncle Tom was there. And, by God, The Gold Digger got a few good snapshots for her scrapbook. Complete, I am sure, with the casket in the background. What part of inappropriate is she having trouble with here? Also, this could have been done discreetly with cell phone cameras if she REALLY wanted a picture of Tom that badly (hey, he has aged well. It's probably because he avoids the rest of us like the plague).

On the up side, if there is one, I got to hang with my most favorite cousin, Nikki. This is the person who, if we lived closer, I feel certain I would be stalking (out of love). Also, a whole new level of hell would be raised. She is all kinds of cool and I hate that I only see her at weddings, funerals and FlemFest (yes, you read the correctly).

So, that is my mom's family in a nutshell - appropriately enough. We've covered Osi's family ad infinitum and now mom's family. Dad's family need a whole other blog.

A Good Weekend

After a stretch of weekends that included marathon meltdowns, we've finally hit upon two really good weekends in a row. They both involve my parents. Coincidence? Who knows. Maybe Grammy and Grandpa are the magic antidote to the meltdown. Maybe the switch up in activities is enough to keep J from being bored. Either way, a happy toddler makes for happy parents.

Not much else to report, really. Osi is over the sting of the National Championship game. Mom and Dad brought him up his birthday present yesterday. It is TBDBITL spelling out his name. Totally awesome. We're totally getting one for the house. I wish I'd thought of it. Check it out - you can get anything spelled out by the band at www.greatcollegegifts.com.

Parent-Teacher conferences are today at J's school. Since he got bit AGAIN on Thursday, it will be interesting to talk to the teachers to see why MY kid has become the human teething biscuit.

Great Start to the New Year

I can't think of a better way to start the New Year. Osi let me sleep in, God bless him, and after J's nap we went to Mandie's, to hang with the rest of the Cashmere Mafia for the day. Daddies got football, Mommies got to chit chat and the kiddos got to run wild all over Mandie's beautifully decorated new house.

I can't tell you what a relief it is to hang with this particular group of ladies. I have made no bones about he fact that I have birthed a tiny lunatic. Between the doors, drawers and buttons, the kid is borderline OCD. It is just so nice to go hang with a group of people who A) don't care that your kid is a lunatic and B) have lunatics of their very own. Hand to God, I do not know what i would do without the Mommies, even though I don't see them nearly as often as I'd like (mostly due to The Lunatic).

Osi went back to work today after being off since Christmas eve. It was nice to have him home. We hung out, saw a few movies and traded diaper duty. Also, we went to COSI, when Jack was enthralled with the glass elevator (more buttons and doors).

I'm praying that this year brings a calm over Chez Zimmer. I need to learn to be more patient and not so self-defeating. Jack could use a lesson in patience, as well, but since it is really hard to get that through to a 2-year-old, I guess I'll take the teach-through-example route. Wish me luck :)