Mama Jo: The Queen's Visit

Not the Queen of England, rather the matriarchal queen of our family, aka "Neena," aka my mother. When I was a child I was told, "clean as if the Queen were coming over." At 27 years of age, I did just that. It was to be her first visit to our new home, all she had seen were pictures throughout the whole building process, so I wanted it to be spotless. I think she was very impressed by the house, at least that's what she lead on (haha).

My madre arrived Friday early afternoon and stayed until late morning on Monday. Connor was in heaven. The first day he kept asking every 15 seconds, "Neena, do you wanna play with me?" Even in the midst of their playing, he'd still ask her; oh, and he was quick to tell her that she wasn't playing dinosaurs correctly. Brayden slowly took to her, as he does with most people, and by Monday he was full on comfortable with her, of course the day she had to leave.

Many adventures are had when Neena is around. She has an outgoing playfulness that can tend to get you in some "situations." Like, when she told some random stranger to meet us at Home Depot. In her defense she thought it was Jeremy in his truck and she didn't have on her glasses...although, the truck was the polar opposite color and there was a baby in the back seat (while our 2 were in my car)! And when we almost got mugged by some up-to-no-good punks at the train station (okay, not her fault and maybe they might not have mugged us but we didn't want to take any chances). Everyone's days were a little brightened and humored by her visit.

Friday was spent by sharing quality time with one another, C's woodland adventure and bush-smacking with his grandmother, a Chinese dinner, and trip to Home Depot. Saturday, Jeremy was on 24 hour duty so it was just us ladies and the kiddos. We went "junking" at some local antique & consignment shops, checked out the train station while Bray was asleep in the car, walked along the river, shopping, a Mexican dinner, ice cream stop, and a mother/daughter movie (The Secret Life of Bees). Sunday morning I made a family breakfast, we went to the PX, B & C had "Neena time" while I attended a baby shower, the evening was spent with a good dinner and relaxing tv time.

It was a very nice weekend and wonderful visit with the "queen." We look forward to the next time!