joys of life

I am now a grandmother to four! The newest addition, AJ, made his debut on June 9th and has already stolen my heart. It amazes me how big your heart can get and how much love it can hold. Grandchildren are indeed precious. They are yours to hold and love and spoil and take care of but the main responsibility of their up-bringing is in their parents hands! It is strange, tho, to see your chilrden with children of their own. You want to jump in and give advice( and we usually do, to a degree,just admit it!) but you try to hold back and let them make their own mistakes. I honestly can say that being a grandmother is much better than I could have ever imagined and I truly believe that it one of the greatest rewards in life. I can NOT imagine being one of those grandparents who lives miles and miles or even states away from their grandchildren. How on earth do they do it? I am blessed.

Busy Week-ends

I was under the assumption that the week-end is for me to relax and rest up for the following week at work-ha ha-yeah, right... this past weekend I was actually invited to four different functions-one bridal shower and three kids birthday parties...first let me explain-I live in Georgia-it's June-it's hot and humid-I am 44 years old-have arthtitic knees-I'm a "big girl"-and these kid parties are outdoors in midday-so you get the picture-Two parties were Saturday- one at 1:30 and one at 2:00- we went to the first one which was at a small water park-my grandson tyrese (who is 3) and I -an afternoon of water, bugs, sweat and hot dogs and hamburgers from the grill- it was fun but exhausting- we skipped the other party-I just could not take anymore excitement-and called it a day-my little man went to sleep at 7 pm and was out for the night!!
Sunday brought the bridal shower and my great-nephew's first birthday party. The bridal shower was for a lady who has been a friend of mine for over 25 years so she understood my need to go to the birthday party-its her second marriage and she knows I love her. The birthday party was a pool party/cook-out-tyrese was my accomplice again-this time I had help from my son Drew-Tyrese worships his Uncle Drew so this was a good idea! But it was another long exhausting "great-food" day. Summer is approaching and I love it!! Even tho it is exhausting and hot and I am tired-I love it!

"passing"

why is it I find myself explaining my child's heritage to whomever seems bewildered? My daughter is 21 now and yet to this day she is questioned about her "race". I am White-snow white-paper white. Her father (my ex husband is Black-very dark) My daughter is only a little darker than me but has dark hair and very dark eyes (I am a redhead with blueeyes) . For the past 21 years I have been questioned ("are you sure its his?") accused ("you are lying") and looked at like I was crazy. Sometimes I want to beat these ignorant people over the head-have they never heard of racially mixed people in the past who actually "passed" as White-pretended to not be Black and were so light that no one suspected a thing??!! My ex and I also have twin sons, born when our daughter was 18 months old..one is only a little darker than my daughter but has a curly tight afro-so no one asks about him. The other twin is even darker. My kids have been called every name you can imagine~but have learned to live with it~now that my kids are having their own kids~well you can imagine we are a family of colors~but I love our diversity!

Monday Monday

What a week-end! Me and mama spent Friday evening at my friend Sherry's playing cards and eating homemade soup with her and her mama. Didn't leave there til about 1 a.m. Slept a little late Saturday because I had a headache. Then had to keep Tyrese and Jaythan while Ashley worked. Filled up their little pool and they had fun in the heat! Sunday we stayed home most of the day then went to WalMart to buy a few things. I am very impatient waiting on my new grandson AJ to get here...he is due anyday now!