While I realize this blog was intended to tell perhaps humorous but informing stories of my real estate life, I tend to have more memories of my family stories as my family members are some of the most hilariously entertaining people I know. And although many of my clients have created some really interesting and funny stories to tell, I have to temper them a bit so as to not insult or totally alienate the character I am writing about at the time. As my youngest daughter recently told me “Mom, you are writing those stories too much in the present and are going to have someone read it and realize it is about them”. Hmmm, well, better save the few I have so far for a later date when memories fade. Instead, I ask you to excuse me while I write about my favorite subject – my kids.
I hear grandparents say all the time “Isn’t it great to have grandkids so that you can enjoy them unlike when you were raising their parents – you can just love them so much more.” Okay, I do sort of understand the thoughts back to the rocks stuck up the nose and the trip to the hospital to get it out, the days of cloth diapers you had to rinse out and wash as soon as you got a load to keep from smelling up the house and the nights rocking a crying baby with an earache. Oh yes, and later the tears when they didn’t make cheerleader, the speeding tickets, and the tragedies when they broke up with the love of their lives.
I absolutely adore my grandchildren – all nine of them. I look forward to seeing them since none of them live in Houston and three are as far away as Scotland. There are funny stories every day about one or the other of them as they have carried the family trait of being hilarious children and mischievous. The last two are twins who are about to be three and while they are not identical, I cannot tell them apart. Those boys look like Dennis the Menace with their full heads of white hair and have that twin-like quality of being naughty together. The grandchildren call me Bebe which is a name I decided on before our first grandchild was born. I told my family that if they ever called me Grand it had better just be one syllable as it brought visions of gray hair, arthritis and retirement (all of which I fight daily with my village of people who keep me fit and those who try to hide the inevitable age thing). My husband Bob, decided to be called just Bob to avoid the same but they do call him GrandBob which is acceptable to him.
Here is the point I am trying to make- I actually still adore my children all grown up and find them as enjoyable and entertaining and still as funny and enjoyable as the grandkids. A day without a phone call from one of my three girls puts me in a panic that something is terribly wrong. Usually the calls begin with one who later talks to the other two then we have to talk again like a round robin of phone calls around the world. Sometimes we all get on a conference call to prevent having one talked about amongst the others. The only problem with the conference call is everyone talks at once. I also light up when I hear from my wayward baby son (31 years old) once or twice a week from his home in Costa Rica.
It seems sometimes as if it was yesterday that I stared into the eyes of my first child only a few minutes old who looked up at me as if she was saying “I guess you are going to be the one taking care of me?” A baby myself at nineteen I said “girlfriend, we will have to just work it out together”. And while there were normal problems as I said before, we were always a happy, close knit family whose best friends were right there amongst ourselves. Even their friends wanted to come to our house as they always had a good time and enjoyed the home cooking – especially Bob’s Sunday breakfasts. As they transitioned from life at home to lives on their own we shared the joy of choosing the right college, planning weddings and having the privilege of standing opposite husbands in the labor rooms cheering them on as they gave birth to their babies. And the circle of life became clear as I stood there holding their tiny little creatures who would hopefully benefit from the great family ties and lessons that their parents had learned from us growing up. These days when we can all gather at our ranch outside of Round Top Texas, there are 19 of us counting grandkids and spouses. Those are the best days of my life when I have them all at “Reunion Ranch” as we laugh until we cry recapping past experiences. And the highlight of my days are when one of my four children call and start out with “Hey Mom, I need your advice on something ………… I hope and pray that will never end and that they will always remember how much I love them.
