Sometimes life surprises you

I'm back. I thought I should take the time to introduce my family. Jamee is my eldest. She teaches English at a very large high school in Florida. As a former eighth grade teacher myself, Jamee and I share many interests and have lots of to laugh about and moan and groan about. Jamee is trying to blast her two children, Cait and Patrick out of her house (Cat is 22 and Patrick is 19). For some reason, they prefer to live at home where the rent is free. They don't seem to mind the screaming from their mom about how messy they are. I think that they believe that a little screaming is better than paying rent, growing up, and/or, struggling to pay bills. I don't get it, because I and my sixties' something friends always loved the struggle to prove to our parents that we could do it. Oh well, like Scarlet O'Hara always said "tomorrow is another day." Andy is the middle child. He was the most difficult infant on the face of the planet. Screamed day and night from the age of two or three days old until he was just over a year. He could not keep formula down, spit up constantly, had what can only be described as terminal diarrhea, and would not allow anyone to hold him or comfort him. Many trips to many doctors and never did get a firm diagnoses. While Andy has had numerous medical problems, he managed to get married to a great gal and is now the father of a seven year old adorable daughter who recently as a first grader (last year) finished the entire Harry Potter series and last week finished reading the last Percy Jackson book in that series. He works for one of our state governments and while he will never be rich in terms of money, he has job security and benefits, which today counts for a lot. My third child, a girl, is a hairdresser. You might recall that she had a difficult time adjusting to life after my divorce from her father. She is the one with four children. She, Susan, lives with me and is a hairdresser. She loves glam and would prefer to remain sixteen. She is bubbly and loads of fun to be around when she's not making me mad, which she does when she wants me to raise her kids so that she can be sixteen again. Cat fights at my house are the norm. One of her daughters, my granddaughter, Taylor, is my revenge. Susan finds it hard to deal with both of us. She is squeezed in the middle. My granddaughter and I often join up in a conspiracy to make her life miserable by reminding her of what she needs to do. Susan really does have great organizational skills and will, I think, manage her own salon one day. I am always surprised when one of my kids does or says something that I know they got from me. It seems to validate my existence as a mother. I guess they learned more from me than I realize. In my professional life as a university professor, I enjoy telephone calls from students at other universities who are reading one of my books and would like additional information about this or that. I also enjoy the many encounters I have with colleagues at national and international conferences and at annual meetings of organizations of which I am either president or past president. I also like the professional engagement that I enjoy with colleagues all over the world who write for my book series. I am posting this tidbit about my professional life not to impress anyone, but to remind all parents out in cyberland that while many of us enjoy great notoriety in our professional lives, our children for the most part whether they are four or forty are greatly underwhelmed by our accomplishments. To them, we are simply mom or dad. Sad but true, on most days I just take off my mortarboard and put on my apron so that I can fix dinner to serve to the four hungry grandchildren who live with me and their mother and share this extraordinary journey through life.