Update on the Weekend from Hell

Last Monday I posted about my weekend of ghost hunting at Gettysburg and also about my daughter and her husband’s accident while riding an all-terrain vehicle.

        

                                                                                                    

                                I swiftly changed out of my ghost hunting mode

                                                              

                      and into my super granny for hire mode.

                                                             

While the parents were in the hospital, I moved in with the three boys whose ages are 17, 15 and 9. I’ve written about the boys before and you probably know them better as the Desperados.

                                                                        

The first thing I did was feed them and calm them down, especially the younger two who had witnessed the accident.

                                                    
 Then I laid down the rules, simple rules, like pick up their clothes from the floor and put their dirty dishes in the sink and to stop teasing each other, etc. etc.

                                                                     

I kept the two younger ones home from school on Monday which meant that I had to call the schools and explain what happened and then to make arrangements to pick up homework.

                                                                  

I knew my daughter was a busy bee with all the after school activities with the boys,

                                              
             but after walking in her shoes this past week, I’m ready for a vacation.

                                                                            

Tuesday, I had to take the two younger boys for braces, which meant I was at the dentist for over an hour or more and after that I had to run each boy back to school.

                                                             
That night I had to take the two boys to Aikido. The older boy had just started training for his new after school job, so I had to wait up for his return.

                                                                      

Late Tuesday night, my husband brought home the injured. Re had a broken collar bone and deep cuts, dark bruises and scratches all over her body. Jim has over 200 staples in his leg. They reminded me of another famous couple.

                                                                             

I had to take my daughter’s place as chaperone on Wednesday for a school trip to see the Historic section of Philly. It’s been years since I was on a school bus.

                                                                    

We had fun, but I was totally wiped out and we had another after school activity to go to that night.

                                                                      

Re and Jim are slowly healing, but he still needs to see the trauma orthopedic docs at Cooper. The most important part is that they are home and alive.

My daughter was impressed with the way the boys were helping me around the house. “How do you get them to listen and help without complaining?” she asked.

                                                                    

Nathan answered before I could reply. “She said she would turn into the Hulk, if we were bad.”

                                                                       

Have a wonderful Memorial Weekend. Have fun, but keep safe.

                                                                 
                                                             

Caring for the desparados while my daughter and her husband are renewing their vows

 My daughter and her husband wanted to renew their vows in Vegas, and made plans to spend six glorious child free days, seeing the sights, going to shows, gambling and on Sunday, renewing their vows with the aid of Elvis.

"Elvis?" I asked, "Isn't he dead, yet?"

"Mom," she replied with a sigh, "Yeah he's dead, but this is an actor who will be doing the ceremony and afterwards, Elvis will fly us on a helecopter."

"I would feel much better if it was Clint Eastwood flying the helecopter, but have fun," I wished them both as they left for their trip.

She had left a list of times for me to get the boys up and ready for school, plus what time they were to be in bed at night.  Apparantly, the boys did not review the list. Jimmy is seventeen, Joshua is fifteen, and Nathan is nine going on twenty one.

I stayed over at her house to make life a little less complicated, and on Thursday night, after a nice dinner, they all went to bed at their assigned times, homework completed, and clothes for the next day picked out. THEN IT WAS FRIDAY, and the list went out the window.

After coming home from school, the Wii came out and the two youngest played until dinner. After dinner, the oldest wanted to play X box 360 on the large T.V. in the family room. It was a battle between Zelda the Twilight princess and Gears of War three.

After much screaming, stomping, and throwing a tantrum, I finally talked them into a compromise. Mind you, I was the one screaming. Jimmy would have the T.V. Friday night and Josh and Nathan would have the large T.V. on Sunday.

I sat on the sofa, with a cup of hot tea, watching Jimmy play Gears of War. I hate war, even if it's a fake war on video.

Boys are from another planet. I have scientific proof of this.

Saturday, Joshua and Nathan, my sister Lucy and her granddaughter Alexionna and I all went to a museum. We had a great time, and next week will visit the Academy of Natural Sciences.

Saturday night, the boys talked me into watching Scott Pilgrim vs the world. It was really funny even though I kept calling the main actor, Jesse Eisenberg.  It wasn't him. My error. The actor was Michael Cera and the movie is based on a graphic novel about a young Canadian musician who falls in love with a girl called Ramona Flowers. I was surprised at how good this movie was. It even had a funny fight scene between Scott Pilgrim and a psychic vegan musician.

Sunday, I told the boys, no games, "We go for a long hike."

We walked for a few hours, and it was fun to get a chance to talk to them without any interruptions from Zelda, or soldiers in strange outfits, shooting at each other.

Sunday night, they helped me with my story line on zombies for book two. We all love zombies, so there were no arguments over the T.V.