The last Sunday in June

Today is the last Sunday in June.  Summer is here and before you know it, school will start and it will be Christmas.  I know that it's all going to go by that quickly, but the good thing this year is that if July flies by, my daughter and granddaughter will be home forever and I won't have to miss them anymore. My heart is very, very tired of missing them.  I am sitting here on my deck this morning watching the ospreys in their nest at the park, checking my computer, sipping coffee and really enjoying the quiet in my life.  My husband and teenage son are camping and my little son is sleeping still.  There is no humidity in the air this morning and it's a tad bit cool, the birds are active and noisy and things are good.  Today I really want to stay home.  I have work to do for my job, the house to clean and I bought stuff last week for Natalie's room/the playroom and I want to get it ready before she comes home this coming weekend to meet the rest of the family and to be smothered with love by her Nana.  However, Dakota belongs to the Dugout Club and we have not been to a game yet and, of course, there is a game at 1:35 today.  My mother in law has offered to take him, but after yesterday's fiasco where she was missing for an hour with him, I'm really not feeling sure about him spending time with her.  She's done this before, but each time you wonder if this is the time something is really wrong.  My sister in law took me to lunch at Chili's (my late Christmas present) and my mother in law took Dakota to the library near our house for a Lego Fun activity.  I asked her to take him to McDonald's first because when I left it was 1:00 and he hadn't had lunch.  She said she would.  Then we were to meet back at the house where we would all get in my sister in law's car and go to see Cars 2, which my sister in law and I were pre-purchasing tickets for because it was the opening weekend.  The lunch and the company were awesome.  We always have such a great time talking and laughing when we are together.  We have been friends since middle school and it's wonderful to be family as well.  She is the best aunt anyone could ask for to my children and a wonderful daughter, sister and sister in law to all of us.  Anyway, she and I went to lunch and chatted.  I had fabulous chicken fajitas!  Afterward we walked the mall a bit, stopping at the new Yogurt Mountain to get a sundae.  We headed home and talked on the phone at 3:45 to my mother in law first and again a minute later to Dakota.  They were just leaving the library.  We told them both that we were meeting at the house, leaving at 4:30 and the movie was at 5:20.  Now my mother in law is a very kind, supportive woman and she loves my son beyond words, but she is flighty and does stupid things often and I have spent countless hours over the past few years worried and scared because she isn't where she said she would be, won't answer her phone and is late bringing him home.  Today I really didn't see the room for error.  Her travel distance was about a mile and my sister in law and I traveled the same path, supposedly right behind them.  At 3:45 they were leaving the library.  We arrived at the house a little after 4 and they weren't there.  Okay.  Maybe they weren't in the car, but still in the library when they called?? Didn't think so, but.....  4:30 comes and goes.  We have blown up her cell phone with calls.  No answer.  We tried her house phone.  Maybe she thought "home" meant hers and not mine?  No luck.  Finally, about 4:45, we decide to backtrack along her path to see if they are still at the library.  Nope.  Maybe they went to the movie to meet us there.  We SAID home, but you just never know with my mother in law.  Nope.  They are not at the movie.  By now my sister in law is frantic and I'm starting to get scared...but remember, she's done this to me again and again.  We head back towards home, still calling and calling.  Nothing.  She never answers her cell phone. Says she doesn't hear it, but she sure does hear mine in my pocket, ringing low.  The movie is supposed to start at 5:20.  At 5:10 she calls....from my house....happy as a clam and telling us they are ready for the movie.  My sister in law is livid and I don't even want to talk to my mother in law.  I just want to see my son.  Where were they?  McDonalds, because she didn't take him before the Lego class (the poor kid must have been starving!)  Did she realize we were going to be late for the movie?  Nope.  She's oblivious.  She gets in the car all smiles and my sister in law and I are trying to breathe and not scream at her because Dakota is sooooooo ready to see this movie and doesn't want to miss it.  Thankfully they were only doing the previews when we arrived and it was not crowded at all.  We got to see the whole show and it was cute and clever, but a bit "crowded" in the story line. 

So now today, I would love to ask my mother in law to take Dakota to the game.  She volunteered to take him.  But I'm afraid.  I know she loves him like crazy and I know she does her best, but I just can't keep taking chances with him.  One time it's not going to be something stupid and she's going to have him hurt or worse.  I don't understand incompetance.  It's not in my radar.  Especially with children.  I am diligent with mine and everyone elses.  I can't, in good faith, let her keep taking him out.  As she left last night she told him that she would take him to see Mr. Poppers Penguins later this week.  Only if I go.  She can come visit but I think it's time to start limiting his time alone with her.  It's not worth the risk.

So today, on this absolutely gorgeous Sunday, I want to stay home, but I may just end up at the O's game.  We shall see.  Time to do my work and email it in so that's out of the way.  There's a birthday cake to bake for tomorrow for my hubby and lots and lots of cleaning to do.  Better get to that!