Life Lessons With Gramma C.

My son Tim knows I like baby pigs. I think they are just the cutest thing. Since we live in the city, they aren’t a practical pet and they grow up to be pretty ugly. Even a pot bellied pig is no good for me.

So when Tim saw these new hairless guinea pigs he let me know how cute and little they were. I had a hard time finding one at the pet store, but when I did, he was right. They are cute and little. They are also expensive - $99 for one little guinea pig.

My husband loves me, but I think if I bought one I would be pushing my luck. So if anyone has one I can guinea sit, let me know.

My second oldest daughter is having a baby. I know that happens to the best of us, but she is 36 years old and has two teenagers, so it will be a big adjustment. She is more nervous this time - I guess when you’re young you don’t think about all the possible complications.

Add to that the fact that her doctor wants to test her for every possible malady under the sun. Not that it would matter, because she would never abort this far along regardless of the findings.

This new baby’s name is Brandon, unless of course, the doctor is wrong and he is a she. I think I preferred the days of not knowing -there was so much more excitement in saying “It’s a boy” or “It’s a girl”, rather than “He’s here”.

What do you think? Better to know ahead or be excitedly surprised?

I don’t generally people watch, but the other day I was at a local mall standing in line for my Tim Horton’s coffee (Ontario’s favourite coffee place) and a young couple standing behind me started to discuss another couple standing behind the glass doors of the entryway.

The behind glass door couple were looking at various purchases the girl had bought. She took out each garment and held it up to her for the guy with her to see. As she did, the couple behind me would make remarks pretending to be the girl holding up the item to her guy. The imagined conversation went like this:
She: “Isn’t it so cute! And it was on sale.”
He: “Ya, it’s really nice, I like it” as he thinks to himself “I really don’t care, can we go eat now?”

The couple behind me went on like this with the pretend conversation for a few minutes, changing their voices to mimic the glass door couple. I could hardly keep from laughing out loud and it certainly made my time in line pass quickly.

My husband has been doing some plumbing work to help install a friend’s shower. Since he isn’t a plumber by trade, things don’t always go as planned. The other day he was using a blowtorch and it backed up on him and started a fire. Not wanting to set our friend’s home blazing, he carried the blowtorch outside, badly burning his hand in the process.

We learn through our mistakes and my husband has learned to be extremely careful with fire. I don’t think he wants to be a plumber anymore either.

Holidays seem to be all about eating to a lot of people. I spent Christmas eve at my niece’s where we ate, visited, and ate some more.

Then boxing day, I went with my daughter and son-in-law to his aunt’s home. The family is Portuguese and they have eating down to a fine art. There is always so much food, dozens of people, and yet none of them is overweight. This I find hard to understand. They seem to eat constantly, but are all in great physical shape. Maybe it’s something in the home made wine?

I’ve spent a lot of time at my youngest daughter’s these days, while she prepared for her driving test. Since she is in her early twenties, she is more nervous and cautious than an eager teenager would be. I haven’t been the greatest instructor either, since I can’t judge distance and my first reaction when I see a fast approaching car is to cover my eyes. I have been a good role model though, since my daughter thinks that if I could get my license, anyone can.

After a shaky beginning and some trouble parking, said daughter is now a proud licensed driver. The next step is finding a car of her own.

I have to do a little brag about my youngest son. Mind you, all of my children are worth bragging about and I will give them each a turn, but today is Matthew’s turn.

He calls himself Matt and was one of those teenagers who was out of school as often as there. His teachers noted that he was not a self-directed learner and didn’t seem to have much motivation. So I hope they have all been reading the national papers and listening to CBC Radio when they interviewed my dear boy.

Matt has been busily taking orders over the Internet to repair people’s ipods. They are sent from all over North America and I think overseas. Business has been so brisk that he opened a storefront in downtown Toronto and hired a few employees. Now the press is flocking to interview him and take pictures of the handsome guy. His website, for those of you who are interested, is http://www.irepair.ca

As you can tell, I am one proud momma.

I have been watching my toddler grandson a lot these days. Now that the weather is turning colder, I am always on the lookout for somewhere to take him. After all, at my age, he wears me out when I am his only playmate. We have been to a couple of the government early years centres and he enjoys playing with new toys and seeing other kids. His favourite time is song circle and his shy smiles usually turn into active participation after a few action songs. By the end of the day I am usually worn out and have told myself more than once that I am too old for this - but then he gives me a special gramma hug and I am ready to play again.

We not only sold our house, but two days later bought a new one. During those two days, we looked at about ten houses and settled on one that was a bit more expensive than we originally hoped to pay and a little bit further from our daughters house. It will still be walking distance if I want a brisk 45 minute walk, but only 5 minutes by car.

The house is a raised bungalow with three small bedrooms, a finished basement, and nice sized living and dining rooms. Plus a nice little fenced-in yard for my grandchildren to play. All this for the price of a semi in Toronto. At this rate, we might be mortgage free by the time we are ready for an old age home.

For those of you who are not familiar with Cambridge, it is between Guelph and Kitchener, just one short hour from Toronto. Unless of course the traffic in Mississauga is bad, then more like two long hours.  

After almost three months of making like mrs clean, our house has finally sold and we can begin to live like normal people again. No more picking up before I can leave the house, no more having to go out every time someone wants to see the place, no more living in limbo. I had forgotten how stressful selling a house could be.

Now we get to do the fun stuff like packing and packing and …..  Please remind me, why did I want to move?