Family Vacation

I just got back from a week long trip with my entire family.  My grandmother, aunt and myself rented a minivan and drove 15 hours to Florida to spend the week on the beach.  Grandma was NOT looking forward to this trip at all.  She does not like to leave the house and was not looking forward to spending that much time in a car.  Because I was looking forward to spending 15 hours stuck in a van with my grandmother, who is complaining about EVERYTHING, my aunt, who has arthritis and sever neck and back pain, and my two small children.  For those who can't tell...I am being completely sarcastic.  But, we survived. 

While we were in Florida we had a pretty good time.  Grandma stayed at the house a lot while we all would go run around...shopping, out to eat, etc.  She doesn't like to do these things at home, so I figured she wouldn't want to on vacation.  Also, I was concerned that she was getting overly tired and wanted to make sure she was given plenty of time to rest.  We cooked a lot at home and someone was always popping in and out of the house to check on her.  However, she still found plenty to complain about. 

It's been about a week since we've been back home and grandma has let all of us know that she was truly neglected on our vacation.  This honestly makes me angry.  I'm not sure how many of her friends are going on vacations to the beach with their families.  Most of her friends I know of are either no longer living or in a nursing home.  I just get so aggravated that my family and I try to do something nice for her and she can not even bring herself to appreciate it.  This disease makes her feel completely alone and therefore, neglected.  Since we've been back I have been working like crazy to get unpacked and everything cleaned and put away from the trip.  And getting the house ready for winter.  You know, bringing in the plants, swapping our summer clothes for winter clothes in the closets.  She has done NOTHING but complain about how messy the house is, how much laundry I do, and how I am not winterizing everything fast enough. 

Also, I am having some trouble with her interfering with the children again.  I had to raise my voice to her the other day in an attempt to get her attention and let her know I was serious.  The boys have been sick the past few days and we have stayed at home.  She repeatedly comes and tells me their symptoms and how I am not properly taking care of them.  I should have them all bundled up because it is cold in the house and it is no wonder they have bad coughs.  I remind her that the house is 76 degrees and is only cold to her because of her poor circulation.  Everytime I turn around she is trying to wrap the boys in her blanket and begging them to curl up in the chair with her.  She is also interferring when I try to put them to bed.  I have gotten out of the shower and she has gone into their rooms and gotten them both out of bed.  She also encourages them to run from me and not mind me.  She find it entertaining and laughs and cheers them on. 

I am currently dealing with keeping her from interfering with the children at meal times.  She tries to feed my youngest, who loves to feed himself, and when he doesn't eat for her, she takes his plate away and he is left in the highchair with nothing.  I have been having trouble getting the boys to eat lately.  Perhaps it is because they are not feeling well, but they have been really fighting over what I have been preparing for meals.  They are never happy with it or want to eat it.  So, everyday for every meal she tells me that I should prepare only things they like and enjoy eating.  What?!?  Who does that?  I try to explain that my children would die of heart attacks by the age of six if they only ate chicken nuggets and french fries three meals a day. 

I am so exhausted right now.  Getting back from vacation and immediately having to deal with two sick kids and grandma is not doing well.  This is almost more than I can bear sometimes.

Suprise! We're Moving In!

No, not really.  We actually moved in here nine months ago but grandma is back in her cycle of thinking we just moved in and she is frantically trying to get us organized.  She spent Friday afternoon organizing the cabinet with the plates.  When she was finished it looked like a tornado hit it.  There were plates and bowls and even a few cups put all over the place.  My parents came over for dinner and my mother got to see firsthand grandma's handywork.  If she creates this kind of craziness on a little cabinet how do you think the rest of the house looks?  Grandma has been doing laundry like crazy.  Every night the boys and I put our dirty clothes in the hamper and the next day grandma will wash them.  It may sound nice, having your laundry done for you practically the instant you take it off.  But, she does the laundry about as good as she organizes the cabinets. 

She tries to watch the news and keep up with current events, but the news goes too fast and she can't remember anything she reads in the paper.  The other day she was sitting in her chair watching the news and I was in the kitchen and she yells to me that they are removing the letters C,Q, and X from the alphabet.  WHAT?!?  I can't even imagine what story she actually heard to think they said they are going to start removing letters from the alphabet!  Like from now on instead of having a car we will all just be driving around in ars?  And England will no longer have a Queen, they will just have Ueen Elizabeth?  What in the world?!?  Needless to say, I had NO response for her. 

Recently Chaz Bono has been in the news due to his being on Dancing with the Stars.  She is completely determined that this poor person has had three sex changes in his life.  Apparently, Sonny and Cher were upset because they had a little girl and from the beginning tried to convince her that she should be a boy.  Then, they decided to have their daughter turned into a son.  Later, Chaz thought he really wanted to be a girl after all and changed himself back into a girl.  And after that she decided she really wanted to be a man so she changed herself back into a man with a third operation.  At first she was disgusted with Chaz, or rather the idea of Chaz.  But after watching him perform the last few weeks on DWTS she now feels sorry for him and was wanting me to vote for him.  She thinks it will improve his self-esteem.  She also blames the parents for him having to go through all this.

At this point I have no idea where in the world she is getting this information or what the actually information is that she is getting so badly confused.  So, I am off to get organized and work to remove the letters C, Q, and X from my vocabulary.