August 25, 2005

Happy Birthday Nana Carol!

This is Joe's Mum.

Cbd

She's just about the nicest mother-in-law anyone could ever hope to have, not only did she create my very nice Joe, but she saw to it that he could cook, clean (I said he can...not that he does) and made sure he knew enough about the way the world works to bring me coffee in the morning and that he knows how to iron a little girls pink party dress.

In addition:
- She knits. (See? you like her already don't you?)
- She had four kids and lived to tell about it.
- She used to, (because she lived near the ocean and Joe tends to wander) TIE Joe to the house with a length of rope when he was little. I love that. (I've had similar urges.)
- Carol has never once said squat about the way that I neglect housework. In fact, she claims that her house was like that when her kids were younger. I know that she's lying, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
-Her generosity is only matched by her patience.
- Her good attitude is only outshone by her willingness to try new things and go new places.
- Her hair is perfectly, beautifully white. (I hope my hair goes like that. It won't, but I can dream.)
- The carrot casserole. (If you had eaten it, you would understand.)
- Carol's wonderful sense of humour, ability to roll with the punches and unlimited grace under pressure. The woman can have an entire house full of lunatics at Christmas, more arriving for dinner, some coming for lunch, neighbours dropping in to the porch, various plane schedules colliding, guitars playing in the living room, Brittany Spears blasting from the basement, granddaughters and neighbourhood rabble playing dress-up and trouping through the living room wearing negligees and cardboard wings and in the middle of all of that, when any normal woman would be sobbing on the bathroom floor, dressed only in pantyhose, begging for sweet release, Carol will be making a wild rice pilaf, opening a decent merlot and getting you a deal on new sheets.

Happy Birthday Carol. We love you.

(PS. Sam says you smell nice too.)

Posted by Stephanie at August 25, 2005 10:41 AM