Monday Memory - Lareta

Yesterday I have to say in all honesty was a crappy day.. can I say that out loud without it being a swear word? As the day progressed it got worse and worse. Just when I thought it could not get worse I thought I had "lost" 6 out of our 13 airline tickets. I had gotten an email from the travel agent last week with the numbers but never really looked at it. Yesterday I get an email from one of my daughters in law asking for the itinerary so I opened up the file. That's when I realized I was short. Quite short. I started panicking checking our receipts to make sure we had actually paid for all those tickets but of course I can't put my hands on it as we had paid for them before I went in for all my surgeries and Christmas. I am really freaking out.

At one point I asked Keith to check the airline site on his laptop as his has a larger monitor and I thought maybe I couldn't see a "NEXT" button on mine but he couldn't see it either. After a couple of hours of sheer panic I realized that the rest of the family were under their own name and not our last name. DUH! I had assumed that I had booked the flights, paid for the tickets that all the reservations would be under one number under my name. What can I tell you. I use small town logic.

By that time I had such a nasty migraine I told Keith I was going to bed even though it wasn't even 10 at night. I lasted in bed tossing and turning for 2 1/2 hours then thought this is insane, I needed to shut my brain off somehow that I needed to relax. Then I thought of my daughter Lareta. Which is where today's memory is coming from. When we lived in Regina, Keith worked out of town a lot. Lareta started sleeping with me from the time she was a very little girl. It was our special bonding time. Living in a house with 5 males and raised toilet seats didn't give us much alone time just for girls.

After we moved here, Keith still ended up working out of town, not nearly the amount of time that he used to but still did enough. In Lareta's last year of high school, she started going through periods of really bad dizzy spells and ended up having to do some home schooling with a tutor. But on days where it was just us, we would lay in bed till very late at night propped up on a bazillion pillows reading books. We are both avid readers of everything and anything and would just lay there reading. Of course which meant we HAD to sleep in till noon :) If it was the weekend we would stay in our jammies all day, push the couch up closer to the tv (this was before we got our 50"), curl up under a blanket each and watch movies!

She made this wicked cooked butterscotch pudding and I make the best homemade hot fudge sauce and we would alternate these eating them ;) YUM! After she got pregnant the first time, we would go for a walk every day, well ok I walked she waddled hehehe, but we would walk to the mall and go for lunch then walk back. I remember telling her that this would all change once her baby was born and she would say no way Mum, we will always be able to do this. I would tell her yes we would but it wouldn't be the same.. there would be babies and diaper bags, car seats, strollers etc.

Mum was right of course. Now at times, by the time we load toddlers and babies in car seats, throw 2 strollers in the trunk and get our bags in, we are ready for a nap and we haven't even gotten out of the yard yet! I wouldn't trade any of my grandchildren for that one on one time with her from the old days but I have to say I miss those days. As I thought of our times together, I got sleepier and more relaxed. One of my last thoughts was to thank my Father in Heaven for giving her to me. I have told her a thousand times over the years that He knew I would only have one daughter so he sent me the very best. I smiled as I kept her face in my mind as I drifted off to sleep. I can honestly say that my best girl friend that lives here is my daughter Lareta. And that memory will remain with me till the end of my days.