Well, today's definately been an interesting day! I took the afternoon off to go up to the city with my husband for his monthly blood check (he has a hereditary condition that causes his blood to clot too much and nearly died of a pulminary embulism about 8 years ago so has to be on blood thinners for the rest of his life, which are monitored monthly). The older girls were in school, but we decided to take the twins with us. Shortly after we left it started sleeting and snowing! It's only the middle of September! I'm not ready for all that white crap yet!
The twins used to be painfully shy, hiding behind me and clinging to me all the time. Those days are long gone apparently because all of a sudden they want to make friends with every person they meet. They go up to people in stores and intruduce themselves and tell them where they live! I took them aside and told them they aren't supposed to talk to strangers. When they asked who strangers were I told them it was anyone who's name you don't know. Their response? But we met them mom! We made friends with them, and now they aren't strangers any more! I think they are on a mission to befriend every person in the country so that there won't be any more strangers!
One of them has an imaginary horse named Brayda. Personally I'd like to put a bullet in little Brayda's head already, because all summer I've had to deal with this imaginary horse. We'd come in from outside and she'd throw a fit because I accidently let the stupid horse come into the house with us, and now we have to catch her and put her outside where she belongs. Or we'd put the kids to bed, then hear the outside door open and close. When we'd go check who was up messing with the door, she'd be outside checking on Brayda.
Today when we were shopping she kept running off on us in the stores. But she said it wasn't her fault, it was Brayda's - because she doesn't listen when she tells her whoa, or when she tries to turn her in the direction she's supposed to go. We'd be walking along and all of a sudden she'd shoot off in another direction yelling "Whoa Brayda! WHOA! I said WHOA you stupid horse!!!!"
The other twin spilled strawberry milkshake all over the newly shampooed van today because there was a hole in her cup. When I asked her why she poked a hole in her cup she said she didn't. Her unicorn got thirsty and poked the hole in the cup because, you know, unicorns drink thru their horns like a straw.
Right now there is a LOT of construction going on in the city and it can take FOREVER to get where you need to go because you get stuck in slow moving traffic. Listening to their constant chatter was really getting on our nerves. When I told them to be quiet for the 100th time they said "But mom! All this traffic just makes us SO HAPPY!"
When we got home tonight they were supposed to get ready for bed. They came back downstairs (still fully clothed) and said they had to ask me a very important question before they could go to bed. When I asked what it was they asked "Is Papa still a little shit?" (Our girls call their dad Papa) I was going WHAT?!?!?!?! What kind of question is that????
After the kids were FINALLY all in bed I noticed that my mother had called and left a message for me to call her back. When I called her back, she had some interesting family history to share with me. My aunt brought my grandmother back for a visit last week, and she (my mom) took the day off from work today in order to take grandma to visit her oldest sister (who is also her only living sibling now). When my mom had been cleaning out some junk in preparation for my grandmother's visit, she came across a bunch of old black and white photos with no names or labels on them. My grandmother's alsheimers is so bad already that she didn't remember who anyone in the pictures was. She figured that she'd have my great aunt look at them to see if she knew who any of the people in the photos were.
One of the photos was of a young couple who looked very happy together. My aunt said that the woman was her step mother (my great grandmother died in chldbirth when my grandmother was born) and the man was her first husband. Everyone was shocked that she had been married before she was married to my great grandfather - for 1 night only! And they were shocked that she looked so happy. Apparently she was always a very strict, stern, crabby woman who never showed them one bit of affection. An no one remembers her smiling much.
Anyway, my great aunt said that their step mother's own mother died when she was very young, and she was raised by a spinster aunt and was very sheltered. As was pretty common in those days she was never told anything about what normally happens with people's bodies, or what goes on between a married man and his wife. Her aunt never told her anything, and she never talked to her aunt about anything either while she was growing up.
So fast forward to her wedding day - her groom got one heck of a rude awakening on their wedding night because apparently my grandmother's step mother was a hermaphrodite (had both male and female sex organs, with the female being much less developed than the male - so much so that they were non functioning). She was completely humiliated when her new groom reacted so badly to her condition, which she didn't know was out of the norm. Needless to say he had the marriage annuled first thing the next morning.
Everyone always said how much my great grandfather loved his first wife, and mourned her when she died giving birth to their 8th child. Being a widower with 8 young children he needed to find a mother for them fast and this woman fit the job description. It definately wan't any sort of love match, that's for sure!
I think it's so interesting to hear about family history like this, and bringing these old skeletons out of the closet so to speak. It's just fascinating to me. It makes me wonder if some day my kids or grand kids will be as fascinated about all the dirt on me and my siblings. Maybe I should warn them though - having a great, great step grandmother who was a hermaphrodite is NOTHING compared to the drama of the lives of some of my siblings! Some of those stories are almost unbelievable and if I hadn't lived them I don't know if I would have believed me!
I always look at clothes much to big for me. 
