This time next weekend I will be in Mimi mode.  Yes, the Milligans are coming.  My daughter, the two kids and one of the three grandpugs are coming.  They have not been here since last July and I haven’t seen them since March.  Most of the time I handle them living 6 hours away ok and sometimes I don’t.  But when I have gone this long without seeing them, I’m basically white knuckling it.  The other grandparents retired and moved to within an hour of them.  That is wonderful for them and I’m glad that provides them with some family close in case they are needed.  I can’t pack up my life and move there but it is so hard not getting to be a part of their daily lives.

For me it goes much deeper than just not seeing the grandkids, sure I miss them, but I really miss my daughter.  For the bigger part of the last 8 years, she has lived 6 hours away from me.  They thought her husband was getting a job back in OKC so she and Max moved back to Oklahoma for 10 months when Max was very young.  We were only 1 hour and 40 minutes apart.  I can still remember the day she called me to tell me they were moving back to OKC.  It was right after my mother had died and I just sat down and cried with joy when we hung up the phone.  So for 10 months, I got to see her about every 2 weeks.  But alas, her husband’s job never followed through so they went back to Arkansas.  It was the right move for their little family, but it was a horrible event for me.  Yesterday Keith and I were in OKC and we went to a store that took us right by the entrance to my daughter’s old neighborhood, I could feel the tears well up in my eyes as I remembered that 10 months and then how much I miss her.  I guess I know how my mother felt for the 8 years I lived six hours away in New Mexico.

Technology has helped the distance between us.  We usually talk on the phone every day, some days multiple times a day.  Lots of text messages, many with pics of what the kids or grandpugs are up to.  There is facetime, because when Molly wants to call Mimi, she really means “see Mimi.”  I love it when I get a random call from Max when his mother doesn’t know he has called me.  Sometimes he will facetime me and he is walking all over the house talking to me, makes me a little nauseous.

Max and I have a special relationship.  When it is just the two of us, we have great conversations.  He can be so mature.  We talk about everything.  He also knows that I’m the grandma who doesn’t put up with much crap or antics.  He will test me, but 95% of the time, we are just fine.  I have learned with him that presentation of something is most of the battle.  If I’m drama free, he is usually drama free.  Then there’s little Miss Molly, the granddaughter I’ve been waiting for.  I don’t know her as well as Max and that’s hard.  I hope that she knows how much I love her and want so much to be around to get our toes done, pick out cute clothes and have long talks about nothing, just like I used to do with her mom.

And speaking of her mom, well where do I begin.  Words can’t really describe how I feel about her.  My heart aches for her, but I guess that’s normal when they grow up and move away.  We have always had a very special relationship.  For many years, she was really my only friend, the one person I knew I could count on.  That is probably not the role a little girl should play, but I knew I could get through the day just because of her. I was not alone in the world because I had her and for many years, she was all that mattered.  When I go visit her, we never seem to have enough time, but we make the best of it.  When she comes here. it’s never long enough.  It takes me days to recover after I have seen them because I never know when the next time will be.  Wow, this week’s blog is a bit of a downer, sorry.

So let me see if I can pull out of this mood I’m in  and move on.  I am excited, elated and can’t wait because:  THEY ARE COMING!