We celebrated the most wonderful grandma in world's 85 years on this earth. She really is one of the most wonderful women I have met in my life time. My grandmother-in-law turned 85, but you would never know it. She is the most active energetic person I know. She still mows her own lawn gardens, bowls several times a week and drives all over the state and country. This woman is a huge inspiration to me and I can only hope to be as healthy as she is at her age. She is amazing!! Not to mention that she helps out everyone she can in so many ways and does it with such grace. I can not say enough good things about this woman. I love her so much and look forward to spending many more birthdays with her.
My MIL asked me to make cioppino for the birthday celebration, which of course I did. It turned out amazing! It's funny how no two batches are ever the same. Everyone always says it's good no matter which batch it is, but I'm my worst critic. Last time I made it, it was okay. This time, just amazing! I don't know what I did different, but I'll have to make sure I do the same thing again next time. For those of you who don't know what cioppino is, it's like a seafood stew. You saute garlic and onions, then thrown in fish, crab, clams, mussels, shrimp and whatever else you like. Then once the everything is cooked, you douse it in marinara sauce and white wine. Then let it simmer for a while and wha la, deliciousness! To top it off I was happy to have the oportunity to help my MIL with food for the party since she always helps me out.
So, that was Saturday.....awesome, fun, fabulous day!
If you remember my post from Friday, you might recall at the very end I mentioned something about having to maybe repo a car over the weekend.
Around Christmas time, we sold a car to some family members. We sold them the car, with some money up front and the promise to pay the rest over the next few months. I'm sure you see where this is going. We were getting money here and there and it was down to just a few hundred left. One of the family members has a history of drug use and being locked up, but had been doing really well for a long and proving to be a solid member of society. Then, things got bad. We stopped getting money and we would hear reports of domestic violence. We were told the car would be dropped off at another family member's house so we could pick it up until it was paid for. That never happened. The couple broke up and one person took the car from the other. We were told conflicting stories as to who was the one that actually paid us the money thus far. We decided that we would get the car and hold it until one or the other paid us the amount owed. We got a phone call Saturday night that the car was in the Sacramento area and ready for us to pick up. In the meantime, the other party said they had the money, so we arranged to meet them half way between Redding and our house.
The Man was tired after our long day on Saturday and said we would just come first thing in the morning on Sunday. We woke up, made a call....no answer. Decided, let's just start on our way so that by the time they call back we'll already be on the road. We called again when we were on the road....no answer. Again when we were almost there....no answer. There were people home at the apartment we were meeting at, so we went in there for a little while to see if they could give us any information and to see if we would get a call back. We were told that they had been there the night before, but left to go meet a friend and never returned. Everyone at the apartment knew we were coming in the morning, so that wasn't a surprise to them. We waited and waited. We then had to tell the other party to turn around because we weren't able to get the vehicle. So there we were, all the way out in Sacramento without the promised car and without the promised money. We called one more time.....no answer. Needless to say, The Man was NOT happy by this point and made that clear in the final message he left. We drove around, got some food, fed the baby and decided to make our way home.
We learned another lesson the hard way. Don't make business deals with addicts regardless of whether or not they are family members. It turns out that the person we were supposed to meet, had decided to party all night instead of meet up with us. The other person is going to in turn call the police and report the vehicle as stolen. This will be the 3rd strike and they will now go back to prison for the last time. Once you get 3 strikes in California, you get 25 years to life. When you're 50 years old, 25 years is most likely life.
Addiction is a powerful thing. It will make people do things that they know are wrong regardless of their situation. It would've been so easy to do the right thing, but that craving for those little white crystals was just too much to overcome. I am so, so, so grateful that I got clean when I did! That white stuff is no joke!
The positive spin on our adventure......we got to spend some quality family time together, which is rare these days. It was nice to be stuck in a car with The Man for 4 hours. We talked about all kinds of things, one of which was our own sobriety. Thank God, we cleaned up our act!! We can't imagine being like these people and subjecting our child to this type of behavior. The daughter of one of the parties is pregnant and about to pop at any minute. Meantime this is how one of her parents is behaving. So sad!
It really was a beautiful day though and it was a nice drive. We saw so awesome clouds too! It looked like God was taking a deep breath. :)
When we got home, The Man took a nap and I did what laundry I could while playing with The Baby. Then, my MIL came over to hang out with The Baby so The Man and I could go out to celebrate his birthday. He will be 30 on Wednesday and since he has class that night, I wanted to do something special with him. I took him out to a nice restaurant for an early dinner and then we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was awesome!! He thanked me for making him go out, he said he had a great time. We both agreed that we need to make an effort to have a date night every couple of months. We forgot how nice it was to do things like that.
All in all, it was a good weekend. Although it was a little rocky at times, it was still good. I felt very connected to The Man and The Baby. Life is good! It would be so incredibly boring if we didn't have the ups and downs. I'm trying my best to find the positives in the negatives. Here's to a new week and another year for The Man. These will be the last days of his 20's. Like I told him this morning, he will soon, officially, be a grown up!
Positive thoughts to everyone!! Have a wonderful day! :) xoxoxo
Wow that is one helluva weekend you had!! I'm glad you saw the poitives in it all and enjoyed your time with The Man. Oh and trust me...I know exactly what you mean about the addict stuff....Sadly : (
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