out at sea | The Sadder But Wiser Girl

Welcome to Round Two of the January Secret Subject Swap. 17 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. At the end of the post is the list of ALL the people who participated this month!

This is my second time participating! Here is my prompt, submitted by Denise at Go Cheap or Go Home: I knew I had turned into my mother when…

But she is my real mom. And I bet she likes this just as much as I do.

She IS my real mom, and I bet she loves this just as much as I do. This is one of my favorite pictures!

Well, I haven’t actually had that exact moment yet where I thought I was turning into my Mom. There are lots of ways that we are similar, and ways that I wish I could be more like her! I will now attempt to list some of these things-keep in mind my mind is a bit fuzzy from what they say is bronchitis, but I’m beginning to think there is some sort of brain eating virus accompanying it.

Ways I Wish I Was More Like My Mom:

My Mom is a pretty crafty person-to have her craft skills would be awesome! I’m good at scrapbooking, but have never been much at the other stuff. Remember, you all saw my cakes.

We've had kitty ribbon shredders, why have I never thought of this?

Eureka! Forget those fancy edge trimmers, I have a cat!

She’s also great at being thrifty. I used to be. Now that I have no control over my money situation not so much. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for financial security… When I was a kid she would do little things like do rebates or work part-time here and there so that we had money for little things like music lessons. When my son was little I still was able to do those things, but since then all of the various ways I managed to bring in extra money have gone the way of the dinosaur. All but one of the places I have picked up extra CPR classes have shut down or quit offering services, people were not interested in sending their kids to my preschool music classes, and I can’t even hired for ONE job these days let alone an extra job for cash. I’m hoping I can start bringing in something with my writing here soon. That would be swell!

This was too funny not to share!

My Mom had to go it alone often when my sister and I were little. My Dad was often out at “sea”, what they call it when Navy guys go out on their tour of duty. Often he was gone for months at a time. Not only that, we moved a lot! She made sure we had a fun time wherever we lived. I don’t think I am nearly as good or as patient a parent as she was with us when we were kids. I’m hoping I get better as time goes on.

I’ll include my address if anyone wants to come over and take me up on this.

She’s really good about remembering those all important things like birthdays and anniversaries. She always remembers and I always look forward to getting a nice card in the mail for special occasions. I now have calendars with reminders on both my computer AND my phone, and I STILL forget. I guess I do remember them, just never in time to get something into the mail. I suppose if the calendars were to slap me across the face with the card and then push me out the door to the post office with it in my hand, they might be more useful! For the record, I do remember the things in the house I live in. Beyond my little ADD world, forget it…

The Ways That I See That We Are Alike:

There’s definitely the sense of humor. The weird sense of humor that I have runs in the family. A little morbid and maybe a little bit different than what other people might consider funny. But when we get together we all just get each other.

Because I too am strange and unusual.

Growing up, movies were something that we watched together as a family on a regular basis. Therefore we can quote most of the same movies and tv shows. We quote so many movies and shows on a daily basis at our house that awhile back I even wrote about it. My Mom and I have a lot of the same movies on our favorites list. I’ve branched out a little since I’ve married my husband, but the old stand-bys are still the best!

I bet you can name that movie… one of our very favorites.

We have this thing that we call the recessive gene. No it’s not a disease or a birth defect. It’s this thing that happens to some members of our family. You can be anywhere, anytime, and hear someone say something or even just see something and you automatically break into song. I can’t control myself any time anyone says anything that remotely resembles a line from a song. And neither can she. For example, if someone says the word “so” or “sew” or “sow”-I have to go there. I have to follow up with singing “… a needle pulling thread”. Sad…but true…

We both enjoy working with kids, because kids are funny (though oftentimes it’s the adults that suck). She was a second grade teacher for years, and now is a school librarian-both at the same school I started out teaching at. I taught preschool for a long time. Neither of us went insane doing it. Seriously though, much like me she hasn’t decided what she wants to be when she grows up either.

We like punctuation. If you’d like, I can even sing you the song from the original “Electric Company”.

There’s a few other things too: One in particular is the annual tradition of the lost gift. Every year Mom misplaces a gift for someone. This is due to the fact that she starts her shopping early and spreads it out. Guess what, I’ve done the same thing a few times, just in a different way. I have bought things for people and totally forgotten them until I accidentally happen upon them. (The thing, not the person.) And it has recently come to light that this was passed down from her mother to her, and now to me. I just had to change it up a bit.

Perhaps as I get older I’ll be more like my mom in the ways that I want to be. Like when I grow up? Oh I forgot, I refuse to grow up, just get old.