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Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - (see all news for this day)
one visitor gone, more to come - 12:21 PM
(filed under 'general')
audrey, my mum-in-law, left this morning to go back to brisbane. she's probably home already by now, in fact, if not pretty close to being home. she looked a bit sad as she walked out to the aeroplane. i felt sad, too. it was so lovely having her here.
she's one of the best visitors someone could have. she doesn't stand back asking what needs to be done. she sees that it's difficult to get things done with a kid that sometimes doesn't want to be put down (especially this last week or two while he's not been on top of things, intenstinally-speaking) & she just gets in there & does it. not in a 'taking over' kind of way, but in a very helpful & caring kind of way. she even cooked a huge pot of the best meatballs you've ever tasted & put several portions on it in the freezer, so i'm not even going to have to cook very much while mum & bill are here! i dare say that she did that because they're coming & knew it would be a bit tough looking after two more visitors & a toddler .. probably also to help save some money, since when she bought the ingredients for it, she paid for the shopping.
not only was she wonderfully helpful while she was here with doing the dishes & making lots of breakfasts, lunches & dinners, but she was really great company. it would have been a bit lonely with just smiley & i, but with audrey around there was never a lack of conversation. she's bright & happy & almost always cheerful.
having said that, it wasn't always full on. we both had some time everyday where we just sat & did our own thing for a little while. we didn't feel the need to be talking every minute.
so next is mum & bill. they were to be arriving on friday, but i found out that they were actually going to be around the area (in rockhampton, about three or so hours drive) a night earlier & so i told mum that i'd really like it if she could stay an extra night. they would have been spending only two nights here with one whole day in between. that day would have been filled with smiley's birthday party in the morning & then a touristy trip out to the gemfields in the afternoon & then they'd be leaving early the next day, so there would hardly have been time to even have a decent conversation!
she said she'd talk to bill & then she got back to me the next day & told me should would come a day earlier. it's not like there's a lot to do in rockhampton anyway. i'd much prefer it if she could spend that extra day with smiley & i.
she said that she was a bit worried about non-family (meaning bill, of course) staying for that long & that we would be put out or something. that's so silly, though. i want mum here with me for a decent visit. bill is part of mum's life so of course i want him here, too! bill's very easy going, so i'm sure that if she'd asked him, he'd have been happy to stay for as long as i'm happy for them to stay. of course it's not easy or convenient having visitors, but the pleasure of spending time with those you love overshadows the small inconveniences of having them around. silly mum worrying about that. goodness me.
so tomorrow they'll arrive by rental car from rocky at around lunchtime. audrey helped me clean the place up yesterday, so there's really not much i have to do to make sure the place is still fit for visiters.
i hope that on friday, mum might like to come to the shops with me to get any other things i need for smiley's party on saturday & then help with the last minute preparations as well. it's not going to be huge, by any stretch of the imagination, but i do want to make it a special day for him. he's old enough now to know when he's having a nice fuss made over him, & i want him to have a nice day. i'm sure mum's going to want to be a part of making the fuss, too. 
Sounds like your MIL is the best kind of visitor!
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Wow---already a year. It goes so fast.