20
Oct

Hospitals, Homework & Housekeeping-Getting My Grandnieces Motivated Isn’t Easy…

My niece Leigh Ann Blais called my sister frantic when our Latest Little Pawner Madyson fell out of her chair Tuesday evening.  Prior to Leigh Ann moving, hospital visits were always a “family affair” with everyone grabbing their keys and meeting up at the emergency room.

Crying uncontrollably on the eve of young Madyson’s first birthday my niece (like any new mother) was wracked with guilt and remorse by blaming herself that Maddy fell while Leigh Ann took her daily Instagram photo for her Insta Storefront with her husband Alex standing nearby.  

Madyson Elizabeth Blais
Face timing Cindy and I from the emergency room, we both tried to calm Alex and Leigh Ann down by reminding them of the time Leigh Ann fell out of a chair at Luby’s Cafeteria years and years ago or my son fell off the counter or even when Maryssa fell backwards off the couch.  Yes, accidents happen and that’s why they are called accidents ya all.  Madyson suffered a concussion and scraped nose but is healing nicely and even went to dinner last night after playing with her birthday gifts. 

    
   
Being so far from your children hasn’t exactly been “easy” for Cindy and I because we’ve never really been 20 minutes from them even though our older children are all adults.  They all call us daily (sometimes several times) and ask for our advice or help frequently because we’ve raised them to reach out when they are overwhelmed and also because raising our children took priority in our lives.  Cindy and I put my nieces and son above everything else by attending their school functions and finding ways to afford their field trips and essentials as single parents.

For non twins this may sound weird to most people but twins are closer than siblings and often work together or live very close to one another because they consider themselves a “team.”  We are a team to when dealing with homework assignments, a wedding, a visit to the hospital or even trying to calm someone down via ling distance phone calls or even conference calls with Leigh Ann, my sister, her sister and my son all on the same call.  When one of us doesn’t have a good answer to an issue- someone else jumps in to save the day.  We’ve learned that to overcome any issue that working together resolves issues not only at events for The Pawning Planners & Texas Twins Events but also for anything else we do.

Wendy Wortham & Cindy Daniel- The Pawning Planners
  
On Location Fort Worth Stock Show And Rodeo- Twinning
 
Yesterday afternoon after Face Timing with Leigh Ann to check on the baby, Cindy and I headed to Planet Fitness for our weight loss journey to lose 40lbs each by September.  I left my phone in the car as did Cindy because we both thought that we had successfully “put out all the fires” around here.  I had purchased numerous items to help a young bride build her wedding bouquet and mailed them via priority to Austin for her wedding on the base this weekend and we had both seen Madyson and she was playing with the talking bear that I had mailed her so we didn’t foresee another “incident.”Cindy is still recovering from an upper respiratory infection caused by choking while eating.  The food went the wrong way causing an aspirated infection that had my entire family and friends at the emergency room last week where my father while walking with me to get Cindy into surgery- fell and suffered a concussion himself and wound up in the emergency room while Cindy was in surgery.  

If anyone ever thought our lives were boring- think again because there’s always an “incident” going on around here.  Trying to get the twins to help with household chores is so difficult that Cindy and I have pretty much stopped trying.

Leaving Planet Fitness and getting into my SUV, Cindy and I had over ten calls and texts from Maryssa.  Apparently, Maryssa knew she had a 3D project last Friday along with homework and “suddenly” decided to tell us about it.  Now, Makenna is always putting homework before fun but Maryssa is another story altogether.  Maryssa waits until the 11th hour on every school project that she’s ever been assigned.  She had told her mom Stephaney and Cindy about this project on Tuesday night but with the Blais Drama in California  with Madyson, the only thing that was accomplished on the Target Project was a box built by Maryssa with Target stickers. 

Wendy Wortham With The Little Pawners On Location
Sitting in the Planet Fitness parking lot and about to go pick up the twins from Austin Elementary- we literally sprang into action by running to Michaels to buy $42 worth of items to create a “store in the box.”  Maryssa had been partnered up with her friend Mel for this project and wanted to meet up at the library to work on it.  We called her grandma bout the meeting she knew nothing about.  I dropped Cindy and the twins off at her house to run to the library and meet up with Terry and Mel while headed home to cook dinner with my husband in Fort Worth.

The “library meeting” was a disaster since Mel had brought Legos but no people or food to stock the “store” with.  While my sister wracked her brain to attempt to create a grocery cart from cigar pipes- her temper and the timeline (project due Friday) along with three days of homework that Maryssa had yet to do- along with her upper respiratory infection made the wasted trip to the library all the more frustrating!

By 5:20PM, I read a text from my sister that had me running out of my house to hers in Weatherford to fix the project before Cindy literally “blew a gasket” trying to come up with ideas for the project.

My son lives a block away and knowing my SUV was gone and I didn’t have an event, called to ask what was going on.  I explained what we were trying to do and he ran to Hobby Lobby to buy another $96 of tiny groceries, yard and lawn items, carts and a cafe set along with everything else needed to make this project “look right.”  Five hours later, my son, my sister, my grandnieces, my daughter in law and I successfully “fixed” the Target Store up. 

Maryssa Mahaney Midway Through Her Project
Any parent who has helped their kids with school projects understands the stress involved and timelines when your child waits until the 11th hour certainly doesn’t help!

In order to prevent Maryssa from “springing another last minute surprise on us” again, we made a deal with her to tell us the minute she finds out.

As Cindy and I prepare to head back to the gym today- I’m hoping we enjoy our usual round of laughs without another emergency or incident but we will cross our fingers on it…

Wendy M Wortham