Mom Over Miami - By Annie Jones Page 0,48
office.
“It isn’t my fault he hung himself with that rope,” Hannah murmured.
Tessa waved her dripping wet fist in the air, bonking Hannah on the chin.
“Yes. Yes. Right. Too melodramatic.” Hannah laughed, sort of. The she sighed and shook her head. “Get used to it, darling. Your mom has a knack for taking the smallest ambiguous seed of doubt and turning it into a great big jungle garden of anxiety.”
Tessa poked her fingers into her mouth again.
“Your mama never seems too busy to get away for a guilt trip.” Hannah nuzzled her daughter’s warm cheek. “And your daddy…according to the notation on your daddy’s desk calendar, your daddy is going to Miami. In ten days. And he has yet to say a word to me about it.”
Saying it out loud took her breath away. Miami.
“Miami?” Maybe he meant Little Miami River Park? She tried to imagine Payt having a meeting at one of the spots in the park not too far from their home in Loveland. No. It didn’t fit. The word she had seen had nothing to do with the river of the same name. Miami.
Tessa kicked and fussed and kicked some more. She moved her head to a cool dry spot on Hannah’s chest and sighed.
Hannah exhaled with her child. “There’s probably a perfectly sound reason for it. Something we’ll both laugh about when he tells me about it.”
If he told her.
He’d have to tell her.
“I mean, the man can be oblivious, but even he would understand that if he just took off for Florida, I’d notice his absence.”
Tessa yawned.
Hannah yawned, too. “Okay, putting this in perspective, this will all seem much less of a big deal after a good night’s sleep.”
A hushed roar rolled in from the boys in the front room, followed by a shower of “shhs” and sundry other shushing sounds.
“I bet your daddy will explain everything to me in the morning.”
Wouldn’t he?
She got to her feet and, patting Tessa on the back, walked to the crib. “‘One little monkey jumping on the bed. He fell off and bumped his head. Mama called the doctor, and the doctor said…’”
14
Subject: Nacho Mama’s House column
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Rubbish? Sound a bit harsh?
Come to the toddler and baby rooms of my little church, look long and hard at the aftermath of the DI-why-oh-why-did-I-let-them-talk-me-into-this? Duo’s efforts to fix what they destroyed, and you tell me. I think rubbish might be too kind.
When they heard about my father’s impending tests (Hi, Daddy! Hope someone is reading this to you while you get that open MRI done) and my aunt wanting to go to him, they felt really bad about the way they acted. Bad enough that they promised on the spot to work together tirelessly until they had put everything right. And if you have a sister that you have worked with for two months on a project, only to see it end in paint-shed, well, you know just how sincerely terrible they felt to make that pledge.
And they tried, bless their hearts, they did try. But I think we all learned the hard way that not all of the things you see done on TV home décor shows work in real life. Sewing children’s cast-off sweaters together does not make all that attractive a throw rug—though it did live up to the name. I certainly wanted to throw the thing right out the window. So we’ll get by sans the makeshift replacement for the ugly rug.
As for rescuing the rest of the project?
No matter how much Jacqui and Cydney dabbed and rag-rolled and patched the wallpaper, we finally had to face the facts. Their well-intentioned redo would simply have to be redone.
So here I am spending my Saturday at the church, stripping wallpaper and trying to sink Noah’s Ark (aka the mural of a gray, shoe-shaped boat populated by green and blue and pink animals with enormous toothy smiles). The man at the paint store recommended I first use something to “kill” the clash of color instead of doing multiple coats.
“I don’t know,” I said. “This is for a church and we follow the Commandment Thou Shall Not Kill.”
The paint guy didn’t laugh, either.
He just asked how many gallons I needed and in what color.
Payt suggested yellow. Studies show that yellow energizes the mind and body. Think about that. A room filled with two- and three-year-olds, energized in mind and body. What do those studies find works best for inducing drowsiness?
Aunt Phiz, in a call from Wileyville—where she