dianebrowning

Yesterday Paul's work bought a bunch of tickets for all the designers to see Batman. I think it counted as their summer party? Not sure. There were 3 tickets left over and I was one of the lucky spouses who won the random drawing to go with them. It was a reeealllly good movie. It lives up to the hype, if you like dark and scary, and I do.

Maddie had gone camping with my parents, so I needed someone to babysit the smallers while I went to this movie. Paul called his mom to come over. I am just now realizing how little she has tended for us over the years. It's extremely rare. We usually have Maddie tend, now that she's old enough, or my mom or Paul's sister. Paul's mom just doesn't seem very.......hmmm.....maternal? Which is weird, because she has SIX kids (although she's not shy about saying that most of them were accidents.....but I digress). Anyway, she was the only child of a very controlling/unloving mother, so I have a feeling this is where her parenting style may have its roots. She's very nice to the kids - talks to them, jokes with them, takes them to movies, buys them birthday gifts......knows their names.....now that's got to count for something. She's just not overly.....lovey.

So she comes to babysit a half hour early (as usual) and I'm still getting ready to go. She says, "So I need to know what you DO with the kids. What am I supposed to DO." Uh....they can play outside, or in the house. Here's a box full of bubbles and paper and chalk and things to make and play with. "Ok," she says, "If I get bored I might take them to my house to watch Dorothy move in." Ok - sounds great. When I left, she was sitting on the kitchen table looking bored and watching TV.

Paul and I watched the crap out of Batman, and came home to an empty house. So we headed to his mom's and the first thing she said was, "I forgot to tell you that I'm the worst babysitter in the world. I also forgot to tell you that I always take a nap at 3:00." Hmmm. "So I just laid on your kitchen floor and slept." Um, ok? Wait.....the hard tile floor?? Why didn't you sleep on the couch in the next room? "Oh, I don't know. I was just right there, so I just laid there. I was a little worried that the kids would see me and think I was dead, but it didn't seem to bother them." And later she said, "At one point someone was really screaming downstairs - I don't know who it was, but I figured if they could scream that loud, they must be alright because they're obviously still breathing. You might want to go down and check on them - I haven't checked on them at all, and I never changed Oliver's diaper." huh. OK! Are you sure you're the worst babysitter in the world?? Come on, don't be so hard on yourself.

Aaahh....memories. The first time I met Diane, it was Paul's birthday, and she had swiped a cake from the Orem High Home Ec. Dept. (she was a math teacher there) that said, "HAPPY BIRTDAY" (yes, misspelled), with a slice already eaten out of it. Is that super funny or is it just me? And a couple months later during her talk at Paul's farewell she said, "I don't think missions change people - you know what they say: garbage in, garbage out." My friend Julie quoted that for years with tears of laughter in her eyes.

Dianebrowning. Mother of Paulbrowning. It gives you a glimpse into the being that is Paul, doesn't it?