Earning "good daughter" points

This week I have been working on earning some "good daughter" points with my mom. I guess I don't really need to worry about being the good daughter since I am her only daughter. In fact I am her only child. But I do worry.

I blame this on my (step) dad. He was 33 years older than my mom (they married when I was only 6, he was 66 and she was 33) and all my life (well, from age 6) he always told me how one day it would just be me and her and I needed to take care of her. I doubt he meant to create a monster in me, but he kinda did. After he died in 2003 (at age 89 and 3 quarters) I couldn't go to sleep at night unless I talked to her. Everyday. This went on for at least 3 years. Nine years later I still can't go more that 2 days without checking in.

**This pretty much drove my mom crazy. She is a very capable woman and fiercely stubborn and independent. So, having her daughter stalk her daily was annoying.**

 Like I said, I have improved. And this week I have been racking up the points. First there was operation "opossum walk". This was a 3 stage operation:

Ring, ring!

Stage 1, the phone rings and mom informs me that she has "trapped" a opossum on her back porch. Could I please come by after work and haul him off? Sure, why not?

homemade opossum trap

Stage 2,  drive out to mom's place after work and load the opossum trap into the back of her truck and drive at least 10 miles away from her home.

let me OUT!!

run Forest, run!

Stage 3, the release. This involved me hauling my large rear end into the bed of the truck,  removing the top of the trap (aka trash can) and turning it on it's side so the ugly monster could jump and run for it!


He and I both survived, so I call that a win!

Then today I spent the day running the roads for mom again. This morning I drove 40 miles (round trip) to pick up tractor parts (I should get good wife points for this too. This is normally the hubby's job but he wasn't feeling good) and then I went out to mom's and she and I drove in the opposite direction from this morning's trek to a friend/coworkers house (about 80 miles round trip) to pick up a new dog for mom. She is so sweet (the dog...well mom too, but you know what I mean)! Both drives were lovely, so no great hardship on me. But I was gone all day and left a sick hubby here alone, so I have a little wife guilt. At least the good daughter points are banked up, so I suppose it balances out!

Her name is Bella, for now.

By the way, I told myself I wasn't gonna post today, but I find I was suffering withdrawal. And I had no page views today and that made me sad.