Vegas Baby

My oldest girl, Erica, 23, is spending the day with me tomorrow. Of all of our kids (including our bio son Alex) she is the only one who calls us Mom. She speaks of us in the plural. As in "Hi Moms". She calls us both Mom. As in "Mom, what time will Mom be home?" It's sweet. She calls her Bio-Mom by her first name - but calls us her Moms.

She and her fiance (of almost a year) are moving to Las Vegas on Thursday. Vegas? Why?? I have no idea why - and I am confident they don't know either. I'm not going to ask. I am just going to hug her and wish her well. I vaguely remember being young and in love and prone to making bad decisions on a regular basis. Actually, I still make bad decisons on a regular basis, I am just older and a lot more tired.

"Erica" moved in with us at the end of junior year in high school and stayed a year and a half. We helped her do the college-apartment-car-semi-indpendent-young-adult thing. A few years ago we bought her a car for several thousand dollars with the understanding she'd make small monthly payments to pay us back. A few hundred dollars towards her car and she fizzled out. We didn't nag or even remind her. We had kept the title to the car and figured sooner or later she'd have to deal with the fact she had not paid for her car and blew off a loan. Accepting personal responsibility for her actions is far more important than being paid back a few thousand. Every six months or so she'll call, leave the same message on the answering machine and say "Hi Moms. I's me, Erica. I was wondering if I can have the title to the car. Give me a call", and then we don't hear back from her for a few more months.

So this week she calls and there is a twist. First. I am home during the day now and actually answer the phone...which totally threw her off. This time she asks if there is anyway she can work off what she owes so she can have the title because they are moving to Las Vegas on Thursday. I say sure. Really? Give me a day helping me clean the basement or garage or some household projects and then the title is yours. Really? Really. Cool.

So tomorrow we'll do a project or two in the morning, have a little lunch, work on a project or two in the afternoon, maybe clean the carpet in the finished basement

a trip to the safe deposit box at the bank

and have some dinner.

Why didn't I think of this earlier?????