Family Names

Currently Reading: Still on Getting Naked at the Hilton. See below why I didn't read yesterday!


What did you call your grandparents? What do your children call their grandparents? Any strange pet names cropping up, in order to keep everyone straight?

This was part of a discussion between my older children this past weekend.

For instance, my sister and I had 5 grandmothers. Grandma, my mom's mom; Mom K, our great-grandmother (Mom's paternal grandmother); Great-Grandma (Mom's maternal grandmother); Granny, my dad's mother; and Little Grandma (Dad's paternal grandmother). As for grandfathers, there was Grandpa (Mom's step-father); Pa-Paw (Dad's father); and Granddaddy (Mom's maternal grandfather). Now we only called everyone 'Grandma and Grandpa' to their face, although my cousin was much closer to Pa-Paw, so she that's what she called him all the time.

When K came along, he was introduced to five grandmothers and three grandfathers. By age 2 or 3, he had his own special way of keeping everyone straight:

Grandma with the swing-set (my mom)
Grandma with the kitties (daddy's mom)
Grandma in Florida (my maternal grandmother)
Granny (my paternal grandmother)
Old Skinny Grandma (my great-grandmother, who was 90 years old when he was born, and lived to see 96)

As for the grandfathers, he really didn't differentiate between the three.

On my husband's side, one little girl has come up with a name and no one knows where she got it! What does she call her maternal grandmother?

"Nu-Nu."

I guess this shows the closeness betweeen grandparent and grandchild. "Nu-Nu" was asking C about her other 'Nu-Nu", and the child stopped, took Nu-Nu's face in her tiny hands and said,
"Daddy's mom is Grandma. You're Nu-Nu!"

Mission Accomplished!
I spent one hour yesterday cleaning my living room. What did he do? Camped out in front of the TV and complained every time I got in his way! So much for HIS part! I even posted yesterday's post Sunday night, so he wouldn't complain. Sigh...there's no pleasing him...

So I spend 3 hours in the afternoon on book #3. I hadn't saved the changes I'd made earlier, but I had printed it out:) I simply popped in the CD, saved it to my flash, and started over. Re-typed the changes, and then began the tedious task of making sure the formatting was right; the new chapter numbers were in order; and the scene breaks were in the right spot. I'm happy with it; hopefully I'll find a publisher who likes it as well! Keri is still yelling at me for deleting her early seduction scenes, but she calmed down when I pointed out the action flows better with the changes. I didn't have time for a spell-check run-through; I'll do that today.

And yes...I think I'm going to have to overhaul Gretchen's story next. The two overlap, and I'm debating on what to cut out of her early scenes!

Stay Warm!
Our temps are going to drop to a frigid 15 above today. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 6 above, so I'll be in hibernation mode. D can take the kids to school and do all the errands. I'll stay in (with the exception of my writer's meeting tonight) and keep warm. Maybe make cookies again tomorrow. We've been cookie-free for about 2 weeks, and I'm craving chocolate. Specifically the M&M cookies.