I *Heart* my MIL! (Or is that… Email Thy Rim?)

A radical statement, I know!  But I really do.  She gets me in ways that no one else does.  We share a fascination with patterns in letters and numbers that has allowed us to bond over so many random things over the years.  She understands why none of our children’s names can start with the same letter (none of hers does either), how disappointed I was to have my first two children in even years when Trevor and I and his whole family are odd (double meaning acknowledged), and how exciting it is to me to have the same seventeen months between Pippa and Romilly, Romilly and Beatrix, *and* between me and Trevor.  (It’s our official family spacing, and I daresay she would even be a little excited if I got pregnant again next month and kept the pattern going.)  She wants me to have my next baby on the 8th of the month because we already have one on the 6th, 7th, and 9th.  Isn’t she wonderful?  So.  We have fun when we get together.

Of course, I have to tread very lightly here, because I know my own mother (whom I love to death in a way that one can really only love someone who is exactly like oneself) will eventually read this, when I send her the link to my blog for the tenth time, and at such time, even though she loves my MIL too, she might be a tiny bit jealous.  So, Mom, I love you, but you know that the whole crazy pattern-loving part of me is one of the few that you really don’t get, right?

Anyway, tonight’s fun was anagrams. When Trevor and his brothers and sister were young, she named a story character for each of them using all of the letters in their names. Trevor was Governor A.T. Murky, Michelle was Mr. Hullo the Nice Guy (I must find out the other two). Seriously, aren’t these fabulous? So when we named Pippa she came up with one for her (though none of us could quite remember what it was…), but the other girls had no anagrams, and so tonight she set out to right this wrong. For anyone who is this way inclined, I’ll share the results. Romilly is Logically Your Mine (we had a bit of help with that one, more on that to follow), and Bea is An Extra Aboun’ing Joy. She’s been at it for hours now, and she’s onto my mom (Oh I Try And I Can Smile) and Paige (I Go In Hope, Ask My Pa).

So, my challenge to you, my readership of four (or is it five now?) is to come up with your own, of your name (mine was abysmal) or someone you love. If you do not have my MIL’s incredible gift of being able to work this magic with tiny pieces of paper with letters on them, this might be a useful tool for you.

Please share your findings, if for no other reason than that it will let me know someone is actually reading this and make me feel loved!