I attended Jessica's bridal shower yesterday and was a wee bit intimidated by the idea that Casey and Cameron's step-mother was going to be there. I've *NEVER* met her, and have only seen her once from afar. That was something like 12 years ago (or more!).

During that time, I've made fun of her mullet and thought that she was a complete ogre. To be honest, she really did pull some awful things when the boys were little and I'm like a mama bear. On the other hand, everything I knew about her (including the awful things) was third party information from HER STEPSONS. Clue one, Lori.

Turns out? She's really nice and she does NOT have a mullet. Those boys have no idea what a mullet is. Admittedly, her hair is still kind of stuck in the 80's but it is not a mullet so her style score went up a couple of points. She didn't get style points for the way she dressed, but maybe it was an off day for her (meow). Really, I feel HORRIBLE about the way I've thought about her all these years. I've been catty with the boys about her and now I see that I was all wrong.

I can't say that I was 100% comfortable and wanted to say, "Hey, let's be best friends" but it was a heckuva lot easier than I'd imagined. I actually could picture being friends with her and now have ideas in my head of having family stuff and inviting them (step-mom and ex-husband) over. How crazy is that?

About the shower. Ahem...

There was a quiz inside the napkins about very intimate details that we had to guess about Casey and Jessica. I'm not EVEN going to share the questions and answers with you, but will say that there are just some things a mom just doesn't want to know. I think I turned pretty much every shade of red during those two hours, but really had fun.

I know I really need to let this one go, but y'all know how I like to obsess about things. I feel that I owe an apology to the boys for being so ugly about her and perhaps putting them in a bad position to take sides.

Yup, I'm going to do that and then try really, really hard to let it go.

Reason two for beating myself up. I found the ugly jealous side of me coming out when she was talking to "MY" girls. I could see that they had a nice relationship and it made me horribly jealous.

Good grief. Of course I want her to be nice to them, I just had never pictured it in my head. Don't even get me started about how I felt when I heard how great the ex and his wife were with Riley. What? I thought *I* was the only one in his universe (besides his grandma).

Wow- I have a lot of work to do in the 'sharing' department. I've said it before, I can be like a two year old. I just had no idea that I'd be this way when it comes to sharing "MY" family. Sheesh.

I guess I have a few new goals to work on, eh?