Stepmothers get a bad rap for the most part. In fairy tales they are cruel and evil, either trying to make the heroine’s life miserable or kill her outright. In popular culture, they are often portrayed as trying to replace the Mom by any means necessary.

Well, in the Stepmother lottery, I hit the freakin’ JACKPOT.

Jean is just a fantastic person all the way around. She loves my Dad, she loves my kids, she loves Chris and me, and she shows it.

What prompted me to blog about this is that a couple of hours ago she called and asked if she could swing by and pick up Kaitlyn since it’s a nice day out and Kaitlyn loves running errands with her.

“Oh”, and she asked, “since it’s almost lunchtime, how about I pick you up some lunch since I’ll be taking Kaitlyn out and I know you don’t have a car today?”  Um, YES PLEASE!

So, not only did she come by and pick up Kaitlyn for a still-to-be-determined number of hours, but she also dropped off a Subway sandwich and a fountain Diet Coke (the key to my heart!) AND a cookie which I didn’t even ask for but she included as a treat!

Best. Stepmother. EVER.

Oh, and she brought two dog biscuits for Elvis that were apparently the best dog biscuits ever because he ate both of them lightning fast and then circled the floor for another couple of minutes searching for miniscule crumbs to lick up. Apparently I need to reconsider my purchase of Milk Bones.

It was weird enough for me when my Dad started dating. My Mom passed away in 1997 and I think it was around 2000 or so that he started dating. I’m not even sure I should call it dating since he got into a relationship with a woman named Donna, that lasted around a year or so, then they parted ways amicably and then he started seeing Jean.

Anyway, Jean has fit right into our family. I didn’t really know what would happen when she and Dad got married but what did happen is my kids got a fantastic Grandma and I got a woman in my life who doesn’t want to be my Mom, but is there for me and makes me feel loved.

How lucky am I??