ah the family....

This picture reminds me of how the ride home looked last night...huge full moon and gorgeous countryside.  Autumn in the midwest is a sight to see.  We took an hour trip to my brother in laws.

Mark promised he'd help his brother clean out his house.  Mitch is moving to Colorado.  Mitch is Mark's next oldest brother.  Mitch has had the middle child syndrome all his life.  The guy is in his 50's and still acts like he's 16.  He was very wild over the years, but a few years back he had a bad accident.  He was driving his motorcycle way too fast and a lady hit him and he flew off.  He bounced his head on the curb and was in a coma for awhile.  He did recover, but has never been the same.  He doesn't work, can't.  He did get busted for pot shortly before this and I think he was sent to AA.  Now he his whole life is about AA, smoking pot (he says it helps his emphasyma...he smokes 3 packs of cigerattes a day), and AA activities.  Don't get me wrong, AA's a great place, helped me and a lot of others.  BUT usually it works best if you free yourself from all chemicals, but I am not to judge... 

Anyway, his wife left him, she took a load of crap from this man, years of it.  So now he decides he's selling the house (sold), and moving to Colorado.  GREAT!  I am all about the motto live and let live...so he needs help to clean out the house because he's still handicapped, because of the accident.  So yesterday his son, Mark and I help him clean out the basement.  They have had a lot of pets over the years, cats, dogs and birds.  Mitch's ex wife works at an animal rescue so she brought home a lot of pets.  Now I am well aquainted with cats and dogs...I have 4 cats and 2 dogs...but ish....I think Mitch sorta let the inmates take over the asuylm.  Ick!  But I am figuring some day I may escape the midwest and I'll want somebody to help me move.  It wasn't that bad, they had already ripped out the carpet upstairs and he only had 2 birds and 3 cats left.  And all we basically did was toss a bunch of stuff in a dumpster. 

I am thinking Mitch will enjoy his life now, sorta like my dad, they are where they want to be. 

On the other hand my brother who was evicted asked if he could come over here today and use my gargage to change his brakes...he's trying to stop drinking/causing him heartache too.  He never showed.  :::sigh:::

We all have our roads to travel...glad mine is in the past...I like my life, and if I gotta pack up a few relatives here and there..so be it...after all as Mitch told me once..."It's a round world, Rose, what comes around goes around..."  I try and live with that one...have a wonderful evening...

 

friday...

This week has gone by very quickly.  The junior high route that I had to take over hasn't been that bad.  Just a bunch of loud kids, yesterday they came on with fund raising candy bars.  I told them they could eat them, just not to throw wrappers on the floor, they ate them and I found no wrappers.  Not too hard, the other driver said that they were really bad, but after 2 days they are not bad yet, just normal, loud, raging hormones teens.  She made the mistake of laying down the law from the get - go, which if you are a kid is an invitation to be naughty.  Never ever, lay down the gauntlet with a kid they will make you suffer.  This I've learned after raising so many kids....most kids are basically good.  Be respectly and they will recept you.  Don't treat them like they are morans, because they will trash your bus, and raise hell.  I can see that 3 of them have the potential to be bad, but I'll cross that road when I get there. 

 

Got a field trip again tomorrow, gotta make the $$ while I can...plus it's finally gorgeous outside, the leaves are trying to turn too...I love FALL!!!  So I won't mind hanging out with the soccer team while enjoying the weather.  The town they are playing it is an old beautiful one so I am going to walk while they play.

 

 

tired and hot

The weather here in Illinois has been hot, hot and hot.  mid 90's Makes driving a big school bus pretty awful...I have  some adjustments to do on my grade school route seems the kids in the back can't seem to stop bashing each other in the head with their water bottles....time to assign seats.  I will be trading p.m. junior high routes to save that driver time, I get to drive in construction because her grade school is further and she can't make it on time...oh yeah the police were called today at work because a kindergartener's mom was freaking out.  ...joy!

The fun never ends....time to rest....

September 11th

This week went by quickly.  I drove a soccer trip this morning.  Tomorrow we are going to watch the kids. And I am very excited about that. 

 

I know it's difficult with Katrina's damage still so fresh in our minds, but our nation must never forget the hero's that lost their lifes on September 11th. 

Have a great weekend!

off for labor day

Here's a picture of Liz and the group that went to West Virginia last July...they helped a family by painting their house...

Liz is back row 4th from the right...and that tall boy next to her?  That's Mike, he's now attending Southern Illinois University.  They are still close, via the medium of IM's and the telephone.  I love how mature they act with each other, but yet have a very loving (???? as much as teenagers can love) and respectful relationship.  I've seen other relationships turn into a jealous battle, but these two have put their friendship first.  I have such respect for them.

I wanna be like my daughter when I grow up!

We cleaned up a lot of junk in the garage this morning.  I found a bin that had a bunch of camping supplies in it...like a propane can, an electric light, stuff I have no clue if I got them from my dad or I bought them...it's hell to get old and forgetful.

I have a few bins that were my mothers.  She loved to do crafts and I can see she must of been getting forgetful before she got diagnoised with cancer as she labeled everything.  I am going to finish some of the stuff she started, at least the felt christmas ornaments.  She was a crochet wiz and could do stuff so tiny that I swear an ant could wear!  I have no patience for such little stuff.  I tend to crochet with huge hooks and like it that way.

I saw this show on the Garden channel where the lady made these stepping stones out of cement, decorated them with shells, an shiny rocks.  I am going to try and do that too...as Christmas gifts to the kids, most of them have families and are way to old for the normal junk I used to buy them.  Besides Chirstmas really is about the kids.  And my "kids" except Liz are all over 18.  Besides the work will keep me out of trouble.

Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend...I am going to take my happy, rested attitude into tomorrow to work. I don't have a midday on Wednesdays, so I only have to work one full day and then I am get some time off the next day.  That is if I remember tomorrow is already Tuesday!!

 

Peace all...prayers to the ones who suffered so much in the storm...

 

chillin in o'ville

I have spent the best 2 days just relaxing, trying not to watch too much of the news shows, walking my neighborhood, eating fresh GREEN BEANS, and my own yellow squash from my garden.  I even watched a Lifetime movie about Patty Duke getting pregnant at 50 (what a nightmare!).  Gotta love the bad TV!

Liz and I picked up our pics at the store and even walked!

Here's my baby boys!  Gotta love 'em!  Jacob is such a great big brother!  The push toy plays Spiderman and Dakota even knows how to make it work.  He laughs and laughs while his big brother pushes him around the house.

Jacob used to be as chubby (ok fat!) as Dakota is and he thinned out when he started walking...but Dakota is just so darn squishy and huggable!

Today we had Mark's son and his roommate stop over to pick up an old car that Jim used to own,actually that car was used by Mark to drive to travel for work on the railroad, I drove it to deliver newspapers too. (Good God so happy it's gone, saves me from having it towed away), they actually got it running.  Not bad for a 1997 Dodge Neon with 200,000 miles on it!  Gas is so expensive and Dustin needs a car to get back and forth to work.  He says he is spending $25 a day in gas to go to the jobsites.  Hope he can keep the car running, it's much better in gas then what he's driving now.  My brother stopped over too.  He's doing better, he's got all sorts of self made stuff going on in his life, but he knows how to fix it, we shall see if he does it.

:::crossing my figures::::

FAMILY!  Gotta love them, but you just can't carry them!

Didn't win the lotto, BUT I hit the jackpot with my awesome two days off PLUS I still have tomorrow off!  The weather is great and I can once again sleep in as long as I want!

Have an awesome holiday!

 

friday!!!

Now I for sure know why we get 3 days off after school starts...ugh!  Yesterday was awful!  To sum it up it was filled with too much talk on the radio's, kids at the wrong stops telling me that it was ok because that was where they got picked up last year, grade schools putting kids on the wrong bus (one was mine and I had to sit with his worried mom for 1/2 hour until he turned up-on a wrong bus), one of my early childhood kids messed his pants all the way to his shoes (thankfully before he got on the bus so he was cleaned up) so he screamed the whole way home about his shoes, my monitor didn't show because her brother the bus driver told her we didn't have school, and I could go on and on...but it's now 2:19 on Friday I go back to do 2 more schools and then I have 3 days of freedom.

 

Last night I took my daugher and went to the grocery store.  Got stocked up on fresh green beans, and squash, and stuff she likes, got some gas and came home.  I watched some more of the storm coverage, felt sad and grateful that I live in boring Illinois where NOTHING ever happens.

 

Otherwise I still love my job just hate the first week...we will all adjust as always and life will go on...plus I just bought $5.00 worth of lottery tickets...one can dream...right????

Have a great and happy LONG weekend!!