Happy 4th

                     

 

 

                

Happy 4th everybody! 

Liz did meet with her father Monday night.  T did not say hardly anything.  His wife did all the talking.  Mostly light stuff.  They did get lost (again...if he had been visiting his kid he'd know where she lived, plus I used to live across the river when he did visit when she was little, which is not far from where they had dinner).  He did pay the bill though.  Least he could do. 

Liz's friend Emily came with & her boyfriend Mike.  The biggest thing T was happy about was that Liz graduated high school, his other kids had not.  GOD!  High school!!!  My oldest graduated from a big ten school.  Liz's aim is to go Columbia in Chicago after a few years at the local Junior College.  We aim high in this family.  

So...hopefully he will still feel guilt ridden and show up next week in court.  Makes my life a whole lot easier. 

On a lighter note the kid's birthday party was fun.  Two of my own kids came with boy/girlfriends.  Eric had to work.  Tim's girlfriend the teacher fits right in.  All my stepsons came including the youngest Dale who is the one who is still mad at my husband, because his mom and dad got divorced when he was 6...he's 20 now.  Years of therapy couldn't help this kid and his resentment.

But we all did speak and hug.  Promises of future meetings were made.  I think he's just partying too much and doesn't want our disapproval.  He's young, he'll learn.

I'll show pics later.

Liz has to work overnights for 3 days including tonight so no fireworks for her, that's ok boyfriend is on vacation.  No fun without boyfriend.

Mark is off until Monday....stinks because it's with no pay, but we'll be ok, work has been slow but steady, with no rain days so it all balances out.

He has 2 gallons of trim paint and we/he is working on painting the house.

Be safe!  And enjoy!

                                               

                               

where'd the time go??!!

Even though I am not working full time I have been very busy!  Liz has had two plays she's performing in and I just realized the pictures from one are on my other video card, I'll share later. 

Her "absent technically he's her father", father who I will call T sent her money for graduation, quite a lot too.  She has not seen the man since she was 6 and he has had all sorts of excuses as why he lost contact.  He started writing again the first day of school her freshman year of high school.  Out of respect for my husband who has been her dad for 12 years and my own sanity I asked her to not do anything with the relationship until she got out of high school.  I remember telling her she could take T to Jerry Springer and figure it out.

I, also told her to let him prove himself, see if he admits to any of his failings.

So with the check came a 5 page letter that could've been written 18 years ago.  He blamed me, he blamed his dead ex wife for burning all his stuff including our phone number (don't you think if you were calling your kid you'd know the number by heart??), how everything was basically my fault. 

He only figured out my number when he moved to Oklahoma and got the Internet, guess they didn't have Internet before 2000 down south!

The proving never came.  He never changed, in years since 1995 he has been married 3 times and had another child.   

Can you tell I am pissed, I know how I was when I was with the man.  I was no prize, I was a huge pile of problems, I drank too much, I was needy and didn't care who I brought down with me.  I did straighten up, I admitted my wrongs and have changed.  I claim my part, while the whole relationship with T was wrong (he dated for sport and has been married at least 6 times, me not being one of them either).  But I've been blessed with a lovely, wonderful, smart daughter.  She is my shining star.

I cannot stomach people who do not see themselves.  But as I told my kid he is what he is,no more or less.

Comes to my satisfaction.  T did not know that I had set up a court date for child support while Liz is in College.  My old order was from 1989 and for very little, I never wanted T to make me send my child to him, as he couldn't be bothered to visit when he lived an hour away .I left things alone.  Mark always wanted to adopt Liz, but the fear of the unknown freaked me out.  Mark is her father by all rights.

T will be in town this weekend.  Liz has plans along with her boyfriend to met him for lunch.  So far he has only received one letter from her which basically told him to grow up.  Ah such wisdom from a teenager.  Wonder if he'll show?  I have to keep my hubby and my stepson from going though, they say he has  an "ass whipping" coming. 

Oh yeah I made sure I had her deposit the check before he got his court papers. 

On a lighter note, my niece got married last weekend.  It was beautiful.

These are my brothers and I...I am the oldest, Dan the middle, Ken the next down from me and Chris the baby.  We  were all born with in five years.  When my brother danced with my niece I cried, wishing my mother could have been there.

                   

The baby is Rylan, he's getting big.

It's baby birthday weekend.  Jacob turned 4 today and Dayton will be a year in a couple of weeks.  Liz and I watched the little boys while Tracey had a birthday day with Jacob.  He was so excited to not take his brothers along.  They went bowling and to Red Robin, which makes a big deal about parties.  Their party is Sunday.

My kid & my Dayton.  The kid is walking all over the place.  More later.

                

Parade pics

        

If you look really hard you can see that this gentleman riding the old fire truck is none other than former speaker of the house, Denny Hastert.  He is from my town and every year walks the parade.  Although this year it's without all the security he had in years past.  We always joke that the village had to trim all our trees so his GOP elephant could fit through our street!  Denny looks like he's lost some weight too!

          

Monday my son Eric brought me a brand new air conditioner.  Of course the weather has cooled off to a lovely 70's, but it's still only mid June.  Midwest summers can be hot so I am grateful I have a kid who works at  a Menard's plus gets a discount.  I refused to let him pay for all of it, but I got a great deal for a brand name. 

Eric did not get the job at the new store.  Seems the store manager has his own people in mind.  Most likely for the best, at least that is what I told Eric.

I am still enjoying my part time status at work.  Yesterday I dry ran my route and talked to my student.  I already know him so we should have no problems at all.  Traffic is always heavy, but no big thing.  The route starts the 25th.

Today I am taking the day care group to the local pool.  There are 5 buses going, most likely we will sit in a restaurant, bus drivers love to do that.  I'd rather sit in the sun, but we shall see how it goes.

One more from Sunday...

         

Every time Dakota got candy, he'd yell, "Me got candy everybody!"

 

 

stuff

I tried to do an entry yesterday, but for some reason my camera wouldn't download or is upload (?) my pictures.  So I gave up.  Today it worked so here I am.

I now have a new route for the summer, we are able to bid on new routes that may come up ... my new one starts next Monday, goes into August (after our raise 7/1) and goes 4 days longer than the other one I gave up.  Plus I don't have to drive in Toll way/construction/crazy people going to work at 7 am traffic in a full-size bus.  I would have done it, but this new route is much easier.  Plus I still get Friday's off.

This past weekend was great...

Tracey did cut Dayton's hair.  He looks like a different kid!  These pictures are from  Prairiefest.  The kids road rides and had pizza.  The day was very hot, ( see how red Dayton's cheeks are) so we went in the evening. 

The boys look very serious in the picture below (they are the ones with the dark blue shirt and blue camo), that's grandpa's hand giving high fives.

They missed their naps and the heat draining, they did perk up on the merry go round.  They weren't even crabby either...All Dakota talked about was seeing the Monkey's who were next to the Moo moo's.

Here's the after pics...

                      

                     

More tomorrow...

let the summer begin

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Son, Eric

Ah summer, a chance to let your feet breath, dig in the dirt and sweat.  I did all those today and more.  With an early summer my gardens have grown in with abundance.  It is past time to split the daylilies and my hostas needed to split as well.  I love gardening, to me it's like a good therapist, except I get to do all the talking.  My monitor Julie tells me that people garden because they feel they have no control in their lives, maybe true.  As my husband has become very bossy lately...especially concerning my gardens.  Bad move.  I can become very deaf at will.

I did let him plant the beans, finally...he is a better tiller than I.  My tomatoes are coming up nicely.  Another driver at work gave me 6 plants and we grew some in the greenhouse.  We have a nice variety of early and late bloomers.

 

My oldest Tim

My children took me to a really cool restaurant last night.  It is Italian and family style, you even get to go through the kitchen to get to your table.  Old time photographs hung on the walls.  Being from a large, loud family I loved the atmosphere.  I had scallops, love, love them.  My kids are pasta fans so they were happy too.  My boys are really growing up, and changing.  Tim has the new girlfriend and is going to move out of the house he was sharing with his friends from high school and college.  He is moving in with his dad to save money for a home of his own.  Eric at 22 is going to move to the store nearby, he is currently at a Menards in a college town, he also lives with old friends from high school.  He feels like he needs to build a future too.  Wow, I guess I did well by my children.  We are all hard workers, Mark and I have had many struggles in our marriage, raising so many kids, his job being so unpredictable, but we are making it.  Our marriage is strong, our Faith too, and we always stand by our children...always.  No matter what we want to be there for them, but it's so encouraging to watch your kids make decisions that are so grown up, without having to have us push them.  Sometimes the best thing to do is just get out of the way and trust them.

Makes a mother proud! 

 

The grandkids

              

Last evening we watched the kids while Jeremy & Tracey went to a movie.  The kids finally will let me or Mark take their pictures.  Usually they run and hide.  Tracey shaved the boys heads, but little Dayton won't be getting a haircut until his first birthday.  He has black curly hair that hangs over his eyes.  Tracey even clips it back when his daddy isn't around!  His birthday isn't until the end of July, with our heat he may be getting it cut sooner than that!

After Dayton went to bed we spent the evening watching The Crocodile Hunter.  Man can little ones ask a lot of questions.  Dakota wanted to hug the snake and Jacob wanted to make sure a croc couldn't come in his back yard! 

 

                

The kids will be over next weekend for the yearly town feast.  In years past they have only come to the parade and by then the carnival was over.  Another chance for the grandparents to see the world through their little eyes. 

 

schools out/ grad pics/turning 50

                  

My husband never smiles....

School's out!  I was able to get a summer route.  It's only a four hour morning one way trip to a school north of here.  The child only goes Monday through Thursday, so I get a 3 day weekend!  My day is over at 10 am.  My route ends July 20th.  The local day care keeps us in trips which I can bid on, so I will have the best of both worlds, part time work and summer freedom!

Graduation was very nice.  There was a threat of rain so it was held indoors.  Liz's class had split a few years ago and part of it graduated from the new high school.  There were only 350 in her class compared to last years 750.  She received a monetary scholarship for drama and was very happy.  Me too!  She was let go at her job though.  She was hired as a temp to open the store, but only wanted to work during the day so she could be involved in the community plays.  Her supervisor made her come in to work on graduation evening then took her off the schedule.  Oh the joy of retail.  I suggested she broaden her scope for jobs.  Although her brother is interviewing for a department manager's position at the new Menards.  She could go there, but again retail. 

She does have the great big world in front of her.  She is going to junior college next fall, the world really is a clean slate for her.  She'll figure it out I trust her judgement.  She's a lot like me, whatever we really want we go get it.

                

My silly son Tim had to be in this pic.

 

            

                   

My son Tim, Liz and Tim's girlfriend, Kristen.  She is a teacher and a sweetheart. 

My son Eric couldn't come to graduation because of work he felt bad, too.  Because the gym is so small the grads were only allowed 4 tickets for graduation.  The other option was for 3 more family members to sit in another room and watch graduation on TV.  Since Eric didn't come we invited Kristen.  She's wonderful.

Wednesday I officially became AARP material....I turned 50.  Funny I feel the same as I did when I was 40....maybe even as a good as 30.  Nah I was nuts at 30...40...a little better, but 50?  I like 50, it feels like a fit.

Tomorrow I get to see my grand babies, it's been too long.    Jeremy and Tracey are going to see the movie "Knocked up".  Hope that doesn't happen for real to them...3 kids are fine for now!