Saturday, March 15, 2008

Is it spring yet?

A busy week with work,  grand kids, and a household to keep up with.  Mark has been sick and his sickness has draaaaaaaaaaagggggggggged to the point where all he does is sleep, go to work and stare blankly at the TV.  I have tried to be patient, I rarely get sick and when I do I do generally try and ignore it and go on, usually with only a trace of whining.  Because of this the household has fallen on me, even the smallest tasks, like dishes I have had to deal with.

Because my husband has been of no use and pretty much in his own world I have ignored him and gone about my own business.  The weather has been warm and sunny so I have taken advantage of it by taking long walks in the evening.  Thursday night my stepson told us about a car that was for sale in his subdivision.  Liz's  father gave her some money that could go to a car, this after she told him Mark would match what he gave her.  Her timing perfect, tax time so he had some money.  He has been neglectful over the years, I do not feel any shame in her asking him for money.  The time has come for him to support his kid.

Liz and I took a look at the car, it is old but it is a type that I have had a couple of in the past.  It is small but sturdy, good mileage and this one was in our budget.  It did not leak oil, ran great, but smelled like an ashtray.  The car belonged to an uncle of the seller who had suddenly died.  We gave the kid our number and name and went home to wait, seems the seller had to discuss the matter with his sister.  He immediately called me to ask me if I was related to my stepson as he had gone to school with my sons.  I said "yes, I am the mom" and he told me if I brought the money that evening I could have the car for $200 less then asking price.  Oh course I agreed.  Liz is now a proud owner of a 1990 Plymouth Horizon.  The car has it's flaws, a little rust, the door handles need replacing, but she runs great and for 500 bucks she will be a great first car for a girl who has only been driving under a year.  Now I can sigh a huge relief,I no longer have to worry about my own car, which will be paid off in 4 short months. 

I am trying very hard to not the let the stress of what my household has become get to me.  Spring is upon us, they will all go back to work soon and I do enjoy having the grand kids come here a couple of times a week.  Dakota and Jacob love my bus driver stories and they look at me wide eyed when I tell them the latest antics.  Speaking of that I inherited a stop near my own route as the bus driver there got into a fight with a parent.  I know the children and they can be quite a hand full, as matter of fact I drove them two years ago.  They have blended in fine with my group.  I just let them know who's boss but with  a sense of humor and I usually know who to seat my kids.  Usually....

Enough of that, this too shall pass, my husband will snap out of his funk, the sun will shine, the plants will grow, it will motorcycle season soon, and all this stress will be a distant memory.

 

Sunday, March 9, 2008

it's a strange life...

I have noticed over the years my life  has been effected by it's far share of death.  Of course there's plenty of life...kids born, marriages all that joy.  But here's another death item...

This young girl was my cousin Dawn Niles.  She was born deaf and when she was 15 she became pregnant by her 18 year old boyfriend.  She disappeared one day and was found stabbed 30 times in a forest preserve.  My father tells me her boyfriend was accused but his father got a lawyer and was never charged.  Her younger sister never gave up trying to get this guy.  It seems she talked to the right people and now the guy is in jail with a very large bond.  DNA is available now.  Now this poor girl can rest in peace.  It was very surreal for me to see my own family member on the front page of a Chicago Newspaper.

I have had way too much action in my life lately.  I have picked up some trips, and an extra day caring for Mrs. H.  She has been worried lately, afraid she will have to go into a nursing home.  I advised she take everything a day at a time...always has worked for me.

My husband got a horrible flu bug last weekend with a temperature that lasted for days.  He's still whining....I've been glad to be away and busy.

Jeremy and Tracey sold their home.  Slow work and expenses.  She is at her mom's small home with the boys.  Jeremy is here until he can find a house.  They are looking for a house near us.   That will be great....I love them kids.

Eric had a going away party Saturday night.  He will be going to Wisconsin on the 17thMenard's puts him up in a hotel for 2 weeks enough time to find an apartment.  While I was at his house I never realized just how close the NIU shooting site was from his apartment.  Just across a parking lot, while it was large it was still too close.  Liz and I looked at the site...it has a flowing river right in front of it, made it seem peaceful....the crosses have been moved to a church, but the piles of flowers, stuffed animals remain.  DeKalb has signs everywhere encourage the kids to move forward.  Hope they can.

The weather is supposed to warm up to normal temperatures...I'd even settle for 40.  We have two weeks until spring break.

I haven't let all this change effect me too much.  I am looking forward to spring.  I can't wait to get my hands dirty in the garden!

 

 

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Timmy's 26

The winter weather is really, really REALLY getting to me and the little darlings I deal with on a daily basis...some really really crazy stuff has been going on this past month.  Way past the norm. 

From a girl who took all her mom's medication in an attempt to kill herself, she failed thank God, to another one who ran away from home, my other students knew this plan never said a word, then today a bus driver flipped out and started screaming at my boss...

This is besides a back talking 5th grader, and a kid telling me I am too easy on them...<how so my little friend?>  because he says I let them swear...Last I knew I really can't control what comes out of the mouth of a junior kid...short of a bar a soap.  Besides this little brat was just trying to distract me ... he was standing up ... a huge no no in my book....pick your battles is my motto.  I do not allow swearing I do my best to stop it.

My middle boy side swiped a guard rail, and had it not been snowing for the hundredth time this winter this could of been avoided.  He was on his way home from Wisconsin after a job interview for the job he's wanted at the corporate office of Menards.  He's only 23 and I am quite proud of him.  He told me tonight he was offered the job, he was at work when he told me, details to follow.  His car & he are ok, thank God.

Ok ... I say we all do a SPRING DANCE and ask Mother Nature to give us a break!

And...

my son Tim turned 26 today.  He's my oldest and one of my proudest accomplishments!

I just love love love his girlfriend Kristen, she is a teacher and has a heart of GOLD!

So my friends... isn't it time for some sunshine and some nice weather???

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Sunday, February 17, 2008

look who came to cheer me up!!

               

Thanks for all the support guys!  Days like these are exactly why I hang around J-land!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

insight...on the changing new world...

I guess the thing that freaks me out the most concerning the shooting was just how unsafe the world has become.  At least my world.  Where I live I still consider it a small town, one where you leave your door unlocked, you can be out at all hours of the night, even walking the neighborhood without fear of the boogie man.  Maybe I am naive', but I am rarely afraid of driving in the nearby larger town that has gang problems. 

DeKalb is such a place...the school is basically in the middle of a cornfield!  The high school there's mascot is the huskers....cornfield get it?  When I went for orientation with Eric in 2003 they bragged about how Cindy Crawford is from DeKalb.  Yippee!  Seriously DeKalb is wonderful school, to me I thought it would be the last place for such a rampage.  

This person must of been pretty pissed off at somebody at NIU to drive from Champaign (roughly 3 hour drive), sit in a hotel for 3 days and then go to the largest lecture hall and start shooting.  It's so surreal to me. 

As one of the adults in a kids world I do listen to what they are saying.  So many kids screaming out for somebody to care about them...somebody to guide them.  I hear this guy had mental problems, went off his meds, perhaps trying to be normal.  What is normal anyway.  Normal used be two parents, a couple of siblings, mom was home all day and you had a dog.   Now who knows who or what the kids go home to.  Who knows what has to happen to a kid to make him grow up and do such an awful deed.

In my own family one of the kids is having serious marital problems.  I am very saddened by this and the effect it will have on the family.  I can only offer support and my love.  And prayers...they do work.

Life goes on as it always does.   Hug your kids, listen to them...they have a lot to say.

 

Thanks for listening.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

stop the madness...

Gunman Opens Fire on Illinois Campus

the day meant for love & hearts, one for me was one of upbeat phone calls from my son, telling me he is up for a job promotion, pretty sure he go the job...then the chilling phone call 2 hours later telling me that he was safe.  Safe?

Northern Illinois University

 
Information on the Shooting on the NIU Campus in DeKalb
Latest Information

6:50 p.m. CST, 2/14/08

At approximately 3 p.m. Thursday, February 14, 2008, a gunman,

carrying one shotgun and two handguns, opened fire in Cole Hall

on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

NIU Police officers were on the scene in less than two minutes

and the gunman was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound

a short time later. Police have not released the identity of the

gunman. At this time, there is no known motive.

Eighteen students were transported to Kishwaukee Community

Hospital in DeKalb.

Another press briefing will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the

Altgeld Hall Auditorium.

 

This is the very school he once attended, the college right nearby his apartment complex he shares with his buddies from high school, kids who attend that college.  It had been shot up by a crazy person.  An individual so sick and mad that he brought a gun to an assembly hall meant for learning and shot at least 18 students...news is that 5 are dead including him by his own hand.

Eric's friends are safe.  Liz is finding out via the Internet that her friends are ok too.

Eric's girlfriend from high school im'ed to let me know she was safe too. 

She had drove by the hall just as students were running for their lives.

But the rest, God help them.

Just a year ago Monday my town lost 5 high school kids to a drunk driver.  We mourned and feel their loss.  Now this.  NIU is 30 minutes from me, my son went to that school.  He lives in that town, he works in that town.  Now this.

God help us.