Happy Christmas!

Okay, everyone is out of school now. Des just came home with tons of gifts from school, including monkey sox and kitty slippers. The college kid is home and visiting with his best buddy. I get to go out to Lola tonight with my mom and siblings, a great and special break! Tomorrow I still have to shop for Gene Sr. and Jr., and had better get a Clarisse for Destiny or I will be in trouble.
The big news in my book is that our daughter and her husband (both in the Air Force) are expecting!
Best wishes to all. We've had a blessed year.

Random random random random insanity

Ack. My beagle is acking. He was sleeping a minute ago. He is 10 and he is happiness, just as Charles Schultz said. I think that is because beagles are so simple and loving.
He had to go out. The wind is so strong, it slammed the door. The wind chill is making the 24 degrees feel like 10. The sky is a deep navy gray, and the shocking white clouds before them are moving fast. The moon is hanging sideways in its last quarter and looks so strange and bright. Now the little guy is asleep on my bed.
I just talked to a couple I met on the radio a few years back, Fred and Jill. They are so fun and kind and loving, and they play good music. I miss people like that in my life -- I used to have lots of them. Anyhow, I just won a certificate to a restaurant, here at 11:30 pm. It was great talking to them. I feel like it is so rare to be in touch with people like that. Now Gene and I will have another place for a date night, if we can ever find a babysitter. Twenty more minutes and I wake him up to sit shotgun in the plow truck. They are playing the Traveling Willburys, one of my favorite groups ever.
The dishes will wait until tomorrow. I made a crummy dinner tonight and don't want to be around the dishes. A couple people liked it.
My studio waits.
The house looks nice inside, to me, at least, except for my room and the basement.
I started writing out Christmas cards today. We actually have new friends (or acquaintances) now since the kids came around, so I had a few more than usual.
We have an interim pastor, and I like him and his wife.
I am in choir.
Still no regular exercise. Still hate myself every morning around 4 am when my back hurts from all the extra weight and lack of exercise.
The kids went wacky tonight when they were running the Corvette into things (and each other) in the living room. Lots of screams. I stayed out of the way while I cooked my crummy dinner.
This week is doctor week. Tuesday is the plastic surgeon for Dakota, and I will cancel the Wednesday asthma test for now. Thursday they all go to counseling. Friday Kota gets rechecked for his skin issues. I am tired already.
Our college student has to go to jury duty all week. Tomorrow he has to get downtown by 7:50. Wear a hat!
I want to rip the wallpaper down in this room. I hate it.
Tomorrow I make a roast.

Christmas Month

The kids got gifts on the first of October. We were going to wait until Christmas, but decided to open them the day after Thanksgiving. Destiny got a Barbie tea set, Dustin got Brown's stickers, banner, etc. and Dakota got this awesome red truck that came with bling. It was funny. That weekend made us decide we would stretch out the season and not make everything about Christmas morning gifts. Last weekend we went to an event for families who are "kinship" families. It was put on by the county and was very well organized. Just walking in they got Shrek puzzles, scribblers and candy. The tables were all named after some Christmas thing, like Donner, Blizten, Frosty, etc. Around the outside of the huge room we were in were stations for face painting, beading, golf, beanbag toss and coloring. The "parents" sat on the inside and munched on snacks and met others while the DJ led people in line dancing, kareoke and Christmas trivia games. Santa was at the top of the steps and we got free photos, very nice ones, too. After our free lunch, as many kids as possible posed for a group photo to be sent to Jerry Springer, as he donated a great deal to the party. They held a thank you banner that everyone signed. After awhile, gifts were given out. Dustin got a huge yellow remote control Corvette, McDonald money, a basketball, 5 Hot Wheels, and tons of candy. Destiny got a Hello Kitty sticker/stamp book. Dakota got Spiderman dune buggy, Spiderman/Black Venom walkie-talkies, a Lego set and tons of candy. Destiny did not fall apart for getting less than her brothers! They enjoyed these things all week, too. Today, we went to another kinship event, and the set up was similar, with the kids on the outside making things and the adults sitting down. This one was a potluck. A woman from the Cleveland Public Library spoke and she was a great speaker! She was a preacher for the system, I swear. Very entertaining. Then we had a workshop on capturing your memories of your family and past, as well as looking at your family tree. I loved hearing these elderly Black women's stories. One woman and her sister were raised with two white sisters in New Orleans, and she shared how they were raised to be orderly and obedient. She ended up going to school to be an educator, and was happy to get out of the way when she met up with the attitudes of children today.
We also sang some songs, the kids saw Santa and got a free book of their choice. They handed us a bag of gifts when we walked out to the lobby. The gifts were unbelievable! Dustin got a tank, army men, a nighttime spy cam, a camera, a Marines cap & fatigues. Dakota got two more Spiderman figures. Destiny got what she was hoping for, Littlest Pet Shop pets! LOTS of them. She could not be happier.
By this time, it was getting snowy. We went to yet another party, and this one was Scottish. My mom managed to save us a table. The Heather Belles danced, as well as the Jenny May Dancers. We had plenty to eat and Santa was led in and out by the bagpipes. Dustin got a Quizzer, Dakota got a Magnadoodle and Destiny got beading. We were all so tired and went home and played. Actually, I went to bed for a nap. It was GREAT.
So, we are loaded with gifts for the kids. This includes the slippers I bought them all with the Target gift card someone gave us annonymously and the dinosaurs their mom bought them yesterday at the mall.
We are so blown away with everyone's generosity. BLOWN AWAY! God is comforting us so much by how others are reaching out to make sure the kids are taken care of. We look forward to a lifetime of paying it forward...

Blah

I am tired. I woke up at 5 something, did some email stuff and then returned to bed at 7, after I tuned in the tv to cartoons. The kids found them a couple minutes later, Gene got up and got breakfast going and I got 2 hours of additional sleep.
The kids get into a daze when they watch tv, so it is good we hardly let them see it. Before they came, they watched it in their own rooms, and had cable. In any case, I started my day extra late then, and was behind the rest of the time. I just finally got laundry in and it is almost 9 pm. Got lots of other things done, though. Went to a craft show, one of the bigger ones in the area, and it was all about the snowmen. They were everywhere, on sleds, in buckets, hanging from trees, standing next to trees, holding lights, etc.
I finally pulled out Tip-It, from under my bed. I have the same version I played in the 60s and the kids loved it. They made sounds and laughs that would have delighted toymakers. Dustin won all 3 games. It was a good game to help them learn to observe (which peg is heaviest, which can use some discs), be careful and count.
We are painting the living room for the first time in 10 years. Gene re-did the window frames.
That is all for now.

TV is so boring

Especially when you only have a few channels. It's not a big deal-- I have plenty to do, but now and then like to sit there and flip my um... (3 in good weather-5-if I move the rabbit ears-8-19-maybe 25, 43, and if I am in the mood for Spanish, 61) SEVEN stations. The bummer is, everywhere you look during the day are 1. Commercials to sue Someone Responsible For You Being Home At This Hour, 2. Commercials to get you to go to chef school, medical terminology school, electronics school or to some cheap college so you can get further in your loser life, 3. Commercials for CHEAP car insurance so you can drive to these places (and hope you don't have to use #1.), 4. STUPID FAKE COURT SHOWS, 5. Ladies-Who-Scream-in-the-Audience Shows (like the View or Martha or Oprah), 6. Shows that reveal weird or scary or sad things, like Jerry, Montel, Oprah, etc.). I can skip all these since I have plenty going on during the day...
At night, you have only two choices: 1: Reality TV, mostly with some competition where you have to phone in a vote, or 2: Dead Bodies on Metal Tables being poked, zoomed in on, argued over, shaved, rolled out, or something. Usually, this is accompanied by cool dance club music and lights that are cool and pretty. The people doing this work are always very gorgeous and witty and intelligent.
I am sick of TV.

It's a Colorful Life

I got to raise my stepson from the time he was 13, but now I am getting the chance I missed to be a full time mom to little ones.
I just tucked in all three kids and am back down on this floor, piled with laundry to sort, dishes to wash, papers to put away-- all the stuff you see in houses with families with kids. There is even a ball in the driveway and a bike only half in the garage. The light was left on in the bathroom again, and there are tub toys on the edge of the tub. Our house is small and in many places, unfinished. When we leave one thing out of place, you can tell. We need kitchen cupboards and counters, a new floor, new windows, carpeting, paint, and all sorts of things, but whatever. The cool thing is seeing a little boy peer out the window of the bus each day, happy to see someone is waiting for him. Then I get to hear his report, which is usually, "HAPPY!" then walking home with his little hand in mine, hearing all his stories while he jumps along. Then there are more cool things like hearing the little girl singing in the while steering the red car of the grocery cart-- she makes up all the tunes and words, and they are beautiful. Then watching the oldest child run out and play football for the first time in his life is awesome. He plays hard and never gives up. These kids are neat because they basically get along. They really look out for each other and share a lot. When one buys something at the dimestore, it is always in threes. They have feelings and they show them. They are curious and they ask. They have fun and sleep well. It does not bother me that they are not "mine" and that I was nearly 49 when they moved in. This is a dream life for me and my husband, and I hope the kids will feel that way about it too.

Me and Color

I took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! Pretty simple, but rather accurate... Click here to read the rest of the results.

Stepmothering Part II

We recently took in our nieces 3 children ages 6, 8 & 10. This is the 3rd or 4th time they had been "offered" to us; this is the first time their mom actually gave them to us for daily care, other than when she was shipped out to help with Katrina cleanup for a month.
More on this later, as I am so tired! It is 12:30 am and we started early.

Addendum

Shortly after I wrote about my beloved former co-workers, I attended the vistation at the funeral home for one of them, Bruce Jablonski. It is possible that Bruce passed on the very day I was writing. He was not seen for a little while, his neighbor noticed this, and then he was found in his house when his brother came to see. Bruce was only 57.
I know we fell out of contact for a couple reasons, one being the fact that I was layed off and we no longer worked together. Another would be that I got married around the same time, so I was kind of busy and distracted. We usually had pretty good conversations. He was very talented, and was kind of a recluse. He played banjo, the "Kingston Trio" kind of thing, was a good painter and illustrator, and loved to cook. He took roasting a chicken very seriously.

With Whom Do You Work?

I worked at one place for twelve years. It was a department in a large company, and we occupied half the 6th floor of an office tower. The amazing thing about this art department was how the people in the group seemed to all get along. The sharing and friendship was great. We spent time visiting, attended weddings, had great parties and back rubs and shoulders to cry on were not unusual. I and many others give credit to the people in charge, Larry and Lou, for knowing who to hire. It was a special place and time, and until the company fell upon bad times, we stayed together. I was one of the first layoffs, over 8 years ago. Now, a department of about 60 is down to only a few. Some retired, some died, others we've never seen again, and several of us are still in touch to this day. I freelanced a bit, had some longer stints, but nothing has ever compared to working at Penton. I worked at one place for almost 3 years, and that was a nightmare of screaming, gossip, anger, and wasted energy. It never got better. After 3 years of more freelancing, I got a job at a really good company. They do everything right. I am so impressed with the place. What amazes me, though, is that some women, even though there for almost 20 years, seem to be no closer to each other than acquaintances. Even worse, they can be so cold and amazingly unfriendly and close-minded. The men in my department seem to be much more human. I am happy with the company, okay with the work, but it is a weird experience to have to work at someplace so different than Penton. You would think that if you spent most of your time at a place, you would try to make it as pleasant an environment as possible, but I guess that is not the way it is everywhere.

here it is

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We are getting old

We hope to move to the Smokies one day. Gene is learning banjo and I started watching NASCAR. We ought to be ready soon. These are our neighbors-to-be, I hope.

I just love this

White and Nerdy

Can it really be March already?

Life has changed quite a bit since I work full time outside the home now. It is good, but different. I miss blogging, but I will get back to it eventually, just like weight lifting, cooking, cleaning, reading, traveling, etc. I must think I will live to 500 or something.