Tuesday, September 27, 2005

A death in the family


Craig called me this morning and told me the sad news.



It seems that this weekend, our dog Curplunk's husband to be was killed in a hit and run accident. For some this may seem like a silly thing, but Buddy was such a sweetheart that every one who met him thought he was one great dog. Our friends, who are obviously the dog's pets, were greatly saddened by the loss of their friend. In fact, rumor has it that Scott in all his manly attitudes, actually shed a tear or two.

It is quite amazing how an animal becomes such a part of the family. Buddy and Cur were both born in the early summer of 2002. He was a Golden Lab, and she is a German Shorthair. When we got Cur it reminded them how much they missed having a dog. Within a few months Buddy became a part of their family. Both dogs went through a bout of parvo together, they both almost died two times during that first year of life.

Yes, I complain when Cur walks past EVERYONE in the house to find me in my room and let me know that she needs to go outside. And yes, I complain when she demands her nightly treat. I really can't imagine our home without her. Animals do that, they come into your life and remind you about unconditional love, about everything good in the world.

We will miss Buddy he was our friend too. Thanks leaner for the pic of Buddy and two of the cute grandkids.

Monday, September 26, 2005

An antique perspective

Back in the dark ages, almost before the dawn of man...

Okay, not that far back. In the early 70s (that would be the 1970s) in the era of rock and roll, free love, miniskirts, vans, etc. There was a sweet-sixteen country girl - and I do mean sweet sixteen. The family made its bi-annual trek to the Southern state of the Dakotas. On the first day there, our young maiden -let's call her PollyAnna for fun - was walking downtown with her cousin. This town was so small that they had to share their one horse with a neighboring town. But I digress; anyway as they were walking by the local grain elevator she spotted a young man with long blonde hair. Her cousin introduced them and his first words to our PollyAnna were, "would you like a beer?" Somewhat taken aback by this cavalier attitude our sweet young thing politely stammered, “no, thank you.”

Fast forward two days and the couple met again at a twenty-fifth anniversary dance being held in honor of Aunt De and Uncle Arnie. He asked her to dance and she told him that she didn’t want to, but they went outside and talked for awhile.

A few days later he told her, “if you were 18 and I were 19 I would ask you to marry me.” She told him, “I would have to say no, I want my family to be together forever.” Now this was a new concept for our young man and so they had deep religious discussions that went something to the effect of, “but I couldn’t give up beer.”

She returned to her small town 1600 miles away and they wrote letters. They had agreed that it would be good for them to date other people. One day he sent her a letter breaking up with her. A month later he sent her his class ring. She went to prom with a local boy. They continued writing letters.

That summer her Aunt De and Uncle Arnie came to visit and she hitched a ride to that Northern Southern state. The funny thing is that her parents let her go. When she got there they started talking about everything and anything. It was as if they had always known each other and other than the differing opinions in religion everything was perfect. After two glorious weeks the vacation was over and back to the South she went.

In January, he caught a ride with another aunt and uncle who were making a trip to the South. After a few weeks, they were ready to leave and he asked her dad if he could come back and work on the farm. Within two weeks he had all of his earthly possesions loaded into his Chevy sedan and was on his way to his destiny.

He had already known that he would join her church, as he had received direction relating to this from his mother years before (even though she had died when he was nine).

That May she graduated from high school and they were married in the middle of September. Fourteen months later they had their first child, fourteen months after that their second was born. It is a good thing that they didn’t continue that way. Anyway when they were getting ready to have the first child, she was determined that it would be a boy, to protect his younger sister. He told her, no, they would have a girl, three boys and then another girl. Needless to say, that is exactly the way it happened.

Maybe not some peoples idea of a love story, but true, and the best kind, because so far they have lived happily ever after.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Two in one day

The waiting game is hard when you are the grandma. Thought having babies was tough? Try not even being the one going through it all, but wanting to help along the way. Plus the sheer excitement of just waiting for young ones to be born. Having one at a time is hard, having two at a time that are twins is hard (I guess) but having two at a time with two different daughters is almost more than I can stand. I am at work, but not able to get anything done because I think maybe the next phone call....

So then the one daughter calls, and you know it's her because the phone tells you on the caller ID. Does she tell you that she is in labor and needs you to take her to the hospital? Does she call to tell you that her water broke? Does she call about anything baby related?

No, she calls to ask how to make meatloaf because her brother wants to have that for supper. Now granted, I must make okay meat loaf because even her husband said mine is better than his dads (he is a great cook, just ask anyone), and my son told his fiancee that she needed to learn my recipe for meatloaf. Well at least I know I don't have to worry about supper tonight.

Questions anyone

Okay, the story goes that our oldest son and Jody kind of dated when he was a Senior in high school. She was about 16 at the time. Anyway, she became pregnant and there was another guy in the picture. She was kind of a wild child. She married the other guy she was dating who was in the military at the time (I think). Guess he was abusive and I’m not sure how long the marriage lasted. She divorced him and moved back home. She had settled down a lot and decided to get her life together. Her mom has been very supportive of her and seems to be a really nice person.

She met some older guy and they ended up married. She then had another daughter – who turns one on Sunday. She told me that when her second child was born the dad showed absolutely no emotion and between his not caring and his mother being involved way too much in their marriage, she couldn’t deal with that anymore. So she asked him for a divorce. They have been divorced since shortly after their daughter was born. In the meantime our son and she found each other somehow on the internet. He had known that his older child may be his, hadn’t told us, but our oldest daughter knew.

They started talking and she went up to visit him. While she was driving to see him and get to know each other again she fell asleep and rolled her car. Our son drove to the hospital - four hours away and spent three days with her while she was almost dying in the hospital. She went home with him and spent a week with him and they decided that they wanted to give this a try.

I guess they did the DNA test and Bethanie is his daughter so they have told her the story – she will be 8 in January. She is very precocious, a real sweetheart. She isn’t sure how she likes having brothers.

For our son this has been a good thing, just hope that it will all be good in the end.

We are excited about this new found grandchild and are looking forward to getting to know her.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Monday, Monday

So you come into work after accidently turning off the alarm, this makes you late and you forgot that the days schedule has changed and school now starts at 8 instead of 8:35. You weren't there on Thursday or Friday, so your voicemail is full, your unread email is well past the 250 mark. Three different people come in almost as soon as you open the door and you haven't had a chance to even check your mailbox (snail mail). The state wants verification on a few items, budgeting needs to be addressed, the school is looking at disallowing field trips due increases in gas prices and the teachers are concerned as they have leadership activities that need to be attended. Reviewing the calendar you notice that you have a meeting on Thursday that needs to be planned along with info on a Saturday meeting that needs to be handed out including a report for the previous years actvitities to be presented at the Saturday meeting. Sadly to say but the thought from Nemo "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." and the second thought (also from Nemo) "that sign says es ca pe - it's spelled the same as escape," both are appropriate for the Monday morning experience.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Entering the new millenium

I had great plans of staying as far away from the world of blogs as possible, then my youngest daughter showed me what my oldest daughter had written, then they shared what my sister wrote and in order to comment on anything, you have to create your identity and if you are going to get into it that far you might as well spend some time writing....

Enough rambling.

This year has been exciting in our family. We have gained a son-in-law, and are getting ready for the birth of two new granddaughters, along with the surprise of an new/old granddaughter that we didn't know about. Our youngest son is making wedding plans and our oldest son is actually in a good relationship. Our middle son returned safely from Iraq and should be back in the states this fall.

Just a continuation of the craziness that is our life.