Sorry Lori!

Endless apologies Lori...first I tell you how much you are missed and THEN I don't respond to your missive!

Had a great visit with Jess and Tommy and I saw the dentist...I've spent DAYS with a major abscess after my very THOROUGH cleaning. I seem to have "stuffed" something unfamiliar into my gum line and then felt like crap all week. Doing much better tonight.

I know there are mixed emotions about the VK gathering next week, but TRUST ME, having immediate family for a holiday is a memorable thing...in the long run you'll treasure it! Next Thursday will be John's and my very first EVER, since we were together for the past 39 years, Thanksgiving alone. Frankly, not an event to celebrate. I'm just glad he's gonna be here with me.

Not a whole lot going on...the gremlins haven't come back since late last month...or they haven't let me know they're here. A photo of GW would have scared ANYone. Cookies weren't a bad idea either. It's kind of sad that Palin is gone. She was SO EASY to focus on.

Jess and Tommy and the Frankie girl will be here for Christmas and I'm just ELATED! The holidays seem to have crept up on me without my early warning devices in place. I've always LIVED for Christmas. Guess I'm kind of slowly becoming accustomed to less.

You are going to be the best EVER cruise director if we can just eliminate "Julie". Any ideas? The abscess is feeling better and I can sneak into town whenever you suggest to help with that matter. I love you and Sean lots and I wish I had more interesting stuff to send. Have a fabulous Thanksgiving...and try to enjoy that "day after" with your Mom and your traditions!

Ma

Lookie Lookie!!!

Greetings to one and all!!  I've missed you more than you know, I've also missed this site. I can check on it once in awhile, if I only have a moment, but if I plan on writing, well, Miss Wordy Words, needs some time.

First, mom, either put a poster of Georgie boy outside to scare them off or put out a plate of cookies and make friends. Keep the doors locked. I know it's not ideal. But it beats hiding in the bathroom. Have they been back? Maybe they were just bored and wanted to cause mischief on someone and are done. I hope so. Sean and I will come out and kick ass if needed.

Sean and I have become tutors. John, you are tremendous, underpaid, under appreciated, and all the other stuff said about teachers. Betty is 38 and dropped out of school before she finished 8Th grade. It's been a little hard trying to find out where she is, what she knows and how to teach her what she needs for her GED in a way she can understand it. We've been working on math for the past couple of months and Sean has been great. We were working on the beginning of word problems awhile ago.  The problem dealt with a car going 60 mph for 30 minutes and then 30 mph for 60 minutes, how far did they go? (or something to that affect). She couldn't grasp it. After about 15 minutes we realized she didn't understand that if you're speedometer is glued at 60 for 60 minutes you've gone 60 miles. She didn't know the mph on your car was miles per hour, so no wonder the problem made no sense to her. So we have to figure out what she understands hopefully before we confuse her later on, and find a way to explain it in a more simplified manner. We were going to start on English as well but I think we need to stop for awhile.  I made some flash cards with fractions and percentages hoping this will help. I don't know how to explain that $.25 is 1/4 and .25 and 25%. So hopefully the flash cards will help. 

I have a new label at work.  I did activities Monday.  I was really nervous because I'd never done it or hardly seen it done. Basically in charge of keeping the little people busy and happy. Pretty much I was Julie the cruise director for the day.  I did exercises, fancy nails, some kind of concert with the high school seniors and a couple other little things.  I loved it!! If the girl in charge of Life Enrichment ever leaves, I want that job!  I got paid all day to play. I talked to people, told jokes, screwed up exercises but we got them done and had a ball! I have found my calling! What a freakin job to have. I'm sure that there's more to it, paperwork, scheduling the outside entertainment and making the schedule for the month, but still. Sounds great.

I think I'll end this on a high note and sign off now.  Life is good (at least for now), Obama won and more importantly, Palin did not! Job is okay, I love my husband and he loves me, the kids are all fine (Fig is coughing a bit more but that's to be expected with the heart issue, we just make sure we love him every single day we can) and I just got a phone call from mom that they will be down here for Thanksgiving (I'm not sure if that's good or not yet, still mixed on that one.  Very high maintenance are my parents.) 

So on that note, love to you all, big kisses and hugs!

Just me

My big buddy left about ten minutes ago. Seems as though THIS year is worse for both of us. At least compared to the previous three or four. In two short days the forecast will change. Wednesday morning I KNOW I'll wake up to a candidate who lost even though he won popular/and/or electoral votes; disputed counts of all sorts predicated on, not hanging chards again, but reports of stuffed ballot boxes, voters being abducted while waiting in line to cast support, or Joe the plumber as the write-in Presidential winner who named Sara Palin as his VP. Despite ALL the apprehension, I wouldn't miss voting for anything.

Jess, I liked the premise of YOUR bad movie way more than my own video experience. You told me to avoid M. Night's newest flick but Dad rented it anyway. I applaud his resolve, after one of the BEST endings ever in The Sixth Sense, deciding to take the safe road and provide no conclusion whatsoever in The Happening. At least pissed off rabid-but-undying dogs offer's up lots of potential for exciting endings.

Most of all I applaud the girl with ten classes left to go and FINALLY getting into that long-sought ceramics class. I couldn't be more proud of you. Your resolve, endless work (both at school and the Humane Society) and the fact that you did it ALL yourself while maintaining a GPA other students would hack University computers to claim as their own. You're teetering between Magna and Summa at this point...there's no place higher to go!! I DO question your choice of artists though. Did your chosen subject do craft shows that most of us missed? Starving Artists group? Where'd you FIND him?????

You can tell me all about him Wednesday. I'm planning to get to the farm house around 4 p.m. Dad and I will both be out of your hair early Friday morning. Oh YEAH, we're finally taking the big purple barge back with us.

Not a lot going on. Aunt Pam and Tim will be here Saturday afternoon. I know it'll be great to see them again.

Love to all, Ma

Hey to all

Well, ma, at least you've made friends!!! It actually COULD be worse, though. I saw a horrible movie the other night about four lonely friends stranded on an island with genetically altered dogs who were injected with a form of rabies which didn't kill them, but made them very, very angry. So there ya go.... just stay away from the kennel down the valley, would ya? I don't have a lot of time as I am writing a very scholarly paper on the influence of 17th century Dutch painting on a horribly obscure American painter named Enoch Wood Perry. I apparently like painfully difficult subjects for research papers. However, you'll be pleased to know that I'm doing pretty well this semester (that is, of course, until I turn this paper in) and that I'll be taking my first ceramics class next semester. Also, I have a total of ten classes left to take. All praise Allah.... there is light at the end of the tunnel!!! I love you all and ma, don't give up hope... soon dad will be up there with you and you can pick on him ALL of the time. He he he. Jess

It's Been More than two weeks!

Happy Halloween GIRLS!

Got to tell you, for someone with no job, prospects or friends here in the north country, my life's STILL pretty exciting!

Way back here, in this isolated spot where I live, I've made a ghostly friend. He, she, it, them (or all of the above) come up on my front porch around quarter to ten at night and start ringing my doorbell. My friend (s) left after 11 p.m. when I called the police. But it's been dark for awhile now and I'm guessing I won't be alone too much longer.

Everyone wants to be noticed and I feel SO much better knowing I'm being watched and having attention paid! As Charlie Brown always said "Good Grief"! I've really tried to make friends here and by God, now I've got one!!

Here's hoping it's Obama and in HIS economy I can finally get the hell out of Dodge and back to civilization in the years I still have going for me. Rarely are our mistakes as GLARING as moving here has become. There aren't any kids within miles of this place. This isn't a Halloween prank. John hopes it's a short in the doorbell and it simply "rings". I'd be far more inclined to buy that one if it rang during the daylight and not way after dark, over and over, after waiting 15 minutes to an hour to start again. Are electrical shorts photo sensitive? I'm not an expert here. I've never been skiddish...don't sleep with lights on, inside or out. But this isn't fun.

Oh well. Any thoughts? NEVER think that things can't get worse. At least not out loud.

Love to all, Ma

Word from the "boobs"

Sorry to tell you, little one, I wasn't as impressed with Barry Avedon's work as he seemed to be! Unless this is a DIFFERENT Avedon?

I was tethered to the TV tonight and am still attached to CNN...I'm gonna miss this event when it's over. How could ANYONE truly listen and not hear the dodges avoiding answering direct questions?

Just four years ago I'd have voted for John McCain. Maybe it was out of respect for his POW and family staus. I feel like I know him better now and I'm simply not as impressed as I'd hoped I'd be.

As for the boobs...seems as though the phrase "much ado about nothing" applies to the poor bumps. Shouldn't you at least be able to celebrate the true WONDER of preserved items? Oh well. For something so damned insignificant, that silly Cancer sure becomes the great levelor, doesn't it? I think having you here Jess would be GREAT impetus for driving into TC...that would be somewhere around October 8, 2009. And too, that would be the 15 year anniversary....?

Love you lots guys, Ma

Good news!

Who's cancer free for another year??? Who's that? JUDY!!!!

Yay to those nasty little white blood cells who are no longer attacking the rest of your blood cells!! Yay to the hospital who managed to get you good news faster than predicted!!

And what is the lesson we learned for next year? Traverse City? Yeah? Or maybe you just come back down here so we can get a better look at Avedon's work? heh heh heh.

That's (not really mine, but what the hell) the good news for today....

I love you all, especially my mom's healthy boobs.

The kid.