Long, Cold, Work Night

our big black tie event is coming up again this weekend. long day. but its usually great food & maybe not good but at least entertaining music. this year its a congo theme. i've seen green & pink table umbrellas & glittery green leaves. the tent isn't as big as usual so the crowd is smaller. hopefully the auction will bring in lots of money & the computers will work this year. talk at ya later,

K-boos B-Day

hubby's only niece turned 2 last week & we were invited to bring the kids to her birthday party. baby bro & his wife just bought a house & k-boo was getting a brand new swing set/fort for her birthday. although it wasn't completely put together it was enough to keep the kids entertained for hours. and entertain it did. it kept the adults busy too. k-boo isn't interested in cake so she had a carved watermelon & ice cream. she had lots of gifts to keep her busy. i was surprised that she opened one gift at a time & wanted to indulge in each one individually. she sat on mommys lap & read books as she opened them. she pulled strings & pushed buttons. it was fun to watch. child definitely has patience! she wanted to pull her shirt off & try on new clothes right there in the back yard! she was amazed with all the new things. she had received a new toy stove & refrigerator set before we even got there. one guy showed up with his dog cos he didn't have kids. we started out with 2 balls. the big one you see ix on in that top pic & a smaller kick ball. can you see this coming? yeah, within just about a half hour, of the dog & balls, both were history. the dog was wore out & the balls were busted. ce la vive! needless to say, the kids found other things to do with the busted balls. typical, you buy them a swing set & they'd rather play with the box it came in. we had a great time & the kids were invited back for a stayover. talk about a glutine for punishment!
later.

Bad Mamaw

a grandparents day is set up by the kids school every year. i love to go to these things. it makes the kids feel so important. they introduce you to all their friends & teachers. they show you their work & make you a card or clay ashtray. something from their art class. you get to have lunch with them & sit with them in the auditorium for a nice chat. in other words they mostly get to show their ass for the day with no consequences.
honey mentioned on the phone that she had the invitations (made by the kids) & would bring them to us when they dropped the kids off on friday. she said the special day was on friday the 18th for both of them. these grandparents day are usually all on the same day. i think that is a protection for the teachers sanity so they only have to put up with the little heathens showing their asses one day out of the year. like thats gonna happen, right? something i wasn't made aware of: this year jammer & ixxie are in separate schools so the special day was different for each of them. jammers was actually on the day we received the invitation sealed in an envelope & he was disappointed in us. when he came in he said, 'memaw! pappaw! (with his bottom lip stuck how so far he could've tripped on it) how come you didn't come to my grandparents day? i walked into the auditorium looking for my grandparents & they weren't there! i was so disappointed'! i said 'no jammer, its next weekend'! honey handed me the invitations & sure enough jammers was that day. oh how my heart squeezed & broke right on the spot. i looked at honey & said, 'i'm pissed at you'! she did that little blink-blink thing & said, 'i really didn't know'. why? why if you dont know something do you say whatever you assume to be? why wouldn't you make sure of something before you open your unintelligent mouth? she called to let me know as soon as she got the notice but never bothered to open the damn thing to find out when it was. ix had told her she had grandparents day on the 18th & honey just took it for granted that meant both kids wthout even looking at the notices. i hugged jammer & apologized over & over. i promised him we'd do something to make it up to him. he said it was all right & patted my back making me feel that much smaller. such a big guy. i could just imagine his disbelief when he scanned that big room & truly came up with no grandparents there to participate in his big day.how his little heart must have plummeted when the realization sunk in that we really weren't there. special things like this really mean such a big thing to little guys like him. all week i thought about how disappointed my poor little jammer must have been. all week i kicked myself for not making honey open the papers to make sure. all week i just felt like such a shitty gramma. i couldn't get that picture out of my mind.
i took the day off this past friday so we could go to ixxie's school. we did lunch with her & met her friends, teachers & principal. we went to her book sale & bought her books & walked the halls of her school with her. she was in heaven. the whole time i kept thinking how jammer had missed out on all this. how here i was for my step granddaughter but i wasn't there for my own flesh & blood. don't take that wrong because i feel bad enough about thinking it. but honestly, it was tearing me up that i missed my baby boys day. i think we've done a great job making ix feel like a true part of our family. i don't believe she ever feels like she's not as loved as the rest of the kids. nobody ever says anything about her not being a true grandchild. even when we introduce the kids we never mention that she's not ours. people have told me how she looks like sonny & we never correct the assumption that she's his own child. when we met ix she was 3 years old & a very backward child. at family functions she'd crawl under a table & cry that she didn't want to be there. she didn't like being around strangers. (a stunt her mother always pulls to get out of doing things she doesn't want to do so the apple wasn't falling far from the tree) our families would all do whatever it took to make her feel comfortable. part of the gang. it took a few years but we finally pulled her out of whatever hole she had been living in. she doesn't even remember those days now. she doesn't remember that she hasn't always been a part of this loving circle of family. my sisters & brother & hubbys brothers are all her aunts & uncles. no one would have it any different. i guess i'll go to hell for it but deep down in my heart i was just dying that i was smiling at all ix's friends & teachers making her day just wonderful while jammer was sitting in his classroom with his special day behind him & the emptiness of no memories to take away from his day with his grandparents. bad memaw! bad, bad memaw! i couldn't live with myself. hubby saw the dilemma i was in. he knew how my heart was breaking that we let jammer down. he surprised even me by calling jammers school. he asked if we couldn't stop by to surprise him & bring homemade cookies. they were glad to work with us so after we finished with ix we joined jammer at lunch. when we walked into the cafateria he jumped up waving his arms like crazy & yelled, 'memaw! pappaw!' we met his friends & we met with his teacher after they were all finished, took him a book from ix's book sale, signed him out of school so he didn't have to ride the bus home & went back to collect ixxie. we made his special day even more special because it was such a surprise for us to show up.
oh, i almost forgot. when we got there his principal came out of the office to escort us to the cafateria. he shook our hands & told us 'jammer is a special little guy & a daily tickle for him'. he laughed as he told us he had a story for us. apparently, jammer had gotten busted throwing paper out of the school bus window. he was given a note to take home to mom & dad for a signature letting them know what he was in trouble for. seems that the note never was returned so the principal called mom & dad to find out why they didn't send the signed note back. the note they never received. mr. wright caught jammer in the hall that morning to ask him about the note. jammers explanation? the note was caught by a breeze coming through the bus & flew out the window! he chuckled & said, 'we get alot of stories, you know, the dog ate my homework kinda thing but he's an original. definately gives me a laugh on a regular basis'. he lowered his voice & said, 'i think he's my most favorite student ever'!
later.

Remembered

we must never forget.

blessings to all the families dealing with lost love ones. blessings to the lost loves & the brave souls that are still fighting that war. later.

End Of The Line

why is it through the week a half dozen things happen & i think, man this is definitely blog material! but the minute i sit down to start writing my brain just goes blank. i have to sit on it for awhile till it comes back to me.
oh snap! i remember. as i was walking to the mail room today i passed along the train route. we have a small train that takes you on a trip around the grounds. it takes about 15 or 20 minutes round trip. at the spot where it passed me was on its way over the lake. as employees we're asked to wave at the occupants as it passes us. its a thrill to the kids to wave at us. thats why i stopped on the bridge & was standing there letting it ride by me. i usually try to race it from one spot to the next cos we have these crossroad arms that drop & it seems like forever before they raise & you can cross the tracks again. so, i'm standing there waving when the end of the train comes from behind the trees & i'm thinking 'thank goodness, its gone'. but along behind the train comes 2 of the guys that had been hanging our christmas lights along the track. one is carrying an extention cord coiled around his arm. the other is lifting the end of the cord up off the tracks. turned out just before the train started over the lake the end of the extention cord bounced & wrapped around the tail of the train. the guys had jogged half way around the tracks trying to get it loose. and me without my camera. what are the chances of that? and christmas is still months away. i can't wait to see what happens next.
later.

One Fireworks Story

every year, for 30 some odd years, on the first sunday of september webn puts on a fireworks show to signify the end of the summer. its always the most awesome fireworks show. it tops anything else we have all year long. the 'rossi' family are well known for their fireworks worldwide & they swear they start on it immediately afterwards for the following year. they shoot the fireworks from barges parked in the middle of the ohio river & off bridges on either side of that barge & synchronize music to the whole show. not to mention the bands & entertainment tacked on. this year they said the fireworks were actually floating in the river instead of just being shot off the barge. when i was much younger & the fireworks first started we went every year. it became a tradition for all my friends to go as a group. the more the merrier. back in the day you could bring coolers, food, blankets, chairs, dope & the family dog & cops didn't bother you. unless you got too out of control but for the most part it was just one big, cool end of summer party. with crowds numbering in the half millions & all the restrictions i don't indulge so much these days. you're not allowed to bring all that stuff & cops confisgate anything they find now. the jails fill up quickly too as a result of the policing. i'm not knocking our cities finest i'm just saying. things aren't as lax as they used to be. the year my baby sister, lucky, turned 21 i asked if she wanted to go with us when i went by to drop sonny off for the night. my mom said, 'no, my baby isn't going down to that mess! we'll just watch it on tv'. (they always showed it on tv that night & again the following saturday.) we all gathered on the floodwall as we normally did. laying blankets out with coolers on each corner to keep them in place. spraying ourselves down with bug spray to keep the mosquitos away. tossing frisbees & footballs. passing the time & preparing to lay back & watch the fireworks. just a few minutes into the fireworks & someone came running through stepping right in the middle of my comfortable spot as i oohhed & ahhed at the beautiful display going on over my head. i sat up quickly but that person was already 4 layers higher into people. damn brats, why do people bring their kids & then turn them loose? when another brat came running across the blanket. i reached up & grabbed an arm as they swung past me. the kid stopped 'let go! i have to keep up with my' & closed his mouth as he looked down & realized he was yelling at his mother. how she managed it i don't know but lucky had convinced my mother to not only let her come to the fireworks but drag my 11 year old son with her! i sat his ass down beside me & waited for my sister to come back looking for him. finally, here she came backtracking down the hill yelling 'spud! spud where are you'? 'over here', i yelled back & waved my hand in the air. her mouth was hanging open when she recognized who had her nephew & the trouble she was about to be in. 'honest lin, i promised mom we'd stay at aunt cellies & be back in an hour. please don't be mad at us'. i don't know if its my luck or her unluck that the path they chose brought them straight up the middle of my blanket. what were the chances? i was, on the other hand, glad that if sonny was gonna be at the fireworks he would at least be with me! where i could protect him. silly kids. and no, i didn't tell my mother. lucky was indebted to me for life after that one.
later.

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

who ever thought having grandkids every weekend was a good idea needs to be shot! oh yeah, that would be me. i started aggravating the very day jammer was born. stupid, stupid, stupid!
me: why have you been so mean & ugly since you got here?
jammer: memaw, i'm gonna be honest with you. my mommy fills me so full of sugar before i get here that i'm mean & ugly for days.
later.