20 posts tagged “children”
I left a little early last evening so I could stop by Indian Springs Cemetery for a cache check and photos before heading towards the visitation meeting spot in south Punta Gorda. I didn't have a lot of time but had fun with the Hewitt tomb, which stands in the southwest corner next to the unofficial children's section.
Afterwards, Bailey and I stopped by the new park off of Bayshore Rd in Charlotte Harbor Town. Most of the park is still fenced off and under construction, but they have opened up a small parking lot with a nice walk-out. I brought Bailey's 110 camera with me so she was able to take pictures, too.
Happy Birthday to my mother. I don't think my card got to her in time so I left a message for her. That's more than what I usually remember to do for adults, but since it really seems to matter to her, I made sure to get it done this year. This year is a big year for her, too.
My youngest step-daughter is with us this weekend and her mother is having another useless and unnecessary dramatised freak-out over a hobby of mine that's neither illegal nor inappropriate, has nothing to do with her daughter, and I haven't been able to do in over a year. Way to pick your battles, lady. At some point the pot is going to boil over and Tom and I are just going to laugh at this woman's consistent ridiculousness.
This neglected hobby is that I'll take a stroll through cemeteries when I have time, taking artistic pictures and running a digital recorder to see if I capture any electronic voice phenomenon [EVP]. You don't know if you've captured an EVP, or a disembodied voice, until you listen to the recording later. Many investigators ask questions, stay in one spot, and have a very controlled situation while they're recording for EVPs. Since I'm just taking a stroll through a beautiful cemetery on a beautiful day, I don't fuss too much. As a result, my EVPs aren't meant to be used as actual paranormal evidence but are categorised as more "hobby". It doesn't take much to press record on the digital recorder so I'm far more interested in taking photographs, like the praying hands featured here.
While there's debate on who his oldest daughter should be speaking to about his life, our primary lapse of manners happened when Tom misappropriated my evps for a more focused paranormal website without my permission. If that had not happened, they would not have been available for anyone in his curious circle to have seen. I've remedied that situation. Mind you, I don't mind anyone visiting my Photo Blog or my deviantArt store. By all means!
Both Bailey and Eddie are behaving in school and receiving rewards. I was hoping that Bailey's bout with bad behavior earlier this week was a part of adjusting to a new structured educational environment and that does seem to be the case. Eddie continues to perform well academically and has found his long-lost math book. Thanks to Gard Music in North Port, Michael now has his percussion kit and is ready to begin band on Monday!
When my baby was born, my husband bought me this book to occupy myself during the boring hours of the hospital stay. He knew how much of a fan I am of Rebecca Wells' Ya-Ya books. As it turns out, I didn't have time to read it. It was only this month that I finally cracked the binding. Yesterday, a mere two weeks after starting to read bits and pieces when I could, I closed the back cover and was finished. Fiction isn't usually my choice but once in a while there is an authour who makes me care about her characters and brings a story that touches me. Wells has managed such a thing with her group of Ya-Ya's in Thornton, LA.
As the third novel in the series, Little Altars Everywhere branched further into the Ya-Ya's and fellow Thornton denizens. We jumped from timeline to timeline and came parallel to stories we've read before, but now from a different perspective. We got to know the Petite Ya-Ya's as adults in a way that previous books just didn't have the space to give us, and are introduced to the Tres Petites, the grandchildren of the original four wild queens.
It's what my husband would most definitely label "a chick book" as it does focus on the inner strength of women, feelings and relationships, but I believe it's more than my reproductive organs and gender identity that connects with
this series. We all have families and time marches on, with or without us, whether we pay attention or not. The serene carribean ocean is vast just as the baby is growing. Both forces are just too big to stop. That can be comforting, but it can also be alarming if you realise how many moments you've already missed because something little, something that's altogether trivial, was more important. How much time is spent building the safety net of family, where brothers and sisters rely on each other? I have no connection to my brothers and sisters and, at this point in my life, I don't feel like I'm missing anything. I do wish they were different people so that I could feel bad for not having a stronger net, but
as they are, I don't have much confidence in any of them. The ship has sailed, so they say. For my children, the emphasis on family is a strong one. They have an opportunity to grow together and support one another, accepting and forgiving as family ought to do. They have an opportunity to be better people. I believe they already are better people, in spite of all the negative influences. I watch my older sons wade their way into the Gulf, swimming on their own but staying close enough to each other, and I see their baby brother keeping a watch on them from the beach. While the oldest is still a bossy first-born, the middle still cries foul, the daughter still steals the limelight and the baby still gets his way, I see an acceptance and happiness they have in each other that can't be duplicated anywhere else. It sustains them when they're away from each other and helps them to find the joy in life anywhere they are. They have the security of knowing they will always be there for each other. That love and support will always be there.
It's inspiration to have more good times. Is inspiration needed for such a thing? Sometimes it is. I have an occassional desire to cocoon, one which is self-destructive since I'm extroverted and need positive interaction with people to feel energised. Bumps in the roads break my stride and I begin to feel unsure, so I slow down, stop, or withdraw. When the safety net that my friends have become give me the kick in the butt I need, whether they realised they've done it or not, I'm back moving again. If I were to trust and rely on them consistently, I'd never cocoon. It's their support and honesty that has pushed me forward and lent me confidence on many things that I never would have had otherwise. It also helps that they're smarter than me and know what they're talking about.
A lot of us move around in our lifetimes and begin new chapters to our lives in places we've never been before. We have friends that we have to email or call long-distance instead of meet for a coffee or a beer in the evening. A lot of us are thousands of miles away from the trees we climbed as children or the places we parked as teenagers. But an "altar" is about more than a physical manifestation of a memory. It's the representation of that memory and what that memory means to us. It's a representation of the happiness, strength and security. There are little altars everywhere, not just in Thornton, LA with a fictional bunch of women and their fictional children. We all have our own altars that we treasure going back to, when we take the time to remember what means the most to us.
"From Jennifer: Michael and Bailey" photo courtesy of Jennifer Bensley, taken 2001 in Romeoville, Illinois.
It's rare that more than random web surfers or my friends read my blog. When I get wind of it, it's very exciting.
My photo blog is located at http://yapidka.blogspot.com and I have an artistic account at http://yapidka.deviantart.com/store. If you haven't already been there, I urge all readers to go when they have a moment. Please comment with critique or compliments if you have them.
That said, it's onto the life update, which I can't imagine anyone but my friends being the least bit interested in:
My mother is still with us in Florida. I think she's aiming to stay through the boys' baptisms but Hurricane Dean is making her nervous. Frankly, I don't want her here during a hurricane because of her high blood pressure. She's never been through one before and even though our home is safe, she just doesn't need that experience. The projections say it will miss us, but it's still early. We've seen these things be unpredictable. We'll just have to see how it goes.
Michael and Bailey had their doctors appointments this morning, then I took Michael for a much needed haircut, and after dinner was their school Open House. Bailey was so excited, she could hardly control herself. We met all the teachers we needed to meet and I got the information on Cub and Girl Scouts from their respective tables. We stopped at Target on the way home and got Bailey new sneakers. Her feet have grown and her current shoes have seen much better days.
I forgot to pick up milk, so I'm going to have to go first thing in the morning. Bailey has her K-Screening meeting with her Kindergarten teacher at 10. The day is then open until I have to go down to south Punta Gorda to meet her deadbeat father for her visitation weekend. With not knowing what was happening Wednesday night and Bailey not being here Saturday, we've pushed poor Michael's birthday party back to Sunday evening! I don't know what I'm going to do about his cake. It'll be ready on Saturday morning. I had totally forgotten about Tim's visitation. We might just have to have the party on Saturday and if Bailey misses it, she misses it. I hate to do that to her, but the boys have missed very important things because of visitation... it's just something that happens. She was here on his Birthday Day, so that's something. We'll save her cake.
The Diocese of Venice is hiring an Executive Assistant for the Chancellor. I've sent them my resume. There are a couple other opportunities that I've found through the job sites. Hopefully, something will yield something.
The children are registered for after school care, and Tommy for full-time child care, starting when school starts. That's my cue to get working.
Sesame Street has a Bert & Ernie skit wherein Ernie convinces Bert that a plain banana is a working telephone. Bert's logical argument against the possibility that the banana is a phone is sensible but eventually Ernie's insistence persuades Bert and he picks up the banana and holds it to his ear to hear if anyone is at the other end of the phone line. To our surprise, Bert begins to converse with the elephant, Gladys. What does Bert say?
"I'm six-foot-two, blonde hair..."
As a child, I was merely surprised that the banana phone worked. As an adult, watching the same skit that my children are now watching, I can't help to wonder, "Why does Bert lie about his appearance?" It's disturbing enough that the call is a hook-up. Why is Bert lying about what he looks like? Bert isn't six-foot-two, nor does he have blonde hair or blue eyes.
I've mentioned this skit before and been repeatedly told that I'm overreacting. It's a children's show, after all. It's Sesame Street. I think this is all the more reason to pay attention. Children are not consciously making the choice that tall/blonde/blue is better than short/black/brown, but there must be something that conditions them to, at a point in their lives, reject people who don't meet the society determined beauty standards. Since the world is bound to get at our kids sooner or later with these obnoxious messages and demands of conformity that'll rip at their self-esteem, wouldn't it be nice if Sesame Street didn't affirm those insecurities?
It's amazing how many things can be left up in the air despite laws of gravity. Most of it blisters with insanity because I cannot control time and space to make the impossible possible on a whim.
We're shampooing the carpets this weekend and preparing the den for my mother to have a space of her own during her visit when she brings the boys home in ten days.
The boys are scheduled to have their baptisms on August 26th. Everything has already been done to make that possible and the only thing I have left to do is provide a copy of my Judgment Order that shows I have sole custody of Michael and Eddie. This is so there is no contest from the father or liability of the Church in their baptisms. People actually do sue over these things.
Bailey's father wanted her early today because he had a dinner party at six with the pastor from the church they've started going to. He's a deadbeat that's thousands in arrears but he can afford to have a dinner party and wants to show off his parenting with the daughter he's a deadbeat over? He also only gave me a day's notice while planning this for an evening and a time that's already designated as a visitation exchange time. He expects me to accommodate him with whatever he asks but he can't actually structure his life with any proper considerations. We arrived at the visitation spot on time at six. When we got there, he was wearing a sleeveless shirt. I guess that's his dressed up.
Who is the cheapest person you know? (Not frugal... just annoyingly cheap!)
Submitted by kryan70.
I don't really know anyone who's genuinely cheap. Everyone I know who seems cheap is willing to spend extravagantly on something that they fancy for whatever reason, even if the thing isn't for them. That includes myself.
With that in mind, here's a product post:
I had gone to Goodwill to see if they still had a kennel that Tom had seen last week. Of course, it was gone. They confirmed that it had sold. I looked around a little and found myself in a section I never look in, the shoe section. I don't believe in wearing used shoes. I think that's like wearing used underwear. I wonder if I'd cave on that, too, if I saw the coolest underwear in the universe. As it stands, I violated my own shoe limits when I saw this gently used pair of boots by Earth®:
Size 7-1/2 and they looked small. Shoes usually make my feet look two sizes larger than they are. I couldn't make out the price in the flourescent lighting so I just took them up to the register. $6.99. Deal! These retail at over $100. I freshened them up when I got home and have worn the heck out of them since. These are extremely comfortable shoes!
Next is air fresheners. Ever since I grew up with Stick-ups, those insignificant round so-called air fresheners that stuck on walls and the sides of toilet comodes, I wasn't really a fan of air fresheners that just sat in a corner. I figured they all would just release scent to that limited corner, be wasted, and remain worthless. Instead, I'm a big fan of Frebreeze, lilac scented, and use it everywhere in the house, except for two places: masterbathroom and laundry room. Since the laundry room is reasonably small, I decided to try Renuzit's "Sunny Laundry" air freshener, which is shaped like a cone, which you pull apart to expose the gooey insides that disperse the scent of "sunny laundry" into the room. I was very pleased with the results, however I'm sure the clean laundry, Tide (with Frebreeze lilac) detergent and the Downey (with Frebreeze liliac) dryer sheets helped keep the aroma pleasant in the room. I told you I had a thing for lilac-scented Frebreeze. I wanted something for the masterbathroom, so I picked up a Glade Glass Scent, which is a gel that's embedded in a plexiglass square, meant to look decorative. I picked the green one ("Ferns & Blossoms") since the masterbath is white and silver with green accent. It's freshened the entire masterbedroom and bath with the scent. I'm very impressed! I won't stop using Frebreeze any time soon but it's nice to know these products do work.
On a friend's recommendation, I'm going to try Woolite Oxy Deep, an apolstery cleaner, on the carpet stains and, if it works, to freshen up the couches and chairs. We're going to put the air mattress in the den for my mother so she can have her own room when she brings the boys back in fifteen days, and we want the room to be cleaned up well. If the Woolite works, shampooing the carpet with our shampooer should be all we need.
Today, I moved the sewing desk into the kitchen. I had moved the computer onto the kitchen table a month ago to have more work space and be in direct contact with the family. With Tom's pursuits, it's overcome the entire table. I decided I wanted the table back so I packed my sewing machine back up and brought the desk, actually a typing desk, out into the kitchen and made a work station. There is enough room for both to comfortably exist in this space and he can use the table for paperwork and other sorting needs during the day, but still be able to clear it off and use the table for its original purposes. I have no immediate plans to move the computer back into the den after my mother returns to Chicago. It may have to or it may be a non-issue. We'll see. Tom has stored his drums in the garage temporarily.
My ex-husband's child support order was reduced from $73/week to $50/week, retroactive to 6/9/2007 and giving "compensation for $113". The petition was first heard before the court on 7/2/2007 and decided on 7/16/2007 and he hasn't paid any child support since April and was still working on arrears from not having bothered to pay for most of 2006.
Two children: $50/week.
The family court of Dupage County, Illinois supports losers and encourages deadbeat dads.
Tommy is obsessed with cars and Cars. He only wants to watch Cars, play with cars, ride in the car, drink from his Cars sippy cups (this was a hissy fit earlier today)...
But, can I fault him too much when I point to his Lightning McQueen and ask him, "What colour is it?" and he answers, "Red car!"? He's learning!
I forgot to call my babies tonight. I was too busy chasing after dogs. I will call them first thing in the morning.
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