Finally! Some snow!

Well, winter has finally arrived! Yes, it took awhile but it's here now. We spent the better part of Sunday digging out from the 20" of snow we received Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Spoke to Jackie yesterday...she's homesick. I reassured her that she would, on occasion, be homesick but that she has a better life out there. We're trying to figure out how we're going to get her car out to her. I wanted her to fly out here and then I'd drive out with her. No deal. Herman doesn't like that idea, for numerous reasons..one being the whole safety thing. 2 women traveling alone...not good. I, on the other hand, thought it would be a great deal of fun!

Not too much else to say so I'm outta here! Peace!

More updates..

Today is Jackie's 24th and Rachel's 18th birthdays! Yes, they have the same birthday. And yes, we celebrate them together...actually, since John's 15th birthday is on the 18th, we celebrate ALL three birthdays on the same day! (Does it get any easier?!) Becky will be 17 on June 21 so she's the only one who gets her very own party and cake. Enough about that..

Jason continues to make big strides in his recovery. His dad, George, had his cancer surgery yesterday. He's doing very well. He'll get out of the hospital on Thursday.

A few weeks back my mother in law had chest pain that radiated into her back. It wasn't a heart attack, thank God. She had some scans done and it came back that she has a mass in her chest. I spent the night up by them (NY) last night so that I could accompany them to the thoracic surgeon today. ( A few months ago we {Herman, his sister Maureen and I) decided that they could not go to the doctor's without one of us present..Why, you ask? Well...my father in law is very hard of hearing and the stories he comes up with are unbelievable!! He takes whatever he actually hears and expounds on it so that he we think he heard the doctor!!) Back to the story: Turns out that she has a thymoma, a tumor on her thymus gland. It is in front of her heart so it will need to be removed. She has to see a cardiologist to examine her heart and then we'll go back to get the determination from the surgeon. She's in no imminent danger right now so there is no hurry to get this done. It will, however, need to removed in the near future as it could possible turn into cancer. Anyway, we were kind of relieved about this because when someone says it's a tumor, you automatically assume the worst. So this was, in an odd way, good news.

All is well here. Been busy. Had tooth extracted on Monday...SUCKED. It's ok now, tho. Work is fine...a tad slow right now...since it's been in the 60's (on a few occasions) there have been no "no heat" calls...Funnily enough, a few weeks ago I had a customer call to say that it was too hot in their office and could we come and fix the air conditioning!! It's been a strange winter here in the northeast...not really cold at all.

I guess that's about it for now...Peace!

Jackie

Well, just an update on Jackie's situation:

She returned back to WINR's when she was released from the hospital. She was met by the director of the program who began to complain to Jackie that her diabetes was a burden to the program. (Side note: Jackie asked about this when she originally applied to this program.) In the meantime, no one from staff has ever A) taken her to the hospital B) called her at the hospital to make sure she was ok nor C) visited her. The woman who was saying this to Jackie didn't even know Jackie's name or that she had diabetes before all of this!!! Then the woman told Jackie that there were rumors and suspicions that Jackie and this other girl (the lesbian) were becoming "intimate" and that she broke the rules by doing so. Jackie denied this vehemently (because it's NOT true) and they still told her that she had 2 choices: either start the program over from the beginning (she has 5 months in this program!!) or leave. Jackie told her that she absolutely wouldn't start the program over because she did NOTHING wrong. So, they told her to pack her things and leave immediately. And she did. I've spoken to her 3 times today. She was in tears because she really wanted that graduation under her belt. She wanted the satisfaction of knowing that she completed something. She wanted that acknowledgement of success. I felt so badly for her....still do.

So, in the meantime, she has decided to stay in AZ and look for her own place. She has safe friends to stay with for however long it takes. I just feel that she'll be fine...she WILL make it!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO JACKIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We love you!

John's band and the fire

Well, the fire that burned The Oddessy's practice location made the local newspaper yesterday! They also made the local cable news last night! Hopefully, some music store (Sam Ash, Lou Rose) will offer to sell them new equipment at cost or at least with no finance charges.

I heard from Jackie last night and this morning. She is in the hospital...blood sugar was 500+ and not coming down. So, 2 days in ICU with an insulin drip and she's feeling better. Except that she's being accused of having an "affair" with another girls in the program, which is grounds for removal!! She's not..and I think that it's very unfair to make false accusations just because the other girl is a lesbian and Jackie is a good friend of hers. This poor girl! Just imagine being accused of numerous "affairs" just because you're a lesbian and live with all women!! Jackie will find out what's going to happen to her once she gets out of the hospital.

Ok...that's it for now! Peace!

The good, the bad and...well,the ugly. (Sorry for the bad cliche)

The good: My sister is pregnant! Woooooohoooo! I'm still in shock!! She'll turn 44 the day before my 45th birthday (yes, she was born the day before my first birthday!!) so this is both happy and hmmm..not scary...but, well, "cautious" news. However, I am soooo thrilled about this news that I simply CANNOT contain myself!!!! Yeeeeeeeeehawwwww!

Also, I finally heard from Dar...she made the big move!!! Yay! She's in a much better place: mentally, physical, emotionally and financially. I'm so happy for her and her boys!

The bad: My son's band, The Oddessy, lost a majority of their equipment this evening when the place they stored their equipment at and rehearsed at went up in flames. The damages are still being totalled. I feel soooo badly for them and the owner of the garage ( a band member's mother)...Hopefully, they'll recover from this awful fire. Nobody was injured, thank God.

The ugly: Work. I won't go into detail but this week was pretty much AWFUL.....and not related to the job itself. Two people I care about a great deal have had pretty much the worst week in their lives ever. And I'm stuck in the middle. I'm not worried about losing my job but I am afraid of losing a friend. We'll see how this plays out...

Well, this is all the news that's fit to print..so I'm outta here.

Peace!!!

Help a girl out!

Deborah (outtabodymommy) of "So this is what I'm gonna be when I grow up"  is looking to get 100 comments! Can you spare a comment? She is sooo damn funny! Check her out!

Ain't I quite the pimp today??!! LOL!!

Peace!

And thank you, Jason!!

A great big ""THANKS" to my friend Jason over at Jason's Thoughts and Views!! He made his list of weird things about him!! Go check out his list AND his journal. He's a great guy, just like Brian at Becoming a Firefighter. Thanks guys!!