Tresa's Blog

Kids on patio

We all know the horror stories of step families, I’ve seen some and experienced a few with other step families.  I’m not saying this because I ever really didn’t like the kids (OK there were times but my own have given me some grief too) but because I just wanted to thank them for being what they are and who they are.

The kids call me old witch (all of them) but I don’t mind as other words which rhyme are MUCH worse and I do have dark hair and a big nose….

We had my two girls who were in their teens and husbands two sons that were 8 and 11 when we first got married living with us most or @ least part of the time.  He had two older girls and a girl who was 5 when we got married, she stayed with us every other weekend.  Yes that adds up to 7 children.  There were already grandkids in the equation….

Freezing stuff from the garden 15 years ago.....

I love my biological children.  I expect them to think like I do in certain ways.   It’s just programmed into  every mother.  The last few years I have been able to appreciate fully what we have all accomplished though.   It hasn’t always been pretty but now family gatherings are my most precious moments.  It’s a gentle roar with 7 kids, assorted kids and grandkids?  Plus spouses, spouses to be etc.    I don’t know how long it’s been since we all tried to sit down @ a table, usually we fill a room up with folding tables.

Christmas Two years ago....

My husband and I have only been married 18+ years but these people are my family and always will be through thick and thin.  I didn’t have anything to do with raising the two oldest girls but I’m not exactly a mother figure to them, more like an aunt.   I’ve come to realize what a precious gift I’ve been given lately.  The reason for all of this?  A gradutation, a wedding shower,  a visit from the new mother (youngest step daughter) and 4 calls later in the week one from each step child checking on how I was or inviting me to a family function.  My daughters are on facebook and we talk almost every day on there but  not all of the steps are but they ALL took the time out to call ME, their father wasn’t home this week.  It wasn’t even mothers day!!

I’m not given to extreme emotions (except for occasional anger which we won’t discuss now) and I’m usually way too COOL trying to be snide and dry to say these things but I just had to say them now.  I am so very proud, I’ve always said we somehow got the perfect step family (there is not such a thing but ours is VERY good).  I am so proud of each and every one of them.

There is no sure  formula for step families as far as I can tell.  Tolerance, time, humor and shared experiences and love for the same people are the key I believe.  OK, lots of laughter and good food and kids playing, movies stories, campfires….. and now a wedding…

God has truly blessed me, all of it may not have been what I envisioned when I was 19  but  he has filled my heart.

Me and second oldest Grandson.

My daughter and I visited every gallery we could on this street, Los Olas Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Christmas Eve of 2005 and then went to Key West the next day.  Not your typical Christmas but a great one (my daughter paints and so do I, heaven for wanna be artists).  Don’t know if we visited Pocock Fine Art & Antiques but I saw it on this site and was reminded of it all.  The beauty of blogs….I think Los Olas is where they had the pink drawbridge over the canal…I bought this hat close to that drawbridge and gave it to my other daughter.

My daughter and tired tired grandkids

I have more pictures on the other laptop  I’ll try to put on some day.  And BTW if you ever need to drive in Fort Lauderdale?  Forget the turn signal, a horn and a fist plus other hand signs are ALL you need.  First place I ever really had road rage or drove over a concrete median to make a u turn in heavy traffic….you just have to see it.

I am sorry I didn’t visit blogs or write while I was gone.  I had internet service.  I am lazy.  lazy lazy.  But I did think while going down the road.

I was thinking about how this is my blog and I write what I want and how because it’s MY BLOG.  Sometimes people don’t understand I use sentences that run together and And @ the beginning of a sentence or aint because it suits my purposes.  (OK sometimes I don’t know any better but we can pretend I catch all my mistakes can’t we?)

I also use hyperbole, rhetorical questions, allusion, illusion, preparation h, simile, and ky jelly if necessary to get my point slid across.

I also tilt @ windmills, the rebel without a cause, I spawned two conservative children and I have NO idea how but they think I am nuts.  BUT I play Don Quixote sometimes here BECAUSE I CAN, because it’s MY BLOG!!  And yes I had to look up how to spell Quixote.

I know the last 3 paragraphs have nothing to do with thanksgiving but I thought of the ky jelly line and it seemed too good not to share? I also thought of a blog post about how I lack the farming gene and my families ability to tell the crop and planting date of any field while I’m doing good to even notice them much less identify them but we will save that for another day.

What I’m grateful  for Thanksgiving day 2009:

The ability to blog and to read others blogs and my dear friends I’ve “met” blogging.

The free internet, news services, and press we have in this country.

Of course family and friends, I do have friends, I was just having trouble remembering some of their names because I hadn’t seen them since July?  LOL

Our family having survived the ups and downs of the previous year.  It’s been triumph and tragedy.  Some lost companies because of lost contracts through no fault of their own.  Some lost jobs because they were too temperamental.  (sorry if I scoff @ that one, they spoke up and told the truth and it hurt so they lost their job, imagine my relative having a big mouth? Moi?)  It was over a year ago that I started but I worked outside the home @ a job for the first time in 19 years.   Anyway I did a “real” job and I took orders from people and was a good employee which is not easy after years of “self” employment.  My husband also got a “job” for the first time in 20+ years when he leased his truck onto construction.  From what I hear he was a model employee (except for the time he asked permission to knock somone’s block off from the foreman, foreman said OK?) and was always ahead of everyone else even though he was the oldest one doing what he did. We are back to self employed but you always “work” for someone, if you are boss you “work” for the employees sometimes I think.   Also my brother is shall we say a senior citizen, I don’t know if he’s in like in his second childhood or what (I have doubts he ever left the first) but for an old man he’s not old.  Maybe it’s the race car he has?  He doesn’t drive it anymore but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.  My husband is of an age where I remember my parents well and I was going through my teenage rebellion.  He’s not old.  I’m thinking we are oblivious or just not aging like previous generations did (due to superior health care or the bilssful oblivion of many drug trips, JUST KIDDING)

Basically we have triumphed over adversity and turned around and made life better and realized what was important and what wasn’t  because of it and I’m thankful for the opportunity and the ability and the health to do it, especially during this time of financial difficulty.  (this is starting to sound like one of those bragging Christmas letters, little Johnnie is now the president of the cub scouts in North America and little Sally has been voted high school prom queen while in kindergarten and they will both attend Yale next year on a full ride scholarship, those kind of letters)

I’m grateful for my home and the ability to not live too close to people most of the time.  I’m grateful for all the “luck” and blessings that have enabled me to enjoy some(most) of lifes riches.

I’m grateful our relatives are still with us this year that were with us last year for the most part. I will miss Lester and Louella (my moms first cousin who married the widow of my dads best friend, got that?) because they were one of the links to my past.  I’m grateful that I was here when one of the closest family friends died.  I’m glad I got the opportunity to know our dog Mugsey.

I’m grateful I’ve sort of beat the fat genes that run in our family and have never seriously been over 160.  I shouldn’t say that because I will blossom (my brother has called me squatty body (say it it rhymes, he’s sometimes amusing, this isn’t one of those times) for years, we cant all be 6′4″ BRO!).  The last time I had a skinny woman ancestor was my great grandmother and her having no teeth may have had something to do with that?

I’m grateful for the man who is sleeping in my bed, (it’s my husband silly) and the dog who is sleeping in the chair, the dog sleeping on the porch, and the cat sleeping in the log cabin.

I’m grateful for the ability to overcome the health problems we have faced over the past year and the ability to “get healthy” disgusting and boring but we are doing it.  No drink, no smoke, no fatty foods, vegetables, very few sweets, sleep regularly, walk, drink water, blaaaahhhh.   BTW I never said I ever quit drinking, I’m the type of person who can have one and quit, or one potato chip.  I’m a sick sick puppy I know.  My husband will tell you how healthy he is and now he’s losing weight.  Did I mention the term ad nauseum?  I would never say those words? 

I’m grateful for the ability to go and stuff ourselves silly tomorrow with many of our close relatives and talk to the others. I am also grateful I can now distinguish most of  my grand-children’s voices over the phone and not call the boys by their mothers names which makes me NOT favorite grandma.  I’m also thankful we all have a way of making a living and/or our driving privledges left.  You know who I’m talking to.

Donnie Osmond won Dancing With The Stars and we missed it!  Sorry but I just couldn’t get behind Mya, I even sent a text vote for Kelley, first time I’ve ever done that and Johanna was GOOD and I think Derek is my nephew, that’s good and clean isn’t it?  When the show came on I thought it was the stupidest thing ever.  Now I’m usually pretty close with guessing how the judges are going to score the couples and how they will criticize them.  I know NOTHING about ballroom dancing or didn’t.  Just thought I”d throw that in there.

I’m grateful I learned how to spell quixote.

I’m on an angels on twitter list! Thanks Starlingpoet!  My family would say if she only knew me……..

I’d better quit.

Happy TURKEY DAY amigos!!

I wrote about Dispatches truck trip on animals that give pause.

OK, I’m in Missouri.  There are relatives here and my husband started up his “other” business again so I have been busy.

I had some of the grandkids this weekend.  The little ones played jail.  They used some of my extensive collection of Mardis Gras Beads for handcuffs.  I told them the beads I picked up from dead peoples houses from the hurricanes (NO I DIDN’T) the people were alive and well and having their houses demolished or I got them the old fashioned way from the floats.  You should have seen the 8 and 10 year olds faces before they said NO YOU DIDN’T G’MA (they are pretty sure I’m a bit off my rocker anyway).     Anyway I thought it was funny , if you don’t think so, well you just don’t have the family sick sense of humor.

The big grandkids went hunting deer hunting  (a sport not to be made light of here in MO, especially to the orange people (hunters with blaze orange) who are all over like alien ants this time of year).  There have been many big cat sightings around here, really.  See pictures on animals blog.  Panthers or mountain lions, bigger than bobcats.  You can guess what is coming.  First it was a rabid bull trying to get across the fence, this was probably actually the most danger the kids were in.  I asked grandson if he had looked for a tree to climb.  This isn’t being facetious, just good sense.  He said yes but bull was across a new fence thank goodness.  Second time the grandsons came home WAY before dark, it was raining and miserable.  It was a growl this time, 2nd grandson said he yelled for his big brother, big brother said no he screamed for me.  This went on and I believe the discussion of what happened had escalated to “I called for my brother” and older bro said “he screamed like a little girl” but that may have been my imagination.  I asked the one who had been growled @ if he was close to said previous fence and he said yes.  I said bull, he said no it was a growl, I said the bull sounded like he growled, grandson said I don’t care.  We did remind him he had a very powerful rifle that could be used like a club if need be or perhaps to shoot a bullet maybe @ something?  In all fairness the woods can be a very scary place and if I’d seen a panther or anything like it I would have made a world speed record back to the house.

So I have a “job” for now.  Husband says I once again can make more working with him than I could anywhere else.  He has some health problems too (we are fat and getting fatter) so he needs some coaching on what to eat etc.  So I will write from the road, I think I can, I’ll be home half the time though or more and the rest of the time the relatives will be here.  Plus there’s that rabid bull in the woods…….

As of right now we are back @ our real house.  Well I am,  husband went to get the camper and truck.  Hard to explain but they sort of took away his part of the job, like everyone who was independently contracted no longer is on this job.  There’s a chance to go to FL in March and he is on the top of the list but…… if we get re situated up here I don’t know if we want to do FL in the summer if the same thing (he gets laid off) is going to happen in November next year.

So I am going to look for a job, unless I can make enough through adsense and advertising on my blogs, unemployment in MO is 9.5%, luckily husband had a line on something else already that is profitable, actually he’s just going back to what he was doing with the truck before. (he doesn’t qualify for unemployment since he’s been self employed so much and I could try but I quit my last job so that’s not right).  I talked to my old boss (retail store who shall remain nameless but you can guess since I live in rural MO) who took my resignation, she’s @ a different store and I was really happy to hear her say “they might hire you back full time etc.  especially since it’s YOU.“  I took that to mean I did a good job or I was their paid slave, take your pick.  I’m not looking forward to the job search, BUT I’m not jumping back into my old job, I’m looking for a week or two before I even go ask them.  Am I stupid not to jump @ any job I “might” get in this recession?  Probably and I did enjoy the physical side of the job,  I know not fashionable to enjoy labor but I didn’t have to go to the gym!  The mind-numbing monotony of slow times and abject stupidity of people who shall remain nameless got to me which is one rule I disagree with, they schedule according to previous customer volume,  if it’s slow  LET PEOPLE GO HOME, call people and tell them not to come in etc, send them to different departments.  Duhhhhh.  But I don’t  run a big corporation so I know NOTHING about it.   I can’t say I was treated like a peon because of my job all the time because I was sort of a special peon but I guess what I’m trying to say is ” I’m WAY fricken smarter than you give me credit for and I tested out of a logic test for college once so GIVE ME SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT, or I will run amok licking customers in the eye.  (It’s an old joke from my training, something was mumbled about always looking customers in the eye and I took it to mean you lick the customers in the eye, luckily the trainers had already succumbed to my vast charms and laughed and didn’t send me home for a strange personality disorder)  (it did become a classic joke among some, you always LICK customers in the eye, think about it, you spot a customer, sneak up behind them and then jump up and try to get your tongue as close to their eye as possible, not a good idea with flu and aids I know but I didn’t really do it.  ever…….OK one time we stalked a customer but we didn’t like her….JK)  AND these people will hire me back with more pay probably?  Think about it what kind of masochistic fools they are considering I would tell them exactly how I was feeling if they asked?  As in I have killer cramps and PMS and would like to trip the next little darlin that runs through the dept knocking things off the shelves.  Yes I’ve said that to top management.  I’ve also crawled in a VERY large cardboard box more like a crate, after telling them (manager and district manager) I was the only one who could retrieve something from it because they would crush it, (they were a bit chubby) THAT was hilarious.  At least I think so.

Oh and this means I do Turkey Day here @ home.  That is fine but a long shot from the turkey day on the open air patio I had planned in New Orleans.  We’ve done that before, it was great.  I’ll enjoy having the kids and grandkids around though….. I forgot to tell the kids about turkey day……

And my grandsons!!! Semi big deal in our county, OK it’s the biggest deal besides the occasional unexpected explosion or the tourists coming in April or leaving in September.  Oh yeah the Fairs, demolition derbys and beer gardens are pretty big deals too.

This is the FIRST and only time that brothers have won Apple Festival King two years in a row.  Of course most people don’t have kids 15 1/2 months apart either.

Zach and his Queen last year

Marcus and his Queen 2009 Apple Festival

Zach, Marcus, Jacob, and Sara

Story also on Animals That Give Pause and Missouri Books and my old animals blog on blogger, in other words Grandma is braggin!  And the whole family is very proud and happy, I just emailed and twittered, I’m working on facebook.

1. Waiting till I think world is safely awake to go to Wal Mart for groceries etc. because I have to stop by the landlords (RV Park owner) house to get mail so I can maybe get my google adsense straightened out.
2. Back in TX which is where we call home even though it isn’t our native state?
3. Wondering if I should start wearing t-shirts instead of summer sleeveless tops?
4. Thankful we had such a nice “vacation” @ home and @ my brothers.
5. Listening to Good Morning America about the parents who took pictures of their kids naked, wal mart turned them in, and the children were taken from them for a month.  ?????  Everyone who hasn’t taken a picture of their kid naked please get busy because you will be the only ones out of jail and you are about 1% of the population.
6. Wondering if there is anything I can do about my step daughter who has a baby who lives in a tent with her husband whom the family doesn’t consider suitable.  We have reason trust me.  Think a record for one.
7. Thinking I’ll have to take some sort of nap because I got 5 hr sleep because I stayed up playing with my blogs or I can tough it out today without a nap?
8. Thinking I’m going to have to figure out a way not to eat 2000 calories a day even though I want to.