Willie meeting Willie 1987

Uncle Willie
1942-2007
Uncle Willie died of cancer on Tuesday.
The funeral is Friday morning.
Son Willie will be a pallbearer.

Willie wins!
It's always a win win situation when you participate in a healthy lifestyle.
Willie rides his bike to work every day - 3 miles each way. He has cut out junk food (can't afford it).
With all of this he has gone complaining every inch of the way. But, in spite of himself, his lifestyle is proving to make him a winner.

See for yourself!

PS, Thanks Don!

This is the funniest thing I have read in a long time. It made me laugh so hard I cried.
You have to read it yourself. There is no way I could ever read this out loud.

A 3-year-old tells all from his mother's restroom stall.

My little guy, Cade, is quite a talker. He loves to communicate and does it quite well. He talks to people constantly, whether we're in the library, the Grocery store or at a drive-thru window. People often comment on how clearly he speaks for a just-turned-3-year-old. And you never have to ask him to turn up the volume. It's always fully cranked. There've been several embarrassing times that I've wished the meaning of his words would have been masked by a not-so-audible voice, but never have I wished this more than last week at Costco. Halfway, through our shopping trip, nature called, so I took Cade with me into the restroom. If you'd been one of the ladies in the restroom that evening, this is what you would have heard coming from the second to the last stall:
"Mommy, are you gonna go potty? Oh!
Why are you putting toiwet paper on the potty, Mommy?
Oh! You gonna sit down on DA toiwet paper now?
Mommy, what are you doing? Mommy, are you gonna go stinkies on
the potty?"
At this point I started mentally counting how many women
had been in the bathroom when I walked in. Several stalls were full ? 4? 5? Maybe we could wait until they all left before I had to make my debut out of this stall and reveal my identity. Cade continued, "Mommy, you ARE going stinkies aren't you? Oh, dats a good girl, Mommy! Are you gonna get some candy for going stinkies on the potty? Let me see doze stinkies, Mommy! Oh ? Mommy! I'm trying to see in dere. Oh! I see dem. Dat is a very good Girl,Mommy. You are gonna get some candy!" I heard a few faint chuckles coming from the stalls on either side of Me.
Where is a screaming newborn when you need her? Good grief. This was really getting embarrassing. I was definitely waiting a long time before exiting. Trying to divert him, I said, "Why don't you look in Mommy's purse and see if you can find some candy . We'll both have some!"
"No, I'm trying to see doze more stinkies. Oh! Mommy!"
He started to gag at this point. "Uh oh, Mommy. I fink I'm gonna frow up. Mommy, doze
stinkies are making me frow up!! Dat is so gross!!"
As the gags became louder, so did the chuckles outside my stall. I quickly flushed the toilet in hopes of changing the subject. I began to reason with myself: OK. There are four other toilets. If I count four flushes, I can be reasonably assured that those who overheard this embarrassing
monologue will be long gone.
"Mommy! Would you get off the potty, now?
I want you to be done going stinkies! Get up! Get up!" He grunted as he tried to pull me off.
Now I could hear full-blown laughter. I bent down to count the feet outside my door.
"Oh, are you wooking under dere, Mommy? You wooking under DA door?
What were you wooking at, Mommy? You wooking at the wady's feet?"
More laughter. I stood inside the locked door and tried to assess the situation.
"Mommy, it's time to wash our hands now." "We have to go out now, Mommy."
He started pounding on the door.
"Mommy, don't you want to wash your hands? I want to go out!!"
I saw that my "wait 'em out" plan was unraveling. As I sheepishly opened the door, and found
an open sink, I thought, Where's the fine print on the 'motherhood contract' where I signed away every bit of my privacy? But as my little herald gave me a big, cheeky grin while he rubbed bubbly soap between his chubby little hands, I thought, I'd sign it all away
again, just to be known as Mommy to this little fellow.

Shannon Popkin is a freelance writer and mother of three. She lives with her family in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she No Longer uses public restrooms

I have found the paradox
that if I love until it hurts,
then there is no hurt,
but only more love.
Mother Teresa
This spoke volumes to me.

In the two weeks since I last updated I have been extremely busy!

The week before last, my boss and I were in endless meetings to transfer most her tasks to me. This put me sadly behind on my own usual duties. And I was not allowed any overtime.
The pool was allowed to get horribly gorss, by Sunday I was livid. I wrote an email detailing everything wrong. I sent it to the offices here, sent their boss, and the Dept. of Public Health. On Monday the pool sparkled like a precious jewel.
I felt like I was running the whole week.

Friday as I was leaving, a bit early to cut overtime, a work friend (my age) came in to the offices to sit as she was dizzy and short of breath. I had been a bit concerned about her all that week. She was not her usual self. She is also the survivor of a major heart attack a few years ago. That afternoon I ended up taking her to the emergency room, after I drove her to pick up her children. Her husband is a coast to coast truck driver. Friend didn't want them home alone and worrying. The children were there when she had her heart attack, which was a pretty bad experience for them. Friend ended up spending the night in the hospital, Rand and I fed the kids, and Rand followed in friends car, Grandma had made it to their house, and we took the kids home. Doctors decided not to much was presenting it self at this time and declared her okay. I think an angiogram would have shown a blockage. I'd bet on it.

Sandra, Lilly and Jason (an old friend of Sandra's) came by on Saturday. Lilly did get to spend the night with us. Sandra and Jason were visiting their old buddies. Lilly was her usual joyful self. We managed to go swimming 3 times in 17 hours. Lilly is still a major delight! The visit was over way too soon. Sandra seemed to be doing well. More like "our Sandra" again.
Today is Sandra's birthday.

This week was more chaotic than last week. All HR calls are being directed to me. All team members come to me. I have the highest computer clearance in the store now. I'm doing the majority of the job offers. My usual tasks, plus even more paperwork, and meetings.
Add in a slightly malfunctioning time clock, two printers fighting different problems, and two days of serious computer failings - on very critical days for me and it got real messy. I worked 12 hours yesterday trying to get important deadline reports done, but fighting sick computers. The computers were running 4x slower than they should.
I went in early today - Did I mention we were spending the week preparing for a big "Walk" by head honchos. I had to clean offices, the breakroom, and the conference room. They were here first thing this morning.
Today half of the computers failed right off. The execs couldn't get any of their morning reports. The repairman was there to help with the stuff I had called on, but couldn't do anything about the others, including give me some advice, because I didn't have a work order for those computers. I have never spent so much time calling the "help desk" with issues as I did this week. For the computers this morning, I called the Help Desk and by the time I was talking to a human, I had managed to fix the problem myself. Once I got it right on one, I had to fix three others. I need to check on two more tomorrow, they aren't as frequently used.
I was also being warned about my overtime, several times a day this week. "Yeah, I got the message an hour ago and I'm smart enough to know company procedure since it is my job to keep an eye out for everyone else and let you know when there are violations."
And I still had execs trying to add to my work load. "Can you take this 4" pile of reports and compile it into useful at-a-glance information?"
Tomorrow will hopefully be an successful day of catch up.

Time for bed - I just woke up in front of the computer.

The Lost Week
I started out on Sunday being as weak as a kitten, limp noodle, wrung out washcloth....
Monday, I made it to work for just a few hours, went home and slept for 24 hours.
Tuesday woke up with the grand beginnings of another migraine, went back to the doctor, got something to at least take away the nausea.
Found out I am losing my boss - who I adore. I may not get a new one right away which means the next few weeks I'm looking at a really heavy workload.
Wednesday back to work, but I have no memory of it.
Thursday was a 10 hour day to try to make a dent in my workload for the week.
Today, I am exhausted again. So sore I can barely move. Everything is flared and swollen. My really good drugs aren't even keeping the edge off. I left work feeling pretty well caught up.

I even had to leave early so that I could wait for the cable guy. I have had this appointment for a couple of weeks now. He was to show between 4-7pm.
Our problem? No cable about half the time I would try to get on the computer. I finally started calling them every time I couldn't, have them check for problems in our area. After confirming there was no problem in our area, I would have them credit our bill for that day since I was not getting the service I was paying for. It was pretty well a problem everyday. They decided it did need to be checked.
Last time I had a cable repair person out they showed a half hour early and charged me $35 to tell me that outlet doesn't work. No further offer to help. Today he didn't arrive until the tail end of our time. Over two hours of just waiting.
Today's guy diagnosed the problem I have hounded Mediacom about for the last 10 months. This is the third time I have convinced them to send a guy out. I have no doubt - the problem is fixed now.
He even gave us a better cable wire then we were originally supplied with.
He didn't even bitch about my router, which the other repair guys did. It is the 21st century - catch up you morons!
I am going to contact Mediacom and let them know how impressed we were by the guy.

I had some recent blood work done (They were thermostat checking) that shows I am not in menopause. Does that mean I'm done?
I started the process over 20 years ago at the tender age of 22. That was one of the clues that led to my hysterectomy at age 23.
My doctors have always said that my blood tests showed I had started menopause, but never finished. I have dealt with the symptoms for the last two decades. They surmised that when I hit a more appropriate age, but still probably younger than my peers, I would finish.
Part of the problem was they originally salvaged my left ovary. This was told upon my waking moments following my original surgery.
My first words were, "You dumbshits.".
This was also the butchering of my life. Many doctors since have been appalled but what was done to my body during that surgery. For starters - they didn't get me stitched back together straight. If I had made a similar seam while sewing I would have ripped it all out and started over. I was cut starting above the belly button and as low as one could possibly go. And almost every inch of it is out of a horror movie. Doctors say they can see the same quality was performed on the inside of me as well and could be part of the problem as why adhesions are destroying the inside of me now.
The saved female jewel was non-functioning and covered with painful cysts most of the time. It was finally destroyed by adhesions and then they removed "as much of it as we could find". It only takes a few ovarian cells to really mess up your hormones
and *Bonus Points* I am still at risk for ovarian cancer!
Thanks Doc.

We tried once again for Lilly this weekend, but Sandra won't return our calls. This is especially frustrating because we are paying for her phone. And we can't even talk to Lilly.
She always says she is not using Lilly as a weapon or trying to keep her from us. I don't know who she is trying to convince - us or herself? It's not working for us.
She is punishing me and causing us much heartache. She is hurting Lilly and all of the extended family. If we don't get to see Lilly - nobody does.
And I get all of this for trying to save her life and protect Lilly.
And I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
I couldn't imagine the heartache of your child dying from something so useless as meth and not doing everything in your power to stop it. How do you justify walking away - especially when there are grandbabies involved? When I see all the faces of meth around, I do wonder where their families are. And it is really sad that we can so easily identify the faces now. I miss being blissfully ignorant, sometimes.

Since I shared one coming child, I might as well share the other one. Especially since I thought I had and looking back through my blog, I guess I didn't.
Introducing what will be our grand-niece/nephew. This sweet baby is due on February 14th!

1 You Are a Little Scary

You've got a nice edge to you. Use it.

How Scary Are You?

2 Your Gemstone is Aquamarine

Intuitive, tranquil, and trusting. You inspire others to have faith in themselves.

What Gemstone Are You?


This freaks me out - it is my birthstone!

3 Your Inner Child Is Sad

You're a very sensitive soul. You haven't grown that thick skin that most adults have. Easily hurt, you tend to retreat to your comfort zone. You don't let many people in - unless you've trusted them for a long time.

How Is Your Inner Child?

Oh My God!
I'm going to be a Gramma again!
I hereby nickname this one Pickle.
(Due mid January)