MIA for 23 years. Somewhat prisoners of war.

Well this will be interesting. Back in 2010, literally 13 years ago, i planned to pen an update sharing that we had initially planned to take two new foster girls, that didnt come to fruition because they were sent to another county, then we ended up taking two younger children and the bottom dropped out of our life entirely over the course. i'm not entirely sure I even mentioned being foster parents on this blog. I have a feeling this blog started (and stopped) in the only window of joy and normalcy we ever had. It was short lived.

Where I've been.....

I suppose I should explain the vicious abandonment of my blog....

1. Job search sent me traveling for several fruitless interviews between May and the end of June last year, when I was last present here blogging.

2. July 09 - took in a 6 year old child.

3. Decided to adopt the child and the biological sibling. (This is a very long story that must be confidential.) Freaked out at the thought of having two children to care for and a resume that remains rooted in a shrinking industry.

4. Applied to law school.

5. Got accepted to law school.

6. August 09 - Brought home the bio sibling of the 6 year old child.

7. 8 days later - started law school, with NO child care in place.

8. Learned that pre-school is not at all what I thought it was. There are huge waiting lists and expenses that are possibly bigger than the waiting lists.

9. Tried to keep it all together. Obviously, this left no blogging time.....

More to come.

Crash

Good morning Internet.

You may have noticed the prolonged absence on this blog. Please rest assured this is temporary, and normal posting will resume as soon as possible. Unless, of course, the main author's head does actually spontanously combust and thus render blogging impossible. The odds are not good right now.

Gosh. I guess I'll summarize in attempt to make this blog post less than twelve weeks long to read.

1. Sister got into a car wreck. (She's okay now.)
2. Grandma reached a point where she needs more support with things like weekly grocery shopping, etc. This is a pleasure, I assure you, and I am SO thankful to be out of a job and thus be able to be the lucky one to spend this time with her. (Unemployment is such a mixed blessing.)
3. My mother spend a few days in the hospital. Her heart can't handle her job. Her finances can't sustain the absence of her job. Everyone is full of fear and full of prayer with what will happen to GM. Whatever happens to GM will determine what happens to my father's job, and their entire retirement.
4. Aaron had a nasty class load that ended 48 hours ago. This kept me just as busy as he was. His summar load starts tomorrow night for him.
5. We helped friends move their stuff from Canada to the USA. Exhausting, and took way longer than expected.
6. My masters thesis has to be finished soon. I mean HAS to be. Or I don't get my degree without first retaking other courses. I graduate in August. You would not believe the workload I have right now, or the ridiculously short time I have to get it done.
7. Of course, I can't make a list of what's going on in my life without including the economy! and jobsearch! and financial worry! and stress. I have NO leads. I have LITTLE hope. I have LOTS of tears. This morning the news announced the unemployment in Michigan at 12.6%, and cited it the highest in the country. I thought I saw stats that it was over 13% a few months ago, but that may have been a different deal. Maybe one is state-wide and one is based on a national average? I don't know. Anyhow, the report of a current 12.6% status also advised we can expect to climb to 14% by the end of the year, and might even see 15% into 2010. What happened to the prediction that things were bouncing back? Hello, Obama? You there? We don't expect extravagance. I only want to work for a living as I've always done, feel a purpose, help feed and house my family, and not live in this brand of fear every day. Don't even tell me your posse can't fix this. Shut off the damn NAFTA pipe, place some proper tariffs on imports, use your "stimulus" ideas in ways that WORK, and get our economy back on track. This is an amazing country full of talent that can't be described in words, and we're falling apart.

Anyway. The next few days are going to be among the worst as far as crunch and workload. I don't know when I'll be back, but I know I will be back. And, hopefully, I'll be back with some sort of happy news to share, and a little less whining. Ciao, bellas.

Rough Weekend

Seriously, we're tired!

The fence is almost completely finished. One section (that has to be cut to fit) and the gates are left. That was a lot of work, and we are so grateful to have had help.

It's supposted to thunderstorm for the next several days. This means we'll probably leave the sections up that are just covering the openings on either side of the house so the dogs can use the yard without tethers. (And I can open the door at 4 am when there is whining, rather than put shoes and a coat on and go traipsing through the woods in the middle of the night with leashes.)

The case of the missing poop bag, a lost key, and tug-of-war

I have (had?) a key. One little key on it's own little ring. I grab it when I walk or run. If I have no pockets, I clip it to the end of Kenzie's leash.

Today I had pockets. Plenty cold enough for a coat this morning. The key went into the pocket with the empty poop bags.

We set off jogging down the street.

Kenzie picked her spot to poo. It was bagged. Jordy picked his spot. It was bagged. We set out on the rest of our jog with both bags in the hand that held Jordy's leash. 3/4 of the way through our journey, I noticed only one poop bag was in my hand. I decided to go run the loop again alone after the dogs were inside, because they both seemed tired, and were about 30 minutes past breakfast time. We all walked up to the front door, and, my key was no longer in my pocket. ???

We retraced our steps, pausing at each place we pulled out poop bags to use, and could not see the key. The dogs were NOT cooperating with the search efforts.

I brought them back home and stuck them in the neighbor's yard so I could run and search myself. I found the missing poop bag, and picked it up, but did not find the key. Releashed the dogs, brought them into our yard, and began to formulate a plan... Kenzie would not make it all the way to my parents after already having a decent length jog. I could not leave either dog on a tether unsupervised. (They can get hurt on those things. Truthfully, I hate those things with a passion and can't wait until we never have to use them again other than when camping.) I sat in the sun but still shivered. I'd worked up just enough of a sweat to now be freezing cold.

Eventually, I decided to take just one look around the house at the windows in case we left one unlocked, which we typically never do, but thankfully we did. The screen wouldn't come all the way out so I had to shimmy up underneath it and backflip into the house. (Wouldn't you love to see pictures of THAT? It was ridiculous.)

Before scaling brick and vaulting my body through a window, the dogs were making great use of their time in the yard. Jordy has started a bad habit when we walk him without his gentle leader and he decides it should be play time. He tries to grab hold of the leash and play tug-of-war. We redirect him and discourage this. Tug-of-war is a challenge over a piece of property, and the dogs can't be allowed to challenge humans. (They are so big and strong, the rules have to be strict, or someone could get hurt. They have to be good citizens all the time.)

But that does NOT mean they can't play tug-of-war with EACH OTHER! That is perfectly allowed. Although, I prefer they not use Jordy's nice leash...

Me: Hey! Uh-uh. SHhhht. Shht. Halt! Kenz. Jordy. Drop it.
Me: Kenz!! Jordy! Uh-uh! No! Drop it! Leave it!
Dogs: Fine. We'll use a STICK for our fun game. :o) And when it breaks in half, we'll lay and chew our respective halves. Go climb through a window, lady. We're hungry.

Two days late....

I know, I know. I was supposed to be back here Monday. And it's Wednedsay. To offer a follow up on the hot water tank drama, and reveal if Easter actually happened. Cut a girl some slack. Monday morning, my little brother packed up his car and took off for a friend's cabin in Standish. He broke down in Bay City. I went to help get his car towed back home. My mother took a separate car up, and shuttled him and his girlfriend the rest of the way to the cabin, so they could still have their vacation with the group. (The car situation wasn't likely his fault.) Then when I finally got back, we scrambled to Lowes to order up a fence. Yesterday I spent the day cleaning up from Easter, visiting with the friend who gave us her dog so they can move to China and not have him stolen for meat, and then running out to a meeting for foster parents. This morning I woke up and the cold I caught got the best of me. I moved pretty darn slowly for several hours. This is the sickest I've been in a long time.

So. On to the good stuff. The plumber came on schedule. They sent a female plumber. So of course, it got fixed. (Hee.) She was familiar with this problem and knew the ultimate fix for it - an entire new gas valve. The gas valve is the portion of the tank that has the design flaw and thus the ventilation problem. She said she's never seen one of these get a whole new valve and break again. An hour and a half later, we had steaming hot water, and were very happy.

Easter went fabulous. The night before, my grandfather fell at the grocery store and broke his arm. The hospital coldn't set the bones. He needs surgery. So he wasn't feeling good. Everything else went smoothly. I even found time for cute little placecards for everyone.

Happy Easter, Internet!

However you choose to spend this day, have a safe and happy one, and I hope you are surrounded by people you love.

xoxoxo