24 years ago...time flies..........

I am getting worried messages, so I guess it's time to drag my lazy bum behind the computer and write.
There really is no concrete reason for not writing the past week. Life is just going on pretty much the same, and I was getting sick of my own whining.

After the euphoria of November 4, things just needed to settle.
And since I can't shake the feeling that some shit is about to hit in the near future I was just trying to hold off and take a wait and see attitude.

So to make this part short: Bugs finally got the message (it took our offer to watch Boo a few overnights, so she could get her brain together and develop a few plans of operation) and hired an attorney. She has an appointment Monday morning. From what she understood from the phone conversations with this person, this whole child custody issue might not be as cut and dry as we thought. But at least we can now get to the bottom of the legal stuff once and for all. She will have her will made up, living will, appoint guardianship.

We have not heard from Daddy's parents (who, in my opinion should keep us all up to date about what's going on, like trial dates, etc), except for a few messages on Bugs' phone about wanting, no, INSISTING to see Boo, and a relayed message from Daddy about how they should sit down like adults and work things out (HUH?))

It will be interesting to find out if Bugs will be able to attain sole custody, or if the family will fight her on it, which will cost both sides thousands of wasted dollars.
And there is also the court date in regard of the child support issue on December 10th.
I wonder if he'll show up (perhaps by being in custody he won't have a choice, they will probably drag him into court)

Her appointment with the urologist is December 10th, and she is also seeing her OBGYN (FINALLY) at the suggestion of her regular doctor (see what else is going on in that belly)
Her kidney seems to have healed, but still contains a few stones. The urologist will determine what to do with those.

So there it stands. I won't bother y'all with my worries about: How the hell are we gonna pay for all this shit...:>)

Bugs is holding her own, seems a little bit more focused, but, I still feel that she is overwhelmed, and possibly depressed. Her face is white and eyes are sad and hollow, she did gain two pounds though. She is cutting her own hours a little, doing less of the work others can do just as well.

Boo is growing in all directions. Physically as well as mentally. Her vocabulary is mind boggling. She is starting to form sentences now: Uh ohhhh....What did you doooo??? and...:Omaaaaaaaa, where ARE youuuuuuu? She call us both by name now, opa and oma, and refers to herself as Kyla (close)
We have introduced her to the big girl potty, and she sits on it a few times a day, just sits, pants on and everything. When she gets ready for her bath she has to sit on it nekkid, and it's cute to watch her just sit there and wait...
I'm not one to force potty training, just letting it happen naturally has always been the way for me.

The other day I noticed this little sweater hanging in her closet at home. It was one my mom knitted for Bugs. She is about the same age as Bugs in the picture here, wearing that same sweater. I am so glad she kept all the sweaters my mom knit for her, so now Boo can wear them.

The time was 1984. We were still on Bainbridge Island.

Life, however, was no longer wine and roses.

After two years of absolute bliss, everything started to go to pot. Wheelie's boss, the owner of the record company he worked for, was charged with tax fraud, and he was somehow using artists' masters to reproduce albums without owning them. Frankly, I never really understood what this was all about, but the guy left the company, and everyone else was suspect, and everyone was questioned, some more than others, Wheelie fell through the proverbial cracks. Whew.

So the company was taken over by a fellow who had absolutely no clue about the music world, and within a year, the company dwindled down to sorry mess. They had to move to a different building, which flooded, damaging a lot of stored masters and furniture. It was impossible to recoup from this last pitfall, so the company went belly up.

And all at once, we were out of a job. Clueless in Seattle *lol*

What followed were 14 months of applying for many many jobs, none of which panned out, as Wheelie was pretty much too old or overqualified. Seattle was also in the midst of a huge unemployment problem with Boeing laying off thousands of people.

We had no income other than unemployment, and Wheelie worked odd jobs, like construction, digging ditches, working in people's yards. I had two kids at home, but I sold Avon and Discovery Toys, and after a while tried a part time job at a department store in Seattle.


But we couldn't hang on. Things became bleaker as the months went by. We had to leave our beautiful home. We landed in the ghetto. Not as bad as it sounds. On the Island was an apartment complex for those of us unfortunate families who hit the skids. $200 a month for a two bedroom apartment. Very nice, pretty new, no riff raff. We also were able to earn some extra money by painting vacant apartments. Gawd, what a trip THAT was!

So in this picture, it was winter, and it snowed. It was Bugs' very first time in the snow. She loved it!

At this point my son was in middle school, played the trumpet, and was (still) doing well, even though he was complaining about being depressed and wanting to kill himself.
We still don't really know if he was just trying to get our attention or what. We took him to a doctor, we had him evaluated by a psychologist. It was generally decided that it was part of being a pre teen, the family going through a rough time, etc.
I tried paying more attention to him, as I am sure I lacked in since Bugs was born.

As for myself, I was pretty depressed too. I recall clearly how horrible I felt when we got the keys to the apartment and when we first walked through it. It hit us hard. I had not cried like that in years.

We qualified for food stamps.
We qualified for a sack of flour, 5 pounds of butter and a horrific brick of plastic cheese once a month.
We also qualified to come and pick out a few toys for the kids at Christmas.

Nothing more humbling than walking into a room full of toys with other moms, picking out toys for your children, and picking up food from the food bank.

If anything, it taught us to have great respect for the folks who run these organizations.
We did our part to pay back as well. I ran a 'taxi' service for seniors who needed rides, Wheelie did other stuff. When we moved to Georgia we made sure to donate a good amount of $ to the Help Line on Bainbridge for the next couple of years.

Being on food stamps was a trip in itself. I don't know how it is these days, but back then you could ONLY buy food with it. You were handed a book of coupons with which you could buy only eatable stuff. Not toilet paper, not diapers, not soap, toothpaste, Kotex, Kleenex.
So we joked that we ate very well in those days but we stank.

Not true of course. My dear neighbor Linda and I worked out a plan. She would buy me the stuff I couldn't buy with food stamps and I paid for the same amount of food for her with my stamps.
Worked out beautifully.

After trying so hard for 14 months to get something going, Wheelie swallowed his pride and called some people in New York, see if they would rehire him at Polygram.

In the end they offered him a sales job in the Atlanta branch, which he took, reluctantly.

The company paid for our move, but we had to leave our LP collection behind. The collection was stored for years until Wheelie got himself a truck, drove cross country and picked it up.

So off we went to Georgia, kicking and screaming. When we got here, the company put us in a motel, but they didn't realize what kind of a motel this was. It was a BUM motel. We didn't stay, we drove down the road to the first Best Western we ran into. Still not the Hilton, but at least the room was clean and there were clean and new sheets on the beds.

Wheelie had rented a house for us, but not knowing the areas and the good versus the bad neighborhoods, we landed in the seedier side of Kennesaw, the only town in the USA where it's the LAW that you own a gun.

At this point I didn't care where we lived, as long as we had a job, and a roof over our heads.

But I got the biggest shock that very first Saturday we drove around town to check things out.
At the largest intersection in town, there was some sort of rally going on. Guys in black on each corner yelling stuff, we later found out it was the local KKK, recruiting.
You can imagine my horror, and disgust.

But we settled in, I mean, what choice did we have. We lived in that particular house for two years. I was selling Avon again and ran into a very nice woman who had a lovely house. I mentioned that I dreamed of living in a nice place like that, and she put me in touch with a friend of hers who was a real estate agent.

This woman showed us a brand new subdivision, and got us in touch with a guy who was building a house there in a cul-de-sac, and who was going to rent it out. We jumped at the chance and life started to look sunny again.

We watched as the new local Mall was built. Everyone excited. I attended a job fair, and landed my job at Macy's. A Bridal Consultant, no less. I went to Weight Watchers and lost a whopping 35 pounds, we were crawling out of the debt hole.....

Life was on the upswing once again.........................

Until................

SGMKJ!