I heard about that 5 year old that was put in cuffs in FL. At first I was shocked, and the more I thought about it, the articles that I read, the video I saw really made me think. Here is one link, I cannot find the other one that I had. Here is another one... this one is better than the other one. Here is a little girl being a terror, the mother was called and said she would BE THERE IN AN HOUR. THAT right there shows a HUGE issue, NO BITCH, you DROP everything you are doing and you go get your kid that is tearing up school property, HITTING adults, and you do it NOW!!!! NOT one hour from now for the school to take care of! *deep breathe* So what choice does the school have but to call the police to help with the issue? Here you have a child putting herself at risk and putting other students at risk and the staff at risk. So what that she is 5??? If one of my children did that they would have an ass beating to remember. So the cops get there and do their JOB. PERIOD. They are there to PROTECT and have the right to protect the other children and the staff from a child that is obviously troubled. Yes, I think it was harsh, and will be a therapy session, but seems that she is going to have enough therapy sessions to deal with.
I was watching that lawyer she hired and have another comment... he said that the child and the teacher have a PERSONALITY CONFLICT. OK, that is just ridiculous!!! The little girl is 5 freakin years old. I do not care if you do not like her, you are 5 years old and RESPECT adults END OF STORY!!!! You respect them, you do as you are told, you are POLITE and you get the hell over it. If I EVER hear my children disrespect an adult they are in a lot of freakin trouble!!! I do not allow them to disrespect me or any other adult. And I do not care what their excuse is. The child was completely out of control and she needed the reality check.
I also had to think and apply the situation to my own children... I would be PISSED if anyone handcuffed my child. BUT, I am thinking they would deserve it if they lashed out and acted the way that child did. They cuffed her and took her to her mother. Now tell me WHY did they have to take this child to her mother??? Why did she not go get her when she was needed??? To me this is also a parent issue. The parent has no regard to her child or how her child acts. That is just wrong. I would have dropped whatever it was and went to my child. Obviously this child has issues, obviously this child needs HELP. Now she needs a little more. But that would be the parents fault for not going to her like she should have. I am sure the whole police issue would NOT have been an issue had the parent actually taken care of her child and responsibilty.
I know that a lot of people do not agree to the child being handcuffed and I do admit that it is harsh, but I also understand that the school and the police had the right to protect all the other people around. You are damned if you do, damned if you dont. I am sure either way the parent would have hired a lawyer for some reason or another. The teacher did the right thing. Did not touch the child other than to get her off a table which put the child at risk. Teachers have the worst job in the world. I truly believe that. They have to fear for their lives, their jobs, from being sued and all the other crap that parents put them through.
On a side note... Jen, you know I love you, and you know I understand your point on this too, we do not agree on this issue and that is ok :o) I understand your point on this issue. But the more I thought on the issue the more it upset and the more helpless I see teachers becoming, the more helpless the school system and the men and women that protect us are becoming. The police are there to serve and protect and if they are not allowed to do their job where does that leave us as a society? They had a job to protect that child from herself, from all the people around her that she was hurting and could have potentionally hurt. I think they did the right thing and I pray that the cops that did their job, that put their lives at risk to protect are not reprimanded on doing what they had to do.

How time flies. Hubby was back in Houston for another business trip. He left last Wednesday and got back Friday. Luckily it was a shorter trip than most lately. Unfortunately he has another one this week. He is going to Orlando, FL for this one and leaves tomorrow and does not get back until Saturday. Which really, really sucks!
We had a fairly quiet weekend. My next door neighbor and I have become friends and have really enjoyed our bitching sessions together. Her hubby was gone last week too, but his was for fishing and hunting, so at least my man was making money :o) Friday night her and I sat around had a bottle of wine, then had some beer and just talked til about 1:30 in the morning (glad I live next door) Saturday we just spent time as a family together and vegged, then went to my parents for dinner. Sunday hubby did some work he needed to get done, I napped and we went to my grandparents house to help my dad do a few things over there. Had dinner with my grandma, my aunt I do not care for, her stupid husband and my cousin. Then they left, thank goodness, and hubby, grandma, my dad and I played tile rummy together. It was great to be with my grandma, I love and adore her so much and she loves being around the kids.
My aunt has become more intolerable over the last year and it rather pisses me off. She loves to make her little comments about my children. Luckily most stand up to her when she does. She made some comment about the kids bothering my grandma. My grandma piped in and said No, they are not bothering me, they are great kids. That shut my aunt up pretty quick. Then, later on my aunt made another comment about my kids possibly spilling something, this time my dad said no, they are very careful and luckily grandmas floor is hardwood so its easy to clean up an accident. Let me just say, I have GREAT children!!!! DO NOT BITCH ABOUT MY KIDS WHEN YOUR OWN ARE MAJOR FUCK UPS!!!!!! My aunt has THREE black sheep daughters and shes bitching about my well behaved ones???? I have 2 words for my aunt... FUCK OFF!!! My children are polite, they are generally quiet and do not run through my grandparents house, they are VERY respectful of my grandmother and know to be careful around her and ADORE her. They are the closest great-grandkids to my grandparents and they have ALWAYS loved having them over and insist that I bring them over all the time... Dont you think if they were misbehaved they would not want the kids around?!?!?!?!?
*DEEP breath* Luckily my aunt was put in her place several times. My cousin graduates at the end of May and had her Graduation annoucments with her. She will be the ONLY one of her sisters to graduate from High School and damn, we are going to be out of town and cant make it, isnt that a pity... :o) Oh, THEN to top it all off... My aunts husband is Catholic. I have NOTHING against Catholics, my best friend of is CAtholic, her hubby is Catholic, and there are many more that I know that are Catholic. So, when her stupid husband brought up the whole Pope thing I had to chime in. He does not like the new Pope and said that luckily his reign will not last as long as John Pauls. Then made another stupid comment about John Paul being a Holy Man. OK, I do not disagree with John Paul being a Holy man, he was. BUT, he is NOT TO BE WORSHIPED!!!! Let me just say, he WAS A MORTAL MAN, JUST LIKE YOU AND ME!!!!! Granted he was a lot better in his works, since my religion does NOT believe in works to get to heaven. BUT HE IS NOT WORTHY TO BE PRAYED TO!!!!! I read in a news article that people were going to John Pauls Grave to pray for miracles, hes dead people, the only thing left here is his shell. Is there not a verse in the Bible that says do not pray to false Idols???? Is that not one of the 10 Commandments??? Well, I believe if you pray to a mortal man, that is praying to a false idol. He is NOT God, he is NOT Jesus and is not worthy of praying to. I will not deny that John Paul was a great man and that he is worthy of praying FOR, just not to. Anyways, that was my arguement with my aunts husband, he backed off once I reminded him of the 10 Commandements. I do not normally get into Religous battles with people, but I dont like my aunts husband, so I do not care if I offend him and I can have an opinion too. :o) I did NOT bash the late Pope so that was not the issue. Because as far as I am concerned for a Pope he was not a bad guy, he was extremely compassionate and I think that is quite honorable.
OK, off to clean house and deal with the kids. I hope everyone has a great week!!!

I have been really busy this last week. The weather change is wonderful and has me in full cleaning mode. We had a great weekend. My oldest daughter stayed the night with a friend then Saturday my oldest son spent the night at a friends house. Then on Sunday we went to Sunset Hills Park and let the kids play and took some pics of the kids with tulips since they were so beautiful. Its been like grand central station around the house with all the kids in the neighborhood around. I think my neighbor and I counted 18 kids at one point betweew her kids, mine and the kids in the neighborhood congregated between the 2 houses.
Oh, and Saturday night... it was an awesome night. I got some GIRL time with my best friend, another girlfriend and one of her friends. We went to a PURE ROMANCE party. Its like Slumber Parties. We went to Jolyn's for the party and had a blast, she had some awesome drinks, we played a game, had a lot of fun then the 4 of us girls went to the mall and went to VIctorias Secret. Picked out a few really cute outfits for my girlfriend, then we went for drinks at Applebee's. It was a great time and we really enjoyed all the girl time.
My oldest will be 10 at the end of this month... I am FLOORED at how fast time flies. He is growing up sooo fast and wont STOP!!! He's getting a bike and a bunch of yu-gi-oh stuff. Also wants some Bionicle stuff and who knows what else he wants. :o)

Life is getting back to normal. I still have my moments of breaking down and just crying but overall I know he is in a better place and I am just feeling sorry for myself wanting him back. My grandma seems to be doing ok. She is taking things day by day, and really been staying busy. Everyone has been helping out and been going over there and keeping her company.
The weekend was busy as usual, hubby got back from Houston Friday night so we just hung out at home with the kids. Saturday hubby had a lot of catching up to do and one of his biggest clients was hacked so he had to deal with that most of Saturday, but we did manage to go to dinner as a family. Then on Sunday we went to Laumeier Park, I have not been to that park in a really really long time but it is beautiful. I do not really care for modern art but the kids had a lot of fun and really enjoyed it. Hubby had a lot of fun snapping pics. HERE is the link to our pics. You can go down these trails they have for different works of art and the kids really enjoyed that part. My oldest took a friend of his with us so we had 5 kids on our lil trip.
That same day I got an unexpected phone call. I got a call from my ex's grandparents. I have always enjoyed his grandparents and I have not talked to them in a really long time. I called her back and they seem to be doing pretty good. They have not seen my oldest in a really long time and wanted to see him. So, I am thinking I will have to plan a trip over there to see them. Still not ready to tell my son about his bio dad but he can still go see his great-grandparents. They accept my son as their oldest great-grandson and we have always had a great relationship. Its a shame things turned out the way they did with my ex not accepting my son, but at least his grandparents do and for that they should not be punished. She wants to call my son for his birthday that is at the end of the month, maybe I will plan the trip over there for that... It is amazing how fast kids grow. My oldest will be 10 at the end of the month and it just amazes me how fast time flies. I still have pics of my son with his great-grandparents from when he was a baby. I met up a few times with them after my son was born. They were great back then and they still are to this day.
Hubby left to go to KS again Monday and will be back Wednesday, traveling sucks and it really takes a toll on him not being home. My grandma is here so that helps some, not much, but a little since she is the clean freak that she is.

A PS to my last post...

My hubby has his first magazine publication!!!!! I am so very proud of my man :o) It is in some kind of construction magazine and is 4 pages long. The magazine publishes to several hundreds of thousands so its not a small magazine, just specialized. All the same I am very proud of my hubby!!!!

OK, on another note... GOOO CARDINALS!!!!!!! We won our first game in Houston last night :o)

OK, I finally got a moments time to scan in the pics that Kris and I had done at the makeover. This is one that my mom likes the best. They are all pretty much the same so I will just leave this one up.
I am starting to handle things a little better. I have been really busy with the kids and cleaning house. I am not sure how the house managed to become such a mess with me not being here. I cleaned out the fish tank that was in dire need of cleaning. I have also started eating again. I did not realize how little I had eaten since everything. I was eating on average one meal a day and barely that, I did not finish any of the meals. I have lost 7 lbs since my grandpa passed away. I wanted to lose some weight but that was not the way I was hoping to lose weight. The kids also seem to be handling it a lot better. We did not take any of the children to the funeral or to the wake. I know that the younger 2 should not have been there at all and not sure how the older 2 would deal so I did not take any of them. I will take them to Grandpas grave though.
The day of the funeral we also stopped by my cousins grave since she is also buried in JB. She was only 2 days old when she died and was just a couple of years younger than me. I did not realize that she was born on the same day as one of my daughters. That was a little strange for me but my aunts point of view is that Hannah has both hers and Dorry's personalities.
OK, back to cleaning...

Me from the makeover.  

I have found that I do not deal with this type of stuff well. I have been the biggest bitch and crier through all that has happened in the last week. Thank goodness my hubby knows how to handle me. There are times I was just plain horrible to him. The viewing on Sunday was a heartbreak for me. I had not seen him til then and was very emotional about it. I did get to spend some time alone with him and talk to him so that was a comfort to me. He was in his Knights Templar uniform and looked just the way I remember him. He had a LOT of people come visit him and so many flowers. He Knights Templar service was neat. They did an excellent job and there were a lot of the guys there. Normally they barely have enough to do a service but because my grandpa was so liked and known in Masonry he had a lot there. It was special to see the service and the swords crossed over him. Then the Masonic service was just as special. Again there were a lot of guys there for that too. The Knights Templar were at guard next to grandpa. At the funeral he had a Heroes of 76 honor guard that too was very special. They were also at the cemetary. He also had a rifle salute which was neat. They also gave the flag to my grandma. It was a beautiful day and I am so very thankful for that.

There were a few family issues but overall it was a peaceful time. I have learned through this process that I really do not care for some people. My aunts husband is on that list and I think he has learned to steer clear of me and to not talk to me. The first thought that comes to my mind when I see him is child molester. That may sound horrible but its the thought I get when I see him. There is also a cousin that pissed me off. The ass was on her cell phone in the room where my grandpa was, I am sorry but that is just plain RUDE. After about 10 minutes of being on her damn phone I went up to her and told her to get out that it was rude to be on her damn phone in the same room with grandpa. She was not happy I told her to get out, but at that point she was lucky I did not slap the shit out of her. The other issue was at the funeral, and I know the littlest things pissed me off, but my aunts husband showed up to grandpas funeral NOT wearing a tie. Ok, I am not sure what part of the family is goin to wear red he did not get, but he did not even bother wearing a tie and look nice. Then to top it all off, we had ALL agreed to wear red to the funeral for grandpa, my grandmother even bought my aunt a red outfit for it and she did NOT wear it. My uncle had gotten red ties for almost all the guys (except for my aunts husband cuz hes too dang fat to wear a regular tie), my dad, hubby, brother, uncle George and my cousin Michael all wore matching red ties. My grandma wore a red jacket, Aunt Kathy wore a red blouse, I wore a red jacket, my mom wore a red jacket, and my cousin Michelle, who is 7 months pregnant even wore a red shirt. But nooo my other cousin could not manage to wear red or my other aunt. *deep breathe* Needless to say I was staying away from that part of my family just for the fact that I was in too bad of shape to deal with any of them.
I have a cousin that I have not seen in over 10 years show up. I talked to her a couple of years back and we did NOT have a good conversation. The woman is intolerable and I really cannot stand her. She stirred a bunch of shit up in the family and was calling my grandparents over the ordeal and that did not need to be done so I called her and told her so. She did not care for my saying so but after I was done with her she did not call my grandparents over her bullshit so I got shit taken care of. Then for her to show up with her 4 kids was almost too much. She showed up at the funeral home with her 4 kids in tow dressed in shorts and a tshirt and rowdy children. Luckily she left before I got ugly about it. Then at the funeral home for the service she was there with her children AGAIN and ended up having to leave the chapel because her children were crying and causing a scene. Then at the cemetary her kids were fine. I did not talk to her the whole time she was here or even acknowledge her presence. Though she irked me just being there. According to her she did not want to be contacted again til her own mother croaked, as she put it. Then her sister and her big ass mouth called her and told her and for some odd reason she found the need to come. Thank goodness she is going back where she came from and hopefully we will not have to deal with her again for a long time.
I did get a chance to sit and talk to my grandmother. I absolutely adore my grandparents and she knows how close I am to my grandpa since I am close to her also. She is not a very expressive person and I was amazed at how she was. Every time I call my grandparents I tell them I love them. Grandpa was easy to say it back but my grandma is the type that says thank you sweetie and does not say it back. But yesterday her and I had a chance to talk and she said to me how much I meant to her and that she loved me very much. It had me crying yet again. She is an absolutely wonderful person and I adore her.
I finished the scrapbook of grandpa for grandma and it turned out very good. I will have a lot more to add to it since my one aunt did not bother to bring any of her pictures for the book. So the book only had pictures of my family, my parents and brother, and my other aunt and her kids and grandkids. My other aunt had very few pics of her and none of her 3 daughters or grandkids in it or her husband. Over all it really did turn out beautifully though.
I still have a lot to work through. I really do not want to believe that he is gone. I want our talks back, I want to hear about his childhood again, I want to hear about his Navy days, I want to hear him talk about me when I was a kid and the things him and I used to do, I want to see him, I want him to come over and visit with the kids and to hug and kiss him. I want to be able to go over to visit and see him sitting in his chair, I want to be able to talk baseball with him, to hear him give my hubby trouble about being an Astros fan, I want to be able to pick up the phone and call him and talk to him about whatever, to have him read me stories that he liked from the newspaper or whatever magazine he was reading, I want to talk politics with him and talk about God with him, I want his smile, his laugh, his voice. There are just so many more things that I want back. Most of all I just want him back.

My aunt and I have decided to do a tribute album to my grandpa. We have gathered pictures of my grandpa from baby pics all the way up to a couple of weeks before he passed away. We will put an album together for everyone to see and then will give it to grandma for her to have. At first my aunt wanted to use the 2 albums I have done for my grandparents but I did not want those to be seen by all. It was something incredibly special that I spent a LOT of time and love on and I want it to be sacred to our family and not for all.
Grandpa will have a Knights Templar service Sunday, a Masonic service Sunday and then a Heroes of 76 salute on Monday at his funeral along with an honor guard. Just the way he would want it. To top it off all of the women in the family are going to wear red, his favorite color, and all the guys are going to wear red ties. I am sure that people are going to think we are insane wearing such a vibrant color but it is all for him. He will be able to pick us out in the crowd and smile down on us knowing that we all love and adore him.