My granddaughter will be 18 in 2 weeks.

Just doesn't seem possible!
With her many hair colors and styles. Her color is naturally a dark strawberry blonde like in the younger photos.

 

Catching some air with Grandpa Rich.
               With her cousin 2 months apart in age.

Overlooking LA

Be scared, be very scared!

With her little brother and myself.

With her little brother and sister.

 

Little sister on top, her on the bottom photo...Will the real Pebbles please stand up!

Sisterly love on Grandpa Rich's boat.

 

With me in front of the Christmas tree at Marshall Field Store, (now Macy's) in Chicago after seeing the Nut Cracker Play.

With cousin from 2nd photo.            

1st concert with Dad, my oldest son.

 
Silliness while shopping.

Side by side 5 and 15.

 

Side by side 7 and 17.

                                                    

Hopefully she learned something that day!
 



Sweet 16!

                      

I do not know this man! On a cruse boat somewhere in Mexico.

And all grown up!

With Mom.

 

That's my girl, with all her silliness and diva ways! Well one of them anyway.

Pictures from visit with Bobscoot.

Rich and Bobscoot after breakfast.

Bobscoot getting camera ready.

Rich and Bobscoot discussing how the tail came down. One of them thought it happened because of people climbing on it and the other thought maybe it was taken down so no one got hurt. Either way; it's on the ground chained to the rest of it so it doesn't walk away.

Time off.

I still have two weeks of vacation and two sick days to use before the end of the year or I lose it. I have several long weekends planned; this being the first. Today I slept in and made pancakes for myself; Rich doesn't really care much for them so I rarely make them. I spent some time on the internet, and now it is time to get busy. I plan to spend the rest of the day getting the upstairs deep cleaned, change the bedding, and get all the laundry done. Hopefully that will help with my allergies.

Monday I hope to go through some old pictures and start scanning them to cd's.

I know I will go back to a desk full of work since I am the only one with clearance to do my job. My boss doesn't even have access to that part of the company software anymore. Thankfully she is still able to code all the checks that come in for posting or I would never be able to take a day off....

I keep very busy at work with little time for vacation. August we had over $800,000 in revenue over last August in our department alone, making it a record breaking August. Our department has a total of only 32 people, being the 4th largest revenue earning department in the company world wide. It's real hard to use Three weeks vacation plus one week of sick days in a year when you are as busy as I am at work.

Very thankful for a job!

I've been very busy.

We've had a pretty busy few months:
Weekend visits with friends because we were having way too much fun to drive 20 minutes to get home.











Birthday parties.

A one week bike trip along the shore line of Lake Superior from Whitefish Bay MI to Copper Harbor in WI...post to come!

A get together at Rich's ex and her husband's house, with his daughter's in-laws while his daughter was in town for work. She was able to bring the baby with since there is so much family here ready to take turns sitting while Jennifer works.








A long girls weekend with my niece, love that girl soo much!...post to come!












Rich got to baby sit at the hotel his daughter was staying at during yet another one of his daughter's business trips to Chicago while his daughter was doing a seminar. Little Emma is becoming quit the frequent flyer.








We helped a friend move a trailer to WI...a story of it's own. Always is when we get together...never a dull moment

Met up with the owner of this bike for breakfast...anyone know this bike? As a courtesy to our friend, I will wait to post on this visit till the owner of this bike has had a chance to post.








I've been working a lot of overtime and we finally moved into the main building. They are still working on the upstairs addition so it is really loud with all the banging and drilling. Another post of its own. These are the crates of packed files ready to be moved to the new building.

I met my great nephew yesterday for the first time since he was in diapers. He is 26 and drives OTR. He picked up a load in Chicago and headed to Oregon with it. we had a nice visit. When we said our goodbyes, I told him, "It's good to see you got out of those diapers!" He said, "Hopefully I won't end up back in them." He has a point, we start out in them and some of us end up back in them.

 

I am coming into my busiest week of the month...month end closing! Uhgg!!! Good thing about that is the overtime.

 

Till next time...ride safe.

Long weekends and travel plans

Two weeks ago I spent the weekend with my niece in Indiana. I took off at noon on Friday and traveled six hours to meet her for dinner. Then she followed me back to the motel I checked us into earlier. We stayed up late catching up and reminiscing.

The next day we had a nice breakfast and set out to do some sight seeing. We saw some covered bridges, a tractor show, and stopped for a strawberry short cake at a strawberry festival. When we got back to the town we were staying in, they had a car show going on. Then after some dinner, back to the motel.

Sunday morning we had breakfast and did some shopping then after lunch, we both headed in the opposite direction for home.

Last Sunday Rich and I  did a 5 hour bike ride.

Tomorrow we will be getting ready for our up coming vacation. We were planning to do a bike trip but Rich is hesitant about taking the bikes. He's become very pessimistic lately. What if...what if...?? He will be doing maintenance on the bikes, the truck, the trailer and the car.

He's tired a lot lately and ready for bed by 8:30. I don't know if something is going on with his health or what it is. I can't get him to make a decision on anything anymore. We have talked about allot of places for vacation and he just can't make a decision and it's just a week away. He said he's tired of always riding in the rain on every bike trip and he really doesn't want to have to buy a pickup truck again to get a disabled bike home. He also has said that he has thought about trailering or just taking the car. It's not like him to be so worried. I think he is way over thinking things. I got him to agree to sit down tomorrow and pick three areas of interest then decide on one of those the day before the trip based on weather forecasts.

A week before vacation and still no destination. I don't think he has even talked to his son about house sitting yet. Not that we need that here. It's such a small town, everyone knows everyone and there is always someone around.

I would really like to go southeast this time. Maybe the coastline up the Carolinas and into VA. It's the only part of the country we've never traveled by bike. I guess we'll see when the time comes. I hope he's not getting tired of the bike trips. I sure would miss them. We did one every summer. The last trip was either 2009 or 2010. I thought it was because of his back and arm. He's had no pain since he healed from his surgery so that's not the case now.

Remembering our veterans.

Thank you to all who served and are still serving...You have my complete respect and gratitude for your service and bravery.

 

Memorial services at Lincoln Memorial Park, Aurora, IL.

 

We attended the services were my parents are laid to rest. The taps and the riffle salute still gives me goose bumps.

 

My father served in WWI and received the Purple Heart for his injuries. He was shot in the hip and arm, leaving him with a limp and a plate in his arm. I didn't know he had a plate in his arm until just a year ago through a conversation with my older sister. I didn't even know they did that back then.

 

My mother told me that someone he served with attended his funeral and told her that even after he was wounded, he kept on fighting. 

 

He was 63 when I was born and died when I was 4; unfortunately I have very few memories of him and I really didn't know him.

 



Three seasons in one week and planning a girls weekend!

We've had temps ranging from the high 30's to the low 80's. We were able to get a five hour bike ride in last Sunday. It was a full leather with chaps day, but it was still good.

I have a nice girl’s weekend planned for June 7-9 with my niece half way between us. Well...almost half way. My drive will be 3-1/2 hours and hers will be 2-1/2 hours. I planned it that way because I found a really nice area we can hike out to some waterfalls and drive around the area checking out a bunch of covered bridges and scenic drives. I know it sounds boring to some, but it's not so much what we do, it's spending time together doing something we can both enjoy. She is not a biker or in any way a drinker...not that I'm a party animal. She will probably insist on finding a nearby church, which will be fine with me. It's been too long for me anyway.

The following story will give you an idea how close we are, plus I sometimes need to get things out. There are allot of things I don't talk to many people about. Here I can say anything and it's pretty close to being anonymous. Only one person knows I have this blog and that's my best friend of all time, who is the only person I can tell everything. I love you Gina!

This is my late sister's daughter; we spent a great deal of our younger years together. She was only nine years younger, but I spent most of my summers babysitting her and her brother at my sister’s apartment while my sister worked as a bartender. During the school year, my mom took care of them. When I started taking care of them, she was about three and her brother was about one. He was still in diapers. That would have made me about 12. Since my sister worked late evenings, I got my niece and nephew breakfast and took care of them while my sister slept in. Then when my sister went to work, I took care of dinner and the kids till about 2-3 am or whenever she dragged herself in. I lived with them about three of my summers doing this. It helped both of us along with my mother, who was raising me and my brother on SS. My mother was unable to work because of an old injury to her back and at that time there was no such thing as disability or welfare or if there was, she wouldn’t take it. The most she got was holiday dinners at Salvation Army. She was also taking care of my bed ridden grandmother who was senile with dementia. My sister gave me a small allowance, "pay" and bought my school cloths, giving her the freedom of having a live-in sitter.

My sister ended up marrying a bouncer at the club she was a bartending at and she had a little girl from that marriage. I watched all three kids for a short while till they moved back to his home town in MO. I never did like him, he gave me a bad feeling that I couldn't explain. Things get a little hard to remember the exact order things happened once they moved to MO. I spent a couple of weeks of each of my summer vacations there. We did allot of traveling back and forth which makes it hard to remember what order things happened. As best as I can figure, the following is how it all came together.

From the time my niece was about 8 till she was 12, her step father molested her. He told her he would kill her and her brother if she ever told. Being a child and a victim, she believed him. My sister eventually found out, left him, brought charges against him, and came to stay with us till it went to court. She then got "advice" from a minister. He told her she needed to learn to forgive her husband. (I would have forgiven him only after he was dead and in the ground, and I have my doubts about forgiving him even then). My sister ended up going back to him taking her son and youngest daughter (his daughter) and left my niece with me and my ex for the remainder of the school year. This was to give my sister and her husband time to get counseling so he could overcome his "demons". I can only imagine how betrayed my niece felt because of her mother going back to him. (A thought I never mentioned to my niece). Somehow the charges were dropped, I think at that time it was up to the parents whether charges were brought and my understanding was that she didn't want to put my niece through a trial. My niece would talk to me a little about it but not much and I never pressured her to talk about it. I have to give my ex credit, he was really good about it and was real good to her.

My sister came to get her at the end of the school year. Tensions were high and things got complicated. From what I understand, accusations were made by her husband that it was all my nieces fault for seducing him...she was only about 8 when it all began! I completely believe her for two reasons. One her age, she could not make those things up, and because a few years earlier while I was there on one of my summer vacations, he touched my breast with his finger as if he was pointing to something on my top while asking what was on my shirt. I was about 13 or 14. I gave him a dirty look and pulled away. I never talked about it because I didn't know what to make of it and it embarrassed me. He must have thought I would be too much of a challenge because he never tried anything again. I sometimes thought later that if I had said something then, maybe my niece would not have suffered for so long, but at the time it never occurred to me that she was in any danger.

After things didn't work out as a family unit, my understanding is that my sister left my niece with a neighbor saying she would be back in a couple hours, taking her youngest two with her and came back here and stayed with us. When we asked about my niece, she said she was staying with her best friend across the street till she could get settled. After causing all kinds of drama here, she headed back to MO again, or so we thought. Somehow the two oldest kids ended up in foster care. Our family didn't know what had happened to them. Next thing we knew my sister was living in TX with just her youngest daughter and had been remarried. I only saw her one time after that and that was at my mother’s funeral. She went back to TX, the next time we heard from her was a short time later when she called my brother at work asking for money to leave her new husband. He told her he didn't have any to spare and she never contacted any of us again.

My niece's real father was in prison while all this was going on. When he got out, he found them through the courts and he was told that if he was able to put together a life for them he would be given custody after his parole was up. He got remarried and when he got custody he brought the kids up from MO for a visit and moved to IN. He never kept in touch after that. His wife left him a while later and my niece pretty much ran the house after his wife left. He was a hard man, but he loved them and tried his best.

When my niece was older and married, she started checking the internet and found her mother in TX and they reunited. My niece and her husband moved my sister along with her younger half-sister from her stepfather, and her sister's two kids into their home until my sister could get a place.

My sister died about six years ago and my niece started looking for us through the internet. She finally found us about five years ago. My youngest niece told her she should just forget us because of the way their mother felt about us. I guess when my brother didn't help her and she knew she couldn't ask me again, she decided we were no good to her.

My niece said that one of her foster parents got her back into church and it was her faith that got her through it and helped her forgive her mother. She has a very strong faith in God and I admire her for it.

Now we're just as close as ever. Sometimes I'll be at work and I'll get a text from her that says, "Just wanted to say I love you and I'm so blessed to have you in my life" or "Thinking about you. Love you soooo much" or sometimes just one word..."Lovins!"

She sent me a private message on FB last night, "I'm getting so excited about our weekend" I'm looking forward to it too. I know it will be a good weekend together and it will be filled with long talks, tears, hugs, and laughter...or as my niece would sum it all up…“Lovins!”.