Good Morning!
On this day in 1792 Congress passed the Coinage Act to regulate the coins of the United States.
In 1865 Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, VA.
In 1877 the first Egg Roll was held on the grounds of the White House in Washington, DC.
And in 1963 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King began the first non-violent campaign in Birmingham, AL.
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Quote of the Day
“Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.”
Hans Christian Andersen
Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hans_christian_andersen.html#RIB2FrOkPJPeDrQf.99
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hans_christian_andersen.html#RIB2FrOkPJPeDrQf.99
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On this day in 1800 Beethoven performed this for the first time.
Today is also Emmylou Harris’ birthday.
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Wandering Views 
Good morning!
Jo, good eveing!
Feels like a spring day already.
It’s nice when the whole day from dawn until dusk is all in the same season. 🙂
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Good evening, here they say good night from 6pm on. We very rarely have a day that stays the same.Lately it has been sun in the morning and heavy rain in the afternoon.
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wow, went from daily thread to prayer thread and the header switched from a church to a rhino! That will wake you up!
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I just saw this blog entry with some good Easter books for children. Thought I would share it here for those with children or grandchildren.
http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=0380c64474c6cccb9faa1b78f&id=9f611c8f39&e=da82048ed8
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It’s definitely Spring in the Midwest. Chance of severe thunderstorms today.
So, my wife and daughter are now officially law breakers. They are uninsured. Who’sd have thought that not buying something could make you are criminal!
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Peter, when the IRS comes knocking on your door just tell them that you are a union man.
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Whose pet rock is that? The rhino surprised me!
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We need a picture of Mouse and Miss Bosley riding the rhino. 🙂 🙂
Do you think the rhino is big enough to handle the two of them?
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Rhino!! Now that’s a different way to begin the day!!
🙂
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Good morning everyone. Extremely busy day. I will be back tonight to check, but have we had an update from Karen on the prayer request she made last night?
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Today is doll shopping day. Yay.
Hope we find what we’re looking for quickly. 🙂
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It’s Springtime!
Chas has to cut grass today. First time this year. Now, every week until November, at least once. 😦
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We need a picture of Mouse and Miss Bosley riding the rhino.
Actually, we should have Donna’s dog on the rhino. Then we could all say “Ride ’em Cowboy!”
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Peter, aren’t your wife & daughter on your insurance? I may be scavenging for health insurance next year, it’s somewhat doubtful (in my opinion) whether our company will continue to provide an employer-sponsored plan. 😦 What a mess. Don’t get me started …
I haven’t been to the LA Zoo in several years now but I was reading an article that indicated zoos may go the way of animals in circuses and porpoises and whales at sea parks — the whole concept has its vocal detractors (especially after that incident in which a healthy giraffe was killed to use as food for a fellow zoo animal).
Zoo designs have been getting better, more spacious and more natural, which helps. And I think the educational component still makes them valuable. But I can see the opponents’ side, too, especially if the spaces are cramped and the animals aren’t properly cared for.
We had some more rain last night, but not a whole lot. There’s a cold front from Alaska that’s swept through in the past couple days and nights which has made our temperatures drop.
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Cowboy’s a good dog. 🙂 So is Tess.
I walked them late last night since I had a night meeting and watched NCIS after that. Guess it was around 10 or so by the time we went out, so I kept it shorter than our normal walks.
We crossed paths a neighbor down the street who was out with his two teeny-tiny, itty-bitty dogs (not on leash) so it was a bit of a struggle making sure they didn’t get too close to Tess who can snip. We talked for a bit about his work (at a fruit terminal at the port) but finally his one dog, Bandit, started pressing his luck, yap-yap-yaping at Tess’ feet, so we moved on.
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Donna- I can’t afford the $600 per month to add the family.
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Ride “em Cowboy!! now that’s funny!! 🙂
Paul was looking over his deductions yesterday and noticed we are paying $200.00 a month for Affordable HealthCare tax….that is not for our healthcare which we are paying $700.00 a month…his employer is paying another $700.00….so we are paying for out healthcare..his employer is paying half for our healthcare and we are paying $200.00 a month extra for everyone else’s healthcare…this is nuts!
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Ride ’em Cowboy is said frequently at the dog park whenever Cowboy decides he really *likes* another dog (and the comment is followed by my yelling “OFF!”).
Peter, the family plans at our company are really expensive, too. My editor had to make the switch from the PPO to Kaiser this last time as the former had become just prohibitive for families.
Someone asked me recently if obamacare could simply be repealed should the GOP take control of both the Senate & House later this year, but I’m afraid the entire system is now so messed up that much of the damage has already been done. Not that it was previously that great or affordable, but now the entire health care industry is in a complete tailspin.
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My husband works for a relatively small company. We pay $1200.00 a month for family coverage, with a $5,000.00 deductible. It’s insane. I’m glad we can afford it, or I’d have to go back to work! Obamacare is a colossal mess, IMO.
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Nice pick-me-up column to read this morning from World:
(“Moral of the story: If you don’t like how your life is going, wait five minutes.”)
http://www.worldmag.com/2014/04/it_ain_t_over_till_it_s_over
I can’t believe how much our company currently is paying for our medical care — it’s a lot. Which is why I’m guessing they may kick us loose next year to simply fend for ourselves. Their fine surely would be much lower than what they’re forking over now to provide insurance.
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Peter &
Donna (& anyone else who is interested) – Check out Christian Healthcare Ministries…
http://www.chministries.org/
Cheryl mentioned them a while back, & Lee & I have looked into them, including getting an info packet. We are going to be signing up with them soon.
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Update on Last Night –
R finally talked to the police officers, & they took him to the local hospital for an evaluation, meaning he can’t leave yet, even though he wants to. (I think they can keep him for 72 hours, but I’m not sure.)
As I understand it, that is the standard procedure for when the police are involved in something like this. So we still don’t know if R was serious or merely being manipulative.
He had been trying to get Emily back again, & last time he tried that, he told her he had cancer.
He is very angry at Emily for calling the police.
I’m not a psychiatrist, but it seems to me that if he were serious, he would have done it, rather than having people chasing him around.
He did agree that when he gets out of the hospital, he will meet with Emily & her lawyer to come up with a better agreement prior to the court date. (This was the lawyer’s suggestion.)
The lawyer says that this suicide threat in itself probably won’t affect the outcome of the custody agreement, unless the psych evaluation turns up something particularly bad.
My thought is that either way – whether he was serious about it or it was a manipulative ploy – shows he is not a good influence. But I think the courts are going overboard to protect fathers’ rights to make up for the years when fathers’ rights weren’t taken as seriously as they should have been.
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In Other News…
As I heard the McKs cleaning & vacuuming last night, I was so relieved that the move was finally over. Emily & I went upstairs this morning to take a look around.
Oops.
M left a note apologizing that they’re not finished yet. They shoved & piled everything into the kitchen, which is now very full of stuff (& the kitchen is kind of large). She said they all have a “crazy busy week” ahead, so won’t be able to finish up for several days.
Meanwhile, with R’s situation, I will be babysitting about 30 hours a week until he is able to take Forrest, & not have any real break even when I’m not babysitting until R can help out again.
I NEED A BREAK!
So discouraged.
(Although, Lee said Emily can have tomorrow off, so his tired wife – still struggling with a cold – doesn’t have to babysit tomorrow morning after babysitting late tonight. Well, late for me.)
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Karen, to answer your question from yesterday, yes, I did see your answer. No one can walk in your shoes, but I still stick with my advice that you (and ONLY YOU) have the power to say, “No.” I appreciate that Emily is trying make something of herself but if it is at your expense, then she is using you and you are enabling her. She and R made this child and he is their responsibility, not yours. I suspect that much of this behavior (on both sides) would change pretty quickly if you weren’t always there as a safety net.
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Karen maybe Chrissy and her friend the daughter can finish cleaning up…giving her a steadfast last day seems to have been blown off by her….the girls can just pile the stuff on the curb and she can deal with it after her crazy busy week….I feel so bad for you…and it’s because others are not respecting you, your schedule and time….praying continually for you my friend
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Cuteness.
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Linda – Thank you for your concern. I understand what you’re saying, but I still don’t feel taken advantage of. Or maybe I see that I am, a little bit, but it is worth it to me for her sake & for Forrest’s sake. I do wish she didn’t have to work with her dad while also going to school, but he needs the help, & it’s only two mornings a week. I also feel that family helps family. (Emily helps out a lot around here, as I previously mentioned.)
It would be so much easier for me to handle if R could have Forrest on Saturdays, which is the day Emily has classes all day. The times I do feel taken advantage of are when R was supposed to have Forrest, & is available, but doesn’t take him, & then I feel taken advantage of by him, not her.
NancyJill – Thank you for your prayers!
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Donna, those sharp little hooves must hurt 🙂 I have friends who, like Mumsee, don’t allow animals in the house, but they have a Pyrenees that was allowed in the house as a puppy so that she would see the young children as her family and protect them and the house. It turned out very well. The dog just loves and watches over the children as they play in the farm yard.
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Linda – Another thing I just thought of. Initially, Emily wanted to take the shorter, full-time LPN program, but I said that would be too much for me. So she is doing the longer, part-time program.
But she’s glad she’s doing it this way after all. The full-time program is an accelerated program, which means that, in addition to being at school full-time, she would have had so much more studying to do than she does now (& she has enough to do now, believe me).
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More House Update – It stinks up there really bad! One room in particular smells like at least one of the cats used it as a litter box.
Matt is here to clean the carpets. He said he can get most of the carpets looking better (though not perfect), but the carpet & padding in that one room will need to be ripped up & replaced. Emily wonders if we’ll need to rip up the floor boards, too. Oh goodie.
There are also some minor damages in each room, like dings & scrapes in the walls. The tub will need a thorough scrubbing with bleach, inside & out.
I have made a decision. My family tends to put me in the middle of making plans. For instance, Lee tell me that he needs Emily to do such & such, & I tell her, then she tells me something else & I tell him. Then I get blamed if I forget to pass on a message.
So more & more lately, I’ve been remembering to tell them to go straight to the other person rather then telling me.
Now, with making plans on when Chrissy is going to help babysit & who is picking her up or dropping her off, which depends on various other people’s schedules, I have decided that I cannot be the go-between or planner. It’s just too much for me. And I don’t even drive!
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Thanks for the Beethoven, AJ. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed that movement of that symphony. And it’s great watching Bernstein direct, and hear how responsive the orchestra is to him.
Karen, I think NancyJill’s idea is a good one. Have Chrissy and friend (or someone — I’d come over and do it for you if I lived in your area) get the stuff out of the kitchen and to the outdoors so you all can begin the process of getting Emily and Forrest upstairs. I suspect the tenants already took with them the things that were most important to them. What remains in your kitchen is probably very low-priority, and I’m rather skeptical that they’re going to make it a high priority to get that stuff out of your way. The old “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” problem.
And I do hope E and F are able to move upstairs before that room you mention where the carpet and padding (and maybe floorboards) need replacing is finished. Do they have a plan for which rooms will serve which purposes?
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Oh, and if anyone does sign up with Christian Healthcare Ministries, if you e-mail me, you can give the company my name and I can get a free month myself. But you can get insurance (or an insurance alternative) MUCH cheaper through them, as little as $40 / month per person! Because of a couple family members’ pre-existing conditions, we don’t have everyone on it, but we do have a couple of us, and two of my siblings have been very impressed with them. (They’ve both had surgeries while on the plan.)
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Karen, I would be so tempted to just throw everything out a window onto a tarp down below, wrap it all in the tarp and call them to come and get it. You are much more gracious than I.
Praying you make wise decisions and the E & F are up there soon.
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Cheryl – Even those with pre-existing conditions can sign up, & eventually the pre-existing condition will be covered.
6 Arrows – That particularly bad room was supposed to be Emily’s bedroom! So, she’ll be sharing Forrest’s bedroom for a while, which is fine, because he sleeps with her anyway. 🙂
I have asked her to leave the third bedroom as “Chrissy’s room”, so she’ll know there’s a place for her when she comes back. In the meantime, Emily is going to use it as a gym, but Chrissy’s bed will be in there.
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Carpet cleaning is finished, & Emily has left for school. Lee is outside with Forrest for a bit (it’s his day off, even though he goes out in the early mornings for a bit). Emily paid for the carpet cleaning!
Matt said that there is a paint that we can use on the floorboards of that room, that seals in the odor. He & his wife (R’s mom) have used it, & it worked well for them.
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Got back from Greenville late Monday night after the scholarship day. My daughter loved, loved, loved the college. I would like it better if it was still a Christian college, but I still feel that God has been leading in this, so I feel pretty good about it. The environment toward Christians and Christianitiy is still a whole heckuvalot better than what we have here in California or my native Boston area–the only two places she would’ve seriously considered had I not strongly suggested otherwise. Apparently, there’s a strong prejudice against the redneck, red state south at her high school, and she had certainly been influenced by that, so I’m so thankful that God worked in her to overcome it
As I researched further, we did decide to go with more formal business attire for the interviews, and I think it made an impression, as her admissions officer told her that she looked “very professional and very nice.” We found an attractive beige pantsuit that she wore with a mauve colored blouse and a slightly darker mauve colored belt, and the whole look was, indeed, very professional and very nice. In other words, she looked formal and put together, but also feminine and attractive. And the comment from the admissions officer, I think, confirmed to her that my judgment was correct in this–contrary to what she was thinking a week earlier when we were shopping for the interview. It seems superficial to put so much emphasis on her outfit, but since all of the candidates who were interviewed are all highly qualified, much of the decision for who actually gets the awards is based on highly subjective impressions. Regardless of the outcome, they told all the candidates that they would receive a minimum of $20,000 scholarship money per year just for having gotten selected to interview, so that takes a lot of pressure off. All things considered, it seems likely she’ll end up at Furman regardless of the outcome. They’ll be releasing the decision this Friday, but the letter said the decision would be mailed, so I’m not sure if we’ll have to wait another 4 or 5 days just to get the mail. But perhaps they’ll send an email as well.
And now I’m thinking about how hard it will be to have my baby so far away!
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Karen,
I prayed last night, but I didn’t respond because I rolled my eyes and thought to myself that R was being a manipulative narcissist. Some people will do anything to get their way.
As far as your former tenants….I don’t buy their story either as evidenced by not having everything out because they are “busy” when they knew you had the guy coming to clean the carpets. I wish I knew how to do an eye roll here.
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Great news, Ree! Sounds positive.
I also like the idea off having the girls clear out what’s left, maybe buy them some pizza or otherwise compensate them.
As for R, I think the threats and behavior are very worrisome — glad he’s getting some professional evaluation.
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Hang in there Karen, this will pass.
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Threatening suicide, even if you “don’t really mean it,” is dangerous. I’m glad you got the police involved. If you ask the question, “how?” and they tell you, they’re in need of help.
I’m so sorry we’re only cyberfriends, or I’d join 6 Arrows and help clean.
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I see that something very distressing is going with Karen, but since I’m not on here regularly, I’m only partially able to piece it together from the things I’ve read. But I’ll add my prayers to the prayers of others, knowing that God knows the details.
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That is great, Ree! Our son is half way across the country from us and I do miss seeing him, but knowing he is in an excellent school program makes it worth it.
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I would help clean as well, but what I would have really liked to do is get them out sooner.
I do think you always have to take a suicide threat seriously. I think someone should be called every time he threatens it. Alabama doesn’t have a 72 hour mandatory evaluation period. We have to drive our crazy people across a state line to lock ’em up. I worry that if he is truly suicidal that he will decide to take someone else along with him. I also see this as manipulative, nacissistic behavior, so that DOUBLES my opinion that EVERY time he threatens this, the police need to be called.
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Karen O, it is all in the process of working out. You are so much closer to where you want to be. I know you dreamed of being totally done by now but at least there is livable space upstairs now. You haven’t gone completely crazy under all the stress so that says a lot about your strength of character and your faithfulness in trusting God. Emily has made wise choices and you have been supportive. I am thankful that you and Lee are generous to give your time to Forrest. He has needed the consistency of your influence considering the turmoil he could have experienced otherwise. You have been a good and faithful servant for God’s needs in this world.
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Disclaimer: I didn’t get this cynical over night. I have the battle scars to show for it. I was home alone with my mother when she called the local funeral home to plan her funeral before she was going to shoot herself. I was also home alone when we got the call she had driven the car down an incline and was on the way to the hospital with severe hypothermia. I also dated a narcissist alcoholic who had a handgun. When I walked in to his house and saw where he had shot the stove, I removed the gun and gave it to his mother. I just don’t “buy” a lot of cow manure anymore.
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Kim – I understand. My feeling is that this was a manipulative ploy, & that’s how Emily feels about it, too. But we also knew we had to take it seriously, just in case.
As I said earlier, R is angry at Emily for calling the police. She told him that’s what you do when someone threatens to commit suicide.
As for my almost-former tenants, I realize I forgot to mention that their “crazy busy week” involves their jobs, & college classes for one, not just general busyness.
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Hard to figure out what’s in someone’s head or heart. Either way, he’s troubled and needs help (and he needs to be on the police radar). I can’t imagine a judge or mediator saying he can have his son for any alone time after this, pending treatment at the least.
Is the ‘stuff’ in the upstairs kitchen all throw-away? Or things they may want to keep and transport? If it’s all toss-able, that makes it much easier.
“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.” –CS Lewis
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Forrest & I are watching Bob the Builder shows on Netflix while waiting for him to fall asleep on the couch next to me. He is lying down with a pillow & soft blankets (he’s been asking for everything to be soft lately).
This isn’t usually how he falls asleep, as I can usually get him to sleep in his bed. But he was resistant to going to bed because of a nightmare he had last night, so I’m using my grandmotherly prerogative to do this. 🙂
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Donna – I don’t think it’s trash, because they already put a lot of big trash bags out by the outside trash barrels.
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Forrest is out. 🙂
He had an exciting day. It was the first time he’d seen the upstairs, & he loved running around & exploring up there. He even got to go into the attic! Then his other grandfather came to clean the carpets, so he got to see his truck.
Add in some playing outside, & we have a tired little boy.
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Karen, I’ve thought for a long time that a certain character displayed classic symptoms of a personality disorder and yesterday’s little drama was the final piece. Hopefully, the hospital will take the time for a full assessment and a diagnosis will be made. Personality disorders, unlike schizophrenia and other mental illnesses that have a biological component, are believed to be caused more by upbringing and are not usually treatable with medication. There are ten types: antisocial (also called sociopath), borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive (this is different than OCD, which is an anxiety disorder like PTSD), paranoid, schizoid and schizotypal.
Unlike other mental illnesses, people with personality disorders refuse to see that they have a problem. They cannot acknowledge that their behaviour is causing problems and blame the people around them for their difficulties in life. They are very manipulative and prey on the vulnerable – when I did my mental health experience in school, my teacher kept us away from the personality disorders for our protection; we got assigned to safer patients with things like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (manic-depressive). Staging suicides to get attention is very typical behaviour for personality disorders, especially for the borderline and narcissistic types. Personality disorders are very difficult to treat, because the patient does not see the need to change; but a diagnosis can at least help the people around them know how to deal with them.
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