Civic...

Ok, enough is enough...Andy's car was totaled in January, my car was hit Feb.15, and last night, Feb. 17, while David and I were at church, Ethan backs into the Civic.
He was in a hurry to get to Jaimie's birthday bash, running late because he'd just gotten off of work. He did a quick clean up, hopped into his car (that was in the driveway) backed out, and ran right into the Civic (parked on the street). Luckily he just hit the rear driver's side door, missing all of the frame. Whew! He called around to some salvage shops looking for a door, and found two. One is black, like the car, and $120. The other is green, $70, but would need to be painted. He is able to paint it in school, IF he doesn't have to pay a credit for it. That would be the way to go, but if he got the black one, he could just swap it and be done.
Good thing he's working now, because I sure don't want to pay for it.

Work...

I've been so lax at keeping up my blog, that I've negected to mention Ethan's job.
He was let go from his previous job in November 2009, and he and his girlfriend of 3 years broke up. Needless to say, it was a trifle bit tense around here. I kept hounding him about getting out and finding a job. (what a nice mommy I am!) He would just tell me that he was. Ha! Actually, he filled out and dropped off quite a few applications.
There was a job dismantling cars at a place he went to for parts, and he applied for that. Unfortunately, he would have had to have his own tools which would have cost somewhere in the vicinity of $2000. Well, yeah, I don't think so. Anyway, a short time after that, the same company had an opening for a front desk person. This is the person you talk to when you want to find a car part at a place that has a gazillion car pieces. Everything is catalogued, and Ethan looks them up and takes their money. He's working full-time and going to school full-time and seems very grounded. (that might have a little to do with the fact that he is consistantly taking his Adderall) He comes home from work, comes up to my room and proceeds to tell me about his day, what went on in school and all about the crazy people at work. (co-workers and customers) He was sooo excited the day he got to spray paint and top coat his first piece. I think we're going to frame it.
There is one tiny drawback to his working with cars...he is FiLthY. I've got to get him a jumpsuit, god knows he won't do it. That way he can just ruin one thing, not everything.

Car...

Andy has a friend from Ai International that had a 2004 Monte Carlo he no longer wanted. He had moved to Boston and found out he didn't need it there. He didn't want to pay for upkeep, tabs, insurance because he wasn't using it. On a visit here over Christmas, he got together with Andy and told him if he came out to Boston, Andy could have the car, it just needed tabs, and a new battery. That was all easy enough and happened without a hitch.
Andy found cheap tickets for his girlfriend Lauren and himself. They were going to stay with the friend a couple nights, drive to New York and stay with her grandparents and see some sights, drive to Chicago and see some sights then drive home to Minnesota.
During the day they were going to be driving home from Chicago, it had been raining/freezing/raining all day and evening. I text him that the roads here were nasty and to be careful. I didn't hear back from him. I text him again later on, and still no reply. I went into my worried mother mode and sent a text to Lauren. He replied back then, that he didn't feel his phone vibrate and they were fine.
About 9:15 that night, he called to say they were stopping at A&W and that the car got great gas mileage, was real quiet, ran great, but had some wetness on the passenger side. He figured he would take up the carpet, take care of the problem, clean the carpet and it would be fine. I told him once again that the roads here were nasty. He said the roads they had been on were fine, but that he would be careful.
I was on my computer later on, when all of a sudden I got that sick feeling in my stomach...the one when you know something is going to happen. I though to myself..Don't even go there!
A little after 11:00 Andy calls again...this in itself is strange, because he doesn't call very often...to say they just rolled the car. Now he has a habit of saying things with a real straight face, and I couldn't tell if he was kidding or not, so I said, "What?" Then he calmly said it again, "We rolled the car." I asked if they were ok, and he said they were. He had been sleeping in the back seat, not belted in, and Lauren had been driving. He woke up when he heard her scream. She hit a patch of black ice, started to skid and slammed on the brakes. This was the wrong thing to do, but she panicked, and by then it was too late. Because of the speed they were going, 65 mph, and braking while skidding, they flipped over, hit the roof of the car, and landed back on the tires.
The driver's window was gone, the driver's side of the windshield was spiderwebbed, quite badly, the roof was caved in, the driver's door was dented and the whole front was kind of crooked? Fortunately, the frame wasn't bent, the tires didn't blow, and the car ran fine. The police stopped to make sure they weren't hurt and said they would come back after they made a drop off at the jail. In the meantime, a guy in a Hummer stopped and pulled them out of the ditch. They made a stop to get plastic to cover the window, and that's when he called me. It turned out they were FINE. Andy didn't have a scratch on him and Lauren just had a scratch on her arm, along with tons of glass in her hair. They were very shaken up, but thankful to be alive. They both have convertibles and if they had been driving either of those cars and flipped, we would probably be making funeral plans.
Andy and his Dad took the car to the insurance adjuster the next day and as they were driving up, the guy in the building thought to himself, Oh boy, that's going to be totaled. I guess the Blue Book on the car is only about $4400.00 or so in perfect condition. It will probably cost more to fix it, but we're keeping out fingers crossed.
Andy it quite bummed, he was looking forward to having a decent car. His brother, Ethan could fix it, but it would take him a while, and he would need some equipment that we would have to buy, so we'll just have to wait until the verdict comes back from the insurance company.
I guess this just confirms the fact that Nothing in life is FREE, there is always a CATCH.
I'm actually not sure who I feel more sorry for, Lauren, for being the one who was driving at the time, or Andy, for trying to get some sleep and not being in control. It's always easier to accept the ruin of something if you do it yourself, then you only have yourself to blame. But in the end, the car is just a thing.
So much more could have happened. 65 mph, skidding on black ice, flipping over, and walking away without a scratch...their gardian angels were certainly paying attention, and I thank God for that.

Victor...

Victor is the newest addition to our crazy family. My only grandbaby for now.

He and Kira stayed with us over Christmas because of the nasty storm we had. He got along great with Oliver. Little Bit would be Okay with him given a little more time, and I'm sure he would have gotten used to Annie too. He is a very nice cat, sort of like the little kid who befriends everyone.

Chef Andy...

Finally, I have pictures of Andy at work.

The first week was a little sparse, because we had a snow storm the evening before. We ended up with about 50 people. He made a scrumptious Beef Rib with Garlic Mashed Potatos and a Sauce, Ceasar Salad with Garlic Toast Bites, Seasoned Carrots, and I contributed Chocolate Mousse and Punch.

The second week he made Chicken Cordon Blue, Potatos Gratin and a Mushroom/Garlic Cream Sauce, Asparagus and I contributed Chocolate Dipped Shortbread and Punch.

Noel at Noon...

Andy will be cooking the meals for the two Noel at Noons at Parkway UCC in December.
I think he has ribs in mind for one of the meals, I don't know if he's thought of anything for the second.
I will post the menu with pictures when the time comes.
I'm looking forward to helping out again, it's really fun, but I sure would not want to work at that pace everyday. I'm wayyyyy to old for that.

Quilt...

OOOhhh!!! Kira finished my quilt. It is beautiful! While she was working at JoAnn's, she could take classes for free, and she took the quilting class. Wow...it has paid off, because she does beautiful work. Now all she needs to do is find an outlet to sell them. As soon as I get a picture of mine, I'll post it for all to see.

Tickets...

Wouldn't you think that after having 5+ parking tickets, you would try really, really hard NOT to park in a restricted area????? Especially when you know darn well you DO NOT have the money to pay for these tickets, because you DO NOT have a job and even if you did, you don't have the foggiest idea how to manage your money. I'm just about at the end of my rope. If your father's name wasn't listed as the owner of the car, I would let you suffer the consequences, and see what happens when you don't pay your fines. Then, I would'nt post bail, because that would just be another hunk of money you owe me.
I'd ignore them, if it wasn't for what would happen to your father if he got stopped for some reason by the police.

Happy...

I is soooo happy! First born GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yippee, yahoo, she gets to play with doggies all day, and get hairy, and licked.
Congratulations Bugs!

Art Fair...

Firstborn and I went to the Loring Park Art Fair this past saturday, Aug. 8. We had planned on getting an early start and going to Powderhorn, but as I was getting ready to leave, the sky turned dark as the clouds rolled in and it poured, so we waited awhile, the clouds rolled out, the sky turned blue and the temp. rose about 15 degrees while the humidity went to 90%, yuk. I needed gas as my car was on empty, and when I tried to get on the freeway, the exit ramps were closed, so I tried one further south, but it was closed too, then I realized the southbound freeway itself was closed for bridge painting/repair, geez, so I had to call and ask for directions. I finally got started and saw parts of the city I have never seen before, very pretty, redone areas, and lots and lots of stop lights. I was paying close attention for my turnoff, and passed a Jimmy Johns that looked just like the one near her house, and ended up at least a mile too far. I once again had to call for help. She made me drive to Target and STAY there while she came to my rescue. We finally got going 3 hours after the time we initially agreed upon, and took the shuttle bus to the Fair. It was so hot and sticky and no good food at that Fair, so when we got back on the bus to go to Powderhorn, it was getting late and I needed to pick up Middle Child from the airport, and we were starving...so we got our car and went to eat at The Neighborhood Cafe at 1570 Selby Ave. in St. Paul. Oh, my! It was fabulous. I got 2 pancakes, 2 eggs overeasy, 2 bacon and she got 2 french toast, 2 eggs overeasy, 2 bacon. That was the best I've ever eaten, and we snarfed it down. It would have tasted heavenly even if we hadn't been starving. Eventhough the day didn't turn out quite like we had planned, we got to spend time together, good time, and eat good food.

Viva Las Vegas...

Middle Child and his girlfriend took a little vacation to Las Vegas from Aug 5-Aug 8. We got up at 4:30 to get ready to drive them to the airport by 5:00. Their flight didn't leave until 7:00, but you have to get there in plenty of time, you know. I mentioned to him that he might want to call the Credit union when they opened and let them know that he would be in Las Vegas, using his credit card, so they wouldn't STOP his account because of suspicious activity. (I got this idea from a woman I work with. She had a friend that went to the middle east, where she grew up and still had family, and had her account stopped, because the bank thought someone was using her account without her knowledge). Well, suffice it to say that he didn't call, it left my mind, so I didn't call, and YES, they DID stop his account. Murphy's Law...we're very close. But, they had a great time anyway, lost money gambling, spent a gob on food, played in Mandalay Bay. Next time they'd like to see some shows. They were a little shocked at how very expensive everything was. Shar said she remembers (quite a time ago) being able to get .99 buffets.

I picked them up on Saturday evening when we were having a heatwave. It was near 90 and probably 90% humidity, with NO wind. I got there a little early and ended up going around the pickup loop 6 times before they got out of the airport and they said it was SO much hotter here than it was there. Minnesota gets very humid in the summer thanks to our 10,000 + lakes.

Angel voices...

Our church, Parkway UCC http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parkwayuccminneapolis.org%2F&h=11ad0cc6ecc5f667eb45b251772de168 has a choir that sings from September through May, and during the summer months while the choir has a vacation, people volunteer to sing, play piano, organ, or give a reading, today was Firstborn's day. Our choir director, Bonnie, is a person you just can't say no to. We go to Papa's Pizza in May to celebrate a year well done, and she has her trusty clipboard ready with blanks by all the summer sundays. All she has to do is pass it around and it gets filled in, and if she doesn't see your name, she will hound you until you give in and sign up. Firstborn told her to fill her name in where ever she needed it, and to pick out a good song for her to sing.
She sang 'Come Unto Him' from Handel's Messiah. Oh my, I wish you could have heard it, I had tears in my eyes. First of all, I hear the singing, then I realize that the beautiful sound I'm hearing is coming from MY daughter. The beautiful, high, soprano voice, hmmm. She needed to leave the service shortly after singing, and I got to receive ALL her many, many complements. Most everyone said her singing brought tears to their eyes...good ones. God saw fit to bless her with a wonderful gift.

Pirate ship...

Thirdborn has a desire to be covered in tattoos and he's got a pretty good start. Most of them are just outlined black, though the ones on his legs are colored. At first his friends would ask "What's your mom gonna say?" and people he met would say "What does your mom think of all that?" His reply?? "My mom is just fine with it, she loves tattoos, she's got three of her own."
He insisted that I go to JonBoy http://blog.saintsabrinas.com/ for my second tattoo, and I think I was a little too picky for Jon's taste, I could tell he was getting a little short with me. I'm an artist also, and I think he thought I was telling him what to do. But I gave him a big tip and went to him for my third, so I think he's ok now. ha! ha!

Thirdborn would like to get the puzzle pieces filled in with the flags of different countries he intends on visiting someday, IN the country he's visiting. He's got room for 8 countries. He's already been to United Kingdom, so if he can just hop on over there, he can get one filled in. Wow! That's an expensive tattoo!

His most recent tattoo is an outline of a pirate ship on his side by JonBoy a couple of weeks ago and in mid September sometime, he will go to a Tattoo Convention with JonBoy and get it filled in. That's a lot of filling in for one day...he's gonna be soooo sore but he got such a deal for being a model/guina pig that it was something he couldn't pass up. I can't wait to see it done, hopefully I will be able to get to the convention and take a look around.

Comfort shawl...

Last summer Firstborn's best friend's dad was in the hospital following a freak accident. I work in this particular hospital, and I always have a sweater with me because no matter what time of year it is, I'm always chilly. Both her friend and her friend's mother were commenting on the fact that it was cold in the building. My daughter http://kirashapedgirl.blogspot.com/ has knitted some gorgeous shawls and because she was in Oregon doing a zoo keeper internship at the time and couldn't be here to support her friend and mom, she showed her love and support by knitting each of them a beautiful, soft, snuggly, comforting shawl to help them feel warm, secure and loved while they were keeping vigil for long hours in the TNICU. She graciously knit them up and sent them off and I can attest that they were put to very good use for many weeks.
This past week, her room mate's mother asked if she would knit a shawl for a friend of hers that just had a miscarraige. I saw it last night and it was snuggly, and soft and comforting and beautiful (and it wasn't even finished).
She is so talented, knitting, sewing, baking, house and animal sitting. I'm a very proud momma.

Car wash...

Third born has been up and productive since 10 a.m. (Dad gave him his pill this morning) What's unusual about this is that he normally sleeps until 4 p.m. He's already cleaned the entire inside of his car, put the Honda for sale out on the busy street, went to get some supplies from Target and is now cleaning the inside of mine. He's even going to give them a bath! How exciting, my poor car was grossly filthy.
I'm really hoping for rain, but I'd like to see my car all clean and shiny first.
Thank you, my baby.

Baby feel...

I love the feel of a baby asleep on my chest, knees drawn up, hands curled into little fists, or maybe a thumb in their mouth, breathing in that snuffly way babies do. I love rubbing my hand over their soft head, the back of the neck ( a very comforting spot) down over their bony back. The smell of them after a bath, warm, soft, baby smell. There is nothing in life to compare to this feeling.

So sad...

My children are grown now and I'm happy with that, and I don't get the 'I want another baby' feeling anymore (good thing, because I'm way too old) but one day I was having pizza and soda at Target and people watching. I saw young mothers with small children in their carts leaving for home. I heard one little boy say in that cute little 3 yr old voice "Mommy, can we go to the park?" and she said "I'm sorry honey, we need to pick up your sister from school." His little voice was so sweet! The mothers talking to their children. It hit me like a ton of bricks that I would never again be pregnant, carrying a child in me, feeling it grow, roll around, poke it's foot out, get hiccups. I would never again give birth. I would never again nurse a baby in the wee hours. It was such a devastating feeling I just about started crying. My eyes filled with tears and the pizza got stuck because I couldn't swallow and my mouth did that weird turn down, quiver thing. I was miserable. I'm looking forward to Grandchildren. They won't be the same as having my own, but I think it will pretty darn special and exciting.

Marble Girl...

When Firstborn and I went to MIA a couple of weeks ago, we saw a marble bust that looks just like Thirdborn's girlfriend. I showed it to her and she said, "I don't look like that, that doesn't look like me." Thirdborn said, "Yes you do, it looks just like you." I say, if she pulled her hair back on top of her head, and we took a picture of her profile...well just look.

Police...

In January, Third Born was walking to school after parking his car when he came upon a man attempting to jump off the Washington Ave. bridge. It's not a very high bridge, but the fall would have seriously injured him if not actually kill him. My son started talking to him, asking what was going on, listening to him, getting him to forget about jumping. He succeeded in getting him down, and found out he had just been released from jail, no one came to pick him up, he was broke, depressed and so on. My son got him to walk with him to school then asked him if he wanted some coffee. While my son was in getting coffee, he asked the person behind the counter to call 911, then he took the coffee to the man. He offered him a cigarette and while they were talking, smoking and drinking, the police came. They took statements and took the man in for help. The man thanked my son for taking the time to talk to him and care. Because of this, my son got a MPD Lifesaving Award. Pretty darn cool, I'd say. He's always been a very caring person and I'm very proud of him.

Graduation Party...

We had a graduation party for Middle Born this past Wednesday, June 24. It had to be a Wednesday because that is the only full day he has off work. When you are a chef, your weekends belong to the restaurant. He did all of the cooking, and First Born and I assembled, and assembled, and assembled...for six hours we assembled. Whew! What a lot of work. I was glad to go to my actual job the next day. I knew it would be less stressful, cooler, and way less work. Because we were soooo busy, I completely forgot to take pictures. I cannot believe that I have NO pictures of the entire day. What a poor excuse for a mother I am!
I guess I'll just have to try and remember what we made...
*crab and mango empanadas
*prosciutto with pineapple and gorganzola cheese on chiabatta toast
*chorizo with sweet melons
*bacon wrapped Medjool dates on polenta
*greek-style quesadillas
*asian pesto-grilled chicken skewers
*butternut cashew pohpiahs
*crabmeat beggar's purses
*spicy chinese five-spice-rubbed chicken wings
*fried crab wontons
*chocolate drizzled cream puffs
*tres leches cake
*lettuce salad with strawberries, salted almonds and raspberry dressing
*fresh fruit
*cranberry raspberry punch
It was all so very yummy. I really enjoy helping him with these special dinners. I take directions very well, and now that he's been working in the field awhile, he gives directions very well. He has a real nice way of telling or showing you how to do something without yelling, belittling or making you feel stupid.
We were still scrambling to get things finished when guests started arriving, so we didn't get to talk to everyone, especially Andy, the one the party was for. He got to spend time with his friends after the party though, they had a bonfire and s'mores and lots of alcoholic beverages.
Dad and I did ALL the clean-up. There was a whole lot of oil used that day. Yuck! Thank you Dawn...you keep your end of the deal.
So, even without pictures, it was a very fine day.
Congratulations Andy!