Friday, June 25, 2010

Construction is FINALLY Complete

I  think I mentioned that we were in the process of finishing the upstairs in Boo's house so we would have more room. Finally. It's done. Keri is moving her stuff upstairs as we speak. That girl is just beside herself over her new room. Not to mention that she now has her own bathroom and her and Melissa will be sharing the upstairs living room. A year ago, I never thought I would be where I am now.

I know that I don't deserve such a wonderful man as my Boo, but I am grateful for him every single day. Keri told me the other day that she thinks thinks everything happens for a reason. What a smart girl. She pointed out that had certain things not happened at our old house that we wouldn't be here now. It sounds corny but sometimes I think "Wow, this is really real". It all seems like a wonderful dream and at any moment, I expect to wake back in the place I was a year ago. Sometimes I am scared that something will happen to Boo or to me. Just because I can't believe our good fortune. Our lives seemingly melded together pretty well. He is not perfect and neither am I. But somehow it just seems to work.

The girls bought Boo Father's Day cards, which I thought was really sweet. We baked a cake and my sister came over and cooked some food for him and my dad.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty stressful with trying to finish the upstairs and work has been crazy for the both of us. I have had to work a couple of weekends, which I find to be ironic. There was a time when I would have killed to be able to work weekends, cuz we get paid for it. Now, I don't want to be there. I don't need to be there financially. My workload says differently. It says, "You must come in on Saturday and get caught up. If you don't, I will be there on Monday and Tuesday and each day after that until you figure out how to get caught up". I compromised this weekend and brought some stuff home with me.

Working for the same company as Boo is strange in itself. Most everyone knows that we are together. My boss either hasn't figured it out, or he has and has decided not to say anything. We are not sure what, if anything would happen should certain company officials become aware of our relationship. We don't work in the same department, but he is a manager and I have access to certain sensitive information. I am concerned about how our long term future will affect our jobs should we decide to get married. It would have to come out at that point. I have five and a half years invested in that company and Boo has even more than that. I suppose we will have to cross that bridge when we get to it.

Now I must focus on what really matters. Like where I can find a Wii for a reasonable price for the upstairs living room.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Trying To Catch Up

As I mentioned in my last post, the girls and I are living with Boo. His house has three bedrooms downstairs and and unfinished upstairs. Until now that is. The bedrooms downstairs are sort of small so Boo is finishing the upstairs for the girls. There will be a living room, bedroom, and living room when the work is finished. We hope to be mostly finished by the end of next week. The drywall is up, the walls are painted and the tile has been laid in the bathroom. I really can't believe he is doing all that for my girls. I spent ten years as a single parent. I was sort of resigned to being single for the rest of my life. I was even pretty happy about it. I really had no idea what was in store for me when I met Boo.

When I first started crushing on him, I just thought he was really smart and had pretty eyes. Little did I know there was a lot more to him than that. He is truly one of the kindest men I have ever had the good fortune to know. He is very good to my girls and to me. He does laundry, dishes and will even clean the toilet. He is not rude or disrespectful or demeaning. I won't carry on and on though it's tempting.

Keri was not at all impressed when we first started dating. She was not very happy for me to have ANY man in my life. She slowly came around once she realized how kind he is. Yesterday I was driving her to stay the night with a friend. She told me that she refers to him as her dad. I was shocked, touched, and in awe. Keri's father disappeared from her life a couple of years ago. I don't want to get into that here. I am very happy that she didn't lose all trust in men. It would have been easy and understandable for her to feel that way.

I really feel like the four of us are a family. It just goes to show you that you never know what the future holds. Did I mention that I was single for TEN FREAKIN' years?

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Changes Are Afoot

It seems like a lifetime has passed since the last time I sat down to write. A quiet evening at home with not much going on, has my fingers itching. Let's see, a lot has been going on. First, the kids and I moved in with my Boo. Without going into a lot of details, my living situation become impossible. Boo and I discussed it and decided the girls and I would move in with him. It's not the perfect situation in the sense that I didn't want to live with a man without being married. I wanted to set an example for my girls. However, when backed into a corner I feel I made the best decision for everyone.

Things have really changed for us since the move. I had been struggling financially for quite a while before the move. That area of my life has improved DRAMATICALLY. What else. Oh, Melissa graduated high school with honors....in three years. She went to summer school last summer and skipped her junior year. Honestly, it took me by surprise. She kept telling me she was going to do it, but I was doubtful.

I have to say that the day she graduated was one of the proudest moments of my life as her mother. I quit school as a young teenager, and so did most of my family. This accomplishment was a big deal for everyone. I walked around in motherly pride, for a couple weeks. It seems to me that if you get all puffed up with motherly pride, something bad is bound to happen, and it did. Because we moved so close to the end of the school year, I didn't want the girls to have to change schools. Melissa became Keri's personal chauffeur for the remainder of the school year. Well almost. 

Then one day a few weeks ago, I got ..THE PHONE CALL. My phone starting buzzing while I was at work. I saw it was Keri, and answered the phone. I hear a very tearful "Mmmooommmmyyyy" on the other end of the phone, followed by silence. "Hello....hello....Keri?" I say. A man gets on the phone and asks me if I know Melissa. I said that I did and she was my daughter. This man (who was the principal of Keri's school) ripped into me. The phone kept breaking up and I couldn't understand everything he said. The gist of it was that Melissa had tried to run over one of the teachers with her car. My Melissa. My Melissa, who hasn't even been grounded since she was fifteen. My Melissa who NEVER gets into trouble. Let me say that Melissa did not try to run over a teacher with her car. That's ridiculous. What she did do, was cuss said teacher. The teacher was trying to hurry Melissa through the carpool line. Melissa was driving slowly, looking for her sister. The teacher kept waving at her and telling her she needed to drive up to the cone. Finally after a few minutes, Melissa says, "I'm trying find my f-ing sister!".

Now, how that got turned into Melissa trying to run her over, I don't know. While I know it was inappropriate of her speak that way to a teacher, it was more inappropriate of that teacher to flat out LIE... and say Melissa tried to hit her with her car. Anyone who knows my daughter, knows she is not an attempted murderess.  Really. OK, maybe she needs her mouth washed out with soap, but let's not get carried away. The principal kept telling me that she was NEVER EVER to set foot on school property AGAIN. He also informed me that he would be filing a petition. A petition? What kind of petition? Parents Against Cussing Teenagers or something? I wondered if maybe he MEANT to say he would be filing charges against her. I thought, "Doesn't he know she just graduated.....with honors....in three years" I thought to myself. Apparently he didn't get that memo.

See what I mean? You go and get all proud and then something like this happens. Oh well. So Melissa is going away to college in the fall. I can't believe it. God  eighteen years went by fast. It has been a little traumatic for me to face having my firstborn fly the coop so to speak. There have been several nights where I laid in bed crying. This is a pain that even Boo can't help. I am so grateful to have him to lean on, but it's still hard. Hard to think of my baby out in the cold, cruel world without me. Hard to think of her living on a college campus, doing things that I am sure I absolutely don't want to know about. Hard to think that she wont be here with us every day. I cannot describe the joy and laughter that girl has brought to my life. She completely changed my life from the day I found about her existence. She really forced me to turn my life around.

Keri is thriving, although the last time I took her to the mall she walked ten feet in front of me. Which spoke volumes to me. It said, "Mom, you are old and uncool, and frankly I don't want to be seen with you. Just fork over your wallet and be on your merry way". Let's recap. Melissa is leaving me and going away to college. Keri now feels that I am the "most embarrassing person alive". That is a direct quote from her Facebook page. Yeah, that's great. Oh well, at least I still have Boo. As he told Melissa Friday night, he finally started liking me last week.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Check This Out!

Please read the email correspondence below, and tell me what you HONESTLY think. I am pretty hacked and have not sent a response yet. I wanted to calm down and gather my thoughts.


From: Rogers, Susan [SRogers@qualityind.com]


Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 1:36 PM

To: Mike Snell

Subject: Bus change



My daughter Kering Grace Rogers is a sixth grader at Christiana Middle

School. Her older sister usually watches her in the afternoon until I get

home from work. She has gotten a job in the afternoons and will not be at

home. I would like for Keri to be able to ride the bus to my sister's house

in the afternoon, so that she may receive proper supervision after school.

My sister lives at  blah blah blah. She has two

children attending Christiana Elementary School. Please let me know what bus

number and if this would be allowed until the end of the school year. My

cell phone number is 555-5555 or see my additional contact information

below.

Thank You,



Susan Rogers


HERE IS THE RESPONSE I RECEIVED:


I'm sorry Ms. Rogers but I will not be able to grant your request. Bus routes and capacities are set up using the


students home address. If students are allowed to ride another bus other than the one they are assigned, it

would cause some buses to be overloaded and some buses to be half empty therefore the county would

have to use more buses than are needed. And to be fair we cannot allow one student to ride a different bus

without allowing all students that same opportunity as we transport 23,000 students each day.



So what's the verdict kind readers?