I have been trying to get in to post for months!  For some reason, all the other blogs I was affiliated with would let me post, but this one would not.  Finally, I am able to put up something so they don't shut me down. 

BTW, the family got huge.  Check this out:

Keeping The Blog Alive

Hello! Just keeping my blog and memories alive!

Hello!

Hey guys! Just posting to keep this blog running. Its kinda special to me even though i don't really contribute to it anymore.

Trying Something New

Hello everyone!  Today I am going to try something new.  I am creating a new blog dedicated to crochet.  This is an old hobby that I recently picked back up and am seriously loving.  My family blog has suffered a lot due to Facebook being a much faster and easier outlet for me.  I think that the crochet blog will help keep my interest because Facebook is not conducive to writing patterns.  I hope you will join me at calypsocrochet.blogspot.com , and enjoy relaxing, and making some cute stuff while you're at it!

Quit My Job

Alrighty-tighty.  So I had this great job in a law office for about a year-and-a-half.  It was fun-ish.  I liked it, but I was not a good mom anymore, and I was overwhelmed at work (because they had me performing two full-time jobs), and my boss was unkind.  I started to wonder why, when I would never tolerate abuse in my personal life, I allowed it from my boss.  What makes us think that just because someone is employing us, or paying us (in my case a whopping $10 an hour when I have a frickin' bachelor degree), that we have to allow them to treat us badly?  I understand that as adults, sometimes it is just our job in life to find out exactly how much misery life can shovel onto us before we lose it.  We discover that we are surprisingly able to handle a whole lot more than we thought we ever could.

On the other hand, when we have the power to put a stop to a certain amount of that misery, why do we continue to take it?  That's what happened to me. I had stayed in the job for quite some time because I felt an obligation to my boss who had been very good to me on a couple of occasions. I came to the realization that just because he had been good to me on an occasion or two did not mean that I am indebted to him forever, and that my family was more important to me than his business. I realized that just because I was grateful to him for the things he had done for me, didn't mean he was grateful to me for the things I had done for him.  In the end, I decided to end an abusive relationship in order to strengthen a relationship that meant more to me.  In some ways, I felt like I was giving up.  Like I was letting him win.  On the other hand, I get to be with my family and spend time with my children.

Yeah, I totally win!

Tonight

So, I have been terribly negligent of you blog, but there's nothing interesting to write about anymore.  I'm afraid that if I don't post though, that it will be taken down.  So I post more inane stuff, just to keep my blog going.  Some day I'll have something cool to post.  Ah!  I have an idea!  I'll post it tomorrow!  Get excited!!

Hey Guys!

So, in the last year-and-a-half I started a new job at the biggest bankruptcy firm in St. Louis.  I'm a paralegal.  I process cases and I set appointments and do all kinds of other super-important stuff. ;)  My kids got old.  Daniel is 11 years old, ladies and gentlemen, and sweet baby Launa is now 8.  Let's see, Launa was the only second grader in her school in the gifted program last year until they were able to get another child in with her, so I'm pretty proud of that. Daniel is freaking hilarious!  He makes me laugh all the time.  It's fun to watch your kids grow.  I hear that all stages of growing up are pretty fun.  Jeremy is now going to school for Information Technology.  He's awesome. He'll do amazing. :)  That's the update.  I will keep my eyes and ears peeled for new and interesting posts.  I miss this, and really, this used to be a pretty cool blog. We can make is awesome again! :)

"Gost Busters" Tribute

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Get ready for the most entertaining Ghost Busters tribute, ever!  

Starring:

 Daniel as the gost buster 

Launa as the victim

*and introducing* 

Jocelyn as the dog!

This way, please:

Tickets please:

Personalized: Jarumy, Grampu and I all got our own tickets. The front of the tickets all said: "Gost Busters, its a play."

Launa's script:

 Jocelyn's script:

Daniel's script:

The smash hit all of Broadway is raving about!

Coming to a living room near you!

(Take a bow, guys!)

Wow! It's Been a Long Time!

Hey guys!  Sorry that it's taken so long to post anything new.  My job demanded a lot of my time, and when I was home, I wanted to be with my family instead of blogging. Anyway, I don't have that job anymore, and I now have a ton of time to blog as much as I want! YAY!  Anyway, what do you want to talk about? :)

Holla!

Hey guess what?! I got a job! I think it's gonna be good. I think that I'll like it. I think that I'll be able to move up the ranks quickly. Because I'm THAT awesome. You know I am, too. :)

Spider Web

It was pretty and foggy this morning. There was dew on everything, and at the bus stop, attached to the STOP sign, there was a gorgeous, dew-covered spider web! After the kids got on the bus, I had to make a trip back for photos. Some of them turned out really well:


This is the lot across from my folks' house. I liked how it looked in the fog, but the picture didn't show it how I saw it. *sigh* Oh well.


Side view of the spider web. They get better, I promise. Keep scrolling down.

The whole web.

This is the guy that made the web. I found him hiding behind the sign on the post.

I included the photo of the STOP sign because even though the web took up almost the whole post, you couldn't see it head on. I thought that was interesting.

Toes + A Little Too Much Time On My Hands =

Some Stuff We Did

Here are pictures of some stuff that we did this weekend!

We went to the Cards vs. Reds game on Friday because we got an awesome deal on nosebleed tickets!

Here's a picture of the good-lookin' people!

The Arch in the upper left-hand corner.

Labor day we had a picnic at Forest Park before heading to the zoo!

Here's a great picture that Jeremy took of a gorgeous butterfly outside of the Jewel Box!

Lily pads in the pool outside of the Jewel Box. I liked these variegated ones!



Exoskeleton on a lily pad.

There's a dragonfly on the lily on the right.

Pretty blue flowers climbing up the outside wall of the zoo.

Lioness in the tree.

Hippo butt!



Do you see the frog in the water?

My charming husband, charming a cobra.

Text Book Names

Here's a politically correct word problem from my 4th grade son's math book:

"D'Jeran has $23, Becky has $42. Together D'Jeran and Becky have how much money?..."

I would like to know why rich Becky has more money than poor D'Jeran. And what's the likelihood Becky and D'Jeran even know each other, let alone live within walking distance? Is Becky just hanging out with D'Jeran because she wants to upset her daddy?

How did D'Jeran make it into this text book? The apostrophes were confusing to my son, who couldn't read this name. Really I'm not trying to be ugly, but why can't they just name everyone Sam, Jill, Bob or Sue? It's not because I only want my kids exposed to "white" culture (I just moved out of the ghetto - all of my kids' friends were of different backgrounds), it's about using names that the kids can read. This isn't English or World Geography, it's a math book.

Other confusing names out of the book: D'Nae, Anitra, Kazi, Tamira, Talnai, Raziya. I'm sure we'll come across more as we go.

My Son Had A Birthday

My son had a birthday and the kids started school, and I made no special post about it. Worst. Mom. Ever.

Another Cool Spider!

I know that I take lots of spider pictures for someone so scared of them, but have a look at this spider living right outside my mom and dad's back door! It's some kind of huge garden spider with a web that stretches all the way across the door, and takes up at least the whole top half! Amazing!



This is a bad shot of the spider, but it's incredible of the web!

You Cheated!!!

Today Dan and Launa were playing tic-tac-toe. They were joking around and playing until Launa shouts, "YOU CHEATED!! Hey Mooo-oom! Daniel chea- ... Hey, wait a minute! I can't tattle on YOU... *I* was planning on cheating!"

I love it when they start growing logic. It's funny. :)

Frozen Dinner

The Lean Cuisine market creations chicken alfredo (in the steam bag) is goooooooooood! Usually those frozen entrees need to be spiced up a little out of the microwave (especially the diet ones - ugh), but these need nothing else (except maybe more inside)! As my dad says, "It's so good, it'll make your brains fall out!"

It will, too.

Dinner At Our House

This is a real-life conversation held over dinner tonight:

Jeremy: "Ugh, my ears are ringing."

Daniel: "I don't hear anything."

Launa, putting her ear up to Jeremy's ear: "Let me see if I can hear it...nope."

Daniel: "Let ME try!"

Tide Pools And Airport Stays

Today my daddy, Al Gross, interviewed me on his show in St. Louis at KXEN am 1010. I think he had me for most of the hour. We had a good time chatting and discussing life. We talked about our trip to the tide pools and I promised to post some pictures from the trip.

I feel kind of bad because Sarah (my sister) was there, she was using her camera, and she took all of the pictures, so there are none of her. I didn't even think to ask her if she wanted some pictures of herself on her own camera! I'm ashamed. Anyway, she got some good ones of Dad and me. ;)

I was looking back to see if I had posted any of these pictures on my blog previously, but it turns out that I didn't get around to it. I also forgot to write about my 24 hour stay at chez LAX, which is actually a very good story, so I'll post the pictures and reminisce about my time stuck in the airport.

Sarah (on the left) and me overlooking the Ojai Valley on Dad's personal history tour.

Dad holding an octopus that we found at the tide pools in Ventura, CA.

A smaller octopus that clung to a rock for camouflage. Can you see it there? It's easier to find if you're looking for legs.

I finally worked up the courage to hold a smaller octopus!

I love this picture of Dad.

A hermit crab we found. I think Dad has owned those shorts since the 80s.

None of us knew what these were. We found them under a rock, and they slowly shrunk back down into the dirt after we exposed them.

Sea anemone.

The carcass of a horseshoe crab.

Cool rocks.

A barnacle and the underside of a sea anemone.

So! My stay in LAX happened this way: I was on a budget. A man from my church is retired from Delta Airlines, so he used his perks to get me an inexpensive, but bump-able seat on a flight to LA and back to Atlanta. I took the shuttle from Ventura to LAX. The shuttle left at 4 pm, and I had the last plane out of town. They boarded the flight, and instead of calling the stand-bys to get on, the senior flight attendant decided to shut the plane and take-off, even though there was plenty of room on the flight.

Of course, I didn't realize that I had the last flight out of town, and that I was in for the experience of my life. After my flight left me, the airport cleared out pretty quickly and suddenly there was just me and about five other people in the whole terminal. I was going to get to sleep in the airport! I grabbed my heavy carry-on bag, and I decided that it was time to settle in. I scrunched up on the seat, and tried to use my bag as a pillow, but I just couldn't get comfortable. After a while of this, one of the other young ladies in the terminal said to me, "Excuse me, but you'll be a lot more comfortable if you stretch your legs across the aisle and prop them up on the seats across from you, then put your bag in your lap and rest your head on it." It turned out she was the daughter of a Delta pilot, and had had lots of experience flying stand-by and consequently, sleeping in airport terminals. While propping my feet up was better, it still wasn't comfortable, and I mostly cat napped for most of the night, maybe getting a total of 90 minutes to 2 hours of sleep.

The airport filled up in the morning, and the six other displaced passengers and I started the process of moving from terminal to terminal in hopes of finding a flight with an empty seat to Atlanta. As we moved from one flight waiting area to another, the other stand-bys and I started to chat each other up. It started with the self-deprecating and good-natured looks we gave each other every time we had to haul our bags to the next terminal. Before long we were talking to each other about who we were and what we were doing. The girl that talked to me the night before and I stuck pretty close together and there were two other men that we spent a lot of time with. One of the guys bought us lunch. We told each other stories, and I went over to the gift shop to buy a pack of cards. The other girl and I played a game called speed. In the afternoon, she finally caught a flight! I was happy for her, but sorry to see her go. I gave her my contact information, but it changed pretty soon afterward, and I wonder if she ever tried to call. It would have been fun to see her again. I got a flight in the evening, and finally made it home in time for breakfast the next morning.

It was exhausting and could have been a pretty rotten experience if people had decided to be crabby about being stuck in a crowded airport terminal hauling our heavy bags all over the place. Fortunately we were having so much fun getting to know strangers, that it turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip! I was glad to get home, and I slept for hours once I got there. I wish I had written down more about it right after it happened, because it made a great story, and I know there are details that I've forgotten by now.

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the photos, and the story about being stuck forever at the airport. Feel free to leave comments, I always like hearing from new people. Personal shout-out to David Klaus. I hope you got to hear me today!