the one that will drive you all away

I have in essence been disowned by my biological contributor because I told him I think he and his wife are wrong.
they asked. I said. they got mad and good riddance. but they wanted to know and if they weren't prepared to hear what I had to say then they should have kept their mouths shut. because, really, what did they expect? I'm sure they knew what was going to happen when they started it.
because seriously, I'm 36 I have a mind of my own and I have a family of my own. I'm not about to be all 'boo hoo, you're right and I'm a stupid girl child'
I think that they got exactly what they set out for, me being rid of them.

It's okay though... they think it's about money because that's all they think about, but really it's about 36 years of him being a crap dad to me. and I'm just sick of him being so oblivious and thinking he's just never wrong, and never ever caring about me.
So I'm glad that I will never have to have anything to do with his shriveled old harpy wife or him again.

Yay! I'm FREE

oh my

We're making peanut butter cookies with the chocolate stars on top...

Ronan is saying "no way... no way... no way..."
so I say "Jose"
Ronan: "hose way"

Emma: "that's weird, or is that the French way to say it?"

:D

Thanksgiving

with Thanksgiving tomorrow, I thought I had better put a bit of thought into what I am thankful for.

I am thankful:
the worst illness that my children have is a cold.
I do not have any major heart problem (just a tiny one)
my family was spared from being hit by a tornado this summer
my husband still has a job when so many people have lost theirs in the last few years
we have a roof over our heads
we have food to eat
and warmth in the winter
my kids have terrific grandparents who want to be a part of their lives and they act on it
I'm thankful that my tiny store has had customers here and there
Tim loves me


so far a short list... I'll most likely add to it

EPIC FAIL!!!

My sister has a son who has autism. he has some verbal skills, but usually not more than one or two words together.
He has been suffering from headaches for a very long time now and my sister has discussed with his doctor that he may be having migraines. how can you express that when you are a low verbal autistic person? the best he can do is say "head" or "headache". he can't explain just how badly it hurts or how the pain is so sever that it makes him nauseated.
there is another possibility. when his meds have taken a dip because he metabolizes them too quickly or that they just don't work as they should, he tends to have outbursts, often resulting in physical harm to himself by way of hitting his head on things. my sister is concerned that he may, over all these years, have caused some kind of brain damage or other issue with his head.

yesterday they decided that they needed to get some treatment for him. To get some help to manage the pain he is in and to find out what is wrong. he has a right to be comfortable and healthy just like any other person in the world. but when they took him to the hospital, the hospital flatly refused treatment based solely on the fact that he has autism.
if you are wondering, the hospital in question is Immanuel Saint Joseph's Hospital in Mankato MN.
boycott them if you are in the area, because this is not the first failure on their part to adequately treat a patient, but I have to say that this is certainly the most appalling.
it isn't about money, because if that were the case, they would have taken him in and ran test after test until they found the problem or until they found that another hospital would have been better able to serve them and referred them to a specialist.
No... they just didn't want to deal with a high maintenance patient. they refused them because they were simply too lazy to try to help. they would send him home with the same problems for a weary woman half his size to deal with him in a place that is really not set up to restrain a patient who may have a violent outburst. a woman who is NOT medically trained and who is NOT equipped to medicate with anything more than useless Tylenol.

therefore this post is aptly titled epic fail, because it was a failure of EPIC proportions.

Thankfully my sister and brother in law were able to find one doctor who was on their side. it took a very long time but they got someone to listen to them and they are being sent to a much more capable facility. Thank God.
funny thing is, ISJ claimed to have called 11 other hospitals and all 11 hospitals were not able to take him. How is it, then, that one doctor was able to make one referral and get them a place in a better hospital? I would have to surmise that ISJ did not, in fact, call anyone at all.

instead, they simply say 'the behavior that this person is exhibiting is nothing more than his Autism and therefore nothing is wrong with him because his vitals are just fine' is just so completely unethical as a doctor not to mention STUPID. Aren't you supposed to be educated when you are a doctor? even if you don't specialize in autism you should at least be able to know that to say such a thing is totally asinine.

If you can't tell, I'm completely incensed by this. I think I might be more outraged by the fact that there is nothing I can do about it.

we should call the news. not local they're rubbish. but there are enough people around that watch out of the cities... we should call Eye Witness 5 and Kare 11 etc. this really should be spread around until ISJ is forced to offer real care for ALL people.

Eagle powers anyone?

Friday Tim got home earlier from work than expected. they had been working OT all last week and this week and they just ran out of stuff to do for that afternoon and so the option was given to all employees and they all went home a lot earlier...
I digress from my point.

He came in and told me to grab the camera. so I did and got ready to run out the door.

(click pictures for slightly larger pictures)

it didn't take long before he got tired of us looking at him.

it's nice to see them around.
I remember when I was a kid we would never ever see them. it just didn't happen. I think until I was 29 I only ever saw three and that was from the greatest distance. I could only tell that it was a Bald Eagle because I could see the tiny speck that was it's head.
now we see them several times a year. they live close and last year they even landed in our tree.
truly Awesome

don't know what to say

but I thought I'd better give you something new to look at until I get things updated here.

wow, abby, you're so talented

but just not enough.

sorry I have to get that out somewhere since it's just screaming through my entire being.

oh and all necklaces 20% off....






ppppplllttttttttt.....

such wit :)

this morning I got a weather report by email from kare11.com
there was a critical typo in that forecast but they did correct it but until they did it gave us a few minutes of entertainment.

here is a screen shot of that forecastnote the highlighted temperature of 602 for the high

Timothy and I were having a bit of a chuckle about this then Connor said
"after school, can we play in the sprinkler?"

:)
that's great

Sean the Ranger

I know a young man (younger than me so I can call him that) who I can consider my friend. I've known him since he was a baby. and though we have never been exceptionally close I think of him and worry about him while he is on his adventure.
you see he has decided to take a journey and the rules he has about this adventure is this. he is homeless. during this time in his life he is writing a blog about his experiences as a homeless person. he is doing what he can to make people aware that not all homeless people are drugged out, thieves, or insane. many people who are without a place to live simply have hit on hard times. they have lost jobs and have been unable to find work to pay for a home.
very few people actually choose to be homeless.

most of my readers already know about his blog, but I'm sharing the link anyway....

it has been interesting to follow along with the bits of his life that he has chosen to share.

and because Sean is practically family (being son of my friends and nephew to other friends, and cousin to many more of my friends, and just being really cool and kind himself) pray for him so that he will be kept safe.

trick or treat

this year we had three kids to trick or treat. they were all so eager, but none as much as Connor. he was truly vibrating from the excitement.HULK WANT CANDY

I have a rule that once you turn 12 you are now too old to beg for candy on Halloween. teens are so greedy and then they take the fun out of it for the tiny kids. my older children knew they are not going to be trick or treating.

Emma is wearing a dress I bought for Erica when she was really little. I found her a new witch hat this year and then we were going to do fake eyelashes that matched, but they didn't work at all!

for Connor and Ronan I bought them costumes with money I earned from my store.
because my big kids didn't go trick or treating, I didn't really concern myself with getting them ready but I focused on costumes for the little ones.

Connor is the Hulk and Ronan is Optimus Prime. they play iron man and spider man so much (especially Ronan) that I forbade them to choose either of those costumes.

Timothy and Erica opted to be scary lawn decorations for Grandma.
I took the pictures right before we took the little ones out (while they weren't too tired to stand still for a moment to snap a picture)

the pictures of the bigger kids get to wait for last because they were gross. timothy looked like this just until we left. he went in and washed his hands and neck and put on a couple more sweatshirts, took his shirt with the 'blood' and wore it on the outside of everything and went a new direction with the blood. more on that in a moment.

Erica laid on the ground and giggled and giggled while I tried to take a picture. I snapped fast in her very brief moments of composure. I said I was taking crime scene pictures and she started laughing. and then she had a hard time stopping.

after Tim changed his look he got uncle John's old skateboard as a prop. He laid down on the ground next to the side walk then put the skate board upside down over his leg.

Erica took some more fake blood and oozed it down her shirt more. by the time we got back she was in a lawn chair but she looked really gross. I did tell them that they had better not go over board with the blood because there were going to be really little kids stopping by.
I didn't get any pictures of the skate board accident and the dead girl in the lawn chair because when we got back they jumped up and I was shot and didn't want to pose them again. maybe grandma got a picture? but that's okay if she didn't