Category: Family

Children · Daily Post · Family · friendship · Home

Be Kind And Rewind or (Weave)

shelie277 Comments

Weaving The Threads: draft a post with three parts, each unrelated to the other, but create a common thread between them by including the same item-object, a symbol,- in each part.

Prompt: The summer of 1990 I was twelve or thirteen and had just had my open heart surgery. My parents one night during my recovery process decided to go out and have some dinner. My “grams told them to take a break and she would stay with me.

During their meal, they got acquainted with the waitress. She had asked them if they were from “around the area”? My parents told her no. We are staying at the Ronald McDonald House our daughter is recovering in the hospital from heart surgery. The waitress started crying at their table. She told them before she walked away she would be “right back” they thought she might have had to go and get a hold of herself? When she came back she had a chocolate cake and told them the meal was on the house!

This Christmas my husband and I decided not to use any credit cards. So When buying for our kids we made a budget for each one. Mind you his kids do not live here with us they stay with their mother in another state. So after getting a bit carried away. We started adding everything up. I had went over about twenty dollars on Gabe, so I had to quit. Gabe tells me two weeks before Christmas he wants a new bike, there was nothing I could do the gifts that we had bought were online and things he and needed as well.

I did not mention to anyone about this situation because I did not want to make others feel we were asking them for help.

A couple of days later my friend Audra text me. She works at a homeless shelter for woman. Every year they have a huge give away, a meal, clothes, and toys (new ones) for family’s who can’t afford presents for their kids. In her text she said they had one bike left, it had been given anonymously and even had “Training Wheels” if I wanted the bike it was mine to come pick it! The bike was red my son’s favorite color.

I have been blogging for over a year now and I want to publicly thank another blogger

Thank you for befriended me just a few days after I started this journey and telling me I could ask for help anytime. Then following through with your words. I would email her asking how to do the daily prompt,she sent me word for word instructions more than once, I messed up my blog by changing my username and ended up changing my url, it was a mess, I tried to fix it on my own by texting the site itself but did not get anywhere with that route,she even took up for me when the question that I had asked on this site was not clearly answered, she basically went out on her own and got my site all squared away, it took her lots of her own time. The other day I wrote a story on my facebook page and she had asked me in the comments “why  didn’t you write this on your blog”

Photo Credit: Www.sweetonveg.com
Photo Credit: Www.sweetonveg.com

Diane

Your words that day has put a Getty up in my blogging. I wasn’t for sure this cup of tea was for me, it’s getting better all the time Diane. Thank you and for the person you have shown me you are!

Children · Daily Post · Family · Grandma · Home

“Places In The Heart”

shelie276 Comments
Photo credit: www.Indb.com
Photo credit: http://www.Indb.com

Hello Fifty,

Sitting here at the kitchen table this A.m it’s cold, quiet and peaceful in the “Tin Can” an owl is outside hooting and I am at the table writing my thoughts down over a warm cup of coffee.

I sit here thinking about dropping Gabe off at school this morning, it’s becoming a daily thought. Every morning when dropping him off at school before he goes in, he turns around and blows me a kiss. Lately it’s been something I sit and wait for, even though the cars behind me are most likely in a rush? It’s our time, shortly it will be but another artifact that we tuck away in the chambers of our hearts.

The thing about the heart is it never gets full of all the places and moments we have been in. The more you open it up and stuff it with the Good things, when the bad things happen you always have a place to go.

Recently,I had to take a trip to the hospital. Lets not go into why, because it’s not my focus for the few people reading. However it does not down play that I was afraid. I laid their scared, cold, and worried that they wouldn’t get the problem under control or maybe they’re was more going on… After making a few phone calls and being to upset about the situation, I had to get a handle on myself and by doing so I go back to the phantoms of my yester years.

I closed my eyes

This particular memory reminds me of a warm blanket and it covers me and my fears.

The day was dark, foggy and rainy not the hard rain though more like a mist! I was not feeling well at all. A few days after my open heart surgery as a child, being a kid you don’t express your sickness the way you do when you’re an adult. This is why we have parents or what the definition is as a parent to me. My “step mom” Lin came up by herself for some reason and asked me how I was feeling? I didn’t say much but looking back from now to then, I didn’t have too. She pulled up a chair next to me and just sat there not saying a word. To be honest I couldn’t tell you how long she sat there either. When I did wake up she had put this giant red heart balloon with legs and a smiley face in place of where she sat.

Linda,

though the day outside remained dark, wet, and ugly it lit everything up including myself. So I took that day and shoved it inside one of my chambers and you will forever be sitting there with your umbrella catching all the rain and reminding me in every dark place there is a little bit of light.

Once upon a time, “Grams” took my older brother and I too our first movie. The movie title has always been the title of how I get through life and where you will usually find me in the raising of my own son and it’s “Places In The Heart”

 

 

Children · Family · love · memories

Saturday Sneak Peek

shelie2710 Comments
We spent a great deal of the evening at Lincon Park on Saturday it was the warmest its been in a few months.
We spent a great deal of the evening at Lincoln Park on Saturday it was the warmest its been in a few months.
We went to eat at I hop Gabe insisted I Hop is his favorite resteraunt be fore eating he said "Let Me Take A Selfie"
We went to eat at I hop Gabe insisted I Hop is his favorite resteraunt before eating he said “Let Me Take A Selfie”
image
This is what I call “getting His Silly’s Out!!
image
We camped out on the floor all night watching movies, that is our dog Murphy he don’t miss a thing we do!

 

Daily Post · Family · Grandma

Windows

shelie276 Comments

Daily Post:  Just A Dream you’re having a nightmare and have to choose between three doors pick one and tell us all about it…

Prompt

The brick building was vacant

I madee my way through the thick glass doors

The hall is long

The end does not seem near

The silence is loud but peaceful

They’re are long wide dense windows on each side of the hall

My reflection crystal clear

I keep walking

My reflection starts to change, its you on both sides of me

You look at me and smile

You have radiant pale skin

Your cheeks are red

There warming up the hall

I am safe

even in death

Your door is always open.

 

Children · Daily Post · Family · love

Memory Of The Loving (Fake Obituary)

shelie276 Comments

Prompt: Write Your Obituary:

Shelley 37 of WordPress passed away during a vacation with her husband Steve thirty-nine and Gabe five. They were visiting Jersey Shore she wanted to introduce her son to the Ocean and had never been to the East Coast. During their visit to the shore her son swam out a bit to far in search for “Bikini Bottom” She was able to save him  as she handed him off to her husband Steve her feet got caught in an old fish net, before it took her under she told Steve she was so thankful it was her out there instead of the alternative. The cost of coming home without her son was a deadly one.

She was preceded  in death by her grandmother Norma and her two boys who were twins Gabe and Will who died shortly after birth.

Lucky To Be Alive, Father Dan (wife Lin), Mother Patty  (husband Larry), sibilings by oldest Nate wife (Tabitha)Jeramey, Tim and Jacob

Her funeral will be held at Liberty Island, New York, NY Statue of Liberty National Monument at midnight where we will throw her ashes out into the water from the torch. Before “The Toss” fireworks will light up the night sky and there will be a BANG!

Family · Grandma · love · memories

Million Dollar Night Gown

shelie2711 Comments

As a young girl my grandma helped my dad out a lot on the weekends. When my dad had to work. On Friday’s she would come to get me and my brother.

My grandma was a bit more laid back then my father with getting our way. We’d   go shopping for clothes, toys, and out to eat. You know the things most grandmas do?

She always enjoyed having us stay over.

The second you walked into her house it was like walking into a different world. She would greet us with a smile and hug. My childhood troubles would be lifted like a book-bag loaded with seven or eight books at her door. She would ask questions about our lives. What our you working on in school? Do you like your teacher? hows your dad been? I would answer her questions but tell her more about the bullies in my life. She’d  quietly waited til I was done talking and tell me she was sorry to hear those things and that she loved me and to her I was special.

All the way up into my late twenties we continued to have a healthy relationship. I would still go over and stay all night. We continued shopping, going out to eat, and taking long drives, especially in the fall to see all the leaves changing colors.

In Illinois we have lots of trees one on top of the other so our falls here are stunning it’s worth the while. Sometimes we would just stay in. Those times were my favorites because we would talk for hours about her past with my grandpa, my future, shed tell me stories about her siblings, and all the places  she traveled with her friends George and Dorothy.

During those times around her house my “Grams a Million” would always wear her night-gown. She dressed up to the nines when she went out. The clothes she wore she liked but some of them not so comfortable so if she was home she always had her night-gown on.

The gown was slick and light. They were not attractive at all. She had a million of them in a million different colors. They had a peasant low-cut neck, if you didn’t tie it with the dull drab strings, you could see some of her pale chest. The sleeves were short and airy, they had bolts of red, blue, and purple all over that looked liked streaks of lighting.

The backdrop of the gowns were black which made her blue eyes, pale skin, and short dark hair standout. The gown stopped below her knees. she was short and you could see her skinny white legs. She was always barefoot when she was home. Which I loved. To me it said she wasn’t in a hurry. You could take off your shoes and stay awhile.

Many late evenings when we were lounging around watching the Golden Girls in her night gowns. I sat and watched her rocking in her orange chair. knowing that one day this time would no longer be… Maybe that was odd but its the truth. We have to embrace that our loved ones will not be with us on earth forever.

I am so thankful and blessed for the twenty-eight years we had together.

Shortly after her passing I was able to go over to her house by myself. I walked through the house slowly touching and going over everything she had worked hard for all her. Like I was in a museum of old artifacts listening to her explain all the details of each piece. I thought it would bother me seeing it all packed and piled high.

At the end of my journey picking through things wondering if I should take this or that… With a deep sigh, I walked into her room, opened her drawer full of night-gowns, Anyone  would do. She wore them all. I grabbed her old photo albums, laid across her bed, admiring her younger years, and pretending she was there with me.

When I left that day I took her one night-gown with me because it was my Million Dollar Treasure.

Family · Grandma · Home

Cleaning

shelie2712 Comments

Every now and again I deep clean parts of my house and it’s always the kitchen, because it is where I spend most of my time. No, not always cooking and eating!

Steve and I sit at the table in the morning on our days off catching up with one another about the week, we color and often go over Gabes letters and numbers and when my friends come by its usually where we sit in catch up.

When my grandma was living and even in my parents house til this day, like I said before the table has never “caught anything but good food and conversation” this has been an ongoing memory of mine.

One conversation my mind goes back to is a vacation I came back from  visiting a childhood friend in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I don’t have a lot of time to go into detail about the vacation right now.

When I got back home I went straight over to “grams” house afterwards and she loved to travel as well, so she fixed us a cup of coffee and sat them down at her kitchen table and told me to tell her all about my trip.

In the middle of the conversation I started crying because it was so hard leaving the company of a good friend and the scenery was just as peaceful and beautiful as the talks my friend and I shared during the visit. Grabbing my hand and comforting me as she always did she said “sweetheart”  ” a Vacation would not be a vacation if we didn’t have to come home” and she was right, it never would have been what it was to me if I had lived there.

My “grams” gave me wisdom, comfort, she also gave me my dad who is lots more like her than he cares to admit. He too can tell you the truth as well but silence the pistol and you can hear the conversation that is going on inside the conversation. All this came to me today when cleaning and finding a gift from Qvc she gave me years ago that we didn’t need then but we could sure use now.

Eight years almost on the twenty-eighth you been gone “grams” and your still here with me, you knew what you were doing all those years and because of all those evening and morning talks at your table I just close my eyes and their you are and once again you silence the pistol of being gone.

Children · Family · Home · memories

My Spin on the memory

shelie274 Comments

Someone once asked me where I might be without my dad and to tell you the truth when thinking about the question it feels like I am underwater without the option to swim up to the surface. Yes there are other family members in my life who have shown me love and eventually we will get to them. For right now it is my dads time.

He always talked with me when I was little and looking back now I can tell you he was always in engaged in our conversation. One ongoing conversation he would have constantly was about strangers and safety tips especially with men it would go something like this.

1.) Never get into a car with someone you don’t know

2.) Never take candy from anyone unless I okay it first. (every Halloween after my brother and I were done trick or treating it was a tradition we would all sit on the floor, he would dump it out and go through every piece even throwing some away he wasn’t sure of Do you remember that Big Bro? Good times).

3.) Never let anyone threaten you by saying they will hurt dad, if you tell him. Always tell me no matter what they say then tell them “To go Fly a Kite”

Believe it or not I told one of my friends older brothers “To Go Fly a Kite” one time and it worked! (We won’t go into that story because I don’t think my long lost friend had the latter and I think of her quite often and wonder if she is alright,I was saved from a lifetime of darkness from some understanding of others.) After our talks on this particular subject, he would come right down to my level, look me in the eyes and tell me “dad could never live without you if something happened to you “sis I love you so much” Into my adult years with time getting away from us never once have I questioned his love. My three brothers know exactly what I mean.

The older I get the more I talk or write about these memories. Which all started in a writing class and church. I am able to sift through these memories and see what the power of love has done when the dark clouds have moved in and find I was never alone.

One day in the first grade my dad had to take my older brother for an appointment. My older brother has got about four years on me so usually after school got out he would meet me in front and we would walk right over to daycare which was on the left and about thirty or forty steps away.

The night before my brothers appointment my dad was like a broken record “sis after you get out of school walk straight over to the daycare don’t stop or talk to anyone” giving me another one of his great hugs and repeating himself again the next morning when dropping me off “sis I love you see you tonight”.

When heading out the doors of the school that afternoon with a bit of freedom I couldn’t help but stand in the middle of the sidewalk soaking up the hot sun after being inside most of the day. I have always lagged behind a bit because of my need to look around at everything going on, some people call it nosy. I guess the shoe fits a little but most of my intentions have never been bad.

I don’t know exactly the time I took standing there but a man starting calling out my name it took me a little bit to look over because I wasn’t expecting anyone and thought he may have been talking to someone else then he calls out again! I look over and see an older man yelling out his passenger side window in the driver seat and motioning with his hand to come over.. Looking over at the daycare and back at the man again for some reason I decided to walk on over to him.

The man had dirty blonde sweaty hair that looked like he had not yet brushed it, he had jean shorts on and they were frayed, He was leaned over a bit and when I had got to the passenger side door of his rusty green car he opened it up and said “Your dad asked me to pick you up get in”! I grabbed the side of his door and just stood there looking at the daycare and back at him again “S hurry up we are already late and I don’t want him to get mad at me”

I started to get confused, my throat was drying up and I couldn’t swallow, my heart was pounding, my hand was sliding down the side of the door with it being wet from sweat “get in honey” looking at him once more and over at the daycare with a slow cracky voice I said “my dad told me to go straight to the daycare” “he changed his mind get in” I just kept hearing my dads voice play a few times over “sis go straight over to the daycare it just kept on to the point I could no longer think of nothing else. I slammed his door shut and ran like hell and didn’t stop until I was “safe” inside  when walking in not one person said a thing just a normal day to everyone and even if I said anything being the place it was they wouldn’t have  believed me but I had never been so glad to be there.

I kept this story hidden for a long time in fear of people not believing me. My dad and mom are aware of the situation now but I want to share with them my take on the matter.

This memory here is how far back I can acknowledge listing to the Holy Spirit.

My dad was plucked out to raise me cause god knew through your love dad it would reveal who he was, it was you who introduced me to god through no words but actions. You taught me to see evil by teaching me what good really looked like. The air was THICK with love That day and the light you gave me was ON and once again you lead me home.

 

 

 

 

Children · Family · Home

Two days ago

shelie2711 Comments

The other day my little guy was sitting on my lap, which is few and far between these day. So while he was up their I thought I would take full advantage of the moment.

Me: So what is your favorite color?

Him: Red

Me: What is your favorite t.v show

Him: Sponge Bob (yea I know)

Me: What is your favorite game

Him: Sponge Bob (Don’t Judge)

Me: What is your favorite food

Him: Waffles

Me; Who is your favorite person

Him: You MOM!!!

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away”

This was one of those moments for me. I thought it was sharable.

Family · Home · love

A bit off on a bunny trail

shelie273 Comments

So the morning came again just as it always does and for that I am grateful.

My little guy is in preschool my husband got him on the bus this morning.I got to sleep in, after they left I contemplated getting up but laid there and fell asleep for another hour. When hubs got back he laid down a page in a book he had been reading. He told me he was going up to keep his dad busy at the hospital while his mom got a little procedure done. He wasn’t gone for no more than an Hour and a half. He has been of work again for about a week. He works in a place with children who have handicaps he has been able to hold down this job for almost three years which is remarkable for him. Your probably thinking well he should be holding down a job regardless of what the job is to take care of his family but that is not how its been for us. I do believe where he is at now in his mental stability is where he will stay because he has been through lots of therapy pretty much from the beginning of our relationship and plans to keep going.

When we met he had been out of the Army for almost two years. He spent most of his eight years in war zones give or take a few. Lots of people in my life don’t like to hear his excuses but that is okay its “Him and me” Not us and everybody else” also at this point in the game I am done defending our relationship. This last few years we have been really enjoying the marriage, we attend some church activities together along with some friendships we have required, we both our pretty spiritual so we talk about books we read that strengthen our walk with the lord, sometimes when were not to tired we enjoy watching a good movies than discussing them, if were really lucky we get to go out on a date without the boy, though it has been few and far between we appreciate those times even more.

So for the time being he is on what they call “alternative leave” where he gets paid but they investigate him for the way he had to put someone in a restraint recently, which this is the third time this year! Of course each one there were no findings which there not going to find anything. This time another guy is involved so at least there are two of them telling the same story. The good thing here is were both fed up with these accusations but understand they must look into them, but we have decided that after this investigation when they call him back he will just be putting in his two weeks last time we went through this was a bit long drawn out and agonizing only because it is scary especially when you have your own family at home your trying to take care of also we believe we have been through enough as a couple were not going to let this job tear us apart.

So we choose “us” in the words of my mom Lynn “We made choices that people didn’t like but it wasn’t for them it was for us”

So with this said I am back to work full-time and during his paid time off, for now he is taking care of the boy. Thank god for the “Tin Can that is cheap living it will get us through for now because “A House is made of brick and stone a Home is made of love Alone” It may be a cliché but its true love has got me through up till now and I believe it will hold strong!