Christmas2002

Well another year has come and gone like leaves on the wind. The kids are getting older and so am I. School is getting tougher and so am I. Bills are getting bigger and so am...wait a minute. I don't think I'll finish that.

We have added a dog to our private zoo. Not just any dog, but a 60-pound stray the boys found. Well she didn't weigh 60 pounds when they found her, but she does now. She's a mix of Pit Bull, German Shepard and Beagle we think. She digs. She makes holes. She excavates my back yard. She's smart and I'm convinced she needs to be on the same medication as the boys for hyperactivity.

We also have a new drum set. What? What did you say? I said we also have a new drum set! The boys have both had band and were spending all their time over at their friends arguing over who gets to play. So in a moment of complete lunacy, I decided they needed their own set. I said, I decided they needed their own set to keep them home. To keep them at home! What? Yes, I know I'm an idiot. All parents are idiots. What? Oh forget it.

I am still a librarian for Key Elementary School and I still love my job. Cherie is a junior in High School and we are praying very hard that we all make it through to her graduation. Chris is in the 8th grade and likes all of his classes except math and history. Robert is in the 7th grade and really likes Junior High.

I have really started to push the kids to start making goals for the future. Cherie is taking a class in medical terminology to make up some high school credits and she really likes it. She thinks she wants to be a paramedic. This is probably a good thing since Robert wants to ride BMX bikes professionally. Chris is so good with machines that I am trying to push him towards trade school. I need someone who is handy around the house. Of course I'll probably spend most of the time picking up his tools.

Cherie and I are both trying to lose weight. We are attending Weight Watchers and have been somewhat successful. I have rediscovered soup, water, and rice cakes. I have also discovered that if you invite a bunch of people over, cleaning the house is worth 2 pounds. Cleaning up the back yard is worth 4 pounds especially if you pull weeds. If you have to chase the dog to keep it out of the flowers, that's worth a quarter pound. If you decide you've had enough exercise and get pizza for dinner you blow the whole deal and have to start all over again.

This has been a tough year for our family. We lost a good friend John M. to a brain aneurysm and Jeff K. to cancer. We loved them both and will trust them to God's loving care until we meet again. I hope this letter finds all of you in good health and happy in the love of your family. If any of you need a dog just let me know.

So, Why Blog?

My brother asked me this question. I guess the best answer is I just want to see if I can write something people outside of my family will want to read. I have a wonderful family and a rich life. I have had my share of mountains and roadblocks but it's always been interesting. Lately things have just become easier to take when I write about them. So, I'll start by presenting the Christmas letters I have written over the years. I started writing Christmas letters in response to a letter I got from one of my aquaintances (no, I won't tell you who). Her letters were those classic brag sheets where every child is a future Rhodes Scholar and they had more money than God. I found this difficult to swallow since I had met her kids and had known her all her life. Frankly, I've always felt life is more like a bad reality show. Full of cheap shots that are easy to poke fun at. I do like to laugh.

A few things you need to know. I have been around a while. I remember the day Kennedy was shot. I was in the fourth grade and I remember how shocked we all were. I never married, but when my brother got in trouble and needed help, I adopted his 3 kids Cherie, Chris, and Robert at the ages of 6, 3, and 2 years old. I graduated from CSULB with a teaching degree and taught for about 5 years. Unfortunately, it didn't work out and I went back to school for computers. When I was laid off from a tech. support job, I decided it was a good time to get back into education and have been a librarian at an elementary school for the last 11 years.

Although both my parents are dead, I have a large extended family that includes a half sister Juanita, an older sister Beth and a younger brother John. A cousin of my kids, Eric and his wife lived with us for a while as Eric prepared to return to the army. Once the boys entered junior high and high school band, we acquired a regular group of about 5 or 6 boys that are always over at the house.

We like to say we have a Heinz 57 heritage. My mother was of German descent and came from Nebraska. We spent most of our summers growing up vacationing on my grandparent's farm. My father was half American Indian and part African American and English. He was born in New Orleans, raised in Arkansas and moved his family to Los Angeles, California after World War II.

I consider myself a bleeding heart liberal and have been active in my Catholic church. I am very involved in my union CSEA for classified school employees. Librarians at elementary schools are not part of the certificated (teaching) staff. I have been assisting my elderly Aunt Jo since her husband died and that has really begun to take up a lot of my time.

I like to laugh. I like to laugh at myself. I love to read fantasy, science fiction and mysteries. My favorite authors are Janet Evanovich, Robert Jordan and Patricia Briggs.

Traveling with relatives or just say no.

OK, just so you know, I’m not judging the characters (and I do mean Characters) involved. I’m just making my own personal observations.

When Rochell invited me to the Eric’s physical training graduation in the army I figured I might as well see what my money has been paying for. Since I had never been to New Mexico and the kids were driving me crazy, it was a good reason to get away. When she told me she was inviting Eileen (The mother in law) I was surprised but figured what the heck how bad could it be. I know, I know but I give everybody the benefit of the doubt.

So neither of them has been on a plane before so I help Rochell pack and when she calls Eileen I remind them to be sure to wear slip on shoes because of security. Eileen questions this because she can’t find anything online that mentions this. I say well, you can take my advice or wait in line and then try to put your shoes on after. She decides to wear sandals. Rochell is already griping about Eileen and we haven’t even left yet, but I just ignore it and pack my bags.

Eileen gets to my house about 7pm on Tuesday. This doesn’t give her much time to bond with the grandchildren but Sabrina’s birthday was on Monday and she wants to spend every minute with her before we leave even though they live together. OK, I can already tell who’s the favorite in this family. I cannot believe how old she looks and she is just a year younger than I am! Wow, don’t drink beer and don’t do drugs!

I remind them that since this is a 6:45am flight we need to get up at 5:00am. I go to bed at 11:00pm and they are still up talking when I go to sleep. I wake up at 5:00am and wake them up and go take a shower. I get dressed and get my stuff in the car, and I see Eileen but not Rochell. Eileen says she was just going to wake her! I go in the room and Rochell is still asleep and so are the kids. She sees my face and starts to put it in high gear. We get everything in the car and take off. I am now moving at light speed and they are trailing in my wake. We get to the airport and of course we have to park, unload and carry two small children into the airport and get through security. Now I lent my big rolling case to Rochell and I have my smaller rolling case and my laptop case. I had already printed our boarding passes, a trick I learned from a friend of mine when I first started traveling for the union. Eileen has a huge duffel bag (no rollers!) and her laptop and her purse. She also has her jacket, belt, and a million pieces of jewelry on. Going through security with 2 small children and 2 novice flyers is not a pretty picture but I think we are doing pretty well at this point. I just start to heave a sigh of relief and start to talk about getting some coffee when Rochell mentions it’s 6:44am! AAAAuuuugh! We race to the gate and are 2 minutes too late.

Now these tickets are super cheap and Rochell spent days searching the Internet to get them. They say all over them “Non-Refundable”. I’m thinking fast and furious and Rochell and Eileen are looking at me like someone just died. So I say “Well let’s go downstairs to the ticket office and see what we can do.” We go to the US Airways ticket booth, (I have never flown this airway) and I explain that we just missed our flight by 2 minutes and we are desperate, is there another flight we can take. Mind you this is not a straight through flight, we lay over at Phoenix and then take another flight to El Paso. There are no direct flights to White Sands New Mexico that don’t cost a bundle so we puddle jump to El Paso and then take a rental car to White Sands.

The lady behind the desk starts searching the flights and finds one that goes out at 10:00am with a connecting flight at 12:00pm or if that one is full, 3:00pm. She says it will cost us each $25.00 to reschedule. The kids are free ‘cause we lie and say they are both under 2 and will sit on our laps. Fortunately nobody questions us about this and we get away with it. I’m thinking we’re saved and we just have to wait for her to book the flights. The kids are doing great, Aaron is not screaming and Maeve is waiting patiently. I attribute this to the novelty of the situation and that they are not really awake yet. The lady says for the 12:00pm flight we will be on stand by. This means we may not get on. She will book us on the 3:00pm in case we don’t get on and our luggage, which we had already checked, will be waiting in El Paso. She then says she won’t charge us for the rebooking and I am thrilled!

Both Eileen and Rochell thank me over and over for helping them get this far. Rochell is totally upset that everything has been a disaster but I remind her it could have been much worse. We are back on track and it didn’t cost us a thing. All things considered it’s been a good day.

So we go back through security but now we are pros and get upstairs and find the gate. We have plenty of time so we get coffee and snacks and sit down to wait for our flight. Now Eileen starts to complain, a process she does not stop unless she is asleep. People are giving us dirty looks. People are being rude. People are standing in her way. I don’t see it but I really don’t care if people are staring or being rude I just ignore stuff unless it hits me in the face. Rochell keeps chanting to herself that this is all for a good cause but just under her breath so Eileen won’t hear. Maeve is getting bored but we are in an area where she can run back and forth and see the planes without bothering anyone. Fortunately, I have been buying little toys and drawing books for the last week or so to put in Maeve’s backpack to keep her busy during the long trip. We pull out some toys for her and Aaron and that helps keep them busy while we wait. I go buy breakfast at MacDonalds, which is just a little ways down from the gate, and Eileen decides to go with and look around. I get the order and now starts the long process called “Waiting for Eileen”. I wait around. I wait around some more. I get fed up and start to head back with our order when out pops Eileen from one of the little kiosks with some stuff she bought for her phone. We get back to our seats and eat and Rochell goes for a cigarette break. I amuse the kids. Eileen chatters away about Sabrina, her apartment, the rude people, and anything else that comes through her mind. She talks at the kids or scolds the kids but never really pays attention to the kids. It’s amazing how a person could be so self-involved. Rochell comes back and Eileen goes to buy some batteries. We wait for Eileen to come back and the plane starts to board. We start to get antsy. Eileen finally arrives and we board the plane and get our assigned seats.

Rochell and I had decided previously that we would hold the kids on our laps and Eileen sits next to me. The plane starts to fill up and Aaron is asleep on Rochell’s lap. The stewardess comes up and wants Eileen to move over so another passenger can sit in his assigned seat. Now I’m thinking Aaron is going to wake up and we are going to have a screaming kid on our hands. Thinking quickly I recommend Rochell stay where she is and Eileen sits in the passenger’s seat and he sits next to me. The stewardess quickly agrees and not only is the problem solved but I come out ahead! It’s a win-win for me, but Rochell has to listen to Eileen the whole trip. Sneaky me. The kids are pretty good through the whole flight and when Maeve starts to get antsy the lady next to me helps me entertain her until we land. There are lots of nice people out there if you ask me.

We wait for the 3:00pm flight because the 12:00pm flight is full and we eat lunch. Eileen offers to pay and we appreciate the gesture. We are all beginning to feel the weight of the day and are looking forward to getting to the hotel room. We get to the baggage claim and I head straight to the US Airways baggage office ‘cause our baggage arrived way before we did. I start to grab my bag and Rochell goes in the office and finds not only her bag but my bag too. Turns out I’m not the only one traveling with a purple suitcase which I find pretty funny since whenever I travel everyone is carrying black suitcases. Thank goodness whoever’s bag I snagged didn’t notice and I put it back where I found it. Eileen insists we get a bag clerk and she’s right, there’s a lot of luggage and 2 tired kids and three frazzled adults and paying somebody to keep track of the luggage until we get a car is a pretty good idea.

So we go to the rental cars and hit 3 places before we find one that has baby seats and is a decent price. Turns out only a credit card can purchase a rental car and the person who pays for the car must drive the car. Guess who fits that specification? So I rent the car and Eileen agrees to pay for the hotel room. Rochell paid for the airline tickets and I figure we’re all about even. We get everyone and everything packed in the car and start down the road to Las Cruces.

Now, we are relying on the directions from the invitation Rochell got from the military. This turns out to be written by a moron with a third grade education. After a lot of confusion and turning around we finally make it to Las Cruces the closest town to the military base. Rochell has already researched a motel for a cheap price and I recommended we get 2 rooms so we can take a break from each other. The military base is actually about 20 miles from the town ‘cause they used to shoot bombs out there and as Cherie says, nobody wants to live any closer. We find the hotel tucked back behind a Chevron station and unload. I order pizza which I send to the wrong room. See, Eileen and I are in 107 and Rochell and the kids are in 111. I send the guy to 111 and of course Rochell doesn’t have any money, I do. So I run over and pay for the pizza and grab a piece and head for bed. Eileen decides to visit the Chevron station and picks up a 6 pack of beer and a $30.00 hat. OK. She’s still talking and I’m still ignoring and playing a game on my computer. I finally go to sleep and that’s all folks for the first part of our desert saga.