Going...Going...Gone

Finally!!!!
They're here...all my kids... all five...plus my mom...plus my niece.  HOORAY!!!  We're packed to the brim with people but this house is large enough to handle it.  So, I'm playing tour guide to Terre Haute.  The Okies can't believe you can stand outside without getting eaten alive by mosquito's.  This is an impossible feat in Oklahoma from about the end of March through late September.  The cooler weather in Terre Haute suites them too. 

Anyhow, I'll take pictures to post soon.

Someone Else's Life
My brother is in a hard place to be in life right now.  To begin with, he's a "Red Neck."  I don't know exactly when that happened to him but the fact remains, he is.  He's been married to a girl from extreme Southeastern Oklahoma for thirteen years whose family resembles the Beverly Hillbillies on crack and the fact is, they are all on some type of illegal drug except his wife who takes anti-depressants like they were candy so...I guess you could say she's legal. :)

So here's a rundown on his in-laws:

• His sister-in-law is on meth and has had her license revoked.
• Her two son's are going to trial for attempted robbery and the 16 year old for attempted murder.
• His mother-in-law lived with them 6.5 years and never worked and my brother supported her, the sister-in-law, her kids, and the sister's boyfriend.
• His step-son had his license revoked, has been in prison for repeated marijuana use, put on probation for whipping his step-child too hard, came after my brother with a crow bar & too much other stuff to include in this short space.
• His wife always takes her mom, sisters and sons side in any issue and when my brother asked her to call the cops when her son tried to hit him with a crow bar, she told the cops he started it and he ended up going to jail.

It just goes from bad to worse and he keeps on keeping on in that silly situation.  It would take me forever to tell all that family has been involved in and it seems it's going to take forever for my brother to wake up!

Good News!
Hubby got a $5000 dollar raise HOORAY!  And, I might, I repeat might, start teaching Freshman and Sophomore's in an Intro. to Elementary Ed.  class.  I'll let you know.

I took a whole pickup load of stuff to the Salvation Army Sunday.  Hopefully, Thursday, we'll taking a load to the dump and look for a shed so we can get started on building in one of our garages for our daughter coming back.  Youngest daughter has really enjoyed the room to herself and doesn't want to give it up.

If you get a chance, I would recommend reading the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.  It's a national best seller and very insightful.  Try it if you haven't.

My kids and mom are going to be here the 26th.  I haven't seen them since Christmas and can hardly wait for the day to come.  I guess that's it for now.

Kids Can Be Mean
My youngest daughter was invited to a slumber party Friday.  She was excited to go, but around 3 hours later she called and asked us to come and get her.  It took some doing, but after I got the story it seems that the other 4 girls ganged up on her to "prank" her.  One of those girls was her best friend who betrayed her to the others.  Not only that, but the girl who was having the slumber party allowed her little brother to hit my daughter with a plastic rake and to add further insult to injury, their dog had hold of her shoe.  She had to fight her way out.   The next day that girl called continuously saying that my daughter owed her an apology.  The gall of some people!  They pranked her once before at another slumber party, but my daughter usually gives people another chance and didn't think they would do it again.  She was wrong.  I don't think they'll get another chance with her again.
 

Hooray!
Son enrolled in 15 hours of college. It's a miracle, but what will be an even greater miracle is if he stays in and if he does the work required. For now, he's interested in Sports Management. We'll see...

A severe thunderstorm passed through Terre Haute yesterday and it still amazes me at the amount of damage that occurs for what we'd call in Oklahoma a "not too strong storm" and how slow they are around here at fixing the damage a relative small storm can cause. The storm went through yesterday afternoon with some strong wind and downed limbs, but our electricity goes off after noon today and doesn't come back on for hours and to think I used to complain about Canadian Valley, a rural electric company in Oklahoma. Oklahoma gets knocked for a lot of things, but I can say from experience and living in different states that they are the best in forecasting tornadoes and storms, repairing electrical lines quickly after any type of storm, cable TV (more bang for the buck), and internet service.

For those of you who are interested in what makes you tick or someone you know, there is a reliable personality test called the Meyers/Briggs at http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm. It is a really neat and has more than 20 years of research behind it.
Give it a try.

Some may find these pictures interesting. They are pictures of an F-16 being refuled in mid-air. I forgot what the fueling planes name is. The pictures didn't load in the order I put them in so they are not in sequence. This post should be the first one, but we'll see.

Arm inserted in top of F-16 for fueling.

F-16 moving away after fueling.

F-16 under fueling plane.

Refueling arm extending toward F-16.

Aerial view above Terre Haute.

Inside the plane that will refuel the F-16.

F-16 coming up for fuel.

So, my daughter likes to sit in the cage with our dog Indiana Jones : )

Not a great picture, but they turned part of the basketball court into a skater ramps and things like that.

Ok, so we messed up and took a picture of Joe's house instead of Whitey's!

Inside the tunnel.

Entering one of the numerous tunnels through the mountains of PA.

Behind the General's house, Letort Run.

Kelly's house in Smurf Village.

This is our house in "Smurf Village" on Carlisle Barracks. All the houses in this area of the Barracks look like this and someone along the way called them Smurf Village and the name stuck.

Back To Blah
So, we're back from Pennsylvania and everyone else in the Seminar is back where they began; back to Arizona, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas, Germany, Virginia, Washington D.C., and numerous other places that I can't remember right now. The last evening we had a party and everyone agreed to stay in the same hotel next year also. It was fun and I hated heading back "home."

We've been in Indiana for a year now and we have acquaintances, but no one we hang out with either individually or as a couple. I love to socialize and meet new people and cultures. It's hard to step into a situation where things are already established. It's not so much that way in the military because people move so much they are the "new" person at some point and if they make it a career, you run into people you've met before.

So...I'm homesick. We got back right before the 4th. We used to meet family for the 4th and watch fireworks, but for the last 5 years, we've winged it alone. It's not that people are unfriendly, they just had a life before us with friends they've had a long time. I personally haven't met anyone I've bonded with yet here in Terre Haute, but I did while we were in Pennsylvania. Oh, well.

Continued Son Saga
I refused to let Son stay at home alone while we were gone for those two weeks so we sent him to his grandparent's in Oklahoma. We just picked him up the 3rd and last night he totaled (we think) his car. He ran into a telephone pole and I guess you know who won. He wasn't hurt, but it shoved the radiator back into the fan, buckled the hood, knocked out the whole grill and both headlights and ruined the bumper. He left the house without permission and had this little accident at 1:30 am. and left the scene of the accident. Again without permission, he had his friends over while we were sleeping at 5:30 this morning. He's up a creek now, because we're not going to pay for it to be repaired. He's a person who sucks the energy right out of you mentally, physically and any other way. Six more weeks until he is 18 and then BOOM! If he keeps up all this crap, he's going out into the world to mess up his own life and face the consequences of his silly decisions himself. We're not going to keep bailing him out.

regional Jargon
I always enjoy hearing the difference in accent and word meaning from different regions in America. I learned two new words for very familiar things that I had never heard before.

In Oklahoma we call soft drinks "pop, soda pop, or coke." I learned last night that in Boston, the word used is "tonic." I had never heard that. They also call a malt or shake a "frap." What the heck is that and where did the word even come from? My Bostonian friends also wanted me to repeat the word "scallops" because they said, "You say it so cute in "your Southern accent."

Tomorrow we head back to Indiana. I will be glad to be "home", but there is nothing to go home to since all my kids are in Oklahoma as well as my mother, brother and numerous childhood friends. I really get homesick sometimes. I haven't been able to live where I grew up for the last 5 years. We have lived in four different towns in five years and none of my kids to date have graduated from the same high school. One graduated from Seminole, one from Maud, one from Poteau, one from South and the 7th grader, we don't know where she'll graduate. All of those were different towns and the one who just graduated, a different state.

So tonight is "goodbye" to Pennsylvania and the new friends met. Some we will encounter again and some we will never see again; so life goes in the poetry of life.