Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Yup, that sure says it. Well, Lacy left last Saturday and I've been between crying and screaming ever since. When I saw her empty room, I dissolved into tears. Then when I tried to contact her (by text, darn it!) to get some information for insurance, she was so rude and contemptuous! I alternate between worrying about her and wishing her good riddance. I can't help it. I love her so much and I despise the way she acts!

Anne wants to move down into Lacy's old room and I'm inclined to let her. Fred is beside himself and can't let her. He still believes there's some chance of getting through to Lacy and she'll magically change and want to come home and "play nice". It ain't gonna happen. Fred lives in this dreamworld where it's the 50's and he's Father Knows Best. That's what we used to look like when we were all together and father did know best. I miss those days.

The most important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second disastrous.- - Margaret Fontey

Keep on walkin’ with rocks in your shoes.....

Fancy meeting you here again so soon..... I really thought I'd be so busy that I'd only get back to journal once or twice a week. Well, that may be how it eventually works, but for now, I'm taking the time I do have available to add entries. Rocks In Your Shoes is a country song (which is where I'm spending most of my time lately) sung by Emily West that refers to staying on course even when life smacks you in the face and tries to knock you down, if not out. That's what I'm feeling like this minute.
The point right now is that we're seriously informing the OC (oldest child) that she needs to leave the house. We love her so much and we just can't figure out WHAT we've done wrong that she's become so selfish and rude and inconsiderate that she thinks she can live here and be that way. She's decided to blame us for everything wrong in her life and acts like she is going to hold it against us even while living here, rent-free, come-and-go-as-you-please. We've set down some "Rules for Getting Along Together" and she's basically chosen to pick and choose the ones she wants to follow or not. By seriously I'm mean that I've told the OC that she's "moving out" several times in the past 6 months due to the above infractions, but I never follow-through. I've let her get away with completely disregarding me, her dad and her sister AND calling me several very ugly names last week. With school coming to a close, I just wanted to relax a few days and then address it next week. I was going to ask her to leave, but last night Fred had had enough and, when she got home, he told her that she had one week. She began crying and ended up leaving to spend the night at the boyfriend's (he was at his graduation-all-night-party). Wonder what she told his mom about that?!? Before she left she actually had the gaul to ask her sister, "Do you have any idea why Dad is making me leave?" She didn't respond.
Gotta run....I'll return with updates after softball with the TA (teen-ager)....the one who stills likes us.......................
Rocks In Your Shoes by Emily West
So you had some bad luck, life sucks
Can’t do nothin’ right
You took some wrong turns,
Got burned way too many times
And so you fall back with all that
hurt that just don’t wanna heal
So then you do the why me,
This can’t be happenin’ again
Hey what’s the deal man
I can’t take much more of this
You put your time in
Payed your dues
Believe me I know how you feel


I guess you gotta make a choice
When it hits the fan
You can get a little down or get a little mad
When there’s stones in the road
only one thing to do
You gotta learn to walk with rocks in your shoes
Come on!


I heard some good lies from bad guys
Makin’ me their mark
They did a drive by bang, bang
Big hole in my heart
Needed a crash cart, CPR
Sister I was fadin’ fast
I had a poor me trophy
Kept it on a shelf
Did the too proud,
Too cool to ask for any help
But when I gave in prayin’
I only got what answered back
And He said,
I guess you gotta make a choice
When it hits the fan
You can get a little down or get a little mad
When there’s stones in the road only one thing to do
You gotta learn to walk with rocks in your shoes
Come on!
Bitter’s like a weed
If you let it grow
It’s gonna trip you up, yeah
Somewhere down the road
To get where you’re going
There’s only one thing to do
You gotta learn to walk with rocks in your shoes
You better learn to walk with rocks in your shoes
Come on!
Keep on walkin’ with rocks in your shoes

This song talks to me about continuing to love her and persevere through her anger and mine. And, I'd hope it spoke to her about taking responsibility for her own actions and decisions and discontinue blaming "everyone else". Not that she'll ever read this. I don't think she knows that I have a blog. Another great country song right now that completely applies is, Back When I Knew It All by Montgomery Gentry. Maybe I'll put that in tomorrow.

The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test.

In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.
That's right, school's out for summer! No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks.................well, okay, I'm the teacher, so I can still give the dirty looks, just not to those particular students. I hope I've spent the year teachiing them things that will help them pass life's test.

It's actually been a tough year for me too. I had no idea what it would be like to raise children of my own. The line between teacher and parent has been very thin this year and it's been tough on all of us. Sometimes I contemplate giving up the teacher-parent thing and other times I want to give up the parent thing altogether! Really! So, this is "me" doin' a jig down the hallway on the way out the door to v-a-c-a-t-i-o-n! in the summertime!

I'm sure I'll see you along the way, but don't be surprised if it's a few miles in-between!

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather.

Okay, I'll try that. There's no such thing as bad weather, there's no such thing as bad weather, there's no such thing as bad weather, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.....yeah, whatever. The weather in Minnesota right now is incredibly irritating. Summer has yet to arrive in any way, shape or form. It teases us with beautiful, warm, sunshiny days in the 70s and then snaps us back into dreary, rainy, cold. It's May 29th, for heaven's sake. Oh my! It's May 29th!! It's our 27th anniversary today. We celebrated with Fred's folks on Tuesday, so I guess we forgot about today. We've talked at least 5 times on the phone today and neither one of us said anything. Man, at 20 I didn't think I'd do anything for 27 straight years and the very next year I snagged Freddy. 27 years, two kids, two dogs, four moves, and at least 17 vehicles later and look at us..............we're still happy!! WooHoo!! Happy Anniversary, Babe, I love you more today than yesterday and not as much as tomorrow.

If you are losing your leisure, you may be losing your soul.

This is where I'm headed................................................ HAVE A WONDERFUL MEMORIAL DAY

And don't forget to take a minute (or more) to remember why we get to enjoy a three-day weekend every year at the end of May............

The music I live by

This is so cool. I was surfing some other's blogs last night and found this great mp3 that you can add to your blog, so there it is. At this point I've included some of the really inspirational songs I've collected over the last few years. The first one is from the movie Frequency, which I totally love. The song talks about waiting for "you to come back to me again" and circles "of life" and whatnot, but it always reminds me of my daddy and how much I miss him. The other songs are really neat pick-me-up pieces by various artists, but I've noticed how many of the songs are from the country genre. Country writers/singers sure know how to bring up your spirits..........of course, they also sing about broken hearts and cheatin' and drinkin' and prison..........

What we anticipate seldom occurs, what we least expected generally happens. --Benjamin Disraeli

So, I guess I've been expecting spring to arrive.........yes, I know it's May 15, but spring has been a long time coming to Minnesota this year and I'm tired of waiting. Today is beautiful, however. And this morning I participated, for the 6th time, in our high school's Mock Car Crash. One would think it would put a damper on the day, but it has the completely opposite effect one me. I get totally revved-up. This is such an absolutely vital message to get through to these kids and it thoroughly driven home by seeing some of "their own" involved in a terrible, terrible tragedy that could be prevented.
This photo is actually from the MCC last fall at another high school as I haven't seen today's photos yet. It's such a powerful experience. We stage it sometime during the week of prom. One of my "children" is a fatality as is one of the "prom-goers". My "hubby-of-the-day" gets "detained" for trying to attack the student "drunk-driver". I have to be extracated from our vehicle and one of the "critically-injured" students is taken away by helicopter.
Given the weather of late, we were all quite concerned about what conditions were going to be like this morning. Well, God takes care and it was gorgeous. The audience of junior and senior students were awestruck and hopefully moved into making better choices not just this weekend but for the rest of their lives. I feel honored and blessed to take part in this re-creation every spring.

Life is a handful of short stories, pretending to be a novel.

Man it's been a loooooooooooong time. I thought this would be such a great place to set my thoughts down "on paper", but life got in the way. Between Lacy being home and changing the household dynamic and Anne getting into more and more trouble, I don't know which way is up some days.
So it's almost 10pm on Saturday night...the night before Mother's Day. I'm sure my girls have purchased something.....that their grandfather gave the money for.....and they're certainly going to give it to me tomorrow at some point.....but neither one has asked or suggested that we "do" something tomorrow.....I'm going to visit MY mom tomorrow afternoon with Fred to bring her the potted geranium we get her EVERY year that she justs loves, AFTER we stop at his mom's to give her the potted fushia that we give her EVERY year that she adores.....
I'm trying to be okay with everything, but I'm just not right now. I wish I had someone to talk to..................

Long time, no see...

I don't have any fantastic tale to explain my absence. Oh well. I would have been pleased to say that I'd been whiling away the days in some sunny fantasy place, but no such luck.

What I was really doing began with the Scrapbook retreat the weekend of the 22nd. Got to St. Croix Falls on Friday night and for the first time in years, we didn't have inclemate weather! We've had everything from rain to ice storms so this was new. Jen, Shelle, Kathy and I celebrated "our" birthdays. We started that several years ago since it's usually right on my weekend and close to Shelle's and Kathy's, Jen just gets to join in!! She brought the most amazing cake from McCaffety's. It was a quad-layer, double chocolate number with the most decadent filling. Yummmmmm! Don't have a picture of it, but it was grand!
After that weekend, it's just been busy, busy, busy doing nothing, nothing, nothing...out of the ordinary anyway. Life seems to have jump-started in the last two weeks. It's absolutely crazy! But, unfotunately, nothing to tell about.