So my goal is to meet it head on and conquer whatever obstacles attempt to get in my way. How? Well, that will be left to the moment. 2010 in review:Biggest change...Kolten. Our grandson was born on April 17, 2010. He's awesome! Duh. He's eight months old and he's beginning to crawl. He actually does that cute military scoot across the floor, but he can get anywhere he wants to get. Right now, his main objective seems to be standing and walking. Yup, we got one of those! Now that he's figured out how to pull himself up, he doesn't want to sit down. 
Anne: is a senior in high school. She's doing part-time days at DCTC which is our local vo-tech. She's taking Graphic Design and Auto Mechanics! What a combo. She loves both classes. She's also getting ready to enlist in the Marines. She's already had her physical and signed the papers, but there's a holdup in the med department. She has bunions (of all things) and they want a specialist to come in and look at her and determine if they'll give her any problems. They won't. They never have, but it's just a fly in the ointment.
Lacy: is finishing up at SCSU in communications. She's got one year left. She's working part-time at a restaurant called, Molly Cool's. It's a seafood place and she makes pretty good money. Not enough to live on her own yet. If only Kolten's "father" would want to help out financially as much as he wants to be with his "son". Oh yeah, we know it's his, but he's doing everything in his power to avoid child support of any kind. OH, he wants Kolten to have his last name, but he keeps coming up with excuses and changes that keep him from sending in that danged check to the county......what a lovely example of a "father".......
Fred: is still driving OTR. He loves it and hates it. So what else is new. The new piece in Fred's life is his folks. Jack was diagnosed with ALS in February and the marathon began. Doctors, VA, more doctors, tests, examinations, more doctors......all the time Add is getting weaker and weaker and eventually he went into a nursing home in Ocotber. That leaves BJ. OMG! We had no idea how much Jack did for her. She's so much further gone that any of us realized. She needs almost daily care for one thing or another. We're trying our best to keep her in the condo. She has so many friends there and that helps. We've just contacted and "contracted" a PCA service to come in on M, Tu, W so that leaves just Th, Sat and Sun for us to handle. Friday, she has her hair appointment so we know someone's checking on her. Thursday, Kolten and I usually end up visiting for dinner. Lacy's at school and I'm watching Kolt, so it works. Fred goes in to see her just about every weekend. He usually takes her over to see Jack, but that depresses her, so sometimes we skip it. I try to go with him some weekends.
Carla: so that leaves ME: I'm still working for the Lakeville Area Public Schools, officially as a SPED para, unofficially as the MA billing specialist. I do all of the hoop-jumping that gets the district money from the state and fed for kiddos who are Medical Assistance eligible and receive billable services from us. I love it. I work with a great group of ladies in the ECSE department "by day" and an awesome, extended-online-by phone, group of amazing people doing the same thing as I am around the cities. I've made some great friends in both fields. I'm still active in the union, but getting more and more discouraged daily. I still LOVE scrapbooking and doing most of it digitally now. Got a new laptop for "Christmas". I did the "to Caddie, from Caddie" thing in mid-November. I'm using some of Jack's Christmas money to help pay for it and the rest is on the BestBuy-no-interest credit card. It all works.
So, the family is doing well. We've made it to the New Year and we're looking forward.
Love and Blessings.
