bye bye cold

bye bye cold hellllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooo!!! palm trees, warm, sun, beach!!!

my weekend in pictures backwards...

These are in reverse order...me and my grandson Kaleb ... he's getting big!



Last night one of the buses at the wrestling meet. I was there from 5:30 am until 7:00 pm! But I beat the snow home! Today it's way cold and blowing snow.


The town where the school is located had a winter fest ... this is an ice sculpture from the fest.


Friday night I went to a Mexican Restaurant with two of my good friends, these is the mariachi band. I had a great time!

pre thanksgiving party...

This past Sunday we had our family Thanksgiving at the local pizza place. My kids and my husband's kids did their best to touch base, but they are all at different "places" in life...so as it goes I had fun and to me being the mother figure I am the main thing that matters! ;)





Dayton and his favorite Aunt Lala...



The gang missing 3 of my husband's kids, Jim walked away from the pic and Jeremy had left already with the boys...my youngest stepson is still mad at us so he skips all family gatherings...7 out of 8 ain't bad!!!





Uncle Jim, my newest grandson Kaleb and my grand buddy Cody. Jake was there too but he escaped all the pictures!

On that day we had my husband and I, my 3 kids, plus a pregnant wife, a boyfriend...my husband's 4 sons, a wife, a girlfriend and 4 grandsons...pretty dang awesome!

Cody walks the dog

I was in charge of making sure my son Tim's dog got let out and walked this past weekend as he and his wife were gone for the day. My buddy (grandson) Cody took this task very seriously, until we stopped at the park...he took a play break, while the dog tried to dig holes under the
slide.







After his short break we took her home to play tug of war in the back yard....



This kid has future in dog walking !!!

baby shower

Yesterday was Kristen's baby shower. My new grand daughter will be born in January! Had so much fun finally seeing PINK!!

the karate kid

Jacob sparring

watched the new Karate Kid with the boys last night...watched my own Karate Kids spar in their very first tournament today...

Kody number 1 !!!

on we go...

Another day of drama at my job...we are allowed many benefits including sick days. Many take Friday's off...so again yesterday was a bit nutty. I had evacuation drills at one of the junior highs & was there most of the day. The temperature was 40 with high wind...made for a chilly day. Thank God for my new Car hart coat! Then I was called back to cover a route that another girl was supposed to do, but was changed as the dispatcher favors her...(she likes to leave early on Fridays to travel 5 hours to see new boyfriend for the weekend) said girl did not check in for pm routes and left on the route before she realized I was to do it...oh well...I got off early and went home to start my weekend.

The schools are between sports right now so I am home a lot now which is good. Normally I am gone at least 4 nights a week plus Saturday. I can bring the "mom/grandma" sanity to my boy filled house. Gets crazy at times with all the boy action but the kids are involved in park district sports that helps channel the energy.

I have taken to walking miles at a time a day to relieve my own stress...plus my son Tim's dog Tator requires a daily walk as she is a ball of energy herself. She and I both take at least a half hour a day hike around the neighborhood.

Winter sports will be starting soon& my Christmas break Florida trip will be here soon enough...giving me time to regroup and nest for awhile.

Have a great weekend gang!

a month of grateful

Kids are here nearly all week now...decisions will be made soon about their permanent residence. If it was up to them it would be here all the time. Up to me...I agree.

So much has happened this past year that my head is spinning...I try to not internalize all the drama. Try to enjoy the kids, my job and my life.

These are crazy times for everybody. Our school district is feeling the pain of the bad economy. Homeless families moving in with other family members ... the kids need to be bused even if they are out of district. I know many of these kids, try and reassure them that they aren't freaks that they aren't different...that things will be ok. Hope that's true.

I am going to go along with the rest of the bloggers this month and focus on being grateful...

Today...I am grateful for our jobs...

Jobs give you a place to feel useful and for me help sustain the rest of the family...my parents did it for me...so I do it for them...it's all about them and the future.


I am grateful for you guys...you guys never let me down or feel the downturn of the world you all are always there through think and thin!

thank God that's over!

Thank God the elections are over! Between the annoying ads and the phone calls a person could be driven to not voting out of frustration. I did vote, this after first walking to my old poling place than realizing the fire station moved to it' s new residence 10 minutes away. Lucky for me my neighbor Mrs. G was on her daily walk she pointed me in the right direction...located at the Village Hall a mere mile away.



Speaking of neighbors ... this old friend dressed to scare on Halloween ... here's Dayton's reaction...


He told me, "that's not real blood Grandma", such a worldly child...

my thoughts...

There are no words to describe what is happening my life. The past month events have caused stress and strain on my world that cannot be described in a journal post. My only thoughts now are that God will triumph in my life and those who try and do evil toward me will fail.

That being said my world is one of driving the school bus on sports trips, evacuation drills, and subbing routes for drivers who feel their job is secure enough to take off for any old reason. I do not mind this as I am always ready for the challenge but I am frustrated to have high paying trips taken away at the whim of my co-workers...

My grandchildren have been at my house nearly the entire week now, (their parents ongoing very bitter divorce is the cause of most of my stress) I am happy as I know they are safe here and being well cared for. They are active in part district sports now... they love having their grandma Rose there to cheer them on. When my work schedule allows I am their number 1 fan!

My wee grandson Kaleb is growing fast. He is now nearly 7 weeks old ... he's a funny guy but still at the stage were only mommy will do.

I feel so blessed to have so much love and care in my life...time goes by so quickly that I refuse to let the unknown hold me down. Life is to be lived.

my son Tim and his wife Kristen

Walked the Lupus walk today. My son's friend has Lupus and his team raised $8,800! I enjoyed seeing old friends and some of my son's friends. It was great day! The walk was gorgeous as it was a sunny crisp day.

I have been able to let a lot of my worries go...except my job...I am still mad that we are short drivers and we are contracting out, which is so against my belief system...as a tax paying citizen I hate waste!!

Plus contracting is taking money out of my pocket. But like all things this too shall pass!

While I was unable to work Friday night I did enjoy some fun time with my grandsons, and my Saturday trip last 9 1/2 hours plus $25 for a meal...all things do work out.

This has been one hell of a week. We are short drivers at work, so when we are, me as a sub must drive even if I have a sports trip...which means I forfeit the trip ($$) and must run the route. Football season Friday night games are at least 6 hours of overtime for me and Friday is a day of high call offs...Last week the office girl in charge got a contract company to do the drop off and I got to go to the school and wait for team...this week the Director found out and had the contract bus do the whole trip meaning , I did not get my trip. We really need drivers and for some reason the world is short good quality drivers, maybe the world is just short good quality workers.

I figured out how to outsmart the system and will be doing this until we get more drivers...

Other more personal stuff is happening, not with my marriage, but my son and his soon to be ex and not agreeing on their divorce and their kid's visitations...which breaks my heart as I love these boys. I know the courts will be fair as the boys need both parents and our extended family.

It's just another concern on my mind...oh and that someone walked into our home at 1 am and took some items out of my kitchen, thank God the neighbor scared them off...as my son had a gun pointed at them from the next room...he did not see them, but heard them. We now lock our home which is a huge hassle, but a necessity...no sense and having blood all over.

Otherwise my life is filled with normal drama...whatever that is...

I know all this will pass...thank God I truly believe that saying...

I have a lupus walk I am participating in on Sunday and walking distance always makes me feel better...I am walking with my son Tim and his pregnant wife...this should take my mind off all the negative stuff...

Dayton does a hand stand

My grandson is 4 and he can do a perfect hand stand, cartwheels too.

my grandsons are so funny...

Jake plays flag football and as he was getting ready he asked his dad, "when do I get paid to play football daddy?"

He also loves the Minnesota Vikings...we tease him ( this is Chicago, Bears country, after all) and call them the Vi-queens. Of course he gets mad. Last weekend the Vikings were playing Miami, Cody wanted to know who was winning the Vikings or the Miami Philia-dolph-ians...

these guys are such funny boys.

boys and their toys....

Been working a bunch so I miss out on the boy's fun 'stuff'...nice thing is that between grandpa and daddy the boys get all the guy time they can hope for...







Although the other day I made it home while the boys were still here. I was greeted by Cody and Dayton, with a happy "GRANDMA ROSES!". and big hugs.

some thoughts....

I come here as usual to express my thoughts. Don't care if anybody reads them...this is my place, my place where I feel like home...

Lately I have come to realize my age, at 53 I still feel young, but I feel different...mostly I feel my age when I look at other people just a bit older than I, they look old to me, but me I feel young...I realize how quick time passes us. I realize how much we waste our time worrying about things, we make plans for our future, but we don't live in today. Today is all we have...we should live in this moment .... for me I get my feelings hurt over situations I am not in control of...I image untrue situations and waste my time, instead of living...

When Brandy had her baby, my husband's ex wife and Brandy's mom were right there. My husband was called mid labor and told, "we didn't want to bother you because we knew you were at work". Even though I was not at work (break in my day) I didn't run to the hospital, to me these moments are for the couple. I had my feelings hurt as the step mom, but I made myself stop being such a baby ... the reality was that the couple were caught in the baby having moment, called us after the birth, my husband saw the baby nearly brand new (I was working). I spent 2 hours holding him a day later...alone without the ex or other grandmother. My stepson and daughter in law appreciated us and love us just he same as the rest of the parents.

I remember being a young mother too frazzled to appreciate the little moments in my kid's life...time speeds by and now they are adults having their own kids. Now as a grandma I will not waste these moments whining or feeling slighted I will enjoy them relish them...still living my own life with my own marriage...but enjoying the show, the show of watching new lives grow up and live...their own...and loving every minute.

met my grandson Kaleb...

My stepson Matt and his new son Kaleb.


So good to hold the new little one!



Brandy and her new son.


grandpa is in love with his new little guy.

the lazy river...

Yesterday I was able to get a trip to a small water park around 45 minutes from here. Because of budget cuts these trips are rare and when they do happen more senior drivers scoop them up. My group was small 25 kids with 7 adults. We took a country route as too many of the main roads in Illinois are under construction. My group was both mellow and well behaved...making the ride a pleasant one.

Two other drivers were there, one is friend so she and I took advantage of the break and headed in the pool for free!

An hour and half on the lazy river was an awesome treat...plus we got paid too!

I love my job!

Sports trips are around the corner...with golf, volleyball and soccer up first and football at the end of August...hopefully I won't have too many driver steal my thunder!

I've got a vacation in Florida to save up for!! :)

yippeee!

I booked our flight to St Petersburg Florida for December ! Got the car too. Tried Orlando first, but the car was 3 times the amount ($1200 for two weeks). Must be because of the holiday and Disney.

This will be our first lengthy trip without children...going to see my dad, but we are there for nearly two weeks so we can be free to do whatever we want!

Dayton is 4!

Dayton is 4 today. He finally agrees to be 4 instead of 8.

wedding weekend...

A coworker of mine got married this past weekend. She married a great guy and I wish her all the best. Our boss let her use the school bus to transport her to the ceremony. I got to run the lift...mostly because I know how to shut the bus down properly ... if not the horn honks until you do it the right way!




me & the bus gang!

crying kids...

The summer has been a long hot one for this bus driver. The past few years I watched my grand sons so I shared a route, which meant I only drover ever other day. This year because my grand kids spent most of their time here, and I am helping support them I am working instead of babysitting.

Normally I have a smallish route with no more than 12 kids, maybe a few car seats/booster seats or a wheel chair...this year 20 kids under 7 most under 5 and 12 of them in some sort of harness/booster or car seat. Nice that they are tied down, BUT most of them have a reason that they are going to summer school. Either it's not following directions, being nonverbal or just plain having behavior issues. It's me, the driver and my trusty monitor. E is a good kid, but she tends to complain about the kids, her life, her boyfriend, other drivers, having no time left on her cell phone or worse she wants to "hang out" between routes. I fixed that we have lunch once a week.
Oh and no air conditioning.

This week has been a loud, soggy, fit throwing screaming mess of children. Today especially so...but we survived. Everybody got home in one peace...one kid broke his glasses, but nobody puked, one of the twins punched the other, the girl that freaks when she hears all the screaming fell asleep before the bus got to nuts and I feel like I did a good job by them.



TG tomorrow is F!! After that only 9 days left of summer school and I even have summer left to have a nice break!

just when you think---> :)

Thank you all so much for the encouraging extraordinary words ... I always feel like journals are my place to vent, get a hug or a kick in the shorts and go on...

I've said this before nobody in my world comes here, no one can see my blabbings here... they can't call me into their office (like work) "bad bus driver", or roll their eyes at me, or tell me to grow up, or zone out and then change the subject to something they want to talk about=themselves...or worse "don't tell people our problems!!"

You all are the **best**

3 day weekend...

The kids came over on Saturday for an unscheduled visitation and we all had a good time hanging out in the back yard. Built a fire, threw water balloons until somebody cried and it was time for going in...dark is 9:00 pm here so it's late by the time kids have to be talked into giving in for the night. But crying makes this all null.

My two stepsons have been living here since October 2009. We have been tolerating the ignorance of my oldest stepson. He is not working, will not be working for a while (construction, no work...messed up something with the union, etc) so we are putting up with his erratic behavior...the grand kids spend at least 1/2 the week here so we try to work with my stepson and his self center ways. Put it this way if I made a list I could evict him for a load of reasons. He isn't much of conversationalist so we settle for baby steps...

The other one has been working in Wisconsin so he's gone most of the week. He at least pays some rent.

Someday we will both retire, downsize and then the grown kids will have to figure out life for themselves.

I actually think I am reaping my karma...in 1985 I moved into my parents house with my two sons, had another kid, my daughter and stayed for 5 years!

9 months down a bunch o' years to go!

I love the grand kids and some how some way this too will pass....and I will someday be sitting on the beach smiling at the memory...

there I feel better...

Let freedom ring!

the best part...

One of the best parts of summer is family & fests...



LaLa & Dayton...



Grandpa having some of Cody's candy...



Jake


Kristen & Tim..
My son's Tim & Eric

storms

I've had a heck of week. My dsl was down for a couple of days, I thought because of some recent storms, but it ended up being my 10 year old modem finally bit the dust. I had a replacement and quickly got back online again...until Wednesday when a bad storm knocked our power out for nearly 2 days.

Rumor was it was to be for 5 days, but thankfully it was only 2.

I went back to work for a part time summer route. I now remember why I don't have a permanent route...20 special needs kids under the age of 7 with 13 in car seats in a bus that is not air conditioned take it's toll on even me...but I am trooper and have whipped young monitor into line. With a little positive re-enforcement she is doing a great job of keeping the little ones happy and under control.

Otherwise the normal summer time stuff...weddings, showers, fests and kids...

Oh and planning my escape to Florida in December. Getting our tickets early and waving them under my nose will keep me in a good mood!

hanging out...

I've been off work for a couple of days. Summer school starts the 21st, part time only, so I am enjoying my time off.

The little kids have been here every day also.

I've been trying to do some cleaning, mostly getting rid of years of junk the big kids have left behind. Dayton & Cody keep trying to talk me into giving them Liz's old "Barbie girls" so their army guys can have friends. This is contrary to their firm belief that Barbie is for girls only. The dolls are sentimental favorites of Aunt Lala, I am sure she would part with some, but Barbie is stored away and I am not looking for her.


Also, both my sons are facing their own growing pains, one related to growing up, living with his dad and step mom and letting them enable him. He's only 25 so he'll get it eventually. The other related to growing up and balancing the needs of both his career and newly pregnant off for the summer school teacher wife. :sigh: I can only add input and wish them the best...growing up sucks sometimes. :)

We still have a lot of work to do on our house, but we realize it's ongoing forever...so no hurry or worry.



I turned 53 Monday...still feel young...I started jogging again, something I loved to do when I was in my 20's. Great both for the body and mind.

I am off to do nothing...something all of should do from time to time!

a weekend off

Grandpa and Kody put in the garden...

School is over in 1 and half days. I've been busy working day and evenings so the 3 day weekend was over due...

BUT with family it can be overly busy too ... especially when it's 95 degrees! And there's three grand kids involved. We spent a lot of time in the sprinkler and shade.

Thankfully, today is cooler ...

Here's some kid filled highlights....




Dayton loves his work boots...




Jacob lives for basketball....





Kody buried himself in the sand...





Memorial day parade...

And time for the kids to go home to mom!

I am off work for 3 weeks until summer school....and I am ready for the rest and freedom!

calling grandma Roses!

I have a lot of kids...my kids are starting to marry...now they are having kids...at the same time!

My stepson Matthew who is married to Brandy is having a boy (of course) in September. Then just last night my son Tim told me his wife Kristen (they wed last November) is having a baby in January! Along with the other 3 grandsons who spend 1/2 their week here I'll have 5 by early next year!

I need a bigger car...!!!! Maybe a bus???

Happy Mother's day...

Spent mom's day with my kids!