SHEs Organized

Almost dinner time for me which means steaks on the grill. I had my hair cut, did some shopping, took Willie Boy along with Sadie TWD for a good long walk, then came home and spent an hour working with my flowers. Its been been very cool around here, but by the time the late afternoon rolled around I was quiet warm. I pulled off my shirt and worked with just my bra on when I was messing in the backyard. I still had on my bottoms. My backyard is walled and very high so no one can see me. I like being a naughty girl sometimes

I'm glad that everyone is safe for now. Indy, you can get soft dog collar for Jake. It takes our pups a while to get used to their cone-heads. The soft collar is helpful when they bang themselves into door jams and furniture.

As for obits...one thing I have discovered is different parts of the country have different types of obits. Here you seldom see how long a person was married to another. However in NJ, it seems that is considered normal. The obits in my mom's paper tell where a person was born, grew up, what they did for a living, and how long they were married to their spouse. It's sort of like a short narrative of a person's life. Here obits are very short and you pay $$$ to include those pieces of information.

After I divorced my DS father, I took my maiden name back. People found that odd siting that my DS, who was young at the time, and I would have different names. I would reminded them that if I were to remarry, my name would become different from my son anyway. It was important to me because I no longer had a husband and I didn't want his name any more

I have kept my maiden name for the past 25 years. I still go by it even though I am married to Sweetie. I never wanted to give up my name in the first place but back then when I married DS's father it was illegal to hypanate (sp) your name. Once I got my name back I was determined never to give it up. When I went through my divorce I had to legal request that my name be changed back to the one I was born with. I told Sweetie when we got married that if he wanted us to share the same last name, he was welcomed to take mine. He declined....Imagine that

About maiden names... I had a distant cousin whose husband took her last name and hyphened it with his (his being last.) She and their kids kept her name. They were flower children. Even their names are unusual considering they were born in the early 1950's, and their kids names are really unusual. A really artsy family - she makes her living as a painter, he is an author and the kids are writers (I saw one last week on tv promoting his latest book.)

About obits.... they are very expensive here. And misleading at times. The worst I saw was the one for dd's friend's baby who died (SIDS). The mom was listed with her boyfriend at the time. They weren't living together, he lived 6 hours away and I heard he had just broken up with her the weekend before the baby died. The bio father (who was paying child support and spent as much time as he could with the baby but lived 3 hours away) wasn't listed, nor was anyone from his family.

Dh and I quickly found the battery for my heart-rate-monitor but that obviously isn't what is wrong with the 'watch' part of the set-up. Even with a fresh battery, there is no display at all. So I'm out the $8 for the battery.

I played games for the rest of the afternoon and then cooked a nice dinner for dh. We watched an episode of Leverage and now he's watching a movie. I even cleaned up the kitchen after cooking. Will run the dishwasher in a short time, I have laundry to run first.

Hello, finally. I tried to check in a few times this week, but time on the computer was short. I have spent some time this evening cuop from this week.

Our ds#3 and family left early Saturday morning. He wanted to get some sleep and get up at 2 am, leave at 3am, but slept in till 4:30. I had set my alarm also and stayed awake till he got up. We got back to bed around 5:30 after they left. The house is so quiet and empty now!

We did have a wonderful time and kept busy. Wed. we went to Busch Gardens; ddil#2 and dgds10 & 17 went with us. We met up with ds's friend from work and his family. When we came home dfriends ddaughter14 (who is dgd14's friend at school) came home with us and went home with our family. Thursday they all went to our local beach (ds's friend & his other daughter and son met here) and all went together. They all had a good time, but got a little too much sun and were sore the next day. We had supper ready for all when they came home (11 in all). Friday we just stayed home and visited although ddil took the girls shopping in the afternoon. We did up all their laundry. Ds got up on the roof and swept all the leaves and pine needles off. We're going to rake them over the front foundation garden for some needed mulch.

We both slept in yesterday and I woke with a horrible headache, sinus I guess. Took some meds and ate light all day. In the evening we went to dgd17 high school to see her and band program, a military tattoo. There was the high school and middle school bands, two local professional pipe and drum bands, the band from USF and two international dance groups. Anthems sung included God Save The Queen and Oh Canada as well as our own anthem. Dgd17 is a dancer with her band as well as playing clarinet.

Ah, well, enough about me...I've been watching the weather and wish everyone in the path of those storms to keep safe.

OKay, I'm sorry the obit was disturbing.

I've been thinking of everyone here. Took a long time typing this in between doing a few other things, so I had to sign in again. That's what I get for being pokey!

Obituaries here vary, b/c local daily paper charges for anything more than basic announcement -- which is mainly just giving the time of service. I know dh was very particular about dfil's, and we proofread it (repeatedly!), had ds, ddil, dbil, dmil, etc... ALL read it... said it was good. Then, immediately when it came out in the paper, we realized we had forgotten to include his position as retired bank director. Really, it probably didn't matter to anyone else in the world, but we tried to correct it in the more local weekly paper, but they ignored my e-mail. We also neglected to thank doctors & nurses & home caregivers, which lots of people do in our local obituaries... but we sorta did that on purpose. Dfil had quite a variety of caregivers, some of whom made less than perfect impressions on dmil, but whom we would definitely have wanted to thank. So we thought it better to just omit them all.

Dh's aunt's obituary was published and stated that she & her husband had been married seven years.
The next day, it was corrected to read seventy-one years. I'm sure that was a relief to her seventy-year old children!

For the reasons y'all have mentioned, though, I agree it IS important to have correct information in obituaries. I also share OKay's concern re: hurt feelings and misunderstandings that might be caused by the sort of "selective" information in her dfriend's obituary.

DS mentioned, when we were sorta grumbling over dfil's and the lack of correction in the second paper -- "I would hate to have to be in charge of that part of the paper. The information isn't important to anyone except that family, but it's the most important thing in the world to them -- and you have a new set of facts every day. In the great scheme of things, it probably doesn't matter nearly as much as the front page stories, but to those people, it matters sooo much more."

Thinking about regional differences -- how many of you generally attend funerals where the body is open for viewing throughout the funeral itself? Ddil was surprised that here, the casket is closed before the service begins. I think maybe, when I was a child, I attended a funeral with the casket remaining open, but normally, here we have a 2-hour viewing/visitation period, (sometimes the night before, sometimes the day of) -- but at the funeral itself, if it is an "open casket" the body lies "in state" (Is that correct to say for an ordinary civilian?) -- maybe an hour before the service, but then the family steps out and the casket is closed. Then the family returns, together, and is seated for the service.
At one of my dgmother's funerals, however, my grandfather asked for a final viewing period for the family, and rather than exiting before the others in the congregation at the end of the funeral, the family waited until last and took one last moment for good-byes, I guess. I thought it was a bit too emotional, but if it was my grandfather's wish, I guess that was all that mattered.

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Shifting gears, I am sooo glad to have SPRING BREAK this week!!! * * * HAPPY DANCE * * * HAPPY DANCE * * *

We celebrated by going to see The Three Stooges tonight. It was... well, about what you'd expect. We liked it, but some of the slapstick lasted a wee bit long for my enjoyment. The Stooges are definitely an acquired taste.

I am now doing laundry in preparation for the ironing lady tomorrow.

I have slept just about every moment that I have been seated or lying down over the past 48 hours, and I am beginning to feel like a human being again. However, my allergies are still driving me crazy. Not so much sneezing and sniffling, which IS an improvement -- but my nose is ITCHING me like CRAZY. I'd like to set a habit of walking every day this week, but I don't know if I'll brave the elements (freshly cut grass) in the morning or not. I suspect that is the major offender in my troubles this weekend.

I do NOT like the trash situation you are being forced to deal with, Indiana... but I shall respect your decision to choose your battles. * sigh * This is NOT a good way to deal with clients in a retirement village. I would like to come up there and just give them a piece of my mind. I guess y'all are thinking it is good I cannot do so... probably don't have enough pieces to spare many... but (((BIG HUGS, INDIANA))).

Sorry the school situation is not so great for your dd/dgs, OKay.
Personally, although I have always been a strong proponent for public education, I am beginning to have my own doubts.
As an employee of public education, of course, I have supported the premise, largely on the theory that we have to learn to get along with all types of people, and the earlier we learn that, the better.
However, since No Child Left Behind became the battle cry of education, the mood in our country apparently seems to be that we do not want any child to suffer ANY bad feelings of ANY kind. This seems to be creating a school environment that holds No Child Accountable and No Child Responsible -- for ANYTHING.
I've told y'all about the NO ZERO policy at our school. The principal has finally seen that this is a miserable failure with some students, and if they are determined to fail -- and be left behind -- then perhaps that is what we should allow them to do. Maybe a few sessions of summer school will give them time to mature enough to develop some sense of responsibility.
The thing is, and the students know this, summer school now amounts to nothing more than multiple choice tests on computer lessons, and it sounds like it is pretty easy to make a 60.
These are the kinds of things that make ME ready to retire. I really see my job as being just as much about teaching responsibility and holding students to certain standards as it is about teaching nouns and pronouns, you know? And if The Powers That Be are not backing teachers up on these kinds of things, then it becomes very frustrating indeed.

Oh my... I bet y'all liked it better when I was too tired to post. I'll get off this soapbox and go check on the one in the laundry room now.

Lucylee...Now you know why my decision to retire was easy, well sort of.

It is the lack of accountability that the students and parents are well aware of that makes teaching a far cry from what it was in the past. Yes I know some schools are different from others, but as unhappy as it makes me say this, I hope my grandchildren don't have to go to a public school. Its this new system that you are talking about that makes me feel we are quickly becoming place of the haves and the have nots. In my neck of the woods parents are feeling this way as well. There is a reason that so many private schools popped up in Mobile. Its not so much an ethinic problem, but rather an ethical one. I have seen many parents take on a second job just to pay for a private school. Private schools often have their own can of worms to deal with and nothing seems like a sure deal any more.

These kids that you and I educate are the future doctor, lawyers and Indian Chiefs of the world. I recognize it every day. But even though I know in my heart that I am giving my students hope from a better life, it is still scarey to watch the parade. I keep wondering if MY teachers thought the same thing when they taught us. I know I was every teacher's nightmare...surprise I am now stepping of the soap box with you and heading for bed. Tomorrow begins our week of standardized testing. Three phone calls have gone out tonight from my school reminding parents to put their kids to bed early and make sure that they have a good breakfast in the morning. Our school provides free breakfast for every student this week. But what I want is COFFEE