A Whole Lot Going On

Things have been gearing up here in the last couple of months before school lets out. Ana will be graduating this May from High School. And her brothers want to come for a visit and be here for her graduation, so I have been trying to put it all together. I will have to send plane tickets to Trevor and Jennie and the baby, because Trevor is in college on the GI bill, and there is no extra money for plane tickets. Darrin has a son in school in Sacramento, and it will be finals week, so they are going to either have to find someone for him to stay with, or take him out of school, neither seems the best. They are trying to work that out. Scott and Marisol are preparing for a three week trip to Manila so her four sisters can see the new baby, and before they go they plan to drive out here for Ana's graduation. As with Darrin, Scott also has a son that is in school and will be having finals that week, so I think Marisol's mother will stay there and take care of Andrew while they travel out here. They are going to drive, it is only about 14hours by car. Scott said that if he can drive it in one day, that driving is the best for him. So in the meantime I am working frantically on the basement trying to get it done so that I have the extra room. I now have the ceiling done in the family room, and part of the ceiling done in Nick's bedroom. We are about to go to town so that I can get another 60pound tub of taping compound. And a few gallons of paint. I work for about two hours every night. So far it has been coming along slowly, but it is coming along. The worst part is the sanding, which I have to do before I apply the final coat of taping compound to the walls. I am very close to that point, so I have to get drop clothes to cover the doorways. If I don't, that fine sanded powder will drift all over the house and fill every rooms nooks and crannies. It fills my nooks and crannies also. It is extremely hard on the eyes and nose. Once inside the lungs it is there to stay, so I wear a face mask when I sand.

I hope everyone is well, and I am sorry that I don't come by and comment of late, but I am just so busy. And when I get done at night, blogging is the last thing that I want to do. Sorry. I have also been working in the yard, so what energy I have has been well used. Hugs.....

18th Birthday

They say that time passes quickly when you get older. It is true you know, it does seem to go by at an alarming rate once you reach middle age. Anyway, Ana had her 18th Birthday last Saturday and as I looked back over the last 18 years, they did go in fast forward. Twenty years ago when I moved to Los Angeles I was running away (with my two young sons) from a bad marriage. I had met Tom in August of the previous year and we had spoken with each other occasionally over the phone so when he invited me to move to Los Angeles and I accepted, it was more or less like going into the unknown. My sons didn't know Tom, but he was about as opposite from their father as a person could possibly get. I was approaching 40, had one grown son, another two sons, 11 and 6, well on their way, and it had not crossed my mind to start a new family. Tom had never been married, had no children, and it HAD crossed his mind. So when he said, "I would like to have a couple kids," it occurred to me that it might not even be possible. Well, that was December, by May I was expecting Ana; I was 40.

I had worked, before and after, having my other three children, and it wasn't easy. I had worked, cooked, cleaned, gardened, paid bills, grocery shopped, and spent a good portion of my time going from bar to bar trying to locate my drunken ex-husband. So this new marriage and pregnancy was a breeze by comparison. I had gotten a job at a bank as an AVP a week after I moved to LA, and I worked right up until the month Ana was born. I was supposed to return to work when she was three months old, but for many reasons, I just couldn't do it. Leaving a tiny new baby with someone that you just don't know wasn't something that I could do. So I kissed my career goodbye and became a full time housewife and mother. It would be many years before I had any desire to work outside the home again.

As we were all sharing in Ana's happy Saturday birthday it occurred to me, it had all turned out pretty well. And it was all worthwhile. Children benefit from having a parent at home. They really do. And they benefit double when they have TWO parents at home.