"Getting Over" Jack Wagner......

One of the earliest TV shows I ever remember watching as a child was General Hospital. It was just one of those things where if Mom watched it, you just kind of "got into it", as well. Elizabeth Taylor was Helena Cassadine and Laura was just married to Scott Baldwin. (seriously..someone pass me some Miss Clairol, already).

As I got into high school, the big characters were Tony Jones, Tania, Leslie Webber had been killed off, Bobbie had purchased the Brownstone, Sean Donnely, Anna Devane, Robert and Holly, a newcomer of Kimberly McCullough as Robin Scorpio, Tiffany Hill, Blackie Parish, and.....ahhhh....Jack Wagner.

Jack Wagner.

As a freshman in high school (86/87), Jack Wagner to me became what Justin Bieber is to kids today (though, Jack was a little older than Justin). Every album, cassette tape, Tiger Beat magazine with him on it....oh man..they were mine. It's no wonder that I still mentally blast back to those years whenever SiriusXM tosses on his "All I Need" tune.

A few years ago, I learned that Jack was all into Heather Locklear. No, I wasn't exactly bitter. I never really looked at him "like that", to begin with, but still, if I DID, I am realistic!! However, I learned to dislike this information immensely, anyway.

It was around that same time, while reading about Heather and Jack, that I learned he had cheated on Kristina Malandro. Well, ok...at least that was the rumor mill. And VOILA. At 37yo, I found my reasons to "dislike" him haha.

A few months back, I learned Heather and Jack split for whatever reason(s)...ironically, happening around the time Jack discovered his long-lost daughter. A little relief, but a little disgust over a FLING that produced a daughter...though, I don't know the whole story, obviously, and it truly is none of my business.

I still clung to my reasons to dislike Jack Wagner. Dislike. DISLIKE. This afternoon while waiting for my daughter to get out of school in our humble little po-dunk town in poverty-stricken Michigan, SiriusXM did it again and out blared Jack Wagner "All I Need". It stopped me in my tracks.

As if it were yesterday, I immediately was brought back to my freshman year and I COULDN'T HELP but smile. I wanted to dislike him and I wanted to turn the channel, but I couldn't. In fact, I found myself turning the radio up and singing along. How can I dislike someone/something that brought me SO MUCH when I was an early teen?

I tried. I did. I found myself hauling out the Jack tunes on the iPod for the ride home.

Morton Salt has NOTHING over my house!

I always loved the Morton Salt logo... You know: the one of the little girl carrying the container of salt backwards/upside down only to have it pour out the back? "When it rains, it pours".

Salt aside, that pretty much sums up my household this week. Well, ok... It just sums up my household period. Never a dull moment.

On Thursday afternoon, my five year old started complaining of a belly ache. By 530, he was vomiting. By 8p, the count was at 4 but thankfully, it was his last and he slept soundly all night. Friday was a good day despite it was my grandmothers birthday. Nobody else was sick so we chalked it up to something the kiddo ate. My husband took half a day since neither kid had school. We took them out for pizza and then for a visit to Toys R Us.

It was after we got home when I learned about my uncle's phone call to my mother. A few hours later, my husband started to vomit. Lovely. That was shorter lived than my sons.

Enter yesterday afternoon. We had gone to the library. The kids had a great time picking out books and CDs. We met my mother for lunch...it was a fun afternoon.

5pm: my daughter's turn for the vomiting.

The thing that makes it rough with my daughter is her gag reflex is ULTRA sensitive. This kid could not stop!! It was scary! She eventually fell asleep but woke up in tears begging for something to drink. FAIL. Even taking the smallest sips of Sprite resulted in it going back up to the old dish pan she kept at her side for regurgitating purposes. At this point, her eyes had large dark rings around them and her complexion was gray. It was scary. I didnt hesitate to take her to the pediatric ER. They got her rehydrated and stopped the nausea....and we were on our way home and in bed by 6am.

I got up at 330p along with a headache and some serious chest pressure that I had never felt before. EKG normal as is the chest X-ray...and the pressure has gone down, but I've been admitted to the hospital for observation and a few more tests.

Lovely. But, at least if I get the gastro thing, I'm in a good place!

And so it goes....

It's not a secret I miss my grandmother. I miss her TERRIBLY. In fact, this may be one of the hardest deaths, thus far, that I've had to endure. It's been nearly a year, and I can cry at the near mention of her name: still (and let me tell ya, I'm the queen of losing people!). Never did I expect to still be this impacted a year later. Today was my grandmother's birthday. Yes, I dreaded this day since the day I lost her. Both of my kids had the day off from school and BOTH of them home all day together is stressful enough. Thankfully, my husband took a half of day vacation from work and that eased many anxieties of the anticipated day. In many ways, I feel VERY alone with the loss of my grandmother. I am an only child and my mother's brother never was married and/or had kids. Being 89 years old, my grandmother's siblings and friends had all passed away previously. So, really, it leaves my mother, my uncle, and myself who would be more impacted than anyone. My mother is pretty closed in with emotions and affection and whenever I talk about my grandma out of the blue, she tends to drop the topic. I am guessing because it is painful and that is how she deals with things. My uncle lives 2 hours away (as did my grandmother) so that leaves, pretty much, me alone to deal with this. My day was doing fine as can be expected. We took the kids to get pizza and then to Toys R Us for a little fun outing and I was stoked that, as of 6pm, the day was easier than expected. That was until I called my mother to see what she was doing (I talk with her everyday at least once or twice). Enter MAJOR drama here. My uncle, on the other hand, is NOT doing well. He always farmed/lived with my grandparents on the 80 acres of land that had been in the family since the early 1900s. Maybe 6 years ago, he started showing signs of some type of mental illness, but, of course, my grandmother's generation really looks at that kind of thing as "taboo" and back then, they shipped the "insane" to a state mental hospital. Needless to say, he never received any help and quite honestly, doesn't believe he has a problem. I suspect it is a paranoid schizophrenia thing....makes things even MORE difficult (like reasoning with a brick wall). He never calls my mother. NEVER. He never answers the phone when ANYONE calls him. He doesn't answer the door at home if anyone knocks (only us). SO, when he called my mother this evening, my mother knew something was up and it couldn't be a happy social call. He misses my grandma (don't we all....maybe he shouldn't have left her laying on the floor for three days before calling an ambulance to help her...the bed sores wouldn't have killed her. Just sayin'). He doesn't want to live there anymore (though, he wont' move, either)..and he is sick. Sick. But not the "sick" that he really is and not the even the other kind of sick that winter may bring someone. Nope. According to him, he "has air under his skin" and "They are all around watching". In the past, his brain has been zapped by "them" and the phones tapped. He even left my grandmother at a Walmart one time because he had to check the house. He told my mother tonight that the house should be "bulldozed" or just "burnt down". My mother told him she was coming to visit on Sunday and he replied, "If I am not dead by then". And thus, we begin more battling than we went through after she died with this "brick wall". My mother became executor of the estate (no will...nobody on the deed to the property due to tax purposes) and decided to sell the property. Luckily, the new owner wanted the land mostly so he decided to "rent" to my uncle (though, my uncle has never paid rent...another story). It was a battle with my uncle who didn't want to sell, but wouldn't give input nor take initiative to do anything....and he certainly couldn't buy my mother's half of it...so there it went. The owner hasn't evicted him, I am sure, due to being nice and understanding, but this guy just doesn't understand it would be in my uncle's best interest because then he would HAVE to do something to help himself, which, I believe, would take him closer to us. Yeah. Fun, isn't it? Why don't we have guardianship? Boy, that is what I want to know. According to an attorney on "THAT" side of the state (which is WAY backwards, if you ask me), it can't happen unless he agrees in this case. He isn't a threat to himself. He hasn't hurt anyone else. Oh..yes...my grandma??? Yes...well, protective services wrote the case up, the prosecuting attorney threw it out since it didn't show "criminal intent". Nope. That's correct..it didn't. But it isn't NORMAL to leave someone on the floor for three days with no medical help. The same jurisdiction that also stated they wouldn't do a forced entry into a home for a welfare check on a person if nobody answered the door (they would just leave...kind of defeats the purpose of a check welfare, doesn't it?). Having been in the criminal justice line of work, I know that stuff just doesn't jive and chances are things would go a little differently where I am from. I have encouraged my mother to go for guardianship and/or tell Mr. Landlord that if he doesn't do something and my uncle burns down the house and dies in it, be prepared to get an attorney. If it were me, I wouldn't have tolerated this much for this long. It's too much stress and the house is STILL not cleaned out of my grandmother's 40 years of residency there (barns, sheds, 80 acres). I would've cleaned the stuff out while I still was executor and then let him live his life. Little harsh? Maybe. But you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped and there is only so much the law let's you do until something tragic (not even that) happens.

I have ISSUES!

So, I am doing this from the Blogger iPhone app and not quite sure how this is going to work with formatting....but, I'll give it a shot.

Earlier this fall, I went through a car wash I had never been through before . Normally, I like to use the ones where we can stay in the car because the kids are always stoked to ride through them. This one, however, they do make you get out. Now, as I walked to the cashier to pay, I saw the COOLEST car coasters and I HAD to get a couple. This one, in particular, seemed to scream my name:). (hopefully the picture will come through)

Vintage Family History

My grandparents built their last home in 1970. My grandfather was a carpenter and he built a 4 bedroom home on 80 acres of land my grandma inherited when her dad passed away. It was "the home" on the stretch of road they lived on. Obviously this was a few years before I was even born. For as long as I can remember, there was a picture hanging in the garage (along with my great-grandfather's old tools, etc)that was of my great-grandfather when he was on a baseball team in the local village (pre-marriage). It was a picture I was always kind of fascinated with (which probably led to my interest in genealogy) and when my grandmother passed away in February, I made sure I grabbed it. It was something I *HAD* to have.

For the first time ever, I took the back off the frame and it was a WONDERFUL surprise to see the names of everyone in the picture written on the back in my grandmother's handwriting<3 Not parting with this picture for anything.

The Sweetness of the Past

Yep. OK. I seriously can be put into "bad blogger" mode now. No excuses, really...other than I I've been sick three times since September (thanks, kids, for bringing home the germs). As we speak, I am dealing with congested lungs and woke up this morning unable to talk (just whisper). How do I yell at my kids??????? Well, anyway. My parents went to visit my uncle yesterday. He still lives in my grandmother's house, which is a whole other ball of wax for another time. She retrieved my grandmother's recipe box for me. The one thing I remember and always cherished was my grandmother's cooking. RARELY was anything from a box. RARELY. Most things were from scratch. Yea, truly a concept in today's society, but those cream cheese christmas cookies were to DIE for. That potato salad? TO DIE FOR. And although I was never a pork fan, those PORK CHOPS were AMAZING...and nobody has been able to duplicate them for me no matter how "to the T" they followed my grandma's instructions. I am not sure if anything can be duplicated the same way she made things, but I, at least, can give it a shot now. Not sure if I should be stoked about this or curl up in a ball and sob. Either way, I would not EVER be without many of these things that were hers. It was all so much a part of ME, as well.

I really think the recipe box dates to the 50s....EASILY. The box is powder-pink, but my kitchen is a cranberry red so it's hard to get accurate pictures with the reflection:/



If you look CLOSELY at the above picture, you can see the word "LARD" written out. LARD!!!! Does ANYONE use lard, anymore?? Man, I LOVE having this in my possession. REAL food:) Going through it, I found those cream cheese cookies recipe. I found the pumpkin cookies that were terribly SINFULLLLLLL. I found a recipe for homemade (like SCRATCH) biscuits. Date Nut Bread. Peanut Brittle. Easter Salad Surprise. Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Frosting (SCRATCH!). Dill Pickles. Chili Sauce. I mean...name it..and it's in there. She had clippings from seriously old newspapers (before I was even born!), magazines, food boxes. How to make jams, and RASPBERRY GLAZE??? And GOD BLESS this lady.....many of the recipes have dates on them and who she got them from (some even from HER mother!)


I don't think I will be able to reproduce my grandmother's cooking, by any means, but, as she always told me when I always said there was no way I could cook like she was able to, "Have you ever TRIED?". I love you, Grandma!!!!

Summer to Fall

So much for my dedication to doing a blog, huh? Summer is always non-stop in our household..not that we have any kind of "life", but my kids tend to be "high maintenance" which means, if I better plan something for them to do or my day(s) will result in some mental therapy by the time school starts.

School is now back in session. My son is in preschool for 5 hours and my daughter is now going ALL DAY (first grade). OK...seriously. Can you picture it?? I am driving home after dropping them both off at school completely beside myself. No fighting. No whining. Time to ME?? REALLY?? This is what I spent the last 7 years preparing for. Life is GOOD.