Broken Road Journey

A month of Sundays… and all the other days too…

Ξ December 22nd, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ All the children, Family Fun, General Interests, Heather, Kaitlin, Lyndon, Olivia Leigh Sisson, Terry Jr., Victoria |

Sadly, my laptop has passed into the realm of other antiquated irreparably damaged goods and it seems as though it has been a month of Sundays since I have been able to sit and write.  Not to mention the cascade of events and obligations of the holiday season… and the shopping, and cooking, and the list goes on.

I had a wonderful weekend just past – laughing with family over my sister unwrapping the dreaded basket of fruit my mother loved and we all loathe, so now it is Vicky’s year to display the heirloom in Mom’s memory…. Unlucky for myself and for my niece Collien, we both have birthdays coming up in April which will give my sister the opportunity to pass along the basket to another caretaker for the remainder of the year…. But then again, Vicky will have a birthday in September….

That evening my dearest and I went to dinner at Marker 32 here in Jacksonville with my entire office and their spouses, which left us 1 short of being the even dozen, but we all had an amazing time laughing, drinking and dining in the highest of standard.  The appetizers were gorgeous and tasty, the warm spinach salad was delicious, and my crusted salmon was divine, it simply melted in your mouth… I thoroughly enjoyed being pampered by the staff with the dozen plate changes, utensil transfers, and glasses that never emptied.  The view over looking the water and boats was charming and the company was impeccable and most generous.

Sunday was the annual Christmas cookie party at my house, so I got to spend time with my great nieces and Victoria and Lyndon making cookies (or in the case of Lyndon – just eating mouthfuls of icing) and I will put up some photos soon.  My daughter came up with the idea of next year instead of doing cookies maybe we could all make gingerbread house instead.  I thought it was a fine idea, so I think that will be the plan. 

Speaking of gingerbread houses, my sweetheart bought me a kit a week or two ago and we are all going to take part in assembling it and decorating it on Christmas Eve, which I am extremely excited about.  All four of my children are supposed to be here and spend the night with me on Christmas Eve and be here for Christmas morning, just like when they were young.  I am very blessed to be here with them this year, so much could have been much worse with my cancer, an it is a blessing indeed which I thank God for, for me to be here, to be feeling well, to be able to find pleasure in life without suffering.  We also have a special guest coming to be with us that evening which I wish were much closer that I could see and care for more often, Papa Jack.

Tonight I get to see my Olivia, and her family.   We will be carrying the gifts and stockings we got for all of them, and getting hugs and giggles and a lot of joy from watching them unwrap and play, and we are going to try to decorate some cookies with them as well… lesson learned though, no icing for Lyndon… OMG he was impossible the rest of the day yesterday….

Kaitlins’ Sweet 16 Birthday

Ξ October 30th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Family Fun, Kaitlin |

Here are the photos from my daughters sweet 16 dinner..

Here she is so beautiful in the traditional pearls given to every female in our family on her 16^th birthday for generations…

From KATS’ SWEET 16

And here she is with her boyfriend Tyler….

From KATS’ SWEET 16

Another one with her boyfriend Tyler….

From KATS’ SWEET 16

Her best friend Monica, Kaitlin, and Tyler…..

From KATS’ SWEET 16

Isn’t she just as cute as can be?

From KATS’ SWEET 16

Hanna at 2 weeks old

Ξ August 12th, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ Hanna |

Newest addition to the ever growing family tree, Hanna

ORLANDO WITHOUT DISNEY

Ξ July 29th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Family Fun, General Interests, Lyndon, Victoria |

Yes it is possible, and enjoyable.

No matter how great a vacation is. . . it is sure good to be back at home when ya walk back through your own door and nestle down in your own bed, isn’t it?

I love it every few months when we have gone off for a bit, but it is always soooooo comforting to get back again. We had a great time in Orlando this month, early on, during the Microsoft Tech Ed convention. Walter got to spend time with M.S. Guru – Bill Gates, whom is retiring next year “so he says” anyway, heck – he has enough money to last him the rest of three lifetimes don’t ya think… We spent a lot of time in the pool, which was wonderful because it had a rock wall with several waterfalls that poured into the pool itself. Standing chest deep in the water and having that pounding fall on your shoulders and back felt fantastic. We went out there bright and early every morning, again after lunch and yet again for a couple of hours at night before bedtime.

The food was pretty good, believe it or not Dennys had the best service for breakfast… and the best tasting food too because some of the other places gave you those fake nasty eggs, but Dennys was the real deal, although IHOP gave Walter a massive sized ham & 3 cheese omelet. For dinner we tried some of the local places, which were “ok”, but really the best most delicious and filling meals we had were at two of our favorite places close to home that we frequent on pretty regular basis – Olive Garden and Outback. Because we were on the 10th floor we had a breathtaking night skyline view for mile & miles of all the twinkling lights and sparkling displays different places were exhibiting. I suppose Jacksonville also has such vistas at night, however I have not been that high up here to be able to see it.

We found time to squeeze in a trip to Ripleys Believe It or Not museum, which was interesting – but let me tell everyone this, it really is not much fun for kids. There are some displays there which Victoria liked, but for the most part it would not interest kids under the teens. To get a lot of the knowledge of what the display was about you had to read a script about each item in that particular exhibit – something 9 year olds don’t have the patience to do…. It is a LOT of reading to be able to really appreciate the oddities….

WONDERWORKS was much better and more worth the money, so if you ever go with kids it is great and they will love it. Whereas as Ripleys was done in an hour (because the kids were bored with it) – it took us about 3 1/2 hours to do WONDERWORKS and they were wide open and entertained the entire time had we slowed down it would have taken longer – both Lyndon 18 months and Victoria 9 years old. As well as having plenty to do for the kids, there were also activities fun for us grownups to play too, such as giant bubble making…. , landing the space shuttle virtual reality, create your own roller coaster virtual reality, baseball throw virtual game, and so much more that both kids and adults loved. Victoria had fun laying on a bed of nails….. There were skill tests, reflex testers, mind challenges, optical illusions and sensory exhibits all scattered on about 3 different floor levels, or it may have been four – I don’t remember – but there was Lazer tag as well on the top floor. The place is divided into differnt areas of similar sections – here you see Vicotira and Lyndon in his favorite exhibit of all, he spent almost 20 minutes playing with the switches and knobs and screamed bloody murder when I made him come out so others could explore. For some Non-Disney fun, I think everyone in the family will love this place. On the way back home we stopped in Sanford FL to visit the Central Florida Zoo. Although it is not as big as and doesn’t have as much botanical variety as the Jacksonville Zoo, it was still a delightful place to spend some time. Between the exhibits you were on this great boardwalk and shaded almost completely by trees and other greenery. They have a few places where you are on trails of mulch or bark, or natural ground but 95% is on the boardwalk. It winds through the woods at the back with many places just to relax and have a quiet moment. They did have Elephants, cougar, and other wildcats and well as birds and reptiles and a few hoofed beasts as well as such domesticated animals such as Turkeys, Llamas, and goats. The common animal life was just as amusing as the caged animals. . . squirrells followed you everywhere and were rather comocal with thier antics. Before leaving the kids cooled off in the water play area and then slept soundly most of the way back to the house. All in all it was a wonderful time for us… we are so blessed, God has been so good to me.

ENGLEWOOD SENIOR HIGH

Ξ July 29th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ General Interests, Kaitlin |

Has totally pissed me off. Sadly, it is not the first time, but this is the most extreme thus far. I went to the school at the last minute to pick up my 15 year old daughter, for just a few hours to help with Lyndon during a dental appointment, when I arrived I went straight to the “Student Services” section where you have to go to sign the kids out, and yes I admit it I knowingly walked right past the main office, despite the big ass bright yellow sign about 7 feet tall that says ‘ALL VISITORS MUST GO TO THE FRONT OFFICE” because I wasn’t there to visit, I was there to say “I want my kid” and then leave…. no big deal…. so I thought…

Well I sign her name in the check out sheet and tell the lady whom I am there to pick up and she promptly informs me that I “need to go to the front office first” Grrrrrr…. so after finishing up filling out all the information on the check out sheet, I head back to the front office, and I am standing in line for what seems like forever for simple tasks to be completed, and then have to be redone for others because they were done incorrectly the first time . . . As I am waiting I hear them paging my daughter over the main intercom for the school, which I thoguht was rather odd… but hey whatever.

Finally it is my turn and I tell her why I am there and she asks for my ID and is in the process of making a badge which she answers on speakerphone and it is the lady in the student services office where I had just come from, she asks the lady I am there with now if Mrs. Walters is there (why she asks this is beyond me because my name and my relationship are on the form I filled out to check Kat out and is on her desk right in front of her) and so the Main office lady asks if I am Mrs Walters and I said no I am Mrs “Woodruff”, but I am there to get my daughter Amanda “Walters”, so they banter back and forth for a minute getting the names right while I stand there patiently with an obvious “you are an idiot” look on my face.

The Main Office lady picks up the phone from the intercom to listen to whatever it is the Student Services lady is saying. She hangs up the phone and says to me, your daughter is not here. I am like “Excuse me?” To which I am informed that my daughter was not in her class, nor had she been in any of her scheduled classes today. I am stunned. WTF? I step out into the hallway and start trying to call my daughters cell phone and get no answer (no surprise there) . . So I go back to the Student Services lady whom again tells me Kat is not in school and that I can go up the the Attendance Office lady and find out if my daughter even reported to her homeroom or first period class at all, or if she cut right after being dropped off.

So I go to see the Attendance Office lady, I stand in the cold with the baby and Victoria in tow and wait for all the ignorant baggy ass pants wearing nimrod mouthy punk waste of good oxygen kids argue and talk back to school staff trying to get them processed for either being late, or not having thier ID badges or whatever. . . finally the lady behind the glass acknowledges me (thanks to Lyndon vocalizing his impatience) and once I explain what I need she informs me that although she is the one that could give me that information, she cannot give me that information because she has not yet completed the tasks of scanning the roll sheets to generate the data I need. Grrrrr.

I go back to the Student Services lady and she prints me off a sheet showing from the beginning of the year and points out that Kat was also “absent” from her fourth block class this past Friday, but that she had been to first second and third blocks.. She points out that it is possible that she had cut that class as well, but that I really need the data from the Attendance Office lady to get an accurate printout.

I leave the school and head around to the local restraunts that are within walking distance from the school, the Kyrstals, Dairy Queen etc… All the while I am trying to call Kats phone… no answer no answer no answer. I circle by the house and send her a text message from the computer, because she usually responds to those even when she cannot answer or talk on the phone…. no response. I go back to the school and try to find out more information and there is nothing more they can tell me but that she is not there. . . I am steaming by now, and really frustrated that noone seems to be concerned about the fact that my daughter is missing from school where she was dropped off this morning in the middle of a city where crime is rampant in a society where young girls are never really safe off on thier own, but they have the “ph well she cut class and skipped school it’s no big deal” mentality not seeming to be the least bit concerned for her welfare. I didn’t know what more to do, after having called Walter, Terry, and called and cancelled the dental appointments. . .

I leave there and drive to her boyfriends house, and on the way I call her brother so he can call her father as I did not have his contact information with me…. I get to the boyfriends house, and talk to the mom (I had tried calling the number he calls from on caller ID but got a generic answering machine) and inform her that Kat is missing from school and that I doubt that she would leave school without Max and that she needs to call the school and find out if Max is in school, and for her to let me know if she finds him, and I will let her know what I find when and if I find out anything.

I go back to the school to track down one of the resource officers because I am outraged that we are helpless to do anything to find out when and where kat went missing from the school… and why noone called. . . So for the third time I am back at Student Services to find the Resource Officer, but he is on the phone, so I have to wait. While I am waiting I watch this thick white guy using a flat iron that gets hot just like my daughter uses at home to make his bangs flat while sitting in the office. Ok, now I know damn good and well that if MY child brought hers to school she would be suspended for having a heat generating weapon, but this kid sits bolding in the office doing his hair until someone finally notices because he waving it around and takes it away from him… This same kid later tells Kat that he wants my “digits” so obviously he must need to be in Special Ed.

Anyway, I get in to talk to the Officer and when he asks me what he can do for me, I tell him “well, it appears that my daughter is missing” and he asks me to explain what I mean, I do so briefly going through the mornings events, and he says to me “So you mean she “just” skipped school?” … well yeah it appears she has skipped school, but as she is not where she is supposed to be, and noone knows where she is or who she is with – or by what means she left the school – then to me … SHE IS MISSING.

He asked if I had had them call her from her class, and I was like “Uuuh Yeah, that is how ya’ll came to the conclusion that she was not here and told me that she had not been here at all today” he asks for her name (for the third time) and steps to the doorway and asks the Student Services lady to call Kats class and see if she is there… (this is the same lady that I had asked to get Kat earlier that morning and that had told the Main Office lady that Kat was not here) I hear her call on the intercom and the teacher say that Kat is there and that she will send her up to the office.

OMFG… I am fuming do you hear me, I am livid with this school by this point. I try calling my son back so he can get in touch with his Dad for me, if he hadn’t already, and let them know she is ok and there, I also call Walter, and Max’s mom… Kat gets there and reveals she has been in class all day since she got to school, says she didn’t respond to anything on her phone because her phone had been taken away from her by her first block teacher because “one of her friends” was using it for something and got caught..

I was so frustrated with these people at this school that I just got up and walked out of the office with Kat, I went and talked with her teacher that had taken the phone, proving she had been in the class as well. . . and with the fourth block teacher about last friday, during which her dad called and I let him know that she was there and ok, and so he then had to call her brother that was already on his way to get here to help find her (and who she may have been with) .

It was a whole fucked up mess. My blood pressure went through the roof, I had an instant migraine that was throbbing, Victoria had gotten upset about the whole ordeal worried that something bad happened to Kat, and Lyndon was restless from being dragged in and out of his carseat. I hate Englewood, if it weren’t for having to burden the whole expense on our own, Walter and I would put her in a private school in a heart beat, when we were both working it was seriously being considered but Kat begged and begged us out of it, now with me at home, we just cannot afford it by ourselves… She really is the smartest kid, gifted for 7 years until she no longer found an interest in staying in it, and honor student until the last grading period when her grades dropped below honor roll level.

Well, maybe by the time Victoria hits the age to move out of Elementary and into middle we will be able to place her into private school, I loved Englewood High when I went to school there, but I loathe the place now. yesterday was just another example of why.