Yup...

Yes that's me. 

There was some comment about my posting a more recent picture of me - this is a couple of years old but hey someone has to TAKE the pictures LOL>

Good Grief....

I just realized that I have been missing in action for a WEEK - yikes. I haven't been feeling well for the past 4 or 5 days and have been sleeping alot but not much of an excuse is it? lol

Jamie is looking much much better although he has a broken blood vessel in his eye that is yucky yucky yucky. The police have been here three times so far to investigate the assault not that they are going to do anything about it. I had a little rant yesterday to the dog about the Young Offenders laws in Canada since no one else would listen to me lol. My gawd the laws positively coddle kids under 18 - I tell you there are definately kids out there that need a damned good spanking. /end rant lol.

I've got a social worker coming this afternoon to talk to Jamie about what he wants to do so we'll have to see how that goes. I have to call his school again to see if they will take him back - keep your fingers crossed.

We've had mountains of snow here - the car was completely drifted over on the weekend and we got more snow yesterday. Gawd I hate snow.

Dad at around age 3

Dad and his friend. 

This is a picture of my Dad and his friend. He thinks he was around 3 when the picture was taken. My dad was born in Scotland and lived there his whole life until he emigrated to Canada in 1962. He retired a few years ago at age 65. He was a millwright/machine fitter/maintenance mechanic from the age of 14. Dad, by the way, is the one with the huge delighted laughing grin.

Life goes on

So..... Jamie looks awful, totally and completely awful. Potsie came to drop Katie off on Sunday (and pick up his newly healthy 'puter) and when he saw Jamie was hugging him with tears streaming down his face. Easy to be upset about this but I didn't see HIM offering to take Jamie to live at HIS place. Sorry for being snippy but it gets a bit tiring to the one that HAS to deal with Jamie all the time with no help from him. I called the police and an officer came on Sunday night, so the assault as been reported AND the police know where Jamie is - Jamie was less than thrilled with this as the officer charged him with a breach of his conditions but there was no way I was going to get in trouble for letting him stay here. Anyways, I've gotten Jamie an appointment with my doctor on Friday to get his stitches out and get my doc to have a look at his face, hopefully it'll be a bit better by then. I have a social worker coming next Tuesday to interview Jamie and maybe just maybe she can help him get into some kind of program or give us some suggestions for him. Jamie has court tomorrow on his auto theft charge - ain't he gonna look a treat with the whole right side of his face puffed out and his right eye swollen shut. At least, Jamie is behaving and I got his painkiller prescription filled yesterday so he's not in terrible pain any more. Gawd knows his pain hasn't affected his appetite! The boy hasn't stopped eating since he got here. Teenagers.

Some weeks it just don't pay to get outta bed

This whole week has been busy. Potsie's computer went belly up and he brought it over here to be repaired so my computer was playing nanny to his as we tried to figure out what the hell was wrong with it. So FINALLY we have his computer back together and it's ready to go back home. Of course my room now looks like a computer graveyard with bits of computer everywhere ( I have ALOT of spare parts lol).

Needless to say I was quite prepared to have a good sleep last night and spend today blogwalking wellllll the best laid plans etc etc etc. At around 1 am I hear someone knocking on the front door and there on my doorstep are Jamie and two of his friends. When I opened the door, I realized that there was something wrong with Jamie. It turns out that he was jumped by three guys and was beaten up. After I got him in the house and got good look, it was off to the hospital with Jamie. They x-rayed his jaw, face and shoulder. The good news is that his shoulder is fine and so is his jaw - he has a fracture of the bone right under his right eye. We had to wait until 7 this morning for the plastic surgeon to check his x-rays to see if he would need surgery to wire the fracture or if it would heal on its own. No surgery needed. He got three stitches in a cut on his cheek and the whole right side of his face is swollen about three times its usual size, he has an incredible black eye (swollen completely shut right now) and a very fat lip. As my mother so eloquently put once - He's going to have a face like a baboon's ass later on.

He's asleep upstairs right now but I'm not sure what to do with him. One of the conditions of his release was residence at the youth shelter and if I let him stay here I'll get in trouble besides who's to say he's not just going to act up again as soon as his face feels better. OH and he told me he's been kicked out of the youth shelter and has been sleeping outside for the past two weeks. Lovely. *sigh* I think I need a nap.

Guess who?

Guess who? 

Can you guess who this incredibly fat and happy baby is?

Mom

Mom 

This is Mom at around age 13 while still in Australia. What I wish I had was a picture of my mother in her school uniform. When my grandparents moved to Australia my mother was about 12 and she was working at a grade level about 2 years higher than where she was placed when they moved there. That got on her nerves along with fact that she hated her school uniform. She says it had this big straw boater hat as part of the uniform which she despised. According to my grandmother, my mom ummmm lost 5 hats before my grandma gave up LOL. My mother gave up public school at 14, went to typing school and got a job soon after.

Mom again 

This is Mom and her friend Brenda tripping the light fantastic in my grandparents livingroom. Mom is all of 15 so this is while they still lived in Australia. Mom actually got in contact with Brenda again after all these years via the internet.

Scanning the night away

As you may be able to tell, I've been scanning all my old pictures onto the computer so if you are bored silly with my family pics, just say so and I'll stop.

Mom 

This is a picture of my mom when she was 16. It was taken by a professional photographer in Australia where my mother and grandparents lived at the time. I'm afraid I didn't quite meet this standard when I was that age - my mom was delicate and I was well a healthy girl lol. It frustrated me terribly when my grandmother dragged out my mothers first "real" party dress from when she was 15 and I could barely squeeze into it when I was 12. *sigh* I take after my dad's side of the family. Pretty though ain't she? I think she takes after my grandpa.

Grandpa

Grandpa 

This is my grandpa, William known to everyone as Bill. He was born in Scotland and emigrated to Canada in 1965. He was a painter by trade and worked hard for most of his life. He was an alcoholic for many years but had been sober for 20 some odd years by the time he passed away.

The first memory I have of him is my standing and watching him brush his teeth. I was about four and I was fascinated that he was able to take his teeth OUT to brush them LOL. I'm sure I was a pain watching him and asking question after question so he put his teeth in his hand and clacked them at me and ended up chasing me around their apartment clacking his false teeth with me laughing my head off.

I loved my grandpa fiercely and I still do. Whatever he was to other people, he never disappointed me or broke a promise to me. He loved me no matter what I did and I never wanted to have him be disappointed in me. Even though he never ever did anything to show it, I always knew I was his favorite and while he loved my brother too, I was special lol. I suppose all grandpas do that and my brother probably thinks HE was the favorite lol.

My grandfather died on July 1, 1994 of terminal cancer. I had seen him only four days before at his apartment and he told me then that the cancer had metastisized from his lungs to his lymph nodes to his brain and that he was terminal. I thought I had time, I was coming to see him the next weekend and I would tell him then how much he meant to me. I was too late, my mother called me to let me know that he had been hospitalized and had passed away in the night. He didn't want anyone to cry over his body when he died so he arranged to be cremated and have his ashes scattered long before his death. It is very hard to let go when you don't get to say goodbye.

In the past ten years I've come to realize that he was proud of me and loved me unconditionally. He was my grandpa, the love of my life and I miss him.

Lazin' around

I've just been lazin around doin nothing much. I got another birthday present yesterday from BT. I've been lusting after a new printer/scanner for months now and he got me a real snazzy one for my birthday. He really surprised me and I love it. We've been sorting my old pictures and scanning them into the puter so that I can put them on DVD. The house looks like hell but I don't care right now lol.